Chapter 1: Waiting Up

Luna Lovegood sat all alone in the airy, circular domed space that was the Ravenclaw Common Room. It was late, but she had a book in her lap to pass the time. At the moment, she was alternating between reading about Gulping Plinkies and staringdirectly into the flames of the fireplace in an effort to keep her eyes open. She had promised Ginevra that she would wait up for her, and best friends kept their promises.

True, it was a struggle when your two best friends weren't in the same House as you. True, it was even more of a struggle when those said best friends went to the Yule Ball without you. Not that Luna could have gone anyway - the Ball was only for fourth years and older. Ginny only got to go as a third year because Neville was a year above them and had asked her to go with him.

Neville had been apologetic, even sheepish, when leaving Christmas dinner that evening to get ready. He'd told Luna that if he could have gotten away with it, he would have asked herandGinny to the Ball and attended with both of them on his arm. Luna had just smiled, pecked him on the cheek, and told him to have a good time.

Lifting her head out of her book, her blonde ringlets tumbling like curtains into her face, Luna grew thoughtful. Yes... better to feel left out while your friends were having a grand time than to have no friends at all.

She still would have liked to have gone to the Ball, of course. She probably would have jumped at the chance if Neville had asked her instead of Ginny. But there was one person she would have liked to have asked her even better...

Ginny had promised she and Neville would stop by Ravenclaw Tower on their way back and wish her goodnight. Hence, why Luna kept silent vigil. Only a few of the older Ravenclaws had arrived home thus far - Roger Davies, Head Boy for their House, had stumbled in more than an hour ago drunk and with his trousers pooled down comically at his ankles. Luna had to wonder if he and the Beauxbatons champion, that Delacour girl, had had sex. Her face grew warm and not because she was in the direct path of the firelight.

The Riddle Eagle all at once swung aside again. Luna got to her feet expectantly, but it was only Padma Patil. The bronze-skinned exotic fourth year came more or less stomping in, looking sour. Peeved, actually. She yanked off the gloves running halfway up her forearms and angrily threw them to the floor.

"I've never been so insulted in all my life!..."

"Hullo, Padma Patil."

Padma jerked to a halt, her rant dying on her lips, and she eyed Luna in that same, wary manner that most of her Housemates did. She nodded cordially. "Hullo, Luna."

"You seem angry. What's the matter?"

Padma huffed out a breath to push a bit of her dark hair out of her face. "Angry is the understatement of the century."

Luna tilted her head in a manner reminiscentof an inquisitive puppy dog. "What happened?"

A beat as Padma clearly weighed whether or not to tell her. But then, she flew into a rant again. "Oh... it's that horrid Ron Weasley! He asks me to the Ball, only to spend pretty much the entire night ogling the Granger girl like he was in a jealous snit! Just because she went with that... beefcake, Viktor Krum..."

Luna hummed. "You seem to be jealous of Hermione, too," she observed.

Padma almost glowered at her, but caught herself in favor of appearing startled. "Wouldn't - wouldn't you be too?" she spluttered. "At least Krum acts like a gentleman..." She started to fan herself a little. "I finally ditched the moping bastard and danced all night with a really cute boy from Beauxbatons, so at least my night wasn't totally ruined..."

Luna frowned. Her mother had had an old saying that you've got to dance with them that brung you. Except Ronald apparently hadn't done that, electing instead to focus all his energy on a girl he hadn't gone with rather than the one he had. It didn't sound like Ron... at least, not the Ron that she'd always pictured in her head.

Just then, through the marble of the statue that was guarding the Common Room entrance, the girls heard the sound of pleading.

"Please... I don't know whether the ghost or the poltergeist lived longer...! I just really need to see my friend!"

Padma frowned and rolled her eyes. "Never have liked that riddle - ghosts and poltergeists... they're the same thing!"

"Yes," Luna mused. "In that they are both non-beings, so neither one of them could have lived longer, seeing as they are both spending eternity..."

"I get it, Luna," Padma clipped. The two girls dashed forward and nudged the eagle statue aside. The statue looked perturbed.

Luna brightened when she saw who it was. "It's all right, Sam, she's with us!" And taking Ginny's forearm, she eagerly yanked her friend across the threshold of the common room.

"So, how was it?!" Luna chittered. She ignored the bemused stare Padma was sending towards her, which evidently conveyed her shock that Luna could, in fact, act like a girly-girl. "Where's Nev, anyway? I thought you lot were going to come and wish me goodnight together!"

Padma rolled her eyes and muttered something to the effect of, "What are they, your parents?" under her breath.

Ginny's blue eyes were wide as she looked askance and then down at her feet. "I... I dropped Neville off at Gryffindor Tower. I only remembered to come straight here because you're the first person I wanted to tell, after..."

"After what, Ginevra?" Luna pressed after a moment of silence. Padma's eyes bulged at how someone could call the Weasley girl by her full first name and not immediately receive a hex to the face.

Ginny took a deep breath and met her best girl friend's eyes with a wince. "... after he kissed me."

Padma snorted. "Longbottom kissed you?" She looked as though she was one tick away from either bursting into laughter or bursting into tears.

Luna's silver orbs expanded, and she beamed. "Lucky! I've always been right curious about kissing! Were you standing under a sprig of mistletoe? The Nargles burrow there; they give off a pheromone that compels us to kiss under it..."

"Lu..."

"Or perhaps the Wrackspurts in Neville's head told him to snog you..."

Padma's eyes swiveled to Ginny. "What the devil is she on about?"

"Lu!" And Ginny gripped her best mate's arms to hold her in place. Luna's voice trailed off. "Yes, Neville kissed me. That doesn't mean I ruddy liked it!"

"... Oh," Luna blinked. "So... you don't fancy Neville?"

Ginny cringed. "Sure, as a friend. Nothing more than that." Her cheeks turned a mortified pink at the very thought. "Anyway, how would you feel, being a third wheel while watching your two best friends go out?"

"I already have," Luna blinked, answering the question quite literally. "Tonight. And it felt... it felt..." She was trying to come up with the right word, but it failed her.

Ginny smiled kindly. "It's OK to feel left out, Lu," she expressed gently. "Nev and I tried to find you a date who was fourth year or older, honestly we did! Just be thankful that it's just for one night, and not forever. Can you imagine it, if Nev started dating me, or dating you? One of us would be on the outside looking in - Harry is probably going to get that before very long, poor fellow, if Hermione and my brother finally pull their heads out and..."

"Speaking of," Padma interjected icily. "I have a bone to pick with you, Weasley!"

"Me?" Ginny frowned. "What for?"

"Your idiot brother practically ditched me all night to stare at Granger like some lovelorn puppy!" Padma steamed. "I've never been so...!"

"Insulted. You said," Luna quipped. Ginny stifled a bit of laughter by turning it into a cough. Padma's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"I don't see how any of it is funny. At least you had a better night than I did, getting a snog out of it!"

Ginny grimaced, responding coolly. "It wasn't much of a snog, I assure you!" She sighed. "I apologize on behalf of my empty-headed brethren. But that doesn't change the fact you should have known what you signed up for, Patil. If Ron couldn't have Hermione as his date, any bird after her was going to be a back-up." Hearing this, Luna's face fell.

Padma's lip curled. "Clearly. I'm going to bed." And she flounced for the staircase leading to the girls' dormitory in a huff.

Luna and Ginny exchanged a look.

"Are you all right?" Ginny asked. "I really am sorry you couldn't come to the Ball. Neville even asked Professor McGonagall if he could take both of us, but she wouldn't have it."

Luna shook her head, lips pursed. "It isn't that. It's just..." she sighed. How to put this as opaquely as possible? "I feel bad for poor Ronald..."

"Poor Ronald?" Ginny ogled her. "What about poor Padma, who was left in the lurch? If my brother had a shite night, I say jolly well good! Maybe he'll ruddy learn something from it... like getting on with asking the girl he actually wants, and be quick about it! And not as a last resort!" She couldn't have known it then, but Hermione was shouting the exact same advice at Ginny's idiot brother at that precise moment.

Luna shrugged, sinking back into the plush armchair where she'd been reading her book. "I wish he'd asked me to the Ball. I wouldn't have felt like a back-up."

Ginny smiled grimly, though her gaze was a bit bemused. "Let's just be grateful that he didn't. Trust me, Lu, I'd much rather have you not go to the Ball at all than have gone and have a crap night. It isn't worth it to take any boy on your arm just so you have a ticket in!"

Luna blinked. "You said Yes to Neville so you could get a ticket in."

Ginny faltered. "That's different," she dismissed. "At any rate, it's Ron who probably feels more like the back-up at the moment, being turned down in favor of an international Quidditch player."

Luna cocked her head and studied Ginny. "Wow, Ginny. So you can at least show sympathy towards one of your brothers."

"That doesn't mean I approve of his choices, Luna. You shouldn't either. Girls like you, Hermione, even Padma deserve a whole lot more than what my brother... well, isn't offering." She side-eyed Luna with a smirk. "We certainly deserve better than being ignored all evening or, at best, getting a sloppy kiss goodnight."

Luna winced through a giggle. "Poor Neville."

"Finally! Someone who actually is worthy of our sympathy and pity!"

"The snog was that bad, huh?"

"It was horrible, Godric bless him! He planted it on me, out of nowhere! I felt I had to hold it; I couldn't have bared to see the look on his face if I'd pushed him away. I just hope my shock afterwards said it all..."

And Ginny was off, gossiping with her best friend until the two girls were chittering like sisters.