Chapter 5: I Cannot Tell a Lie

Luna floated through the chaotic, mingling throng that was the Hogwarts student body bidding farewell to the new friends they had made from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. The open-air courtyard and the atrium corridors bordering it on all four sides were a sea of teenagers hugging, teenagers weeping. A handful of pairs of teenagers snogging while wrapped in each other's arms.

These lattermost embraces were the ones that were the most jarring and yet fascinating to Luna. The act of pressing your lips against those of another person seemed like the most personal, the most vulnerable act you could engage in. She hadn't been lying when she had told Ronald Weasley back in February that she had never been kissed or snogged (the words were used interchangeably by their peers, and Luna had always wondered if there was a distinction between what was a kiss and what was a snog), but was desperately curious to try it.

Luna shuffled past people out of the courtyard and into one of the atrium corridors bordering. As tempting as it was to grab some random human and embrace them, the way the pheromones given off by all the Nargles and all the mad thoughts being placed in her head by Wrackspurts were telling her to, she had not the time to learn how to snog today. It was the last day of term, which meant she had but a few hours to find all her belongings that classmates had absconded with during this term. She had a list; Neville and Ginny had promised her they'd help her, but neither was anywhere to be found. Luna vaguely wondered if her two very best mates were off in some corner doing some snogging of their own. The pair had kissed at the Yule Ball, after all... a moment's thought, and then her blonde curls bounced as she shook her head. Unlikely. Neville and Ginevera had not given off any kind of pheromonic heat indicating their coital involvement with anyone for months, certainly not with each other.

Luna rounded the atrium corner, stepping into the first corridor that was truly interior as she entered the castle proper. Glancing up, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Yet another couple was wrapped in each other's arms, their limbs wound tightly about each other. The woman clutched in the embrace was almost diminutivecompared to her partner - a big bear of a man. Luna heard the faint sound of pleasured moaning.

"Mmmmm... Hmmmmm..."

The embracing couple turned, revealing how their lips were currently grappling in a passionate kiss, and Luna's silver orbs expanded slightly as she recognized the pair as Hermione Granger and the Bulgarian Champion Viktor Krum. The brunette, bookish witch's eyes were swooned shut and Luna watched with a transfixed fascination as the other girl's lips melted pliantly up into those of her lover. There was a lunging, almost biting quality to the languorousgive-and-take of Hermione and Viktor'slips, and Hermione's lithe arms reached up to clutch about Viktor's shoulders anddeepenthe kiss; with how tall the man was, she almost had to over-extend.

As Luna watched, Viktor pulled Hermione closer by her trim waist and the kissing intensified until Luna could practically see more of their flexing jaw muscles then their actual lips. It was hard to tell where one mouth ended and another began.

The passionate kiss broke apart more sharply than Luna had expected it to, leaving Viktor and Hermione panting. Her lashes fluttering open, Hermione turned her burning face away from her paramour and her eyes happened to lock with Luna, staring at them from clear down the hall.

Hermione froze, her chocolate-brown orbs bulging in a horrified manner, caught in the act and by the last person she would have expected or wanted to walk in on her sucking face with an international Quidditch player (well, maybe not thelastperson, Luna surmised, but close). Luna waited for Hermione to jeer at her, or shoo her off; she didn't. Instead, the pretty witch's gaze was beseeching, almost pleading.

Luna's golden brows knitted together ever so slightly, but she received the silent message. Slowly, she gave an almost imperceptible nod of her head. Curtly, cordially, Hermione nodded back, the gratitude in her eyes shining with palpable relief.

Then Viktor Krum was cupping Hermione's face in both hands and tilting it up and they were kissing feverishly again. Luna watched as Hermione's eyes fluttered shut once more before she surreptitiously backed away around the corner.

Luna plunged back into the throng of students bidding goodbye. She tried to focus on the next missing item on her list - her trainers - but her brain was spinning so fast, she wondered if she herself had been kissedand just hadn't registered it.

From the look on her face, Hermione had implored Luna to keep this a secret between them, even though she, Luna, was probably the last person Hermione would have confided in about anything, and both women knew it. It wasn't as though they didn't like each other, but Luna had always gotten the sense that Hermione just didn't understand her. The thought had perplexed her - she understood herself perfectly well, so it baffled her as to how others could not. Baffled, but didn't bother her.

But Luna's relationship with Hermione, such as it was, wasn't the real issue here. Ronald... what was she going to tell Ronald? From what Hermione expected, judging by the look on her face when Luna had walked in on her snogging her Yule Ball date with abandon, nothing. Luna wasn't blind. Naive, sometimes, perhaps, yes, but not blind - she knew her crush fancied Hermione Granger. And she was beginning to suspect that Hermione just might secretly like Ronald back.

"Oi! Luna!"

Luna lifted her head and jumped, startled as she nearly walked right into the very person who had been consuming her thoughts just then, as well as for much of the past two years.

"You haven't seen Hermione about, have you?" Ron smiled down at her friendly-like.

Luna's silver eyes bulged and it was a remarkable feat of poise that she managed to keep them from darting about, despite how unnerving her fixed stare might appear. Fiercer still did she resist the urge to glance back over her shoulder at where she had just left Hermione sucking spittle with Viktor Krum.

Luna couldn't lie. The very thought of dishonesty was anathema to her. Least of all could she bring herself to lie to the object of her affections. But Hermione had silentlyasked her to promise, and she had to keep a promise, hadn't she? Even to a person who wasn't quite a friend?

"I... I have not seen Hermione Granger. ... In this corridor," Luna stated clinically. Which was technically the literal truth.

Ron nodded slowly, studying her with a vaguely bemused expression on his face. It made Luna wonder whether or not he believed her. He probably just thinks you're weird, she chastised herself. How strange: she usually never gave a twink what others thought of her, and yet this boy's opinion of her somehow mattered to her. "Well, if you do spot her, can you tell her Harry and I are searching round for her?" He glanced aside, grinding his teeth slightly. "She got pulled aside by that pretty boy Viktor Krum for a 'word'..." He used air quotes. "That was more than ten minutes ago..."

Luna's silvery eyes widened again owlishly, suddenly terrified that Ronald Weasley was on the precipice of working out on his own just what Hermione was doing. She'd always found him to be more clever than most others gave him credit for, but just this once, she dearly wished he wasn't. Her brain churned fast, and for one mad, second, she seriously considered grabbing him and kissing him to distract him. And also just to see what it was like, snogging. But she didn't.

"Sure," Luna chirped, almost squeaked.

"Brilliant! Ta, old girl!"

Luna's face brightened delightedly at this term of endearment.

"Oh! Does this mean we're mates, Ronald Weasley?"

Ron glanced back from where he'd already been turning around to melt back into the crowd. "Well... yeah," he chuckled. "Sure. We are, aren't we?"

Luna beamed. "I'd like that very much."

Ron gave that awkward little chuckle again before plunging back into the crunch of people - thankfully, in the opposite direction from where Hermione was trading tongue with her lover.

Her room had always had an unparalleled view of the Burrow.

From its second floor perch in the Rookery, situated on the crest of a hill, Luna could stare down at the boyhood home of her crush in the adjacent valley below.

The Lovegoods had been next-door neighbors to the Weasleys for as long as she could remember. They were both pureblood families, if not necessarily in good standing. Luna's mother had given birth to her in this very stone abode some fourteen years ago now. The past five years had made the home feel tragically incomplete without her, at times even empty, though her father had enough love for two parents.

Luna had a vague recollection of playing with some of the youngest Weasley brood when she was a toddler, but it was a faint and distant memory, a single flash of an image, distorted enough that she still sometimes wondered if it was instead the dream of a dream.

She recalled the very first time she had ever laid eyes on Ronald Weasley, though. Quite clearly.

It had been on her first morning at Hogwarts, the morning after her Sorting into Ravenclaw. She had woken up in the girls' dormitory of the Common Room to the whole of her year, the whole of her House, abuzz with excitement and rumor. Scuttlebutt had it that a pair of second years (the good money was that it was Harry Potter and his best mate) had crashed a flying car into the Whomping Willow on grounds. Some were saying they thought they'd heard an odd noise while sleeping off the Sorting Feast the night before; others insisted their peers were just dreaming.

More gossip abounded: the car had crashed into the Black Lake, not the Willow. The car had crashed into Gryffindor Tower. The car had been racing the Hogwarts Express. There was no car at all - Harry and Ron had somehow managed to pull off Apparating onto the grounds (which was supposed to be impossible) at a mere twelve years of age and Splinched themselves in the process. The pair of them were going to be expelled. No, the pair hadalreadybeen expelled.

By the time the Ravenclaws had entered the Great Hall for breakfast, the theories had reached a fever pitch. The House of the Eagle's table was situated between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins, and to their right, the students in blue and grey could see their lion counterparts all huddled around where a redhead was standing athwart their table, regaling the lot of them with a story. The raconteur had flaming red hair and the most piercing blue eyes Luna had ever seen... eyes as blue as a summer sky... Eyes that crinkled at the corners with bright relish.

All the Gryffindors listened raptly as the ginger spun such a fantastic story, spellbound. From the bits Luna could make out, it had all the makings of a tall tale, and yet Ron told it with such admirable conviction that by the end of it, she half-believed it was true (itwastrue, she would later learn - at least his version of events, that is).

But in that moment, Luna had been less focused on whether the feat of daring-do was true or not. In that moment, staring at Harry Potter's very best mate from across the Great Hall, she had felt Yammering Harptoads leaping in her belly, and her porcelain skin had warmed all over.

In that moment, and for the first time, Luna Lovegood had fallen in love.

The fact that she and her secret crush had been next-door neighbors since they were children had only added to the romance of it. That she was now best mates with the fellow's sister, even more so. Ever since the holiday break of their second year, Ginny had written Luna, asking her to come round for supper or tea whenever she liked. The girls were all the more amused by the missives they passed back and forth seeing as they were both within Yoo-Hoo distance from each other - what need was there to write? She and Ginny still did though - every week.

Ginny's latest invitation in hand, Luna now skipped downstairs.

"I'm going over to the Weasleys for breakfast, Papa!" she called.

"That's nice, dear," her father called back. "Send up sparks with your wand when you're over there!"

Daddy always gave this stipulation perfunctorily, of course - the fields of Devonshire were perfectly safe, and besides, Luna couldn't use magic outside of school, not even to send up sparks with her wand. In any case, the thought of doing so now bothered Luna, as it made her think back to seeing those red sparks of distress that Harry had shot from the maze during the Third Task.

Luna pranced through the gate of the Burrow and knocked on the door.

"Luna, darling, what a surprise!" Mrs. Weasley had always been unfailingly kind to her.

"Hullo, Mrs. Weasley. Ginevra was wondering if you would be opposed to my joining you for a spot of breakfast?"

"Not at all, my dear! Come and tuck in!" Mrs. Weasley's smile twittered, amused by her daughter's best friend addressing her by her full name.

Ginny scooted around the table and greeted Luna with a fierce hug, the two girls taking their seats and chittering. Within moments, there was a clop on the stair landing and Ron appeared, yawning.

Luna's cheeks tinged pink, though to her credit, she didn't freeze or look like a Porlock caught in headlights. "Good morning, Ronald Weasley."

"It's Ron, Luna..." Ronald huffed tiredly through another yawn. His tone was sour. Like lemons. Luna pursed her lips thoughtfully, wondering if Mrs. Weasley had any lemonade...

"What's got your trousers in a twist?" Ginny frowned at her brother.

In answer, Ron flapped a bit of parchment. "Oh, it's Hermione! I finally get a letter from the bird, and she spends half of it going on and on about some Muggle photographs that Krum sent her of the Balkans!"

Luna sent a look in Ginny's direction, but her best mate didn't notice. She was too busy snatching the missive out of her brother's hand and skimming it greedily. Ron made a half-hearted attempt to fight her for it, when Mrs. Weasley emerged from the kitchen.

"Ronald, stop harassing your sister and go wash up for breakfast."

Ron scowled. "Yes, Mum..." He clomped up the stairs.

Ginny was still reading the letter, her grin almost wolfish. "I should be feeling bad... but I'm not!" she aboutcackled. "The cheeky lass is practically rubbing the poor sod's nose in it!" Her expression grew thoughtful. "Do you reckon Hermione would ever admit it if she and Krum had... kissed? I wonder if they have..." Then she noticed the pained expression on Luna's face. Sensing a scoop the way some hounds sense blood, Ginny pounced. "Luna Pandora, you know something. What do you know?" she accused.

Luna could not tell a lie. So, slowly, craning her neck back to make sure Ron had indeed gone upstairs, Luna finally gave a guilty little nod. "I saw them," she admitted, her voice small.

Ginny gasped. "You saw them?!"

"Viktor and Hermione. Kissing..."

"But when?! When?!" Ginny clutched at Luna's shirtsleeve.

"End of term last year. I walked in on them while I was looking for my things." Luna winced. "Hermione asked me not to tell."

Ginny took this in with surprise. "She did?"

"Not in so many words, but it was implied." Luna paled as she realized she had just now actually broken that promise, in telling Ginny. "You can't let on that you know. Please? Hermione hates me enough as it is..."

"She doesn't hate you..." Ginny rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "'Mione just... has different ideas about the world, that's all. Not everyone recognizes good news sources outside the mainstream. It takes a special and open-minded person to renew a Quibbler subscription." She winked.

Luna smiled. Ginny had subscribed to Daddy's paper initially on a lark, soon after they became friends, only for the publication to grow on her. She had apparently been trying to get her own parents to join up, without success.

"... I lied."

"Hmm?" Ginny glanced up from her oatmeal.

"When Ron asked me that day if I knew where Hermione was. I lied." Luna grimaced. "I've never lied before, Gin, and I'd rather die than lie to your brother."

Ginny blew a raspberry. "Bah! I do it all the time!"

Luna frowned. "You're not the one who's..." She almost said, but couldn't quite manage, the words in love- not in the house and with his mother only feet away.

Ginny wrinkled her nose. "And thank Merlin for that! One of the benefits of having so many brothers, I suppose..." She took a sip of her orange juice.

"But what if your brother finds out I...?"

"He won't. So long as you don't tell him, he won't."

"It's still lying by omission."

"It's lying to spare someone feelings," Ginny corrected. "Though you're far more gracious towards him than I would be - the man has never learned sense when it comes to girls. And anyway, what do you care if Ron knows Hermione and Krum..." Ginny pantomimed kissing. "... or not? If the lassie is unavailable, it just clears the field for you to..." Now she waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "... move in."

Luna frowned, quite seriously. "I don't understand you when you do things with your face like that, Ginevra."

"Oh, come off it!" Ginny laughed. "Haven't you ever heard of...? - Oh, bollocks, he's coming back!"

The girls faced front, trying to keep flat affects as Ron prowled back down the stairs and joined them at the breakfast table. Lifting his head, he caught Luna staring fixedly ahead and gave her an awkward smile.

Weakly, Luna smiled back, trying to ignore the strain to her dimples.