Chapter 12: Printing Pressed Against Each Other

Perhaps agreeing to the task of babysitting his grieving, surviving twin hadn't been such a good idea after all.

At the time, Ron had accepted the assignment because he had needed to get out of the maudlin, constant wake that seemed to be happening at the Burrow. And also to distract himself from staring out his parents' kitchen picture window

at the chess piece-shaped house just over the rolling hills of Devonshire. He had to stop thinking about the bewitching woman who he had kissed in a heated moment during a Battle. He had to stop thinking of Luna Lovegood while he was sleeping beside his girlfriend every night...

But relocating to Diagon Alley, even temporarily to watch George and see that he didn't kill himself, wasn't doing Ron any favors. The offices of the Quibbler were just down the street, where he knew a certain blonde-haired, maddening witch worked...

The Quibbler had valiantly been the only paper of record which had attempted to speak truth to power during the Voldemort regime. It had been enough of a thorn in the side of the Death Eaters that they had kidnapped Luna in an attempt to bring its editor, her father, to heel. When that hadn't worked (or at least only partially worked, in that Xenophilius had been willing to hand over Harry for his daughter in a prisoner swap), the editor had eventually been sent to Azkaban after Luna had escaped from Malfoy Manor with her friends.

Now, the war was over, and other publications were backing away from the pureblood propaganda they had peddled. Cases of those imprisoned during the fascist regime were working their way through the Wizengamot courts. Since the Battle, Luna had taken over as editor of the Quibbler and was taking up the imprisoned dissidents' cause, using her own father as a symbol of these oppressed people.

Merlin, Ron hoped Luna was handling her father's captivity all right... He should check on her... No, Ginny was likely doing that... but what if she wasn't...?

It was too much to resist. Checking to see that George had taken to bed for the night, Ron locked up the joke shop and headed down Diagon Alley.

He could hear the printing presses whirring inside as he approached the Quibbler offices. The door was unlocked when he tried it.

He found Luna in the quarters set aside for the editor, her father's old office. Her wand was pinning up her plaited blonde hair. She was bent over a ream of parchment, checking the type, perhaps, biting her lip adorably.

When she glanced up and saw him standing there, she actually started, and Ron was amused to realize that this unflappable woman could in fact be taken by surprise.

"Oh, hullo, Ronald!" Luna tucked a blonde strand behind her ear shyly.

"Burning the wand tip at both ends?"

She nodded, gathering up some papers and rounding the desk. "I have to get these letters to the editor to press. Everyone has been so kind, writing to free the dissidents, but the Wizengamot isn't moving fast enough..."

Ron caught her elbow, and Luna turned to look at him, blinking quizzically. "Have you ever thought of just... going to Azkaban directly and demanding your father's release?"

Luna blinked. "Well... I would, if I didn't already know the Dementors would never... Hermione says there has to be procedure to these things, you know..."

"To releasing folks who were unjustly imprisoned in wartime by fascists?" In Ron's opinion, that was giving a little too much legitimacy to the fascists.

"The Wizengamot is drafting pardons, but it's going to take some time..." Luna prattled.

"Lu:" Ron brushed some of her blonde locks out of her face; he thought he felt her shiver. "A wise man once said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick.'"

Luna blinked. "Who said that?"

"Some Muggle. Harry quoted him once." He glanced about at her offices. "You're speaking, all right, and not softly, but there's a time for talk, and then there's a time for action."

Luna's eyes widened. "You think I should just go and demand that my father..."

Ron nodded. "And not just him. All of them. Tell everyone whose loved ones have been imprisoned to go demonstrate at Azkaban! Encourage it in your paper! Why wait for the Wizengamot? Grievances won't be redressed fast enough until we demand it!"

Luna smiled. "You're right." Biting her lip, she glanced down shyly for a moment before lifting her eyes to his. "... Would you come with me?"

Ron hesitated. Given how Xenophilius had attempted to sell him and his friends out, he was leery of the bloke. But this meant so much to Luna. And though Xenophilius had made a mistake, it was one that any father would have made, in his position.

Ron finally smiled. "All right. Let's go free your father."

With joy, she threw her arms around him. Drawing back, the pair froze at how their faces were quite close, gazing into each other's eyes.

It was Ron who made the first move. Slowly, hesitantly, he leaned forward. Tilting her head back, Luna moved to close the gap almost in challenge, and for the second time, their lips met.

The kiss escalated in its passion very quickly, deepening, and Luna and Ron gripped each other still more firmly than they even had during the Battle and swayed on the spot. Ron responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Luna clean off her feet, leaving her legs to dangle. Her one foot dreamily popped.

Jaw muscles working fiercely as mouths opened so tongues could push through the split, Ron and Luna fiercely embraced. Picking her up, Ron swung her around until she was seated on one of the printing presses, her legs splayed and already curling about his middle. Still kissing feverishly, Ron laid his lover out on the printing press. She tugged him eagerly on top of her and invitingly spread her legs.

Ron froze for all of a beat. He could feel his lust for her hard and straining in his trousers. Did he dare?

But then Luna boldly curled her fist around his clothed shaft and began to stroke him and Ron felt all the blood rush to his groin and all the thoughts fall out of his head.

Slamming the button that halted the printing press, Ron mounted Luna as she freed his cock from his trousers. Kissing her deeply, vaguely wondering if she was still a virgin, Ron took the enigmatic Ravenclaw beauty, sliding into her warmth with one thrust.

The lovers finished what they had started in Malfoy Manor, having sex.

Arching her back, Luna bucked her hips up to meet Ron slam for slam, moaning incessantly into his mouth. Her cries pitched feverishly, the faster they fucked and rutted.

"Huhhhh... Uhhhhh... ERMMMMMMM! UGHHHHHHH! Ohhhhh... Oh, sweet Grey Lady, Ronald..."

Ripping her sweater in his haste to get it off, Ron dove into the valley of her breasts, this time bouncing bare and glinting in the moonlight. He sealed his lips over her one aching bud and he sucked, causing Luna to cry out in pleasure. "I... I love you..." he murmured into the tangles of her golden hair.

With these words, Luna came with a shout, writhing beneath him. "RONALD!"

Her toes curled and arched.

So close to his release but not quite there, Ron pulled out of Luna's warmth. Shifting up her exquisite body, he began to thrust his engorged cock in between the jiggling boobs. Craning her head, Luna reared forward and took Ron gently between her puckered lips, letting him jerk into her willing throat.

When Ron finally ejaculated with a roar of triumph, Luna greedily gulped down as much as she could like a good little girl. What she couldn't swallow, she let dribble out on her chin. Squirming beneath her paramour, her hands clenching and unclenching in some kind of perseverative spasm, she reached out blindly and slapped a button on the printing press.

Ink for the type sprayed all over the copulating couple, dousing Luna's porcelain skin. She gasped in shock as Ron continued to squirm through his orgasm, his semen spurting out onto Luna's perfect breasts.

Seeing the Ravenclaw beauty spread out before him like a feast, covered in both ink and his cum, Ron knew he had never seen a more beautiful sight in all his life.

Azkaban prison was rainy and windswept, waves crashing constantly upon the craggy rock set in the middle of this tempestuous sea. Ron and Luna cast Patronuses to ward against the Dementors and the war hero basked in his: he and Luna and the kiss she had bestowed on him during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Had that counted as their first kiss? Or was it their near sexual encounter in Malfoy Manor? Their actual sexual encounter in her offices at the Quibbler? Ron wasn't sure, and for some reason, felt too shy to ask the captivating witch curled into his side. From the way, she clutched at him tightly, Ron could tell this place unnerved Luna. His lover gave off fear in a more subtle way - in ways most people who didn't know her as well as he did wouldn't notice.

Stepping into this place built of iron bars and brick and mortar, the notorious wizarding prison seemed only half-full and with an inmate population decidedly mixed: one half of the prisoners seemed to be dissidents of the Voldemort prison waiting to be pardoned and released from their trumped-up charges, and the other half seemed to be defeated Death Eater insurgents who wouldn't be getting out anytime soon.

Scanning from cell to cell, Ron was pretty certain that had he come here alone, he would have passed the man by entirely. Wouldn't have even known how to recognize him. From the way her mouth fell open in pained horror, Luna did recognize her own father, even if only just barely.

"DADDY!"

Xenophilius Lovegood looked emaciated and ragged. He was bearded, the stubble scraggly and untamed. He was filthy; Ron wondered when was the last time he had bathed. Yet underneath all the grime, silver eyes - eyes just like his Luna's - expanded with hope almost to the point of delirium.

"Lu... Lu - Luna! My Luna!"

Ron rounded on the jailer. "Open this cell immediately!" It almost amused the DA veteran and war hero how quickly this jailer moved to accommodate him.

As soon as the cell door was unlocked, Luna flitted to her father and flung herself to her knees at his side. Ron watched the tearful reunion as father and daughter embraced.

"I've come to take him home," Luna turned to the Azkaban jailer. "Please, let him out! Can't you see he'ssick?!"

The jailer cleared his throat. "Madam, I sympathize, but there's procedure to these things, you know... We're booking Death Eaters faster than we can release the wrongfully detained, and we'll need the Minister's pardon!"

"Oh, dash procedure!" Ron bawled. "And dash the pardon! If Kingsley Shacklebolt is that butt-hurt about us taking procedure into our own hands, he can take it up with me!"

"Yes, sir, General Weasley!" The jailer bobbed his head amusingly quickly. "Mark this gentleman for release!" he told a subordinate.

Getting under her father, Luna helped him to his feet, an arm slung over her shoulder. Ron moved to support Xenophilius on his other side. The three of them shuffled out of Azkaban prison.

"Think he can Apparate?"

Luna bit her lip at her... was he her boyfriend's?... question. "We'll have to try."

"My parents' place," Ron told her, even though it would mean having to be discreet and careful with her while others were around. "We'll have time yet to fix the Rookery, but he needs a proper bed and some of my mum's good cooking!"

As he prepared to turn on the spot...

"Ronald!..." Luna's gaze was crippling with warmth and gratitude. "... Thank you."

Were her father not between them, he would have kissed her then and there. As it was, Ron smiled. "Always, and anything for you, my love."