Title: Never Let a Ghost Fish Sneak Up on You

Pairing: R/Lu, background H/Hr

Category: Humor/Fluff

Rating: PG

Spoilers: 1-5.  No HBP in this fic.

Summary: When Luna asks Ron on a date and gets rejected, she confronts him about his feelings for Hermione.

A/N: OMG, I wrote something other than H/Hr!  …Well, actually, they do snog in this fic, too, but at least it’s not the entire point of the fic this time!

Never Let a Ghost Fish Sneak Up on You

"Why do you like her, Ronald?" Luna had asked him, blinking innocently. He didn't understand the girl, that was for sure. She had come up to him and told him quite abruptly that she liked him and wanted to go with him to Hogsmeade that weekend. After he had gotten past the stammering and the blushing, he had explained to her that he liked someone else. And then…she had asked him that.

But the problem was that it wasn't nonsense…and it had stopped him in his tracks.

"Well…that's a good question," he found himself saying, and then, he started thinking. Why did he like Hermione? She was pretty, he supposed…not exactly stunning, but pretty. And she was smart…even though that was really annoying most of the time. …She wasn't exactly fun to be around, but she was tolerable… And…

He didn't really have a good reason, did he? Ron scowled, angry that this girl had backed him into a corner. He really didn't like being wrong.

Luna narrowed her eyes a bit. "I think you only like her because you can't have her, Ron."

Ron sputtered. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, Ronald, that you don't really like her…you just know she isn't yours, and you want something of your own. Something…Harry doesn't have."

Ron was about to retort, but then he got to thinking again, which was very frustrating. What did she mean by that, something Harry didn't have?  Hermione…she wasn’t Harry’s…was she?  Was she implying that he thought Harry had everything and he was jealous? …Because she was right, and now he was seriously pissed off.

"Why shouldn't I? Why shouldn't she be mine and not Harry's?"

Luna rolled her eyes, looking suddenly and oddly reminiscent of Hermione - something Ron never thought he would see. "She stares at Harry all the time, you know. And all she thinks about is Harry. Anyone can see it. She wants him, Ronald. And therefore, you shouldn't have her, because she'd always want Harry. And you would hate that."

Luna didn't look dreamy at all at the moment. Rather, she seemed to be showing her true Ravenclaw colors. Ron hated it when girls were right.

"I think, Ronald, that you would be a lot happier if you stopped deluding yourself. You don't really like her that way and she doesn't like you, so you'd do yourself a favor by getting over it."

Indeed, Ron hated it when girls were right, and he really hated it when they knew everything that everyone felt. He didn't know how they saw it. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he nodded slowly at Luna.

"Well, good evening," Luna said, back to her dreamy countenance, and she walked off, leaving Ron very confused.

And when he walked into the common room that evening, Harry and Hermione were snogging enthusiastically by the fire. He walked by them unnoticed, and when he got into bed and tried to sleep, for some reason it was Luna that was bothering him, and not his two best friends.

~

Luna was everywhere.  Always in the hallways when he was on his way to breakfast or lunch or dinner or, you know, class…always in the stands during Quidditch practices, always by the lake when he, Harry, and Hermione were studying outdoors, always in the library when Hermione dragged them in there…

If Ron hadn’t been so preoccupied with why he was now so aware of Luna’s presence, he might have realized she was following him.  Instead, he slowly lost his focus on everything but the enigmatic blonde Ravenclaw who had so subtly and suddenly made him forget all about Hermione.

Speaking of, his friends had still not had the decency to tell him that they were snogging wildly in the common room at night.  Ron supposed they knew how he’d once felt about Hermione and were trying to spare his feelings, which was understandable, but they were being disgustingly obvious and he was getting a little sick of being around them.

It was on Friday in the common room, watching his two friends try to keep their hands off each other, that Ron realized he had to take his fate into his own hands.

There was no way he’d go to Hogsmeade with those two that weekend.

Determined, he strode out of the tower without bothering to tell Harry and Hermione where he was off to, which was perhaps because he had no idea himself.  He needed to find Luna...but other than having seen her everywhere he was lately, he didn’t know where she tended to be.

Looking desperately around the corridor, he expected her to appear from the shadows…but there was only darkness.

Ron felt unexpectedly melancholy as he wandered through the castle without finding her.  Eventually he strolled outside, onto the grounds.  The sun was setting over the forest, blazing gold across the stretching lawns.  He strolled past Hagrid’s pumpkin patch, now full of the ripe orange specimens, skirting the tree line of the forest, finally arriving at the shores of the lake.

That was when he spotted her.  She was like a dream with the sunlight shining on her hair as she crouched on the ground, peering into the murky lake water between cattails.  Ron smiled to himself.  Only Luna could manage to be utterly charming while making strange animal calls to unseen beasts.

“Er…Luna?” he said to her, startling her out of her work.

“Ronald!  Be careful,” she said in a violent whisper.  “You could provoke them!”

“Um…them?” he whispered back, stepping tentatively closer.

“The ghost fish!”  She peered back through the cattails and sighed with disappointment.  “The sun’s hit the water.  They’ll all be gone now.”

“Well, since you’re done with that,” Ron pressed on, “I wanted to ask you something.”

Luna remained completely silent, which he took to mean that she was waiting for him to continue.  Uneasily, he did.  “I – er – do you still want to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?”

Her scrutinizing gaze was like an X-ray…or something comparable, because Ron didn’t really understand what an X-ray was.

“I do still want to, Ronald.  What you ought to be doing is answering my question as to whether you want to go with me.”

“Well, yeah…I do.”

Luna did not smile or blush, but remained cool and detached.  “What about Hermione?”

Ron shrugged uncomfortably.  “The thing is, she’s…well, she’s with Harry now, not that either of them bothered to tell me…but I saw them.”

Luna smiled.  “Good.  Harry needs her, you know.”

“I’m starting to get that,” Ron said, surprised to find it was true.  Harry had always been a bit inept without Hermione…and she never seemed to know quite what to do with herself without Harry.  They were rather like two halves of a person, leading somewhat useless lives…but together, they became more…an unstoppable duo.  Indeed, it was probably best for both of them if Ron didn’t interfere.

“So, um…you’ll go with me tomorrow?” Ron asked.

“Of course I will,” she said.  “Would you like to help me look for ghost fish now?”

“Um…”  He didn’t really expect to see a ghost fish at all, and he really ought to finish his potions essay…but Harry and Hermione had probably started snogging by now, and he supposed he didn’t really mind a few detentions with Snape if he actually had a love life now.

“Sure.  So…what are these ghost fish again?”

Luna beamed.  “Come on.  You’ll see.”

~ The End