"No," Ginny releases something between a snort and a scoff. "Flick your wrist, gently. More like a swinging motion. Smoothly."

"Like this?"

She gives up all pretense and just cackles when the learner practically attacks the air in front of her. "For someone who kicks ass in battle, you sure suck at simple lighting spells."

"The spells used in battle and the spells used in Charms class are quite a ways from being the same, I reckon."

Ginny sighs, but she's smiling. She accommodates her chin in her palm, sets her elbow on her knee and just watches Luna wave her wand about.

They were supposed to be practicing the spell work and wand movements of the current chapter in Charms, which happened to be illumination and lighting spells. And where Luna usually transgressed in class, she was having a particularly difficult time casting for this specific subject.

"Maybe you need Professor Flitwick's instruction," Ginny pipes up suddenly, after watching Luna's wand fizzle out, yet again. She flushes. "I'm quite rubbish at teaching."

"Your teaching is splendid," Luna answers airily, always with that aura of wonder she seems to carry with her. "My learning is delayed. I always tended to respond a little slower to casual charms," she drawls softly. "I appear to be hardwired for violence, I suppose."

Her implications seem to dim the lighting of the room, and Ginny is once again reminded of the ever-present juxtapose that Luna Lovegood is.

All soft features, pastels and flowers, tender touches and gentle words; all barricading the violent outbreaks her magic holds. Ginny remembers asking her to accompany her to a Ministry gala--leave it to the wizarding community to vote a student a necessary war hero--sometime after the first year after the war. Harry was up at the podium, spewing the same words he reads off the same index card Hermione had written for him for his first Ministry gala speech.

He was droning on about how unity would break the stereotype of blood status superiority, and she remembers looking over to Luna--Luna in her periwinkle gown, ruffles flowing down her legs and tendrils of tule cascading off her shoulders, her collarbones gleaming from the candlelight spelled above them. She remembers her smile dropping off her face at seeing Luna's eye twitching, and then her face morphing, as if half of it was cracking and giving way to something dark way below the surface.

She had escorted her out to the balcony at once. Luna was trembling, Ginny remembers taking her hands and feeling the vibrations.

"Luna?" She left her hands and moved closer to take Luna's face, to angle it towards her. She gasped when she found one of Luna's eyes pulsing between a dreamy blue and a murky black. "Luna, talk to me. What can I do to help?"

"Just," her voice had sounded deep, so different from her hazy drawl. "Just hold me. Please."

It turned out Luna had been keeping a very dark part of her at bay, usually with the help of magical suppressants, which she had forgotten to take that evening. The way she explained it, is she seldom had her thoughts to herself, that there was always a second input--darker, more violent, which was the input she had used during the war.

After learning about that, Ginny always made it her goal to appreciate the kindness in her heart, how Luna always seemed to forgive and forget--never without a good lesson about wrackspurts, of course.

Ginny surges forward and claims her lips, resisting the urge to melt when Luna hums in delight at the assault. She takes her hands and cards them through the silky strands of Luna's braid, undoing it at the end.

Lights flash before her eyelids and she reels back in surprise, her eyes widening at the numerous fairy lights dangling by floating threads over their heads. Ginny stares in wonder before she realizes she didn't create them. She turns to Luna.

"Your learning is delayed," she teases, flushing at the way Luna rakes her eyes down to where her lips are stretching into a smile.

"Only without inspiration."

Ginny gasps and then dissolves into a fit of giggles when Luna tackles her onto the sofa and attacks her face with a thousand kisses.

* * * * * * *

"Have you told her?" Harry keeps his nose buried in his book respectively, only glancing up to make sure Hermione doesn't catch him not 'doing his homework'. Ginny spares a look around to find Luna in a heated whisper with Madame Pince, most likely about the amount of wrackspurts surrounding her at the moment. She smiles fondly.

"Told her what?" Ginny whispers back. "And who?"

"Luna," Harry hisses in return as he turns to glare at her. His eyes widen when Hermione moves, and he digs his face back into the book. "About your Patronus."

Ginny whips her head from Luna to stare incredulously at him. "Excuse me?"

Harry gives her an unimpressed look. "You don't get to give me that look. You basically bullied me into," he looks around to make sure no one is in earshot before turning back to her and whispering, "asking him out."

"Yeah," Ginny scoffs and then laughs. "Because I was not in favor of watching either or you dance around one another for another seven years. Besides, it's different."

"Oh, really. Different how?"

"The way you look at Malfoy is not the way I look at Luna."

"You're right. That's because Luna is irrevocably in love with you and Malfoy still calls me Potter and gives me daily critique on my wardrobe and tells me it's a wonder he's even given me a chance."

She blinks at him worriedly and he looks like he wants to take back what he said. It's silent for a few seconds until Ginny opens her mouth and Harry rushes to correct himself with a dark flush spreading across his face.

"It's a work in progress, okay? He's a Slytherin, and old habits die hard, and I tried to kiss him on our third date and it did not go as planned."

Now Ginny just looks amused. "You tried--?"

"Have. You. Told. Her."

"No," Ginny sighs. "And I don't know if I will. It's not important."

"Ginny. You're going over illuminating charms in class. The next chapter highlights fire notes and other forms of communications."

"I know."

Harry gives her an apologetic look before something catches his eye over her head. Ginny follows his line of vision to where Draco Malfoy stands a head over Hermione Granger. They exchange awkward pleasantries for a few seconds before Draco caves. He nods tersely, and Hermione moves away. His eyes move about the room before they land on--what Ginny assumes is--Harry behind her.

She reads absolutely nothing off his face but Harry must have because he sucks in a breath and then rises to his feet, swooping his belongings into his bag in one fluid motion. Ginny lifts a single brow.

"I have to go," Harry says quickly as he walks around her. He stops at the head of the table and offers her a tiny smile. "You should tell her. Better yet, show her. I'm sure she'll appreciate it. And, you never know, it might help."

Draco waits patiently for Harry to reach his side, which he then proceeds to lift his eyes from him to Ginny. He offers her a single nod, to which Ginny reciprocates. Harry is saying something then, and Draco focuses all his attention down to him, wrapping his free arm around Harry's shoulders as he listens intently on what he's saying. They walk out of the library together, caught up in their own world.

Ginny sighs.

* * * * * * *

"What are we doing out here?"

Ginny is shivering, even though it's not actually cold outside. The moon is high in the sky and there's a million stars twinkling alongside it, making Luna's hair shimmer under the light.

She inhales deeply before turning to Luna--she's watching the stars glimmer between the clouds with a soft smile on her face. Ginny rushes to her and engulfs her in a hug before kissing her like it's the last time they'll be together.

"I," she pauses, mesmerized by the way Luna seems completely enraptured by Ginny, focusing the entirety of her attention on her. Merlin, she really hopes she's doing the right thing. "I want to show you something."

"Alright," Luna whispers. Then she leans forward to peck Ginny's lips quickly. "Go ahead."

"Before I do that, I want you to know that something changed in me--you didn't alter anything, I just found myself in a better light. I mean, you did help with it by being a fantastic person. And I also want you to know that I am so bloody grateful that you're here, with me, in the way that we are, and that I vow to never take you for granted."

Luna's face softens even more and a dopey smile dances across her lips. And, Merlin, Ginny is so in love.

"I never thought I'd ever find anyone who understands me like you do, or that I understand better than myself sometimes. When I was with Harry, we kind of just got together because everyone expected it, and I suppose we were going through the motions.

"But this feeling," Ginny stresses the meaning of her words by squeezing Luna's hands and then reaching up to caress a cheekbone. "This feeling I get when I'm around you--like my soul is on fire, radiating heat just to keep you warm, to keep you around. Because I never want to let you go."

"Are you proposing?" Luna laughs breathily. "Because if so, I'm afraid I am not properly attired for the occasion."

Ginny exhales a chuckle, shaking her head before taking a step back and raising her wand. "Just. Don't let me go, alright?"

She waits for Luna's enthusiastic nod, relishes in the warmth that Luna's smile casts before sighing.

Her hand tightens around her wand, with her other hand clutching Luna's hand tightly, and she closes her eyes.

Flashes of Luna pointing at a passage in a book, with her hair twisted on top of her head and secured with her wand. Of Ron's face when they announced their relationship, of Hermione clapping in delight, and of Harry's smug smile when he crossed his arms in satisfaction of the news.

With her chest full and her wand at the ready, she whispers the spell, "Expecto Patronum."

Ginny waits with baited breath, her heart hammering against her ribcage when she sees the wispy silver-blue light of her Patronus behind closed eyelids.

"Oh, Ginny," Luna gasps behind her, and she feels her close in from the close proximity of her body heat. "You are proposing."

She laughs out loud, not expecting the response, but it makes her feel like she's floating. Her eyes ease open and she watches her newly casted jackalope look around his surroundings in curiosity.

Luna wastes no time before she's pulling her wand out of the tangle of her hair and casting the same, and they watch as her hare and the jackalope start to run circles around each other excitedly.

They stay there the entire night, recasting their Patronuses and hanging fairy lights about in the air, kissing in the middle of it all.

And they feel free.