All You Gave To Me: A Linny Fanfic

Chapter Two

"Hey, Ginny!" Harry smiled at her, his eyes sparkling. Ginny smiled weakly back, unsteady when she looked at him. She had been so sure of her attraction to him before the war. It seemed like a chore to love him now. "Hello," Ginny's voice was watery and weak. "Um, how are you?" Harry's smile faltered a little bit. "Well, I..." His cheerful facade broke. "Dammit, Ginny, we lost too many. I can't do it. Your brother, Tonks, Lupin, even Snape. It's too much." Ginny ran up to him, embracing his trembling form.
"Thank god I've got you."
And with that she knew she couldn't leave him now, after everything they went through. It would break him into something irreparable. She couldn't.
But something in the back of her mind whispered about the starry-eyed girl who caught her as she fell.
She shook it off.
No, Ginny thought. Harry loves me, and I love him. I am nothing more than a good friend to Luna. Nothing more.
It was almost enough to convince her.

"Hi!" Ginny looked up from her plate. Luna had sat down across from her, and was eating a radish. Since the house elves were still recovering, food for the survivors had to be harvested from the greenhouses. "What's that?" Luna inquired. "Ginny gazed back down at her plate. When she had gone to gather food, she had just taken a plate and filled it with random greens. "Uh, well, I kind of blindly took stuff, so, um, I'm not really sure." Luna's eyes crinkled at the edges, and the corners of her soft pink lips drifted upwards towards her light-speckled, star gazing eyes. "Tomatoes. Helps get rid of gnargly-puffs." Ginny had no idea what Luna meant, and she didn't care to know, but she wanted to hear Luna's voice again. "What are those?"
Luna's face lifted, and her lips parted slightly, allowing a puff of warm, sweet-smelling air to escape. Ginny watched in fascination as Luna spoke with such animation about the origin of the gnargly-puffs and their close relation to wrackspurts. Ginny gazed thoughtfully at Luna, not listening to her words, but hearing her voice, and it's lilting tones, lifting up higher as it spoke with enthusiasm about the flying patterns of bubblehogs.
Luna stopped speaking for a moment. And looked curiously at Ginny. "You aren't really listening to me, are you?" Ginny shifted her eyes away, a rosy tint bloomed under her cheeks. "Um, well, no- but like hearing you talk...so..." She leaned back, her eyes looking down, wishing she hadn't said anything.
"Its alright, Ginny. I just didn't want to bother you." "No!" Ginny exclaimed. "You could never bother me! I really like y- hearing you talk."
A wide smile broke out on Luna's face, all full of teeth and joy. "Thank you! I like hearing you talk as well. Your voice is very beautiful, and you sing well, too." Ginny looked at her in confusion. "You've heard me sing?" "Yes. In the house, fourth year. You would sing in the bathroom, during the time when everyone was at the dining hall. I loved hearing you sing." Luna's voice trailed off, her face growing a little afraid. "I'm sorry, I probably ruined something. I shouldn't have listened, that was private. Oh, Ginny, I'm so sorry."
Ginny grinned. "Oh, no, that's alright. I just didn't know anyone would ever like to listen to me singing. At home, I had to make sure the boys knew they couldn't mess with me, so I associated singing and feminine things with teasing." Luna's face grew thoughtful.
"I'm sure they would love hearing you sing. I did. And they're your family. Family loves seeing each other succeed." Ginny smiled softly, and her eyes drifted away to some unknown place. She twirled a lock of her auburn hair around her finger, and Luna's breath caught in her chest, seeing Ginny so beautiful in such a simple moment. It froze her, the way Ginny could smile, and just like that Luna was in love. She didn't know why it wasn't obvious before. The light feeling in her chest when they passed in the hallway, the drop that she felt when Ginny laughed or flirted with Harry, the flutter of Ginny's eyelashes, her laugh, her voice, her humor. She felt cheated to not have known before, maybe she could have tried to get her before she and Harry were so close. But she couldn't do anything now. She knew Ginny and Harry would get married some day, and even if they didn't, Ginny didn't like girls.
It felt so crushing, loving someone who didn't love you back.

Playlist: "Bruises" Lewis Capaldi, "Sheep" Mt. Joy, "Making All Things New" Aaron Espe, "The Breach" Dustin Tebbutt, "Need the Sun to Break" James Bay