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There wasn’t much to look forward to this holiday season.
Luna was sure about this because it was cold, frosty but not snowy, and there was that same Hanukkah party the Weasleys were having.
The one where she and her father would show up to and eat hundreds of the jelly donuts and potato pancakes and spill or break something.
Ginny called them sufganiyot, latkes, and accidents.
Maybe she had Ginny to look forward to.
And maybe the latkes because those were good.
Luna had been all been out of Hogwarts for a while.
The Weasleys were too, doing whatever things they did. Training to be aurors or running that joke shop in Diagon Alley. Or working with dragons or spending time with family or or or so many infinite things. Ginny, training to join the Harpies.
Luna did a lot of thinking about Ginny. It was hard not to miss her.
Doing whatever busy things they were doing.
And not having a lot of time for her.
Luna and Xenophilius were doing alright.
Working their ways into a magizoologist degree and building their little family farm. Working their way into the holidays and the cold. Finding (magical) animals around the countryside that needed care and bringing them home.
Maybe Luna should move out.
This was something she’d been considering for a while, but she didn’t want to do it alone. And it was the holidays. No time to be thinking of leaving family. And the huge mural in her room she’d spent so long on.
For the season she’d charmed baubles to hang in midair.
As unhappy as she was where she was, she had to admit it felt like home.
It felt like Christmas.
And with the holidays came the annual Weasley Hanukkah party. And sufganiyot and latkes and Ginny. There would always be Ginny.
Hanukkah. December and Ginny’s plan was to drink as much wine as possible.
People kept asking about her training and when she would start playing for the Harpies… like actually playing not just practicing. And when she’d get a boyfriend. And what happened to Harry? Harry Potter? And how she was planning to stay in her apartment because her part time job was only covering so much of the rent and Ginny was considering dipping her sufganiyot into her wine and looking Percy in the eye as she ate a wine soaked jelly donut.
Or Charlie or whoever was asking.
Maybe she should do it with the crackers and spread because that might be grosser. Instead she put her glass down and fixed her hair, sticking her wand into the messy bun she scraped up.
“GINNY!” George yelled and Ginny winced. Hanukkah without Fred was hard and here was George and this party was so big she wondered how the only people she talked to were her own damn siblings.
“Yeah?” She stood up straight, picked up her wineglass (and a sufganiyot because they were right there) and turned. His arm was swung over Lee Jordan’s shoulders and he had that look in his eye that said he was smashed.
Lee Jordan grimaced.
“Ginny, how come you don’t ever bring anyone?”
“George.”
“I mean I brought Lee and Bill’s got Fleur and everyone’s got someone because it’s the holidays Ginny and the holidays are about love.” He was definitely drunk.
Lee Jordan grimaced again as George shifted his weight. “George, why don’t we leave Ginny alone?”
“Lee I want to know.”
“George, we’re going.”
Ginny watched George get dragged up the stairs. She stuck the donut in her wine and bit in. It was doable. She’d be ready for the next onslaught of attacks.
It came from some friend of Percy’s.
“Ginny, why don’t you have a boyfriend?”
She sized him up. If she decked him, Hanukkah might not be totally ruined. If she jinxed him, she could hide his paralyzed body. If he was hitting on her, he was going to regret it.
Ginny stuck her sufganiyot in her wine and waited a bit before she pulled it out. She looked back at this boy and bit into the donut. This was her third time doing it and it hadn’t failed her yet.
“Because-” A swish of skirts caught her eye and Ginny directed her gaze at Luna. “Because I’m with Luna. Luna Lovegood? Actual angel.”
Ginny was pretty sure the angel part was true.
“Oh.” Pause. “Percy never mentioned that.”
“Yeah,” She said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Luna just got here and I’d like to spend some time with her. The holidays are about love, after all.”
She smiled and flounced off, grabbing Luna by the hand.
“Hey Loo.” She said.
“You haven’t called me that in years.” Luna was wearing the Dirigible plum earring she’d made in third year. Ginny found it pretty cute.
“Luna I know I’ve been really busy but one of Percy’s friends asked me why I didn’t have a boyfriend and I said that’s because we’re dating and Luna why are you looking at me like that? Luna? We’re dating. I lied to a stranger and said we’re dating.”
Luna leaned forward and kissed Ginny on the cheek. For show. “Gin, I’m honored to be your fake girlfriend.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Not really.”
“Hm,”
“My first decree as your fake girlfriend is that you cannot ruin any more sufganiyah with red wine. It looks gross.”
Ginny raised her eyebrow. “Anything else?”
“Yeah. Introduce me as your fake girlfriend more often. Saves both of us some trouble.”
Ginny found herself laughing.
Luna showed up the next day. Second day of Hanukkah, and the Weasley family somehow found out Luna and Ginny were a thing.
Everyone was delighted.
Ginny was dating again and Luna was such a sweet girl. Sometimes someone would say something and Ginny would wince because it reminded her too much of one of those snide comments she’d heard when she’d kissed Demelza Robins that one time in the locker room.
But Luna was here and she was going to enjoy being with her friend over the holidays.
Luna showed up the day after that, too. Ginny walked the long walk with her back to her house and helped her pack an overnight bag. She was going to stay at the Burrow until Hanukkah ended.
She’d be home in time for Christmas.
“Do you have any more sufganiyot?” Luna asked, throwing her quill at the wall. She’d been sketching bowtruckles for the past hour and her hand was tired.
“I think they’re gone. We probably made a million for the party, though.” Ginny was reading one of Luna’s textbooks. She’d never really had any interest in magical creatures but these were pretty cool. This book was about magical birds and she’d never even known most of these existed.
“Oh,” Luna said.
“I can make some,” Ginny ventured.
“You can cook?”
“Did you think I was going to grow up with Molly Weasley and not learn how to cook?” Ginny threw the book onto the bed they were sharing in her room.
Neither of them found that they cared. It was nice waking up with someone else in bed.
“You just never struck me as the cooking type.”
Ginny laughed and the grabbed her wand and pointed it to unlock the door. She’d started locking the door the second Luna came to stay for the holidays. They were allowed to have their damn privacy.
“I’m not half bad. How do you think I survive?”
“You live by yourself?”
“Hm?”
“I didn’t know that.”
“There’s a lot of catching up we have to do, Loo.”
“Apparently.”
They stomped down the stairs and were surprised to find nobody was home. Their busy house of oh so many was blissfully empty. Seventh day of Hanukkah and the house was relatively clean and they’d only run out of candles once.
Ginny lead Luna into the pantry.
“Can you grab the flour, sugar, and whatever yeast is left, Loo?”
“Yeah.” Luna blushed and started digging around. She loved that Ginny called her Loo and was not looking forward to the end of Hanukkah.
She wasn’t even Jewish but this was by far the best holiday.
Eight days long.
Ginny walked out of pantry carrying too many things.
Luna walked out with six but was told to dig through the refrigerator for butter and jelly and eggs and anything else Ginny could think of without looking at the recipe.
“You ready for a labor intensive afternoon?”
“Does it yield fried food?”
Ginny grinned. “Only the best.”
They were covered in powdered sugar.
And it was messy and sticky and and sweet and Luna couldn’t help but think how lucky she was to be there in that moment.
With a girlfriend who would make her jelly donuts just because she wanted some.
Fake girlfriend.
There wasn’t even any reason to pretend they were dating. One offhand comment had led to six good days of Ginny and Luna and GinnyandLuna and ginnyandluna and so many more combinations.
They could stop at any time.
“So I was thinking,” Ginny started.
Oh oh.
“Do you want to move in with me?”
What.
Luna bit into a sufganiyot to avoid answering.
Did she? Yes.
“Loo?”
“I heard you.”
“Okay,” Ginny picked up a donut and shook some of the sugar off. “Okay,” Quieter.
A long pause and then-
“I think I want to.”
It’s halfway through February and they’re still together.
Or “together” or whatever but they’re living at Ginny’s flat and sometimes Luna feels too much like a guest. With her own bed and only recently did Ginny let her do the dishes.
And they don’t talk about it.
They’re Luna and Ginny and suddenly it’s April and they’re still acting like Luna and Ginny from Hogwarts and it is April and they’re still fake dating but Luna is very drunk and begs Ginny to make sufganiyah while she finishes up her studies.
And Ginny isn’t supposed to eat a lot of sugar but she’ll make a batch of them for Luna anyway because why not. Luna’s pretty darn cute and really darn smart.
They deserve something nice and sweet every once in a while.
And Ginny isn’t supposed to eat a lot of sugar and Luna should probably not drink that much and when the rooms feels fuzzy Luna leans over and kisses Ginny.
Luna tastes like cheap alcohol and too much sugar and she feels like fire.
Ginny tastes cheap alcohol and Luna’s favorite lipgloss and she feels like gasoline and this is a thousand times better than kissing Demelza Robins.
This is a thousand times better than kissing Demelza Robins because she felt like fun. Luna feels like danger. And alcohol.
And not talking for too long and making little mistakes that you wouldn’t even notice were missing unless you had what you could have lost.
And home.