Unexpected (Chapters 3-4)
Title: Unexpected
Author: kijani
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Hermione/Luna
Rating: Older Teensish?
Summary: Hermione finally has her dream job, but when everything else comes crashing down, who will be there to help her pick up the pieces?
"Come on, 'Mione. You're going to stay with me for tonight."
"But...Ravenclaw..."
"Nonsense. You're staying with me, and tomorrow we can hex the living hell out of that red-headed weasel if you want." Luna practically growled, her eyes fiery as she looked at Hermione again.
Hermione shook her head. "I don' want to do that..." She paused, her fingers brushing her lips again as Luna's eyes met hers. "Did you really jus'...?"
"I told you, you were imagining things. Now come on. Into bed..." Luna pulled back the blue covers on her bed and fluffed the pillow a little bit. She led Hermione over, all but forcing the woman to lay down, and tucked her into the blankets almost as if she were a child-fragile, breakable, in need of someone to take care of her...
"You don't have to..." Hermione's sentence was cut off early by an unexpected yawn. She cuddled down into the blanket, murmuring a silent thanks as her eyes closed.
Luna let out a sigh of relief, and sank into the recliner at the bedside. She watched as her old friend slept, remaining where she was in case the woman woke. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier as the night wore on, but she tried to blink away the tiredness. Eventually, it won out, and her head drooped as she fell asleep in the overstuffed chair.
Hermione tossed and turned in her sleep, visions of her husband entangled in the arms of another woman dancing through her mind and weighing heavy on her heart. She let out a tiny cry in her sleep, bolting upright and looking around the unfamiliar room. It was only when she noticed Luna's sleeping form in the chair next to the bed that she remembered how she'd managed to get here. She touched her lips again, still a bit unsure of all that had transpired that night, and tried to swallow a sob that threatened to burst forth and disturb the peace of the room. She failed.
Luna was jolted into consciousness when she heard the cry, and before she could blink, the curly-haired brunette woman had all but thrown herself at her, her head resting on Luna's shoulder as she cried. Slightly startled, Luna wrapped her arms around her friend, rubbing gentle circles on her back in an effort to calm her as much as she could.
"Shh...it's okay. It'll be alright..." she whispered.
"He wasn't even sorry!" Hermione sobbed, her shoulders shaking. "He wasn't! He should've...I can't...what am I supposed to do?" Her words were muffled, but Luna understood her clearly, and it made the blond's heart ache to see her friend so broken.
"It's okay, 'Mione. It'll be alright..." Luna wasn't even sure what else really could be said. She wasn't even sure of the truth of her own words...but the need to say something, to do something, seemed to outweigh all of that.
"How is it supposed to be okay?" Hermione wailed. "I...married him. I'm...I'm a joke."
Luna shook her head violently, her grip tightening around her friend. "No you're not, love. I promise you're not. He's just a stupid git is all. He doesn't deserve someone like you. It's him that's a joke..." Anything to quell her crying...even though nothing seemed to be helping.
"Yes, I am..." Hermione countered between sobs.
"No, 'Mione..."
"But he..."
Luna let out what could almost be considered a growl. "Stop. Stop talking about yourself like you don't matter, Hermione! It's Ron who's the worthless prat in all of this, not you! Don't you let him do this to you. Don't you do it. He's not worth it." Perhaps if she said it enough, it would ring as true to the other woman as it did to her. Luna stroked her hair gently with one hand, her other hand still rubbing circles on Hermione's back. It was the only thing she could really do. Nothing would really make the woman feel better. Not right now, anyway.
Hermione's sobs softened for a moment as she tried to focus on Luna's words. "I...Luna...thank you..." she hiccuped softly. "I just...don't know anymore..."
"You don't have to, 'Mione. This isn't your fault." Luna assured her. Again.
"I...okay..." Hermione sat herself on the arm of Luna's chair, resting her head more comfortably on the other woman's shoulder. Still, she couldn't get what had happened earlier that night out of her head. Perhaps she had imagined it...but then again, Luna was...
"Are you feeling better?" Luna's soft voice broke through Hermione's thoughts. "Maybe you should get a little bit more sleep...?"
Hermione's fingers brushed across her lips once more. "Luna, earlier, did you...?"
Luna let out a heavy sigh, looking down at the ground and closing her eyes so that she did not have to meet the other woman's gaze. "I'm sorry, 'Mione. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn't really thinking at all. I didn't mean to...it just kind of happened..."
"Oh."
The silence in the room was easily thick enough to cut with a knife, yet neither woman seemed to want to break it. Hermione did not move her head from its resting place on Luna's shoulders, and after a moment, the blond woman finally looked up at her again. She opened her mouth as though she was going to speak, but it was Hermione who finally broke the silence between them.
"It's okay." she whispered.
Luna shook her head. "We can pretend it never happened if you want. If that makes things easier. I shouldn't have. Not after everything else you've been through since you got here. I don't know what I was thinking..." she looked away again, a slight pink tint coming to her cheeks.
"Luna..." Again, it was Hermione to break the silence. "Luna, look at me." She waited. When Luna's gaze finally met hers again, she continued. "If it happened, it happened. I don't want to pretend otherwise." Hermione's expression soured for a moment as her mind wandered back to earlier that day, to Ron. Another thing she couldn't pretend didn't happen.
"Hermione?" The brunette woman blinked. Luna's piercing gaze was studying her with deep concern. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked after a moment of silence.
For the longest time, Hermione wasn't sure how to answer her friend's question. The day had been full of surprises, and most of them had not been of the good sort. In truth, she wasn't sure. In truth, she was still processing it all, still trying to decide what to do, how to feel...and she had no clue what that meant. She'd never been so confused, really.
Finally, she lifted her head from Luna's shoulder, an unsure smile on her face. "Honestly, Luna? I just don't know." Leaning forward, she placed a feather-light kiss on Luna's forehead. "But thank you. For everything."
This time, when the curly-haired brunette woman went back to sleep, Luna noticed much less tossing and turning. She had no clue what was floating around in Hermione's head at the moment, but she seemed more at peace, and that helped Luna to relax a little more. Of course, there was still the matter of what might happen tomorrow, but Luna found herself less and less concerned with that as she watched her old friend sleep.
Eventually, Luna began to doze off again, curling herself into the overstuffed chair much like she did when she was a child. "Night, 'Mione..." she whispered as she drifted off. Today had been a long day. That much was certain.
But tomorrow? Tomorrow would be something entirely new...for both of them.
***
Pretending that nothing was wrong was harder for the woman than she thought it would be. As it neared time for the students to arrive, Hermione busied herself as much as possible with getting her classroom ready. That didn't take nearly as long as she'd hoped it would, and she ran into Ron much more than she would have liked.
It was even more painful running into Addison-Addy, as Luna had called her. Hermione didn't even know the woman and she already hated her. On one hand, Hermione knew it wasn't all her fault...but on the other hand, this woman was responsible for destroying Hermione's happiness-her and Ron. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him, and others had started to notice.
Hagrid, Hermione and Ron's friend since childhood, was the last to catch on to what had happened. The rumor mill among the Hogwarts teachers was a vicious one, and Hermione wasn't even sure how to handle it all. Anger had been her main outlet. She directed it at everyone who dared bother her. Even Luna didn't seem immune to it all, but the blond woman didn't seem to mind.
"Will you be alright?" McGonnagal sounded wiser than Hermione had ever remembered from her childhood. "There's nothing I can really do about it, but it is your personal relationship..."
She shook her head. "I'll be fine," she promised. "I'm a big girl, and I can handle myself and Ronald if need be."
"You're sure?"
"Yes. I'm fine."
"You're dismissed then."
The night before the school was to open for students, the halls seemed even more quiet than usual. Huddled in the Hogwarts kitchens, Hermione sat with Neville and Luna. Between them, the three nursed a rather large bottle of firewhiskey and an assortment of after midnight snacks. Neville was already pink in the cheeks, Luna giggled at everything. Her bright blue eyes seemed even more bright as her gaze flickered back and forth between her two friends. Hermione was quiet as she drank, her gaze occasionally catching Luna's across the small table.
"Bedtime for me, guys..." Neville yawned, stumbling slightly as he got to his feet. "I'll see you all tomorrow night at the opening feast."
"Of course!" Luna nodded with a large grin.
"Is it already that time?" Hermione mused, her gaze far off for a moment. "See you tomorrow, Neville. See him tomorrow, too. Can I sit next to you at the table?" she looked up at Neville.
"Sure, love. Not a problem at all..."
Luna stood, stretching slightly and letting out a tiny yawn as she stepped away from the table. "Come on, 'Mione. Let's head off to bed. Long day tomorrow, after all." Luna Lovegood wasn't usually the voice of reason, but lately, she found herself falling into the role more and more often. Hermione was a grown woman, but Luna couldn't help the growing urge she felt to take care of her, to make sure that she was okay. It wasn't supposed to be her job, but she found herself taking to it quite easily.
The two women walked mostly in silence up the stairs toward their respective house dormitories. When it came time to split and go their own ways however, the silence between them was finally broken.
"Don't go..." Hermione whispered, sounding a bit unsure of herself.
"I have to go to bed."
"But..." Hermione was silent for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought through her words. "I don't want to be alone. Please?" There was almost a pleading note to her voice when she finally spoke again, her eyes meeting with Luna's.
There it was again. That tugging sensation that had been pulling at her lately. It was an urge to be with her, to help her, to make things better, comfort her...and Luna found it harder and harder to ignore...especially with the way that Hermione was looking at her.
She looked away, towards the direction of her own room, before letting out a heavy sigh and taking a step forward. "Come on. We'll have a cup of tea or something." Yes. Tea. They could both benefit from a cup, especially after the way they'd started the night.
"I don't want tea." Hermione protested.
"What do you want?" Luna asked, her eyebrow raising slightly.
Hermione shrugged. "I just...you...I don't want to be alone." She stammered.
"You aren't." Luna promised.
Hermione's room was almost a mirror image of Luna's, but the four-poster bed had a dark maroon comforter on it instead of a blue one. Luna looked around for only a moment before sinking herself into the overstuffed chair in the room and letting out a long sigh. Her eyes fluttered closed for a brief moment before she heard Hermione coming further into the room. Looking up, she smiled at her friend and let out a tiny, contented sigh.
Hermione sat herself on her bed, directly across from Luna. For the longest time, the two sat in a very comfortable silence. Luna relaxed in her chair, and Hermione leaned forward. After what seemed like ages, the silence between them was finally broken.
"Why did you do it?" Hermione whispered.
Luna could feel a blush coming to her cheeks as the heat rose in her body, but she managed to ignore it. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she looked at the ground for a moment before she could bring herself to look at Hermione again.
"Hermione, we shouldn't talk about-"
"No. Why did you do it, Luna? You don't understand. I need to know." Her voice was calm, cool, collected, despite the topic of the conversation. "Please tell me. Or at least try..."
Luna coughed. "Hermione, I..." Luna chewed her bottom lip for a long while as she thought things over. This conversation had the potential to ruin their friendship...to destroy everything that they had built in these last few weeks. But at the same time, she couldn't avoid it forever. Hermione wasn't the type that would allow such a thing to happen. What was she supposed to do? In truth, Luna wasn't even sure what the truth was. How then was she supposed to explain it to someone else?
"Hermione, I can't...I don't know..." Luna's voice broke slightly and she looked away. "I did it because...because I wanted to. I wanted to, okay? And it was horrible timing and I shouldn't have done it, but I did. And I know you could never..."
"Luna...stop it." Hermione interrupted sharply.
"Hermione, I'm sorry, I..."
Hermione shook her head. "Bloody hell, Luna. Shut up." In one quick motion, Hermione moved forward, tangling her hand in Luna's hair and pulling the woman roughly towards her. For a moment, their lips were merely an inch apart. "I told you already there was nothing to be sorry for, didn't I?" Hermione wasn't even really sure what she was doing, but the next thing she knew, her lips met with Luna's in a passionate kiss. After a moment, she pulled away panting, her lips swollen and tingling.
"'Mione...what are you..." Luna breathed.
"You started it." Hermione silenced her with another kiss, pulling her over to join her on the small bed.
Author: kijani
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Hermione/Luna
Rating: Older Teensish?
Summary: Hermione finally has her dream job, but when everything else comes crashing down, who will be there to help her pick up the pieces?
"Come on, 'Mione. You're going to stay with me for tonight."
"But...Ravenclaw..."
"Nonsense. You're staying with me, and tomorrow we can hex the living hell out of that red-headed weasel if you want." Luna practically growled, her eyes fiery as she looked at Hermione again.
Hermione shook her head. "I don' want to do that..." She paused, her fingers brushing her lips again as Luna's eyes met hers. "Did you really jus'...?"
"I told you, you were imagining things. Now come on. Into bed..." Luna pulled back the blue covers on her bed and fluffed the pillow a little bit. She led Hermione over, all but forcing the woman to lay down, and tucked her into the blankets almost as if she were a child-fragile, breakable, in need of someone to take care of her...
"You don't have to..." Hermione's sentence was cut off early by an unexpected yawn. She cuddled down into the blanket, murmuring a silent thanks as her eyes closed.
Luna let out a sigh of relief, and sank into the recliner at the bedside. She watched as her old friend slept, remaining where she was in case the woman woke. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier as the night wore on, but she tried to blink away the tiredness. Eventually, it won out, and her head drooped as she fell asleep in the overstuffed chair.
Hermione tossed and turned in her sleep, visions of her husband entangled in the arms of another woman dancing through her mind and weighing heavy on her heart. She let out a tiny cry in her sleep, bolting upright and looking around the unfamiliar room. It was only when she noticed Luna's sleeping form in the chair next to the bed that she remembered how she'd managed to get here. She touched her lips again, still a bit unsure of all that had transpired that night, and tried to swallow a sob that threatened to burst forth and disturb the peace of the room. She failed.
Luna was jolted into consciousness when she heard the cry, and before she could blink, the curly-haired brunette woman had all but thrown herself at her, her head resting on Luna's shoulder as she cried. Slightly startled, Luna wrapped her arms around her friend, rubbing gentle circles on her back in an effort to calm her as much as she could.
"Shh...it's okay. It'll be alright..." she whispered.
"He wasn't even sorry!" Hermione sobbed, her shoulders shaking. "He wasn't! He should've...I can't...what am I supposed to do?" Her words were muffled, but Luna understood her clearly, and it made the blond's heart ache to see her friend so broken.
"It's okay, 'Mione. It'll be alright..." Luna wasn't even sure what else really could be said. She wasn't even sure of the truth of her own words...but the need to say something, to do something, seemed to outweigh all of that.
"How is it supposed to be okay?" Hermione wailed. "I...married him. I'm...I'm a joke."
Luna shook her head violently, her grip tightening around her friend. "No you're not, love. I promise you're not. He's just a stupid git is all. He doesn't deserve someone like you. It's him that's a joke..." Anything to quell her crying...even though nothing seemed to be helping.
"Yes, I am..." Hermione countered between sobs.
"No, 'Mione..."
"But he..."
Luna let out what could almost be considered a growl. "Stop. Stop talking about yourself like you don't matter, Hermione! It's Ron who's the worthless prat in all of this, not you! Don't you let him do this to you. Don't you do it. He's not worth it." Perhaps if she said it enough, it would ring as true to the other woman as it did to her. Luna stroked her hair gently with one hand, her other hand still rubbing circles on Hermione's back. It was the only thing she could really do. Nothing would really make the woman feel better. Not right now, anyway.
Hermione's sobs softened for a moment as she tried to focus on Luna's words. "I...Luna...thank you..." she hiccuped softly. "I just...don't know anymore..."
"You don't have to, 'Mione. This isn't your fault." Luna assured her. Again.
"I...okay..." Hermione sat herself on the arm of Luna's chair, resting her head more comfortably on the other woman's shoulder. Still, she couldn't get what had happened earlier that night out of her head. Perhaps she had imagined it...but then again, Luna was...
"Are you feeling better?" Luna's soft voice broke through Hermione's thoughts. "Maybe you should get a little bit more sleep...?"
Hermione's fingers brushed across her lips once more. "Luna, earlier, did you...?"
Luna let out a heavy sigh, looking down at the ground and closing her eyes so that she did not have to meet the other woman's gaze. "I'm sorry, 'Mione. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn't really thinking at all. I didn't mean to...it just kind of happened..."
"Oh."
The silence in the room was easily thick enough to cut with a knife, yet neither woman seemed to want to break it. Hermione did not move her head from its resting place on Luna's shoulders, and after a moment, the blond woman finally looked up at her again. She opened her mouth as though she was going to speak, but it was Hermione who finally broke the silence between them.
"It's okay." she whispered.
Luna shook her head. "We can pretend it never happened if you want. If that makes things easier. I shouldn't have. Not after everything else you've been through since you got here. I don't know what I was thinking..." she looked away again, a slight pink tint coming to her cheeks.
"Luna..." Again, it was Hermione to break the silence. "Luna, look at me." She waited. When Luna's gaze finally met hers again, she continued. "If it happened, it happened. I don't want to pretend otherwise." Hermione's expression soured for a moment as her mind wandered back to earlier that day, to Ron. Another thing she couldn't pretend didn't happen.
"Hermione?" The brunette woman blinked. Luna's piercing gaze was studying her with deep concern. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked after a moment of silence.
For the longest time, Hermione wasn't sure how to answer her friend's question. The day had been full of surprises, and most of them had not been of the good sort. In truth, she wasn't sure. In truth, she was still processing it all, still trying to decide what to do, how to feel...and she had no clue what that meant. She'd never been so confused, really.
Finally, she lifted her head from Luna's shoulder, an unsure smile on her face. "Honestly, Luna? I just don't know." Leaning forward, she placed a feather-light kiss on Luna's forehead. "But thank you. For everything."
This time, when the curly-haired brunette woman went back to sleep, Luna noticed much less tossing and turning. She had no clue what was floating around in Hermione's head at the moment, but she seemed more at peace, and that helped Luna to relax a little more. Of course, there was still the matter of what might happen tomorrow, but Luna found herself less and less concerned with that as she watched her old friend sleep.
Eventually, Luna began to doze off again, curling herself into the overstuffed chair much like she did when she was a child. "Night, 'Mione..." she whispered as she drifted off. Today had been a long day. That much was certain.
But tomorrow? Tomorrow would be something entirely new...for both of them.
***
Pretending that nothing was wrong was harder for the woman than she thought it would be. As it neared time for the students to arrive, Hermione busied herself as much as possible with getting her classroom ready. That didn't take nearly as long as she'd hoped it would, and she ran into Ron much more than she would have liked.
It was even more painful running into Addison-Addy, as Luna had called her. Hermione didn't even know the woman and she already hated her. On one hand, Hermione knew it wasn't all her fault...but on the other hand, this woman was responsible for destroying Hermione's happiness-her and Ron. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him, and others had started to notice.
Hagrid, Hermione and Ron's friend since childhood, was the last to catch on to what had happened. The rumor mill among the Hogwarts teachers was a vicious one, and Hermione wasn't even sure how to handle it all. Anger had been her main outlet. She directed it at everyone who dared bother her. Even Luna didn't seem immune to it all, but the blond woman didn't seem to mind.
"Will you be alright?" McGonnagal sounded wiser than Hermione had ever remembered from her childhood. "There's nothing I can really do about it, but it is your personal relationship..."
She shook her head. "I'll be fine," she promised. "I'm a big girl, and I can handle myself and Ronald if need be."
"You're sure?"
"Yes. I'm fine."
"You're dismissed then."
The night before the school was to open for students, the halls seemed even more quiet than usual. Huddled in the Hogwarts kitchens, Hermione sat with Neville and Luna. Between them, the three nursed a rather large bottle of firewhiskey and an assortment of after midnight snacks. Neville was already pink in the cheeks, Luna giggled at everything. Her bright blue eyes seemed even more bright as her gaze flickered back and forth between her two friends. Hermione was quiet as she drank, her gaze occasionally catching Luna's across the small table.
"Bedtime for me, guys..." Neville yawned, stumbling slightly as he got to his feet. "I'll see you all tomorrow night at the opening feast."
"Of course!" Luna nodded with a large grin.
"Is it already that time?" Hermione mused, her gaze far off for a moment. "See you tomorrow, Neville. See him tomorrow, too. Can I sit next to you at the table?" she looked up at Neville.
"Sure, love. Not a problem at all..."
Luna stood, stretching slightly and letting out a tiny yawn as she stepped away from the table. "Come on, 'Mione. Let's head off to bed. Long day tomorrow, after all." Luna Lovegood wasn't usually the voice of reason, but lately, she found herself falling into the role more and more often. Hermione was a grown woman, but Luna couldn't help the growing urge she felt to take care of her, to make sure that she was okay. It wasn't supposed to be her job, but she found herself taking to it quite easily.
The two women walked mostly in silence up the stairs toward their respective house dormitories. When it came time to split and go their own ways however, the silence between them was finally broken.
"Don't go..." Hermione whispered, sounding a bit unsure of herself.
"I have to go to bed."
"But..." Hermione was silent for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip as she thought through her words. "I don't want to be alone. Please?" There was almost a pleading note to her voice when she finally spoke again, her eyes meeting with Luna's.
There it was again. That tugging sensation that had been pulling at her lately. It was an urge to be with her, to help her, to make things better, comfort her...and Luna found it harder and harder to ignore...especially with the way that Hermione was looking at her.
She looked away, towards the direction of her own room, before letting out a heavy sigh and taking a step forward. "Come on. We'll have a cup of tea or something." Yes. Tea. They could both benefit from a cup, especially after the way they'd started the night.
"I don't want tea." Hermione protested.
"What do you want?" Luna asked, her eyebrow raising slightly.
Hermione shrugged. "I just...you...I don't want to be alone." She stammered.
"You aren't." Luna promised.
Hermione's room was almost a mirror image of Luna's, but the four-poster bed had a dark maroon comforter on it instead of a blue one. Luna looked around for only a moment before sinking herself into the overstuffed chair in the room and letting out a long sigh. Her eyes fluttered closed for a brief moment before she heard Hermione coming further into the room. Looking up, she smiled at her friend and let out a tiny, contented sigh.
Hermione sat herself on her bed, directly across from Luna. For the longest time, the two sat in a very comfortable silence. Luna relaxed in her chair, and Hermione leaned forward. After what seemed like ages, the silence between them was finally broken.
"Why did you do it?" Hermione whispered.
Luna could feel a blush coming to her cheeks as the heat rose in her body, but she managed to ignore it. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she looked at the ground for a moment before she could bring herself to look at Hermione again.
"Hermione, we shouldn't talk about-"
"No. Why did you do it, Luna? You don't understand. I need to know." Her voice was calm, cool, collected, despite the topic of the conversation. "Please tell me. Or at least try..."
Luna coughed. "Hermione, I..." Luna chewed her bottom lip for a long while as she thought things over. This conversation had the potential to ruin their friendship...to destroy everything that they had built in these last few weeks. But at the same time, she couldn't avoid it forever. Hermione wasn't the type that would allow such a thing to happen. What was she supposed to do? In truth, Luna wasn't even sure what the truth was. How then was she supposed to explain it to someone else?
"Hermione, I can't...I don't know..." Luna's voice broke slightly and she looked away. "I did it because...because I wanted to. I wanted to, okay? And it was horrible timing and I shouldn't have done it, but I did. And I know you could never..."
"Luna...stop it." Hermione interrupted sharply.
"Hermione, I'm sorry, I..."
Hermione shook her head. "Bloody hell, Luna. Shut up." In one quick motion, Hermione moved forward, tangling her hand in Luna's hair and pulling the woman roughly towards her. For a moment, their lips were merely an inch apart. "I told you already there was nothing to be sorry for, didn't I?" Hermione wasn't even really sure what she was doing, but the next thing she knew, her lips met with Luna's in a passionate kiss. After a moment, she pulled away panting, her lips swollen and tingling.
"'Mione...what are you..." Luna breathed.
"You started it." Hermione silenced her with another kiss, pulling her over to join her on the small bed.