Kristmas Wish Fulfilled for: sdk
From: A Wonderful Watcher: ink_smudged

Title: Snowflakes
Characters/Pairings: Luna/Ginny
Rating: R.
Kinks/Themes Included: Adultery, Semi-Public Sex, UST
Other Warnings: Ginny’s a couple of months pregnant.
Word Count: 2,900
Summary/Description: It’s Christmas; a time for family and love. Luna ruminates on how one can mean the sacrifice of the other.
Author's Notes: I'd like to thank K my wonderful beta and keeper of sanity. The prompts were such fun to work with although Luna and Ginny have a mind of their own.


There were many things she liked about Christmas; there were the sounds that filtered through the cracks in the floorboards, the sights and tastes and most importantly, the way the smell of oranges and pine nuts would invade every room until even the duvet reeked of it. Luna remembered being younger and her mother wanting to do Christmas the 'traditional' way - her parents had both stood in the kitchen and she'd peeked round the doorway and watched them stick the pine nuts in the satsumas before hanging them from the doorway. Pine nuts for cloves had seemed a logical substitution in Xenophilius' mind, and Luna remembered letting the book on Cornish Folklore slide to the ground as her mother stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her tall, handsome father, tugging his face down for a deep kiss under the mistletoe.

It had been their last Christmas - the last time pine nuts and oranges had hung from the doorways and the last time the house had echoed of anything more than the occasional curse word as Xeno hunched over his pile of parchment trying to assemble The Quibbler by hand the night it was due at the printing press.

Oh so many years ago, before Hogwarts and before everything, Luna had trekked across the frosty fields towards the Weasleys' house following - literally - in her father’s footsteps before he'd scooped her up to sit on his shoulders, her purple and orange gloves gripping the hanks of his coat as he told of how not so long ago, a young man and a young woman had met on these same fields as he'd searched for a long-lost breed of Hinkypunk.

Sitting in Mrs Weasley's kitchen drinking hot orange drinks, she'd confided to her about what made Christmas for her and how she'd like nothing more than a satsuma studded with pine nuts to have for her very own.

That night before she went to bed, she dug her hands into her coat in search of something and her fingers clasped over her own mandarin. Luna held it like a secret and slept with it underneath her pillow every night until it vanished like magic.

Mrs Weasley had given her back Christmas and for that, seven year old Luna promised the empty corners of her room that she would do anything to repay her.

----

Anything to repay her.

Which included fighting with Harry and Ginny at the department, to stand up with him and be counted when it mattered the most - and the hardest thing - to sit back and watch Ginny walk down the makeshift aisle towards Harry with every inch of her skin glowing.

As she'd sat fingering the hem of her freshly bought robes, Luna had reminded herself of the promise and that no one could escape destiny. Ginny Weasley. Ginny Potter. The two names had been entwined in Ginny’s head and notebooks since Hogwarts when two first years had found themselves sharing a charms desk and a straggly feather neither could identify.

It was okay, she'd told herself that morning as she'd looked into the mirror and tried to smile. It really wasn't as though she were losing her friend. She wasn't; she and Harry (although he'd never know it) were sharing two different women. Luna had Ginny Weasley and Harry got the future - the unknown - the stranger with Ginny's face but not her name.

And now it was Christmas, too many years later for comfort and she was standing in the doorframe of the Burrow and watching as Ginny's stomach entered the room a heartbeat before she did. The thick woolen jumper she'd tossed on over her jeans couldn't hide the soft swell of her belly, the way her eyes sparkled or the way she'd sit with her hands folded over the baby to protect it.

The engagement ring on Luna's hand felt heavy and unfamiliar; Rolf had slipped it on three nights ago as he'd kissed her before apparating to a holiday season spent researching in Guatemala. 

Did she love him?

The smile stayed fixed onto her face as she shook off her coat and  Hermione led her into the warmth, chattering about the latest progress she'd made on securing the rights of House Elves and 'ooohed' and 'aaahed' over the cold rock on her icy finger.

"You're so lucky, Luna. I envy you the planning of a wedding, the anticipation of spending the rest of your life with someone you love so very much."

Did she love him? It was the same question she'd tried to answer a dozen or so times; he didn't inspire her to pull his head down towards her for a kiss, but he was comfortable and didn't give her the feeling of flutterbys in her stomach.  She never wanted those feelings again.

"Of course I love him," she retorted quickly. "He has very nice teeth."

"He'd better be someone special," came the voice from the sofa and Luna looked down to see Ginny sprawled across the couch, slipper dangling from the tip of her toes and the remnants of a game of Wizarding scrabble around her.

Their eyes met and Luna instantly wished they hadn't; that she hadn't promised to be here this evening. She could have been in Guatemala with tropical rainbows instead of trying to repay a debt to Molly Weasley and steal a bit (just a bit) of their family for herself.

----

It was easier once the dishes had been cleared and the younger children sent off to bed with promises of Father Christmas; when those who were young and still in the first flush of passion shared glances from underneath heavy lashes before sidling up the stairs with a bump of hips and flush of heat on their skin.

It was the time that Luna could be alone; the backdoor slipped open and closed silently behind her as her slippered feet sank into dewy grass. When she was confident in her solitude she sat down on the stoop, hands wrapping round her knees as she held herself for comfort.

It was over; finally, completely and utterly over. Ginny was not only married to someone else, but there was a future growing inside her, changing and shaping her body in a way that Luna could never know. No more would she be able to skim the soft subtle curves with her fingertips, to run her tongue down the marks in her skin, to smell her hair and make her sigh underneath her.

She was alone. Utterly alone.

----

Until she heard the rustle of fabric and felt rather than saw the body slip into place next to her. Even without turning her head, she knew who it was. Ginny. The name threatened to fall from her lips but Luna settled for watching the horizon and breathing in the scent of her friend.

" Luna, I..." Ginny’s voice which had always been so strong and sure faltered slightly as her hand came to rest on her belly. Luna’s eyes followed the curve with her eyes, the way the moonlight reflected off her wedding band as her hand smoothed the contours of her stomach. Her eyes continued up and up and up; over the swell of her breasts to look into those achingly familiar brown eyes. 

It was one of those moments Luna knew she would remember for the rest of her life. She could see the words forming on Ginny’s lips. The well thought out excuses and rational reasons that would appeal to her own sense of logic, the twists and turns of years of over thinking what had happened between them that long school year.

"Don't." Her own voice was croaky and to her shame she felt the slide of the first tear down her cheek as her heart teetered on the edge of heartbreak. Was this what love was meant to be about? Sitting looking on at someone else’s perfect life and wishing with every inch of her skin that she could be somewhere else, a different time?

There wasn't a crunching of her heart, just a slow sickening slide of ice into her belly and a flush of heat at the way her life was turning out. Rolf was a good man - he shared the same interests and he cared deeply for her. But sometimes, late at night when the pillow was cold and there was space between them for her to - finally - breathe - Luna would lie awake and think of raspberry flavour kisses from sticky lips and the way Ginny’s hair would smell as the older girl tugged her to lie underneath the Quidditch stands.

And now here they were; Ginny had gotten everything she'd ever wanted and Luna was realizing too late that what she desired and needed belonged to someone else, heart, body, mind and soul.

For a girl who had grown up believing that 'hate' was a dirty word, the revulsion at the thought of Harry Potter and the jealousy that ate away at her at night was overwhelming.

----

There were still callouses on Ginny’s skin where she'd gripped her quill too hard. Part of Luna recognised the reason even as the thumb swiped at her tears.

Her thoughts were tumbling together; sentences were too hard and complicated to formulate and then all reasoning slipped away as she felt the soft press of lips against her own. It lasted for little more than a heartbeat before the warmth was gone and blue eyes could meet brown, betraying all her thoughts and emotions.

Turning her head, she made her decision. It had never been a choice, not really, and as she pressed feather light kisses into Ginny’s palm, her other came up to hover close to her friends, impossibly close but not quite touching; a promise: palm to palm is holy palmer’s kiss.

The fragment was still in her thoughts as she tilted her own chin and met Ginny face to face in invitation and challenge. Her feelings ran deep, but she would not beg.

Seconds inched into minutes before Ginny made her decision and leaped recklessly, her hands sliding up to cup the blonde’s face as lips slid against lips.

----

Luna’s fingers were shaking slightly as she pulled down the white fabric of Ginny’s nightgown; her mouth was more confident as she teased and pulled out soft gasps from the hollow of freckled skin. Her brain shut off as one hand reached down to tug up a stubborn chin and the kiss that had been warm, familiar and gentle became a tangle of lips and tongue. As her hands continued their exploration, Luna brought back the Ginny she'd known; the married women who was weighed down with responsibilities began to fade and the girl who had straddled Luna one afternoon whilst the rest of the school watched Quidditch and tugged out orgasm after shattering orgasm out of her until her limbs were soft and wobbly, began to awake.

The moment she felt Ginny’s hand slide against her own ponytail to tug her head back for a vicious bruising kiss, Luna knew what would happen.

She knew it even as she found herself pressed against the cold laminate floor of the kitchen of Molly Weasley’s freshly scrubbed kitchen. Half-in, half-out of the doorway she was aware of the picture they would make should anyone come down to the kitchen; flushed cheeks, tumbled hair and oh the confident way Ginny had yanked off her top to throw it in a distant corner before leaning forward to lick and kiss away the red welts left on her skin.

In this light, with her own hands sliding up to caress thighs and breasts and push and cajole fabrics into slipping off skin, Luna couldn't quite catch her breath properly. The breasts in her hands felt heavy but as the nipples pebbled against her palms and Ginny sighed softly, Luna became more confident in her movements.

The soft moans were hastily swallowed by quick kisses and giggles until they were both naked and free to look at the changes the years had wrought; Luna had scratches from a vicious relative of the whomping willow she'd discovered whilst trekking, but Ginny’s body told a story that Luna could trace with her fingertips; years ago she had sat and inked every freckle - joining them up into constellations until the redhead's body was a celestial sky - and Ginny had laughed before kissing her softly and telling her that she didn't need to carry the stars around on when she had the moon in her arms.

At some point in the intervening years, one of the constellations had been inked permanently; the stark blue lines stood out in contrast against that fair skin as it rode low on the inside of her hip.

Luna paused for a moment, drinking in the sight of the woman straddling her, the moonlight creeping in through the open doors highlighting the shadows and curves of her body; the rise of her stomach; the way the dark pink nipples hardened under her gaze and the cool air; the curls between her legs.

The light made the different hues of their skin melt together until in the tangle of limbs neither could see where the other began. The touches which had been gentle and exploratory turned into something darker and more desperate as Luna fought to catch her breath and force herself to suck in oxygen.

One - two - three, the numbers counted themselves off in her head as those long fingers which had skated and drifted over her own body for so long finally - finally - dipped inside of her causing her to drive her own hips up in blatant invitation.

Ginny’s laugh at the impatient look that crossed her friend's face was warm and throaty as it echoed off the walls of the kitchen, and for this time only Luna didn't mind sharing it with the pots and pans that dotted every available workspace.

Luna didn't even have time to try and think about what was happening, only the slow slide of fingertips against her clit, pushing her forward toward an end she was straining to get to.

"Please." Her voice was cracked and sore and Luna darted out a tongue to moisten her lips as she panted her pleadings for Ginny to continue; for those quick and nibble fingers to slip, dip and slide against her even as she sucked air in greedily and spread her thighs to demand more.

The pressure was building up slowly starting from her toes to spread in a flush over her skin, causing Ginny to slow for a moment to catch her eyes, "You're so fucking beautiful like this", before Luna lost even the ability to focus on anything but her friend's eyes and the way her skin felt so-good before she surrendered to the feeling and fell over the edge.

----

Later that evening, as the clock raced forward and the sun began to creep over the horizon, Luna had a moment to think about what had happened; how she and Ginny had gone from the memories of a summer stolen years ago, to lying pinned underneath that Quidditch toned body as she felt the first orgasm crash over her; to having her face buried in the Ginny’s curls as they tickled her chin and used her tongue to drive the redhead wild; to being pressed between the door and her body as they used fingers and thumbs to take them both to the peak before swallowing their cries as they fell over.

She was the first to wake; feeling the weight of Ginny's arm sprawled over her hip and the warmth of her body curled tightly against her own. Even as she revelled in the sensation, Luna knew - deep down in a part of her - that she couldn't stay like this. They couldn't stay like this.

Her footsteps were silent as she padded across the cold flagstones, toes curling up at the chill before she reached the door and opened it with an ominous creak. I have to go, she told herself before stopping to look back at Ginny’s slumbering form. What they'd had was a Christmas moment - and like snowflakes it had melted too soon to be appreciated.

Luna had made a promise to Molly Weasley many years ago, and she was determined to keep it. Even if it meant breaking her own heart in the process.

The stairs to her room were lonely and long and as she closed the door behind her, she didn't hear the whispered voice of Ginny calling her back.

"Stay. Please."