Harry stretched his tense muscles out in the unkempt grass and chewed on a dandelion stem. The weeks following the Book of Names mission had driven him to distraction. John would wake in just a few days time, and he'd gone over things in his mind so often he was having trouble sleeping.
The crisp midnight air ruffled his hair. He shook himself and settled down to watch the entertainment.
In the middle of their secret training spot, illuminated by the light of bluebell flames, red hair faced off against dirty blonde. One intense, determined, and focused, the other relaxed, casual, and dreamy.
He spat out the dandelion. "Begin!"
Four hands rose, one alight with pure white light, three alight with red.
Ginny leapt to the side, sending two stunners hurtling towards Luna, who danced away from one and let her shield absorb the other. Luna's stunner sailed towards Ginny. It passed over the red head's shoulder, and she landed on the ground.
Ginny rolled. She fired off another pair of stunners in quick succession.
Luna's shield absorbed the second stunner, but shattered on the third. She twirled. Both her hands lit up red, then pearl white, then red again.
Harry watched Ginny dodge and shield against the barrage of stunners and stingers. Her movements were close and sharp. Her eyes burned.
The two witches edged towards each other. The dodges became closer, the misses nearer, neither willing to back off.
Luna lunged. Two shields appeared from her hands, leaving her no attack.
Ginny's eyes widened at the sudden advance.
Harry's eyes narrowed.
Ginny poured stinging hexes into the shields as the blonde drew closer.
The shields held, power constantly flowing into them. Luna stood right in front of Ginny, full-shield versus full-assault, neither gaining ground on the other.
Then Luna shouted, "Stu-Pi-"—Her mouth glowed red—"-Fy!" A tiny, red light shot from the tip of her tongue, straight into Ginny's stomach.
The redhead blanked. Then collapsed into the soft grass.
Harry blinked.
He blinked again.
"Luna. Did you just fire a stunner from your tongue?"
"Yesh, Hawwy," Luna said, holding her tongue with her fingers.
He stood up and walked towards Ginny. "That's just… wow. How did you think to do that?"
"It's long and pointy, Harry. You said that's why we use our fingers. I bet boys can cast from their special boy parts too."
He coughed and lowered his wand from where he'd been about to enervate Ginny. "I wasn't planning on going into battle naked."
"Oh, Poo."
He shook his head, and turned back towards Ginny. Sometimes Luna freaked him out with how disturbingly adult her thinking could be.
"Enervate."
Ginny stirred and pushed herself into a sitting position. "What happened?"
"Luna got you with a stunner that she shot from her mouth."
Ginny's jaw dropped. "Wha—?"
"Yeah, I know." He looked back to Luna who was demonstrating by holding her tongue with her fingers, and pointing to it while making 'Ahhhh' noises. "I'd really like to know how that mind works."
"I just want to beat her. Just once!" Ginny pouted.
Harry shook his head. Despite coming close many times, Luna always managed to stay just one step ahead of Ginny. "Well, you'll have a whole year to practise against her. If anything else, you two are going to rock your duelling bracket when you get to Hogwarts."
Luna had wandered off, and was now busy plucking grasses and tying them together.
He turned back towards the fidgeting redhead. "You sure you don't want back-up when John awakens?"
Ginny stiffened. She held her head high. "I already said. I need to do this by myself. I can handle it. And we've been training for it for ages now."
"He's still going to be five years older than you."
"I don't care, I need to do this, Harry." Her chocolate eyes looked straight into his, as though daring him to push his opinion.
He sighed. He'd suggested Ginny start wearing the mind-backdoor necklace again so he could take control if the shit hit the fan, but she'd refused. She'd said if she couldn't handle things herself then what use was she. She'd said she didn't want to be a helpless little girl who always needed protecting.
He'd pointed out that it was merely a fail-safe, a measure of last resort, only to be used if she really couldn't handle something that happened. Ginny was having none of it.
"Okay, I was just making sure you really were sure. You remember the emergency signal for your ring?"
She nodded, and recited their prearranged signal.
He nodded back. "Just make sure to contact me the moment you feel you're out of your depth."
She let out an exasperated breath. "Of course. You don't need to be so worried, you know. What can he do? He can't even use his wand yet."
He closed his eyes and tried to keep the frustration from his voice. "We don't know what he'll do, that's the problem. He's going to wake-up into a situation that is totally different to what he remembers. He's just been killed, then brought before two deities, then resurrected, and his girlfriend now wants nothing to do with him. People do stupid things in high emotion situations."
"I can stun, sting, shield, and summon, all wandlessly. He can't. If he tries anything, I'll just stun him."
He looked at the girl in front of him, all righteous passion and fiery indignation.
He took a deep breath, and looked into her eyes. He tried to make his voice as soft as he could. "Just be careful, okay."
She relaxed a little. "Yes, Harry."
"Look!"
They both turned to the voice. Luna twirled around. A grass necklace rested on her neck. A grass crown adorned her hair.
"I'm fully green grassed!" She smiled a dreamy smile.
Ginny's mouth opened, but no words came out.
His eyes glassed over. "On second thoughts, maybe it's better not to know what goes on in there."
.....
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