Flirt

Title: Flirt

Author: Anisky

Summary: Ginny has good intentions, but she's not always loyal and doesn't always think before she acts. When those actions go too far, she has to decide what she truly wants.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's probably not mine.

Rating: Currently PG, will probably go up to R

Archiving: Just ask! [email protected]

A/N: I know that right now it seems a bit rushed, but this isn't a completely LINEAR story and so things will make more sense later on. OK, on to the story!

When she came to me with her request, I have to admit I was a bit surprised.

"Ginny," Luna said seriously, her wide, surprised eyes even wider than usual in an earnest look as she twirled a long lock of her hair around her finger. "Tell me how you get guys to like you."

"Um," I replied articulately, "well, um."

"You have to know," she continued eagerly. "I mean, all these guys really like you. Why do they like you? They didn't before. Why now?"

I knew better to be insulted. Luna lacks a little thing called tact, but as long as you realize that it's easy to see that she doesn't really mean harm. "Well, they didn't ask me out before because it was really obvious that I was obsessed with Harry. They like me now because I don't have a crush on Harry anymore." I was getting curious at this point about exactly where this was going.

To my surprise, Luna frowned, pulling the lock of hair into her mouth to nibble it. Her face screwed up into a thoughtful look. "But I don't have a crush on Harry."

"Um," I said again. "That's nice."

"So why don't guys ask me out?" she demanded, tugging her hair out of her mouth and glaring at me as though it were all my fault.

I didn't even see that question coming. Wow, I'm a dunce. "See, um," 'Because you're crazy' didn't exactly seem like the best answer for me to give. "I guess, well, you have a very... unique... personality."

"Thank you!" she said brightly.

"You're welcome. Anyway, I think maybe guys don't expect that. So they don't know what to think." I studied her face for a moment. Her face had its usual dreamy look on it, which I guess is her version of a blank face. I wondered what Luna was thinking right then, but even when there was an expression on her face it was anybody's guess what was actually going on behind those washed-out silvery eyes.

She had been silent for several moments and I was about to leave when she spoke again, rather sharply. "Teach me how you make guys like you."

"You don't want to change yourself for them, do you?" I asked desperately. I really had no idea how I would be able to help Luna with this. I couldn't even figure out why she was asking, she'd never expressed an interest in any guys before. "Who is it you want, anyway?"

"Oh, just someone," she said vaguely. Her eyes were unfocused, as if she was looking at something invisible right next to me. It was slightly unnerving. "So you're going to help me."

It wasn't a question. I suppose I could have turned it down, but I'd feel too guilty to do that. So I sighed, ran a hand through my hair, and nodded. "Yeah, fine," I said, knowing that I would probably seriously regret this. "I'll help you."

'Though I have no idea how,' I only added within the privacy of my mind.

****

I went over to Luna's dorm room an evening a few days later, equipped with scissors, various potions, and several books.

I'm friends with several Ravenclaws, so I always have their password on hand. (They're really not supposed to tell me, but I can be... persuasive... especially when it comes to the men in Ravenclaw. I'm going to leave it at that.) I strode into the Ravenclaw common room, gave a few smiles, and trudged up the stairs, kicking the fifth year dormitory open with my foot.

"Hey Luna, I'm here as promised," I sang cheerfully, looking around the room as I set my supplies on the ground. Luna was there along with another fifth year named Vesta, who was curled up on her bed doing homework.

"Hello Ginny," she said absently. "Why are you here?"

I blinked. "You wanted me to help you out with guys, remember?"

Luna nodded. "Mm-hmm," she said. "What's all that?" She looked at everything I'd just put on the floor.

I blushed, gathered them up, and put them on Luna's bed where I'd have better access to them. "Men," I told her, "are extremely shallow. I'm going to give you a makeover."

Luna smiled lightly, eyeing the potions. "Alright, then," she said. "What should I do?"

"Mostly just stay still," I told her, rummaging though everything I'd carelessly flung onto the covers. "Do you mind if I cut your hair?"

Luna frowned, running a hand through her waist-length hair. "If you have to..." she said doubtfully.

She looked reluctant, so I sighed and put down the scissors. "Okay, we can save that for last, anyway," I said, picking up the hairbrush. (I'm really not sure why I had the scissors in my hand before the hairbrush. A bit worrying, now that I think about it.) "Let's just get your hair nice and soft for now."

I ran the brush through her hair, holding it gently with one hand. I was surprised how silky her hair was, and suddenly I felt like burying my face in her hair.

My eyebrows raised when I realized what I'd just been thinking. 'Where on Earth did that come from?' I asked myself, hurriedly pulling the brush through her hair again.

"Ow!" exclaimed Luna. "You don't have to pull so hard, you know."

"I'm sorry," I said quietly, quickly finishing with her hair. "Now, turn around for me, I need to see your face."

I picked up my wand and looked up at her. "Alright... oculus crinitus!" Her eyelashes grew a couple of millimeters. "Fuliginis!" Her eyebrows darkened to the dirty blond color of her hair. Slowly I made my way across her face, using a charm or potion on every minor blemish until finally her face appeared flawless. I also put a pair of nice green earrings in her ears instead of the odd things she usually wore (today, for example, it was two miniature alien heads).

"Okay," I said about half an hour later, "I'm finished."

Luna blinked and looked at me for a long time. "Alright," she stared into my eyes. This was only slightly more disturbing than when she looks past your eyes.

"Well, don't you want to look in the mirror?" I asked her nervously.

She considered a moment, then shrugged and got up and walked over to the dormitory mirror and studied herself. "This will make people like me?" she asked, brushing a hand over her face.

I was not handling this very well. "Well, um, I don't think just this will do it," I said.

"Well then what?" she demanded, turning to me.

Vesta looked up from her work curiously. "Ginny? When did you get here?"

Okay, now I was just starting to get a headache. "I got here about half an hour ago, Vesta. Just go back to your book."

"Well honestly!" she huffed, gathering her stuff and stalking out of the room angrily.

"That wasn't very nice," Luna observed mildly, turning back to the mirror. "So why won't this make people like me more?"

"People like you, Luna..." I said uncertainly.

"No, no, I mean the way a guy would," she sounded impatient.

"Well, it's not just the way you look, there's a way you have to act too."

"Show me," she turned back to me and crossed her arms.

I sat down on her bed, still trying to figure out exactly what I ought to do. "Um, well," I hedged for a moment before finally answering her. "It's not something I can just show you and you can just immediately do. I don't think this is a good idea, Luna. You should stay yourse--"

"NO!" she screamed, and I jumped about three free into the air. "I want to do this Ginny. Show me!"

"It would take a while," I told her as soon as I recovered from the shock of Luna screaming. "We'd have to, you know, take a lot of time to teach you everything."

"Well then start now," she ran a hand through her hair the way I so often do. "See? I'm a fast learner!"

"We can start tomorrow, Luna," I told her, gathering everything up in my arms. "Alright?"

"Fine," she said sulkily, sitting down on her bed. "It's Sunday tomorrow. Come in the morning."

I sighed and nodded, wondering how on Earth I'd gotten myself into this. Just as I turned to leave, Luna called my name again. "Ginny?"

I turned. "Yes?" I asked testily.

"Thank you," she said. Then she smiled at me.

I'm not quite sure exactly what it was that made this one so extraordinary. It wasn't her usual dreamy smile that makes you think that she's not all there. This smile was wide and happy and... it just made her beautiful all over, like you just wanted to grab her and kiss her and...

It was the makeover, that must have been it. I smiled back briefly and turned, hurrying out of the dorm. First the thing with her hair, and now this. How come all of a sudden, I was warming up to Loony of all people, who was making me coach her in flirting of all things? I mean I like Luna and everything... she's nice... but for some reason it felt different.

I shook my head. This was just too weird to contemplate.

****

People seemed to notice the change in Luna during breakfast the next morning. She wasn't so much getting romantic attention as she was getting very curious looks. They were so used to seeing Luna looking bizarre that they didn't know what to think when they saw her looking normal. For some reason, though, I felt a pang of sadness when I saw her, over there like that. She didn't look like Luna anymore, she looked like any other girl at Hogwarts. I wasn't so sure that that was a good thing.

"Something certainly happened to Luna, didn't it?" asked Hermione primly. "It's quite odd."

"Oh, she asked me to give her a makeover," I said distractedly, watching the object of conversation. Oddly enough, she seemed oblivious to all the new attention. She looked over at me and smiled again.

"You did that?" asked Ron in surprise.

I nodded, turning back to my toast. "Yeah, well, she practically threatened me."

Ron laughed at the thought of Luna threatening someone.

Just then, Luna seemed to be finished, because she got up and strode over to the Gryffindor table. "Ginny?" she asked, pushing Dean out of the way and sitting down next to me. "Are you ready to come back to the dorms now?"

It was sort of as though she were stalking me. It was a bit odd but I found that I didn't mind. "Sure," I shrugged, picking up an extra piece of toast and kissing Dean on the cheek. "'Bye everyone, see you later!"

Luna was very quiet on the way up to the Ravenclaw commons. A few times I almost asked her what was wrong, but decided against it. I just chalked it up to the usual Luna-dazedness.

We finally arrived at the Ravenclaw dormitories. There was nobody in the common room, so we decided to just stay there.

"Alright, then," said Luna, "how should I act?"

"Well," I told her, trying to rack my brain for what I did to get guys to notice me, "you have to flirt, but you have to be really subtle about it. Like, get close to him and smile and everything, but not too close."

I struggled to explain, but I don't think I was doing very well. These suspicions were confirmed when Luna frowned and inserted, "That sounds silly. People shouldn't just be playing games with the heart like that!"

She sounded very, very melodramatic.

"Luna," I said, standing up. "You are absolutely right. That's the way it is, but it shouldn't be. What do you want to do about it?"

Luna just shrugged, looking past me again.

I decided to continue. "If whoever you want doesn't like you the way you are now, but they end up liking you the way you look and act after all this, then he doesn't like the real you and he's not worth it."

Luna didn't say anything, but at least she focused on my face now. Finally she spoke. "But who likes me the way I am now?" Her voice was the same dreamy one as usual, but for some reason it made me want to cry.

"Plenty of people," I said.

"Like who?" she asked, focusing her eyes on mine again.

"Well... like me," I told her.

"You do?" Her entire face lit up. It was a beautiful thing to see, as her eyes got even larger and her thin lips stretched to a delighted smile. Her cheeks flushed, though it probably would have looked even better if they weren't already all made up. Once again I felt a flash of regret for putting all those potions and charms on her face.

"Of course," I told her softly.

"I like you too." She said it with finality.

"Luna..." I hesitated. "Who was it who you wanted to get their attention?"

She bit her lip then smiled at me. "Well, you, silly." Then, before I could fully process what she said, she got up, straddled my legs, and kissed me.

I was incredibly startled, but surprisingly it felt good. It was totally different from kissing a guy, but not in a bad way. 'Hey, why not?' I thought. 'It feels good and nobody else is here.' I kissed her back, pulling her closer, just letting my mind drift for a while and just feeling. I could just think about what I'm doing... later...