Picture Perfect

"So, Ginny, when's she due?" Luna Lovegood stirred her drink while looking at her friend across the table.

Ginny Malfoy looked down at her still flat stomach. "Not until October. And we don't know if it will be a boy or a girl."

Luna stared intently at Ginny. "It will be a girl, and her name will be Envy or Aurelia and she will be as spoiled as Draco and as vivacious as you, and twice as mischievous."

Ginny smiled and shook her head. "Envy Malfoy? The poor thing would be laughed out of the schoolyard. Anyway, Draco has a feeling it'll be a boy."

"Draco's feelings have never led to anything. It'll be a girl. And no Malfoy would ever be laughed out of a schoolyard."

Ginny wasn't paying attention to Luna - she'd started to look somewhat nauseous and was taking long, slow sips of her herbal tea to try and compensate. Luna looked at her rather mildly before reaching into her bag and giving a packet she pulled out to her friend. Ginny raised one eyebrow before taking the packet.

"It's a mixture of rowan roots, thyme and Billywig stings. According to my father, Mother developed it and used it every morning in her tea when she was pregnant. If you put it in some hot drink, it will reduce morning sickness and hormonal swings," Luna said matter-of-factly.

Ginny looked skeptically at her friend. "Right. I'll keep it in mind," she said, before tucking the sachet away.

Luna smiled over her tea, drifting into her own world for a moment. The women talked for a bit longer before Luna stood up to go.

"It was lovely seeing you, Gin. Stop by anytime. Oh, and Colin says you can drop off your final choices for the wedding album either at home or at his office." She paid for her drink, gave Ginny a hug, whispered "It's a girl," in her ear, and left, leaving Ginny smiling at her friend and scowling at the time.

~*~

Luna was sitting on the couch, spreading out on the table before her the week's outline for the magazine she ran - The Quibbler had long since been discontinued, but Luna had started Sun Up a few years back - when two strong arms captured her from behind.

"Hello, Colin," she said, "I need your opinion. Do you like the red border or the purple border?"

Her boyfriend, Colin Creevy laughed and came around to sit next to her. "What, not hello kiss?" he teased before looking at the examples she held before him. "The red matches the overall theme, but I like the purple better."

"Hmm," Luna looked at the two examples again and changed one to blue before laying it down, satisfied. Colin laughed - this sort of change of mind was quite normal for his girlfriend.

"You little minx," he said, "Why'd you ask me if you knew which one you wanted?"

"I like to know I'm-" Whatever Luna was going to say after that was cut off by Colin leaning over and kissing her deeply. He pinned her down on the couch, layouts and papers forgotten on the floor.

She responded with enthusiasm to his kiss, slipping her arms around him and pulling him in even more. As Colin started trailing kisses down her neck, she ran her fingers through his hair. When he came to the sensitive place under her left ear, Luna gasped and pulled his head up for another kiss.

They continued this for several more minutes and were just been about to move to the bedroom when Colin's stomach gave a loud rumble. Luna burst out laughing at this, and pushed the wizard off her, tidying herself with a flick of her wand.

"Come one," she said, still laughing, "it's dinner time. And besides, we were acting as bad as Finnish Sea-Rabbits." Colin followed after her, glaring at the offending body part and muttering about how he wasn't really that hungry, he had been fine where he was, and what the hell were Finnish Sea-Rabbits?

~*~

"I saw Ginny today," Luna remarked as they were making dinner.

Colin looked up from his salad-in-progress. "Really? How is she?"

"Extremely happy. And pregnant."

"Do they know if it's a boy or a girl yet?"

"It's a girl," Luna said matter-of-factly.

Colin raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend's certainty. "Again, do they know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Very funny. I told Ginny today that it's a girl. She said that Draco had a feeling that it'll be a boy. He doesn't know what he's talking about, of course."

Colin shook his head. "I can't believe that Ginny Weasley, our little Gin, married Draco Malfoy, Prince of Slytherin."

"I can. I was in their wedding. And Ginny can be pretty Slytherin-ish if she wants to."

"Slytherin-ish?"

"Shakespeare made up his own words."

"I hate to break it to you, Luna, but you're not exactly on par with Shakespeare."

The former Ravenclaw glared at him.

"All right, just joking! And what I said before was a rhetorical statement. I know they got married, I still haven't gotten their final choices of the pictures I took for their album!"

"I told Ginny to drop them off either here or at your office."

"Good. Their file is taking up so much space in my office."

"Well, what do you expect? It was a Malfoy wedding. A state event."

"I wouldn't call it that... Pretty close to one, though."

Luna hummed absent-mindedly in agreement before turning to set the table. They were just about to sit down and eat when she looked at Colin and asked, "Can I see the pictures you took today?"

Colin said, "Sure," and walked to the front door to get his camera bag. Luna followed and, when Colin handed her a stack of photos, leaned against the front table to look at them. Colin would explain some of the pictures, but since they were wizarding photos, they didn't require much explanation.

The last dozen or so were Luna's favorites. They were stills that Colin had shot solely as an artist. Luna would use these in her magazine, or take one or two to put in her special memorabilia box.

The photo shoot had been in a park, near London. The black and white stills were filled with pictures of children, animals and couples walking. Luna smiled at the picture of the cat on a leash, cooed at the babies, and traced the paths with her finger. Finally, she came upon the second to last picture and inhaled sharply. Luna stared at the photo, enthralled.

Colin looked over her shoulder to see what had captivated his long time friend and girlfriend. It was a picture of a young couple, leaning on each other and holding hands, watching their 3-year-old daughter play with a small dog in the grass. The couple's love for their daughter and for each other was captured, as was the young girl's glee and child innocence.

"Oh," Luna half-whispered, her attention still mainly on the picture, "Do you need this one? I'd like to send it to Ginny."

Colin smiled and said. "Of course you can." Luna nodded and called softly for Antony, her owl. Summoning a quill, she penned a quick note and sent the photo off to the Malfoys.

"Well then," Luna remarked brightly as she watched the owl sail off into the dark night sky, "Shall we be off?"

"To where?"

"I don't know; somewhere. Dinner, maybe."

Colin laughed softly as he followed the witch down the hall.

~*~

Ginny sat at the table, head in hands as she stared at the mug in front of her. She felt utterly miserable, but didn't want to prolong her misery any more - whether it came from not drinking Luna's concoction, or from drinking it. Past remedies of Luna's were not known for their success on other people. They were known for having odd side effects, though. Harry had once sneezed sugar for a month after taking an insomnia cure Luna had given him.

She had been staring at the cup, debating whether or not to drink the damn thing when her husband walked in, wearing only a pair of black silk pajama pants. He put his arms around his wife, but instead of the intimate reaction Draco expected, he was greeted with Ginny lurching forward, hand over her mouth.

Draco raised one eyebrow and settled into the chair next to Ginny's, leaning back. "Well, that's definitely not the effect most Malfoy men have with women."

Ginny grinned shakily. "What about your Great-Uncle Creon?"

"Ah, yes. Great-Uncle Creon. He's an exception to every rule." Draco leaned forward to look into the still-hot mug in front of them. "I hope this isn't caffeinated."

"I don't know. When I poured the water in, the mug rose 3 inches."

Draco sniffed the steam, then poured some of the remaining mixture into his hand and sniffed that. He let out a long, low whistle. "Well, label me impressed and ship me to Canada," he said.

"I take it this stuff is good."

"Good? According to Blaise, this stuff works miracles. Before Dryan was born, he went out and bought stock for the company, Hermione was going through it so fast. It's got some powerful punch packed into it. Whoever figured out how to mass-supply it must be laughing to Gringotts right now. If you got some, why aren't you drinking it?"

"Well, Luna had given it to me. She said her mother had developed it, and you remember what happened the last time we got something like that from her."

"Ah, yes. That candle that made us speak Portuguese until it had all burned out," Draco grew thoughtful, "So Theo and Ariane Lovegood are responsible for this? I wonder who's marketing it."

Ginny had stopped listening and was now eyeing her mug. She took it in both hands and, inhaling a big breath - and almost choking on the steam - she downed it all in one long sip. Her face flushed and all the hairs on her body pricked up, but soon she was looking much better.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that to work so we-." Ginny was cut off by the arrival of Antony. She picked up the photo he had dropped in front of her before swooping off. Looking at the still for a few seconds, Ginny flipped the picture over and read the writing out loud.

"Gin-girl, when I saw this picture, I knew it was for you. Imagine in 3 years, you, Draco and little Envy in the same scenario. Send my love for Draco, and tell him I still have his hat. Hugs, LL. P.S. Don't drink two mugs of Mum's drink within two hours, it'll get addictive."

"Little Envy? What's this about my hat?" Draco had an amused look on his face.

Ginny flapped a hand at him. "Ask me in the morning. I'm too tired right now for long explanations."

Draco put his arm around Ginny and whispered into her ear. "I hope you're not too tired for anything else." This time, he got the reaction he wanted.

~*~

Luna lay on her bed, arranging and re-arranging the columns of her magazine, while Colin leaned against the wall, reading a book and watching her. He picked up his wand and lifted some letters off the page and arranged them to say "Somebody love you."

Luna didn't turn to look, but with a discreet flick of her wand, she spelled out, "And somebody loves you," in front of Colin. He grinned and wrote with his wand "Colin loves Luna."

With that, Luna Banished her layouts and shifted position so she lay on her back, propped up on her elbows and looking at Colin. "He should really let her know if he does," she said solemnly, with just a hint of mischief in her big, pale eyes.

And he did exactly that.

~*~

One week later, Luna came home to a silent house. She kicked off her shoes and went into the kitchen, turning on the Wireless and started making a sandwich when she saw Colin's camera bag on the kitchen table. Frowning, she went over to look at it and picked up the note lying on the table next to it.

"Luna," it read, "I'm in the dark room. Don't come in, especially with a peanut butter sandwich like last time. I'm doing a lot of very delicate photos, so you can talk to me, but I can't guarantee I'll respond. Colin."

Luna guiltily remembered the last time she had come home to Colin working in his dark room. Armed with a peanut butter sandwich, she had gone in and somehow managed to ruin about two-dozen of the pictures.

She walked over to the dark room's door, happily munching her (peanut butter) sandwich. Knocking, Luna called out hello and sat down in front of the door. Soon, Colin poked his head out the door, almost tripping over Luna sitting against the wall. He closed the door and sat down next to her.

"Hello," he said, smiling.

"Hello," she replied, mouth full of sandwich.

They sat there for a while, just enjoying each other's company before Colin spoke again.

"I have to drop these pictures off early. Will you wake up and see me off?"

Luna hummed before she answered. "What time?"

"I'm leaving at six. I need to be in Cornwall by nine."

Luna nodded and made Colin promise to wake her up in time. He leaned over and kissed Luna on her forehead before returning to the dark room.

~*~

Luna shivered and tightened her blue bathrobe as the early morning mist wrapped around her. She was happy that she was able to see Colin before he left, but another hour of sleep would have been greatly appreciated, too.

She was stifling a combination of a shiver and a yawn when Colin came over, finally ready to go. The former Ravenclaw smiled up at him and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"Time for you to go."

"I'm not sure how long they'll keep me, so I packed my overnight bag."

"Stupid demanding Muggles."

"I know. But it's time for me to leave and for you to go back inside. I'm sure you're freezing. Those slippers don't look too warm."

Luna wiggled her bronze eagle slippers at Colin before leaning in for one last kiss. As soon as Colin's black sports car disappeared from view, she shuffled inside, humming the Hogwarts School song and started making tea.

After the tea was set to boil, Luna sat down at the kitchen table and noticed a stack of photos on the counter. As she poured herself her tea, Luna started flipping through them. Colin had put little notes on the back of most of the pictures, describing them or making some comment.

Once she got to the last picture, though, Luna's sleepily serene demeanor disappeared. She dropped her cup, spilling tea on herself and breaking the mug. Running to the fireplace, Luna hit her head on the mantle, but Flooed off to Ginny's house, dressed in a tea-stained robe and clutching the photograph.

~*~

Ginny had just woken up and started moving when she heard someone come in via the Floo. She frowned, wondering if there was an emergency. After all, only a handful of people could Floo directly to the Malfoy home...

Just outside the bedroom door, Ginny's wondering came to an end as she crashed into Luna.

"Hello, Luna. Bit early for social calls, don't you think?" A wave of nausea came over Ginny, as she smelt what Luna had been drinking. "Have you had some of that charcoal tea? I swear, that stuff made me sick before I was preg-" Ginny cut herself off when she saw how shaken up Luna was. Quickly, Ginny led the other witch into the bedroom, and sat her down on the bed, then ran off to the bathroom - the smell of Luna's tea had brought on a bout of morning sickness.

When she came back, Ginny found her husband trying to make polite conversation with the witch that had come rushing to their house at 6:45 in the morning. Although Draco raised an eyebrow at Ginny, she just shooed him out and sat down next to Luna.

"What's the matter?" Ginny asked the wide-eyed woman, but her only response was Luna thrusting out the photograph she held. Ginny took it from her and looked at it.

It was a black and white picture, the old, traditional Muggle style. The subject of the picture was a ring. On the back were two words: Marry me.

Ginny's throat caught. "Luna! Colin's asking you to marry him!"

The other woman's voice was bursting with happiness. "I know. What should I do?"

"Say yes, of course!"

Luna's eyes looked reproachfully at Ginny. "I know that. But how?"

Ginny's eyes started sparkling with ingenuity. "I know just what you should do."

~*~

Colin started at the keys in his hand, not really sure what to do with them. Then he blinked and unlocked the door, stepping into his house. It had been a long, demanding day and a long, tiring drive home, but nothing short of a national disaster would keep Colin in Cornwall a second longer than necessary. Not after he had proposed. Not after he had spent the entire day with the ring in his pocket.

Colin was disappointed to find the house dark, but it was the most realistic thing to expect. After all, it was half an hour after midnight.

Luna was asleep in their bed, the picture on the bedside table next to her. Colin smiled at her and finger-combed her hair before entering the bathroom.

Something was taped on the mirror. Colin pulled it off for a better look, and then turned on the light when he couldn't make out what it was. It was a photo. Spelled out, using letters cut from magazines, were the words "Of course." Colin shut off the light, and, going back into the bedroom, slipped the ring onto his new fiancée's finger.

~*~

"So Luna, when did your mother actually develop this stuff?" Hermione gesturing to the tin of leftover "Pregnancy Cure," as Draco had dubbed it, which was sitting among her tea collection.

"Oh, that? Father said she was experimenting in a contraceptive potion when she came upon this. A fluke accident, he says."

Ginny raised one eyebrow and caught 6-month-old Envy Malfoy before she crawled off again. "That, a fluke accident?"

"Yep. Mother didn't feel responsible for creating it, so all the proceeds go to the maternity section of St. Mungo's," Luna picked up the tin from the shelf it lay on. "Mind if I take this, Hermione?"

"Not at all. After Dryan, I don't think having any more children is in our future. Yes, you," Hermione said to 14 month Dryan, who had looked up from observing little Envy at the sound of her name.

"Thanks," Luna said, tucking the tin absently into her bag. Ginny looked at her with a knowing smile.

"I predict that you will have a dreamy, curious little boy named Calvin in 9 month's time."

Luna laughed and shook her head. "Maybe the dreamy and curious part, but her name will be Claudia. Your predictions never amounted to anything, either."

"Whose predictions?" Colin asked, as he stepped into the room.

Luna just smiled and led him out of the room, talking softly as she went. Ginny and Hermione just looked at each other, and grinned when they heard Luna asking Colin if she could borrow his camera.