When the Road Runs Out

When the Road Runs Out

Today is Ginny's nineteenth birthday, August 11^th, 2000. Later, there is going to be a party at the Burrow. Harry will be there, and the entire Weasley clan. Bill and Fleur will be bringing their daughter, Victoire. Molly will make Ginny's favorite cinnamon squash soup to go with supper. And afterward, Ginny will go back to Godric's Hollow with Harry, and spend the night with him, and sleep in his bed, and wake up next to him, and then he will make her breakfast, and they will laugh together in the morning sun, because he is finally happy.

But for now, Ginny is alone, sitting outside Florean Fortiscue's Ice Cream Parlor under the shade of a large pink umbrella.

Ginny loves Diagon Alley at the end of the summer. Little children shop excitedly, holding their parents' hands, chatting about Hogwarts. Teenagers push their hair out of their eyes and try to look cool as they gaze longingly at new broomstick models. Adult witches and wizards exchange pleasant greetings across the road as they go to work or to a shop. The vibrant colors and sounds of life blaze up and down the busy alleyways. Ginny thinks it is, at that moment, the happiest place in England.

She watches as an elderly witch passes by the ice cream shop, holding a little boy's hand.

"I want an ice cream! Can I get an ice cream, Gran? I want a peppermint ice cream!" the little boy cries gleefully, his blond hair shining in the midday sunlight.

"Of course, dear," says his grandmother, smiling indulgently and leading him inside.

Ginny finds herself smiling too, a very small smile. When she is here, sitting outside the ice cream shop with a dripping blueberry cone in her hand, she can easily forget everything else about her life, all her worries. For the few hours that she spends here, she is a teenager again, her thoughts occupied solely with Hogwarts and exams and joke shops and boyfriends.

In truth, Ginny never really had that life. On the outside, yes, but deep down, she had carried a great fear: who would die next, when would she have to leave Hogwarts, would she lose everyone she loved?

And now that it was all over, she has to learn to live without fear.

Ginny licks her ice cream. She doesn't want to think about that; today is her nineteenth birthday. The sweet blueberry taste lingers on her tongue, cooling it, and she closes her eyes for a moment. Sitting in the shade, she is the perfect temperature.

When she opens her eyes again, she immediately begins watching the people on the road. A couple walks slowly past, the girl shading her eyes against the bright sun, her beau's arm slung casually over her bare shoulders. They look no older than Ginny. A few paces behind them, a middle-aged wizard is reading The Daily Prophet as he walks. Ginny can't read the headlines from where she sits, but when she catches herself squinting at them, she realizes that they probably aren't very important. She sighs and takes another lick of ice cream.

That is when she looks up and sees him. At least, she sees the back of him. He is a slight young man, about as tall as Ginny, who is tall for a woman but average for a man. All Ginny can really see of him is his Muggle clothing--loose denim pants, a dark blue t-shirt--and the back of his neck, which is milky pale, even beneath the harsh August sun. He is very thin. His hair is blond, almost golden, cropped a few inches from his head. For some reason, Ginny is drawn to him. She stares. She imagines he is very pixie-like, delicate, and when she imagines his features, she thinks they are oddly attractive. As she watches, he lifts a hand and runs it through his hair. His hand is very feminine, with long fingers and sharp knuckles that Ginny notices even from where she is sitting several meters away. When he drops it back to his side, he leaves his hair sticking up in all directions.

Ginny half-wishes he would turn around and walk past her, but then she isn't sure if she would be able to tear her eyes away, and then he would see her staring, and then her game would be over, and she would be embarrassed. But, she bargains, maybe he wouldn't notice her in the shadow of her pink umbrella. Maybe he would walk right past, and she would take another lick of ice cream and watch him go. Or maybe he would see her and smile. Maybe he would even say hello, or wave.

Before Ginny could finish imagining a million other endings to that story, he turns around, and her stomach lurches.

It's not a he. It is a she. And as she walks toward the ice cream shop, Ginny realizes with a start that she knows her.

"Ginny? Is that you?" says Luna Lovegood, her surprise and excitement evident in her misty voice. "Merlin, I haven't seen you in... in... well, it's been ages!"

Before Ginny can reply, Luna walks into the shadow of the pink umbrella, pulls out a chair at Ginny's table, and sits down.

"You cut your hair," Ginny points out, still recovering from her shock. "It's nice."

Luna runs her delicate white hand through it again. "It's so much easier. You should try it, really. It's amazing." Luna smiles.

"I didn't even recognize you!" Ginny says. She manages a smile.

Luna laughs, really opens her lips and laughs, and Ginny can see all her teeth, very small and white and prettily disorganized inside her mouth. After a moment, she stops laughing, but the smile and all the tiny teeth, like the teeth of a child, remain.

"How have you been?" Luna asks eagerly. "How's everyone? How's Harry?"

Ginny decides to take a lick of ice cream before she replies.

Luna notices. "Is that blueberry?"

Ginny nods, and before she can finish nodding, Luna reaches over and gently lifts the cone out of her hands.

"My favorite flavor," she says. She looks up at Ginny through her eyelashes, which Ginny notices are quite long. They clash oddly with her short, boyish hair, making her face at once beautiful and unfamiliar. "Do you mind?" she asks. Her eyes are very wide, and very blue.

Ginny shrugs. "Not at all." She watches with a vaguely curious expression as Luna smiles, then sticks out her long, pointed pink tongue and makes just a little dent in the side of Ginny's ice cream.

Luna closes her eyes. "Yum," she says. Then she opens her eyes again and looks straight at Ginny.

Ginny had forgotten how unnerving that gaze could be. She tries to blink, but found that she can't, so instead she just says, "I've been fine. Harry's fine." She smiles a little. "Everyone's fine."

Luna makes another little dent in the ice cream with her tongue. "That's good." She looks up at Ginny. "What's new with you?"

"Today's my nineteenth birthday," says Ginny.

"Oh!" says Luna. She beams, and claps her hands together around the ice cream cone. "Happy birthday!"

"Thanks," Ginny says. Then she has a thought. "We're having a dinner at the Burrow tonight. You should come."

Luna takes one more lick of ice cream, very slowly, and then hands the cone back to Ginny. Ginny takes it.

Then, Luna swallows her ice cream, which had been sitting on her tongue, and says, "Okay. Sure. I'd love to. What time?"

Ginny smiles. "Five?"

Luna smiles back. "Perfect. I'll see you then." She stands up from the table and walks around to Ginny's side. "I'm so glad I ran into you," she says, and then she bends over and hugs the redhead tightly.

Ginny is a little surprised. She tries to hug back without dripping blueberry ice cream on Luna's t-shirt. She feels the prickle of Luna's short hair on the side of her neck, and the gentle press of the peaks of her small breasts, and the delicate touch of her hands. And then Luna steps back, and smiles, and Ginny watches as she steps outside the bubble of shade provided by the pink umbrella, and Ginny keeps watching as Luna walks away and out of sight.

-&-

Ginny spends a little extra time getting ready that evening. She wants to look good for her nineteenth birthday party. She puts on a short green dress, with a thin black belt around her waist, buckled right over her belly button. Her shoes are black, and their heels make her a little taller. She ties her long curls at the side of neck with a dark green ribbon, and they fall over her right shoulder and land just at the bottom of her ribcage. Then she puts just a little gloss on her lips, and looks at her reflection, without smiling. And then she goes downstairs.

Her mother is in the kitchen, levitating things this way and that, looking a bit panicked. She gives Ginny a cursory glance when she comes downstairs.

"You look lovely, dear," she says. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks, Mum," Ginny says. Then she remembers. "I invited Luna."

Her words catch Molly's full attention, if only momentarily.

"What?" she askes, her wand poised in midair. "Luna Lovegood?"

Ginny nods.

Molly smiles a little. "That's good. Yes, that's very good. I'm sure there will be plenty, I'll just heat up some more rolls." Then she goes back to work.

Ginny goes from the kitchen to the sitting room. Ron is sitting on the sofa next to Hermione with his arm over her shoulders. Harry is sitting on a chair next to them, laughing at something Ron has just said. He doesn't notice Ginny until he's stopped laughing.

"Ginny!" he says, and he smiles widely at her. "Want to sit on my lap?"

She nods, and crosses the room, and a moment later, his arms are around her waist and he is kissing her on the cheek, and he says, "Happy birthday."

"Happy birthday, Gin!" Ron calls, and she smiles at him, and Hermione echoes his words in her soft voice, and Ginny tells them both, "Thank you."

Harry squeezes her a little tighter.

"I invited Luna," she says.

They all look surprised.

"When did you see her?" asks Harry.

"Today," says Ginny, "at Fortiscue's."

Harry smiles. "Great. Cool. I haven't seen her in forever."

"Yeah," says Ginny. "I hadn't either." She pauses. "She cut her hair," she says.

Harry opens his mouth to reply, but Ron doesn't see, so he interrupts him, saying, "Let's go outside. Bill and Fleur and everyone are in the back."

Ginny stands up and Harry gets up after her, taking her hand in his. They follow Ron and Hermione out of the house and into the backyard.

Several tables are lined up. Ginny's dad sits at one end, chatting pleasantly to Bill. Fleur is on his other side, with little Victoire in her arms, nodding along to the conversation, pausing every so often to murmur to the baby in French. George and his girlfriend, Angelina, sit further down from the other three, holding hands and murmuring back and forth. Percy sits across from them, with his girlfriend, Audrey, who is leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Ginny!" Arthur calls, upon seeing her. "Happy birthday, my favorite daughter." He grins.

Ginny smiles and everyone laughs. "Thanks, Dad," she says.

Ginny sits down with Harry on her right and Ron on her left. Hermione sits on Ron's other side. Harry chats around Ginny to the other two while she sits, waiting, glancing occasionally at the house.

Several minutes later, Luna walks into the yard, levitating a huge pot of steaming cinnamon squash soup in front of her.

"Hi, Ginny," she says, smiling. Ginny grins back. "Your mum put me to work."

"Luna!" Hermione cries. "Your hair!"

Luna turns her smile on everyone. "Yeah, I cut it." She sets the soup down, right in front of Ginny. Then she sits down across from her.

"Happy birthday, again. Sorry I'm late."

Ginny begins to reply, but Molly bustles out, levitating all the other dishes over to the tables and crying, "Okay, everyone, it's all ready!"

The food has barely touched the tables when everyone starts filling their plates and talking. Harry eats with his right hand and keeps his left lightly resting on Ginny's knee. She sips her soup off her spoon, glancing across the table through her thick auburn eyelashes. Sometimes she will shift her legs restlessly, and Harry will readjust his hand to keep it on her knee, and she will wonder whether she was touching a table leg, or the very tip of Luna's shoe.

-&-

The party is over. Bill and Fleur had left long before, taking a fussy Victoire home to sleep. George and Angelina and Percy and Audrey go to catch a late drink at the Three Broomsticks. Ron, Harry, and Hermione are talking in the sitting room again, surrounded by Ginny's presents, which she decides to leave downstairs for a day, to enjoy the novelty of them, as if it were Christmas. Molly and Arthur are in the kitchen, murmuring. Luna is just leaving.

"I'll walk you out," Ginny says, standing up off Harry's lap. His hands fall from her waist.

Luna smiles, standing up from her chair across the room. "Thanks," she says.

In no time at all, they are outside the front door, the cool air of twilight kissing their skin softly as they walk.

"It was a lovely party," Luna says, stopping and turning to face Ginny. "Thanks again for inviting me."

Ginny had been slightly taller than Luna with her heels on, but now she is barefoot because she'd started to get blisters and had taken them off long before. She is barely a centimeter shorter now, and she can look quite steadily into the other girl's wide blue eyes.

"Thanks for coming," Ginny says weakly.

Luna takes a deep breath of evening air and closes her eyes. Then she lets it out slowly. "I love this time of the day," she says. "It's like a window, or a bridge. It's like a special moment that isn't day and isn't night. It's just... separate from everything. And beautiful." She opens her eyes again. Ginny can see herself reflected in them, and she is sure that Luna is reflected in her own, so that as long as they are facing each other they go on forever.

"The moon is rising," Ginny says, pointing. Luna turns and looks. It is almost full, and it is very large and yellow, like a great wide eye on the world.

"That's beautiful, too," Luna sighs. Then she turns back to Ginny.

"Thank you for my present," Ginny says, after a long silence.

Luna raises her thin eyebrows. "But I didn't get you anything."

Ginny does not reply. She stands facing Luna, looking straight into those blue eyes, for a long time. The moon rises a little higher and the sky grows a little darker and the countryside becomes a little quieter. And then Ginny moves.

She steps forward, only a little at first, and then again, until her bare toes are touching the tips of Luna's shoes, and her nose is inches from Luna's, and her reflection in Luna's eyes is very large indeed. And then Ginny reaches out and gently puts her hands on Luna's shoulders, and then she pulls the other girl toward her and kisses her, very gently, on the lips.

Sooner than Ginny had expected, Luna is kissing back, leaning ever-so-slightly closer and tilting her head to the side. Ginny's hands drop from the other girl's shoulders and land instead in Luna's own, and they intertwine their fingers, and Ginny feels those sharp knuckles fit perfectly into her own. Ginny's breasts brush lightly across Luna's chest as they kiss, and a strange, prickling sensation goes up Ginny's spine, making her feel giddy and light-headed, but she won't even realize how she is feeling until later, when she thinks back to this moment, because while it is really happening she is simply too caught up in it to notice how she feels.

Luna's lips are the softest Ginny has ever kissed, and her tongue is very long, and pointed, and delicate, like the rest of her. By the time they both break apart, Ginny's hands are down her back and in her hair and on her neck and on her breasts and on her hips, holding on to her as if she will disappear at any moment.

And then they are simply holding hands again, and standing apart, until only their fingers and their toes are touching, and they can see each other reflected again, in their eyes. Ginny's chest is rising and falling deeply beneath the front of her little green dress, and Luna's nostrils are just a little bit flared, and her eyes are very wide, and very blue, as if reflecting the darkening sky around them.

And then Luna lets go of Ginny's right hand with her left, and she asks, "What was that?"

And then Ginny lets go of Luna's other hand, and she shifts her weight back enough so that her bare toes are no longer up against Luna's shoes.

"That was my birthday present," Ginny says. But she doesn't smile.

"Happy birthday," says Luna. "Again."

Then Luna stretches out a hand and brushes Ginny's jawline, so lightly that Ginny wouldn't have known if here eyes were closed. And Ginny finally smiles, a little sadly, and then Luna steps back and turns around and Disapparates and is gone.

-&-

That night, Luna is alone, and Ginny is in Harry's arms, under his starched white sheets in his house in Godric's Hollow. But Ginny isn't thinking about him, and in her thoughts, Luna isn't really alone.

-&-

A/N: I hope you liked it! Just so everyone knows... the opening lyrics to the song that this fic is named after (When the Road Runs Out by Blonde Redhead & Devastations) are as follows, in case you are curious (and in case it affects your view of the ending...):

Before you leave

Same time next week

I'll hold you again

Don't be late, don't be late

Baby, don't be late

Don't forget

When the road runs out

Oh, you, I'll marry you

I'll marry you

I will marry you.

:] Please review!