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Luna was not big on Quidditch, and Ginny knew that, so it meant loads when she wanted to come out to watch Ginny practice. Ginny wasn’t really one to wax romantic or espouse the power of love, but having Luna watching did seem to have an effect on her playing. It was a bit like taking Pepperup Potion.
“Good eyes,” Angelina said as they landed for their end-of-practice huddle. She clapped Ginny on the shoulder, and Ginny grinned. She’d caught the Snitch twice during practice, the second time when it was flitting near Jack Sloper’s ear, nearly startling him from his broom.
Angelina gave Jack and Andrew a bit of a dressing-down, then reminded Ron that he was doing well during practice but needed to get his nerves under control — Ginny listened with half an ear, distracted by the way Luna had waved and given a cheery smile when the huddle started, then gone back to intently watching the sky. Ginny was half-tempted to look up and see if another team had come to practice, but she knew better. This was Luna being Luna, and she’d find out what had the girl’s attention soon enough.
“Same time Thursday,” Angelina said finally. “Good practice, everyone.” The look she gave Jack and Andrew suggested she was being generous by saying everyone.
As the others broke for the locker rooms, Ginny crossed to where Luna stood, still gazing skyward. “Hey,” Ginny said.
Luna tore her eyes from the sky, but once she met Ginny’s eyes, she could feel the weight of Luna’s full attention shifting to her. Luna’s mind could run on a dozen different tracks at once, which often gave her a lost or distractible aura, and it was rare for her to devote all of her attention to one person. It warmed Ginny’s chest to realize how frequently she earned all of Luna’s focus recently.
“You fly like it’s natural,” Luna said with a dreamy smile. “It’s no wonder the sylphs are attracted to you.”
“Sylphs?” Ginny asked, looking up toward the sky. “Is that what you were watching?”
“I can’t exactly see them. I’d need properly enchanted glasses. But sometimes I think I almost catch a glimpse.” Warm fingers brushed Ginny’s arm, drawing her gaze back down to Luna. “Especially when you’re really flying.”
A happy warmth buzzed through Ginny’s chest. Luna’s fingers traced down her arm as she lowered her hand, sending static prickling along her nerves. “I wish I could see them,” she said.
“Oh, but you do better!” Luna said, her eyes bright. She tucked her blonde hair behind her ear. “Don’t you feel them when you’re flying? They cause a curious light feeling when they trail someone in flight, almost a tingling.”
It sounded a lot like the sensation of lift when Ginny turned into a sharp dive and the world lost its hold on her. Weightlessness. But that could be caused by sylphs — why not? There were stranger things out there. “Have you ever felt it?” Ginny asked.
“Oh, no.” Luna shook her head her brow quirking with something close to amusement. “I’m not much for flying.”
“D’you want to try?” Ginny asked, caught suddenly by the mental image of Luna with her hair caught in the wind, her cheeks pink with the chill air and exhilaration. Before Luna could reply she was already turning, scanning for Ron. He hadn’t left yet, had he? No; there he was, just coming out of the locker room, his broom over his shoulder. “Ron!” She jogged toward him.
“Yeah?” He turned toward her, looking slightly distracted.
“Can I borrow your broom?” she asked.
His brow wrinkled as he stared at her, completely uncomprehending. “Something wrong with yours?”
Ginny rolled her eyes and half-turned to indicate Luna. “For Luna to use. I’ll bring it back to the Common Room after.”
His bemusement eased a little, but he still glanced between them as if they were a puzzle he couldn’t quite figure. “I guess.” He leaned a little closer and lowered his voice. “But you look after my broom, make sure nothing happens to it.”
Honestly, like Luna was some kid flying for the first time. But Ginny wasn’t going to chastise Ron when he was agreeing to let her borrow his broom, so she just grabbed it, offered a quick “Thanks,” and turned her back on him. She crossed back to Luna, a broad grin splitting her cheeks.
“See you later, then,” Ron’s voice trailed behind her, slightly peeved, but Ginny ignored him. She thrust the broom out toward Luna.
“The sylphs won’t be interested in me,” Luna said, a hint of flush to her cheeks. “I can’t fly like you.”
Ginny wiggled the broom a bit, insistent. “You never know,” she said. She gave Luna a wink and a grin. “I’m a good teacher.”
Luna finally accepted the broom. Ginny levelled her own broom and straddled it, then turned an expectant glance on Luna, who chuckled before following suit.
“I’ll start slow,” Ginny promised as she kicked into a hover. “Just follow my lead.”
And she did take it slow at the beginning, measuring Luna’s comfort level on the broom, keeping them low enough that a sudden fall wouldn’t be genuinely painful. But while flying might not be Luna’s thing, she certainly wasn’t bad at it. Within a few minutes Ginny was comfortable taking them higher and having Luna follow her through a few easy spirals, working up toward the gravity-defying maneuvers that gave her that airy feeling she suspected would make Luna almost giddy with excitement.
“You’re doing great!” she encouraged, and “I thought you said you weren’t much for flying!” Occasionally Luna’s laughter carried on the wind, sending Ginny’s gut into loop de loops completely unrelated to her aerial maneuvering.
Finally — after a successful barrel roll — it was time. “You ready to attract some sylphs?” Ginny asked, raising her voice as the wind tried to steal her words away. Her tail of hair was a red flag out to the side. Luna’s unbound hair looked positively wild in the best way.
“You think I can?” Luna asked, her blue-gray eyes the exact color of the sky and twice as bright.
“Definitely.” Ginny grinned. Then, because for something like this it was best to be forewarned, she explained, “We’re going to dive, fast, and spiral it. Then pull up hard. I’ll yell a warning before we pull up, okay?”
“Okay!”
Ginny turned her back to Luna so she could follow, then started the climb. She wanted plenty of space for this. She climbed fast and high, much farther than the Quidditch stands reached, until she could tickle the underbelly of the clouds and the students on the school grounds looked like ants. Then, checking over her shoulder for Luna, she called, “Here we go!”
She angled down into the drop, speeding downward with her hair whipping behind her and her stomach trying to wrap around her spine. A yell built in her lungs, but she held it in; she didn’t want Luna to take it as the signal to pull up. Instead she grinned like a maniac and turned into a spiral, reveling in the floating, buzzing feeling in her chest.
Finally, a hundred feet from the ground, she yelled, “Now!” She gave it a heartbeat, then pulled up hard on her broom, her blood surging. She let out a whoop this time and heard Luna’s voice joining her own.
Adrenaline thrummed in her veins as she guided them down until they hovered just a few feet from the ground. Luna’s chest heaved, her face glowing: wind-pinked cheeks, a broad grin, sparkling eyes, and hair a tousled mess that half fell in her face. Ginny nudged her broom closer to Luna and reached out a hand, brushing the hair out of her face.
“I felt it!” Luna said, her voice breathless and punctuated by laughter. “I felt them. It was better than I imagined!”
Maybe it was sylphs, maybe it was a crazy mix of adrenaline and the rush of affection Luna inspired — Ginny didn’t really care either way. She nudged her broom closer to Luna, reaching out both hands for Luna’s face. She threaded her fingers back into Luna’s hair and ran her thumbs across those pink, wind-chilled cheeks. Beautiful. “I knew you could do it,” Ginny murmured. “They’d be mad not to be attracted to you.”
Luna’s cheeks flushed from pink to red, warming under Ginny’s thumbs.