Disbelieving in Trees
Potter47

Epilogue
The Morning After

They all looked most peculiar, sitting in the corridor in the maternity ward of St. Mungo's. In fact, for the first time in her life, Luna felt she was the least peculiar-looking person in the room. Hermione took the title by far, today, for she and her ginormous wedding dress were smushed into the bench, next to Ron, who was still wearing his fancy-schmancy Muggle formal-wear (whatever it was called) that Hermione had insisted upon, because of her family's guests. Harry was also wearing his whatever-it-was, and although he could pull it off better than Ron could, he was pacing back and forth with a maniacal stride which didn't suit him. Snape was next to Luna, on the bench opposite Ron and Hermione, similarly dressed up, and the rest of the Weasleys were on benches stretching further down the hall.

They had been sitting (pacing, in Harry's case) like this for ages, now... waiting. Waiting for the healers to come out with news of Ginny and the baby, waiting for the baby to be born, waiting for anything at all to happen, really, other than some more waiting. Because that had happened more than enough already.

When they'd arrived, the Healers had suggested that everyone except Harry, and Ginny's immediate family, should return home to wait--when they'd learned that that covered all but three of the eleven people waiting, they'd given up and conjured some more benches. And besides, there was no use for Hermione, Snape, or Luna to return to the wedding, now; Hermione couldn't exactly get married without the best man, matron-of-honour, or groom, after all.

And so, it had been put off. The so-called-inevitable had been delayed, and Luna was indescribably thankful for that; if she had needed more proof that something didn't want Ron and Hermione to get married, that it wasn't right, then she would have been more than convinced, now; fate, it seemed, had intervened.

The ages passed in silence, and then, finally, the door opened. Harry was standing inches from the Healer in a split second.

The Healer smiled.

"You've got yourself a baby girl," he said, and Harry looked like he was going to faint.

"Can I--?" he asked, poking his head over the Healer's shoulder, attempting to see into the room.

"Of course," said the Healer, smiling, and he stepped aside to let Harry through.

——

Later, the Healer came back out to get Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and then, a few minutes after that, to fetch Ron, the twins, and (to Luna's surprise) Luna herself.

"Erm... I'm not family," said Luna. "The rest of the Weasleys--"

"They said they wanted you," said the Healer kindly, and Luna did not protest further, but instead followed Ron and Fred and George into the room, where Ginny was laying, smiling, on the sole bed, with Harry kneeling at her side, and a small, shockingly red-haired baby girl in her arms.

"Can't believe you managed a girl first try, Gin," said Fred.

"Mum must be right jealous," said George, smirking at his mother, who was glowing beside her husband, from the wall.

Ginny passed the baby to one of the twins, who made silly faces at her for a few minutes.

"What's her name?" asked Ron, which was a very important question.

Ginny hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Harry, who smiled (or rather, continued to smile, as he had been doing so for ages)

"Luna," said Ginny, and Luna looked up.

"Yes?" she asked.

Ginny laughed, and shook her head. She pointed limply at the baby, which had now migrated from the twins' arms to Ron's. She said again:

"Luna."

Luna blinked, and peered over Ron's arms at the baby girl.

"Luna? Why on earth--"

"Well, I promised," said Ginny. "When we were kids, I said I'd name my first daughter Luna, don't you remember?"

Luna was speechless. Ron seemed to be as well. He kept on holding little Luna in his arms, but there was something funny in his eyes, something detached about them--there had been since Luna had stood so close to him.

"I was surprised too," said Harry, "but then... then I saw her eyes."

And now big Luna looked at little Luna's eyes, which were positively globes. She was staring up at Ron and Luna, unsure whom these strange people were above her.

"She's so beautiful," said Luna, grinning.

She reached out a finger and let little Luna try to grab it (without much success), and Ron gestured for Luna to take Luna, which she did.

"Hello, Luna," she said, adjusting the baby in her arms. "My name's Luna too. I'm your Auntie Luna."

"I'm... I'm gonna go," said Ron, sounding strange. "Bill and Charlie'll want to see her..."

And he made for the door without another word.

——

Back in the corridor, Snape and Hermione were sitting on opposite benches, pointedly ignoring one another, when Ron reemerged.

"Hermione?" he said.

She looked up. "Can I go in?" she asked, but Ron shook his head.

"I just... I wanted to talk to you for a minute. In private," he said, sounding rather emotionless.

Hermione furrowed her brow. "I don't think now is exactly the time, I'd rather enjoy seeing the baby--" and she craned her neck, as though she'd be able to see around him.

"Bill and Charlie're next," said Ron, and he gestured down the hall to attract his brothers' attention. They jumped to their feet, and began charging down the hall.

"Please, Hermione," said Ron.

"Fine," said Hermione. She turned to Snape. "Professor, would you mind excusing us?"

"I believe I was sitting here before Weasley had felt his urgent need for private conversation," said Snape smoothly, "and besides--this corridor is hardly private, even without my own presence."

This was true, and Hermione stood with a harrumph, and began to lead Ron down the hallway to the far-off bench Bill and Charlie had just evacuated.

"What is it, Ron?" she asked impatiently, not looking at him but instead looking back down the hall, in case someone were to poke their head out and signal to her to come in.

"Hermione, could you at least look at me?" There was something different about his voice, very strained, very tired-sounding.

She did so, she looked at him, and her expression let up slightly.

"What's wrong, Ron?"

He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and then tried again: "I dunno... exactly..." he said. "I just... well, I was in there, and I was holding Luna, and--"

"You what?" snapped Hermione.

"The baby, Hermione, Gin named the baby Luna. Calm down."

Hermione deflated slightly, looking slightly ashamed of herself.

"Anyway," said Ron, "I was holding her, and Luna--big Luna, grown-up Luna--was standing next to me, and it reminded me of something I was thinking about earlier. Back when I was little, Gin used to make me play house with her and Luna, and I was the husband and Luna was the mum Ginny was the baby, you know, and I absolutely hated it. Hated it. And it just... reminded me of that, with the little girl, all looking just like Ginny in my arms, and--"

"Slow down, Ron," said Hermione. "You're rambling."

Ron blinked. "So what, Hermione? You ramble all the time, don't you, can't I have one good ramble?"

Hermione, taken aback, didn't say anything.

"Anyway," continued Ron. "It just made me feel really weird, holding that kid, 'cause I don't feel like I'm old enough to be holding a kid, especially not my baby sister's kid, and--"

"What are you saying, Ron?" interjected Hermione. "I don't see why you're telling me all this--"

"Because I don't want to get married, is that what you want me to say?"

Hermione blinked, now, and her mouth fell open.

"What?" she said, finally, weakly, after trying to speak for a great while.

Ron was on a roll, now, and the words were coming freely: "Yeah, I said it, it's been driving me absolutely crazy and it was almost too late but I couldn't do anything about it because EVERYBODY says how lucky I am that I'm marrying Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age, how it's just perfect, how everything's turning out just perfect for me and I must be so bloody happy, you know? But I'm not, Hermione, I'm not bloody happy because I don't want to get married, I don't want to be old enough to get married, I'm still just a stupid kid who doesn't have a clue what he wants to do with his life and I'm pretty bloody scared I'm going to end up just being a stupid dad with a stupid job that doesn't do anything because he wants to do it, but just 'cause his wife says it's the right thing to do, and she can't be wrong, 'cause she's brilliant and he's stupid and bloody hell, are you crying?"

Ron stopped, mouth wide, staring at Hermione, who was sobbing rather violently.

"Well you could've just said so!" shouted Hermione through her tears, standing quick as a flash and storming off down the corridor back towards where Snape was sitting. Ron thought she was bound to trip on her wedding dress, but he didn't say anything.

Instead, he just watched her go, dumbstruck, without a clue of what on earth he was supposed to do.

Just a few more words came to his lips, without his even thinking them:

"I couldn't've just said so" he said quietly to himself. "That was the problem."

And he didn't move an inch from where he sat.

——

Luna stood, for the final time, against the lamp post in the car park of the Hotel Corridor. She would be leaving in a few hours, her sootcase already backed for the return to England. She could barely believe she had been awake for the last few hours--everything seemed almost as it had in her daydream, except she had maintained her physical body throughout.

There had been a strange sort of chaos when everyone except Harry and Ginny returned to the hotel in the morning, as the guests were slowly informed that the wedding was not going to be rescheduled. The reactions were quite mixed--some had been quite vocally upset about this, having spent days away from work for nothing at all, while others were quite cheerful about it for just the same reason.

Luna, of course, felt as though she was floating. At one point, in fact, she had been floating, and she had had to quickly set herself down before any of the Muggle's took note.

But now, she was merely waiting--waiting for the future to unfold, and to see where it took her. Waiting for the inevitable time when she would have to say goodbye to this strange, French hotel for the last time... she was particularly going to miss this lamp post. She would never forget it.

"Are you all packed?" said a most familiar voice, and Luna did not have to turn around to know who it was.

"Yes, Ronald," she said, watching the afternoon sun shine off of the cars' windshields.

"When are you going home?" asked Ronald.

"In a little while," said Luna. She patted the opposite side of the lamp post, inviting him to it. He smiled slightly, and leaned against it, facing away from her, just as he had before.

They sat in silence for awhile, feeling the sun warm their skin. And then, Ronald spoke:

"You were right, you know."

Luna smiled, but didn't respond.

"About Hermione and me, I mean," Ron clarified unnecessarily.

"How did it all happen?" said Luna, then. "There are quite some rumors flying about. I heard someone say you tried to jinx her out of her wedding dress right there in the corridor."

"Of course I didn't!" said Ronald, a bit louder than he seemed to have expected.

"I know that," said Luna. "That's why I'm asking you what did happen."

She could feel him shrug, even if she couldn't technically feel it.

"Well, I told her about what I'd been feeling, and everything. How I wasn't sure about things. I..." he paused, sounding slightly guilty, "I didn't actually try to break up with her, I was just trying to say we should like... put things off for awhile, not rush into things, you know? But... she didn't take it very well..."

"Did you expect her to?"

"Sort of?" said Ron. "I mean, I hoped she would..."

"Do you regret it?" said Luna.

Again, she felt him shrug.

"I dunno," he said. "I mean, I feel like I should. Part of me is yelling at me for it, saying I'm so stupid and I'm throwing away my future." He paused, and chuckled slightly. "That part of me sounds an awful lot like her, actually."

He was silent for a minute before continuing. "Mostly, though, it feels really... really good. Freeing, you know? Like flying. I mean, I've never known what I wanted to do with my life, and I never knew what life was going to throw at me... but now I feel like I'm rather willing to find out. Like I always used to be dreading what might happen, but now I'm excited about it. Does that make sense?"

Luna nodded, and then realized he couldn't see her--but he seemed to have heard her anyway, which made her smile.

"Well, maybe," he said. He let out a strange sort of laugh, then, and said: "Did you hear about Snape?"

Luna's eyebrows shot into the air. "What about him?"

"Well, when Hermione ran away from me after everything, she was crying and storming off back towards where we were sitting in that corridor, you know, outside the hospital room, and when she'd got there, she"--here he laughed again at the mental image--"she tripped on her wedding dress and almost fell on her face, but Snape caught her, and... well..." He dropped his voice to a whisper: "...then he showed up at my room today, said she didn't want to see my 'weasely face' right now, and gathered all her suitcases and stuff for her. So I reckon they're on pretty good terms now."

Luna grinned at this, and laughed as well.

"Oh, wait a minute," said Ron, turning around to face her and sounding serious all of a sudden. "Aren't you two going out? That ruddy two-faced git--"

And Luna laughed even harder now, and turned around to face him as well. He looked quite angry, but that expression faltered when he saw her smile.

"It's all right, Ronald," said Luna, taking his hand and squeezing it tightly. "I think it's safe to say that Severus and I have broken things off." Luna smirked to herself.

"He was much too old for me, anyway."

FIN