Title: The Foul, Muggle Contraption
Ship: Ron/Luna
Name/Pen Name: Krizelle/izzyx3
Word Count: 1, 996
Theme #/Theme: 1/Muggle Confusion
Challenge count: 1/7 finished

Content: PG
Spoilers: Books 1-6
Warnings: Slight H/Hr.
Summary: "Ron was distracted by both the muggle object and the emotions that flitted across Luna’s face. He didn’t know which one was more captivating."


Luna hummed, bright eyes shining, as she rapped her fist on the door in a random manner; one tap, and then two, then one, another one, pause, and again. It was all very entertaining, really. She could go on for hours! She noticed the rings in the wood and tilted her head.

“Oak,” She declared, and nodded, satisfied. Luna made a mental note to compliment them (them meaning the Trio) on that; oak was a very good choice for a door.

The door flung open and her fist fell weakly as her hand met the air instead of the wooden door.

Ron stood there, one hand on the doorknob, one hand behind his head. He looked surprised.

“Er, Luna! Wow. This is a surprise,” Ron said loudly, and then winced, probably because of his own volume.

Luna tilted her head, staring at Ronald. Oh, his hair was in such a perfect position, the sun was hitting it just right, causing his hair to have a fuzzy, faint orange glow.

It was enchanting.

Ron stood there awkwardly, uncomfortable in her gaze, and cleared his throat. “Uh, why don’t you come in?” He shuffled out of the doorway, his big feet dragging across the floor.

Luna walked slowly and followed a pattern in the wooden floor, stepping here and there, but no, not there. Ron closed the door and stood near the doorway, amused.

“What are you doing?” Ron asked.

Luna stopped on the floorboard she was on, one foot bent at the knee, dangling precariously. She balanced on her right leg as she twisted around to answer Ron.

“There’s a pattern in your floorboards, did you notice?” she replied, plainly, her arms out to balance her.

She wobbled a bit and Ron made towards her quickly but she caught her balance and laughed brightly.

Ron managed a nervous chuckle and before he could reply, Harry called from upstairs.

“Ron? Is Luna here?”

Luna looked up at the sound of Harry’s voice and shrugged, continuing her path towards a comfy couch in the center of the room. She plopped down daintily, swinging her feet softly.

Ron swallowed. “Yeah, she’s here,” he replied to Harry.

Harry thundered down the stairs, buttoning the top button of his polo.

“I’ll be right there with you guys, Ron! I just have to go get Hermione from her work, you know how she is,” Harry said hurriedly, gathering his coat.

Ron, who was fiddling with a tapestry on the wall, replied distractedly, “Yeah, sure, Harry.”

Harry waved to Luna, before popping out of the flat.

There was a slightly awkward silence now that Harry had gone. Luna had, surprisingly, been invited to their afternoon tea by Harry and Hermione both, but not Ronald. She didn’t know if he was excluded or not. It didn’t matter to her, really, as long as she got to see all of them.

Luna saw Ron open his mouth and close it a couple times before turning on his heel towards the kitchen.

“Do you want a drink or something?” Ron asked politely, opening the ‘frid-jor-rator’ and made to grab a beer. Ron hesitated and instead went for the grape juice carton.

Ron held up the carton and shook it for Luna to see, and she nodded, beaming at him.

“Oh, how did you know?” Luna asked excitedly.

Ron blushed, he didn’t quite know why, and replied, “Er, know what?”

Luna stood up gracefully and glanced at the floorboards for a split-second, before making her way towards the kitchen (this time normally).

“That grape juice is my favorite,” she replied, grabbing two glasses for herself and Ron. How she knew where the glasses were, Ron did not know.

Ron was still holding the grape juice carton and Luna extended her hand towards it.

“May I?”

Ron snapped to his senses and blushed a faint red. “Oh, uh, wait, let me.”

He delicately grabbed the two glasses from her, brushing her hand in the process, and engulfed the glasses in his palm. They both fit slightly awkwardly, but Ron could manage them both in one hand. He set the glasses down and poured the grape juice into them.

Ron smiled at Luna nervously before grabbing his cup. “Cheers,” he said and tilted his cup towards hers.

Luna laughed but went ahead with the ‘toast’, clinking her cup with his.

Ron gulped the juice in a short time, finding his throat surprisingly dry and set his glass on the counter. He leaned back against it, his palms flat against the surface and watched Luna drink her juice.

It was quite… entrancing to watch Luna drink her juice. She held her cup with both hands and sipped slowly, and each sip brought a twinkle to her eyes, as if she was tasting it for the first time.

Ron gulped and tugged at his collar, mentally berating himself. This was Luna! She was practically like a little sister to him! Ron shook his head, as if to clear out his thoughts.

Luna glanced at him oddly. “Are you alright?” she asked, catching his head-shake.

Ron nodded jerkily and fiddled with his hands before deciding to glance around the kitchen. He hadn’t been in here in awhile (which was surprising, even to him).

He had been helping Charlie with an assignment in Romania which had taken much longer than he had thought. It had even brought him to Bulgaria for a short time!

Overall, he had been gone for two weeks and had just gotten back. He remembered a tidbit that Hermione had said when he flooed a week into his assignment.

“Ron, we’re doing a little… rearranging in the flat, is that alright?” Hermione asked.

Ron laughed. “Why are you asking me?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Because, dimwit, you live here.”

Ron grinned at her, “It’s alright, Hermione. You and Harry can fix whatever in there. As long as the frid-jor-rator is stocked and the couch is still in front of the telly.”

Hermione glared at him. “You are such a typical male.”

Ron laughed. “Is Harry okay with this?”

Hermione blushed deeply, which was odd to Ron but he paid it no mind. “Yes, um, he’s quite alright with me, I mean, this.”

Ron nodded distractedly.

Hermione snapped in front of him. “Ron!”

Ron scowled. “Woman, you don’t have to snap.”

Hermione sneered at him playfully, “And I have a name, thank you. Anyway, we might be putting some muggle things around.”

Ron raised an eyebrow. “Like the frid-jor-rator?”

Hermione rolled her eyes as he pronounced it. “Yes, like the fridgerator. But don’t worry, they shouldn’t be a problem.”

Ron nodded and saluted, taking his head out of the fire.

Ron’s eyebrows jumped up warily as his eye caught on a new object in the kitchen.

He glanced at Luna, seeing that she was distracted with pouring herself another cup, and made his way towards the newfangled object.

“What the?” He blurted out as he got a closer look at it.

Luna glanced at Ronald as he made his exclamation. She found him a few wary steps away from a shiny, metal object plugged into the wall of the kitchen.

The object itself was smooth and the surface looked like a pool of silver water, completely still. It made Luna want to reach out and see if it rippled under her touch.

Ron was distracted by both the muggle object and the emotions that flitted across Luna’s face.

He didn’t know which one was more captivating.

He tore his eyes away from the muggle object and focused on Luna, but found her gaze slightly displaced.

“Luna?” Ron waved his hand in front of her face.

Luna snapped back to attention and rose her eyebrows, “Hmm?”

Ron pointed to the metal object. “Do y’know what that is?”

Luna slowly brought her hand towards the object in question, her fingers twitching to see if the surface rippled like she imagined in her mind. As her fingertips brushed the cool, metal surface, it stayed still and Luna found herself disappointed.

Ron caught the look of disappointment as Luna brushed her fingers along the metal object and found his heart clenching in the oddest way. It made him want to take away that look from her face.

Before he knew what he was doing, he grasped his hand over hers, faintly noting that her hand was so small compared to his.

“It’s okay,” Ron said reassuringly, although he did not know what for. He intertwined their fingers and he squeezed slightly, eyeing her face for any change in emotions.

Luna glanced at their joined hands and looked up into his blue eyes. “Thank you, Ronald,” Luna replied, her eyes twinkling again, instead of the flat, dull color that the disappointment this foul, Muggle object (in Ron’s opinion) had brought on.

Ron nodded and his gaze wandered across her face, his heartbeat quickening just a smidge as he glanced at her lips. He felt absolutely unsure of himself at this point; he didn’t know why Luna was causing this reaction inside of him, but a part of him, a lot of parts of him, eagerly wanted to find out.

“Luna,” Ron croaked out, not even minding that his voice sounded odd and nervous. He didn’t care if he wasn’t being smooth or charming. Ron figured Luna wouldn’t like that.

Luna smiled at Ron and waited silently for Ron to continue.

Ron took a deep breath to calm himself. The tightening in his chest was bothering him as it was gripping even tighter than before.

“Would you like to go to dinner with me?” Ron asked quickly and he could hear his heart pounding, beating quickly, and it was all because of this odd, enchanting girl in front of him, more mature than she was in her Hogwarts years.

Ron waited a couple beats and felt a searing feeling in his chest as he heard the deafening silence.

“Yes,” Luna replied simply and squeezed his hand before leaving him to go drink her second cup of juice as she sat on the couch, her feet dangling.

Ron blinked a couple times and her reply sunk in his mind and he felt a grin start to creep onto his face. That odd, painful tightening in his chest had fled and he felt warm inside.

He grabbed a note from the counter, scribbled something on it and stuck it onto the metal object, his palm flattening the parchment.

---

Harry walked groggily down the stairs as he had woken up in the middle of the night, craving a drink.

He fumbled with the light switch and yawned as he poured himself a cup of milk, dropping his head onto his upturned palm.

Harry noticed a flash of color in the corner of his eye and found a neon green note was stuck onto a new device that Harry and Hermione bought recently and Harry made his way over to the kitchen counter.

Harry was amused as he plucked the sticky note from the object, his eyes flickering over it.

Harry and Hermione,

Not sure what this Muggle thing is but you should definitely get rid of it. It gives me bad vibes. Also, THANK YOU.

Ron

Harry laughed at his friend’s antics. He assumed it had something to do with Luna, as she had brought up the object the day before.

Harry picked up the metal object in question and turned it over in his palm, grinning a bit as he wondered how this could have emitted 'bad vibes.'

“Harry?”

Harry turned towards the doorway, finding Hermione in her sleeping clothes, her eyes opened drowsily.

Hermione yawned and stretched, “What are you doing with the toaster?”

Harry glanced amusingly at the toaster and back towards Hermione. “Nothing.”

Hermione yawned again. “Well, come back to bed. I’m dead tired and you sure haven’t helped any in the sleep department.”

Harry laughed before setting the toaster down and followed Hermione upstairs.

Great story, I really enjoyed it Who knew...a toaster.

4 stars.

Well, I knew right away that it was a toaster, but being a stay-at-home mom gives me an edge, LOL.

I did think it was odd that you kept on referring to it as the "object" even after Ron had left. I know you were trying to save the surprise for the ending, but it didn't flow well w/ Harry, cause he would've known.

Still, thought it was cute.

That was really cute. I wouldnt''ve known what it was until you told me it was a Toaster. Lovely job. It was very cute. I realyl liked how subtle Ron and Luna got together.