Title: Lost
Characters: Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood
Pairings: I wondered about labeling this a Ginny/Luna story. There aren't really any romantic implications here, but while I was writing it, I was intending to convey the strength of their relationship. And I also involved Neville, because they are my OT3, heh. But I think you could consider this a mostly gen story.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 690
Summary: Ginny realizes that Luna has disappeared. Set during DH.
Notes: There might be more where this came from, eventually. :)
Ginny stood on her tiptoes, trying to look over the heads of the wizards and witches on the crowded platform. She'd told Luna to meet her here as soon as she got off the train, but her friend's telltale dirty-blonde tresses were nowhere to be seen.
She frowned. Luna wasn't known for staying on task, but given the current state of things, she couldn't help but be a bit worried. She found herself wishing that she had taken the train with Luna, no matter how much her mother had insisted against it.
Ginny made her way towards the train, her anxiety increasing with each step. Perhaps her fear was a bit irrational; after all, it had only been about ten minutes since the train had arrived. But the recent state of things had taught her to expect the worst.
The more she waited, the more worried she became. Her mother insisted that Luna was okay - she'd probably only been distracted by something. "You know how Luna can be," her mother said, laughing nervously. Mum wasn't doing a very good job of making her feel better. It was obvious that she suspected that something was wrong, but - as she typically did - she seemed to be trying to protect Ginny. Finally fed up with her mother's false cheeriness, she pushed her way into the thinning crowd, expecting to answer the question in her mind before it drove her mad.
As she searched, her throat became tighter and tighter until she felt she could no longer breathe. Ginny had made her way through every cabin on the mostly empty train, to no avail. She took a moment to steady herself before she stepped back on the platform. A single tear began to slip down her cheek. She wiped it away fiercely before it could reach its destination.
She made her way back onto the platform with renewed resolve, willing Luna to be alright. To be there. She couldn't bring herself to think ahead to what she would do if she wasn't.
She looked around, noting with dismay that the platform was almost empty, as well. Surely, if nothing were wrong, Luna would have turned up by now. But she couldn't accept it. So she ran. She ran right past her mother, who was waiting to take her home, and into the Muggle part of the station without looking back.
Her tears were falling freely now; she no longer cared enough to hold them back.
"Luna!" she cried out in a panicked tone as her calm exterior evaporated, already knowing that it wouldn't do any good. She drew more than a few bewildered looks as she pushed people aside in her desperation. Her mad dash through the crowd was only halted when she ran headlong into something rather solid. The contact knocked her back a few steps. She regained her balance, planning on resuming her frantic search without even muttering an apology, when a familiar voice stopped her.
"Ginny?"
Neville. His presence calmed her a bit (as it always did). She felt glad to have run into him; he, at least, would understand her distress.
"What's wrong?"
"She's gone," Ginny whispered, though the words required such effort to form that she felt as though she should have been shouting. "Luna's gone."
Vocalizing what she now knew must be the truth caused a fresh wave of sadness to rise up in her. A few more tears spilled out and she clung to Neville's arm as though he was the only thing holding her to the earth.
"Gone?" he repeated, frowning. "Gone wh--" He stopped mid-sentence when Ginny's tear-filled eyes met his. He didn't say anything more, only pulled her into his embrace, an action that stunned Ginny. He wasn't normally so brazen, but the war had changed a lot of things; at the moment, she was glad for it. Neville's unspoken understanding helped to strengthen her resolve.
The next thing to escape her lips wasn't a question or a request, and she doubted very much that Neville would have refused even if it was.
"We're going to get her back."