Luna had struck Neville's eye from the first day he saw her.
She seemed to stick out like a light bulb in the dark; her blinding white hair and dazzling blue eyes set her apart from everyone else.
She was impossible to miss, even from far away, and Neville felt as if he was witnessing a miracle.
Neville wondered why the Sorting Hat had placed him in Gryffindor when he clearly had no courage whatsoever.
He didn't want to admit it, but watching Luna had become part of his daily routine. In the corridors, he'd watch out for a flash of bright blonde amidst the between classes rush. He stared around the Ravenclaw table at dinner, trying to spot her. (Which wasn't very hard, because she always sat alone.
Neville couldn't imagine why she was alone, of all people.)
He was always watching - that's all he ever did, watch - but he never said anything to her for years, opting for quietly gazing at her instead from where she couldn't see him.
(It was almost Slytherin, the way he was sneaking around to watch her. For a Ravenclaw, she sure wasn't very aware.)
He never told anyone of his fond interest in Luna; after all, it would have sounded silly, especially since she was a year younger than him and he knew nothing about her but her name.
But in his fifth year, he sat with his other friends in a compartment with her. They were all grumbling that there was no empty compartment for them, but Neville's heart was secretly soaring.
She was the same as she'd always been - beautiful and dreamy. To the others she looked weird, but Neville thought her distant aspect was what was truly appealing about her.
She was with them, but then she wasn't - she was in another world full of imaginary creatures and happy endings, and Neville knew if she could find a way out of reality, she would stay there forever.
Trying for Luna was like reaching out for something that was already half-gone - and ending up with nothing at all in your hand.
Luna was unique, mysterious, and everything between. Just talking to her was a feat in itself; other people thought she was loony but Neville thought that her thoughts were just too complex to be put into words and understood.
She might not have fitted in or earned as high grades as a Ravenclaw should, but she understood matters of the heart, and that was harder than brewing a potion any day.
Neville still watched her, even after all these years, even after becoming friends with her. She never left his eye, and now he was beginning to read between the lines.
So one day when she slipped out of the Great Hall and out into the pouring rain of a dark Saturday afternoon, Neville immediately noticed her missing presence and followed her quietly.
She was dancing - jumping in puddles and holding her tongue out to catch falling raindrops and drink them - and even though it was something childish and immature, Neville knew there was a hidden meaning behind it that he just wasn't seeing.
"Neville," she said, not turning, and Neville shuddered. Maybe she could sense him like he could sense her.
"Luna," he finally said, sharply inhaling at the sight of her. She was hauntingly beautiful, even with her blonde hair sopping wet and stuck to her shoulders and her clothes drenched.
Usually she spared a smile for him, but now, Neville had a swooping sensation in the pit of his stomach. She wasn't happy...she was always happy.
"Dance with me," she said, holding out a pale, cold hand, and he accepted it gingerly, as if she was a fragile doll that might break if he dropped her.
She pulled him in and lead him to a rhythm of her own, taping out the beat and humming off-key tunes. It was imperfect and silly but Neville looked beyond that.
She was moving at a different pace than this world, and as she twirled under his arm, he realized that she had never been distant - she had just been dancing to a different song than him.
She was moving fast, a dizzy sort of fast, and Neville spun and tripped over his own feet trying to catch up to her.
"Can you hear the music?" she asked, still spinning effortlessly on her tiny ballerina feet. "Can you hear it?"
Neville breathed and tried hard, closing his eyes and letting his senses take over. He silenced everything else, until he could only hear his own heart beating...and her music.
It was faint, but Neville could hear it, its intricate and delicate melodies weaving a picture around him until he could imagine them in her sunny meadow, see them singing and dancing to an ethereal song and creating harmonies that could connect both of their individual melodies.
"Do you hear it?" she asked again.
Neville gazed into her stormy eyes and replied, "Yes. I can hear you."
Her eyes widened, and Neville heard their harmonies creating a distilling discord.
They stood there for a moment, in each others arms, letting the rain fall on them and their hearts beat in sync.
Luna was a fragile doll, and everybody had to shatter someday. She was like a dam, holding, holding, holding, until she couldn't take it anymore and burst.
The sob echoed as the tears streamed down her face, ending the music with a haunting cadence.
They sat together in the wet grass, Luna's tears indistinguishable from the rain and her peachy smell disappearing into the air. They were both soaked, but Neville honestly didn't care.
"No one's ever heard me before," she cried, and Neville stroked her hair.
"You have a beautiful tune. It's just that other people don't listen."
Luna, for all her dreamy smiles and loopy footwork, was just a girl waiting to break. All she wanted was for someone to hear her, to listen to her, find her in her fanciful fantasy of Nargles and fairy tales.
(Because happy endings didn't happen in reality, and Luna just didn't want to face it.)
But Neville was always there, always had been and always would be, so even when her music got so soft it almost wasn't there, he could pick up on her tune and follow along.
It's hard to find two melodies that harmonize perfectly - but when it happens, it's like hearing a miracle.
A/N: First attempt at Luna, so tell me what you think!
Done for:
Dueling Tournament
Pairing Diversity Boot Camp - Prompt #36: Eerie
400 Fragrant Prompts Challenge - Day 18
Legendary Creatures Competition - Naga
Greenhouses Competition - Dirigible Plum
Key Signature Competition - A minor