Written as a gift for Kara, because her computer died on her and it sucks, and she's a great person and Hufflepuff Head of House, so there. Thanks to echoing noise for the beautiful prompt she submitted on The Slytherin Corner – I wouldn't have made it without you :)

One-word prompts: fragile, laugh, adrenaline

Quote: "When I was a child / I caught a fleeting glimpse / Out of the corner of my eye. / I turned to look but it was gone / I cannot put my finger on it now / The child is grown, / The dream is gone. / I have become comfortably numb." -Pink Floyd

Wild-card prompt: a character tries to heal

The shadows of the battle are on everyone's faces, agonized expectations painted under sleepless eyes, months of terror on the tight jaws and trembling lips, and Neville doesn't know where to look, because victory has to mean something, right? It means the world to them – everyone around him, they're screaming, cheering, weeping with relief, with joy – and he cannot see but an ending, sharp, sudden, violent like a slap on a tear-strained cheek, breathless, anxious, disbelieving. It is over, they whisper in awe, overoverover – but where is the beginning? Their world is crashing under the weight of the dead, he thinks – and pushes through the crowd, white-faced, against the hands trying to grab him –

Light dances in pale blonde hair as a new laugh makes him pause abruptly – and her hand is in his palm, light, thin, white, her smile fragile and pure in a too-thin face – and somehow, something clicks in his foggy brain, because who else than Luna Lovegood could sing sense out of a crazy world? So he follows her, they slide out of the maddened crowd, and he fleetingly wonders where Harry is as they start climbing stairs, higher and higher and higher – he doesn't know where she is leading him, but it is irrelevant anyway, what is the point in having a goal, a direction? They climb, breathless, all the way to the top of the Astronomy tower, under the stars they stand like pale-faced children before the moonlight, and as he looks at her, it suddenly dawns on him that she was there, in Malfoy Manor, once – and as she smiles at him, calm and serene, the bewilderment of such purity ever surviving Bellatrix Lestrange's twisted ways makes his heart beat so much faster. Adrenaline is pumping through his veins as he drowns into Luna's eyes, filled with fleeting glimpses and riddles and mysteries, and he feels so painfully alert, so alive, that suddenly it all makes sense again. Death – death is behind them, they fought and won and were torn apart in the process, but now they have to live

… and perhaps it will be even harder, but somehow, just standing there, it is worth it. Her eyes are full of promises, and really, he has done enough worrying for a lifetime right now – so he leans in, and kisses her, like he would never have dared before, because hell, he is Neville Longbottom and he's seen enough to deserve to live.