AN: Because who doesn't love an excuse to make Neville and Luna kiss?
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The Nargle-Beater
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Luna Lovegood—definitely one of the strangest girls Neville had ever met, if not the strangest. (Although Hermione did have her odd moments as well… as did Ginny… and just about every girl he'd ever met, for that matter.)
She was excitedly showing off the object that she'd received in the mail that morning. Her eyes were wide and she had that big smile plastered on her face. Her cheeks were a little bit red, probably because of the weather. Cradled in her bare hands (probably numb from the cold, but she never cared about such small things) was some weird thing that he'd never seen before.
"What is it?" he asked. His face was scrunched and his cheeks were red and pinching. The thing in her hands was looked very breakable. One flick of his wand and it'd be in flames. (Then again, that was true about many things, intended or not…)
"It's to get rid of the Nargles," she said very seriously. "Daddy's going to advertise it in the Quibbler next issue, but I get one first. Everybody's going to want one soon." She stared down at her hands and her eyes got dreamy. "I was thinking of putting this one up in the Ravenclaw common room, but I think more people will need it in the Great Hall. Not only Ravenclaws go under mistletoe, everyone does."
Had Neville not known Luna for a year, he might not have known whether to take her seriously or not. Of course, since he did know her, he knew that she was very, very serious. "Oh—well, I think that's a fantastic idea," he told her. "Everybody has to be safe from—from Nargles, right?"
Luna smiled at him. "Let's go put it up," she said. "The sooner the better—you never know who's going to pass under or when they will. I don't think anybody deserves to be gotten by Nargles." She walked away, but he wouldn't really call it walking. Luna floated when she moved, in a way. Like she moved from one dream to the next instead of walked from one place to another.
So they stood in the Great Hall, Neville staring uncertainly at their hanging contraption and Luna gazing at it proudly. "We're safe from Nargles in here now," she said.
"You're also both standing under the mistletoe," said a voice in Neville's ear.
"You know what that means," whispered a voice in the other. He whirled around and found—Fred and George Weasly grinning down at him in a way that made his stomach do turns.
"It's time for kisses!" they said in unison, pushing Neville into Luna.
He stood frozen and stared down at her awkwardly because he didn't know what to bloody do. She looked up at him and blinked her big blue eyes and her little pink lips curved up into a small smile. It was almost like she was encouraging him, so Neville took a deep breath, braced himself, and kissed Luna.
He liked the way her lips felt against his, he decided. Nice and warm and he could feel her smile.
"See," Luna said matter-of-factly. "The Nargles couldn't come down and get us because of the Nargle-Beater."
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Harry walked into the Great Hall, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the crowd of people. They were all looking up, so his eyes shot up and landed on the mistletoe. Hanging next to it was a television remote.
He somehow got the idea that this had something to do with what the twins had been laughing about in the Common Room.
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AN: Second fic on this account! : ) Pre-DH, of course, since my lovely twins make an appearance. : ) Another challenge from a friend. Luna and Neville are pretty much her OTP, I think. The theme she gave me was a gold mine: technology? With Luna? Ohhh man. : ) So I hope I did it justice!
I do, in fact, own multiple Nargle-Beaters, but not Harry Potter itself. That belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling, who probably owns a few Nargle-Beaters herself.