All was silent.

All that could be heard was the soft breathing of two teenagers. The room closed in around them, cocooning them together. Anything outside their bond was unimportant, unable to break their concentration. They were connected. Two became one. Hands rested together, marking the middle point between the two.

Around them the air whispered. It was whispering for silence, a supporting character to this current exchange.

"Focus," the boy joined the whispering, giving the girls' hands a light squeeze. "Don't think about anything else but this. Then when you're ready…open your eyes."

She squeezed his hand back, took a light breath and then allowed her eyes to flicker open. In the time her eyelids had been blocking her view of the world it seemed to have changed. Things had altered. There was a glimmer about it all. The surrounding air was almost visible to her now.

Continuing the experiment, she let her eyes fall on the boy in front of her. Relishing how different everything looked, she took in his shaggy brown hair, his currently intense brown eyes. It was an intensity she was not used to finding there. Those eyes were staring at her, willing her to see what he knew she could.

All at once she gasped.

"Neville!" she exclaimed. "You're glowing!"

He was. This altered view on the world revealed a glowing gold circle that twisted it's way around Neville, enclosing him. It had faded into existence as his eyes bored into hers. She wondered if she was seeing his soul, if that was what this meant. To think of it that way made her smile, thinking of the brightness radiating from him.

Neville's intense gaze broke away from hers and a flush of redness appeared in his cheeks. He looked down at himself as if his previous focus might have called the image into existence for him also.

Then he looked up at her again. "What's it like?" he asked and Luna could hear a touch of something in his voice. An inkling of awe etched in his tone.

"Uh," Luna fumbled for accurate words to describe it to him, "it's beautiful, really. It's almost wrapped around you, like it's part of you…" Then she paused. "It is part of you."

"Wow," murmured Neville before reaching out for the book that lay forgotten beside them. The book that had led them here, the book that had coaxed Luna's eyes to gaze upon this vision. "We should find out what it means" he said, opening the book to where the detailed descriptions began.

Moving out of their previous formation, Luna scooted over so she was sitting beside him. She rested her chin on his shoulder, causing him to stiffen slightly. Together they scanned the pages filled with various descriptions the of colours, shapes and features that made up a persons' aura. Each paragraph told of fascinating meanings.

Luna pointed with her index finger. "Your aura was golden," she told him. "It glowed and seemed to be twisting around you. Not like those," she pointed to a picture of an aura that followed the outline of a girls' body exactly and then one which was simply a circle around another boy.

They turned the page and Luna pointed again. "It was like that one" she declared.

"Gold is often described as a bold colour," Neville read, "representing an importance such as royalty." Luna could hear his voice sounding doubtful at this but he carried on. "This importance is much the same in Auras. Those whose auras shine golden are destined for something far greater than most. If, as in the image below, the aura also shines with a blinding glow, the person who holds the Aura is in possession of power or bravery. The deeper this potential is hidden, the brighter the Aura. As the person grows to reach this potential their Aura dims and expands, seen in the below illustration. The twisting motion you see in the image shows loyalty. A twisting aura such as this is incredibly rare and surrounds a person who holds overwhelming doses of all of these previous qualities or any other ones represented by Aura features. The people to hold these auras are special, whether the person realizes so or not."

When Neville finished he continued to stare at the page as if the words were to rearrange if he looked long enough. Luna stared with him, but not for the same reason. She was staring to keep him company. Regardless of his shock, she knew that every word read carried weight. Nothing had been wrong. Perhaps Luna had just proved to Neville how special he truly was.

"Is this really what you saw?" he asked, still not tearing his eyes away.

Luna nodded until she realised he wasn't watching her and used her vocal chords instead. "You, Neville Longbottom, have always been special. I'm not the only one who thinks so."

His eyes broke contact with the book at last and he looked up at her. In his eyes she could see a sadness that she recognised well. In her time of knowing him, she had seen this several times. To see it always hurt her a little.

"You always look so sad."

The words surprised even her. Luna lived in a world where she so often said what she thought but never had she said anything like this to Neville. With her words the sadness left his eyes and was replaced with clouds of confusion.

"I do?" he asked, closing the book and placing it beside him.

She nodded. "It's in your eyes, like all you see is the shadows of the world and they're reflected in them."

The smile that found itself on Neville's face didn't look comfortable. It was a war between a smile and a frown, the smile shaking with the strength it took to stay there.

"You're always so happy" he countered and Luna smiled back at him with an easy one of her own.

"Life is full of shadows," she mused, "but it's full of other things too. When I start to see the shadows I just turn on the light." Then she stood up, looking around the room. The Room of Requirement—home, a haven they had built the year before with a group of friends that had become a family. Ever since the group had disbanded, Luna and Neville had found themselves visiting. It was hard to leave this home, and it's memories, behind.

Neville was still on the ground, but he was looking up at her."You always see everything so much clearer than I do," he said. "I guess it's not surprising you can see Auras.

Instead of responding, Luna just held out her hand to help him up.

"Thank you for helping me." She meant it. Neville had found the book. Neville had helped her transform the flickering shapes that she saw into their full forms. Neville had told her it was a gift; he had been amazed and supportive just as he always was. She sent a silent 'thank you' to whatever was up there for giving her a friend like Neville.

He simply shrugged, not seeming to know what to say. So, she gave him a quick hug, a kiss on the cheek and then left. She didn't look back to see the slightly shaken smile that had developed on his face but she found herself mimicking it as she headed towards the Ravenclaw Common Room.