Beta'd by my best friend, wife, and girlfriend, cheygrl94

The Curse

Third year was fast approaching, and Neville was going to the Griffindor dorm to get ready for the annual dinner. When he accidently bumped into a beautiful girl named Luna Lovegood he accidently made her drop her books on the floor.

"I'm so sorry, let me get that for you since I made you drop your books miss." Said Neville.

"Oh that's all right, I'll get them!" said Luna. Hey but thanks for the help I really appreciate it! After they get up Neville apologizes for what happened, then they shook hands and went their separate ways. While Neville was walking toward the Great Hall he was thinking about who that girl was. Neville thought he'd seen her before, but he really hadn't.

During dinner Neville went and sat down by Harry. That same beautiful girl came and sat down next to his right. A chill ran up his spine as her hair fell over her shoulder. "Hello, Neville" Luna said, but she didn't get a response, as Neville was lost deeply in thought. 'How did she know my name?'

Neville finally answered her with a shy voice. "Hello, I'm really sorry about earlier." A blush rose to his cheeks as Luna smiled reassuringly at him.

Harry looked at him with "What the hell is wrong with you?" written all over his face. Luna saw it and she giggled cutely.

"Hi I'm Luna." She gasped while trying to catch her breath as Harry was looking even more curiously at the pair.

Before Neville could respond, Dumbledore tapped his glass with a knife and began to welcome back the new and returning students. "In light of recent events, we will be playing host to the dementors of Azkaban until such a time as Sirius Black can be captured, but one must remember. Happiness can be found even in the darkest of time. If one only remembers to turn on the light." Dumbledore's words carried throughout the hall as silence embraced the students before the prefects escorted the first years to their dormitories.

Dinner was over and Neville tried to reach Luna before she could leave, but he could not find her. 'I guess she's gone for now, I'll try to catch up with her tomorrow before classes start or we might have a class together.' Neville thought idly, but he went and talked to Harry and Ron about Luna. He really wanted to know about her (not in a stalker type way).

"What do you guys know about that Luna chick?" Neville piped in as he caught up to his housemates.

"Is that that new girl with the blonde hair?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, that's her."

"I heard she came from Beauxbaton's." Ron chirped.

"So, she's French?" Neville asked confusedly. He didn't think she'd had an accent.

"Nah, her Dad sent her there for some weird reason. I'm not entirely sure why though." Harry responded thoughtfully.

With these thoughts still fresh in his mind, Neville walked the rest of the way to Griffindor tower alone.

The next morning Neville rose with the sun, and hopped into the shower. After struggling with his tie, he was ready to start the first class of the new school year. Neville liked his first class of the day; it was Care of Magical Creatures. The class went well with Hagrid as the professor. That is until he caught his bird on fire. The next class was Astronomy. When he walked into the room and noticed professor Sinistra talking to the blonde, and stunning Luna. 'We must have this class together…. Hmmmm maybe I can finally ask her how she knows my name!' As Luna turned around she was right there in front of him. He wanted to ask her the burning question, but he was cut off as Professor Sinistra instructed the class to find their seats. Neville found himself more than disappointed as he still didn't have the answers to his questions. The lesson was told to be very interesting, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember why. This was largely due to the fact that his mind didn't stray from his musings of Luna for the entire class.

At the end of his first day, Neville discovered that he had two classes with Luna. Neville went to Ron to ask if he knows how Luna knew his name, but Ron didn't have any better idea than he did. At dinner Luna sat next to him again. The questions he had about her, were burning inside his brain, but he didn't know how to ask. He decided on the direct approach.

"How do you know my name?" He inquired lightly to the beautiful woman next to him.

"Oh, one does wonder how I know such things, don't they?" Luna said wistfully.

Neville only nodded, and wondered silently. 'She is so mysterious, and I like it, yet she is kind of creepy.' After dinner Neville ran into Hermione in the common room. "Oh, hi Neville. I was just looking for you actually. Ron said you were asking questions about Luna. I was just wondering what your interest in her was.

"I don't know. She just seems sort of odd, and she knew my name from the time she sat down next to me."

Hermione only stood there for a moment before she burst into a fit of giggles. Neville's eyebrows disappeared in his bangs, and Hermione's giggles intensified. It took a few minutes, but Hermione was able to calm herself enough to smile sweetly at him. "Neville, Luna asked me what your name was on the first night. She's not all that weird, I promise."

"Oh," was Neville's brilliant response.

He went back to his dorm with even more thoughts of the mysterious new girl on his mind.

While Neville was getting ready to go take a shower Harry appeared out of nowhere and scared the living shit out of him. After Neville's heart rate had returned to normal, he glared menacingly (at least, as menacingly as he could) at Harry, but Harry was only gawking openly at Neville's forehead. Neville noticed. "What?" He asked. Harry only pointed at his forehead. Neville spun around, and looked in the mirror. His jaw dropped when he saw the enormous gash on his forehead. "What the bloody hell! Why am I bleeding?"

"Maybe you should see Madame Pomfrey." Harry suggested.

Madame Pomfrey let out a small sigh as she saw Harry and Neville enter the hospital wing, and bustled over to them. Her frustration quickly turned into shock and worry when she saw the blood pouring from the young Mr. Longbottom's head.

"What happened?" She screeched as she escorted the pair to the nearest cot.

"We're not really sure Madame. He was in the bath when I walked in, and his head was bleeding." Harry explained in a hurry. Madame Pomfrey nodded, and began running diagnostic spells on him. Several minutes, and a lot of blood later, Madame Pomfrey stood from her hunched position over her now unconscious ward, and turned to Harry.

"He's been cursed."