A/N: This was rattling around in my head recently, and is the first thing I've written in years. I don't claim to be great, but I hope you enjoy. Some of the quotes in here are from a book, though I won't say which one in here as to not spoil it for people who want to guess. I don't intend this to be long - 4 chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own HP. I don't own some of the quotes.

'Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end. If not always in the ways we expect'.

While she lived, Luna Lovegood played 3 similar characters to 3 different people.

To Harry Potter, Luna was a light in the dark, the girl who helped him stay sane in the midst of the chaos that was his life. She was a gentle breeze across green grass, a rope swing across a creek, a sanctuary from the pain of his every day life. She blew into his world one day, wide eyed and different and oh-so-wonderful in her strangeness. They just clicked, and they helped one another.

Harry helped her to stay grounded, to make decisions regarding the here and now instead of getting lost in her dreams. She had that problem, you see - she liked to dream so much and so large that she sometimes couldn't bring herself to focus on her current life. Luna, well, she taught him to rise above it all and see things differently, to relax and forget his troubles. He had that problem, you see - he stressed and worried and thought of all the ways the world could end, and he sometimes couldn't bring himself to dream.

'Just close your eyes and keep your mind wide open,' she'd whispered to him as they sat next to one another in a window of the Astronomy tower and he tried, again, not to cry. 'Imagine a better tomorrow.' And with her, Harry did. And, thanks to her, one came. She was always good about things like that, knowing when they would pass and knowing just what to say to help. She was wise beyond her years.

('They hate me. RON hates me!' he cried to her once. 'He won't ever speak to me again!' She hugged him then in sadness, and she hugged him with joy later when Ron was back at his side, and she had that smile like she knew all along.)

That's not to say that Harry did not find Luna absurd at times, or think her naive. He looked at her askance sometimes when she mentioned some of her creatures. He shook his head bemusedly when she sent out anonymous valentines to the entirety of Hogwarts; she had sent them to all ages, all Houses, even the professors. Even Filch, who hated everyone and ripped his card up.

(and no one ever knew Filch kept the cards sent to Mrs. Norris and read them to her every Valentine's Day, proof that someone besides himself thought her beautiful and good. He pinned them on his wall, all of them tear-stained and wrinkled after her death, and there they'd stayed until his own.)

She sent them even to the Slytherins, the firsties, and the cruel girls who hid her shoes in the winter and tripped her in the halls, their cold voices whispering 'loony, loopy Luna' as she picked herself up like it hadn't even phased her at all.

(More of them kept those cards than either Harry or Luna would ever have imagined.)

Yes, Harry thought Luna a bit ridiculous in sending cards to and trying to befriend such bullies. He saw how the other Ravenclaws treated her, and he wondered why she bothered. She tried to pet Mrs. Norris and got an arm full of claw marks. She tried to make small talk with Peeves and ended up drenched in lake water. Yes, naive, but he loved her all the same.

(He never got to know just in what way he loved her, however. By the time he was old enough to have figured it out, she was long gone, and his memories of her were both rosy and sepia toned, heart-achingly painful, painted with a brush that had seen too much wear. But he always knew he did love her, whatever way it may have been.)

That was why, after the first year he saw her making cards for all of Hogwarts, he was there to help. Sealing envelopes, writing names, tying parchment to owls, and helping her go over her list making sure not one single being was left out. He remembered a dark cupboard, a group of schoolchildren laughing when he was picked last, Dudley's shoe painful against his back and the taste of dirt, and Harry thought maybe, just maybe, he understood.

Hermione... Well, she never understood it. Much as her cared for her and loved her (a sister, he knew for sure), she was too different from his Luna. She was grounded, logical, straight-laced, and unintentionally cold in a way, because as much as she had been isolated herself as a child, she had not been hurt by life the same as he and Luna had.

And so she tried so hard to convince Luna that it wasn't worth her time, the anonymous valentines. That it was silly, ridiculous, verging on emotionally self-harming even. Luna, bless her, told Hermione that 'someone has to love and look out for them. I know how it can hurt to be left out, to not ever receive any kindness. Someone should give them that. Why not me?'

'That's not your job, though,' she had said, exasperated. 'You're just a child, Luna, you should leave it to the professors, or their friends, God, what have you!'

'But Hermione, what if they're like me? I mean.. There's no way to know, after all.' A blank stare, a pregnant and dangerous pause. 'I don't know that I believe in God, you see.'

The divide between muggleborn and raised-magical had never felt quite so large, deep, or dangerous at that moment. 'God', well. That wasn't a concept with a lot of wizarding kind. How could it be, after all, when you knew your ancestors were burned alive for being born the way 'god' supposedly made them? But the muggleborns were usually raised with deep-seated convictions, and maybe she didn't MEAN to say it, maybe she didn't think before she spoke

(but it was Hermione, she ALWAYS thought before speaking, or anything else)

'Well that's ridiculous, Luna, even for you! I mean, of all things! You believe in all these stupid creatures, these ridiculous things that DON'T EXIST and you have no proof of, and you tell me that you somehow don't believe in God?'

'Hermione,' Harry interjected uneasily, 'let it go, would you? It's harmless.'

'Harmless? Harry, Luna, nothing bad happens if you don't believe in your stupid imaginary creatures! If you don't believe in God, He damns you to Hell!'

Harry had never seen Luna look so shaken, so taken aback. He thought that nothing could ruffle her, and he was shocked to see her eyes suddenly fill with tears.

'I-if you go to Hell for not believing, even if you're a good person... I suppose at least I'll see my mum again, then.'

Even after all the times Hermione apologized, after all of the times Luna accepted it and told her it was forgiven, Harry never was sure. He had realized, then, that Luna wasn't so naive after all, and there were some things you just couldn't let bounce off of you. Some things you couldn't let go.

Harry was raised differently; the Durselys never put much stock in God or church, only doing so when it placed them in a position to be above others or to show how 'good' and 'pious' they were. He didn't have the same convictions Hermione did; in fact, he thought he might lean closer to Luna's thinking. He meant to discuss it with her, to learn more, but she was gone before he had the chance, and he was left with a seed of doubt.

What if Hermione was right?

(it's Hermione, Hermione is always right, why does she always have to be right?)

But...it was LUNA, how could someone like her possibly be in Hell? How could someone so good, so pure, be doomed for eternity just because she didn't believe the 'right' things and trust in the 'right' book with no proof? How could anyone do that to her?

It was Ginny, of all people, who helped the most.

She was the youngest of 7, she'd always been a bit closer to her dad, always made more time for his 'silly muggle things'. Molly, she wasn't one for religion. But Arthur? Well, if it's muggle, he's learned about it. He'd never put much stock in it, himself, but he'd read the Bible, and he'd shared it with his daughter. Ginny may not have believed in all of it herself, but after Harry came to her with his worries about Luna, she did her best to learn more. Ginny read, she questioned, she spoke with her father, and then she realized the answer.

(Hermione wasn't ALWAYS right, in fact recently she had been very, very wrong)

Ginny rubbed Harry's arm comfortingly. 'It's Luna,' she told Harry, teary-eyed but smiling. 'If there's a God up there, I can't imagine He would be so unfair. If he's real, even if she didn't believe, he'd let her in. And you know what? He'd be damned honored to have met her.'

A/N: I hope this was okay - I haven't written in many, many years, so I'm pretty rusty. Things tend to go wrong between my brain and my keyboard; beautiful stories in my mind turn into garbage on my screen, and I hope I mostly avoided that this time.

I don't really intend to go into detail on how/when/why Luna died - just the effects it had on the main 3. Just know that it was unexpected, horrible, awful, scary, and unfair, however she died. No one expected it. Feel free to speculate or make up your own theories on how it happened if you wish, because I really have no clue! I'd say she was around 14-15 when she died, making the Trio 15-16ish (or 16-17 in Hermione's case).

Please review.