"In the sky got whiskey and rye for the voices in my head" – Angel Duster by Run the Jewels
"I can't wait until we're seventeen and free as a pixie," Luna said, giggling as she spun in a wide circle.
"Seriously, Luna? Pixies? You're acting like you're drunk again and I know you're not. This time at least," Hermione sighed, "And we only gain our own freedom, if you consider being an adult 'freedom' that is, at eighteen, not seventeen. You're one entire year off."
"No," Luna said stubbornly. "The Nargles said that we're free when we're seventeen. They're never wrong."
"Nargles don't exist, Luna," Hermione groaned, once again being forced to question why she continued being friends with the illogical blonde-haired girl.
Hermione couldn't help the friendship. The loneliness she saw in Luna was extremely similar to the loneliness she had often felt because of her love of knowledge. The only difference was that Luna was stuck on the fantastical, imaginary beings that seemed to live in her head. Still the idea of not helping someone in the way she had always wanted to be helped left a bitter taste in Hermione's mouth.
"They do," Luna said nodding. "They aren't here right now, but you have Wrackspurts floating angrily around your head right now. They'll make you forget the answers to the test you have in the next lesson."
Hermione frowned at the thought, not wanting to point out that Wrackspurts didn't exist either. "That's highly unlikely considering I've been over the material only five minutes ago, but I'll read through it again now to make sure I don't forget."
"The pernicious effect of being over prepared," Luna replied nodding sagely as she plopped onto the grass next to Hermione. "The Blibbering Humdinger always manages to distract me to prevent that from happening."
"There is no such thing as a Blibbering Humdinger!" Hermione exclaimed, looking up from her text book. "No one has ever seen one and there is no mention of it in any text book therefore it does not exist!"
"I've seen one."
"You don't count. You don't have proof of their existence! Neither can you prove that those creatures, or whatever they are, exist out of your imagination."
"You don't need to prove something in order to make it real!" Luna retorted angrily.
"Yes, you do!" Hermione glared at Luna.
"Fine," Luna said standing up. "If you won't believe me, I'll go find someone who will."
"Fine," Hermione huffed, turning back to her books. "Don't come running back to me when no one believes you."
.*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*.
It turned out, as Hermione realised a week later, that Luna did indeed find someone who believed her. Hermione was the one who was the loner this time, and not Luna because Luna had found people who were curious about her and her imaginary creatures.
"The pixies are really naughty, you know, but they hate being caged. It makes them a whole lot worse," Luna was saying when Hermione passed her on a corridor one day.
"No one would enjoy being caged," Harry said nodding with her. "I think anyone would be angry after that."
Luna nodded. "Yeah, that's when they wreck the most havoc and things start breaking unexpectedly."
"Ah," Harry said as if a mystery of the world had suddenly been revealed to him.
"Sometimes they can be really helpful though, but only to people they like."
Hermione simply couldn't understand what he saw in Luna's words. They often didn't make sense and showed nothing of Luna's true intelligence. There wasn't anything intelligent about Luna's babbling on about imaginary characters, Hermione was certain of that.
This was exactly what she had been wishing for months, wasn't it? A bit of peace and quiet, logical peace and quiet, something that Luna had never been able to allow her to have. So there really shouldn't be a problem.
Why did she miss Luna's constant airy voice talking circles around her? Why was there that annoying feeling like a tiny bleeding wound of lost origin that seemed to be following her around?
It didn't matter. Hermione didn't need Luna. In fact, Hermione was probably better off without her. Luna could be someone else's problem now, and go off embarrassing them whenever she got into one of her more inane moods.
Hermione didn't have to question everything she was told anymore, and that was a relief. Having to double check everything was annoying in the least, something she could definitely do without.
.*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*.
Hermione could no longer deny the fact that she was missing Luna's craziness in her life. Luna was a much needed distraction from the greyness of schoolwork and life in general. Hermione hadn't realised how much Luna had managed to relax her with her ridiculousness until Luna was no longer there.
Harry had managed to see what she had missed, and Harry wasn't considered particularly bright by anyone, but apparently he was smart enough when it came to people. That was the one thing Hermione usually knew next to nothing about, and it showed in her interactions with everyone.
Hermione's parents had often urged her to make friends, and the making of friends was kind of easy. It was the keeping of those friends that was ridiculously difficult. Hermione always ended up doing something stupid and losing those friends.
It always happened. She didn't know how to stop it.
"Hermione?"
Hermione looked up, startled. She hadn't expected anyone to approach her. "Luna?"
"The Nargles said that someone here needed help. I hadn't expected it to be you," Luna said, head tilted to the side curiously. "Have you lost something?"
Hermione silently thanked these mysterious Nargles for sending Luna to her. She didn't care that they didn't exist, or that thanking them meant that they were at least a little more real to her than they had been before.
"I suppose I have," Hermione said slowly. "I'm sorry, Luna. For before. I didn't really mean it."
"You did mean it," Luna said, "don't lie to me."
"Okay, I did mean it, and I still don't really believe in your creatures, but my friendship with you is more important than proving their existence, or lack thereof," Hermione said quickly, expecting Luna to get angry at her. "I am sorry for what I said though."
Luna nodded, "That's okay. Most people don't believe me anyway, except Harry but Harry is unusual anyway. You should meet Harry. In fact, you're going to meet Harry right now."
Hermione sighed as Luna dragged her along the corridor towards Harry. Hermione had met Harry before, but she humoured Luna because everything was back to normal now.
Their normal.
AN: Caerphilly Catapults: Finals Round 1
Chaser 1: 'I can't wait until we're seventeen and free as a pixie."
Prompts: (word) bleeding; (word) pernicious; (song) Angel Duster
85 Shades of AU Competition: Muggle/Non-magical