For Sophy.
x
"Harry, what are you doing here? How long've you just been sitting there?"
He sighed, turning his face away from the door, ignoring her.
"Come on, you know you can't stay cooped up in here. D'you want to talk about it?" Luna knew he wouldn't want to, but she had to ask. She remembered when her own mother had died, how she didn't talk to anyone for ages, and here sat Harry, who had lost both his parents in one night.
"Go, please." Luna could hear tears in Harry's voice. She waved her wand and a blanket appeared, which she approached him with, wrapping it around his shoulders in the cold dungeon classroom.
"Have you been here all this time?" Knowing he wouldn't respond, she continued. "I know what you're going through, Harry. I don't know that I could help, but I could at least talk with you about it."
Harry turned to face her, seemingly against his better judgment. He shut his eyes for a fraction of a second, hurriedly opening them. Luna could tell what thoughts sprung to his mind, and she knew he would never for a second forget them. Harry would be seeing a flash of green, whereas she saw a puff of violet smoke. Either way, they had both lost people close to them, and the memories, she was sure, would haunt them forever.
"I just—I can't." Harry flashed her an apologetic glance, turning away from Luna again to look out the window at the night.
"You need to talk, Harry. I know you won't want to, not for a while. Maybe not ever, but you need to. After my mum…passed," Luna murmured. "I didn't have anyone to go to. Dad was a mess, it was truly awful to see him go through that. I was nine years old, and felt more alone than ever. I was always closest to Mum. I was with her when she—" Luna followed Harry's gaze out the window, her eyes tracing over the ancient cracks in the panes. She vaguely wondered how those got to be there.
"I tried not to think about it for the longest time, before I realized that by trying to avoid the topic, I kept making it come up. I could barely bring myself to go to rooms in the house that weren't my bedroom. Dad ended up sleeping in the sitting room for nearly a year—he wouldn't go back in their bedroom. We just tried to avoid bringing it up whenever possible. It made the house unbearably quiet.
"I eventually found something else to focus on. It took ages to get to this point, but I spent all my energy thinking about Hogwarts—what it'd be like, learning magic, meeting new people who weren't affected by her like Dad and I were. A fresh new start, you know."
Harry had returned his eyes to Luna, and she continued. "I came here, and I was happy again. I had other things to think about, it was such a welcome relief. I suppose sooner or later I should've expected it—she was always one to experiment." Her voice faded off, reminiscing.
"I—I never saw it coming. And you—you've still got your dad. But I'm so alone. I should have known it wouldn't last forever," Harry muttered.
"Don't beat yourself up over it. Dad only came 'round very recently. I still see pain in his eyes when he looks at me. I looked just like her, you see." She sighed. "And you're not alone, Harry. Don't think that. You've got so many people here for you. You have to find some way to pull yourself back together, we're all counting on you." Harry sent her a pointed look, and she added, "Not to finish off the war, no. I always knew you could do it. No, I meant your friends, everyone who relies on you to be you.
"Besides, I'd miss the real you too much if you started moping."
Harry spared Luna a quick grin, quickly repressed.
"It's not going to be easy, Harry. And I'm not going to expect you to get over this any time soon, but you can't shut yourself off, alright?" Luna's bright eyes looked into Harry's green ones, knowing every time he would look into the mirror, he'd be reminded of the father with messy, black hair and the mother with the loving, green eyes. He'd see the parents he's so often told he resembles in himself.
"You're very much like them, Harry," she whispers. "Don't let that part of you die out, too. Bring them back to life, will you? Through you."
Harry looked at Luna, the girl who has suffered silently and stayed strongly optimistic throughout all of it. He wondered what he would've done without her, wondered why he never saw this side of her until now.
"Thanks, Luna," he said softly. "For everything."
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For March in the Gift-Giving Extravaganza, for Sophy (Slytherin Cat).
Also for the Write All the Ships Challenge (Harry/Luna) and the Represent that Character Challenge.