Luna Lovegood's hand tightened over his as she smiled and laid her heavy head upon his shoulder. She was truly exhausted. The battle had taken a lot from everyone… both from the survivors and from the fallen before the Death Eaters had taken their lives by a variety of curses. As she closed her eyes, images of the battle filled her mind again. Luna's otherwise alert silvery eyes hurt – possibly from all the dust and such – her eyelids feeling like sandpaper moving over them every time she blinked. She could not keep them open and shutting them didn't make them hurt any less either. She quietly weighed the pain of having them shut against leaving them open, finding the latter still more painful in the balance even though it felt like tiny needles dotting on the insides of her eyelids when shut.
Luna barely managed to deflect the unknown curse being thrown in her direction, a flash of turquoise bouncing to the caster of the curse again, who just managed to whip his wand and somehow dissolve all the light as if it had gotten sucked into a vacuum. She just managed to dodge aside to avoid again being hit by a flash of green light she didn't doubt would have killed her instantaneously without really leaving any traces. She barely managed to deflect another green jet of light upon rising agilely, and Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger joined her on each side of her in fighting off Death Eaters, and moved so that foes could be covered from all angles in the best way possible almost simultaneously. Others, either pupil or teacher, either young or old… either foe or companion, flashed by in flurries.
Luna's eyes opened again as she snuggled a bit further in her new lover's embrace, her eyes beginning to get stingy from having been closed too long once more. From a distance she could perceive the new Hogwarts Headmistress approaching, and somehow she knew that she wouldn't wish to speak with her, but with her former Gryffindor cub.
"I'll leave you some time alone," Luna announced in her usual dreamy voice as the Headmistress came within view, already lifting her head from the Gryffindor's shoulder and letting her hand slip from his.
"Please, Ms. Lovegood," Professor McGonagall began, "don't feel like you have to go because of me."
"Please don't worry about it, Professor McGonagall," she remarked. "I feel like I have to go because of me." Both Gryffindors were left in confusion, the older one to whom the words had been addressed with a crease between her eyebrows and the other even though actually none of it had made sense at all with a slight grin. Both of them remained looking after her for a moment as she joined a few fellow Ravenclaws before turning to each other, the older Gryffindor smiling at the younger one. Seeing Minerva McGonagall smile like that, was something rarely seen – seeing her smile at Neville Longbottom was a revolution in Wizarding history.
Neville's eyebrow quirked as he noticed her smile and began feeling uncomfortable somehow…
"You've really made your old Gran very proud today, Neville," she said.
More shock washed through him upon hearing her use his first name. He quietly eyed her in disbelief, noticing that her smile hadn't left her face. "I only did what was necessary today," he said.
"I'm not only taking about today," Minerva said, settling herself beside him on the table. "You have shown the courage of a true Gryffindor all year this year and before as well when you joined your companions to the Ministry in fifth year and partook in the fights with Dumbledore's Army as well last year… if I recall well. There have been a few instances throughout your education here at Hogwarts in which has been shown that you truly belong to my House, but never… have I been more proud to recognize the fact than this year."
Neville's eyebrows quirked "You're… proud… of me?" he repeated, not quite believing it himself.
Minerva chuckled – a sound rarely heard. "Very much so, yes. Of course, no one's can match the pride of your Gran, but… I just thought that you should know now that she's not the only one who's happy enough to notice you're a true Gryffindor and truly your mother and father's son," she said, momentarily lowering her gaze as the thought of Alice and Frank Longbottom took over her mind. Both of them had been Gryffindors as well… They had both been in the Order of the Phoenix, just like her… She was sure that they'd have been so proud.
"You've known them well, haven't you?" Neville asked.
"Oh yes," Minerva replied. "I have. I've possibly known them best of all my former cubs, together with James and Lily and Sirius and Remus…"
"I haven't," Neville quietly remarked.
"I'm certain that they would have been very proud to know what their son did tonight to save the rest of the survivors. Gryffindor embodies courage, and you have shown nothing but it tonight and throughout the whole year, striving for what you thought was right no matter the situation. That's a very brave thing to do."
"That sounds like someone else I know," Neville said and chuckled, letting his gaze drop to his shoes as well. The remark made a smile rise to Minerva's lips as well, and both Gryffindors remained sitting in silence for a while until a tall but thin, bony but venerable looking old witch in a long beige flowery dress made her way over to them both, seemingly having shown up from nowhere. Minerva quietly took the cue, patted the boy's shoulder and slid from the table, politely leaving as she heard Augusta Longbottom's voice, 'My grandson!' trail after her…
Maybe something would come forth from the once hopeless wizard after all.