The Effects of the Conflagration on Luna Lovegood
Eulalie Moire
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. I make no money.
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"No."
"Please."
"No. Of course not."
"But I… Luna… I need you," he insists.
She laughs mistily. "People are so obsessed with needs. You don't need me. You might want me. I'm flattered that you do. But you only really need food, water, and some degree of shelter. No one needs power, or love. I overheard Professor Snape being debriefed once. He said—"
"Luna, I don't care about Snape. This is about us."
"—He said, 'The Dark Lord said to Bellatrix that he needed the Minister's cooperation, that he must have it, that he would go to any lengths to get it.' Are you like that, Ronald? If you need me so badly, what lengths will you go to so that you can have me? What's worth it?"
"Hold on," he says, totally lost at this turn in the conversation. "Hold on. I don't get it. You think I'm a monster because I need you? It's not the same at all."
"No, it isn't. You don't need me In fact, you come much closer to needing magic than you do to needing me."
He's desperate, says, "To me, you are magic."
She laughs, somewhat meanly. "Now you are just being silly. No one says things like that."
He opens his mouth to speak again, to convince her, but she's already drifted off.
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Years later, he finds her with her hands buried up to the elbows in a pile of bloody corpses. The blood has stained her hair and face.
He is staring and eventually she notices, looks up but doesn't really see him.
"What are you doing?"
"Wands. We need wands. Less than half of our forces still have theirs and you know perfectly well that we haven't got any more now Olivander's gone Dark…"
He bends over her, heaves her up out of the carnage. She protests. He tosses her away, but gently. "No, I'll do it. Go wash."
She's tired, so she goes.
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Years later, he goes to see her in the hospital. Her war hasn't ended yet. He can't bear to look at her, pale and trapped as she is. She is not the same girl he loved, but she is. He owes her and he wants her. He wants to salvage something from the wreckage of their lives. He says, desperately, "Let me take you away from here. I know how it must be for you. It's the same for me. Let's go away together. We can fix it. We can fix each other. Please, Luna."
She finally looks up at him, smiles dreamily. "Really, Ronald? We'll be happy together? We'll go someplace sunny and live happily ever after?"
Her voice is worryingly thready as she says this, but her eyes are so incredibly bright. He nods emphatically. "Yes! Oh, Merlin, yes. Exactly. That's exactly what we'll do." He reaches for her hand.
She laughs a deep belly-laugh. She leans her whole body back as she laughs, inadvertently (or not) avoiding his hand. She shakes her head. "Don't you know, Ronald? Happy endings are only a myth."