A/N: Written for the UBC II. Prompt: Luna wit any male character, at least 1200 words.
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, I'm just borrowing them for a bit, and the italicized quote at the beginning is from the original, so all rights belong to JKR.
Just a bit of OotP reimagination ;)
Enjoi!
"Mistletoe," said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry's head. He jumped out from under it. "Good thinking," said Luna very seriously. "It's often infested with nargles."
Harry - although he thought he'd might not even want to hear the answer - had the urge to ask Luna about just what in Merlin's name are nargles, simply out of curiosity. Unluckily (or just luckily enough, since it pretty much saved him from having to listen to some kind of explanation of the existence of magical creatures that might not even exist anyway), other pupils started to swarm in the Room of Requirement, and he was quickly dragged away from the fourth year Ravenclaw by his housemates, more specifically, the remaining members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who simply informed Harry that they found the new additions to the team. After all, they were kind of needed since he and the Weasley twins were, well, kind of banned by Umbridge.
But, even though he was indeed interested in the topic of the new Seeker and Beaters, he couldn't quite get his mind off of the grey eyed witch and her strange quirks. He also couldn't quite grasp why was it in this particular moment that he had to think about Luna, after all, it's not like didn't see her at every DA meeting, and it's not like they never shared a conversation before. They have talked, for longer amounts of time even, but for some reason, he was thinking about her, something he hadn't really done before. He though maybe it was because it was almost Christmas, and he definitely knew that people often had strange thoughts in the holiday season, but he still somehow bothered with it.
And as much as he would have liked to continue his train of thoughts about the girl, and his other train of thoughts about the oddity of his train of thoughts, the room was almost full by this moment, and almost every member of Dumbledore's Army has arrived, so he decided to think about it later – if he was ever going to get under good enough circumstances - , and he started the meeting.
In Harry's mind, the meeting was succesfull, as per usual, but it wasn't succesfull in particular, since it was merely exercising what the group learned over the last few months. Though, he had to admit, this whole "impromptu practical DADA study group" turned out to be better than he imagined it would be when Hermione first told him the idea. There were a lot of students who wanted to learn actual defense, and most of them were improving gradually over the weeks, and as a teacher figure for them, Harry felt proud.
Harry noticed that almost everybody left the room, except for Cho Chang, who was standing near the entrance of the room, looking just a little bit down in the dumps. He wanted to talk to her, especially at this moment, but his throat was suddenly going dry, so in the end, he only managed to choke up a weak "Cho!", and then waiting for any kind of response.
"Harry, I-…" she started, then she let out a sigh, and simply held out a piece of paper in front of her, waiting for Harry to take it. "I really wanted to talk to you, but I guess we can do it later too… So, just take this and read it only when you're alone, okay? It's kind of private." Harry simply nodded, though confusion was written all over his face while he took what seemed like a letter.
"But why can't we talk now? I mean, there's only the two of us here, right?" he asked.
"Not exactly." she pointed behind Harry, who took a turn right where he was, and then was faced with one Luna Lovegood, who was sitting on one of the cushions, completely ignoring the other two. "I should get going now. See ya later, Harry." And thus, she waaved goodbye and quickly exited the room.
Harry was still standing there, surprised and just a bit dumbfounded. He was looking at the blond witch, his thoughts of earlier suddenly coming back in his head, then he realized that if he was going to stand there like a stick, he would probably have to do it for a copious amount of time, since Luna didn't show any signs of changing her position, she was too absorbed in her own world to do just that.
So, he decided to take a few steps closer, until he was close enough to lightly tap the girl's shoulder. She slowly turned to face the boy, and then she looked up at him with the little smile she almost always wore on her face.
"Hello, Harry. How are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm… Fine, I guess. But, uhm, can I ask why are you here? Just being curious."
"I like to just think sometimes, about things. I just sit down and think. I usually don't notice things around me those times. Like now, I didn't even see you coming."
"You didn't see me? So you didn't see Cho either?"
"She was here? I'm sorry, I must have interrupted something, then." Harry, who caught himself looking at the same direction as Luna was, probably searching for that something he imagined she saw here, but now, he turned to face her from the side.
Was it that obvious?
It probably was, if she noticed it too, you idiot.
Or maybe she simply knows people by looking at them. She did occasionally make surprisingly accurate observations about people. After all, people would think that she doesn't really care about the world outside her, because she has her own fairytales to live in. And she does indeed has this 'other world', but she also occasionally noticed lots of things other people didn't. She was hard to figure completely out, but because of this mysteriousness that was definitely in her aura, she was definitely interesting to think about, to say at least.
"No, not really, we were just…" Harry tried to explain, but he himself didn't know just what exactly what he was supposed to say. This happened uncomfortably often lately. "You know what? It doesn't really matter. But, how did you know about this whole thing?"
"It's hard not to pay attention to something everybody talks about. Cho is my housemate, after all." she said, still looking at that mysterious point in the air she has been for long minutes. "And I can sense you're nervous around her. Either you like her, or you have a problem with the Wrackspurts around your head."
"What are… Wrackspurts, was it?"
"Oh, you didn't know about them? They're the things that fly all around your head, and they make you all fuzzy. You should know, you have a lot of them around you right now."
"Ah, okay." Harry didn't exactly bother to understand, he just put it aside as yet another quirk. "And, uh, what is it that you think about when you zone out like this?" he asked, but he didn't get an answer. He supposed Luna zoned out again, so he nudged her shoulder yet again.
"Oh, I'm sorry. What did you ask again?"
"What is it that you think about when you, uh, think about things? What are those things?"
"That? Everything and nothing. Sometimes I think about how strange the color purple is, sometimes I think about my Potions essay, or something like that. But if you were referring to what I was thinking about just now, I was thinking about you."
"Me? What about me?"
"All sorts of things, really. Like, how I enjoyed this DA meeting, or, like how your glasses are always broken, You know, it could be fixed with a simple charm. Do you want me to repair it?" she offered, still in her dreamy voice.
"No, I can do it myself, but thanks." he stopped to think for a moment. "Would it be strange if I told you that I was thinking about you too just now?"
"I'm surprised. People never really think about me. They just pass me like I'm not even there. Or they make fun of me."
"And don't you feel bad when they make fun of you?"
"Not really. At least not anymore, I got used to it."
"I think you should stand up for yourself. They won't leave you alone if you don't."
"Maybe. But I don't want to cause them trouble. You know, you're the first to tell me this."
"No one ever told you to do something about it? But you shouldn't just let them bully you, just like that."
"No, not really. But I trust you, Harry, so I guess I could try, I just don't know how."
"Just… You can always ask for help. Hell, you can talk about it to me if you want to. I understand. I speak from experience." He didn't exactly know why he shared this piece of information, since he never really talked about his childhood with anyone, because he thought no one would understand, and he didn't want people to feel pity over him. Maybe it was because she sometimes felt the same? Or she simply had a similar situation, even if she handled it differently, and he decided to trust her enough to talk about something the two of them both would understand.
He trusted her.
The term sounded a bit strange in his head, because he never really thought about just how many people he trusted, and on what level. His best friends, Hermione and Ron, of course, the whole Weasley family for that matter, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, hell, he even trusted Neville, he realized. He hasn't thought about it before, and he hasn't especially thought about how he trusted Luna too. And he did. He did trust her, deeper than he thought.
"Thank you, Harry. You're a good person."
"Thanks, I guess." A few moments of comfortable silence passed after that, while the two of them just stared at nothing in particular, busy with their own thoughts, when Luna finally talked.
"You know, you asked me what I was thinking about, and what I was thinking about you, in particular, so it's only fair if I ask you the same, right? What were you thinking about when you thought about me?"
"I… I don't really know, Luna. Just… things. I never really thought about you before, either. But now I did, for some reason, and I don't know what that reason is. And I simply can't get it out of my head, and that's strange. Just… I thought it was because it's almost the winter break and all, but I really don't know, and it's kind of annoying. I mean, you're not annoying, just not knowing why I suddenly started to think about you is. You get what I mean?"
"I guess. I haven't really thought about why I think about things, but it seems interesting. I don't think you need a reason to think about things, anyway. Thoughts just come naturally to me. Don't they to you?"
"They do. But sometimes, when I think about things I never thought about yet, they surprise me, and sometimes I try to find the reason behind it. It's really strange, you know."
"So you don't think my opinion is strange?"
"Not really, if I look at it objectively. I don't think your way of thinking is strange. You're not strange, you're just not the same as others. But I think that makes you valuable. To have your own opinion, to be the black sheep among the whites, I look up to those people, you know?"
"I guess. I never really cared about what other people thought about me. I just assumed they have their own world, which they see as they want. I think everybody's different in a way. You're also different. Like, famous people usually become selfish and overconfident, but not you. Most people don't believe your story of You-Know-Who, but you wouldn't lie about it. I believe you."
"Thanks. As you can see, there are not many people who believe the same." he let out a bitter laugh, which wasn't exactly meant to be, but still sounded surprisingly loud in the big room which was filled with silence before.
"Eventually they will, I imagine. No rumor lives forever."
"I hope so. Or else, we'll really be in a pickle, right?" he didn't get an answer to his kind of lyrical question, because Luna suddenly stood up, as if she forgot something important, which she probably didn't, because she wouldn't care about it much.
"It's pretty late, don't you think? We should get going. It was nice talking to you. See you later." Harry's brain didn't even register what happened until a few moments later, because it happened so fast, but Luna quickly leaned down and pecked Harry on the cheek, before hurrying out of the Room of Requirements.
Harry blinked a few times, then looked around, as if he was searching for something, then blinked a few times again, just to be sure he didn't imagine what just happened, and after that, suddenly realizing that it was indeed getting late, he finally stepped out of the room, and as effectively as he could, he hurried down the corridors.
"Where in Merlin's name have you been, Harry?" asked a very frustrated, but also just a bit worried Hermione Granger when the boy entered the Gryffindor Common Room.
"I… Long story. Like, really long. And I'm also kind of too tired to talk bout right now, so can we discuss this later? Please?"
"No, not this one, mate. Who cares if you're tired? We have time, right, 'Mione?" chimed in Ron too.
"You're right this time, Ron. I suppose it was Cho?"
"Surprisingly enough, no. I mean, technically, it kind of was her, but then it wasn't really. It was only partly her, but it was mostly somebody else. You know what I mean?"
"Not really, mate. What happened if it wasn't Cho, or, what happened to her so it suddenly wasn't her? You mean to tell me that you two didn't snog after the meeting after all?"
"Well, no. Not at all." At his answer, Ron pulled out a few sickles from his pocket, and reluctantly place dit in Hermione's hand. "Wait, you guys did a bet on me?" The other two just smiled innocently. "Ron, I understand. But Hermione? We're affecting you really badly." The other two simply laughed at that, and soon, Harry joined in too.
"You know, you still owe us a story about what happened." noted Hermione, after the trio cooled down a bit.
"I warned you, this is going to be a long one. So…"
A/N: Hm, this turned out interestingly, but I hope you enjoyed!
Reviews are always appreciated and cherished!
