Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own anything.
Meh. This was for some contest on dA. I won. But I still think it's crap.
She had always been home for Christmas. She had never before had reason to avoid her home, particularly not during the holidays. Yet here she was, alone and cold, counting her money with quaking hands outside the Leaky Cauldron. She had hardly enough money for a room, let alone a bite to eat, and no courage to get help.
Luna Lovegood had worn blue the day her mother died. That entire day was a light shade of blue in her memory.
Blue winter. The Lovegoods had rented a muggle's cabin for the holidays. The nearby river was said to harbor a rare creature, one her parents were determined to see and study. The river was coated with a layer of ice. Luna remembered pulling at the sleeve of her mother's warm wool coat, begging for a closer look. She wanted to see it. All her friends made fun at her family's hobbies, called her names, pointed fingers. Now they would prove them wrong – now here would be some proof. The water rushed by under the ice – the ice was clear, but everything within the water was painted a vibrant blue by the coating.
"Now, now, Luna." Her mother's voice was like silk. Sweet, light – it floated on the crisp air. Whenever she remembered her mother, that voice alone would bring tears to her eyes.
She did not understand why her mother would hold her back from the river. Was this not the reason they had come? To get close, to see the beast? She pushed away from her mother's grip, and fell.
Blue sky. She saw it as she fell onto her back. Luna slid rapidly, down the bank, onto the ice. There was hardly a crack, but she fell through. Cold shot through all of her senses. The shock of the water against her skin, the scent of her fear, the taste of blood as she bit down on her lip – everything happened in an instant. She hardly realized that she was falling through. Half of her body was submerged when the current slammed her head against the edge of the hole she had made, and then she was sucked under.
Blue eyes. The eyes of her mother were the last things she remembered before going under completely.
Had she been conscious, she would have seen magic blast away the ice that had swallowed her. Her mother ran along the bank, wand swinging wildly. She cast one last spell before putting the wand in her mouth and jumping in. The current carried her faster, and she had Luna in her grasp quickly, powered by a few lucky spells. She cast a bubble around her daughter, but the magic of Anne Lovegood was lacking, to say the least. In the rushing river, she could hardly control her shaking hand to levitate her daughter to the bank. She swam against the current to make sure her daughter would not slide back in. She could not scream when her neck was broken by a low-hanging branch.
Blue tears. Luna sat, crying. Five days before Christmas. She was numb, robbed of that childish holiday joy. Everything was numb. Her father was there with a blanket, wrapped it around her. It was blue. How she hated that color. She would always hate it, always. It was a painful color. A color with teeth. The teeth of a river that had swallowed her mother, her sweet mom. It had not been her fault. It couldn't be. Her father said, over and over, the creature had pulled her in. That was all. Father and daughter lost themselves in fantasy, chasing beasts that had taken their love.
Christmas was no day for celebration, no day for family.