A/N: More diversity and Harry Potter writing! Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge at the Basket of Books challenge forum, D9 - threeshot. And using a remi's OTP and an Aiko's favourite character, and somehow it all works. :D Enjoy!

Moonlit Scars
Chapter 1 - Before

The shaking came back towards the middle of the afternoon. Luna noticed it more than Lavender. It was inevitable. At the sixth toast slice falling off the plate, Luna gently took her hand. "Shall I feed you? I've heard the practice is ever so relaxing." She smiled, and reached for a slice of toast.

Lavender didn't mind the gesture, as rare as it was - or would become. She wondered if Luna even knew. Probably not, because Luna had been too busy dodging Bellatrix to see what occurred. She knew Harry knew. Harry who'd worn a gaze of sympathy and promised not to tell his friends - a promise she'd made him make because his friends included Ron and some part of her wanted to especially shield this new self from him.

Luna drifted closer, close enough that she reached out with the other hand to touch Lavender's ear. "I think I've felt a nargle or two," she said, brushing them away. "If it weren't for them, you would remember eating means you have to open your mouth first." Her fingers, slightly creamy with butter, touched Lavender's lips. "Come now, once you have it, the chewing isn't so bad."

Lavender obediently opened her mouth. Luna's touch lingered there: a warmth in her otherwise cold and brittle self. It felt like a band-aid almost, trying to patch up a wound too big for it and too big for gauze or a bandage too. Even too big for magic - and the war had taught them all too well how limited magic was.

Luna placed a small piece of toast between parted lips. Her fingers brushed the dry skin again and Lavender ate the warmth more fiercely than the food in her mouth. But then the touch was gone and there was only toast: slightly scratchy, slightly dry, but food nonetheless. She chewed. And there was sweetness in the bite. Honey. Funny how she ached for that touch again despite it.

Luna smiled and stood back. She scooted her chair over, an erratic magnet that found Lavender as compelling as the earth. With her other hand, she chewed on own toast, hers with a slightly tart marmalade. "Would you like some more? The more you eat, the less the fae are interested in you. They prefer prey who aren't already distracted, you see." She chewed and swallowed, thinking for a moment. "My owl is late." Luna regarded Lavender like she would know why. She pulled her wand from behind her ear and tapped the cups of orange juice. "I always like comparing father's paper to the prophet nowadays. They both ring such interesting bells."

Lavender reached for a cup of juice before she remembered the toast falling from her hands. Luna's free hand catches the wobbling cup and guided it to the other's lips. Every movement was gentle. Graceful. And to think they'd only laughed at her before. They both loved the same class, had the same mentor. They could have been friends if only she'd allowed such a thing before the war.

The juice trickled down her throat. It tasted bitter, unlike the honey and Lavender was sure it was only because the full moon's approach. It had tasted fine yesterday. She'd eaten by herself, in some lonely corner of Hogwarts because she hadn't wanted to be found.

That was before Luna found her.

And Luna was someone who seemed to enjoy finding things, be they people or her own shoes. She had barely set Lavender in a chair before running to pick up a strangely cracked pebble, calling it struck by lightning, or gathering the strewn garbage still gnarled in the Hogwarts grass from celebrating, and piling it up ready to sculpt. She didn't ask Lavender anything, just set out to do whatever she wanted, and avoided any harm.

There was no ulterior motive.

How long had it been since someone had been like that for her?

The war made her lose all sense of time, and the aftermath as well. Hogwarts still resembled Hogwarts, though the ghost mourned how little it reflected the castle of old. She'd heard it'd been almost totalled before the rebuilding. And through it all she'd been unconscious, healing. Surviving. And the other survivors, those that'd escaped with only scrapes and bruises and had nothing to do - or had loved Hogwarts too much - returned to rebuild it.

Perhaps they thought, when Lavender appeared in their midst, pale and scarred, that she too had come to rebuild this home away from home. Maybe Luna thought that too. Maybe tonight wouldn't tell. It probably would.

She slowly chewed with her thoughts. Luna's fingers brushed her lips more and Lavender savoured every touch moreso than the food. Though she knew she needed it, that warmth was what she wanted more.

So she couldn't be too disappointed when Luna's owl finally arrived and swiped the last of Lavender's toast.

Luna giggled. "Oh Ernest, I left you a stack over there. It has your favorite apple butter." She untied the paper and let her owl go, smiling over at Lavender like she had asked the most fascinating questions about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.

"Would you like some of mine?"

Lavender swallowed and nodded. The warmth, the food, all of it would be necessary to make it through the night without a blanket.