A/N: Written for Hawkflight7 as part of the Monthly One-Shot Exchange (APRIL 2016)
Prompts Used: Cat's Cradle, paint
Word Count: 1124
This is meant to be a character study of Luna before we get to see her for the first time in Chapter 15 (?) of OoTP.
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Listen To The Falling Rain
There had been a time when she had been as normal as others. She had been more healthy and her hair had been much shorter and maintained much better. Those times were long gone by now; now she was the oddball, the quirky and mad one.
She was the one whose head was always getting lost in an air of mysterious forces. She was the one who believed in strange and unheard of creatures. But they did not know anything. They were ignorant and they did not dare look past the realm of reality and into the depths of imagination.
"Never give up on imagination, and more importantly, never allow anyone to tame it," her mam had used to say.
She remembered a lot about her mam. Her name was Pandora and as far as Luna was concerned, she had been the best mother in the entire world.
She had very kind blue eyes and a brilliant smile. She had used to braid her long golden hair and put daisies into it. She made the best pudding and she told her fairytales at bedtime and taught her a Muggle game called 'Cat's Cradle'. She also took her out to play in the pouring rain and told her to listen to it because 'it was the best sound in the entire Universe'.
Until one day all changed.
It had been a pleasant enough day with a shining sun and a cool summer wind. Luna had just come back from the Weasleys and she was tired from all the running Fred and George had made her do. She was also a little angry at Ron Weasley because he had teased her. The door was open and she had right away climbed up the stairs to go to the attic, where she knew her mam would be, trying to make new spells with her wand. She knew it was dangerous work.
She had just started to peer in when there was a very loud bang and an unearthly flash of pale blue light that startled her completely. For a few moments, she just stood where she had been standing, shocked and silenced. When she entered the circular room, she found her dear mam lying on the floor, her mouth open and her brilliant blue eyes unblinking and lifeless.
Luna was not a fool and she knew what had happened. So she cradled her mam's head in her lap and wept until her eyes went dry. Daddy found them like that when he came back from his office in the evening.
"I am so sorry, Moonbug," was all he could say as he dropped to his knees beside her and wept himself.
After that day, Luna Lovegood changed.
The funeral had been a very quiet affair with just the two of them and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in attendance. She had refused to cry more.
A few months after the funeral, she covered the blank white walls of her room with blue paint. She was sad and there was no other way to express it.
The babbling about the strange creatures came first— Nargles and Wrackspurts and whatnot. It was her grief speaking; her mind making up imaginary friends to make up for the fact that her best friend— her mother, had gone away and was never returning. The tangled mess of hair and bony features followed shortly after it. It was her grief showing out, leaking from the edges.
And so it came to be known that Luna Lovegood was something strange and insane and someone not worthy of association and friendship.
''''''''''''''''''''''''
In her second year, she had seen the Thesthrals driving the carriages. Nobody present with her could see them and she did not tell them to look at them. She knew that they would just taunt her, not that it had stopped her before, but somehow, telling others about these magnificent creatures felt like spilling a secret.
When she alighted the carriage, she found a dark haired boy who was looking at the Thestrals and not through them. Luna recognised him to be a third year called Theodore Nott. She wondered if he had seen his mother die like she had seen hers.
''''''''''''''''''''''''
It was a starry night and she was not in the Great Hall like she had wanted to be. It was Christmas and she had not gone home due to the excitement of the Triwizard Tournament and the Yule Ball. Daddy dotted upon her and he had sent a lovely purple dress for her to wear to the Ball. The dress had been her mam's but he had very cleverly shrunk it in size so that it would fit her.
She had asked a lot of people nonchalantly and they had all outright refused to accompany her. "As if, Loony," a boy had said and laughed. Her friend, Ginny Weasley, was going with Neville Longbottom, she thought a little bitterly. Why couldn't anyone have agreed to go with her? However, she did not linger on the question for too long. She knew her daddy would not want her to be unhappy today. She had seen far worse Christmases, anyway.
Luna donned the purple dress and wore a yellow pullover over it and walked all the way to Hogsmeade. It was a Sunday but the gates were open for all those in third year or above. She supposed it was some kind of consolation for all those who had not been able to score a date to the Yule Ball. There were all kinds of students walking in the street. The shops were not as full as they used to be on Hogsmeade Saturdays, but people were there.
A group of some seventh year Ravenclaws she recognised were making rockets emerge from the tip of their wands, causing the black sky to be covered in iridescent hues.
She smiled and skipped towards the snow covered grounds. Luna lied in the snow, not caring that her clothes were getting dreadfully wet and soiled in the process and that she could catch pneumonia. She spread her arms and legs and watched the stars glowing up above peacefully.
She knew her mam was watching her back and that was what she needed.
''''''''''''''''''''''''
It was raining. It was pouring. A storm was brewing.
The girl could barely suppress her grin. As soon as classes got over, she ran outside and danced to her heart's content. When she eventually got tired, she sat on the freshly washed green grass and looked at the grey clouds lolling tempestuously in the sky.
And if she tried hard enough, she could hear her mam telling her in her sweet and gentle voice, "Listen to the falling rain, Luna."
-end-
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I know, not the best.