A/N Hey, this was written for Macceh's Three AM challenge.
Enjoy, and don't forget to review!
A breeze wafted into the sixth year Gryffindor boy's room when the door opened just enough to let a small body in. She tiptoed around the room decidedly, knowing where to step to avoid creaks being heard. It would not do to be caught - not tonight.
After pulling aside the hangings to his bed, Luna took a moment to gaze at Neville's handsome face. His features were accented by the soft moonlight let in through the window. She sat down as gently as she could, intent on not waking him, her mind focused on something other than a fantastical creature for once. She resisted the urge to trace his face with her fingertips - it was surprisingly difficult.
Taking a deep breath, she readied herself. Collecting her thoughts - no easy feat, let me tell you -, she reached out and shook him by the shoulder.
At the last second, she remembered to cast a silencing charm. It was not a moment too soon, because immediately after, Neville awoke with a start.
"Wha? Who's there?" he asked, his voice heavy with sleep.
"Um, it's Luna" she answered, not quite sure what else to say.
Propping himself up on one elbow, he blinked a few times and narrowed his eyes at her in confusion. She felt as if she knew exactly what to say, but didn't know how to say anything. Normally, she would have blamed the Nargles, but being so close to Neville was making her mind feel strangely blank. She had no idea how to begin speaking, and he seemed to be waiting for her to do so. She decided to start with something simple.
"I'm sorry to wake you up, Neville, but I had to ask you something." she said, trying with all her might not to sound distracted, as she usually did. He rubbed at his eyes in a delightfully childish way, and Luna had to stop herself from grinning like a maniac. Instead, she decided to continue. "I had one thing to ask you, it's been keeping me up all night." she admitted, repeating herself, and then steeled herself to ask the aforementioned question "Why did you help me?" she asked, for lack of a better way to phrase it. Neville seemed completely and utterly confused - sleepy as he was - but seemed to remember.
"Are you talking about those Slytherins that were bothering you a few days ago?" he asked softly.
Luna nodded. She remembered it vividly, although she tried not to. It was not pleasant being kicked around. She remembered their positively gleeful expressions at her cries of pain. She remembered the names they had called her and the way that they had spoken about her as if she wasn't there.
Goyle sent yet another kick to her ribs, athough - thenkfully - this one wasn't as hard as the last few.
"D'you know what I love, Goyle?" the one named Crabbe - or so she gathered from the conversation - asked. Goyle shrugged, but smiled in a way that showed his teeth menacingly towards Luna, who was on the floor, as if to say 'whatever it is, it has to do with hurting you'. "I love putting people in their rightful place. Do you know where this one's" Crabbe thrust a sausage-like finger in Luna's direction "rightful place is?"
Goyle got a sinister look, as if to tell Crabbe that he did indeed know.
Crabbe continued anyway, more to discomfort Luna than to inform Goyle.
"It's rightful place is-"
Luna didn't get to hear the rest of his sentence, although it would come back to haunt her. Her 'rightful place was...?'. At that moment, something hit Goyle's back, and he let out a very low 'oomph'. Upon further inspection, the two boys found a small, medium sized rock. They looked around, trying to find the person who dared hurt them. They continued further and further down the corridor, until she almost couldn't see them. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to figure out a way to get herself out when all of a sudden, a shadow fell upon her, and she instinctively looked up, although if it was Crabbe or Goyle, she would most likely regret that decision. It wasn't. Instead, Neville was there, fussing over her split lip, the bruise on her arm. He told her in hushed whispers to go away, that he would deal with the Slytherins, should they come back.
Luna took his advice and hightailed it out of the corridor, not breaking her sprint until she reached the entrance to her common room.
That had been exactly one week ago, and it seemed that Crabbe and Goyle had never found out that it was Neville. It had been exactly a week since she could walk through the corridors alone, exactly a week since Neville had saved her from Crabbe and Goyle. She shuddered now, seven days later, just thinking about what they might have done to her, had Neville not decided to step in. That led her to wondering why Neville had stepped in. Sure, he was Gryffindor and they were known for being brave, she couldn't believe that he had put himself at such risk just to help her. If the roles had been reversed, she found herself disgusted to realize that she might not have done the what was right, and might have turned a blind eye to the whole thing. That was why she was now in his room, in the dead of the night - although she had been beyond scared on the walk here -, and waiting for him to justify his actions.
He seemed confused again. "Are you angry that I saved you?" he asked, perplexed. Luna almost vomited at the thought of wanting something like that to happen to her.
His eyebrows furrowed even more at her disgusted expression, creating deep lines in between his brows.
"I just need to know why you risked your own safety to save someone you don't know." she explained, taking deep breaths to stop from bursting into tears. It was scary thinking about it, and she tried her hardest not to, instead choosing to watch Neville formulate his answer in his head. It didn't take long.
"I would never let something like that go on, even if it had been Voldemort. It isn't some Gryffindor quality that I possess that pushed me to act the way I did. I would have saved - or tried to save, anyway - anyone. I think it would have been easier to help someone I didn't know at all, because I was so frightened - not for my own safety - but for you. It scared me to think that they might think you had somehow moved the rock, and that they might hurt you because of it. That was my only concern."
Luna felt on the verge of tears. She couldn't believe how kind and sincere Neville was.
Upon seeing her tears, Neville awkwardly wrapped an arm around her, in an attempt to comfort her.
"Thank you." she told him. "If it hadn't been you that had passed us, I don't know where I would be right now. I-I really owe you for this."
He took her chin in his hand, and gently pulled it so she was looking him in the eye. He was deadly serious.
"You owe me nothing." he told her. "I did it because I wanted to, not because I wanted some favour from you. Please believe that. I don't want you to do anything other than forget all about them."
She burrowed her face into his chest, feeling safe here, in his arms. If he wanted her to forget, she would do it. It would be the hardest thing she had ever had to do, but she would try her best to come to terms with what happened - or almost happened - and forget about it.
"Nevile?" she asked.
"Yes?" he answered, sleepily.
"Do you think Harry will win the war?"
"Yes! We can't doubt Harry, unless we want him to fail. He might not be perfect, but when the time comes, I will fight with him, not against him." Neville was instantly defensive. Harry was going to win, no one would make him think otherwise.
"As will I." she assured him. Luna opened her mouth to say something else, but Neville - rather uncharacteristically - interrupted her.
"Do you really think three in the morning is the appropriate time to be discussing this?" he asked "I don't know about you, but I'm tired." Try as he might, he couldn't kick her out of the room. "Would you like to stay the night?" he asked, a bit uncomfortable.
"Yes, thank you." she said, a touch desperately. She hoped she didn't sound as pathetically relieved as she felt. He moved over, to give her some space, but on the small bed, they ended up pressed up close to each other. Luna, oblivious to Neville's discomfort, turned away from him, taking care not to move the blanket from him, and closed her eyes.
Of course, now he couldn't sleep. Not wanting to interrupt her sleep - she didn't look as if she had gotten much recently - he settled on staying still, but observing her.
He had to admit that she was beautiful, although - even in sleep - she seemed troubled. Neville admired her for not being an emotional wreck after everything, and having the guts to come up to talk to him in the middle of the night.
His hangings were still pulled back slightly, and he almost sighed at the sight in front of him. Her face seemed to glow from the light of the moon. Entranced, he couldn't stop his fingers from reaching out to map out her face. He traced the slight curve of her cheekbones, and outlined her mouth with his fingertips. He followed the contours until he reached her ear. He froze as she began to fidget, but relaxed when she only pressed her cheek into his palm.
That was how they awoke the next morning, Neville's hand on Luna's cheek. His arm was thrown over her rather carelessly, and throughout the course of the night, they had gravitated towards each other. She shot him a grin when she woke up, and he was so startled that he sent one right back.