Notes: This little drabble takes place during OOTP. Almost cannon, but not quite: Harry's been banished from Quidditch earlier in the term and Hagrid isn't back from his Giant mission yet.
I don't own Harry Potter or any of it's characters.
"You miss it, don't you?"
Her sudden question broke the silence of the clearing, echoing faintly through the trees surrounding them. Harry's vacant stare snapped up from the textbook nestled in his lap to focus on the almost-silver haired girl standing a few paces away from him. She had stopped stroking the crest of a thestral to turn and peer down at him, her gaze discerning as always. As if she could melt away his exteriors and see straight to his most inner thoughts.
"Miss what?"
Luna considered him for another moment before turning her attention back to the whinnying thestral, her long plait swinging off of her shoulder.
"Quidditch." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, as if she was surprised he hadn't read her mind and realized what she meant in the first place.
Harry frowned at her back. She was right of course, but he'd be lying if he said he was used to her being able to read him like that. It was unsettling. Like a dream where he forgot his robes and had to go to class stripped down to his knickers.
"Well, yeah... I do."
His gaze fell back to his textbook without actually reading it, trying hard not to imagine the practice taking place on the other side of the grounds without him. His banishment from Quidditch wasn't the only thing causing him unneeded stress, rather it was just the icing on the cake. But without being able to participate in his favorite sport, he had no way to release the mounting anxious energy pooling in his bones. It was for that that reason that he had started accompanying Luna on her nightly thestral feeding ritual, well, when he wasn't in detention, though he had never voiced that fact aloud to her. And she never asked. Despite weekly D.A. meetings providing a small relief, he found it quite difficult to focus on his ever growing pile of O.W.L. studies when the view of the Quidditch pitch teased him from the common room window. And the library. And the great hall, for Merlin's sake. The clearing, the trees, the thestrals and Luna's gentle humming had in turn become something of a solace for him.
After a low sigh, he asked "How can you tell?"
She fished out the remaining chunk of raw meat from her sack and tossed it to the center of the heard. The lot of thestrals rushed towards it, tearing it to pieces with their sharp teeth. Luna watched them, head tilted ever so slightly, before turning and walking towards him in four long strides. The late autumn air swirled around her, pulling tendrils of her hair loose. They seemed to float as she sank down to the ground beside him, crossing her legs beneath her and facing him perpendicularly.
"Umber, told me." Her favorite thestral, who was now happily licking his chops. Luna tore her over the shoulder gaze from the inky black creature to meet Harry with earnest eyes. "He can read minds, you know." Her serious, wide eyed expression only held for a couple of heartbeats before a traitorous giggle fought its way to the surface. She tried unsuccessfully to conceal its tugging at the corners of her lips with her fingertips.
Harry groaned in mock annoyance, head falling back to rest on the tree trunk cradling his back, surveying the curious witch sideways through his fringe. Mind reading thestrals was apparently out of the realm of possibilities, but selkies having a monopoly on the cauldron industry on the other hand, that was plausible. He was positive he'd never fully understand Luna. Her expression sobered under his gaze, but she did not shy away from it.
"You seem tense... anxious. I can feel it rolling off of you in waves." Her uncanny ability to read him so easily once again left him feeling naked. Unable to meet her stare any longer he shifted his knees into his chest, his forearms forming a bridge a top for his chin to rest. His textbook slid off his lap, long since forgotten, landing closed with a slap.
If anyone else had said that, even Hermione who had with mixed results tried to coax him out of a sour mood plenty of times, he would've gone off on one. Luna's comment however wasn't prying in anyway, it was just that: a comment, an impartial observation. Feeling an odd and unknown urge overcome him, Harry rolled his thoughts around on his minds tongue; trying to arrange them properly before voicing them.
"Hogwarts is my... my – it's the only good place I've got." He swallowed the urge to choke up. It rolled down his throat painfully, slowly. "And first with Defense against the Dark Arts, and now Quidditch... there's nothing – she's taking away everything that makes it good."
He could feel her continued heavy gaze on him, but she did not speak right away. His confession hung stubbornly in the air around them and he wished that he could yank it back and shove it down where it had come from.
"All good things must come to an end." Finally, she muttered sagely. Harry sputtered, incredulous at her tactlessness; he had just voiced a personal and vulnerable thought, had been completely candid only to have Luna wave it off as nothing. He uncurled from his position and lurched towards her, fists curling at his side
"How could you – all good things must come to an end? Luna that's –" He spat, but she interrupted his oncoming onslaught with a delicately raised finger. Their voices clashed, until he relented to silence to allow Luna to explain herself.
"It's all a cycle, Harry. There must be bad in order for good to shine in contrast. Even though what we're going through now is terrible, Umbridge is in her good phase. Even if her version of 'good' is atrocious..." She grimaced, finally looking away from him, past his silhouette and out into the sunlight slowly sinking through the trees. "What I meant was that her good, too, must come to an end. We'll make sure of it, I know we will... I know that you will."
Her statement only helped minutely in diminishing the initial sting, and he met her now genuinely earnest look from back upon his forearms. Her perturbant eyes, normally glassy and out of reach were piercing, focused now entirely on the raven haired wizard glowering back at her. She gently knocked her knee against his ankle, as if to say, I'm sorry.
"How can you be so sure?" His voice was barely a whisper.
She sighed, looking down at her hands as her fingers twisted and intertwined. Shrugging lightly before returning his gaze once more with a small, sad smile.
"I have hope – that tomorrow will be better than today. Otherwise, how can we move forward?"
Harry could only blink at her, slowly digesting the query she posed. He didn't have an answer.
They sat in silence as dusk commenced, basking the clearing in a rosy hue. Gentle clips signaled them of the thestrals departure, venturing deeper into the woods for the night. The forest was spurring to life around them with critters buzzing and the faint sound of bat wings flapping in the distance. Without the warmth of the sun, the breeze tore through Harry's cloak, breaking the spell of his musings. Their conversation hadn't really made him feel any better, but the tight knot in his chest felt less sharp, duller than it had before. It was a start.
Silently, he gathered his book and stood, offering his hand to Luna. Grasping it, she followed in suit. Together they walked back up to the castle, the diminishing sunlight their only guide; darkness at their heels, wishing to swallow them whole.
Title is from [love is more thicker than forget] by e.e. cummings
I really enjoy the idea of Harry and Luna as a couple, their scenes together in the movies have so much chemistry. Especially the one introducing the thestrals; I can easily imagine the two of them starting some unspoken tradition of visiting them together. For this, I wanted to experiment with them in a less heavy romantic-wise setting, to kinda get a feel for their dynamic. Hopefully I captured it realistically, I feel like they would balance each other out: Luna calming Harry's emotional spurts and Harry being able to ground Luna a bit more.
Thank you so much for reading! I'm always open to suggestion/constructive criticism/ideas for continuing this. I have some inklings for more one-shots to add onto here later, but I can be slow as molasses sometimes. So don't hold your breath!
-M