Set in the Half-Blood Prince at Slughorn's party


When he arrived in the entrance hall at eight o'clock that night, Harry was pleased to see that Luna was already waiting there for him. She looked more beautiful than ever, he thought, looking at her in her set of spangled silver robes, which were gathering a lot of funny looks and giggles from the on looking crowd. As she made her way towards him, Harry noticed that she looked upset.

"What's wrong, Luna?" he asked, a note of worry in his voice. He didn't want to think that someone had upset her. This embarrassed him slightly; he didn't want to think he was falling for Luna.

"I feel so stupid" she said miserably. "Everyone's laughing at me. You probably don't even want to take me to Slughorn's party, you're taking me out of pity."

"I am not just taking you from pity, you are one of my friends and I want you to come with me," Harry said, reassuringly. "Come on, we don't want to be late." And he took her hand and led her up the marble staircase.

Harry kept looking at Luna, noticing little details about her he notice before. Like how she had dusted her hair with glitter so it shimmered along with her dress. How she had left behind her radish earrings and her butterbear cork necklace. But somehow, Harry missed them. She always showed the unique, and truthful side of herself, and Harry liked her for that. 'Geez!' He thought to himself, 'Stop being so sappy! Don't you dare fall for her!' Because he knew he couldn't. One reason was because (and he knew Hermione would hate him for thinking it) was that he he'd get stared at and laughed at even more than usual. It was hard enough being 'the chosen one' these days, but 'Loony Lovegoods boyfriend' would be unbearable. And the other reason was that Neville was completely in love with Luna, but was too shy to say anything. If Harry went out with Luna it would break Neville's heart.

As they arrived at Slughorn's party, they saw that his office was magnificently decorated. Whether it had been built that way, or because he had used magical trickery to make it so, Slughorn's office was much larger than the usual teacher's study. The ceiling and walls had been draped with emerald, crimson and gold hangings, so that it looked like they were all inside a massive tent. Harry looked around and spotted Hermione and Cormac McLaggen, kissing under some mistletoe. Hermione was bright red but looked as though she was enjoying herself. Harry turned back round to face Luna.

"Do you want to get something to drink?" he asked her, politely.

"Yes, please. Some mulled mead would be nice."

Harry and Luna made their way over to a set of comfortable looking chairs, grabbing goblets of mead from roaming house elves with platters on the way.