Written for Hogwarts Online Prompt week June 13-Friday June 19
Your choice of prompts for this week (Saturday, June 13th to Friday, June 19th):
Saturday – Luna/Neville
Sunday – Lost
Monday – "I'm not giving up until I draw my last breath"
Tuesday – Goodbye
Wednesday – Theme: Comfort
Thursday – Photograph
Friday – Sunset
Author's Note: Takes place 15 years after the war. Harry and friends helped rebuild Hogwarts, then some went on their own. Neville married Hannah, and Luna married Rolf. This takes place at Hogwarts, 17 years after the war.
Neville took a double take as he stared by the lake on his way back to the greenhouse. She was there; he was sure of it. He took a third glance. Long blond hair, pale skin. His old friend Luna had returned to Hogwarts. A feeling stirred inside him as he made his way to her. He once had feelings for Luna, but she didn't return the feelings. What was she doing back here?
"Hello," he said stopping just feet from behind her. She didn't look up.
"It's interesting isn't it?" She said staring at a photograph of a man on a river smiling, but not moving. Neville assumed it was taken with a muggle camera.
"What?"
"How someone you love can just be gone in an instant. I told Rolf not to go. I told him I had a bad feeling. I went to a psychic and even tried proving it to him!" She flung her hands up in the air out of anger, letting go of the picture.
He watched as her hands fell back to the side. She didn't pick up the picture, so Neville did. He held it in his hands.
A man was smiling up at him, sitting in a wooden canoe on a river heading towards sunset.
"Rolf. It was taken before he died." He heard her voice tremble in anger.
"I heard. I'm sorry," Neville said as he handed the picture back to her. "What do you mean you went to a psychic?" He asked.
"He told me he had a high paying client asking him to go to Sweden to look for-" she stopped. She couldn't even finish the sentence.
She paused a moment. Breathed in, and looked at Neville.
"crumple-Horned snorkack." She muttered. He could tell she felt foolish from the tone of her voice.
He tried his hardest not to laugh. He had heard of these creatures, and knew enough to know they don't exist. He also remembered that Luna went with her father one summer looking for them, but came back empty handed. He shook his head as he stared at the ground. He didn't want to bring it up.
"I know what you're thinking. I know you're remembering Hermione telling me they don't exist. I know you're remembering me going one summer with my father looking for them. This client had told Rolf he had proof. Rolf told me he was going to Sweden near a river and camp. He wasn't coming home until he found one. He said, and I quote " I'm not giving up until I draw my last breath. This will bring us gallons. GALLONS. We won't have to struggle anymore."
She grew quiet, picked up a pebble and threw it in the lake. As she did, tears fell.
"I didn't know you were struggling." Neville said.
"No one did. We kept it quiet. That's why I took this job. I needed it." Luna looked up from the lake and at Neville.
"One Tuesday morning in early Spring, it was our last goodbye. Only I wouldn't let him say goodbye. I was too mad and upset at him. I told him I had a gut feeling, a bad feeling something was going to happen. So I just gave him a kiss. I was right. His canoe tipped from something upsetting it, that something bit him. The crew he was with didn't have a single magical antidote. I mean, who goes into a quest without an antidote?" she frowned, sat on the ground and held her knees to her body hugging them. Neville walked over to her, sat down, and put his arms around her.
"Hannah died too. She got really sick after we bought the Three Broomsticks. I couldn't heal her. Neither could the healers at 's. No one knew what she had. Then she died."
"I heard you married her a few years after we rebuilt Hogwarts." Luna said through the tears. "You must be hurting too."
"I am. I know how you feel. It's been seven years now, and it still hurts. You'll have days where you hate the world and don't want to get out of bed. I still do. Then the sun will shine and make you feel a little better, maybe even remember a good memory. Then it'll make you remember this isn't how they would want you to live life, and you will get up."
"I know. I remember when my mum died. I just hate death so much." Luna said sadly as she stared at Neville.
They sat in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts, Each remembering the ones that died.
When the sun started to sink, Neville stared at the sunset.
"Neville," Luna said quietly.
"Yes?"
"On days when I hate the world, can I come to you for help?" She whispered as she looked up at him.
"Of course." He said giving her a half smile.
"When we hate the world. We can hate it together." He hugged her and let her cry into his shoulders as he watched the sun dip deeper saying goodbye to them.
special thanks to Wingedpanther73 for being my beta.