DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.
When people spoke to her, she did not reply. They showed her food, but she didn't eat.
All those things took too much energy now, too much strength. The woman that spoke, the one that ate, was the woman that once was, not the one that now was.
Do you know why I gave you your name, sweet?
Crying took energy, too. But she couldn't stop herself from doing that.
She lay in his bed, pressing her face into his pillow.
She couldn't say goodbye.
She couldn't, because he was gone.
They had said to her that it didn't matter, the fact that she had never gotten to say goodbye. He loved her, they said, and she loved him and he knew that.
But he would never have let her die without saying goodbye.
I gave you your name because you were the only light in my life. Your mother was on the verge of death for weeks before and after your birth, and I thought I was losing everything.
She knew what that was like, losing everything. She knew now.
Why didn't you name me after the sun, daddy, if you wanted to name me after the light?
The moon is different from the sun, Luna. It reminds us during the night, when it's dark, that there is always light. We don't need that reminder in the daytime, you know. It's always light then.
I don't mind the night, daddy.
I suppose that's the real reason why you're the moon, then!
They used to talk about light and dark a great deal. Luna's father had a philosophy about this (as indeed, he generally had about everything).
"Light is the complete opposite of darkness, Luna," he told her. "And it's stronger, too. Did you ever open a door into a dark room on a sunny day? The dark doesn't swallow up the light, and they don't co-exist.
"Why, that's you, my dear!" he would sometimes add. "That's you! You walk into a room full of people and just brighten them up, my Luna!"
How could light become so dark, then, if light was the complete opposite of dark, and if Luna was supposed to be light?
Light equalled happiness and dark equalled grief.
Luna's father had named her after the moon, because he said she was light in a dark place. That was who she was, that was who she had always been.
So who was she now? If only she knew!
At least she knew it was true, that light and darkness could not coexist. She had been swallowed up by the dark and there was no more light in her world.
Assignment requirements: We are going to focus on that mutual exclusivity of opposites. For this assignment, write about something being completely one thing or another, never both.
Dual Nature: Light and Dark