Friends
For Luna, the best time of the year used to be when she was home. School was nice, she could take care of creatures, they always were good company. They also liked her, sometimes, during summer break, thestrals would come meet her in her garden. They probably also liked her place because at least, here, their mind was pretty much free of wrackspurts. Her dad always made sure to have protections all around the house.
Hogwarts truly was an amazing place with creatures or paintings. Actually, now that she thought about it, there was still that one painting on the fourth floor that she needed to talk to. It represented a young girl with a very serious face which reminded her a bit of Hermione and since Luna had decided to go talk to some paintings to discover their stories, she thought, "why not this one!". She smiled again thinking back at the stories she had learned so far. Paintings were incredibly interesting.
Luna had always loved Hogwarts for this king of things and even though her house was also full of fantastic things, it didn't even come near Hogwarts' collection.
However, she used to be better at home. At least here, her dad was there. And she could talk about nargles as much as she liked without everyone looking at her as though she'd gone mad. They all thought she didn't notice but of course she did. She didn't really mind though. She'd gotten used to it and, while it had bothered her at first, she was fine with it now.
Though, this year for the first time, she didn't feel better home. This year, she had actually managed to make friends! She felt a warm just thinking about it. And it was the main reason she had liked this year so much but now that it was over, she was missing them. Before then, she'd only ever missed her mom, that was why she had a picture of her in her room, next to her bed.
She turned her head to face the picture and that's when she had the best idea she ever had.
The girl hoped up from her bed where she was lying and out of her room to find her paint cans that she stacked on the basement. She really liked painting and had even become quite good at it. She also went looking for the stool that usually stood on the corner of the kitchen.
When she came back in her room, she looked up to the ceiling and smiled. She always thought it was way too blank. Since she didn't have any picture of her friends, she'd have to make them.
Luna stepped on the stool and started painting. She closed her eyes and pictured her friends. She could still see them perfectly, even though school had stopped two weeks ago already. And so she started.
The first one she did was Harry. He was the first one who made friends with her. Sometimes she couldn't believe that Harry Potter of all people had made friends with her but honestly, when everyone saw him as some kind of superhero, she thought he wasn't that extraordinary. But then again, he had decided to talk to her that everyone thought crazy, it must mean he was a very nice person. She didn't really care for the whole "boy-who-lived" stuff, he was just a guy nice enough to try to listen to her when she was talking about things he thought didn't exist.
His hair were pretty difficult to do, she thought, kind of... all over the place. She was careful to draw a lock of his hair that would he would try to bend forward to unsuccessfully hide his scar. After the hair, she did the eyes, those green eyes that she'd only ever seen on him, they were so special that seeing them on someone else, they would still be Harry's eyes.
Next to him had to be Hermione and Ron, his two best friends. And so she started with Ron.
It had taken the boy more time than Harry not to see her just as Loony Lovegood. What made him change his mind was his trust in Harry. If he saw Luna as his friend, then she couldn't be so bad. Then he slowly became nicer to her. Luna liked him a lot too. She thought he was very funny. He always made good jokes. She had also learned he had gotten mad at some people who were making fun of her. He hadn't told her and so it made her even more fond of him.
He was also much easier than Harry to draw. The only difficult part for him were the freckles. She did some on his long nose, cheeks and everywhere else. She finished by the soft pink color of his cheeks.
On the other side of Harry, she drew Hermione. Luna often wondered if her big hair was what blocked everything the younger girl ever said to her. Some people where like that but Luna was convinced it was her hair, it was so big and fluffy. She thought they were very pretty but she couldn't really like it if it was the reason she thought she was crazy, right? At the end of the year, she didn't tried to fight her anymore. Most people wouldn't take that as a proof they are friends but Luna knew better. Hermione would never not try to show how wrong you are if what you say doesn't goes along with what she read in her books. Except if you were her friends.
Luna painted her smile. She had very nice smile but it was getting difficult to see one. She was worried about Harry and worked to feel better. Her chocolate skin matched with her eyes while her hair was a few shades darker. Luna had always thought she was beautiful.
Next to her, Luna started Ginny. Ginny used to be one of those who made fun of her. She didn't really mind though, everyone did and Ginny never really was mean to her. She started to talk to her not long after Harry did and since then, she had been amazing. She never said she was loony anymore and jinxed anyone who said it to her face. Luna had told her that she didn't have to but it didn't stop her. The blonde girl suspected that she felt guilty for never standing up to her before and to make up for it, she did it now.
The hardest part to do for Ginny was the same than Ron's : the freckles. Her pinkish skin was framed by her smooth, long ginger hair. Her chocolate eyes were the darkest part of her face. Luna tried to shape the emotions on her face so that she would wear her usual fierce look but just a plain, genuine look of happiness.
The last person she did was Neville. She'd met him because he was close friend with Ginny and she immediately liked him. He was shy but he never had made fun of her. What she liked with him was that he would listen to her talking about anything and he was actually interested, would ask questions and help her look out for wrackspurts. But she also often listen to him ramble about biology. She had already dragged him a few times in the forbidden forest to find some of the plants he wouldn't shut up about.
The boy's hair were the easiest out of all she had already done as they were always well dressed. His skin wasn't as pale as it used to be so she painted him with more tan than the two Weasley siblings, he always seemed to have red cheeks though, so she added some red pigment there. The blonde girl put on his face the same look than he had when he was passionate about a plant he was talking about.
When she stopped, she realized she had finished so she laid back on her bed to see how it was looking. From her bed, the faces of her five friends were smiling warmly at her. She liked it a lot. But something was missing. So she took some golden paint, a very small brush and starting to write the same word over and over again, linking all of the five people together.
When she was done, she didn't feel so alone at her home anymore, and whenever she felt so again, she would look up to her ceiling to see those smiles surrounded by the word : friend.
Thanks for reading this! The cover is a fan art by m-aart, you can find the artist on tumblr. Also thanks for the beta reader QoBn_1 .