Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Harry Potter... or this would be published somewhere other than a free website! :)
Written for a Breakup Challenge... This is something I've always thought would be interesting to do but never had a reason to until now! :)
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy. Also... I feel like I have a hard time portraying emotion through words, and it doesn't come out right, so if you see that and have an CONSTRUCTIVE suggestions please let me know!
Things had reached a breaking point.
Luna didn't believe he had done anything wrong. Neville was too sweet and innocent to have done anything to harm her intentionally. But that harlot, Hannah—she was another story entirely.
Luna had warned Neville to stay away from her, but it wasn't as if he'd had too much of a choice. She was his assistant, after all. But that didn't mean that he had to talk to her. Not about anything other than the job, anyway.
It was obvious from the start that Hannah was after him. Luna saw the way she stared at him, gazing longingly into his eyes, his face. She knew, because she had once herself looked at Neville the same way. But she couldn't look at him that way anymore.
In a way, Luna blamed herself. It was her idea, anyway, to get cell phones. They were a Muggle device—quite fascinating, actually. You could send other people messages, much quicker than by owls. Text messages, they were called. Luna loved the Muggle gadgets; she thought the Wizarding and Muggle worlds combined created the most magical world of all. Luna didn't know, however, that Hannah would have a cell phone as well. And she didn't know what kind of pictures Hannah would take of herself on it. And she certainly didn't know Hannah would send them to Neville.
Her heart panged painfully as she thought about it. What need did Neville have to have nude pictures of Hannah on his phone? If Luna had ever received such profanity, she would have deleted it straight away. But for some reason, the scarring images still stared at her from Neville's phone.
Luna knew she had no right to look through his phone. But the hold Hannah was putting on Neville was driving her insane. She was his girlfriend. But Hannah continued to flirt with Neville—right in front of Luna—and Neville had let her. In Luna's mind, her search was perfectly justified. Neville defended Hannah, so there had to be a reason, right?
Of course, deep down Luna knew Neville had never actually cheated on her. He was too naïve to even notice Hannah's extra attention. But Luna had told him time and time again, yet he continued to let Hannah work for him, to fall all over him, to worship the ground he walked on. It was sickening.
Anger boiled inside of her. It wasn't fair. Was she not good enough for Neville? Maybe this was her fault, because she insisted on remaining a virgin. She wasn't stripping off for Neville. Maybe that's why he kept his pictures of Hannah.
Luna heard a pop! behind her and turned around. There stood Neville, in his cute, boyish innocence. But he could not be so easily forgiven.
He began to smile at her, but within a second saw the despair in her face. "What's wrong?" he asked.
Luna slowly held up his phone, showing him his own mistakes. A tear rolled slowly down her cheek. "Neville," she choked out. "What is this?"
Neville's face instantly paled. "I've been meaning to delete—"
"Save it," Luna cut him off. "I don't want to hear it."
Neville's expression softened, and he sat next to her on the bed they shared. "You know I would never do anything to hurt you, Luna. I'm sorry. I didn't ask her to send those. In fact, I told her that I didn't appreciate it."
Tears began to flow freely from Luna's eyes, down her cheeks and past her chin. "Neville, I can't do this."
"Can't do what?" he asked cautiously, afraid of what her answer might be.
"I can't compete with her. I'm sorry that I don't strip down for you, that I'm not your little whore, but I just—I just can't be that girl for you," Luna said.
"But that's not what I want!" Neville exclaimed. "I want you!"
Luna shook her head. "Are you still going to work with her?"
Neville appeared to be thinking. "Luna, dear, she didn't really do anything wrong."
Luna jumped up. "She didn't do anything wrong!" she shrieked. "You call her whoring herself to you not doing anything wrong?"
"Professionally, she didn't do anything wrong," Neville said. "I can't just fire her without reason."
Luna laughed, but unlike her normal, giggly chuckle it came out rigid and distraught. Instead of the normal, girly laugh, it came out like the laugh of a murderer, reveling in his own evils. "You have a reason. Me. Or, should I say, you had a reason. Because you don't have me anymore."
Luna turned on her heel instantly and Disapparated, leaving only the faint sound of Neville shouting, "Luna, wait!" behind her.
Luna succumbed to sobs as she walked along an abandoned street, falling to the ground. Her chest panged over and over, and she couldn't seem to stop the pain that was coming with her. Her breathing felt restricted—it was almost as if the pain had wrapped itself around her until her whole world was turning back.
Three months later
Luna looked through the mail that her owl, Nova, had brought her for the day. One particular envelope stood out, with delicate, tidy script across the front. She gently opened it and began to read.
Please join us in celebrating the union of Hannah Rose Abbott and Neville Franklin Longbottom on 4 November, 2000.
Luna dropped the paper like it had caught fire. This had to be a sick joke. She grabbed the paper once more and Disapparated.
She knew it would be hard to see him again, but there he was in front of her, staring at her in shock. She knew it was rude to Apparate into someone's house, but she didn't feel like etiquette mattered at the current moment.
"Is this some kind of joke?" she managed to shriek out, thrusting the paper out in front of her in a clenched fist, crinkling the paper.
Neville continued staring at her, as if a ghost had just walked into his life. "No," he finally managed to sputter out.
"Okay. Well then. I'll just be going."
"Wait," Neville said. Something in his face began to frighten Luna. She'd never seen Neville angry, but she was almost sure this was what it looked like. "You have no right to be angry at me," Neville said, his tone rising. "You left me. You chose not to be with me anymore. So what if I've moved on?"
"You are the one who chose not to be with me, Neville," Luna retorted, her temperature rising. "You chose her, over me! I was your girlfriend, and you didn't fight for me." The tears began to quickly fall down Luna's face, but she didn't let that stop her. "I asked you not to be involved with her, but you were. You kept nude pictures of her on your phone. You spent almost every waking minute with her. And she adored you. I told you that. But you still chose her." Luna began to sob openly. "I shouldn't really be surprised you're marrying her now, then, should I? It's stupid of me, really, not to expect it. You always adored her. Even when you were with me, you chose her." Luna fell to the ground, all the strength she'd had when she came here, gone. She hated herself for letting Neville see her this way. "What was the point, anyway?" she asked him.
"Honestly, there is no point, Luna," he said honestly. He ran his right hand through his hair, placed it on his cheek and stretched the skin of his face down, as if he were under an entire world of stress. "There is never a point with love, it just is." He walked over to where she was crumpled on the ground, and sat next to her.
"How could you do this to me, Neville?" she pleaded. Her voice broke. Her face, normally round and always containing a smile, was red. Her eyes, always bright with enthusiasm and knowledge, were swollen. Her blonde hair was in disarray. And though she should be unpleasant to look at in the current state, Neville still found her painstakingly beautiful.
Neville couldn't answer her, so she spoke again. "Why were you even with me, if you just wanted to be with her? Why would you tell me you loved me? Why would you stay with me, when you clearly desired her? It wasn't fair to me, Neville. I would have understood. It wouldn't have been so bad, if you would have been honest with me. But instead, you just secretly yearned for her. Instead, you broke my heart."
Pain crossed Neville's face. He was the type who always tried to help other people, and he couldn't bear to hurt anyone. Especially not Luna.
"When I was with you, I never even thought twice about Hannah," he admitted. "But when you left, it broke my heart, Luna. And Hannah was there for me when I was in the worst pain I've ever felt."
Luna shook her head and scoffed sadly. "So now it's my fault."
"I never blamed you, Luna," Neville said softly. "Honestly, I cannot blame you for what you did. If you'd done to me what I, unintentionally, did to you, I probably would have reacted the same way."
Luna nodded instinctively. A few moments of silence passed between them. Once the silence became uncomfortable, Luna spoke up. "You really love her?" she asked. She hated herself for asking, but she had to know the truth. She had to know if there was still a chance.
Neville nodded. "Yeah, I do. I do love her," he admitted.
Luna bit her lip and nodded. "Well, I'm happy for you, then. If you're happy."
"Do you think it was worth it?" Neville asked her suddenly. "Do you think I was worth it? You just seem so….unhappy. I hate knowing that I caused it. Do you regret us?"
Luna shook her head. "I could never regret you, Neville," she said with a broken smile. "You were the best thing that ever happened to me. Sure, I'm sad. But I'll be okay." Luna fought hard against the tears that were welling up in her eyes. "As long as you're happy."
There was silence once again, but if felt different. It felt empty. It was then that Luna knew it was gone. Neville really had moved on. There was nothing between them anymore; not on his end, anyway. She knew it was time. Time to let go. Time to move on.
"Well, I better go," Luna said, beginning to push herself up off the ground. "Congratulations." And with that, Luna walked away, leaving behind her one true love.