"It's over, then?" Luna whispered, her silvery eyes wide as ever, as she settled in with Neville a few feet away from a group of signing Hufflepuffs.
"I s'pose so," said Neville. "And, um, I wanted to tell you that, um, I love you, and… thanks."
Luna looked surprised, though the stunned look quickly vanished. She beamed at him. "Thank you, Neville! That's very nice of you to say. I love you, too! As a friend, of course. You were very brave."
"You were, too," he told her, trying not to sound too shocked by her reply. "I can't believe—well, I can—Malfoy Manor, really?—wow."
"It wasn't very good there," Luna agreed. "But Harry came, and the others. Are you fine? You stood up to You-Know-Who, and you killed his snake."
"Yeah…"
Luna's protuberant eyes seemed to pop from her skull even further as she seemed to have been struck by an important thought. "How was Dumbledore's Army while I was gone? You said a bit before, but not much."
"Well," Neville began. "It wasn't quite the same without you. I mean, you were really important to us. And well, with you gone… It was just me and Ginny to lead, and…"
"But then Ginny left, didn't she? Easter?" Luna prompted.
"Yeah, and then it was just sort of me and the rest of the D.A., and I sort of became a leader. Merlin knows how—"
"You're a very good leader," Luna interrupted. "You just don't see it. Which is odd, because most people as good as you are looking for a compliment when they say that… I think that's why you're such a good leader. Harry's sort of like that, too, isn't he?"
Neville nodded slightly, looking a bit embarrassed, and Luna then said, "Oh, you can go ahead."
"And a few Hufflepuffs helped out. You know Hannah Abbott, from my year? She was a huge help. And there were a few others… Seamus Finnigan… Collin…"
"You love her, don't you? Hannah, I mean." Luna paused for a moment, apparently in deep thought. "But not like me, of course. And maybe you just fancy her a bit now… But you quite like her."
Only Luna could make such an assumption moments after a declaration of love that seemed to point rather in the opposite direction. As wild as her theories of nargles and Heliopaths were, this surely took the cake. Hannah Abbott was far further from Neville's idea of a girlfriend than Luna was. Hannah was, of course, a very good friend, but it was impossible to imagine.
Seeing Neville's startled expression, Luna took this as the moment to elaborate. "I think she fancies you as well. You two always looked much happier talking together. And she's really nice. I don't think she's ever once called me Loony, or been rude to you either." She stared at Neville for a while, her anxiousness for a response quite evident in her silvery eyes.
"I dunno," said Neville. "She's just sort of a friend."
"I guess that might be it," said Luna. "Though it doesn't really seem like it." She shrugged, and played with a strand of dirty-blond hair.
Neville took the opportunity to search quickly through the group of Hufflepuffs singing the chorus of their song for what must have been the tenth time. He wondered if Hannah was in the group somewhere. It was rather large. She could be anywhere amidst the crowd of singers.
He rather wondered if this were in fact normal behavior. He hadn't considered for a moment the possibility of something more than a platonic relationship with Hannah before a few seconds ago. And now it was sounding quite possible indeed…
Luna seemed to notice the sudden change of heart as well, for she focused once more on Neville, though did not speak. She seemed to be waiting for a response. She did not, however, get one until she herself spoke up.
"So, if you want to," said Luna, "you can go over there and talk to her. Would you mind if I came with?"
"Oh—" Neville said, not expecting such a question. "I don't know that she'll want to talk to me."
"Of course she will, Neville. You're wonderful. And if she didn't see it before, I'm sure she'll have noticed now."
Neville had to stop himself from saying, "What?" He was quick to cover up the pathetic question with, "Maybe later. She won't be in the mood to talk, will she?"
"If you mean because of everything that's happened," Luna said, "I don't think you're quite right. You know, I think she'd much rather sit down and really talk than simply chat with a few friends."
"Well—"
"So, I think I'll go over there. If you want to as well, go on ahead."
Neville did.
Talking with Hannah wasn't torture. At least, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. He thought he would feel his face growing to a startling shade of fuchsia. He did not. He thought Hannah would tell him that she didn't need his company. She did not. He thought Hannah and Luna would be so busy talking that he would be left out. They were not.
In fact, it all went fairly smoothly. Hannah seemed very happy to see Neville and Luna too. And if Neville were going to be completely honest, he was very happy to see Hannah as well.
"I'll see you around, Neville," Hannah said after a while. "At least, I hope so. But I think I just saw Susan, so I'll have to go. I thought something had happened to her." She paused, and Neville wondered if this were simply her way of telling Neville to leave. However, Hannah spoke up once more after a few minutes. "We should get a Butterbeer sometime," she said, which almost definitely disproved Neville's theory.
"Well," Luna said brightly as Hannah vanished from view. "That went very well, didn't it?"
"Yeah."
AN: So this is short, and not very polished. But I couldn't leave it for another day. Just consider me a saint for publishing anything during NaNo. Both movie and book canon were used, if you were confused. And yes, I do know that movie!Luna has white-blond hair. I also know that book!Luna has dirty-blond hair. So if there was any confusion on that, that's cleared up as well. I hope you enjoyed. By the way, I seem to be very fond of Hannah lately. Maybe I'll publish my all-dialogue experiment with her later in the week or something. Depends if I'm happy with it. Well, thanks for reading. Feedback as always is much appreciated, though I'm quite happy just knowing you're reading it.