Bee's Wing
This is a song fic and a one shot. I do not own the characters or places mentioned in this fic and the song is called Bee's Wing and I'm not sure who wrote it but I know Christy Moore sings it.
If you havn't heard this song, you need to! It really is a beautiful song and whenever I hear it I think of Luna and Neville. This fic has been floating around my head for a while and I finally wrote it!
I was young when I came to town; they called it the summer of love
They were lighting cauldrons, burning flags
The owls against the doves
I took a job at the quill shop
Down on cauldron street
Fell in love with a wizarding girl
That was working next to me
Neville Longbottom looked down at his scrawled writing. It had been 18 years since that summer. In some ways it had felt like a life time and in others no time at all. His friends had told him 18 years was long enough, it was time to forget about her. But he didn't want to forget. He never wanted to forget her and their time together. He had loved her for so long and he would keep on loving her forever. And that's why he was writing it all down. He couldn't let himself forget.
Of course he had known her long before that summer. They had been friends at Hogwarts; he liked to think they had been close. She had been one of the few people who had encouraged him at the DA meetings. And they had worked together in his 7th year, keeping the DA running.
He had got the job at Jerry's Quality Quills, nearly a year and a half after he had left Hogwarts. He had lost touch with her by then. He could remember just how happy he had been, to discover Luna Lovegood would be working alongside him, just like the good old days. She had looked... good.
Blonde hair flowed around her face
She had a look of dreamy surprise
Like a fox caught in the headlights
There was animal in her eyes.
His description didn't do her justice, but he couldn't find the words. She had always been beautiful, even at Hogwarts, but then she seemed different. Her hair was still long and curly and she had worn it tied back while she worked. Her eyes had seemed still so childlike, so innocent and curious, and mischievous. She still wore the radish like earrings and the cork necklace.
From their very first conversation, they just clicked. They got on so well and it was so easy. Neville still had got terribly nervous when talking to girls, but with Luna... he had felt like he could tell her anything and she would just smile dreamily and accept it. As soon as his first day was over, he asked her out.
She said to me "can't you see I'm not the normal kind?
If you don't take me out of here
I'll lose my mind"
Their first date had been amazing. Luna had taken control and taken him all over muggle London. Despite having two wizarding parents Luna seemed to know muggle London like the back of her hand and showed Neville things he had never seen before. She had taken him to his first ever film in a cinema. They had joked around, throwing popcorn at each other and Neville had been enchanted by the film itself. Luna had taken him to the London eye and because it was nearly midnight it was all lit up and beautiful. Neville had always hated flying because of his fear of heights, but on the eye, with his arms wrapped around Luna, he felt on top of the world. When they reached the highest point Luna turned her head and had kissed him for the first time. They had only met each other again that morning, but Neville had known then, he wanted to marry that girl. They had stayed together all night and well into the morning.
She was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine, a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child
She was running wild
She said "so long as there's no price on love, I'll stay
You wouldn't want me any other way"
That had been her only condition. She would be happy as long as he didn't ask for or take too much. He knew Luna was unlike any girl he had ever met, she was special, and she was unique and for as long as he could keep her, she would be his. But it had been this kind of thinking that had caused him to lose her.
We busked around the market towns
And picked fruit down in Kent
We could conjure pots and pans
Or knives wherever we went
They spent the next 6 months together, always together. They travelled from town to town. They had little money but neither of them cared. They loved each other and that was all that mattered. Neville had never been so happy. Remembering it now, Neville still sighed with an ever constant longing. He had wished they could've stayed young and free forever and ever. But that wasn't the kind of person he was. And no one can fight the clock.
Neville was 37 years old now. He taught Herbology at Hogwarts. It was a stable and reliable career choice. Luna would've said it was too safe. It was the summer holidays so he was in his little flat, the same flat where he and Luna had shared for a brief time. He had never left it. The ever present memories of Luna, kept him returning every school holiday.
It had all ended because Neville grew up before Luna. Neville's thoughts had turned to the future. He wanted to marry Luna. He had wanted to buy a house and have children together. He had wanted to send his kids to Hogwarts. He had wanted to grow old with Luna, her hand always ready to hold his. He had wanted to spoil their grandchildren and he had wanted to tell them all of his and Luna's adventures. All of his dreams had involved and starred Luna. He still longed for those things. But she hadn't been thinking the same thing. She had loved him, but she already felt like it was time to move on and that he loved her too much.
I said that we might settle down; get a few wards set up
A fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug
She said "Oh Neville, you foolish man, it surely sounds like hell.
You might be lord of half the world
You'll not own me as well!"
They had a lot of arguments about it. He had wanted to move forward, to the next stage of his life, but that wasn't what Luna wanted at all. She constantly reminded him she had given him fair warning. She wasn't the normal kind and the price for Neville's love was getting too high. Maybe if he had wanted different things or if she had... maybe it would have ended differently. But Neville loved her too much and he refused to let go.
Oh, she was a rare thing, fine as a beeswing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child
She was running wild
She said "so long as there's no price on love I'll stay
You wouldn't want me any other way"
Then after weeks of shouting arguments and passionate apologies, she left him.
We were drinking more in those days
Our tempers reached a pitch
Like a fool I let her run away
When she took the rambling itch
They had been living in the flat and Neville was working in Madame Malkin's temporarily. Only until they decided what they were going to do. That morning, they had had a particularly nasty fight. Luna had told him she was leaving. She shouted that he was asking too much and she didn't want those things. He had shouted in reply, the only reason he wanted those things was because he loved her so much. He had told her just how much she meant to him and how much he loved her. He had thought they had made up and he left for work. When he had returned that evening, she was gone. The idea of settling down scared her and he wouldn't see her again.
The last I heard she's living rough
Back on the Derby beat
Wand in her hip pocket
A nargle at her feet
At the beginning of their relationship, Luna had told him her dream. She had wanted to prove to everyone that all the creatures' people dismissed as her absurd musings were real. So whenever he heard of how her life had taken a turn for the worst, he liked to imagine that no matter what happened to her, her little creatures were always with her, maybe as a source of comfort. But then he could never remember which ones where meant to be dangerous. He hated thinking of her alone, but when he heard about the other guys she was with, he felt even worse.
They say she even got married once
To a man name Rolf Scamander
But even a wizard's caravan
Was too much like settling down
When he had heard this, it had nearly crushed him. She had got married, but it hadn't been to him. It was that that hurt him the most. The marriage hadn't lasted long but another guy had still managed to get her down the aisle.
They say her flower is faded now,
Hard weather and hard booze
Maybe that's the price you pay
For the chains that you refuse
He was sure this rumour wasn't true. He couldn't ever imagine Luna's spark dimming.
Neville looked over what he had written. He sighed. He missed her every single day. No other girl had ever shone like Luna; no one else had made him feel like a thousand galleons. He pushed the little brown, leather bound book away from him and he closed his eyes. Like always, it was still Luna's face he saw.
The doorbell rang and Neville jumped. He went and opened the door. It was raining heavily outside and the person at the door was absolutely drenched. It was a woman. She was about 35, 36. Her long blonde hair still reached her hips, and Neville knew that when it was dry it would be curly. She looked older and her face had a look of worry Neville had never seen before on it.
"I hoped you'd still be living here" she whispered.
"I couldn't bear to leave" Neville gulped. His eyes were fixed on hers. She was as beautiful as she had ever been, but he had to admit, she looked battered and worn.
"So long as there's no price on love, I'll stay" Luna Lovegood said.
"I wouldn't want it any other way" Neville beamed and wrapped his arms around her wet form. And when they kissed Neville knew he was never letting her go ever again.
Behind the pair, the brown leather bound book was still open. The last paragraph Neville had written was still inked wistfully on the page.
She was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
I miss her more than ever words can say
If I could just taste all of her wildness now
If I could hold her in my arms today
I wouldn't want her any other way.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear what you guys think :)