AN: one shot written for the QLFC week 2

Position prompt: BEATER 1: Virgo (August 23-September 22). Virgos are logical, practical, and systematic in their approach to life. This earth sign is a perfectionist at heart and isn't afraid to improve skills through diligent and consistent practice. Write about a character(s) striving to attain their concept of "perfection" OR write about a character(s) who is usually logical, practical, and systematic meeting someone the exact opposite of them: illogical, impractical, and spontaneous.

Additional prompts used:

Prompt 9: (dialogue) "If the grass is greener on the other side, you can bet the water bill is higher."

Prompt 10: (quote) Knowledge is realising that the street is one-way; wisdom is looking both directions before crossing anyway.

Prompt 13: (phrase) holding your head high

Prompt 14: (emotion) regret

Prompt 15: (word) passion

Thanks to my fellow Puddlemere united team members JBrocks917, GrangerBlackPotter and SilvermistRuhi for beta-ing.

Looking back, I can't say that I regret anything about my life, as everything that I've been through has made me who I am. However, there were points in time when life wasn't perfect, and I had regrets. Now I'm happy with who I am, and I can hold my head high, looking back at the life I've lived so far.

When I was eight, my life was perfect. My father was slightly eccentric, but loved both my mum and me a lot. My mum was, according to me, the image of perfection. She was beautiful and dedicated to her work, but best of all, she always had time for me.

She used to tell me about her experiments and always made me feel as if I was helping her. Some of the spells she used to craft seemed weird, but she would just say, "Knowledge is realising that the street is one-way; wisdom is looking both directions before crossing anyway."

When I was nine, my mum died. The last thing she did was to put up a shield to protect me. That day, I regretted not being able to help her, and I decided that I would do my best to be as perfect as her. She would always tell me, "Just keep being who you are, and you'll be the perfect Luna. Just do your best in life and you'll reach perfection." And that's why I always try to give everything a 100%.

The days after she had died, were hard. Both my father and I did our best not to focus on the fact that she wasn't here anymore. Father concentrated on the Quibbler, and I focused on my drawing. The Quibbler did great, but I became lonely—as my dad didn't think to make play-dates for me.

I was so focused on my drawing and missing my mum that I ended up ignoring Ginny. It is one of the things I regret because it cost me our friendship. I had thought we would re-establish our friendship at Hogwarts, but because we were in different houses, that didn't happen.

I didn't make any friends in Ravenclaw either. In fact, they called me loony and made it obvious that they thought my father and I were crazy. They didn't understand our passion for creatures. It wasn't until I was in my fourth year that I made new friends, and having friends again reminded me of my mum. Finally, after five years of being lonely, I had found happiness again.

Before my mum's death, I wanted to be a spell crafter just like her. Afterwards, I wanted to become a healer with a specialisation in mind healing of younger kids. It was the one thing that I had needed—someone who I could talk to, and could help me.

Then the war happened. All of a sudden, perfecting a spell could be the difference between living and dying, and I was trying hard to be perfect. I had forgotten my mum's words that I "could reach perfection only by doing my best." Instead, I tried to achieve perfection, and didn't settle for anything less. In fact, I didn't settle for anything—no matter how good my spells were, I kept trying to improve on them. I focused on both defence magic and healing spells, as those were needed the most during a war.

Knowing what I know now, would I have done anything differently? Maybe I wouldn't have pushed myself so hard, but maybe I would have. If I hadn't, I might not have been here now. Life wasn't perfect then, far from it in fact, but I kept going; I knew that if I gave up, I would regret it.

It was during my sixth year when I was locked up in the basement of Malfoy Manor that I remembered a conversation with my mum. I'm not sure what had happened, but I had been very upset about something, and my father had commented, "The grass is always greener on the other side."

My mum had looked at my father and said, "If the grass is greener on the other side, you can bet the water bill is higher."

I hadn't understood the meaning of that comment back then, but there in the basement I realised. During my first few years at Hogwarts, I was envious of how close Hermione, Ron and Harry were. Now I know they became that close due to everything that they have come across together. They have the same kind of relationship that I share with Ginny and Neville—the kind in which you know you can trust them with your life.

After the war was over, life continued. While I didn't necessarily regret anything that I had done, I did wish I could change a few things because so many people that I knew had died. Due to the war, my passion for healing had been reignited and that was what I focused on after the war.

One of the first things that I learned was that I couldn't heal others if I didn't heal myself first. I quickly learned that I had pushed away all my negative memories and locked them away in an effort to be perfect. I was then reminded of my mum's words again, "Just keep being who you are, and you'll be the perfect Luna. Just do your best in life and you'll reach perfection."

I realised that while trying to reach perfection I had stopped being me, and because of that, I had failed to reach perfection. I decided there and then to stop trying to achieve perfection, but to try to achieve the perfect Luna, and for that I had to accept every bit of myself—the good and the bad.
It had taken time for me to heal, but I had done it.

After I finished studying to become a healer, I took a year out and went travelling in search of the creatures that we wrote about in the Quibbler. During my travels I spent a lot of time on my own, learning more about myself and who I had become. Each country taught me something new about myself and each country made me come closer to getting that perfection that I wanted.

In just a month's time I will reach the perfection that I dream of having, and I will reach it by being true to myself. I met my husband on one of my trips, and now I'm pregnant—expecting twins in a month's time.

When I was young, I thought my mum was the image of perfection, and I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. Soon I'll have achieved that, I will never be my mum, but I am similar. I have my passion for healing, creatures and spell crafting like my mum had her passion for her work. I love my husband and my unborn children just as much as mum used to love dad and me.

Looking back at my life, I don't have any regrets. I can hold my head high and say I've always done what I thought best. I've allowed my passion to decide where I'm going in my life. If that isn't perfection, then I don't know what is.