A/N: This is my first published fanfiction! It's only a drabble, but I may chose to expand on the idea in the future and write a longer fanfiction. I hope you like it!

Neville Longbottom sat slumped over on a bench in an empty corridor. He had just escaped a gang of Slytherin boys, who were tormenting him with nasty name-calling and shoves into walls. He felt horrible, about both the incident and himself.

The more Neville thought about it, he was sort of considered a loser at school. He didn't exactly know why people picked on him, but he could only assume that it had something to do with him being terribly clumsy and awkward. Almost every day, he got himself into some sort of trouble, whether it be trip on nothing in the halls or backfire his own spells.

Neville also didn't have very many friends. There were people who were nice to him, but no one asked him if he wanted to join their conversations or hang out in Hogsmeade. Neville didn't know who would ever be willing to engage with him on a deeper level, so he just gave into shyness, sat back, and watched everyone else have fun and make memories with one another. It almost pained him to know that he was more of an outsider, and how no one seemed to take much interest in the likes of him.

However, there was one person who did.

Neville met her earlier in the year on the first day of his fifth year. He hadn't talked to her much since, as he hardly saw her during the day, and they had no classes together. When he did see her, though, she was always wearing some wacky outfit or reading books upside down. She was made fun of for being so eccentric and different from most of the other students, and did not fit into any particular crowd. Her name was Luna Lovegood.

Neville heard footsteps. He didn't pay much attention, until he heard them stop in front of him.

Neville looked up slowly, wondering who could possibly be there.

It was her. Luna Lovegood.

"Hello," she greeted him vaguely.

"Hi," Neville mumbled in response, unsure of what else to say.

"Is everything alright?" Luna asked, "you seem quite blue."

"I'm alright," Neville lied.

"Are you sure?" Luna pryed.

Neville took a deep breath.

"No," Neville finally responded, "not really."

"What happened?" Luna wondered.

"Well," Neville replied with a sigh, "I was running away from a group of Slytherin guys and ran out of breath. They were picking on me."

Luna furrowed her brow slightly, and sat down beside Neville on the old wooden bench.

"What for?" she asked.

"For no real reason, really," Neville responded, "they just know that I'm weaker than them, so they have more advantages, you know?"

Luna looked at Neville sympathetically for a short while.

"You're not weak, Neville," she responded caringly, "you really aren't. If you were weak, you would act just like those boys, and stoop to the level of a bully. You wouldn't have tried to avoid the situation completely if you were weak."

"Are you sure?" Neville wondered.

"Yes," Luna replied sincerely, "I'm sure."

Neville smiled slightly. Luna smiled back, and took his hand in hers.

"Want to go outside together?" she wondered.

"Sure," Neville replied hopefully. He was happy that someone had finally reached out to him, that someone genuinely wanted to spend time with him.

As they both walked down the deserted hallway together, hand in hand, Neville started to feel better about everything already.