Luna breathes softly. She loves the feel of the fresh air in her lungs, free of the heavy weight of fighting. Everyone has gone home, mostly. But she is here, lying in the grass by the lake, her smiling lips stained red from cherry candy. And Neville is here. Neville is always where ever she is. She isn't sure why yet, but she likes it all the same. There is something comforting about his presence, how unwavering it is. They have barely been apart since the battle ended. She'd found him when it was over and sat down beside him and something seemed to have fallen into place. Neither was quite ready to head their separate ways and go home yet. Everything was too fresh, too new. The wounds opened by the war were still bleeding. Unconsciously, she reached over and stroked the bandages on Neville's hand, the ones covering his damaged knuckles. She turned towards him and watched her best friend, whose eyes were shut.
Best friends. Was that what they were? The word seemed insufficient for the bond they'd forged. They'd come so far, and they'd done it together
"I don't know you. Who are you?"she asked, turning her wide eyes on the tall boy with the strange plant.
"I'm nobody." he muttered, looking down. She frowned and decided then that this boy was worth knowing. She knew then that he was important.
She smiled, remembering the day they'd met. He really was important. A hero. She stared off at the sky again, watching the clouds drifting slowly. They reminded her of tufts of cotton candy.
"Hey, Lune?" Luna smiled. She couldn't remember when she and Neville started using nicknames for each other. But it was nice. She'd never had friend close enough to have a special name for her. She turned over again, popping one of her cherry candies in her mouth and smiling at him.
"Nev?"
"What are we going to do now?" She frowned. She knew what he meant without asking. They were like that, her and Neville. Nothing ever needed explanation. He wanted to know what they were going to do over the summer. They hadn't been apart, except for the battle itself, since she returned from being kidnapped. She wasn't entirely sure that was normal, but who was she to judge what was strange and what wasn't. She rolled over a few times in order to place herself right beside him, and heard him chuckle slightly and pull a bit of grass from her bangs. She rested her head on his shoulder.
"I don't know. I know I'll miss seeing you every day. I think I figured out what attracts wrackspurts to people though." She said, looking at him seriously.
"Oh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and wincing as it tugged his stitches.
"Mhmm. Distress. They were all over Harry that night in the train. And whenever I thought about you in the dungeon at Malfoy manor, I missed you and worried, and then my head went all fuzzy." She frowned, knowing mentioning her imprisonment upset him. He smiled at her and shook his head.
"You're brilliant, Lune." He laughed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She smiled and sighed, closing her eyes. This was something else she wasn't sure friends did. All this touching. Leaning her head on his shoulder, him stroking her hair, the way sometimes when they were walking he'd loop an arm around her. It seemed like something boyfriends and girlfriends did. But Luna never minded. She welcomed it actually, this closeness they shared. It was unlike anything else. So many people had lost their loved ones in the war. She was lucky. She still had her father, her close friends, and Neville. Whatever Neville was to her. She was so unsure sometimes. Not of their closeness, never that. They were almost extensions of each other, filling holes in the other's life. Where Neville was quiet and insecure, Luna was outspoken and comfortable. But where she was airy and easily distracted, he was grounded and focused. When she couldn't stand up for herself, he would do it for her, and vice versa. They were different but, as her father might say, cut of the same cloth.
"Nev?" she asked, looking over at him with her wide grey eyes.
"Hm?"
"What are we?" Luna was nothing if not disarmingly honest.
"What do you mean, Lune?" he furrowed his brow at her.
"Well, I'm not sure. I don't have many friends, you know. So I'm not really the best authority on the matter. But what we are seems…different. I don't see other best friends behave like we do. We're never apart, we're usually touching, I miss you as soon as you walk away from me, I think of you all the time. I always have. And I know what that is, on my half. But I just don't know what's between us."
"I'm still not sure what you mean, Lune…" he frowned, clearly confused.
"I love you, Neville. I'm just not sure of your feelings for me, but I know that whatever this is," she gestured to their hands, which had somehow wound themselves together "it's more than best friends."
"Luna," he said softly, smiling and pulling himself up on an elbow. "I love you too, I figured you knew that." He leaned in and kissed her then, and she smiled as he did, pulling herself closer to him. He tasted like lemon drops, which made sense, he ate them all the time. She felt her head growing fuzzy as he pulled away and smiled softly and for the first time she didn't mind the wrackspurts because her heart was beating so quickly and her best friend was pulling her in for another kiss that tasted like cherry lemonade and like the future.