Summer Fling

Disclaimer: These characters belong to J.K. Rowling, along with the rest of the Potter universe. If I had written or was getting any profit from Harry Potter, what would I be doing here?

After my first story I felt as if I were on a roll, so here is a story about Luna and Neville that I've wanted to write ever since I saw the last movie. As you probably know, at the end of Deathly Hallows part 2 Luna and Neville appear to end up together, but in the books that is not the case. So this is set after the 'summer fling' (asMatthew Lewis has called it in interviews) before they move on to their respective spouses. So here it is…

We'd had the most amazing summer together. We had met up after the battle and things just clicked into place. I had adored her for so long, and the last few months were as if from a dream. Why did she have to ruin things?

"Why do you have to ruin things?" I repeated out loud.

"I'm not ruining anything Neville." She said it so calm and quietly. Why didn't she yell? I would have felt better if she yelled, like it meant something more. Maybe not yelling during fights was just another way Luna Lovegood was, well, loony. Or maybe it was because we were standing in the middle of Diagon Alley while I tried to convince her not to leave me.

"Then why are you leaving Luna? I thought we were happy! Now you'd rather gallivant around the world with some other man!"

"Rolf is an incredible naturalist and magizoologist, and were not gallivanting we're researching the Blibbering Humdinger. We're going to prove it's real!" She explained excitedly.

"But it's not!" I yelled. Her smile faded away.

"I can't believe you would say that." Tears sprung to her eyes. You've got to be kidding me.

"I'm not Rolf, Luna. I'm sure he would nod along to your silly Quibbler stories and whisk you off to romantic countries for it, but not me." I knew I was out of line, but I didn't stop.

"Me and Rolf are just friends, Neville, why can't you see that?"

"What I see is the way he looks at you. And why wouldn't he, you're beautiful." I told her, touching her arm.

"Don't do this Neville!" She said in a surprisingly sharp tone. "If you don't see how important this is to me then… maybe it just wasn't meant to be." She shook away my hand and started to walk off.

"Luna, wait…"

"I have to get my supplies Neville." And then she was gone.

"Whoa, you alright?" A voice asked from behind me. I turned and was startled to see Ron staring back at me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, sounding meaner than I meant to.

"Me and Ginny have been helping out with George." He explained, pointing over to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

"Oh, right." I actually knew that. George had been having a hard time since Fred's death. "Yeah, I'm fine. I guess…" I told him in answer to his earlier question.

"Okay… If I makes you feel better, I really thought you two would work out."

"Thanks mate." I told him, walking off. It didn't though. It made me feel worse.

"One Firewhiskey please." I asked at The Leaky Cauldron a few minutes later.

"Coming right up, Neville." I was surprised to hear my name, and was even more so to see Hannah Abbott looking at me from over the counter.

"Hannah, I didn't know you worked here!" I smiled, I had always liked Hannah.

"I just stated," She admitted "But I want to own the place someday... You know, I saw you stand up to You-Know-Who at the battle of Hogwarts. You were really brave." She said shyly.

"Thanks." I'd been told this before, but still wasn't used to the compliments.

"I had always kind of thought you should be in Hufflepuff like me, but after that I can see you're a true Gryffindor. I wanted to talked to you afterwards, but… you were busy."

"Busy with Luna." I recalled quietly.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Looking back, I can see how caught up in the moment we both were. Staring into my untouched Firewhisky I realised that maybe Luna was right, it just wasn't meant to be.

"You know what Hannah, could you make this a Butterbeer?"

"Anything for a hero like you." She said with a laugh. And in that moment, looking at Hannah smile, I remembered that the reason some things don't work out, is so others can.