A/N: This is the second chapter. I haven't had any reviews or anything – other than one from my best friend, but that's a given ;p - but want to persevere and see where I go from there.

Katie & Zumii: You are the sweetest people alive. But also slightly deluded. ;p

Disclaimer: Wish I did, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

For the second night in his life, Neville was the last in the dormitory to fall asleep. The absence of snoring had not seemed to bother the others, in fact they hadn't really noticed at all, too content in their own peaceful sleep.

But Neville Longbottom could not get to sleep. Sure he tried, hoped, even wanted to, but he just couldn't stop his mind from whirring away, full of questions.

Why had Luna's voice gone so different? What is it she had wanted to say which she had suddenly veered away from, off in another direction? Was the kiss on his cheek merely a friendly one, or was she showing that she had feelings for Neville like he had feelings for her. His brain was immensely confused.

I'll never understand girls. He thought, slightly angry at the fact there was no spell he was aware of to read someone's mind. He thought there might've been a skill to do with it, something to do with legs, but couldn't quite remember, so decided not to dwell on it.

No. This he would have to find out on his own, by cornering Luna at one point the following day, when the others weren't paying much attention.

Neville would move gently into the subject of the previous evening, and hint subtly at first. If this didn't work, and he had a suspicious feeling it wouldn't – Luna wasn't always one for understanding people's subtle hints – then he would have to bring it up, be brave.

He rolled over to his left, very nearly falling off of his bed, but catching hold of one of the four posters at the very last second. Pounding his pillow with his right fist, he tried to get comfortable enough to fall into a slumber, but found it so difficult. Neville's brain was still swimming with thoughts of Luna, tomorrow and the task he had to do.

Shuffling around uncomfortably, he stared up at the dark ceiling, and tried desperately to empty his mind.

Eyes snapping open, Neville turned his round face towards the bedside table, on which stood a mahogany-framed alarm clock showing him the time: 5.04am.

He gave a soft moan and a long sigh, sitting up slightly, and leaning back on his pillows.

He had to have only had a couple of hours sleep, he could feel it. Undoubtedly, he had bags under his eyes and the look of someone deeply stressed.

Sleepless nights definitely did not suit Neville, and when he caught his reflection in the mirror across the room from him, he assured himself not to let even girl problems keep him up so late any more.

He waited two hours, passing the time by reading some Defence Against the Dark Arts books and taking small intervals to think about the events the day ahead had in store for him, before deliberately making a loud noise.

"What thebloody hell was – Neville what're you doing?" came Ron's aggravated and shocked voice from opposite him.

Neville knew Ron likes his sleep, but he couldn't stand the boredom much longer, and rather felt he needed someone else in the room to be awake. He hastily picked up the heavy textbook he'd dropped on purpose from the wooden floor, and replaced it, back in his trunk.

With a mutter of "Sorry", Neville heard Harry stir as well. Picking up his glasses and placing them clumsily on his face, he stared around, taking in the scene.

Apparently, seeing nothing wrong, Harry lay back down.

"It's too early." He said, simply.

"I second that one, mate!" Ron muttered angrily, climbing out of bed. "But I'm awake now, so there's no use complaining. I guess I'd better get up and dressed. Hermione probably wants us to start the day early anyway, so that we don't have to have another late night."

Neville, following suit, got up as well, and changed as Ron did. After five or so minutes, Harry joined them, yawning as he pulled a black sock onto his right foot.

"Shall we go down to the Common Room to wait for the girls?" Neville asked to the room, once they were all dressed and ready, not minding who answered.

His face was slightly hopeful, but at that moment they were interrupted, and all three boys turned around to see the Dormitory door open and reveal three figures behind it.

"No need to wait." Ginny giggled, kissing Harry lightly on the lips before taking his hand and leading him across the room, out of the door and down the steps.

When Ron and Hermione left they were holding hands too. As Neville turned to Luna to leave he wondered if he should be holding her hand, but didn't want to seem too forward, especially as he didn't know how she felt for sure.

"Morning." She said, in a dull tone which let Neville know that she hadn't had much sleep last night either. "Good sleep?"

It was almost as if she'd said it to be funny. His hair was sticking up at an odd angle, and his eyes were now turning slightly bloodshot.

"Not really." He said nervously, eyeing the floor and making his way across to the door. But Luna moved so she was standing in his path.

"Yeah, I couldn't quite get to sleep either." She stated, as if Neville had told her exactly what was wrong with only the two simple words he'd used.

She looked up, expectantly and her eyes locked with his.

Neville's breath caught in his throat as he struggled to get his words out.

"I, err…"

"Yes." Luna said simply, again as if she could tell exactly what Neville was trying and failing to put across in words.

She turned and walked down the steps with him, a considerably less amount of spring and energy in her steps than that which she had used yesterday on their way to the Lake.

Neville did his best to smile at breakfast, but was too confused and baffled for any of his attempts to be more than feeble ones.

The others, fortunately, were content enough with what was going on around them not to really notice what Neville was doing. He twirled a streak of bacon around his fork, repulsed by it, disgusted by it. He wasn't hungry in the least.

He just couldn't shake the feeling that Luna seemed to want to tell him something important. He had never seen her this serious before, this normal. It scared him. Luna was someone he could usually count on to always be her cheerful and optimistic self, but if that was changing… Neville didn't want to think about it.

He took a bite of toast to create the illusion that he was enjoying the cooked breakfast the remaining house-elves had willingly made them, but it seemed to crumble to ash in his mouth, dry and tasteless.

Suppressing a gag, Neville took a swig of his Pumpkin juice, and looked up at the sky to see what it was like outside. Bright and sunny. Completely the opposite of how he was feeling; and it seemed silly to think that less than twenty-four hours ago he had been enjoying Luna's company in this sunshine, when now she seemed so darkly disturbed by something every time he talked to her alone.

Everyone else was soon done with their breakfast, despite having had second and third helpings, and didn't seem to be concerned at all that neither Neville nor Luna had made an impression of sorts on their plates.

They made their way out to the grounds, talking about the usefulness of the subject Divination. No-one seemed to find it very set in stone, even though they all knew prophecies were real and could come true.

Luna argued her point against the theories of the others quite well, although not quite as well as she usually did, and when she was looking at Neville, he thought she seemed to look more determined, and yet more upset at the same time.

He didn't get the chance to talk to her alone until 11am. Hermione and Ginny had gone back up to the castle to use the bathroom, and Ron and Harry had brought their broomsticks down, and were throwing a Quaffle around in the air.

This is it. He told himself. You have to be brave and confront her, ask her what's going on.

"Luna, lately I feel like … I mean, yesterday when we, and you, and well, and you went up to bed." He stuttered, barely making any sense to himself.

"Yes, and I kissed you on the cheek." She said slowly, nodding. "And it was rather wrong and rude of me, I apologise. To do something like that when we're always in each other's company. I understood soon after that it would've made some sort of awkward impression. I am surprised it took you this long to confront me, though, Neville. Anyway, I'm sorry."

She stood up and started to walk away, but Neville – his reaction delayed by the sudden stunning speech she had given him – took to his feet as well, spinning her around gently by the arm.

"What do you mean?" he asked, the volume in his voice rising distinctly. "Why would it make things awkward? I mean, it was just a friendly thing to do, right? Friends kiss each other on the cheek all the time and think nothing of it. There's no reason to feel… no point in, I can't think why you'd … yes." He concluded, rather stupidly.

"Really?" said Luna, sounding surprised. "Oh, well, thanks for being okay about it. I didn't mean to scare you away or anything, you see. Make you think I was some sort of flesh eating thestral or something."

Neville gave a small grin and shook his head.

"No, you didn't scare me away. I know we're just friends, and everything."

"Oh, that's good." Luna sighed with relief. "I was really starting to wonder about it, you see. Because it seemed rather silly for me to have done that if we were just friends, but if you say friends can do that and it's okay I suppose it must be. I still haven't had much experience in the rules of friendships, never having that many friends myself."

The abrupt truth of these last few statements made Neville's heart bleed for Luna. He knew it was true; she had never really had a friend until her fourth year, and still people called her 'Loony' instead of Luna.

"Well you've got friends now!" he smiled. "And I don't think anything you do is silly."

It had blurted out of his mouth before he could stop it, and Neville was sure Luna would be able to notice that the compliment sounded a lot more like something someone would say when casually flirting.

However, if she did realise this, Luna didn't let on at all.

"Thank you, Neville. I don't think anything you do is silly either, but then, you don't really do anything silly. You do end up in silly situations, though, like when…"

They trailed away the time which the other girls were at the bathroom talking about strange and mysterious situations they had found themselves in. By the end of their discussion, Neville rather thought it was funny how Luna had thought he'd been in unusual situations, when in fact they seemed completely average compared to her own memories.

The boys returned from their Quidditch practising too, and they all sat and ate lunch together on the green grass, enjoying the bird song and each other's company.

Luna's words came back to him and Neville thought about what life would be like if the DA had never started – he thought grimly that the group of people of whom he was sitting with would never have been his friends otherwise. It was only after what had happened at the Ministry that they had became closer, and that wouldn't have happened if Voldemort hadn't come back either.

But Neville tried not to think about that, tried to press it away from his train of thought. This was a happy afternoon, and he was not going to spoil it.

He turned his attention back to the conversation and found that they were now talking about vampires, Hermione and Luna debating the practicality of marrying one and also the dangers.

Luna ran a hand through her dirty-blonde hair and Neville was seized by the sudden impulse to reach over and do the same, but he ignored it; he would have to behave. After hearing what Luna had said he was reminded how special and circumstantial their friendship was, and he didn't want to go messing it up, no matter how much he wished that they could be more than friends now.