10 Years Later

Paper after paper, word after word, the ink became blurred as Professor Neville Longbottom skimmed every essay that his fifth years had written about the usefulness of the Mimbulus Mimbletonia. Suddenly there was a small knock on the door. "Come in," he called without raising his head, adding a large "E" to the essay in front of him. As he slid it to the side and removed his reading glasses, he looked up at his guest.

"Luna?" he asked in disbelief, standing up quickly, almost knocking his chair over behind him.

"Hello, Neville," she said cheerfully, not waiting for him to properly welcome her before sitting down in one of the chairs across from his desk. "You look well. I see you're a Professor now. It's not what I would have seen you becoming, but I'm sure you're doing fine."

Luna was always honest, even when it sounded ruder than she'd intended. Neville was happy to note that even the ten years that had passed since he'd last seen her hadn't changed her in the slightest. In fact, besides the increased laugh lines around her eyes, she hardly looked a day older than the last time they'd met.

Meanwhile, he had gained several gray hairs, however dignified around his temples (mostly courtesy of Gran's illness) and a receding hairline. "H-how are you?" he finally stammered, sitting back down to quiet his shaking knees.

"Oh, I'm well," Luna said, staring at him rather intently. "I was just in the neighborhood and I thought I'd drop by. I went to the Ministry first, but they told me you switched jobs six years ago. Have I really been gone that long?"

Neville opened his mouth and then closed it again. He began to wring his hands, a nasty habit he had only recently developed. "Luna, you've been gone for over ten years," he said softly, not sure how she couldn't possibly have known that.

"Oh." She said it as though it were an interesting fact that she had just learned and found quite fascinating.

"H-have you found anything?" Neville asked, knowing that she'd been gone to research Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and other interesting creatures.

"No," Luna sighed as though it wasn't disappointing in the slightest. "But I'm sure if I go back, something interesting will turn up soon."

"If ?"

"Well, I thought since I was here, maybe I'd find something that could convince me to stay…" Luna hadn't taken her eyes off of him even though he was pointedly avoiding her gaze. He knew what she meant, and he hated that he knew it.

"Luna, you've been gone for ten years…"

"Neville, I know that being a Professor is probably a lot of stress on your mind and might cause you to forget things sometimes, but I think you should know that you've already told me that."

"I know," he urged softly. "What I'm trying to say is, a lot has happened in ten years."

"Generally that's the case," she reasoned, still not getting his point. Or, if she was, she was doing a good job of being vague about it.

Neville remembered that the last time he'd seen her had been the night he meant to propose, but she had left to go do work for The Quibbler. She had left him behind. Even ten years of time and distance hadn't made him stop loving her, but he had also moved on.

"Luna," he said softly, resisting the urge to lean across his desk and take her hands, which were now folded gently on the surface in front of her. "Luna, you're wonderful, and—and I wish I could give you the reason to stay that you're looking for, but you see—Luna, I'm married now." He held up his left hand, gesturing to his thin, golden wedding band.

To anyone who didn't know her, Luna would have appeared un-phased by this bit of information, but Neville knew her well enough to catch a bit of the light leaving her eyes. There was a pregnant pause where she simply stared at the ring as thought mesmerized.

"Congratulations, Neville," she said finally said, quietly but earnestly, and it ripped into his chest. How could she be so calm? "I'm happy for you. Well, at least I'm happy for you as long as you're happy, which I'm assuming you are?"

"Quite," Neville said, staring at the top of his desk as though attempting to memorize the patterns in the oak.

"Oh, that's good. Unhappy marriages are always so sad." She moved from staring at him to staring around the room at the many plants that resided on the shelves throughout. Neville, for the first time that day, stared directly at her, boring into her with the hopes that he would understand what she was thinking. He never could, and it drove him mad.

"Luna, how are you being so calm about this?" Neville demanded to know, raising his voice significantly as he got to his feet again.

"Calm about what? You getting married?"

"YES ABOUT ME GETTING MARRIED! LUNA, WE WERE DATING, AND THEN YOU LEFT, AND YOU CAME HERE EXPECTING SOMETHING FROM ME AND I'M BLODDY MARRIED! HOW AREN'T YOU ANGRY?" His face was flushed and his knuckles white as they gripped the edge of his desk tightly.

Luna seemed serene although he was towering over her, shouting in her face. "Neville, are you asking me to be upset that I've been gone for ten years and you had the audacity to move on? Or would you rather I were upset because you didn't invite me to your wedding?"

Neville couldn't do anything except blink. She was right. In all honesty, she had no reason to be upset. None at all. He sat back down, wringing his hands again. The mood had shifted instantly as only Luna had the capability of doing. He found himself sitting in silence with her again, and while the lack of talking didn't seem to bother her in the slightest, it drove him mad.

"Why did you go?" he whispered, almost too quietly for her to hear.

"I went because you told me to," Luna answered honestly. She remembered how she felt when she first told him about the business deal her father had posed and how he had urged her to accept with almost no hesitation. She had felt heartbroken, like he hadn't wanted her at all. "I wanted to stay—with you. You told me to go. I didn't want to stay for someone who didn't want me."

Neville's heart almost shattered in his chest. After all this time, and he thought he'd been being noble by honoring her dreams, but really he'd ruined what chances they had had for a life together. "Luna, I'd planned on proposing to you that night."

He hadn't told her, and quite honestly, he hadn't been planning to. It was a secret he'd wanted to take to the grave.

Luna's eyes widened a little, but all other forms of shock were absent. "You had?" Her lip began to tremble slightly. "Well why didn't you, Neville Longbottom? Why did you send me away instead? Did you change your mind?" She was practically shouting now- or as close to shouting as Luna could manage- and he felt that he deserved it. If he were her, he'd be breaking all the items in the room and threatening terrible things.

"No!" Neville said quickly, comfortingly. "I mean, well, yes, I did. But I didn't change my mind because I didn't want to marry you, Luna. I changed it because I didn't want to be the reason you stayed behind."

The two of them sat together in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Before either could continue the conversation, there was another knock at the door. This person didn't wait for any response from Neville before pulling it open and striding in.

"Neville, are you coming home for dinner tonight? Because I was thinking of making those little cabbage things you like—" Hannah Longbottom suddenly paused, looking from Luna and Neville. "What is she doing here?" she asked, not hiding the condescension in her tone. All Hannah really knew of Luna outside of school and the DA was that Neville had dated her, and that it had gotten fairly serious. To see Luna sitting here in her husband's office was more than a little unnerving.

"Hannah, I trust you remember Luna?" Neville stammered, looking from woman to woman with boyish fear on his face.

Luna turned slightly in her seat to get a good look at Hannah. Hannah's strawberry blonde hair had once been long, but was now cut short, framing her face. Otherwise, she looked practically the same as she had during school, so it was very easy for Luna to recognize her. "Hello," she chimed sweetly, obviously not picking up on the irritated look on Hannah's face, nor her crossed arms or drumming fingers.

"Luna—Hannah is my wife now."

She stared at Luna with narrowed eyes and then back to Neville who shook his head as his way of telling her that this was definitely an unplanned visit.

"That's very nice," Luna said softly. "It's good that the DA members are still united." Her voice had lost its usual luster, but she was doing a very good job of being polite.

"Luna stopped by to say hello. She's on a vacation from work and was in the neighborhood. Isn't that nice, dear?" Neville asked Hannah, who softened her posture and nodded a little. "Whatever you make for dinner will be fine with me," Neville added.

"Hannah runs the Leaky Cauldron now," he added to Luna. "There's always great food for dinner. It's almost like being at Hogwarts for meals."

"Did you learn to cook while at school? The Hufflepuff common room is near the kitchens, isn't it?" Luna asked curiously, glancing up at Hannah despite the tension in the room.

"I learned from my mother," Hannah said, politely answering the question, but not offering any more than that. "It's nice to see that you're well, Luna. But if you'll excuse me, I'd like a word with my husband alone now."

Luna might not have been one for proper social protocol, but she knew that it was time to leave. She had intruded on enough. "It was nice talking to you again, Neville."

Neville made a move like he wanted to go around the desk and give her a hug goodbye, but one look from Hannah stopped him in his tracks. His wife wasn't cruel by any means, but her one soft spot was jealousy, and the only jealousy she had was for Luna. He hadn't ever expected to see her again, so it hadn't been an issue until today.

Neville was a smart man, however, and knew that anything more than a moderately friendly goodbye and he might not be getting any dinner that night after all. "Goodbye, Luna," he said softly. "I'm glad you stopped by."

She stood up and made her way to the door, pausing for just a moment to add, "For the record, I wish you'd just asked me instead." With that, she vanished from sight, and Neville wasn't sure if he'd ever see her again.

He knew what she meant, and it broke his heart. Her vague statement did, however, leave Hannah clueless, which he supposed was for the best. He loved Hannah, but Luna would always be his first love, the one he would never forget. "I do, too," he whispered so quietly that he almost couldn't hear it himself.

A/N: Well, in my head, this is what transpired between Neville and Luna. Let me know if you agree or disagree! And if you're left feeling sorry for Luna, you should go read my very short one-shot entitled When Luna Met Rolf and it might make you feel a little better for her. Cheers!

-Ashley