Chapter 3

It must've been at least 4 hours later when Harry finally got up from his seat in the sitting room, before he decided that Luna was not coming down from her room anytime soon. The few times he entertained going up and knocking on her door, he dropped the idea. He was probably the last person she wanted to see, and he didn't really want the confrontation, choosing to wait until she came down and talk to her there.

Deciding that it was a waste of time sitting around and waiting for her to come to him, he walked absentmindedly walked into the kitchen. He was so focused on his thoughts that he wasn't really seeing anything and moving on auto-pilot. He kept replaying the final moments of his conversation with Luna in his head, wondering why and how he had allowed such thoughts to plague his mind, let alone be uttered in the heat of the moment.

When he came back to himself, he realized that he had grabbed a bottle of Firewhiskey and a glass and was in the process of pouring himself a drink. Disgusted with himself, he smashed the glass on the counter, shattering it into a million pieces. A sharp pain in his hand caused him to gasp, and when he inspected it, he saw a large piece was embedded in his hand.

Quickly pulling the offending piece out, his initial reaction was to start to head to the stairs and up to his room. Once inside, he opened the top drawer of his nightstand and was met by the sight of his wand once again. His fingers briefly twitched in longing to use it to heal himself, but he redirected himself and grabbed a box of bandages instead. After his performance today, he didn't deserve to use magic.

The crude wrap job did little to stop the pain in his hand, but at least he wasn't bleeding, though he still felt that passing out from blood loss was the worst of his problems. Deciding to man up and do the right thing, he marched down the hall and stopped right in front of Luna's room. He raised his fist up, hesitating for a few moments, before knocking, the sounds so weak, he worried for a moment whether she would hear him.

"Luna?"

No response.

"Luna?" he tried a little stronger. Still, he got no response. "Luna, open up. I want to talk to you about earlier." The lack of response started to worry him, so without any thought towards the consequences, he tried the door, only to find it locked. He briefly considered trying to force it open, before realizing there was a better idea.

He ran back to his room and grabbed his wand. Once he was back in place, he raised his wand, ready to perform magi for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

"Alohamora"

He suddenly felt a warm feeling traveling up his arm, the act of casting a spell making him feel momentarily better than any glass of Firewhiskey ever had. Wand still in hand, he slowly opened Luna's door.

"Luna?" Instead of finding a crying Luna, or any form of Luna for that matter. Her room seemed undisturbed, the only indication that she was there was the slight rumpling of her bed, the wet spot near her pillow which was obviously from crying, and a few drawers of her dresser open with articles of clothing hanging over the edge.

It felt like his heart had been ripped out. Luna had left, and it was all his fault. Walking backwards into the hallway, he slid down against the wall and sat down with his arms resting on his knees. He stared at the wall in front of him without really seeing, his hands absently running along the length of his wall. Once he noticed the movement, he stared at his wand for a few moments, before he violently chucked it forward, the piece of wood flying into Luna's room, clattering in the darkness.

He sat there for several worrying over the pain he caused one of his close friends when it finally clicked in his head. He needed to fix this, he needed to make things right by Luna. He got up and immediately headed back downstairs towards his sitting room.

Hermione was sitting in her own sitting room, reading a book she had just purchased on her way home from work. She liked to sit in front of the fire and read until Ron showed up to her flat. Even though she loved the man, it was always nice to have some time to herself. Plus, she needed the distraction.

She had visited Harry earlier and though he tried to claim otherwise, she knew he was still struggling to adjust. She wanted to help him, but she realized that she wasn't the right person to help him. She had adjusted too well for her to be able to completely understand what he was going through.

Almost as if summoned, her fireplace flared up, green flames rising from it, and out stepped Harry.

"Harry?!" to say she was shocked was an understatement. To the best of her knowledge, Harry had barely left Grimmauld Place in recent months, so to see him in her living room was quite the shock. She recovered quickly though and ran up to hug him, even though she had seen him only a few hours ago. When she pulled back, she realized that his reasons for showing up weren't happy ones.

"Harry, what happened?"

"Luna's gone."

Her eyes widened and nearly popped out of her skull. "Gone? What do you mean gone?"

Harry's eyes dropped to the floor between them, the shame and guilt clear as day on his face. "I sort of…yelled at her and upset her. She ran up to her room and after a few hours I went up to check on her, she was gone."

Though she felt bad for her friend, she couldn't keep the huff of irritation and frustration from escaping her. "What on earth could she have possibly done to warrant this?"

Harry was surprised by the anger in Hermione's voice, enough so that he instinctively lashed back at her. "I thought she was the reason the everyone was keeping away from me."

"How on earth did you figure that?"

"Well, what was I supposed to think? Every time someone came over, the second she showed up, they would leave."

Hermione stiffened visibly at his words. Harry waited several moments for her to respond to his accusation but after a few minutes, he noticed that she was doing her best to look anywhere except for his face.

"Hermione?"

She jumped in her seat, which could only mean that she was so whatever it was, it must be somewhat serious for her to fold in on herself like this.

"Well…uhmmm… you see…"

"Out with-it Hermione!"

"It's not Luna's fault!" Hermione immediately clasped her hands over her mouth, her eyes bugging out once again. Obviously her admission was supposed to be some huge revelation, but Harry was still confused.

"What?"

"Luna's not the reason that everyone's been leaving you alone. It's my fault."

His brain stopped momentarily as he processed this latest information. His initial reaction was to lash out and yell at her, but after what happened with Luna, he was somehow able to reel in his anger. He just stared at her waiting for her to continue her explanation.

With a great sigh, Hermione finally began speaking once again. "After Ginny left, you were so angry Harry. It just seemed that every time Ron and I came 'round, you were just getting worse. The only explanation that made sense was that seeing that we all were moving on faster than you was the reason." Harry opened his mouth to respond, but a raised hand from Hermione stopped him in his tracks. "We tried to come up for a way to help you for a long time. We didn't have any idea how to help you until Luna showed up at our door asking for a place to stay."

This was news to Harry. Luna had never let on that she had tried to find a somewhere before she landed on his doorstep, then again, he was always reluctant to talk with her, so it was easy for thr topic to never come up.

"Once she explained to us what was happening, we realized that she was only one having as hard a time coping as you were, so... we convinced her that staying with you was the best option she had."

"Why? If I was having such a tough time adapting, why would you think her living with me would improve anything?"

"We thought the two of you could help each other heal. Besides, we hoped that seeing her in distress would cause the old Harry to come back, the man who would always go out of his way to help."

Harry sat there in silence as he tried to understand everything Hermione had told him. He agreed that even though he loathed to admit it, seeing how everyone else moved on so easily after everything that happened was difficult, but ultimately decided that being left to his own devices had hurt even more. Though, he didn't appreciate Hermione's methods, he was still a little thankful that her actions had made him realize how important all the people in his life were.

Then, there was everything with Luna. She had come to him to try and heal, and somehow at the same time, to heal him. A fresh bout of shame overcame him. He needed to find Luna and try to fix whatever it was that was happened between them.

"I can't say I'm happy that you were trying to dictate my life for me Hermione, but I'm grateful that you tried to help, and I guess that's all that matters." Hermione seemed surprised by his words, causing her eyes to begin to water up as a small smile grew on her face. "I'm sorry for making you guys feel that you were hurting me, but next time, just talk to me about it instead of cutting me off."

"I'm so sorry Harry-"

"It's fine Hermione. It'll take me a little while to come to terms with all this, but right now, I need to find Luna."

Hermione's face turned pensive as she thought before realization dawned on her face. "St. Mungo's!"

Harry mentally kicked himself for not realizing it sooner. He quickly got up from his chair and gave Hermione a hug and a kiss on the top of her head, before speeding off towards the fireplace. His pace was so hurried that he failed to notice the smile on Hermione's face at his display of affection, nor did he realize that that was first time he'd done such a thing since Ginny left.

Stepping out of the Floo, he found himself in the reception area of St. Mungo's. His sudden arrival startled many of the families and waiting patients there, who briefly gawked at the sudden appearance of their world's savior, reminding him of why he never went out anymore. He did his best to ignore their stares, he had more important things to worry about.

At first, he stood off to the side of the room, hoping that Luna would be back sooner than later. After a few minutes, he realized that she was visiting her father, so she might be a while. With that in mind he took a seat near the entrance to the various wards of the hospital.

Though he tried to fight it, the longer he sat waiting on Luna, the more guilt he felt. He knew that her fleeing the house was his fault and he wanted to be there for her, but the more he brooded, the more he wanted to flee the hospital and lock himself up again.

His thoughts were interrupted by a quiet gasp coming from in front of him. Looking up, he saw Luna with her eyes locked onto him. He could tell by her posture that she was debating whether she should run away. He stood up slowly, not wanting to startle her, but when he wanted to walk up to her, his legs refused to move. Their eyes were locked for several moments when Harry noticed that tears were threatening to fall from her eyes, making him hate himself even more for how he acted towards her. She was already dealing with so much, and he just made things even worse.

Finally, the spell over him broke and he took a cautious step forward. Noticing his movement, Luna looked as though she wanted to flee, moving forward as if to go around him. The closer they got, the more she tried to get away, but was unable to prevent Harry from wrapping her up in a hug.

Instead of accepting the hug, she began to squirm, the tears finally falling, as unintelligible words fell from her mouth as she struggled. She began beating on his chest, but Harry wouldn't relent, only holding her tighter. This went on for several minutes, before Luna finally returned his embrace, and sobbed into his shoulder. Harry felt the guilt he felt inside finally begin to dissipate, but he knew that they had a long way to go before they were completely healed.

AN –

Happy Holidays everyone!

It's been a while since I last updated this story, but with it being the holiday season, I decided to post this chapter, as well as other updates for my other active stories.

I've been trying to create an interesting dynamic between Harry and Luna here, and hopefully I've accomplished that. The idea that they're both healing and that they need to heal together is one that I like and I'm trying to have them both heal in organic ways.

My plan going forward is to have more regular updates for this story, especially since I've got a better idea of where this story is going to go.

As always, thanks for reading!