It was a quiet afternoon in the Gryffindor common room. Most of the students were away for the Christmas holidays, but the trio had decided to stay: Harry, because he didn't think he could bear spending all of Christmas with the Dursleys; Ron, because his family was off to America for a vacation; and Hermione, simply because Ron was staying.

At the time, all three of them were fast asleep by the fire, in the good armchairs. Suddenly, Harry woke up, feeling a breeze on his face. He looked above him, and his face grow hard.

"Get out of here, Peeves!" he whispered harshly, but Peeves just cackled.

"Why, so the wee students can get their beauty sleep? I guess I will then, seeing as you three need all the beauty sleep you can get!" Peeves flew away, cackling and shouting curse words as he left. Harry looked over to Ron and Hermione; thankfully, neither of them had been woken up by Peeves.

Harry lay his head back down on the back of the chair, but try as he might, he couldn't get back to sleep. Getting up, he decided to go down to the owlery. He slipped out of the portrait hole, and made his way up.

When he got there, Hedwig swooped down and landed on his shoulder.

"Miss me?" asked Harry, as he stroked her feathers. Somehow the look in Hedwig's eyes said that she had.

Just then, the door opened; Harry looked up, as she walked in. She walked over to one of the school owls, and tied a letter around its leg. She seemed to not even notice Harry standing next to the window. She walked over, and let the owl fly out the window, then turned around to head out.

"Merry Christmas, Luna," Harry said.

Luna whirled around, in surprise. "Oh, hello, Harry," she said. "I didn't notice you there."

"Sending a letter off to your dad?" asked Harry.

"Oh, yes," she replied. "I always forget to send him a Merry Christmas letter until the very last minute. I do hope he gets it today."

Harry noticed that something was odd about Luna today. "You seem a bit down, Luna. Is everything alright?"

Luna looked up at Harry, a lone tear forming. "No… no, everything's not alright. You remember, I told you my mum died when I was nine, and… well, she always did love Christmas…"

Harry looked at her, a bit surprised; he'd never actually seen her come close to crying before. She was always… so calm, so collected, never let anything bother her…

Her voice snapped him back to reality. "I came up here to watch the sunrise. It was something me and my mum did every Christmas; we'd go up to the highest room in our house, and watch the sun come up. We always loved it."

Harry simply smiled. "Funny, you know: that's actually the reason that I came up here."

Luna looked a bit surprised. "Odd, this is. I had a feeling you'd be up here, actually, though I had no clue that you were here for the same reason I was."

Harry turned and looked outside. "I've never been able to watch the sun rise on Christmas day before- I was always asleep."

Luna laughed. "Oh, me and mum didn't sleep too often." She walked over and lay her hand on the windowsill.

They were only there for a few more moments, before the sun began to make its way up the horizon, filling the sky with its radiance.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said Luna.

Harry lay his hand on top of hers. "Sure is." Luna turned a bright shade of red, before grasping Harry's hand in hers.

"I may not be able to be with my mum this Christmas," said Luna with a smile, "but right now… I wouldn't ask to be anywhere else."