A/N: So I got a lot of really nice reviews lately! Just wanted to express, again, my gratitude for the time you take out of your life to write me a little about what you thought! I have loved and appreciated every review I got! Next stop: Chapter Eight!
"Luna! Slow down!" Neville firmly planted his feet on the hard stone floor to stop Luna from retreating into the dark corridor any farther. Luna slightly lost her balance stumbling forwards until she regained her balance and stood stock-still, staring bleary-eyed out of one of the few windows that ran along the shadowy hallway. It cast a rectangle of blue-ish light on the wall opposite. Neville had sat down and leaned against the wall underneath the light so that he was facing Luna's back. He didn't know what to do, yet again, so he decided to just wait for her to explain what happened with Matthew and why she'd been crying.
The two friends stayed this way for a few minutes until Luna slowly turned around to face Neville. As she did so, Neville was somewhat entranced by the way the moonlight hit her wavy hair and made it shimmer with an even brighter shade of blond. He could also see where tears still clung to her eyelashes. Noticing these little things made Neville's insides squirm, partly because he was embarrassed that he'd notice such things on a girl and partly because he didn't know what to do about these feelings.
"I'm so sorry, Neville," she whispered, sitting down next to him and facing him with an apologetic expression.
"For what?" Neville hated how clueless he sounded to her.
"For the horrible time you must be having tonight."
"What? Why would you feel sorry about how I feel? I'm used to it."
"That's the problem." Luna's light, airy voice became hard as she stared up at the ceiling, taking deep breaths as she tried not to start crying again. "You're used to being pushed around. You let Ginny ditch you. You let Matthew insult you-"
"Actually, I didn't really hear what Matthew said about me," said Neville truthfully. "You hexed him before I could get a word in edgewise."
At this Luna gave a tiny grin. In the dark of the night her white teeth shone in what little light was streaming through the windows. Then Luna's face fell and she went back to staring at the ceiling. "You don't deserve to be bullied, Neville."
"Neither do you. I don't know why people would call you Loony!"
"You haven't heard me talk about Wrackspurts yet." Luna gave a light, melancholy chuckle to herself.
"I haven't heard of those! They sound fascinating!" Neville was being completely serious, as Luna could tell as she rolled her head around to catch his expression.
"Well, they're tiny creatures that fly into your ears and make your brain go all fuzzy. You know, so you can't really focus or so that you become closed-minded. Daddy taught me how to be able to see them in other people's heads. Matthew had quite a lot." She giggled.
"Do I have any?" Neville asked anxiously.
Luna gave a small smile before shaking her head. "Not one. You really don't think I'm mad for believing in these things?"
"No, I think it's brilliant!" Neville looked very excited to hear what else she had to say, but this confused Luna.
"Why are you so nice to me?" She asked, staring at her bent knees with her feet flat on the floor. "Nobody has ever taken even the slightest interest in what I believe before I met you."
"Because I care about you, Luna." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Neville inwardly thanked Merlin that the corridor was so dark, so that Luna wouldn't see his face burn with embarrassment. As he stared at his folded hands he saw one of her pale, tiny ones reaching forwards to grab his. Neville was still amazed at how forward this girl was with everything she did. She never sugar-coated anything for anyone. How she showed her feelings without regret. Neville wished that he could act that way…
Luna eventually scooched closer to Neville until she was right next to him. She sighed as she lightly rested her head on his shoulder. She was scaring herself, really, about how comfortable she felt around this boy she'd met only hours earlier. Still, she'd pretty much known Matthew for longer and look where that got her: losing her cool and hexing him. But it wasn't like she'd hexed him for no reason whatsoever, she'd been provoked. And Matthew wasn't even insulting her, he'd insulted Neville. She was still unaware of why that had bothered her so much; why she had hexed for a boy she'd only just met. But yet she felt as if she already knew him. She felt that he was one of the only people she could be herself around. He understood her better than most people she'd known for years. There was only one way Luna could describe her feelings for Neville: they were positive feelings. Soon her thoughts began to drift elsewhere…
They sat comfortably like that in the dark, deserted corridor for a very long time. Neville could feel the music from the Great Hall pulsing through the walls on his back, still leaning against one. Neville was wondering why his hand wasn't sweating after ten minutes of holding Luna's hand and Luna was thinking about the loud music attracting Crumple-Horned Snorkacks when they heard voices coming from two silhouettes at the far end of the hall. Their voices bounced along the walls to Neville and Luna so that they seemed magnified.
"Come back to the Hall, Draco!" Neville recognised the high-pitched, whiny voice of Pansy Parkinson immediately and easily since she'd teased him countless times over the past four years. "I wanna go dance!"
"You go on ahead," Draco's drawl reassured her. "I just – uh – need to check on something for – er – a few minutes, alright?"
"OK! Hurry back!" Pansy squealed as she practically skipped around the corner. Neville saw Draco's outline look around suspiciously, he then started to lurk down the passage towards them, head hung low and rummaging in his pockets for something. Neville realised that Draco must not have seen the pair of them sitting there and knew that it was too late for them to move.
"Stay still," Neville whispered to Luna as Draco's shadow drew nearer. At this Luna sat up and lifted her head off of Neville's shoulder to see Draco more clearly. At the angle the light was hitting the wall above them it was nearly impossible to see them sitting still as statues.
Finally, when Draco was very near to them, he retrieved what he was looking for from the pocket of his dress robes. It was small, round, shiny and; Neville couldn't be too sure of the colour; light green. Luna sucked in a breath as Draco passed them. He was running his long fingers over the smooth texture of the round shiny thing, murmuring too it. Things like "-my only love-", "-they'll never understand-" and "-I just can't resist," before taking a large, succulent bite of, what Neville and Luna now both realised to be, the apple. They heard Draco's savouring noises all the way down the hall before he finally turned left.
A few minutes passed before Luna finally looked up at Neville. As soon as their eyes met laughter ensued. They laughed long and hard over what they had just witnessed and, after catching their breath and wiping the tears from their eyes, they solemnly swore not to tell another soul about what they saw.
Suddenly the light from the window clouded over so that they were thrown into almost complete darkness. Luna got up and skipped over to the window to see what was going on.
"Oooh, look Neville! It's snowing!" Why Luna was so enthralled with this phenomenon, Neville didn't know.
"Yeah, Luna," he said jokingly. "That usually happens this time of year."
"We should go outside," said Luna matter-of-factly as she grabbed Neville's hand and pulled him towards a door at the other end of the hall that led to the courtyard.
If anyone else had suggested that Neville should spend some time in below-freezing weather simply because they thought he ought to, Neville would've declined. But this was Luna, the one with happy little surprises and the one he wanted to spend as much time with as possible. Right now, the only person he'd step out of his comfort zone for was her.
A/N: Who enjoyed reading the Drapple reference as much as I liked writing it (which, by the way, was a lot!)? I thought it would be really epic if I added some comedic relief in the form of fruit-love! If you liked it, let me know. Stay awesome!
