"Better?" she asked.
"The fuzziness? Not so much, no," he answered.
"Definitely not Wrackspurts then," she sighed. They hadn't moved an inch his arms were still wrapped around her hips and lower back, hers draped over his shoulders. He could hear each small inhale and exhale.
"Definitely," he echoed as she released him from her arms, twisting back to her seat beside him.
"You taste like cloves," she said smoothing out her skirts.
"Probably the mulled something or the hot other thing," he answered feeling fuzzier than ever.
"Some muggles say that they are an aphrodisiac and if you plant a clove tree you will have a son. It's sympathetic magic, the shape of the flower bud is important. I wonder if it's ever been tested. Do you know?"
Neville was having some trouble following her he'd got stuck on the word aphrodisiac and everything she'd said after that had blurred and garbled. But she'd paused and was waiting for him to say something.
"The thing is, Luna, you can't kiss me like that and expect me to be able to carry on talking about spice trees."
"Oh, but you are so good at herbology, I thought you would know?"
"Thankfully none of my exams ever asked me about aphrodisiac properties of plants straight after kissing you. It would have been worse than Snape's potions finals."
Her mouth formed a perfect 'O', but she said no more. Neville had a terrible feeling that he'd hurt her somehow. He took hold of her hand. "Don't stop kissing me like that. And don't stop talking about Wrackspurts and cloves." He stared down at her hand and the perfect white crescent moons of her nails. "I just need a moment but please don't stop kissing me."
"That wasn't my intention." She took her hand back to smooth down the back of his hair. He wanted to kiss her again. He wanted to keep kissing her for a long time, somewhere private and quiet. He wanted to kiss every part of her. It felt dangerous and possessive, the urge to steal her away and hold her against his body for as long as he could. So instead he pressed his lips to her forehead.
"Ginny says you're going back to the Burrows tonight."
"Yes."
"Ron says I should stay there tonight too, rather than go back to Gran's all fuzzy and smelling like fire whiskey."
"Do stay," Luna said with a surprising amount of intensity. Neville looked at her, she looked a little tired but the bruises had gone, the cut lip, all the physical signs of the battle and her kidnapping. But the way she flinched when he woke her, the fact that she was staying with Ginny when she had a bedroom not a mile from the Burrows, the intensity in her normally dreamy voice worried him.
"Luna?"
"Yes Neville?"
"Are you sleeping?" he wasn't certain when he asked, but her large eyes widened and a rare pink flush came to her cheeks. "You're not are you?"
"I slept here," she said simply.
"Alright, but are you sleeping when you are alone at night?"
She looked away watching Ginny and Harry says their farewells to the others, Seamus and Lee Jordan seemed to be demanding they stay. Angelina waved them off saying that she would make sure George got home safely. "I sleep a little," said Luna.
It broke his heart. This wonderful girl, who had never broken but happily bent and swayed like a river reed when faced with the taunts of others, Luna who had given him a little of her courage to be himself and not forever try to be his father, what had they done to her? Until this moment he'd tried not to think about how different their experiences had been. Even when it had come to the very worst at Hogwarts he had only been truly alone for a day or two before he'd found Aberforth and Seamus had stumbled through the door battered and bleeding. As afraid as he'd been, as much as he'd seen, she'd seen worse, she'd felt worse. He'd been surrounded by friends; he'd had an enemy he could try to fight. What had Luna had? An old man she had met only once and a dark cellar with no wand and no escape. For every nightmare that had roused him from his sleep she must have had twenty nights too afraid to close her eyes.
"I'm not sure any of us get much sleep anymore," she said.
"No, this is differen'," he said firmly all the pain at hearing his fears confirmed had wrapped its self into a little ball of anger that she had not told him. "Why can you sleep here? With…."
"With you? I thought you knew, I feel safe with you."
"Luna, I should have stopped them, I wanted to stop them, I wanted to tear them limb from limb." The memory of Kings Cross station and the dark robed men pulling Luna between them visited him nightly now.
"And then where would we be? I'm glad Ginny was there to stop you." She pulled her knees up to her chest, the toes of her trainers balancing on the edge of the bench beneath her skirts. "Gryffindor courage sometimes needs to be tempered with prudence."
"I'll stay with you, till you fall asleep. If you want me too?" He felt it was the only thing he had to offer her now.
"Even if I talk about the aphrodisiac qualities of cloves?" He caught it the blink and you'll miss is smile, the one that said everyone was always underestimating Luna Lovegood.
"Oh I might never leave if you do that," he answered pulling her from her seat so that they could make their goodbyes.