Moonchild

Chapter 10

Luna

Halloween was right around the corner, which meant the first Hogsmeade weekend was coming up fast. It was all the talk of the school; going to Honeydukes, Zonko's, getting butterbeer from Madame Rosmerta at the Three Broomsticks, and seeing the Shrieking Shack.

That morning at breakfast, the day before Halloween, Neville Longbottom approached Luna at the Ravenclaw table.

"Hey, Luna," he said tentatively. "I was wondering if I could ask you something."

"Sure," she said placidly.

"Well," he stammered, sweat starting to bead on his forehead, "I thought, you know, the first Hogsmeade weekend is tomorrow, and I thought, well I was wondering…if maybe…"

"I wanted to go with you?" she finished for him.

"Well…yeah," Neville finished lamely.

Luna thought about it for a moment. On the one hand, she did like Neville and knew she'd have fun with him. On the other hand, she had been hoping, however faintly, that it would Seleneo standing here awkwardly asking her to Hogsmeade instead of Neville. Then again, they'd known about this Hogsmeade thing for a while now, and Seleneo hadn't said anything about it.

"Yeah, why not?" Luna said brightly. "It'll be fun."

"OK, well…wait, really?" Neville said, doing a double-take. "Great! Um…yeah, well…great! I'll see you later, then." Neville turned back to the Gryffindor table and headed off in a sort of daze. Luna turned back to the Ravenclaw table, and as she did so caught a glimpse of the door to the Entrance Hall. Standing in the doorway, for a fleeting moment, was Seleneo. In that moment the two of them locked eyes. She wasn't sure what it was she saw in his eyes in that moment; was it shock, or hurt? She wasn't sure, and as soon as she saw him he vanished from the doorway, speeding off into the rest of the castle.

Luna took off after him, and finally caught up with him in the Charms corridor.

"Seleneo," she called after him. "What was that all about? You just took off."

"Nothing," he said shortly. "I just needed to get up here. Get ready for Flitwick's classes, you know."

"Is this because of Neville?" she continued.

"No," he said. "No, why would I even care about that? Listen, I need to get in there and get ready. I'll catch you later, alright?" He didn't wait for her answer, and shut the door in front of her.

But Seleneo didn't catch her later. Luna didn't see hide nor hair of him the whole rest of the day. She looked for him at lunch, and again at dinner, but neither time was he anywhere to be found. Despite what he had said, Luna had a sneaking suspicion that he was acting this way because he had seen her and Neville together at breakfast. Then again, if he wanted to hide from her because of it, that was up to him. She'd tried to explain to him that she and Neville were just friends, but he hadn't even given her the chance.

"I'll just enjoy tomorrow," she said to herself as she got up from the Ravenclaw table to head back to the common room.

When she finally arrived back in Ravenclaw Tower, she set to work on some homework before bed. It seemed like the perfect way to get her mind off of how things were going lately. After making some good headway on her essays, she resigned herself for bed. She climbed the marble stairs up to the dormitory, and on her bed she saw a bit of parchment. She unfolded it, and in a curly, feminine-looking script, she read:

"He has feelings for you. Don't let them go to waste. You two belong together." Where there should have been a signature, there was only the letter V.

"I don't know anyone with a V name," she said to herself. "Well, I'll worry about this later." She got into bed and shut her eyes, but sleep was reluctant to come. Her mind was racing with questions. Who is he? Who is V? What does all this mean? And most important of all, Why didn't Seleneo ask me first?