Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no profit from this. This is fiction.

This was, as I have said, a challenge from live journal to write 10 letters with various prompts. This is the end of this series, and this letter is based on the prompt 'regret'.

Thank you to the people who put this series on alert and to anyone who took the time to read it. I would, as ever, love to hear your thoughts.

4th November 1998

Dear Luna

I know you are at Hogwarts, this letter will arrive when you are sitting just a few metres away tomorrow morning, but you will have to forgive me, because I can't find the courage to say this to your face.

It's November now. Months since the final battle of Hogwarts and the fall of the Dark Lord and we are settling, or at least trying to settle back into school life. Yet I can't. I can't because there is something I want to so, something I need to do.

I want to apologise. I want to apologise for everything that happened to you this last year. You have been through things that no person should have to face and though you made it through, I'm still overwhelmed with guilt. Harry, Ron and myself. We were pre-occupied with our mission and escaping that we didn't stop to think about our friends and how they too, may be in danger.

We realise now that your father's business and your connections to us, put you in danger. I dread to think what you must have endured at Malfoy Manor and though I'm so very glad that we were able to get you out, I just wish we could of protected you in the first place so that you would never have needed rescuing at all. I wish we could of found you sooner. I'm sorry. So very sorry Luna and I hope that one day, you will forgive us for our failings, so that we may forgive ourselves.

You once told Harry that being part of the DA was like having friends. I'm sorry that having friends led you to danger you might not have otherwise faced but Luna, you do have friends! I know that I maybe haven't been the best of friends and that I haven't always understood you or had as much time for you as I should but that doesn't mean I don't care about you. You are very important to us. You were there at the Ministry, you were one of two that answered the summons during the first battle of Hogwarts!

Luna, you are our friend, we rely on you and care about you and hate the idea that you suffered when you were imprisoned. I hope that one day you can talk to us about what happened and perhaps Harry, Ron and I can explain what we faced to you, so that we can move on and enjoy the future we fought for.

Yet, even now, back at Hogwarts, everything is different now. I know you can see it too. The new bricks in walls that fell, not quite as dirty and worn as the ones behind them, new doors on old hinges, more prefects on duty and then of course, there are the students that are missing. Students that are too scared to come back, and then, the students that cant. Magic can't hide these things.

Does it feel almost haunted to you?

I almost can't stand it. It almost makes me want to leave. This is supposed to be a school, but all I can see is the death and destruction and everything we lost here. I'm just so grateful we survived it all and were not hurt too much. That's not really the point here though, I want to say sorry. Sorry for not being the friend I should have been, in everyway.

Sincerely, your friend,

Hermione