Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark violation is intended.

Added note/disclaimer: I also use quotes from other places. If you find a quote that wasn't cited, please notify me.

READ THIS: Um… I updated this really fast because I won't have time at all for the rest of the month! So that means, I have no idea when the next update's coming. Anyway, on toward the story…

"Now we see the empty stage

The act is gone, the empty page

The tears between the lines"

VIII

Ghost

Loony. Luna. Hush, sweet children under the moon, for I am just a ghost drifting on by. Look at me, but don't look too closely. Come children, I'll gather you into my arms and whisper to you of the secrets of the ghosts and the dying. I'll tell you there's a world beyond what we see.

See my eyes. See my moonlight colored hair…

I'll only show you the smoke and the mirror. I'm an illusion.

I sat down near the wall, next to shadows and watched as Hermione Granger walked out of the boys' bathroom. Draco Malfoy was going to die.

I knew it then and I know it now. Everyone dies eventually. Even me.

I took a breath and crossed the hall, silently, waiting for Draco Malfoy to come out of the bathroom. I took him in with my eyes. I see what eye hath not seen.

Draco Malfoy was slowly dying of self-starvation.

Harry Potter was smothering under a vast emptiness. Spinning out of control, we all were. Alone in a universal vortex of depression – watch us sink. But sooner or later, we'll rise again. Never doubt that.

I watched them. I could see that Hermione Granger's greatest fear was someone telling her that she was a failure.

Draco Malfoy wanted control of his own life and the way he controlled it was by starving himself.

Harry Potter wanted to disappear. He was a hero in the world without a villain to fight.

Ginny Weasley was a teenage love-struck girl who wanted to die because the idea she loved was dead.

Ronald Weasley wanted to be noticed – he wanted to outshine the brightest of bright. He wanted to step out from under the shadows cast by his best friend, Harry Potter the Savior of the World.

Pansy Parkinson wanted the world to accept her for what she was… for the world to understand her.

You see? I'm a ghost. No one knows about me.

I am Luna Lovegood and I am invisible.

There was one person who fascinated me… Acheron Malfoy. Who was he? I didn't know that yet, but I'd find out.

I wasn't a Ravenclaw for nothing like many people think I was. They all saw what I showed them.

It's lovely, is it not? How people only see what we project and never see past it to our souls. I am the Moon. Luna.

I see you but I am a distant world. You'll never know me or my secrets.

"Hello, Luna," Ginny Weasley told me. I smiled at her and said something that was nearly as vague as the centaur's words.

"Oh… yes…" said Ginny. I smiled brightly at her and sauntered away. Not that anyone noticed.

This world is a beautiful disaster waiting to happen. It teeters at the brink of madness and yet all try to find the logic in an illogical universe. Is there a God? Oh, my dear, how can I tell you that when you don't believe what your eyes do not see? Touch, smell, sight… concrete evidence you all demand when the universe has more than that.

Do you believe in the past? Do you believe the past happened at all? The past is relative. You feel it and know it's real when it happens, but… how do you prove it really existed? You can't.

The past and future are nonexistent. Only the present exists.

"Hello, Harry," I said. He was brooding once again. They all brood.

"Hi, Luna," he said quietly.

"Whatever you're thinking," I said, "don't take it too harshly. The answer's relatively simple."

He stared at me.

"Have you ever seen a humdinger?" I asked him.

He stared at me.

"I'm looking at one right now," I told him. I hoped he understood me. I don't know if I acted like what they expected me to act. They want me to be dreamy… and so I am. The universe is wider than our views of it.

But you know, something, I hope someday they will all find their happiness. The problem with the world is that everyone wants more than what they get. But that's my opinion.

– Unknown

A/N: I honestly don't think I've done Luna's character justice. My impression of her is that she's much more than what people think she is…But I really don't think I've done her justice….Oh, by the way, humdinger (if you don't already know) is a slang word for someone/something exceptional. I figured if anyone would say that word, it'd be Luna.

Citation/Disclaimer(s)/Reference:

1. The chapter's quotation comes from a song whose name I don't know. I don't even know who sings it – just the lyrics.

2. The universe is wider than our views of it. – Thoreau (?) I don't know for sure this is a quote, but I think it is.

Review Response:

Moonlit Eyes

Night Essence

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Govnuk

vi riddle

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Selling souls at low prices

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I'd say more but I'm out of time!

Keir