A/N: I had a lot of trouble with this chapter, until I got to the end at least, but I hope it doesn't disappoint. Thanks for all of the reviews and for adding this story to alerts and favorite lists! :)
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The remainder of my Christmas break passed by uneventfully. I kept in touch with Neville through letters, but we didn't get to see each other again. I kept myself occupied, though. I worked in the garden with dad, read, drew, and repainted my bedroom that coral color I had been thinking about.
I always looked forward to getting letters from Neville. We had a sort of system going where I would receive a letter from him and answer him right away, but he would wait until the next morning to answer my letter. This way, we would each receive one letter from each other a day. I had never written so many letters to someone before.
I wrote to Ginny a few times as well. She assured me that her dad was fine and that he was back at home now. She had actually written a letter to me first the day after Christmas. Apparently, she had found out about me and Neville through Hermione and couldn't contain her excitement until she saw me in person next week.
"I KNEW IT," was the first sentence of the note, capital letters and all. She had written that she had known that it wouldn't be long until Neville and I would be a couple and that we were officially the cutest couple she had ever seen. I think she might have been exaggerating and I told her so when I wrote her back. She said I was just being modest.
By the end of the holidays, I was rather excited about returning to school. I had the DA to look forward to once again and Harry's promise to teach us the patronus charm was echoing in my head. I couldn't wait.
Naturally, I couldn't wait to see Neville and the others again as well. Writing letters simply wasn't the same as seeing someone in person, as much as I did love to write. The only part about going back to school that I wasn't looking forward to was seeing Umbridge and finding out what other strange decrees she had thought up.
On the last night of Christmas break, I slid the letter I had gotten from Neville a few hours ago into the box on my desk. I had been saving every single one of his letters. This way, I could reread them whenever I wanted to. There was no doubt that they would make me smile if I reread them. I planned to save them forever, or at least until there ever came a time where Neville and I no longer spoke to each other. I hoped that wouldn't happen, though.
Once I was finally on the train to Hogwarts, I chose the last compartment, which was luckily empty. In our letters, Neville and I had decided to meet in the very last compartment once we got on the train. Apparently I had gotten there first.
As soon as I had sat down, the door was flung open. I looked up in surprise to see Ginny standing there. She squealed and flung herself into the seat next to me, tucking her legs under her. "I can't believe it," she said, grabbing my arm. She jumped up again and began dancing around the compartment.
"Ginny, what exactly are you doing?" I asked with a small laugh.
"I'm happy dancing," she answered. "Come on, happy dance with me." She grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. I didn't know what to do so I sort of jumped up and down a few times.
"That wasn't happy dancing," Ginny said, bouncing around. "You didn't look happy. You just looked awkward."
"Why exactly are we happy dancing?" I asked, sitting down again.
"Because of you and Neville!" she asked. "You are happy about that, aren't you?"
"Of course I am, but we've been dating for almost three weeks. The initial excitement has kind of worn off. Not that I'm not still excited of course." I relaxed into my seat and pulled out the sketchbook from Harry. I hadn't gotten a chance to use it yet, but I planned to right now.
"Is that from Harry?" Ginny asked.
"Yes," I answered.
"He asked me what he should get you," she said with a smile. "I knew you liked to draw so that's what I suggested."
"That's what I thought," I said, smiling back.
"So technically I got you two gifts," Ginny joked. "Harry just signed his name on it."
I giggled. "Well thank you for giving him the idea and I'll thank him for the actual gift when I see him."
"So," Ginny said after a moment, "where is Neville?"
The train had just begun to move and I glanced at the door. "He should be here soon. We agreed to meet here in the last compartment."
I started drawing something easy on the first page of the sketchbook. It was a daisy, my favorite flower.
Finally, the door opened and Neville entered the compartment. Ginny squealed again and hugged him.
"Are you going to happy dance again?" I asked, continuing to draw one of the petals on my daisy.
"No, I don't remember the exact steps to the dance anyway," she shrugged.
"Don't you just make it up as you go?" I asked.
"Happy dance?" Neville asked before Ginny could answer.
"Yes, Ginny is very excited that we're dating now," I answered as Neville sat next to me.
"Of course," Neville said with a smile. He turned to me. "What are you drawing?"
"A daisy," I answered. "I wanted to start with something simple."
"That doesn't look simple," Neville said. "I mean, you have so much detail and it's just so perfect. If I tried to draw a daisy, it would be scrawny and uneven and just awful."
I laughed. "This isn't perfect. It's just a messy sketch that I'm doing on a moving train. It's nothing spectacular."
"You're talented, Luna," Neville insisted, kissing my temple.
"Where's my compliment?" Ginny joked.
"Why don't you go ask Michael for one?" Neville said, joking back.
"Why aren't you sitting with him anyway?" I asked.
"You don't like my company?" Ginny asked. "I'm offended."
"No it's not that," I said quickly. "I was just wondering."
"Well," Ginny said, "He's been acting rather annoying lately."
"Annoying how?" Neville asked.
"He keeps being a sore loser whenever Gryffindor beats Ravenclaw in Quidditch. I mean, I can understand that he's disappointed, but he always complains to me about it and gets moody with me after we win a match."
"How silly," I answered. "He shouldn't be angry with you that Gryffindor won."
"Exactly," Ginny answered. "I mean, you're in Ravenclaw and you don't get angry when you lose."
I nodded. "I'm not the competitive type. Of course, it's very nice when Ravenclaw does win, but I don't let it get in the way of other things."
"That's how it should be," Ginny sniffed, taking out a textbook and a quill. "Last minute homework," she added. "I didn't get much time to do it over the break."
"How is your father doing?" Neville asked.
"He's fine now," she answered seriously.
"Good," Neville answered. "That must have been a horrible start to the Christmas holidays."
"Definitely," Ginny agreed. "St. Mungo's was exactly where I wanted to be on Christmas day."
"Luna and I were at St. Mungo's too," Neville said, glancing at me. I looked at him. Was he going to tell Ginny about his parents?
"Ron told me he saw you. Is everything okay with your family?" Ginny asked.
"Well, nothing bad has happened recently," Neville said slowly.
"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.
Neville took a deep breath. "My gran and I always go to visit my parents and I invited Luna along with us this time."
"What happened to them?" Ginny whispered.
"They were tortured into insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange and a group of other Death Eaters."
"Oh Neville," Ginny's eyes widened.
"Luna was the first person I told and I only told her a few months ago. Harry, Ron and Hermione found out accidentally when they saw us at the hospital. Luna pointed out that it might not be a bad idea to let people know. You're one of my closest friends, so I thought you should be one of the people that knew."
"I won't tell anyone else," she said quietly. "I'm sorry Neville."
"I like being in the DA," Neville said, "because it makes me think that by learning how to defend myself, I'm making them proud."
"Of course you are," I said, "but I've already said that you've already made them proud just by being you."
"Thanks, Luna," Neville smiled. I rested my head on his shoulder and continued to draw. He leaned his head against mine and we sat in silence. Ginny did her homework, I drew, and Neville looked out the window and occasionally watched me draw.
Finally, we reached Hogwarts and we rode in the carriages back to the school. We returned just in time for dinner. I was starving. I really hoped there would be pudding.
The next DA meeting was held that Thursday night. Neville and I walked to the Room of Requirement together, holding hands and talking excitedly about the patronus charms.
"I hope I'll be able to do one," Neville mumbled.
"Hermione says they're difficult magic, but I'm sure we'll be able to do it with Harry's help."
"What if it takes me forever like it did with the disarming spell? That spell was easy and it took me a while to get it right. How am I ever going to learn such a difficult spell?"
"Sometimes," I said, "things are easy for some that are difficult for others. Maybe you'll find patronus charms to be really easy."
"Hopefully," Neville responded.
We reached the Room of Requirement and half an hour later, the room was filled with white, wispy, glowing shapes of light.
Ginny was actually the first of us to get her patronus to take on an actual shape. Most of us were spouting formless mist from our wands, but all of a sudden, a horse erupted from Ginny's wand and galloped in circles around her.
"Fantastic!" Harry cried, excited that someone had made progress. He walked around the room as more and more people got the hang of the charm. "Luna, let's see," he said.
I bit my lip, thinking of the happiest memory I had. I could think of two. One was a time that I spent with my mother. I was about seven and my father was on a trip searching for unusual creatures, which left me alone with my mother for a week. We sat in front of the fire, drinking hot chocolate and she was telling me stories about her time at Hogwarts. I had always been close to my mother before she died, but that night was the night I had felt the absolute closest to her.
The other memory I had was the night Neville asked me to be his girlfriend and we had first kissed. I decided to focus on both memories. I closed my eyes and pictured my mother and I in front of the fire. After a few seconds, I pictured Neville and I in the greenhouse under the mistletoe.
"Expecto Patronum," I said. A mist shot out of my wand and almost instantly took the shape of a rabbit. It hopped around me and I giggled, watching it until it vanished.
"Good, Luna!" Harry said. He turned to look at Neville, whose wand was emitting little puffs of misty light.
"I'm trying, Harry," he said.
"I know," Harry answered, putting a hand on Neville's shoulder. "What memory were you using? If you don't mind my asking."
"It was actually the day I showed signs of magic," Neville said. "Gran uses the phrase 'late bloomer' because I didn't start showing signs until I was nearly eight. We thought I was going to be a Squib. I was ecstatic because I was able to do magic and I could be just as amazing as my parents."
Harry was nodding. "That's good, but I think you might need something stronger than that. I know you were young, but do you have any memories with your parents from before they, well, before it happened?"
Neville bit his lip in thought. "There might be one, but I can't exactly remember too well."
"Try," Harry said. "Let the memory take up your entire brain."
Neville closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose. "Expecto Patronum."
Mist came out of his wand again, but lingered in the air for a little longer than normal. It also seemed to almost take the shape of something instead of being completely formless.
"Almost there, Neville," Harry said encouragingly. "Try another memory. A really clear one where you were extremely happy."
Neville glanced at me and smiled. "I have one."
"Good, good," Harry said. "Now, like I said before, concentrate on that one memory very hard. Let it be the only thing in your mind."
Neville closed his eyes again and uttered the spell. This time it worked and his patronus took the shape of a kangaroo. It hopped a few feet forward before fading away.
"Ah, sorry," Neville said. "I was so surprised, I forgot about the memory."
"No, that's okay, Neville. You did great!" Harry patted Neville on the back and moved on to help someone else.
Suddenly, I recognized Dobby the house elf running across the room towards Harry. His ears were flapping as he ran and his eyes looked larger than normal. "Harry Potter sir," he squeaked.
"What is it Dobby?" Harry asked. He seemed to have sensed the elf's nervousness. The rest of the room soon caught on that something wasn't right and fell silent. I moved closer to Neville and he took my hand.
"Dobby has come to warn Harry Potter and the rest of his friends that she—she-,"
"She what?" Harry asked. "Who is she?"
"She is coming," Dobby answered. "Her."
"Are you talking about Umbridge?" Harry asked.
Dobby made a squeaking sound and nodded, the tips of his ears hitting against his head.
There was a stunned silence. I almost wanted to laugh out of disbelief. She had found out.
"What are you waiting for?" Harry finally asked. "Run!"
Everyone moved at once towards the door, but nobody made it out into the hallway. Umbridge was standing right outside the door, the entire Inquisitorial Squad behind her.
We had been found and there was only one way that could have happened. Someone must have told Umbridge. I wondered who it could have possibly been. Who, out of the members at least, would have ever wanted to put a stop to the DA?
