Disclaimer: Umm, fish are friends, not food.

"The simple lack of her is more to me than others' presence."
--Edward Thomas
Chapter Fourteen: Thestrals

The next few days passed painfully slow for Tom. During Potions, Luna partnered with Cat and didn't speak to him. During meals, she avoided his eyes. He told his other friends (or at least those closest to him) that he didn't care, but he did.

On Friday night, a week later, he lay awake in bed once again, futilely trying to sleep. At a quarter after midnight, he finally rose from his bed with a grunt, threw on his shoes and left the common room.

Although he had pinned his Prefect badge to his robe, he still walked quietly, hoping he would meet no one. He made it to the Entrance Hall without meeting anyone, and it was only when he reached for the oak doors to go outside that he realized where he was going.

Bloody hell. What for? I'm going to freeze, first of all. Second, if I get caught, I'll never get the Head Boy badge. Third, there's no reason to go down there at all. These were the thoughts that raced across his mind as he opened the doors and walked down the steps and onto the grass.

He sneered at himself. There I go again, disregarding my own advice. He exhaled and saw a cloud form at his lips momentarily before dissipating. He cursed himself for coming outside in the middle of the night in January, but he still kept walking.

Looking up at the inky sky, he observed several constellations that he had studied in Astronomy. It was not until the trees blocked out his view of the stars that he looked away.

He patted his pocket for his wand, but realized he had left it by his bed when he left. Damn. Now I even get to walk in the dark. He continued walking, not quite sure where he was going, and occasionally tripping over a root that he couldn't see in the dim light provided by the moon and stars. After several minutes, he looked around. Am I going the right way? Well, this looks familiar. But it's all a bunch of bloody trees, so it all looks familiar.

He walked for several minutes, slowly coming to the conclusion that he must be going the wrong way. He was finally about to turn around, when he came upon the clearing.

All the black beasts were missing, save for one. This one was lying down in the center of the clearing, but it was not asleep. Its red eyes followed him as he slowly entered the clearing. It didn't budge, for it seemed reluctant to move. As Tom drew closer to the thestral, he saw why.

With a sharp intake of breath, he saw Luna leaning against the body of the thestral. She was asleep, and he stared at her blonde hair cascading over the thestral's back, contrasting beautifully with its dark skin.

He went up to her, the thestral never taking its eyes off of him, and kneeled by her side. He silently admired the way her long eyelashes gently rested on her cheeks, and the way she smiled slightly in her sleep. Finally shaking himself mentally, he took her shoulders and gently shook her awake.

She yawned leisurely and stretched. She opened her eyes slowly and observed him knelt beside her. A smile twitched at the corner of her lips as she patted the thestral affectionately, who then stood and meandered into the trees to find its fellows. "I thought you'd come here, Tom," she said sleepily.

He fought the urge to argue with her, and instead said, "Why would you think that?"

Her eyes danced merrily as she looked at him. "I fell asleep waiting for you, you know. I know you."

"No you don't," he snapped. "Obviously not, since you were so shocked when you heard about my plans for my father."

The light in her eyes faded. She sighed and said, "Yes. About that…."

"Nothing you say will make me change my mind," he said fiercely.

He shifted uncomfortably as her eyes bored into his. "Tell me, Tom, why did you come out here then?" When he said nothing, she continued, "You came out here to see me, didn't you? And you knew I would try to change your mind. So, obviously part of you wants your mind to be changed or else you wouldn't be here, would you?"

He scowled at her for a moment, but his gaze softened. "I don't know what I want anymore. And it's all your fault."

She appeared taken aback. "How is it my fault?"

"You just are…different."

"Well, yes, I've heard that before."

He shook his head. "No, you're really different. I don't like it."

Hurt, she said, "Then why don't you leave me alone?"

"I don't like it because it makes everything so much harder," he replied honestly.

"I'm sorry I make things harder for you, Tom," she said without much honesty.

He sneered. "No, you aren't. You love every minute of it."

She shrugged innocently, and reached up to brush a stray hair out of her face. The moonlight was clear and bright in the clearing, and Tom saw once again the bruise he had made, now tinged with green and yellow. He felt the now familiar twinge of guilt.

"Can't you hide that?" he said, with an attempt to sound as though he didn't care.

For a moment she looked puzzled, as though she didn't know what he was talking about, but then she followed his gaze to her wrist. "Oh! Well, I don't see the point. I just told my friends I had a run-in with a grindylow. They have long, thin fingers like you, you know."

"I'm sure they believed that," he said sarcastically, while glancing down at his fingers. They were long and thin. He had never noticed before.

"They did, actually, so you're off the hook," she replied.

She gazed steadily at him for a moment, and he once again noticed her unnatural lack of blinking. He said nothing, though. Instead he flopped backwards onto his back and stared at the night sky.

After a moment, she lay down next to him, and her scent of citrus drifted over to him. He inhaled deeply, savoring the smell. "When are you going to tell me the truth about your past, Luna?" he asked suddenly.

She propped herself up on her elbow to look into his face. "When are you going to tell me the truth about yours?" she retorted.

He said nothing, so she relaxed back down to the ground, she savoring the scent and feel of the cold, hard earth.

"I'm cold," he said after a few moments of silence.

"I'm sorry," she replied vaguely.

"Do you want to go inside?"

"No," she said simply. She pulled out her wand and cast a spell to warm the air around them.

Silence resumed, and finally Tom found himself slowly drifting off to sleep. Before sleep took over, he felt Luna move closer to him and rest her head on his chest, using it as a pillow. He smiled groggily and dozed off.

He woke up some time later. It was still dark outside, though the sky was less inky than before. Glancing around, he realized that the thestrals had returned to the clearing and were sleeping around him and Luna. Luna still had her head on him, and she was still asleep, with that same peaceful look on her face. Her hand had a handful of his robes clutched tightly. He realized with a start that he had his arms around her, and he quickly removed them. Must have done it while I was sleeping…Its damn cold.

But it wasn't cold. The charm Luna had performed still hovered in the air, and combined with the heat of the thestrals' bodies, he was quite comfortable. He scowled and looked at her once more, just as her eyes fluttered open.

Meeting his eyes, she said, "Hello, Tom."

"Good, you're awake. Can we go inside now? The ground isn't exactly comfortable."

She stretched languidly and Tom tensed at the feeling of her body moving against him until she looked him in the face again. "Are you going to kill your dad?"

He shoved her off of him lightly and stood up. "I don't know."

"You know if you kill him I'll never forgive you," she said.

"I don't know, all right?" he spat.

She shook her head, but she saw the guilty flash behind his eyes. Knowing that she had made as much of an impact as she could for now, she decided not to push him. Instead, she held out her hand and waited for him to take it and help her to her feet. After a moment, he begrudgingly did so. After gaining her balance, she pointed to a thestral a few feet away that was slightly smaller than the others. "Do you remember him?"

He inspected the thestral. "No. They all look the same."

"That's the baby you first petted. Remember?"

"Oh, right. He's big now."

"Yes," she said, looking off into the dark trees.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye. "Why do you like them so much?"

"Hm? The thestrals? Well, I don't know…I like all creatures. Especially Othello," she said with a sparkle in her eye, "but he wouldn't get out from under the warm covers on my bed, so I came without him. As for the thestrals, they're just so misunderstood. Look at them. Not many people can see them, so they are ignored, and then the ones who do see them are almost always disgusted by them." She stroked one's nose. "They don't really see beyond what appears to be."

She appeared lost in thought for a moment, but then looked up at him and smiled dreamily. "I've always had a soft spot for misunderstood creatures."

Wondering briefly if that sentence had a deeper meaning than it let on, he said, "So are we going to stay here all night?"

She stepped closer to him. "Well, I suppose not."

They set off through the trees once again. Tom was glad Luna was there this time, because he was certain he would have wandered around for several hours, but she seemed to know where she was going. Sure enough, a few minutes later they emerged from the trees. When they reached the double doors of the castle, Tom insisted on walking Luna up to Ravenclaw Tower.

Before she disappeared into the common room behind the door, she turned to him and said, "Yes, I definitely like thestrals." Then she was gone.