Disclaimer: The Harry Potter world and all Harry Potter characters are not mine. I do not make any money from this.
A/N: This was written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round 5, for the Appleby Arrows, Chaser 3.
Prompt: Use the title of a story written by your Chaser 1 for inspiration – "Small Moments"
Additional Prompt(s): (color) pastel pink, (word) eternity, and (emotion) apathetic
. . .
Pink
. . .
"The damage is extensive. They said they can heal the nerve damage but it's…" Harry took a deep breath, gripped the mug of tea in his hands and sighed. "She won't talk. She doesn't respond to anything, really. She recognizes people and familiar things but…it's hard to explain." Cho frowned and adjusted in her seat. She didn't understand why Harry Potter had come knocking on her door but the look of urgency on his face concerned her.
"How do you know she recognizes people?" she asked.
"She does this thing where she lightly touches your wrist. It's almost like a greeting but that's about the most she'll do in a visit. It's difficult to explain. She knows, but she doesn't react." Harry sighed again. He was clearly getting frustrated. "She's not the same Luna we all know," he finally blurted out.
Cho looked thoughtful.
"What does St. Mungo's have to say about it?" She sipped at her tea and watched him closely. Luna Lovegood was loved by a lot of people but Harry had a particular fondness for her that no one really understood, except maybe Cho. Despite having said nothing when her friends bullied Luna, she had ended up becoming really close with her.
Her mind was already spiraling with possible treatments and solutions. She had worked at St. Mungo's but had left when their unwillingness to find cures for curses and any damage done to the mind became evident. The Mediwitches and wizards had said it was too dangerous to try and tamper with that kind of magic. Cho hadn't agreed. She still didn't.
She had spent her time researching the different magical ailments of the mind and coming up with possible treatments to cure them. Legilimens, she'd found, could prove to be vital in healing the mind. She had only worked on two patients who willingly came to her for help after getting no progress from St. Mungo's. The people there constantly debased and undermined her work by telling patients that her treatments could never work.
Except that in the two cases she'd worked on, they had.
She supposed that was why Harry was there. She thought of Luna fondly. She remembered Luna sitting by the lake haloed by a pink sunset. She hadn't spent any time with Luna in those early years. It was only after Dumbledore's Army that she'd found a camaraderie in the blond witch, and later, more. After everything that happened, Cho felt she couldn't really trust her friends anymore. Luna had approached her by the lake, offered some friendly words and it had taken off from there. Cho grew close to Luna up until she was taken by Death Eaters.
"They said it's too risky to try and tamper with her mind or her magical core. They said they wouldn't do it. That's why I'm here," Harry explained.
Cho nodded minutely, suddenly lost in thought. Luna had always been a soft spirit, wise beyond her years and filled with a never ending light. Cho remembered it well. She had to help her, in any way she could. Luna would have done the same for her.
"I would need to see her for myself, to assess the damage. Then maybe I can help."
Harry stood abruptly, excitement and hope written all over his features. "Great! Let's go!" He moved towards the door but Cho stopped him.
"There's just one thing you're going to have to do." He looked confused and Cho sighed. "You're going to have to convince St. Mungo's to let me treat her. As long as she's under their care, they won't allow me near her."
"Shouldn't that be up to her family? Xenophilius is a mess without her, I'm sure he would agree to this in a heartbeat." Cho frowned.
"Still. St. Mungo's won't let me in the building." Harry looked thoughtful and then moved towards the door.
"I'll see what I can do. I'll be back."
. . .
Cho ignored the vast amount of stares and glares she received from the employees of St. Mungo's. She really didn't understand why they hated her. She had never done anything to earn their resentment. She'd left amicably and started her own practice so she could do what she wanted. The only time it ever interfered with the establishment was when those two patients came to her for help instead of putting their trust in the wary healers. Cho believed there was no real reason for all the ire.
She was led to Luna's room—being the Chosen One had its perks. Luna was in a very comfortable room that Cho knew was only used by high profile clients and she supposed in some way Luna was just that. Her contribution to the war efforts would insure that.
The blonde witch was sitting at a table with a healer. Luna was spasming. Her arms shook violently and her hands tensed. The healer was doing diagnostics while also conducting some spells to help ease the shaking. Cho knew nerve damage when she saw it and she knew the standard procedure to treating it. She stood awkwardly in the doorway, waiting for Harry to enter. He stood next to her, grimacing at the sight of one of his beloved friends struggling.
When the healer was finished, he stood and moved pass them without acknowledgment. Harry entered the room with a gentle smile.
"Hey, Luna. I brought a friend. I think she can help you." Harry approached her slowly with his hand outstretched. Luna looked up at him but her face was impassive. She showed no visible signs of knowing who he was. In fact, her face seemed to be fixed in a permanent mask of indifference. It unnerved Cho. The apathy fixed on Luna's face and in her posture was something Cho had never seen.
Harry moved to sit beside her and when he did he placed his hand on the table, wrist facing up. Luna touched him briefly and then looked away towards the wall. He looked towards Cho, his eyes seeming to beg her to help. Cho took a deep breath and walked into the room. She approached the witch and kneeled beside her.
"Hello Luna. It's been awhile. Harry brought me here to take a look at you and to see if I can help." She gently touched her arm but Luna didn't move. Cho felt a sinking feeling in her chest. Hadn't they been close once? Really close. She suddenly remembered daisies in her hair, light touches against her hand and fond whispers in her ear. She dropped her hand abruptly and cleared her throat. She stood and took out her wand. Harry watched curiously.
"I'm going to cast some of my own diagnostic spells, Luna. They are perfectly safe and I just want to know how I can help." She waited for some form of answer or affirmation but there was none. She looked uncertainly to Harry who only nodded.
So Cho began.
. . .
"There doesn't seem to be any physical damage to the brain that I can see. But when I look to her magical energy, there is something there. It's almost like a grey ball trapped in the amygdala. It's preventing circulation of her magic, almost like it's locking her out of what makes her, her." Cho explained. Harry only nodded but he didn't seem to fully understand.
"So how can you get rid of it?" he asked. Cho's eyebrows rose and her mouth twisted, Harry didn't think that look meant anything good.
"It's not that easy, Harry. For one, I don't know what it is. It could be some magical block or parasitic curse. I think it's the cause of her condition but my treatments could easily make it worse. Until I know what it is, I can't, in good conscience, try to bypass it." She looked to Luna who was now sleeping in bed.
"We have to try."
Cho looked at Harry in shock.
"It's dangerous!" she shrilled but Harry didn't look like that was going to stop him. She watched him for several moments before sighing. "What can you tell me about the incident?"
"Not much. She was at home with her father when it happened. Xenophilius describes it as if something was switched off in her. She was herself and then the next she wasn't. Hermione thinks it might be a result of…what happened to her at Malfoy Manor. That's how she got the nerve damage."
Harry grimaced. "We questioned the Malfoys but they didn't exactly play a hand in her torture, they were being tortured themselves. Lucius and Narcissa swear they don't know of any kind of magic that could do this. She was getting the treatments for her nerves and it was going well. Then this happened."
Cho nodded thoughtfully.
"It could be dark magic but the magical signature is different. I've been around dark magic, have seen dark curses but they didn't feel like this. They didn't look anything like this. Maybe…" Cho stopped and moved towards her bag. She pulled out of one her notebooks and rummaged through her notes.
"What is it?" Harry asked. Cho looked at him and smiled.
. . .
"So accessing fragments of her mind, of her memory could possibly give us some clue as to what happened to her?" Cho nodded.
"I would have to use Legilimency to locate any part of her mind that isn't affected by this…thing. You said she remembers familiar people and things that must mean that not all of her memories are clouded by whatever it is. Small moments, not matter how insignificant can be the bridges that unlock memories and emotions."
Cho looked to Luna's magical energy. It glowed a soft pink throughout her body, rippling in rosy waves. The grey entity looked almost subdued as if desperate to blend in with the blush strands surrounding it.
"Okay. Do it." She looked at him.
"Are you sure?" she asked. He nodded. She took a deep breath and entered the mind of Luna Lovegood.
. . .
"You know I always loved it here. Sometimes I would overhear people say how dull it is out here. I don't think they noticed the myriad of colors painted around them."
Cho stared at Luna in shock. They were back at Hogwarts, by the lake, only it looked different. Everything was lit up in glowing colors that Cho couldn't remember ever seeing. She wondered if this is how Luna saw the world.
"You were one of my favorites to look at. There was always a midnight haze to your hair, strands of dark blue and purple blending together. I used to get lost in it. Like I could look at you, only you, for eternity."
Cho approached her. She gently touched her shoulder to see if it felt real. Her hand met the soft fiber of Luna's bright sweater and she smiled. She abruptly enveloped Luna into a fierce hug.
"I've missed you," she whispered against the witch's ear. Luna's arms came around to hold her; Cho could feel her smile against her shoulder.
"We did leave things quite unresolved, didn't we?" she mused. She pulled away and gave Cho a fond smile. She was just relieved to see the apathetic mask wiped away and replaced by Luna's signature brilliant smile. Cho turned serious as she remembered why she was there.
"Do you know? Do you know how I can help you?" Cho looked at her desperately and all of a sudden the sun began to set. The small world was basked in rosy light and Luna pulled away from her.
"The nightmares," Luna suddenly whispered. Cho barely caught it. "There was just so much pain. Every point in my being torn apart and stitched back together again over and over until they were done." The light turned purple and then the grounds were overtaken in darkness. Cho looked around and then back but Luna was gone.
"Luna!" Cho was suddenly pulled and pushed, over and over, until finally she fell back.
. . .
The Ravenclaw dormitory was dark, pure ivory light streamed through the window and cast its glow on the bed that once belonged to Luna. She sat there looking towards the window as if lost in thought. The shadows thrown across her face showed fear. Cho sat with her on the bed. It still mesmerized her, how much Luna's hair looked like starlight in the bright glow of the moon.
"I'm afraid," she whispered. Cho moved to take her hand but the witch flinched away as if afraid to be touched.
"What are you afraid of?" Cho asked. Luna's lip wobbled and she refused to meet her eyes.
"The pain. The treatments were taking too long. They said it would be months before I would be fully healed. They gave me potions for it of course but I could still feel it. I could feel the burning sliding along my limbs, the stabbing in my back. It was like being back there." She seemed to crumple in herself. She hugged her knees to her chest and just kept staring at the window. "I just didn't want to feel it anymore."
Then it dawned on Cho. The magical block, Luna had done it to herself. She didn't know if it was just a result of her pain or something else, but Cho finally understood.
"You're still getting the treatments. Harry is making sure you're well taken care of. The ones who care about you are worried, Luna. They want you to come back." She looked pointedly at her but she wouldn't meet her gaze.
"They don't understand. The pain…"
"Isn't permanent. I understand, Luna, I do, but doing this to yourself could be really detrimental to your health. Your magical energy is what concerns me the most. What if by the time you decide to come out, you can't?"
Luna looked at her. Her hands slid down to her ankles.
"You really think that could happen?" she asked.
Cho nodded. Luna looked like she was considering it. Cho didn't know what else to do to convince her, so she reached for her hand again. This time, Luna let her.
Immediately, colorful sparks of magic erupted from their hands and they couldn't let go. That was when she saw it, every small moment she ever spent with Luna moved about them like a magical ribbon: every moment by the lake, in their dorms, every small touch and the first kiss. Cho's heart was beating rapidly. And then the ribbon ended with the fight that left them adrift.
. . .
"Why are you afraid?" Luna yelled a rare occurrence for the usually level-headed blonde. Cho flinched back.
"I'm not afraid. I just don't think we should see each other anymore." Cho was trying her best not to cry but failing. She was too afraid to look at Luna, not sure if she could stand to see her cry too.
"You blame yourself, don't you?" Luna asked suddenly. Cho's heart felt like it was in an iron grip. She could have done something. She could have made sure the Death Eaters never got to Luna but she didn't. She watched them drag her off the train, and now she was hurt. Luna was in pain because she wasn't brave enough to help the person she cared about.
"There was nothing you could have done without getting hurt as well."
"I could have tried. If I really loved you, I would have tried." Cho walked off in her frustration and self-loathing.
Cho frowned at the memory. She should never have left. She could have been there to help Luna through the pain.
"You were always stubborn and unsure of your emotions."
"What was that?" she asked in bewilderment.
Luna flashed her small smile and held onto her hand. "When the pain was bad I would escape to my memories, mostly the memories of us. That's when I was the happiest." She looked, almost shyly, down at their entwined hands. "If I go back, will you stay with me?"
Cho smiled at her fondly and leaned closer to her. She brought her other hand up to Luna's cheek, caressed the soft skin there.
"For as long as you want me there."
She kissed her softly. It was a familiar sensation, one that always left them stunned. When they parted, the room was resplendent with the rosy colors of dawn.
"For eternity then."
Within a moment, Cho was back in Luna's room at St. Mungo's and Harry was looking desperately towards Luna who opened her eyes and gave them a bright smile.
. . .
A/N: Yep. Sort of an AU where Luna was definitely tortured during her stay at Malfoy Manor and was left with severe nerve damage, and wasn't bullied by Cho but by her friends? Yeah.