I am not the amazing J.K. Rowling, and I do not own even the merest crumb of the Harry Potter universe.
Thank you so much for the amazing reviews, I'm exceedingly glad that you enjoy reading my little story!
A/N : I know it's hard to keep track, but the Ball is two days away at this point. Just fyi.
Neville woke in a panic, Luna's hand clamped across his mouth as she looked at down him through glossy eyes wide with alarm.
She was naked, sitting on his stomach, the hand not pressed to his lips wrapped tightly around her wand. She glanced over her shoulder to her window before looking back down at him. She leaned in close, whispering softly in his ear.
"We're being invaded."
Neville sat up immediately, lifting Luna from his lap and depositing her gently but quickly on the floor behind her bed. He grabbed his wand, rolling to the floor himself and attempting to gather his trousers in one hand while casting a protective spell on the room. He turned to Luna as he stood, pulling his trousers over his hips, his voice dropped to a harsh whisper.
"How many are there?"
She shook her head, looking small and frightened.
"I-I don't know. Too many."
He nodded sharply, throwing her dress at her as he fruitlessly searched the floor for his discarded shirt. His mind began clicking things into place and he issued quiet orders as he cobbled together a plan.
"Stay down. I'll distract them while you apparate for help."
She shook her head slowly.
"That won't work, Neville."
He rounded on her, panic giving his words a sharpened edge.
"It has to work. I won't let … they can't take you again."
She cocked her head slightly, sitting naked on the floor with her dress held loosely in her hands.
"They aren't Death Eaters, Neville."
He stopped, his heart flopping madly around like a fish without water, completely flabbergasted. If it wasn't … but she had said …
"Not Death Eaters?"
She shook her head again.
"Worse. Weasleys."
He stared at her in a daze of complete and utter incomprehension. Weasleys? They were being invaded by … Weasleys? He released his breath loudly. This was one of Luna's little … things, then.
She had woken him before with bizarre pronouncements of questionable truths that could have easily waited for morning, but none of them had ever been quite this … distressing.
He ran his hands through his hair, shaking his head rapidly as he fought to control the anger that was suddenly coursing through him like white water rapids. Merlin, she had scared him.
For a crystal clear moment he had believed that she was in danger of another kidnapping, or torture, or worse from a group of evil wizards. He had been the only obstacle preventing that from happening. And he had known what he had to do.
This last year … it had changed him. In times of great stress he no longer panicked. His mind sharpened, focusing on the most important goal and how best to achieve it.
Moments ago that goal had been Luna's safety, but now…? He looked at her, feeling his face turn scarlet with fury. Now he wanted to grab her with both hands and shake some sense into her.
He turned away from her and stalked to the window, looking out in exasperation, not really expecting to see anything. He leaned out, immediately pulling away in horror, flattening himself against the wall as he looked at Luna over her bed with eyes white-rimmed in panic.
"I-it's Weasleys. A-all of them, I think."
She nodded morosely, pulling her dress over her head as casually as though she were getting dressed for school. She looked up at him as she pulled her long wavy hair out of her collar.
"Horrible, isn't it?"
He nodded, his mind doing backflips of panic.
She walked over to the window as if he were not plastered to the wall, obviously pretending they weren't there. To his amazement, she even leaned out and waved before popping back in to shrug at him.
"Oh well. I should have expected something extraordinary today."
She walked to her rumpled bed, sitting on the edge and swinging her legs. Neville watched her in patent disbelief.
"I think that you will probably wish to put your clothes back on, don't you?"
He didn't even nod, just dove to the ground to sort out his shirt and socks, giving up on his underpants as they were not to be found. Luna had a habit of … borrowing things, sometimes. They'd always show up eventually, folded and tucked into his pack. He didn't mind.
He looked up to find her watching him, her luminous eyes serious and sad.
"You told them."
It wasn't a question. Neville swallowed, taking a moment to look for his shoes and try to form a convincing denial. He looked back up, and she hadn't moved.
"I- no, I didn't tell them."
She just kept looking at him, making his insides burn with guilt. He paced around the hole in her floor, the increasingly loud cacophony of Weasleys signaling their imminent invasion. He walked over to her, taking her hands in his.
"Luna. I-they already knew, didn't they? I just, I just told them to-to think a bit about what they knew. I never said your name or anything about your house. I swear it."
She tilted her head to the side, bringing her hand up to trace the features of his face, her eyes impossibly deep as they bore into his.
"You just can't help it, can you? Saving people."
He shrugged, pulling away as he heard Ron's voice calling for them.
…
Ron approached the crumbling house slowly. Merlin's Beard, it was almost completely destroyed. Looked like a Rook that had been taken in a particularly nasty game of wizard's chess.
Well at least Luna was with Neville, and not living up there in that …
She leaned out of the top window, waving madly at him.
Dragon's teeth! She was living up there! No bloody wonder Neville was so pissed at them!
Hermione stood at his side, her hands pressed to her mouth; he inched closer as he heard a muffled moan from her direction. Putting his arm around her shoulders, he tried to put an optimistic edge in his voice.
"S'alright, Hermione. My Dad an' everyone'll fix it up for her, you'll see. It'll be good as new in no time at all."
She lowered her hands, looking up at him with eyes wet with unshed tears.
"Oh Ron, we're horrible friends, aren't we? We just left her to live in that-that-"
She broke off and buried her face in Ron's shirt, leaving him to lock eyes with a very pale looking Harry.
He had forgotten to tell them until this morning, at breakfast. Hermione had figured it out right off, gasping with horror and rushing off to rally the troops. Bill and Fleur had been over for breakfast so they had the full brigade at their disposal.
He walked ahead with Harry, leaving Ginny and Hermione lagging behind with his family as he paused beside the ramshackle ladder leading up to Luna's bedroom window.
He cupped his hands to his mouth.
"Oi! Luna! Neville, you up there?"
Neville leaned out, looking a bit pale himself.
"We're here, back up a bit and I'll come down."
Ron took a few steps back and watched as Neville climbed down the ladder with practiced ease, holding his ground as his friend stomped over to glare at him.
Neville leaned in, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Did you have to tell your whole bloody family, Ron? I could have done without having to face your mother this morning."
Ron shrugged helplessly.
"Afraid they're part of the package, mate. Eager to help, an' everything."
Neville turned away to catch Luna as she flitted down the ladder, leaping gleefully from about the fifth rung up.
"Good Morning Ron!"
He took another step back cautiously, coming up even with Harry.
"Good Morning, Luna. We've come to …er… help."
Ron finished lamely, feeling like a complete tit. He looked at Neville, who was watching his approaching family with wide eyes. He had been right, they had known all along that Luna's home had been destroyed, but they had … forgotten somehow.
Ron had been so wrapped up in his own grief, so consumed by the overwhelming emotions that had washed over him in the wake of the Battle. So completely immersed in … Hermione. She had simply taken up all of the space in his head, for weeks now. He felt awful about it.
Luna waved at his family, standing on her toes to see past Ron's shoulders.
"Hello Weasleys!"
She turned back to Ron, tilting her head so severely that she reminded him of an owl.
"It's lovely of your family to worry about me, but I won't be needing your help."
Ron looked at the house. An entire section had simply been scooped out of the cylindrical building, spilling out across the lawn in great piles of rubble. He opened his mouth to protest but saw Neville gesturing madly over Luna's head, shaking his head and waving his hands.
"Oh. Um … alright, Luna."
She smiled like he had just told her that her father had returned. Turning in a disconcertingly graceful pirouette, she skipped over a pile of stone and picked her way into the cavernous recesses of the building, Neville scrambling with considerably less grace to follow her.
"Luna! I've told you, you can't go in there, it isn't-"
Her voice rang out from somewhere inside.
"Nonsense. Everyone will be needing refreshments, Neville. It's only polite. I believe there is still some Gurdyroot in the kitchen, I'll just start on an infusion. "
Ron grimaced, recalling his last encounter with the noxious concoction. He stepped through the jagged piles of debris, leaning in to the dark gaping hole in the building and shouting.
"No! Oh no, no need for that, Luna. We've just come from breakfast, actually, so there's no need to fuss. Really."
"Ron! Harry! Come away from there, you two, I don't like the looks of that building at all!"
Ron pulled away from the building, making to follow Harry, but pausing to wait for Neville and Luna.
"Ronald!"
"But Mum, I-"
"No Buts! Now!"
Ron hunched his shoulders up, glaring at his brothers as they snickered at him from over their mother's head. He walked heavily back to where his family stood staring at the building.
"Oh Merlin! Luna Lovegood, you get out of there at once! You too, Neville Longbottom."
His Mum flapped her hands at his friends, taking a faltering step forward before covering her eyes as they picked their way expertly over to the waiting Weasleys.
Luna approached his mother, squeaking as she was pulled into a crushing embrace.
"Oh, you poor dear! There, there, don't fret. We'll take care of everything."
Luna was very still for a moment and then Ron saw her arms twine around his mother, her shoulders shaking violently. Neville took a step closer to her, glaring at Ron like it was all his fault.
His Dad mumbled something to Percy and the two of them set out to circle the building, his Dad gesturing occasionally as Percy took furious notes with a small pad and quill he had tucked in his jacket.
Luna pulled away, her face wet with tears and her protuberant eyes appearing impossibly large beneath their glossy coat. She blinked up at his Mum, who was a bit teary eyed herself.
"My mother smelled like peppermint."
His Mum pulled Luna back into another hug, rocking back and forth as she began weeping in earnest. Ron edged away to stand with Harry and Hermione, who had their heads together in that way that meant they were planning something.
They stopped when he approached, Harry breaking away to have a word with Neville and Hermione waiting for Ron. She had that hummingbird look about her, the one that came over her when she was eager to get started on a task. Practically vibrating in place, she was. She gestured impatiently with her wand as he stood before her.
"You are to go with Bill and Charlie."
Ron put his hands in his pockets, a bit miffed that they had finished the plan without him.
"M'kay. What for?"
She sighed as though it should be perfectly obvious.
"The three of you make up the lifting team, moving the larger stones out of our way and then replacing them when we're ready."
Ron nodded. That made sense, he supposed.
"Alright. So what are you an' Harry doing, then?"
Hermione ticked off items with her wand on her fingers.
"Harry, George, and Neville are reinforcing the foundation and preparing the building for repairs. Ginny, Fleur, Luna, your mother and I will be sorting out Luna's belongings and disposing of anything that cannot be repaired."
Ron nodded, glancing around before swooping down to steal a quick little kiss, walking away from his blushing girlfriend with a decided swagger in his step.
He came up to Bill and Charlie, who were busily talking Quidditch.
"-an' then I heard that they won't even be playing next season, they're takin' a season off after the war."
"Bloody nonsense, if you ask me. A decent game of Quidditch is just what people need right now."
"Bill."
His brother looked up, flicking his long hair away from his face. Ron thought it was incredibly irritating that his scars had only served to make him more appealing to women, as if Bill had ever been less than blessed in that arena.
"The two of you are with me. We're clearing the stones away so Harry n'them can start repairs."
Charlie sent a little grin to his fellow older brother before saluting Ron mockingly.
"Ay ay, Captain. Lead the way, young warrior!"
Ron rolled his eyes and stomped off toward the building. Merlin's pants, you fight in a bloody war and your older brothers still don't respect you. It was enough to drive a bloke barmy.
…
Luna wiped her brow, her arm coming away damp and streaked with dirt. They had been working for hours and her lawn was now visible beneath the neatly sorted piles of belongings. She watched Mrs. Weasley lovingly fold one of her robes, adding it to the pile of clothing worth saving.
These people … they were almost like friends.
Friends; Companions, neighbors, advocates. More than that, they were a family. And for this moment in her series of moments, she felt a part of that family. It was a beautiful feeling, like being dipped in warm chicken soup and wrapped in a blanket.
She had been … so afraid.
Afraid of anyone finding out. She had been afraid of losing her home, of losing everything she had left. Afraid that people would want to tear it all down and start over. She didn't want a new home. She wanted her home, with the scorch marks on the ceiling from her mother's experiments and the gouges in the stone from her father's machinery.
She had thought that Neville understood that. But he had betrayed her.
Betrayal; no, that wasn't the right word at all. Was there a word for this? A word for loving someone so much that you trust them with every secret you hold close to your heart? A word for the moment they take that trust and move beyond it, to do something they feel you need? It was not a betrayal, precisely. It was something else entirely. She filed that thought into the back of her mind for further examination.
Her eyes followed Neville as he clambered around the gutted shell of her home, chanting spells and waving his wand with admirable efficiency. He had sacrificed so much, for so many. But he made a special sacrifice for her. He gave her more than his bravery, his loyalty and protection. He gave her the best pieces of himself, all of himself. Heart, body, and soul.
Love. It was a curious emotion.
She watched Hermione brusquely sorting through piles of her belongings, making quick repairs and hesitating before disposing of anything. She and Ronald Weasley were in love. Love for them was sometimes cruel and often loud and always overwhelmingly present. Luna's love felt very different from that.
Was she in love with Neville? It hadn't seemed important, for her to know either way. She knew that she loved him, and simply had not felt any need to further categorize that feeling. The words had never been said, by either of them, but she recognized the light in his troubled eyes, the regard in his trembling fingertips. It was not an emotion to be defined by words. It was a cauldron filled with snippets of other emotions, stirred together in just the right way to form a potent potion. She felt herself reeling from the effects, her normally chaotic mind shaken into a frightening semblance of order.
He had done this for her. He had gathered the only group of people that he knew would respect her need for her original home to help with repairs. This was not betrayal.
This was love.
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