Raise Me Up

Harry sat dejectedly at the end of the bar and looked into his tumbler of amber liquid like the answers he was searching for were there. James was spending the day with his uncles while Bill was still in town. Harry had not been able to sleep in the empty house so he had come here to Finnegan's which was Seamus's bar opened with Doria his muggle girlfriend.

One look at his face and Seamus had put down a glass and a bottle of his finest, strongest Scottish Fire-Whiskey. Harry was most definitely buzzed because everything around him moved at a super-fast pace and his ears were ringing lightly, he felt hopeless. Ginny was gone; the love of his life, Molly was gone; the closest thing he had to a mother figure and Ron was basically gone too, he wasn't himself anymore, he had been replaced with a raging psychopath.

Harry knew the war had changed them all it was bound to have; watching the loss of life both young and old was not an easy thing to witness. They all had their periods of acting out, of rebelling. But when had he become so blind? So oblivious to what Hermione was going through, so unaware of what Ron was doing to her, what he had become.

Harry sighed and lifted up his glass and felt the pleasant burn of the scorching liquor make its way down his throat, when suddenly he heard a soft, dreamy voice he hadn't heard in years beside him.

"You know alcohol doesn't solve problems so much as it create them."

Harry turned towards Luna with a slight grin on his face, "Luna!" he smiled at his old friend, who looked exactly the same as ever in her mismatched clothes, her purple radish earrings and a bright scarf in the most blindingly vivid shades of red and blue.

"Hello Harry," she smiled pleasantly, taking a delicate sip of her own drink. "It has been a long time; I'm afraid I have not been in touch with this world for quite some time."

"Yeah I heard you were in America doing some research."

"On the Dingby Dagnagger." She nodded seriously, "I was working with daddy and some of his friends to see if the creature really exists."

Harry felt an instant grin take form on his face; it was nice to see that some things never changed at all.

"Okay I'll bite," he grinned, "So does it exist?"

"Oh Harry don't be silly Wakaspurts are real not Dingby Dagnaggers." She said in a solemn tone that Harry had to resist laughing at. "What about you? The last I heard from Ginny was when she was pregnant. She stopped writing after that." Said Luna a little sadly.

Harry winced, "I'm sorry about that. Now when I do think about it we seemed a little self-absorbed."

"Oh! There's no need to feel that way Harry!" said Luna beaming at him, "I knew we weren't going to stay friends. There is not much we have in common, you all find me odd." She said as if it was a perfectly normal thing.

Harry winced again at Luna's brutal honesty; she was right of-course. He and Ginny had been so absorbed in their own lives that they had failed to look outside and see what was happening.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make you feel guilty." Luna's voice broke into his troubled thoughts, "I need to work on my tact."

"It's fine." He said with a bittersweet smile, "You're not the only friend I abandoned or watched getting hurt and did nothing about It." he said angrily, tipping back his glass of Whiskey again.

Luna gave him a strange, sympathetic look and said softly, "It must have been terrible for you; to get to know that Hermione was going through all that and that you never knew. After all the two of you are like each other's family. Both of you confused and terrified of this new world you were thrown into; she covered it up by being smarter and cleverer than everyone else and you covered it up with your bravado but the truth is that you cannot blame yourself."

"Can't I?" Harry said in a bitter voice, "I'm her best friend and as you so eloquently put it her 'family' how did I let this happen to her?!"

"You didn't know." whispered Luna gently.

"That's bullshit!" yelled Harry furiously the crystal glass in his hand shattering into a million pieces, "I bloody knew! But I was too much of a coward to do anything about!"

"Harry calm down! Did you even for a second think why she never told you? You were married into that family; you have been friends with Ron for ever so long."

"I just can't accept it. I keep going over and over it in my mind, each sick scenario, each time he beat her or threatened to rape her or abused her; called her a whore, a slut and I feel such rage filling me that I can't contain it and I just want to kill him. Just wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze the life out of him until I see the light go out!" he said savagely, his hands clenched into tight fists that his knuckles turned white.

Luna looked at him for a second before covering his hand with her own, "Do you want to get out here? Go someplace where we can talk" she said gently

You know you guys are soooooooo sweet :* I mean being so patient while I write another chapter and helping me out. So I decided that you guys deserve a chapter *Hugs all of you tightly* so this is not Draco and Hermione but rather this is Harry and Luna. The beginning of their relationship.

2) I think some of you cursed me because I am now confined to my bed with Dengue fever :P And have nothing better to do than sit on FF. but still sorry for the short chapters; it's hard to write when you have a 102 degrees fever

Thank you

Urvashi