This has been sitting staring at me from my desktop since before I posted anything on this site. I've hesitated to put it up because I have no idea where it came from and I have no idea if it'll always remain just as it is or not.

Everything HP always has and always will belong to JK Rowling

What happens when your friend has been shattered?

~Pieces of Her~

"She's not back yet, is she?"

Harry looked over at Luna to see her motion to where Hermione stood alone out on the balcony.

Eyebrows furrowing, "Pardon?"

Luna still hadn't looked up at him. She was watching her with a small sad smile on her face. The war had changed everyone. Including Luna. The once vibrant, happy, eccentric girl, that never let anything get to her was in a way, tainted.

"She's still back there fighting the war," she said simply.

Harry knew she was right and let out a sigh. It'd been 3 yrs since the battle ended. 3 years of rebuilding families, homes, and Hogwarts. People had begun to heal, including himself. His best friend wasn't.

He worried that she'd been shattered into too many pieces that were left with the ghosts of war to ever be brought back. He knew different jagged shards of her were left on the day she'd buried the little bit of remains they'd found of her parents during 6th year, when she was tortured at Malfoy manor, as watched Jenny die at the end of Bellatrix's wand, when she had to kill Professor McGonagall because the woman was killing her own students under the Imperius Curse, as she watched Harry walk into the forest alive but the worst was watching Hagrid bring Harry's body out of the forest behind Tom Riddle and his death eaters, not knowing that he was still alive. Hermione had only talked about it one time. Only to him and only when she was so drunk that she didn't remember saying anything about it the next day.

He felt Luna put her hand on his shoulder and give it a squeeze.

"What do I do? How do I help her?" The desperation in his voice palpable. "We're losing her Luna and I don't know how to stop it."

"I don't know Harry. If I had that answer she'd be back with us instead of still fighting the war with all the ghosts."

After a moment of silence, she added, "I think that it's all she see's in front of her. Death and pain. She thinks that's all there is. All she'll ever be. That she'll never be anything but a soldier. That she'll never feel anything other than hate and pain."

He knew what she was talking about. It's what they all still were. Child soldiers. Hardened and jaded before they even had a chance to grow up.

The difference was almost everyone else seemed to remember that they could be more than that. Feel more than that.

Running a hand threw his already messy hair, he let out a long breath "I can't give up. We" motioning back and forth between them and then tilting his head to include the rest of the people at the party "can't give up. She never once gave up on me. On any of us."

"I know." Was her quiet reply.

Harry put an arm around her, leaned down gave her a hug and a quick kiss on the temple as he whispered, "I need you to do something for me."

She glanced up at him quizzically as he physically turned her back towards the people laughing and talking in the other room. "If I don't go back in there soon they're going to come looking for me and I have to go talk to her. Please, Luna. I need you to keep them busy for me."

A genuine smile crossed her face as she replied, "Of course Harry. I'll just have them line up so that I can remove the Kazgloats from their ears. Earlier, I noticed Padma had some floating around her pet that she brought." A little twinkle lit up the corners of her eyes. "They really are nasty things. Did you know if left untreated, they make people physically sick at the sight of purple pigmy puffs like the one she has with her?"

Luna always had a way of making people wonder if what she was talking about was rubbish or not. Most thought that her ramblings couldn't be true. But they were said with such sincerity that their friends always erred on the side of caution. They did live in a magical world complete with everything from dragons to bogarts.

Harry gave her a small smile. "Thank you," he told her as he was walking away.

Just before he got to the sliding glass doors, he heard Luna call his name.

When he turned his head to look at her, she asked, "Do you think any part of Hermione will ever come back?"

"I don't know. But I have to keep trying." He told her. Then he turned back to the door and opened it while thinking. 'I'll always keep trying."