Chapter 53: Loving Up Lovegood

It was clear, as Harry and Ginny emerged into the panicked chaos that was Hogwarts Castle, that the battle to decide the fate of the wizarding world was about to begin in earnest, if it hadn't already. Terrified students were running up and down the changing staircases, many looking to flee, but just as many looking like they were rushing to join the fight.

The new…. were they a couple?, Ginny thought, deciding that since she was now engaged to the man, yes, she supposed they were …. now collided on the stair with the Chosen One himself. Neville was clearly experiencing a healthy dose of nerves, obviously stressed, yet he seemed to relish the coming clash too.

"Neville!" Harry lurched forward, moving along with the flow of traffic, all the while keeping Ginny's hand tight in his. "Are you all right?"

"Never better! I feel like I could…. spit fire!" A sudden BOOM rocked the castle's very foundation, and the changing staircases listed dangerously, like an unsteady tree in the breeze, prompting clumps of humanity's sea to huddle down to the ground. Plaintive screams went up. "Hey! You haven't seen Luna, have you?"

"Luna?" Ginny blinked, utterly baffled.

"I'm mad for her! Reckon it's about time I told her since we'll likely both be dead by dawn!"

Ginny watched Neville's retreating back as he lunged past her, going against the flow of traffic, and she could only laugh in a kind of nervous shock. Harry merely smiled weakly. Tugging him close, Ginny kissed him once, chastely yet firmly, deciding she altogether liked kissing him and supposed she could get used to doing it for the rest of her life, if they survived this night. "Come on," she breathed to him when they broke apart, and the… the lovers continued surging along with the mass exodus of people.

Neville, meanwhile, tore through Hogwarts like a man possessed, heading in the general direction of Ravenclaw Tower, palms to his face as he bellowed her name. He knew his brilliant Ravenclaw witch would stand and fight, given her record and how she had apparently led an underground resistance inside these very walls with Ginny and Harry at her side.

He careened around the corner of one rapidly-emptying corridor, just strides beyond the Ravenclaw Common Room entrance, when he saw her: her blonde hair was down and flowing as she corralled much smaller students towards a safe exit like a mother hen. As if sensing him, her lovely face lifted to the light, revealing silvery eyes that now widened in a kind of caring fear once she caught sight of him.

Beaming with utter relief, Neville fought his way up towards her, exhilarated as he watched Luna also jockeying upstream to get to him. Their bodies collided together, hands finding and clasping together and lifting them together as if in prayer, the pair hustled quickly into the shadow of a darkened alcove, this corridor rapidly becoming deserted of people either fleeing completely or dashing towards the front lines already being pitched out on the grounds.

Neville wasn't sure which of them moved first, and frankly didn't care – a point he would stress in later years and even at their wedding reception. As it was, within moments, she was in his arms, and he in hers. It was decided unspoken, with no words. Pressing Luna into the bricks, his lips were shoved onto hers.

It was a violent kiss of relief, of apology, but most of all of deep, deep love heretofore unaddressed. Even as he would come to accept that it was in fact she who made the first move, Neville distinctly heard, felt Luna gasp in astonishment against his hard, unyielding lips before her own petaled open pliantly, willingly against his, like a flower bursting into full bloom. Stealing his arms about her, he tugged her tight against him, his large and calloused palms dipping lower to audaciously grope her. He gripped, squeezed her smart little buttocks tightly through her skirts and he felt Luna moan in a pronouncedly un-Luna like way. "Mmmmmm? Mmmmmmmm….. Mmmmmmhmmmmmmmm….." Her silky fingers were weaving up into the shaggy locks of his hair – uncut after months on the run – and held fast, as she deepened the kiss, tugged him further into the hurried, desperate embrace she now happily sank into herself. His palm boldly gripped the inside of her thigh, hoisting it high to his torso and only now did he hear a slight whimper of uncertainty, like she had never been touched quite this way before. Her thighs splaying about his broad torso before curling tight, clenching him between her spread legs, he felt her muscles stiffen under his grip.

Tongues pushed through now to meet and dance eagerly and the blood thundered in Neville's ears. With triumph, he dared to experimentally rock against her, altogether shocked and thrilled when Luna responded with uncharacteristic passion, clearly pleased by the attentions. She humped, thrusted back, her hips lifting, pushing earnestly against his.

Shaking fingers curled to maintain a tight hold as the embracing couple worked to undress each other, and Neville felt his trousers worked free, liberating his cock. The hand not holding her, pressing her svelte body into the stone now boldly gripped his stalk, pumping and stroking frantically as he continued to rub himself against her.

"Huhhhhh…. Uhhhhh….. Hmmmm…. N-Neville….." Luna panted, gasped, sagging against him with a sigh as his lips now peppered ardent kisses along her soft face. They paused only just long enough in their snogging session when Neville bunched, pushed Luna's Hogwarts skirts up around her slim hips, crowding his erection closer to folds he could now sense, feel were dripping wet. Luna glanced down between them and sucked in a sharp breath, drawing a hand to her mouth. From her reaction to seeing such an impressive length, it would seem that she had never before laid eyes on a man's fully erect penis before.

"You…. Grey Lady have mercy, you can't be serious! …. PUT. THAT. BACK!" she tried to command forcefully, though this was belied by how her kiss-swollen lips were upturning into a pleased smile behind her hand. She let out a kind of half-giggle, half-shriek as Neville merely lifted her into his arms, completely off her feet, and braced her against the wall where, in one fluid motion, he was soon sheathed inside of her.

Luna cried out, her thighs and knees tightening to better grip him between her spread-eagled legs. After gentlemanly waiting a moment, Neville began to thrust with purpose into the pretty, serene Ravenclaw's sex, Luna's head lolling back, grey eyes rolling as she matched him undulation for undulation. Moans were torn from her very-kissed mouth, these same moans deadened by Neville's lips supping from hers. With every pump of his pelvis, Neville listened to Luna's cries rise in volume and pitch as he brutally took her.

"Ahhhhh….. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh… AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ….. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Her thighs quivered about him, then locked up completely as she came with a happy, almost operatic kind of wail and she drew him close in a daze, palms digging into his shoulder blades, her legs trapping his torso as she damn near sang out her orgasm.

"Sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you! …." Neville grunted like an animal and jerked into her warm and wet heat, causing her timbre to lilt. "Ahhhhhh, I know at last the secret of it ALLL!" He exploded deep inside her then, cock throbbing with every pulse of his seed spilling into her.

Indulging in another, languorous kiss, Neville gentlemanly set Luna down in one fell swoop. When they finally broke the kiss at last, Luna's pert little breasts were heaving, her cheeks flushed and red-faced, even as she set about collecting herself with surprising dignity. Staring at her, Neville had to conclude she looked a vision, after being so thoroughly shagged, so viciously claimed.

"Well," she chirped, the trademark airiness back in her voice. "That was quite dramatic. And pleasant," she tacked on, lashes fluttering as she smiled at him bashfully, beatifically. She seemed almost proud of him, like her faith in him had now been justified. "I knew you could do it."

Neville groaned and dove in for another kiss, causing Luna to giggle. "I just reckoned... what was the use of pretending anymore? I'm looney for you, Luna!"

"And I'm terribly fond of you!" she confessed in a sigh, beaming, flirtatious.

"Are you really?!" Neville's face lit up.

"It's sweet that you pretend not to know - I've only been shouting it from the castle turrets with the most complete lack of maidenly reserve!" Her voice was still high, lilting and dreamy.

Neville smirked. "Now you're starting to sound like Hermione."

Luna threw back her head and laughed musically. Neville chuckled, brushing some loose, blonde bangs out of her face. Smiling into each other's eyes and giggling, they were just drifting closer for another embrace when -

A huge explosion caused Hogwarts itself to shudder for a good few seconds as though in an earthquake, and Luna actually yelped as Neville tugged her close, flush into him. The just-copulated couple held each other like that for a moment until the haze of their making love fully dissipated and Neville remembered:

"The diadem!"

Rather shamefully, he left his new lover in the lurch so that she had no choice but to run after him, up a fight of steps still congested with fleeing students, most of them her fellow Ravenclaws.

"Neville! Neville, wait!" he could hear her calling his name, but he didn't stop. "I need to talk to you!"

"I'm a little busy right now, love," he tried out the term of endearment even as he battled against the tide.

"You won't find anything that way! You're wasting your time!"

"I have to look, don't I?! Listen, we'll talk later….!"

"NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM! YOU LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW!"

The way she practically screamed at him in frustration made him stop dead; he had never, ever heard tranquil Luna yell at anyone like that, least of all him. Once she had his attention, her smile was soft and patient. "Don't you remember what Cho said about the diadem? It's lost – there's not a person alive who's seen it!"

His heart sank like a stone until Luna's radiant smile broadened. How he adored that smile! "It's obvious, isn't it? We have to talk to someone who's dead!"

Leading him by the hand, Luna guided Neville into an empty side corridor with purpose, ducking into another alcove. His lust and love for her only tempered, Neville half-wondered if she was merely drawing him in as a means to snog and possibly shag again.

The couple paused by a window, where through the darkened panes they could see protective wards rising and expanding like a giant bubble, literally walling, encasing the castle within. Neville pessimistically wagered that all the castings of Salvio Hexia in the world wouldn't keep the Death Eaters out, if they hadn't broken through the defensive lines already.

"It's starting," Luna murmured, and if it were possibly for her to sound awed, she did now.

Neville found her hand and clasped it, feeling her fingers squeeze back. "…. I'm scared," he admitted to her in a way he couldn't with anyone else, not even Ron or Hermione.

In the glow of the protection wards, she turned her head to look at him, the light on her face making it seem like the sun was rising. Her expression was at peace everywhere except in her entrancing silvery eyes, which now betrayed a very real fear.

"…. Kiss me," she ordered, no nonsense, sounding almost like Hermione. And so, drawing her close, Neville did and he felt her melt submissively into the liplock with a happy sigh as she kissed him back.

A sudden WHOOSH and flash of silvery light made Neville and Luna jerk apart, though they remained in the hurried embrace, their arms still wound about each other. A translucent woman in robes regarded the couple curiously and stepping out of his arms, Luna actually appeared flustered as she curtsied.

"Oh, most gracious Grey Lady, I'm a Ravenclaw who comes to you in need. I come in search of your lost diadem."

The Grey Lady's eyes expanded, and she glanced between Luna and Neville. "You are foolish, my child, to seek out this from me, and unwiser still to cast your fate with a Gryffindor, rest in the arms of this dangerous boy!"

"Neville's not dangerous!" Luna defended him. "He's looking for the diadem to defeat You-Know-Who!"

The Grey Lady hissed, threatened. "He means to take it just as that other boy did, all those years ago!"

Neville cocked an eyebrow, interest piqued. "This boy – he wouldn't have happened to be named Tom Riddle?" From how her expression recoiled, Neville knew he had his answer. He stepped forward, entreating, willing himself to be humble:

"Most gracious Grey Lady, you have been wronged. But I come to you to make that wrong right. I seek the diadem not to claim it, but to destroy it, for the good of our world. If you would only tell me where it is."

A very prolonged beat as the Grey Lady studied him, sizing him up. Finally, she turned and regarded Luna. "Daughter of Ravenclaw, do you trust this man?"

Luna smiled with beaming love at Neville. "With my heart and my life, my Lady."

The Grey Lady nodded. "Blessings on your head then, my child." She faced Neville. "The item you seek is in the place where lost things go. In the place of need."

Neville understood her meaning instantly: the Room of Requirement. He felt his heart begin to race. "Thank you…. Thank you!" He started to dash from the corridor, then doubled back, remembering. Cupping Luna's face in his hands, tilting it back, he kissed her exuberantly on the mouth, and she hummed into his lips, delighted. They drew apart with a pronounced POP!

"I love you!" Neville whispered, exalting in the words, savoring them.

Luna beamed and dove in for one last peck. "I love you too," she murmured. Her smile nudged him. "Go."

Dropping her hand, Neville turned and ran.