The next week went by just as quick. It took Neville till the fourth potions class until he destroyed a cauldron. It was a record for him; usually he destroyed one by the second or third class.
Neville only saw Luna on the days her class had Herbology. Neither time did she suggest they eat together, and Neville couldn't bring him to ask her.
That Saturday was beautiful. No one in Gryffindor wanted to stay inside. Neville grabbed some homework and went to the lagoon. He decided to do the worst homework first. He opened his potions book and took out a clean sheet of parchment. He wrote the topic of the essay on top of the parchment.
Explain the differences between the Certus Potion and VeritaserumA foot and a half on that? Neville flopped on his back. It was too nice a day to do homework. A few minutes later, Neville was sleeping, snoring lightly.
"Neville?" a voice asked.
"Neville?" the voice asked again.
Neville opened his eyes and saw Luna's face only six inches above his. "Luna!" Neville exclaimed, starting to get up. He sat up too quickly and banged his head right into Luna's forehead.
Luna sat up and rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry!" Neville cried, wanting to crawl into a hole in the ground.
She took her hand away from her forehead and smiled. "It's okay," she said.
"You just surprised me," Neville said softly.
Luna smiled, "I seem to have that effect on people."
Neville turned and looked at her. Her wand was behind her ear and she was wearing earrings that looked like orange slices. It was too hot out for a robe, so she was wearing jeans and plain white t-shirt. The t-shirt was form fitting, and before Neville could stop himself, he took a quick look at her chest. Her breasts were small, but they looked perfect to him.
Bad Neville! He told himself. He wasn't usually one to ogle women. Today she smelled like oranges. Neville wondered if the earring were real.
"Are you doing homework?" Luna asked. Neville nodded. "May I join you?" she asked.
"S-sure," Neville stuttered.
Together they worked on their homework. They took a break when they both finished their potions essays. His on truth potions and Luna's on the properties of the spine of lionfish.
Luna laid down on her back and rubbed her eyes. "It's too nice out to do homework," she said.
Neville nodded in agreement. He wondered if it would be too forward if he lay down too?
Luna sighed. "I'm tired Neville. Would you read to me?" she asked.
"I'm not the greatest reader," Neville admitted.
Luna propped herself up on one side and smiled. "That doesn't matter, I have the story memorized. I just like to hear it," she said shyly.
"Okay," Neville said.
Luna sat up and went through her backpack. She brought out a tattered book and gave it to him. Neville looked at the gold embossed book. "The Legend of King Arthur," Neville read aloud.
"It's my favorite story," she said. Luna laid back down and closed her eyes.
Neville opened the book. "Could you start at chapter sixteen?" Luna asked softly. Neville found the chapter.
"Now this was year, I mean time, time of year in which had been marriage," Neville stopped and took a deep breath, "been set the marriage of King Arthur and the Lady Guinevere at Camelot. World all astir and in a great joy, for glad, I mean for everyone was exceedingly glad that King Arthur was to have Queen for him."
Neville looked at Luna, embarrassed, "I told you that I'm not good at this."
Luna didn't open her eyes. "You're doing fine, Neville," she said dreamily.
He gulped and went on. "King Arthur came to Guinevere and hand, I mean placed one hand beneath her chin and other upon head, and kissed her upon all warm, I mean upon her smooth cheek, all warm and fragrant like velvet for softness."
He decided just to read a little slower. "All those were there lifted voices, I mean lifted up their voices in happiness, giving joy, I mean giving loud voice of joy that those two noble souls had thus met together."
Neville was miserable. He desperately wanted to stop reading, yet he was willing to keep going if it would make Luna happy. Luckily, Luna seemed to sense his discomfort. She rolled over onto her stomach and opened her eyes. "Thank you," she said.
Neville closed the book. After a moments silence, Luna said, "I used to imagine I was the descendent of Guinevere and Sir Lancelot."
"I never liked that Guinevere betrayed King Arthur," Neville said softly.
"Now that I'm older, I agree with you. But when I was young I thought it was so romantic. That she was willing to give up her kingdom for Lancelot," Luna said, playing with some blades of grass.
"I see now that she was weak. I would never betray someone like that," she said.
Neville could scarcely believe that they were having this conversation. "But she didn't love Arthur, she loved Lancelot," Neville said.
Luna shook her head. "That doesn't matter. She made a vow to Arthur and she should have honored that."
Neville didn't have a response for that, so he stayed silent. His eyes wandered over Luna's lower half. He took a sharp breath when he saw how nicely her bottom filled out her jeans. Bad Neville! He told himself again. He quickly moved his eyes. He looked back at her face, and saw that she had fallen asleep.
Over an hour passed, and Neville stayed by her side, working on his homework. He didn't want her waking up by herself. Over the last hour he got into a bit of a routine. Homework for ten minutes, then staring at Luna's sleeping face for a minute. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping.
He was in the middle of the minute where he watched her when her eyelids fluttered. Neville quickly turned his attention to his homework so she didn't catch him staring.
She sat up slowly and brought her knees to her chest. "How long have I been sleeping?" she asked quietly.
Neville looked at her. "An hour, maybe?" he told her.
He watched her fiddle with her wand. "Are you okay, Luna?" Neville asked, hardly believing he had the courage to ask her that.
She looked at him with those big, gray eyes and smiled sadly. "You know, you're the first person to ask me that," she said.
"Is something wrong, then?" Neville asked, horrified.
"I'm just a little under the weather, that's all," Luna said finally.
"Okay," Neville accepted this.
"Isn't that a silly phrase?" Luna asked serenely.
Neville was taken aback. "What's a silly phrase?" he asked.
"Under the weather, when someone's not feeling well," Luna said, "I mean, technically, the weather is all around us at all times. How can someone be under it?"
Neville laughed easily, "I really never thought about it," he said.
Out of nowhere, Luna asked, "What are you really afraid of?"
Not for the first time, Neville wondered how she could just switch from one topic to the next without warning.
Neville had to think about this question. There was the obvious answer, you-know-who, Professor Snape and Bellatrix Lestrange. He decided to think of a fear that wasn't a person.
He looked at Luna. "I'm afraid that my forgetfulness could hurt someone," he said suddenly.
She looked at him interestedly. "What do you mean?"
"I'm sure you know that I'm forgetful. It's a running joke at this point. I've been this way my entire life. Here's a stupid example. I have to bring a jumper to transfiguration on Wednesday. It's for partner work. What if I forget? Then I don't just lose points for me, I lose points for Dean, my partner," Neville said.
"You can't get yourself worked up over little things like that, Neville," Luna said.
For some reason, Neville suddenly couldn't stop talking. "Remember a few years ago, when Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban?" Luna nodded. "The password kept changing, so I wrote them down. And then I stupidly lost them. And Sirius Black got into our dorm room. He could have killed us all and it would have been my fault!"
"You were there at the Ministry of Magic. What happens if I'm fighting Death Eaters, and I can't remember the right spell? What then? What if someone dies because of me?" Neville was horrified to feel a tear slip down his cheek. He brushed it away angrily, hoping Luna didn't notice.
"I've tried remembrance potions, spells, everything. I just don't have a good memory. I couldn't live with myself if it hurt someone," Neville said, exhausted from getting that out of his system.
Neville felt Luna throw his arms around him. "Everyone's scared like that, Neville," she said, her face buried in his shoulder. "I couldn't say spells fast enough at the Ministry. And because of that, the Death Eaters got into the room with us. All we can do, Neville, is try our best."
"I guess," Neville said.
"Don't guess," Luna scolded, lifting her face to look at him, "Know."
"Allright, I know then," Neville said.
Luna smiled and her silvery eyes lit up. "I'm glad we're friends, Neville Longbottom," she said quietly.
Neville breathed in her scent of oranges and felt a little better. They stayed by the lagoon for the rest of the afternoon.
88888
That same day, Luna invited Neville to eat with her at the Ravenclaw table for dinner. She sat down at her usual spot and Neville sat next to her. At first, several Ravenclaws around them stared. Luna just started eating like nothing was wrong.
Neville put some kidney steak on his plate. "How do you do that?" he asked.
Luna had just taken a sip of her soup. After she swallowed, she asked, "Do what?"
"Not notice anyone. Don't you care that people are staring at you?" Neville asked.
Luna played with her spinach with her fork. "Why should it bother me?" she asked, finally taking a bite.
Neville shrugged. "I always want to hide when people stare," Neville admitted, then taking a bite of his steak.
"If I wasn't sure of who I was, then maybe it would bother me," Luna said after taking a big gulp of pumpkin juice.
"But how do you know who you are?" Neville complained, "I thought teenage years were supposed to filled with self-discovery?"
Luna glanced at the enchanted ceiling. "I know I'm becoming the person I was meant to be. I wouldn't change anything about myself. That's why it doesn't bother me when people call me Loony," she said dreamily. She went back to playing with her spinach.
Neville noticed that several Ravenclaws had been listening to her little speech. Most, like him had a disbelieving look on their face. He really envied that about her, that teasing never seemed to bother her.
They spoke of inconsequential things for the rest of dinner. Mainly, she was trying to explain the rules of Jiffney to him. Neville, not really understanding anything about sports, just nodded his head. He didn't even have to pretend to look interested. She was so passionate in her description of the sport, that he was.
