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October was not a simple month. It had not been a simple month for some time, for Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood. It was the month during which one was finally settled back into one's house, and one realized how empty the older dorms were now, echoing, quiet things. The first years were pouring in, and they would never know those who gave their lives much too soon, much too young. Most of the girls' friends were dead or graduated, their seventh year dorms echoing with loneliness…yes, even for those that had once called The Moon Girl Loony Lovegood.

Their days were now filled with studying for N.E.W.Ts and letters. Always letters, almost daily events that made the morning post the highlight of the day, a rain of fresh parchment fluttering down in the crispy cool of the Great Hall. Ginny's face would light up, and her fellow Prefect Colin Creevy would sigh hopelessly into his bacon. His Dulcinea was engaged to The Boy Who Lived. Luna wondered if heroism made one finally noticeable. Hareton Chambers had been giving her rather long stares over their shared cauldron in Potions. It never rained but it poured. April come she will, when streams are ripe and swelled with rain.

"Who would have expected this from us?" Ginny pondered one day, at a seat by the library windows, pointedly ignoring the Charms text open before her, ancient pages gathering dust, "Such forlorn pining?" She spoke like Luna when the two of them were together, and Luna picked up Ginny's habit of tapping her nails on tables.

"I know not," Luna murmured, "When I became those which I strived to avoid becoming…" Ginny grinned, knowing to what her friend alluded,

"Really Miss Lovegood," She replied, dramatically, "I do believe you're a far cry from how our crowd carried on in third year, hoping for a date to the Yule Ball and crying in the loo with Myrtle when none came." Luna laughed her odd loud laugh she'd had so long.

"Emotions hold you captive…" She murmured. Ginny smiled.

"Sometimes we need someone holding the kite string, lest me fly away…."

"How very poetical, Miss Weasley!"

"I learned from the best, Luna."

Luna looked out on the rainy, cold October day. September I'll remember…but she would not finish that line.

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"The opening weekend was a success all around," Hermione was saying primly, on the day's twin in London. Remus listened quietly, a small smile fixed on his face, as she and Ron discussed…and at times bickered over…the details of Hermione's new bookshop in Diagon Alley, "Remus I told you the public would have absolutely no issues with your working there. The Wizarding world sees you as one of their war heroes; you'd nothing to worry about!"

"Yes you did," Remus nodded, turning a page in his book, though he had not been paying much attention to Bronte that afternoon, "Though war hero might be a bit much…"

"Now Remus…"

"Here she goes again!" Ron sighed dramatically, "Come on Mione, you need to get out of the house!" He took her by the arm, sweeping her off into the front hall. The two still lived there, and would until they got married and moved into their own place. Remus would be getting his own flat soon, and Ginny and Harry would have the house. A welcomed freedom to all concerned, and yet oh how Remus would selfishly miss the old morose days, when there were always children rushing in and out of the front door, laughing over dinner and crying over knitting needles.

And Luna, Moon Girl, Lady of the Lake, where would she come home to? Ginny insisted on the house. Luna had simply smiled.

Hermione called a giggly farewell from the front veranda, where once there had been a lithe faery of sixteen all dressed in white linen sipping lemonade, a redheaded nymph knitting at her elbow. Remus reached into his pocket for the letter he'd gotten that morning, from an owl that had swept fearlessly into the house. He'd already read it twice that day, but her handwriting was such a fascination and comfort. And yet there was that passing mention halfway through…

"Hareton Chambers asked me to go with him to the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. I declined, but really, I felt a bit uncomfortable. I have never been in such a position before."

His prize had finally been realized. His bohemian Moon Child. Remus let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his eyes. The time they'd been born into together had ended. The real world had returned in all of its clarity, and he'd be foolish if he expected her to be attached all through her last year of school. Remus would write back to her. He would tell her she should go, and enjoy herself and the company.

And he would be the one who waited. They were in her small hands now. August, die she must, the autumn winds blow chilly and cold…

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Authors Notes: I live! This is short. There is one last chapter to this story, I believe, and then I shall write others, promise promise.