Harry sighed to himself as he pocketed his wand and stacked away the last of the books. The quiet was what he hated most. Whenever the DA had meetings, it was noisy, distracting, brilliant but when they left the room of requirement, they took with them the happiness their company brought. Harry thought he felt a tear rising but then caught sight of Luna, from the corner of his eye, leaning against the doorway, looking up at something, enraptured.
Setting his glasses straight, he approached her and leaned against the opposite ledge of the door, peering upward.
"What are you looking at?" he asked. As he looked up, he recognised the white berries and green leaves of the misteltoe branch. A small laugh escaped his lips,
"I remember last year, when you told me it was best not to stand under this stuff because of nargles. But, you know, there are other things that misteltoe represents..."
Luna turned and looked at Harry, frowning, puzzled, "Are you sure Harry? I mean, I've studied these things with father and we've never found anything else in them..."
Another burst of laughter left his mouth, this time, a little freer, a little happier. "No, not something in it, something around it, sort of. Did you never think I may have jumped from underneath it for another reason?"
She shook her head sharply, her dirty blonde locks shifting as she did so, her butterbeer cork earrings wiggling to and fro. "I just assumed that naturally, you'd remembered how instantly threatening the nargles can be..."
He sighed but left a light silence clinging between them. "What is it?" she finally begged, her wide blue eyes pleading with him.
"I'm not going to tell you." he winked, arms now folded. "Besides," he said with a dismissive shake of the head, "It's no longer true. I did it because, well, there's this muggle tradition. You'd probably find it ever so fickle, I know Hermione does..."
At this the girl grunted and Harry couldn't help but laugh again.
"Point is, you'd probably be rather hurt or offended if I told you."
She frowned but didn't say anything, studying his face closely with her eyes, watching his every move. "Show me." she whispered, a look of glee on her face, like a child with a brand new toy placed in front of them. Needless to say, Luna loved discovering new possibly previously unheard of things, especially if it was something she could teach her father.
Harry looked away, coyly and then looked back at her. A year ago he'd have considered his sanity officially absent, had he considered doing what he was now going to do. But, as he reminded himself, that was a year ago when he just thought she'd been dropped on her head at birth. Now he knew different. Now he knew her for the person she was, sweet, kind, naive, slightly crazy, but incredibly funny in a cute way because she never ever recognised the way she made him laugh or how or why she made him laugh. Just the thought of all she'd done to cheer him up, without even knowing it, made him laugh.
"What is it?" pressed Luna, stepping nearer to him, pulling at his hand, dragging him toward her so that they were now both clearly stood under the misteltoe. With a small smile pulling at his lips, he leant down and kissed her lightly on the cheek and, as he stood back up straight, he whispered, "Merry Christmas, Luna."