After an hour of dancing with Charlie and three more Firewhiskey's later, Luna was tired and wanted to rest. She walked over to a table and sat down, it took her a while to realize that she wasn't sitting on a chair, but she was sitting on a person. She stood up once she realized and turned around to see whom she was sitting on and found that it was Harry. "I'm terrible sorry Harry, I thought you were a chair," she said as she looked into his startling green eyes.
"I'm guessing you've had too much to drink as well, you're the second person that thought that I was a chair," he said in a depressed manor. Luna stared down at him and for that moment she felt completely sober. She could tell that Harry had not had anything to drink, but he looked very sad and she felt an extreme amount of pity for him. Luna looked around and wondered where Hermione had got off too.
"Where's Hermione?" Luna asked as she stared down at Harry. Harry merely looked past Luna onto the dance floor and with a single index finger pointed something in the crowd out to her. Luna slowly turned around to look at Harry was pointing at and found that her eyes soon landed on a single couple dancing on the dance floor. Ron and Hermione were both slow dancing holding on very tight to each other. Luna could see that Hermione's head was resting on Ron's shoulder and that there were tears glistening in her eyes. Ron was holding on tight to Hermione whispering something in her ears.
Luna continued to stare at them, wondering why Hermione was crying and why Ron was holding on to her so closely. She wondered if perhaps Harry had broken off his engagement with her and Ron was simply trying to console her. However, as she stared she began to think of their long years at Hogwarts. As far as Luna could remember, Harry had never shown any interest in Hermione until their seventh year. He'd never been concerned with the fact that Hermione had a relationship with Krum, he was never concerned with who she spent her time with, however, Ron did. Luna always thought that in the end Hermione and Ron would be together. Now that she stared at them, she could see that's what happened.
Luna slowly turned around to look down at Harry and could see that he was holding his head in his hands. Luna grabbed a chair and pulled it in front of Harry and sat down before him. She gently pulled his head out of his hands and forced him to look into her eyes. Luna could see large, fat tears welling up in his amazing eyes and she felt an extreme amount of pity for him. "We've been lying to ourselves for a long time, she's always been in love with Ron and Ron has always been in love with her," Harry said as he stared into Luna's eyes. His voice was small and Luna could hardly hear it over the Weird Sisters music, for Dumbledore had gotten them to play for Tonks, after all Tonks loved them.
"I know that you are hurting Harry," she said as she looked into his eyes. She could feel a bit of sadness begin to creep into her. Her buzz was gone. "I know what it feels like to be in love with someone, and they are simply in love with someone else," she said as she looked down at her hands. Harry stared at her, finally beginning to understand how hurt Luna really felt when he told her he loved Hermione. He knew that he'd taken her for granted. "But things turn out just fine Harry. It simply takes time to heal your wounds. I'm not saying that they will vanish and you won't feel them anymore, but I'm saying that you'll be able to live happily despite the fact that they've never gone away."
"I'm sorry for what I did to you Luna. I didn't really understand what you felt, until now," he said as he looked up into her eyes. Luna stared at him and tried her best to smile at him. She gently reached over and tucked a strand of black hair out of his face.
"It's okay Harry. I've learned to live with it and so will you. It just takes time," she said as she was starting to remove her hand from his face, but he reached up and closed his hand around hers. He leaned his head into her hands and closed his eyes. Luna could see a large tears escape from his eyes and roll down his face. Luna could feel her eyes tearing up at the sight of him so distraught. It tore at her heart to see him so heartbroken, to see him suffering for someone. All she wanted was to take away his pain. "Harry, please don't cry," she said as she looked into his face.
Harry opened his eyes and looked into her face. Luna sat on the edge of her chair and wrapped her arms around him. Harry immediately wrapped his arms around her tightly and buried his face in the crook of her neck, sticking his face in her hair. She could feel his hot tears wetting her hair. She could feel the way his body shook with the sobs that he let loose. It seemed to her that she was holding onto him forever, before he finally calmed down and pulled away from her. He stared into her eyes and before Luna knew what was happening she felt his soft lips pressing against her.
For a moment, she was shocked, but her heart started to melt into him. His lips were soft and warm, but before she let herself enjoy it, something inside her was dying. She felt sharp pain and hatred towards herself for what she was doing. She felt like she was doing something wrong, but not because Harry had just broken up, but because she felt like she was betraying someone that she deeply cared about.
Luna pulled away from Harry and stared at Harry in shock and surprise, her hand raised to her lips. Before Harry could say anything she'd gotten up and ran away from were he was sitting, running back towards the refreshments table. Once there she asked for a goblet of Firewhiskey and chugged it down and asked for another. She could feel tears building up in her eyes, but she continued to drink until she had dulled the pain that was building inside her, pain that she did not comprehend.
When Luna finally walked away from the refreshments table she had lost count of how much she had drunk. She couldn't walk well anymore and her vision was somewhat blurred. She felt like the room was shaking and she felt migraine coming on. She made her way towards the door, while leaning on the wall. All the music that she could hear on her way out sounded much more like noise than anything else. When she was finally out of the Great Hall, she closed the door behind her and was relieved by the fact that the doors muffled all the sounds that were coming from the Great Hall.
She walked a bit away from the doors and soon slid down the stone of the walls to sit on the floor. She tucked her legs beneath her and leaned her head against the walls, closing her eyes to everything. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to fall asleep and soar into a dream. However, she was at least pleased with the fact that she was too tired to think of anything. For the first time in a long time, her mind was completely blank of all thought. She could steadily feel a smile slipping across her face.
"Luna?" she vaguely heard someone say.
"Hmm?" she said tilting her head. She slowly opened her eyes and it seemed to take a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the dark hall, and took a little longer to adjust and focus as best they could on the figure that was staring down at her. She could feel her lips twist into a small smile as she looked up at him. "Hello Snapey," she said as she looked up at him. He merely stared down at her for a moment.
"I take it that you've had far too much to drink," he stated as he stared down at her. He crouched down next to her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and hoisted her up to her feet. "I should take you home," he said as he stared down at her. Her eyes were closed but at his statement she jerked away from him and her eyes snapped open. Her brow was furrowed over her glassy eyes.
"No, not home. I don't want to go home," she said as she stared at him. She looked wired and somewhat hysteric. Severus stared at her in thought. Luna was trying her best to back away from him without tripping, however, she stepped on the end of her dress and fell backwards. She started to giggle as she lay on the floor and tried her best to sit up. Severus rushed to her side, wondering if she was all right.
"Are you all right Luna?" he said as he stared down at her.
"'All right'? Me no hurt because I fell," she said as she stared into his eyes with her glassy eyes. He was crouching down next to her, holding her up in a sitting position. He was very close to her. Her eyes suddenly looked large and sad. She looked down at her hands. "My heart feels sick. Daddy hurt me so much," she said in the voice of a wounded child as tears started to spring up in her eyes and gently race down her face. "Why does it hurt so much?" She asked him in the same child-like voice as she pointed to where her heart rested beneath her chest.
Severus stared at her and could feel his heart begin to break as he stared at her. He'd never felt so much pity for someone as he did now. She was silently crying, tears sliding down her face. Not a single sob could be heard from her. Severus stared at her; she looked like a wounded child more than anything else. He felt his heart melting at the sight of her. She looked fragile and for once she didn't seem to be crying hysterically, but silently, which he found most heart breaking.
"Luna, come along. We'll go get you cleaned up," he said softly as he stood up and brought her up. Once she was standing up he started to walk with her, but her knees soon buckled beneath her as she finally succumbed to her exhaustion. He caught her before she fell in his arms and carried her light body down towards the Dungeons to his private quarters She'd lost a bit of weight from her lack of eating.
As he walked in through the locked door he walked past the sitting room and towards his bedchamber were he laid her down on his large four-poster bed. His bedchamber was far plainer than his room in his home. It had no paintings or drawings on the cold, dark, stonewalls. The bed, wardrobe and a chair by the window were the only things in his room. He placed a warm blanket over her body, for the dungeons were quite cold, even if it was summer. He made his way out of the room and into the adjacent washroom where he pulled a vial from his cabinet and brought it over to Luna.
He administered the liquid before pulling up the chair by the window and sitting down in the chair next to the bed. He stared at the peaceful Luna and knew that he would be waiting for quite sometime before she would wake. He looked down at his watch and found that it was just past midnight. He stared at Luna and found that she looked lovely. He reached over to the nightstand by the bed and pulled out a leather bound, hard book and a charcoal pencil and started to draw to pass the time in his sketchbook.
TBC…