The year thundered on like a train running off the tracks. Between the extra tutoring, and the classes I had… well, I didn't have much time for anything else at all.
I was with my friends, but I wasn't really spending time with them. There was the little issue of the prophecy. I felt like I was being ridden by something. It was always hanging over my shoulder.
I saw her sometimes around the school. I guess I probably didn't pay as much attention to her as I should. In my defence, there were a lot of people I probably wasn't treating too well.
She sprouted up like a bean partway through the year, and ended up looking like one as well. I hadn't really noticed until I found that I was looking almost straight ahead to meet her eyes. Of course it just meant that she was falling all over herself for a week. Of course some buggers just took that as license to toss tripping hexes at her for another couple weeks.
And her clothes. They'd always been a bit eccentric, but now they were too short for her as well.
So I talked to her whenever I could. I tried to remember to at least give her a smile when I passed her in the hallways.
She was a friend. She deserved that much, at least. I tended to think of her sitting across from at the
table in the library as well. That always brought a smile to my face. I didn't have much time for play;
that was the closest I'd got in a while. The only thing that came close was my broom on the quidditch
pitch.
Of course it didn't help when she was commentating. It was so bloody hard to take the game seriously.
I wonder if she thought about it as much as I did. It wasn't really the sort of thing that I could walk up and ask her.
It was a couple days after Valentine's day when she walked up to me in the hallway.
"Hello, Harry Potter," she said. There was something off about her, somehow. Ron probably would have said that she looked even more barmy than normal. Me, I wasn't sure. Her face had matured a bit as well when she grew. Something had happened with her cheekbones. Or maybe it was the flush on her cheeks that was highlighting them more than usual.
I realised I was staring, and looked away from her eyes.
"Hi Luna," I said, "how are you?"
"I… I brought this for you, Harry. You might like it." She pushed a copy of the Quibbler into my hands, and then quickly turned away.
"I have to go to class, Harry."
And she was gone. I looked down at the copy of the Quibbler in my hands, and after Luna as she walked hurriedly away down the hall.
I folded the paper and went to class, slightly perplexed.
It wasn't until a few nights later that I opened the copy of the Quibbler when I was having trouble getting to sleep. I thought it would help me relax for a while, but it was strangely enthralling. I kept reading.
It was near the back of the paper, near the bottom of a page. She'd carefully underlined the headline for me, just so I wouldn't miss it.
Warm Blooded Table Leg Tapper Sighting at Hogwarts
I read the article, and then read it again.
It was a joke. She'd printed a joke in the Quibbler, and it was…
It was about us. I was totally gobsmacked. I mean, I know how seriously she takes the Quibbler, so it was pretty incredible to see that she'd put her father up to printing a fake animal siting.
I guess she'd been thinking about it as well. Just one moment of closeness that we'd had.
I had Dobby find a frame for me to put it in, and kept that page of the paper. Ron asked me about it when he saw it, but I didn't really tell him anything. I heard him mention it to Hermione and Ginny one day.
I'm sure Ginny mentioned it to Luna. I'm sure she understood. I mean, I wasn't certain what to say about it to her. But she'd understand that it was important to me, and that her doing it… well that was important as well.
Then the rest of the year happened. Ginny, Voldemort, and Dumbledor's death.
I was packed, and out of Hogwarts with my trunk before I knew what was happening.
The next few years passed in a blur. I'm thankful for that.
Then one day I was reading a different issue of the Quibbler. Something about most people observing Valentine's Day two days early, due to unfortunate administrative decisions made after the great Nargle infestation of 1483.
Then I understood.
So I sent Hedwig off to find her with a note.
Notes:
Somehow the idea of Luna doing anything normal for Valentines struck me as unlikely. But that's what it was.