A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or any related characters

Word count: 1408

Luna ran her fingers over the metal mask covering her face. She knew it was supposed to hide her face, supposed to keep her from being identified, but who would be identifying her here? No one was allowed in the tower, no one even knew she was here. What was the point of the mask? She'd heard the stories, that it could only be removed by her one True Love. She didn't think she had a True Love, didn't think anyone even remembered she existed.

Luna'd been locked in this tower for as long as she could remember. There was only one way out, well, one logical way out. The stair case twisted down the tower leading to a heavy metal door. Luna couldn't open the door and every time she tried going down the stairs, her legs became a long scaled tail similar to that of a snake. Having a snake tail didn't bother Luna, but it didn't let her open the door either so she wasn't sure what the point of the curse even was. Maybe a different princess could have been bothered that her legs merged becoming a tail, but Luna found it interesting.

She studied her scale patterns, tracing them onto the walls of the tower. She liked how they looked, how they were a part of her that seemed unique to her. She painted them on her arms, wondering why only half her body changed with the curse. She was content to an extent in her tower. But she was starting to realize she as lonely.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen a person. She knew she'd seen someone when she'd been locked away as a child, but all she remembered was a vague shape, a hand holding hers, someone whispering it would be alright. She couldn't remember what that person had looked like. She knew what she looked like, having a mirror on one wall. Did everyone look like her? Luna knew why she was in the tower, knew there had been a prophesy made about her, something so horrible she'd been locked away. There were history books, most were more than a bit mouse chewed, but Luna gleamed what information she could from them.

"This is me," she stated, pointing to her name at the end of what appeared to be some sort of name tree. Her name came down with a single broken line from King Xenophilius and Queen Pandora. She wasn't sure how she knew for certain who she was, there was nothing in the tower with her name on it, but she knew.

"Princess Luna," she muttered, looking around. She was tired of just reading about people, tired of reading about the kingdom she was supposed to be ruling. Were her parents ruling it? Were they alive? The books didn't go further than Luna's birth. That had been, if she was counting right, about sixteen years ago. She knew she'd been older than an infant when she'd been locked here, but how much older? She didn't remember ever not wearing this metal mask.

Luna was painting her scale pattern on the wall when a sound caught her attention. Nearly dropping the paintbrush, she rose rushing up the stairs and to the one window of the tower. The sound continued, a constant clomp clomp and Luna could see dust rising in the not so distance. Something was coming this direction!

"Hello! I'm up here!" she called out, leaning out the window and waving her arms. The dust cloud grew closer, shrinking in size as the forest floor became less dirt and more plant. Luna leaned further out, trying to get a glimpse of whatever was coming. She heard a loud sound, a creature of some sort? What sort of creature could stir up that much dirt and dust? It had to be something large!

"Hello!" she called out again, realizing the sounds had stopped. There was a black speck at the base of the tower. Whatever had been coming was here! Luna leaned down, trying to see, trying to get a closer view when her tail changed back into a pair of feet and she lost her balance. She tumbled out the window, desperately trying to grab something, anything to break her fall.

"Hang on! I've got you!" a voice yelled and Luna felt something wrap around her waist. She let her body go slack in relief. She was safe, she wasn't going to hit the ground. The ground was still coming, but much, much slower now.

"There we are," her rescuer stated as Luna's feet hit the ground, the grass tickling her bare skin slightly.

"Thank you," Luna whispered, looking at her rescuer. This person was obviously a knight. Luna had read about them with great detail. Her knight was wearing a helmet, had dented baggy looking armor, their visor covered their face, but Luna could see the knight had beautiful brown eyes. Luna smiled.

"You alright then?"

"I think so. Thank you for catching me, how did you do that? We were in the air!"

"Magic," the knight laughed, holding up a broom. "I enchanted it to fly, puts less pressure on the horse if I hover next to it."

Luna looked at the horse in question, a large black creature that seemed to be nothing more than a skeleton with large leathery wings.

"I have never...what kind of horse is that?"

"Called a 'thestral', keeps idiots from bothering me too much. Do you have a name, I'd like to know who I rescued."

"Luna, I'm Princess Luna," Luna answered. "I know, this stupid mask keeps you from seeing my face, according to the curse it's supposed to be something on my one True Love can remove."

"True Love, yeah, I've heard of that nonsense before. They said my one True Love was a snake, had the power to petrify men with merely a gaze."

"A snake?" Luna asked, looking down her legs. She had felt them tingling as she'd fallen, now she could see her skin starting to scale back up.

"Your legs-"

"Yeah, they do that, turn into a lovely scaled tail unless I'm in the top of the tower, I didn't know they'd do it once I'd escaped though. I thought the spell was to keep me in the tower."

"Or... what if the spell is to keep you human in the one spot, you know, you're human in the top of the tower, the place a rescuer would see you and then, they save you and blam, you're... whatever you are?"

Luna stared at the knight, she'd never thought about it that way, never thought that maybe she wasn't human.

"Then this mask, it's because my face... it's not human, is it?" she whispered. The knight shook their head.

"I don't think you are, Luna."

"No way of knowing, is there? I mean, True Love, who would truly love a snake girl?"

"Someone who has always loved things differently than expected, someone who stole her brother's armor, who has a strange steed that flies, a girl who is prophesied to love and marry a gorgon, a gorgon she never realized was also a princess?" the knight asked, pulling off the dented helmet. A curtain of long red hair fell across her freckled face. Luna stared at her, her eyes wide. She'd never even heard of a female knight before, maybe this was something new the books hadn't covered yet?

"I'm Ginny, by the way, and I think, I mean, if you're interested, I think we might be each others True Love. If you don't mind the fact I'm a girl that is."

"I don't care about that," Luna stated, reaching out and touching Ginny's face. As she did, her mask fell the ground revealing Luna's fangs, her glowing blue eyes. Her hair twisted and moved as thought it had a mind of its own.

"Good, because I kind of like the fact my gorgon is you. Now, let's ride. I was headed to the palace to get rid of an evil tyrant who has taken over, and I think, you might be able to turn him to stone and save me the trouble of finding a proper sword?"

"Sounds like fun," Luna stated, letting Ginny help her onto the flying broom, her tail curling around Ginny's waist. Soon they were off to save Luna's kingdom and find their happily ever after.