He found Luna sat by the remains of the Whomping Willow.
She looked up at him when he arrived but said nothing so he sat down and stared across the lake with her. The Giant Squid had sunk deep below the waves but a flash of fin could be seen as the merpeople darted in and out the waves.
Neville coughed to try and get Luna's attention but she kept staring outwards, oblivious to his presence.
"How are you feeling?" He internally cursed himself at this lame opener; they'd just held a memorial for the dead, of course she wasn't alright.
"Swings and roundabouts," she murmured and then "How did you get away?"
Neville grimaced. He'd been a celebrity ever since the war ended in May. Every plaque, every memorial, every headstone needed a photo of him beaming next to it. Today's farce of a Christmas memorial (which was really an excuse to show the press how badly Hogwarts needed funding for a rebuild) had been no different.
It was nauseating.
"Borrowed Harry's cloak," he said grinning sheepishly.
Luna nodded and they fell back into silence.
Neville could feel his mouth getting dry, "Look Luna," he started but she cut him off,
"Today's the anniversary of my mother's death." She said it with such lightness that for a moment Neville couldn't tell whether she was about to laugh or burst into tears.
Neville deflated slightly as his need to comfort overweighed anything else he was about to say, "It must be difficult at Christmas."
She smiled sadly and turned away to watch a particularly showy mermaid who was backflipping out the water, "sometimes it's very sad," she said into the distance, "but sometimes it makes it easier, to imagine all the angels. My mum would like it up there."
She spread her arms out and Neville had to duck to get out of the way, "She would like being free, I always wondered what it would be like to live in the clouds."
Neville fumbled around for something to say. His own parents were not likened to angels but trapped in St Mungos, the opposite of free.
He felt a hot tear fall as he watched Luna tip her head back to soak up the Scottish winter sunshine with a small smile on her face; she was the one who looked angelic, her pale blonde hair cascading free down her shoulders.
She looked back down at him with an almost pitying look and leant out to brush away his tear, "They would want you to be happy." She whispered and Neville nodded. Every time he was around Luna he felt as though his heart would explode in a mixture of happiness and sorrow and shared grief and just pure love, wonderful and heartbreaking all at once.
He wouldn't change it for anything.
She watched him as he sat trying to regain his composure. When would he learn that there was no need for composure, not with her?
She leant in and placed the softest of kisses to his forehead.
Neville flinched slightly his hands digging in the grass. He wanted to wrap his arms around her but she was like a small animal, easily spooked.
"Luna….I want- "
"I love you too," she said simply and reached out to grab his grass stained hand, "Will you go to the Forbidden Forest with me sometime? There's a new fungus I'd like to take a look at."
She squeezed his hand and began to rub small soothing circles against his fingers when she could feel him shaking, "It would also make sense for you to come to ours for Christmas Day, after we've visited your parents."
A thousand words were threatening to spill out of Neville's lips but he looked at Luna who had gone back to staring at the lake and nodded.
The emotion that had threatened to overwhelm had subsided for a quiet love and contentment to sit and hold hands with Luna, and maybe, for the first time, Neville thought, Christmas might start to get easier.