"Love is a battlefield." -Pat Benatar (Love is a Battlefield)

On the morning of Slughorn's Christmas party, I sat with Neville at breakfast. I could tell he was still feeling a little guilty about helping out at the party, but I wanted to make him feel better, so I spent breakfast with him. I think my plan worked, because by the end of the meal, I had gotten him laughing and I was glad.

Despite the fact that I didn't mind that I couldn't go to the party with Neville and I didn't really mind that he had had to cancel our plans for that night, I kept thinking about what the party would be like. I knew that Ginny didn't especially love them or hate going to Slughorn's meetings and parties, but I was still curious. During one daydream on my way to class where I was wondering if Stubby Boardman might be providing music for the party, I was almost trampled by Hermione. She was running in the opposite direction with her hands over her face. I suspected she was crying.

I had time before my class so I followed her into a girl's bathroom just down the hallway. To be honest, when I first walked in, I thought I had been mistaken about where she had gone and that Hermione wasn't in there after all. From the sounds coming from inside, I thought it was Moaning Myrtle moping in a different bathroom for once. "Hermione, are you in here?" I called, checking under each stall for her feet. I finally noticed her shoes in the last stall, so I knocked. "Hermione?"

"I'm not here," she said tearfully.

I let out a giggle. "Of course you're here. I can see your feet."

"Luna, please," Hermione said. "I'm not in the mood to talk right now."

"If you talk, it'll give you something to do besides crying," I told her.

"I can talk and cry at the same time," Hermione said, beginning a new wave of sobs.

"Well, crying does make you feel better, but so does talking. Maybe you should try it. You can even talk from in there if you want. I don't mind. Lots of people suspect I talk to walls anyway, what's one more?"

"But you're not talking to a wall, you're talking to me," Hermione answered with a watery laugh.

"Through a bathroom stall door," I said.

The door swung open and Hermione stood there, her face blotchy and her eyes wet. She sniffed and walked to the sinks to get paper towels. I kept handing her more as she needed them. She certainly had a lot of tears

"I don't understand how he can be so inconsiderate!" she burst out.

I nodded, deciding it was best to pretend to know who she was talking about. "A lot of people are inconsiderate," I told her. "It's almost expected to come across inconsiderate people."

"But he's not always inconsiderate," she said. "It's usually only when he's mad at me, but a lot of the time he's funny and nice and he—well, right now he's being a complete and total jerk."

"What did he say to you?" I asked, still unsure of who she was talking about.

"He imitated me raising my hand in class," Hermione said, tossing a bunch of paper towels into the trash, "because I laughed at his mustache."

"I didn't know there were any students here with mustaches," I said, surprised. "How fascinating. Unless you're talking about Dumbledore?" I asked that question a little nervously. I certainly hoped she wasn't talking about Dumbledore.

"No," Hermione said, a smile flickering across her face. "We were supposed to be changing our eyebrow color in Transfiguration and Ron gave himself a mustache."

"Ah," I said. I should have known this had something to do with Ron. He was the only person who could get Hermione so worked up like she was now. "He was incredibly inaccurate wasn't he? I mean, a mustache is pretty far off from changing his eyebrows. I bet you did it on the first try."

Hermione smiled but didn't say anything, which confirmed my suspicion. "Well, thanks, Luna," she said finally. "I should be going now. I left my stuff back in McGonagall's room and I have to get it before my next class."

"Alright," I agreed, handing her one last paper towel. She wiped her face and took a deep breath before tossing out the paper towel and heading for the door. I followed her, patting her back gently. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Okay," I said. Then, I noticed Harry coming closer carrying Hermione's things in addition to his own. "Hello, Harry. Did you know that one of your eyebrows is bright yellow?"

"Hi, Luna. Hermione, you left your stuff…" He held out her books and stared at her with a concerned expression.

"Oh, yes, I was just about to go back for it." She took her things and sniffed again. "Thank you, Harry. Well, I'd better get going. I have a class to get to." With that, she hurried off down the hallway.

"She's a bit upset," I told Harry. "She ran past me crying, so I followed her to the bathroom, but at first I thought I had gotten the wrong room. It sounded like Moaning Myrtle was in there, but it turned out that it was Hermione after all. She said something about Ron Weasley…."

"Yeah, they've had a fight."

"Something about Ron's mustache. Apparently, it's quite the laughing matter."

"Their fight was really about something else, but yeah, Ron's mustache didn't help."

"He says very funny things sometimes, doesn't he? Ron, I mean." I looked at Harry as we started off down the hallway together. "He makes me laugh, but he can be a bit unkind. I noticed that last year."

"I suppose," Harry shrugged. "So have you had a good term?"

"Oh, it's been okay," I said. "A bit lonely without the D.A., but I have Neville. Ginny, too. She actually stopped two boys in our Transfiguration class from calling me 'Loony' the other day."

"Hey, Luna," Harry said, stopping suddenly.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I know this might be weird to ask you, but I'm sure Neville told you about Slughorn's party, or at least mentioned it."

"Oh, yes, he didn't get into the Slug Club. He was actually pretty disappointed, and we were going to do something together tonight instead, but then Slughorn asked Neville to help out so that's what he's doing."

"Oh, so you're free tonight?" Harry asked, brightening.

"Well, yes," I said slowly. "Why do you ask?"

"How would you like to come to the party with me?" Harry blurted out.

"Me? Go to Slughorn's party with you?" Usually not much surprised me, but I had to say that this did. I would never have thought Harry would ask me to the party. Plus, I'd have imagined he already had someone to ask. "What about Ginny?"

"Going with Dean," Harry said with a sigh. "Wait, hold on, why did you-? How-?"

"It's okay, Harry," I said with a smile. I patted his hand and smiled wider.

"Er, okay, well about going to the party. I'm sure you know we're supposed to bring guests, so I thought you might like…I mean…just as friends, you know. But if you don't want to, it's—I mean, Neville might-,"

"No, I'm sure he'll be alright with it. If he's not, I can talk to him. And like you said, it's just as friends."

"So you'll go with me?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I'd love to go with you as friends!" I said excitedly. "Nobody's ever asked me to a party before, as a friend! Is that why you dyed your eyebrow yellow, for the party? Should I do mine too?"

"No," Harry said quickly. "The eyebrow thing was a mistake. I'll have Hermione put it right for me."

"You know, maybe I'll just dye my eyebrow anyway," I said absentmindedly. "Perhaps purple."

"No, Luna, it's okay, nobody else will have a colored eyebrow."

"Exactly," I shrugged, smiling at him.

"Er, really, you don't have to, but I guess—never mind. Anyway, I'll meet you in the entrance hall at eight?"

"Alright," I agreed.

"Aha!" yelled a voice from above us. We both jumped. Neither one of us had noticed Peeves dangling like a monkey from a chandelier. "Potty asked Loony to go to the party! Potty loves Loony! Potty loves Looney, but Loony has a boyfriend already!" Cackling wildly, he zoomed off down the hallway.

"Neville won't be too upset, will he?" Harry asked.

"I certainly hope not. After all, you and I are just going as friends."

"Well, it looks as if he's going to find out from other people, not you. Peeves will spread it around the entire school."

"Don't worry, Harry," I said, patting his shoulder. "I'll talk to him. See you at eight o'clock!" Waving, I headed off down the hallway.

"You're going to the party with Harry." Neville appeared in front of me as I entered the great hall for lunch. He stood with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

"Yes, just as friends. He didn't have a date yet, so I agreed. Ginny's going with Dean, you see-,"

"What does Ginny have to do with anything?" Neville asked.

"Harry clearly likes her," I said. "I thought it was quite obvious, but-,"

"I can't believe you're going with Harry," Neville said, sounding terribly hurt.

"I didn't want to say no, and he specifically said we're going as friends."

"Yeah, that's why Peeves was flying around yelling 'Potty loves Loony', isn't it?" Neville asked, brushing by me.

"When have you ever believed Peeves?" I asked, following him. "Ask Harry, he'll say the same thing I did. We're going as friends. Haven't I just finished telling you he likes Ginny?"

"I don't want you to go to the party and see me!" Neville said, spinning around to face me. "Don't you get it? You're going to be there with Harry and all those other famous, smart people that are worth something and I'm going to be walking around asking people if they'd like a drink or if they've tried any of the food!"

"I don't care if that's how I have to see you. I think it's nice that I get to see you in the first place."

"I should be taking you to that party," Neville mumbled.

"We were supposed to spend time together tonight," I said calmly.

"I couldn't back out of helping Slughorn. I told you that I kind of got roped into it."

"Still," I shrugged. "You backed out on me whether you wanted to or not. Harry asked me to go as friends and honestly, I'm excited. And I'll still get to see you there."

"But I don't want you to see me. I've already told you. And how can you be excited?"

"I'm excited to go to the party."

"You thought the party was stupid," Neville said, crossing his arms again.

"I never said that. I just said I didn't care if you got to go or not. I don't mind if you're in the Slug Club or not and I don't mind if you help out at the party or not."

"I suppose you're excited to go with Harry. Who wouldn't be?" Neville snapped.

"Neville, Harry is my friend. That's why I'm excited to go with him. It'll be just like spending time with a very good friend. If I went with you, it would be different because we're dating."

"But you're not going with me."

"I would love to go with you. You know that. But can't you just be happy we get to see each other tonight after all?"

"I don't want to walk around and have to offer you a drink. I want to be able to ask you to dance and stand around talking with you and wondering if Nargles have infested the brains of half the people there."

I shrugged. "Don't offer me a drink if you don't want to. It's not a rule that I have to have a drink anyway. It's not a rule that you have to give me one either, for that matter. I don't mind not having one."

Neville just shook his head. "Can you just see why I'm so upset?"

"I know why you're so upset," I said, "but I'm trying to get you to see the bright side."

"Yeah, well, sometimes people just want to be miserable," Neville snapped, turning away and marching down the hallway.

I sighed. Between Hermione's argument with Ron, my argument with Neville, and Harry not being able to take Ginny to the party, today was not turning out to be a lucky day in the romance department. I suspect the Nargles are behind it.

A/N: Don't forget to leave a review!