"To me, fearless is not the absence of fear. It's not being completely unafraid. To me, fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death." -Taylor Swift

Even though Luna had told me what had happened to her since she left, I still felt as if I needed more details. "So, how is Dobby, anyway?" I asked. "I haven't been down the kitchens, but if I had gone it would have been weird not seeing him there."

"He was doing very well," Luna said hesitantly, glancing at Dean. "That is, until he died."

"What?" I asked, looking at Seamus, who looked somewhat sad, but nowhere near as shocked and upset as I felt.

"Yes," Luna said sadly. "As he was leaving Malfoy Manor with Harry, Ron and Hermione, Bellatrix threw her knife at them and it hit Dobby." She had gone completely pale.

"Luna was pretty upset over it," Dean said. "She did okay at first, but then I found her out by his grave, crying."

Luna blushed. "I didn't mean for you to see me. I don't like when people see me cry."

Dean smiled sympathetically and looked at me. "I sat with her and tried to comfort her as best I could. I figured it wouldn't be the same as having you there, but she said I'd do."

Luna smiled. "I was glad to have you there, Dean."

"Yeah, thanks," I said quietly, "for looking out for her."

Dean smiled. "Seamus and I will leave you two alone now. I think we've all got a lot to catch up on."

I nodded and watched them leave before turning to Luna, who was staring around the room. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Quite sure," she answered, looking at me.

I wasn't sure if I believed her. I wanted to, but I was having trouble processing that she had been kept in the cellar of a house full of Death Eaters and hadn't received any serious injuries. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes, actually," she said. "At Bill and Fleur's I ate perfectly fine, but while I was in that cellar, they didn't give us much. I feel like I still need to make up for all of that."

"Yeah, it looks it," I said. "You look so small."

Luna giggled. "Well, then, you won't mind if I eat like Ron does on a daily basis?"

"Not at all," I said, laughing.

"I hope there's pudding," she said absentmindedly.

"Oh, there is," I assured her.

"Good," she replied as I led her over to where we kept the food. "So we're in the Room of Requirement?" She continued to scan the room.

"Yeah, I asked it for a place to hide where the Carrows couldn't get in and this is what it gave me. There was only one hammock at first and a tiny bathroom, but as more people showed up, more hammocks appeared and the bathroom changed after Lavender complained about the original one."

"How nice," Luna said, sitting down cross legged on the floor. I sat across from her and watched as she took in the food we had.

"We might be running a little low. We're due to get more in a few days, though. Aberforth provides us with food once a week and we've been pretty good with making it last. It's usually plenty, though, so we don't feel deprived. Take whatever you'd like."

After Luna had gotten her food, she looked at me. "Don't you want any?"

I shook my head and continued to watch her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked. "Have the Wrakspurts got you again?"

I smiled and shook my head again. "I just haven't seen you in so long…"

"Ah, you forgot what I looked like," she nodded.

"No, not quite," I laughed. There was a pause. "I just really missed you is all. I don't even know if I can explain how much I missed you."

"I don't think you need to," she said, "because I think I know."

"You do?" I asked.

"Yes, because I missed you too." She looked up at me and smiled.

I grinned and there was another moment of silence. "Oh," I said finally, "I have this." I reached up, slid her D.A. coin over my head and handed it to her.

Her face lit up as she took it and put it back around her neck where it belonged. "I was so upset when I realized I didn't have it. I could have sent you a message a lot sooner. Oh, and you even fixed the ribbon! It was fraying, that's why I took it off."

"Yeah, I figured," I answered. "I kept it safe, though."

"You wore it?" she asked.

I nodded. "Right next to mine."

"So it's like we were together. In some way, at least," she said.

"I never thought of it that way, but yeah. I took your trunk off the train, too, and brought it to your dad that same day."

"Oh, you did?" she asked. "Good, at least I know it's safe." Her expression grew sad all of a sudden.

"Hey," I whispered. "What's wrong?"

"My dad's on the run," she whispered.

"Yeah, we heard on Potterwatch, actually. They said the Death Eaters came after him because he claimed Harry was at his house. He was probably trying anything to get you back."

"Only Harry was at my house," she answered.

"He was?" I asked, shocked.

She nodded. "I felt terrible that he tried to turn Harry in."

"He was desperate," I told her.

"That's what Harry said, too."

"You're his daughter," I whispered. "Honestly, I'm surprised he didn't publish those wanted ads sooner. He was really dragging his feet and resorting to just begging the Death Eaters to let you go. I think he was really torn about what to do."

"How was he when you went there?"

"A mess, to be honest," I answered. "I think he was worse than I was. Does he know you're safe?"

"No, there wasn't any way to get in contact with him."

I thought for a few seconds. "Do you know if he brought a radio with him by any chance?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. Hermione said that when he called the Death Eaters, she had to escape with Harry and Ron and part of the house was destroyed. He probably left straight away, too, since the Death Eaters were on their way or already there."

"So, you think he has nothing with him?"

She nodded. "That scares me."

I nodded. "I was hoping he'd have some supplies and a radio. That way we could send a message to Lee to report on Potterwatch that you're safe."

Luna took a deep breath and set her empty plate aside. She brought her knees to her chest, folded her arms over them and rested her chin on her arms. "So, tell me about what I've missed."

"Well, Ginny's been gone since Easter," I began.

"Yes, when I went to Shell Cottage, Bill told me the rest of his family was at their Auntie Muriel's. When Harry was caught, Ron was obviously caught with them when he was thought to be sick with spattergroit. It put the whole family in danger so they had to go into hiding."

"Oh, so that's what happened," I said. "Ginny said she wasn't sure if she could tell me so to be on the safe side she didn't give any information besides the fact that she was going into hiding and not coming back to school."

Luna nodded. "Yes, from what I've heard, she's okay, though."

"Good," I answered. "Up until a few weeks before Ginny left, we were doing the same stuff we always did, but then Michael Corner went and released a first year chained in the dungeons and the Carrows caught him red handed so they tortured him terribly. That's when we decided to lay low until we could think of some underground stuff to do. But then one night I snuck out to write on the walls one more time and the Carrows caught me and went for Gran."

"Oh, Neville," Luna said, reaching out and taking my hand.

"She's fine," I told her, "but she's on the run, just like your dad."

Luna smiled. "Maybe they'll run into each other."

"Maybe," I said, smiling back. "She wrote me a letter saying that she was proud of me."

"Of course she is," Luna said. "Why wouldn't she be?"

I shrugged. "Anyway, the Carrows decided to chain me up in the dungeons for the night. Seamus came in the morning and broke me out and that's when I knew I had to run. If they couldn't get Gran, there was no way to control me unless they killed me or sent me to Azkaban, so then Seamus and I came up with hiding out here. I could hide and we'd use it for a D.A. meeting place."

"So, what have you been doing?" Luna asked.

"Listening to Potterwatch and kind of working together with them to get messages out there. We notified everyone's parents that way to let them know their kids were safe. Occasionally one of us will sneak out to do more graffiti just so everyone knows we're still around, but we don't do it often. We don't want to get caught in the act, but the Carrows can't get in this room so as long as they don't catch us doing it, we're okay."

Luna bit her lip and looked at me. "They were really hurting you, weren't they?"

"It's not that bad," I said, waving my hand.

Luna stared at me. "Neville."

I looked down and didn't answer right away. She knew I was lying. "It was almost sort of manageable until the night they caught me writing on the wall…the same night they took Gran. That was the worst it's ever been. They Crucioed me so badly, I really thought I was going to die or end up just like my parents. I thought the time Bellatrix tortured me two years ago was bad, but this was so much worse."

"But you're still here and you look pretty sane to me," Luna said. "That really says something."

"Yeah? What?"

"It shows how strong you are."

"Everyone's been saying I changed," I said.

"Yeah?" Luna tilted her head to one side and looked at me, waiting for me to go on.

"They say everything I've been doing—running the D.A., writing on the walls, disobeying the Carrows—are all things I never would have done years ago. They said I've gotten a lot braver and learned to stand up for myself."

Luna studied my face for a moment. "I disagree," she said.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't think you've changed."

"But Luna, they're right."

"Not necessarily," she answered. "I think you were always this way and you just never knew it. You were always brave. The only thing you weren't brave enough to do was have confidence in yourself. Now you do. You conquered your last fear. Remember on the day we first talked and I told you that you must have been placed in Gryffindor for a reason? Well, here it is."

"But I still don't think I'm all that brave," I argued. "I still get scared. I get scared every day."

"So does everyone else," Luna told me. "You wouldn't be normal if you weren't scared of something. Gryffindors are known for being brave not for having no fears."

"Yes, they are," I argued. "Besides, brave and fearless are kind of the same thing."

"No," she argued back. "Look at Ron. He's afraid of spiders. Didn't you learn about boggarts in your third year?"

"Yeah, I told you about that. Mine was Professor Snape and he hated me even more ever since he found out."

"All right, well, everyone in your class had one, didn't they?"

I nodded. "Yeah, they did."

"There you go," she said, smiling. "And besides, I don't think being brave or fearless means not being afraid of anything. I think it means being afraid of lots of things but going about life anyway in spite of those fears."

"Yeah?" I asked.

She nodded. "You've always been afraid of Professor Snape, haven't you?"

"Yes," I answered.

"But you've gone to his classes year after year and tried your hardest. You didn't run away."

"I couldn't run away. I had to take Potions. It was required."

"My point is," Luna said with a giggle, "that you haven't really changed. You're just realizing what you're actually capable of. Everyone else sees it as a change because they never saw this side of you before."

"But you did," I replied, my eyebrows raised in amusement."

"Of course I did. I knew it from the very first day I met you."

I laughed before reaching out and grabbing her arm, pulling her close to me. She leaned her head on my shoulder and I wrapped my arms around her, gently kissing her cheek and moving her hair off her face as she fell off to sleep.

A/N: Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a review! :)