Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. This story is meant purely in tribute to the original work.

Luna and Neville did not end up having their "first" date (The first date since their reunion, that is) until a couple of weeks after they decided to rekindle their relationship. Neville had encountered a particularly busy period at work and had to cancel their initial attempt at a first date. He was slightly ashamed at first that it was his schedule that was responsible for cancelling but Luna did not seem to mind. She gently teased him about this fact and made it clear she did not hold it against him. Neville kept this in mind for the right way to handle things with her future schedule.

Neville found himself feeling inexplicably nervous. This was not their first date together and they had certainly been together in more intimate scenarios. But Neville could not shake his sudden case of nerves. This was compounded by his trademark clumsiness and penchant for misfortune. As he went to open the door to the restaurant, he happened to pick the double door that was locked for some unknown reason and ended up pulling himself into the door and smacking his forehead into the glass. Thankfully, the only damage was to his pride. Neville smiled sheepishly as he moved to hold open the other door for Luna. Then, on the way to their table, he came within a hair's width of colliding with a waiter carrying a flambéed entrée. The disaster was averted only by the fact that Luna had linked her arm through his and had steered him away from fiery catastrophe at the last moment. And finally, Neville had promptly knocked over a water glass with a shaky hand only minutes after sitting down. Thankfully, the tablecloth was the only casualty and their waiter soon found them another table. Neville cursed his clumsiness for the umpteenth time in under half an hour. "What the bloody hell is WRONG with me?", he thought. "I'm acting like a clumsy adolescent instead of the confident 20-something year old I am supposed to be!" As he looked up to face Luna, he was relieved to see she did not look annoyed. Quite to the contrary, she wore an amused smile on her face. Something about her expression let him know that everything would be fine. Neville found that he was finally able to relax a little and even crack half a smile.

Their first date was simple affair, dinner at a restaurant and a chance to catch up with each other. At least, that's what Neville initially thought. Therefore, he was surprised with Luna's conversation starter. "Since this is our first date Mr. Longbottom, I think we should get to know each other. Tell me about yourself."

Neville's mouth gaped open for moment as he tried to determine if Luna was serious or not. She smiled benignly back at him and gave him no indication that she was joking. Neville made a mental note that if Luna really was bluffing, to never play cards with her. "W-well…ummm…", he hesitatingly began. "Good Lord, I am acting like I REALLY am on a first date!", he thought. "…please call me Neville, for starters. I live in London, I work at the Ministry of Magic as an auror, I attended Hogwarts where I was sorted into Gryffindor, I'm an only child, and…oh, and I was once part of an underground resistance movement against a dark conspiracy but that's hardly worth mentioning."

Luna's smile broadened. "That's fascinating! You live in London?"

Neville couldn't help but break into laughter. "Yes, it's exhilarating. Your turn, though. Tell me about yourself Miss Lovegood."

"Please, no need to be so formal, call me Luna. Where to begin… I also attended Hogwarts where I was sorted into Ravenclaw. I happen to be an only child as well. I work as what you could call a 'wizarding naturalist'. Some have called it magizoology but there is some debate about that. I tend to live out of a tent during my travels. And come to think of it, I was once part of an underground resistance movement against a dark conspiracy as well!"

"What are the odds of that?", Neville said, easily slipping into his role and playing along. "That is a truly amazing coincidence. It's almost like we've met before."

"I'm not so sure of that. I think I would have remembered someone like you."

"I'm not what you would call the memorable type. I'll admit though, I don't have the greatest memory in the world."

"Of course you're the memorable type, I recall someone reminding you of that. I also seem to recall that the resistance movement was led by a dashing young man with dark hair."

"Yes, I recall that too. He seemed to have a penchant for finding himself the repeated target of the conspiracy.", Neville said while thinking that Luna must be referring to Harry.

"But then he left on a quest and the mantle of leadership was passed to another dashing, dark-haired young man. An initially shy fellow, who thought he wasn't anybody, let alone a hero."

"Sounds like an unlikely leader."

"It does doesn't it? That's why it was such a surprise when he stepped up and did a marvelous job."

"Did he now? Well good for him, glad to hear he got a hold of himself! I'll bet he had some good friends to help him along to that end. I think I remember hearing about him. Didn't he and his friends run amuck in the Ministry one night?"

"Yes. They ended up causing quite a bit of damage."

"Wasn't there a beautiful, quietly intelligent blonde girl in that group of young upstarts?"

"The intelligent one was brunette."

"No, I'm sure there was an intelligent blonde one as well. Because she took the dashing, dark-haired young man's hand during that adventure."

"And the dashing, dark-haired young man took her hand too."

"Wait, when did Harry take your hand?", Neville deadpanned. Luna broke into laughter at Neville's outburst and he easily joined in with her. "I missed this.", Neville thought, "I missed how musical her laughter sounds."

"I missed this.", Luna thought, "I missed how warm it makes me feel to see him smile and hear him laugh."

More importantly, the latent tension in their "not a first date but still a first date" was broken and they found that they could finally, truly relax and enjoy each other's company.

Four Weeks Later

Luna stared up at the ceiling in silence. It wasn't that she didn't have anything to say, she felt that she probably had quite a bit to say. But she was wondering how to put her thoughts into words and she was, quite honestly, still trying to catch her breath. Luna was well aware that Neville was probably thinking something similar to her thoughts, since he was lying in bed next to her. And neither one of them was wearing much at the moment. Upon further reflection, she decided that wearing nothing at all was probably more accurate.

It was actually Neville who broke the silence first. "Erm...uhhh…wow…"

Luna could not help but smile at least a little. "Classic Neville", she thought. "This was…unexpected.", she replied.

"Yeah."

"But not unpleasant."

"Not at all."

"It was actually great."

"Yes, it certainly was."

"I certainly didn't expect this on a second date."

"Neither did I."

"Just to let you know, this is not a habit of mine."

"Me either. I mean we've only had our second date like you said and it's been what? Four weeks since we started going out again?"

"Yes, about four weeks."

"I don't regret this."

"Neither do I."

There was another long silence as each of them struggled with their thoughts. "It isn't really our second date.", Neville began.

"No, not really."

"But it still is at the same time."

"Sort of."

"Let's sort it out in the morning."

"Things usually look better in the morning."

"Would you like to stay the night?"

"Yes. We'll talk in the morning."

"In the morning."

The Next Morning

Neville watched Luna over the rim of his cup of steaming tea. He knew she was aware that he was watching her intently so there was no use in him being surreptitious about it. Luna's eyes looked up from her apparent examination of the shade of blue on her cup as she set it down. "It's not polite to stare Neville", she said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Sorry." Neville flushed slightly. "I'm having a little trouble organizing my thoughts."

"Just relax Neville. I'm not going to disappear."

Neville nodded. "I know."

"And you can trust me enough to speak your mind."

Neville paused and his brow furrowed in concentration, taking his turn to examine the shade of blue on his cup intently. Luna looked him over as he took a seat opposite her at the kitchen table. As her eyes roamed over his form she remembered that she had wondered back during Ron and Hermione's wedding, if Neville had more scars that she had not seen. She had found out last night that he did indeed. As they had undressed each other she had felt the urge to smooth her hand over and kiss each patch of damaged skin, as if the action would heal him. Luna still felt a slight pang of regret that she had not been there for him. She knew there was no way she could have known since he had concealed the information from her but Luna found that provided only minor solace. Neville looked up to meet her gaze before he spoke. "It feels like we're picking up where we left off but at the same time we're not."

Luna nodded. "I had a similar thought."

"I just don't want to move too fast. To mess this-" Neville gestured back and forth between them, "-up."

"I don't want to mess us up either."

"Don't get me wrong, last night was great. It was wonderful. I still don't regret it."

"I thoroughly enjoyed last night as well." Luna felt some color rise in her cheeks at the memory of the previous night. She remembered how overjoyed she felt in the knowledge that Neville could experience such pleasure because of her. Luna felt a certain sort of pride that she was able to make him lose control in that wonderful way and completely relax into his climax. Judging from Neville's expression, she could tell that he must have been having some similar thoughts about her.

"I just don't want to move things too fast. Although between our schedules, it took us about a month just to have two dates. I think that was mostly my fault, I've been working some odd hours lately."

"No one's to blame for anything Neville. We both knew we would have to work with each other's schedules when we went into this. It's alright that we've only had two dates in a month. We don't have to feel like we have to frantically rush to make up for some sort of lost time."

"Very true." Neville let out a breath he did not realize he had been holding. "I'm glad you feel that way."

"I'm glad you understand too Neville. Let's just slow things down a little bit. Get used to each other again."

"I think that's a good idea.", Neville reached across the table to take Luna's hand and felt a reassuring squeeze from her hand.

Luna and Neville managed to make it six more weeks and four more dates before waking up next to each other again after an energetic night. They decided that was not such a bad thing.

Author's Notes: I found this chapter somewhat difficult to write. I found myself thinking that if this was being read in an English lit class, this is where the instructor would probably discuss the significance of the color blue in their cups. Students would probably be expected to analyze the symbolism behind the different possible shades of blue, what it would mean if the shades were the same, what it would mean if they were different, and what this means for their past, present, and future relationship. Well, I am the author, and I can tell you that there is no symbolism. The cups are blue. They were staring at them because they were organizing their thoughts. They are the same shade because the cups came from the same set. There is no symbolism! Stop looking for it!

This is probably why I was a bad English lit student.

Special thanks to Maximus Artilius for reviewing and the encouragement. Thanks again to everyone who has added this to their alerts, favorites, or are just reading along. I know my pace has slowed. Moving with an infant is not an easy process. I should have written fanfic while I was in college. However, my college years pre-dated Harry Potter by quite a lot.