Something To Remember Me By

Summary: A Luna/Neville fic I wrote for a Fanfic comp :)

Walking back to the Ravenclaw common room after her last class of the day, Charms, Luna caught sight of a piece of paper floating just above her head. She reached up and grabbed it, looking around for the person who delivered it. She saw Neville tuck his wand back into his robes, and disappear around the corner, heading in the general direction of the Gryffindor common room.

Luna tucked the note into her robes and ran to the Ravenclaw common room, then sprinted up to her dorm and eagerly open the note.

Dearest Luna,

Meet me at the usual place in an hour, I have something to give you.

Love,

Neville

Luna and Neville had been secretly seeing each other for nearly a year only he didn't want to tell anyone that they were going out because everyone thought that Luna was weird, and he thought that if he was caught going out with her it would make everyone hate him even more. Luna only went along with it because she loved him.

Luna smiled at the thought of seeing Neville alone again, but stopped short when she noticed wet patches on the note. She grabbed her own wand out of her robes, but she didn't need it to tell what they were, she just wanted to be sure. A wave of her wand confirmed her fears.

They were teardrops.

Luna sat on the gnarled trunk of the Whomping Willow, her hand stroking the trunk softly, making the branches shiver. The tree seemed almost calm in her presence.

"Luna" Neville called, striding over to her, holding the side of his robe, where there was a slight bulge.

"Neville," she whispered, getting up and running over to him, making to give him a hug. He stopped her.

"But, why" she whispered.

"I-" he stopped, tears forming in his eyes. "I don't want to make this any harder than it already is,"

"What do u mean?" she said, fearing that he was going to break up with her.

But it was something even worse.

Neville took a deep breath and stared her straight in the eyes.

"I have to leave Hogwarts,"

"WHAT?" Luna yelled at him, tears now springing up in her eyes, "Bu-but WHY?" the Whomping Willow reacted to Luna's distressed voice, and started whipping its branches around, narrowly missing Neville's head.

"Luna, calm down please, just let me explain!" he stepped forward, finally letting go of his robe and putting his hands on Luna's shoulders, and looked her straight in the eyes. "Grans been sick for a while now, but she just took a real bad turn. Lu, she's in St. Mungos. I've got to go home and look after her, she doesn't trust anyone else."

"But Neville, this," she spread her arms wide, making him look around the grounds of Hogwarts, his eyes resting on the top of the Astronomy tower, where they had shared their first kiss. "This is your home!"

"Lu-"

"Don't! Please I don't want to hear it!" Luna knew she was being selfish. If her father had fallen ill, Neville would have given her a kiss and told her to make sure she wrote to him, but Luna just couldn't do that. She loved him too much to let him go.

The Whomping Willow was now twisting and turning, whipping the ground and other trees, but seemed to go out of its way to hit Neville, who was ducking and weaving to avoid the flying branches. Luna, however, stood in the middle of the chaos and not a single branch touched her skin.

Neville stopped moving long enough to look her in the eye again, and the look on her face made tears pour down her cheeks. There was so much pain in his face.

"Fine," Neville spat, and turned to leave, his hands one again snaking down to cover the bulge in the side of his robes. He didn't get far; he was thrown backwards by a carefully placed branch straight to his stomach. He was thrown back in the air, and he yelled, and closed his eyes, expecting to crash back down to the dirt. Instead, he felt himself being lowered slowly back to the soft ground. He opened his eyes, expecting to see the branches of the Whomping Willow coming down upon his head, but no. It was still. What he did see, however, was Luna was kneeling over him, wand in hand, tears now streaming steadily down her face.

"Oh, Nev, I'm sorry," she whispered, quickly tucking her wand back into her robes to free her hands. She cupped Neville's face on her hands, forcing him to look at her. "I just don't want you to leave."

"Lu, I'll never leave you, you know that," he said. Neville went to sit up, but the pain in his stomach made him promptly lay back down. "Even if I can physically be with you, I'll always be with you here," he said, putting his hand over her heart.

"Ok, sorry I was being so unreasonable, I just..." she took a deep breath. This was it. "I just... I love you, ok? You're the best thing that's ever happened to me besides coming to Hogwarts. I don't want you to go and leave me."

With much effort, Neville sat up, and pulled Luna into a warm embrace, and stroked her hair as she cried onto his shoulder. The sky was dark before she finally stopped crying and looked up at him, conveying and unspoken apology just by looking at him. God, they knew each other so well. The reason they were perfect for each other.

"I love you too, Lu, don't ever think I don't ok?" said Neville, smiling down at her before kissing away a stray tear that was still clinging to her face. "You're the best thing that's happened to me too, and I would never leave you if I didn't have to."

"Aww, thanks, Nev," she said and stood, offering her hand to help him up.

"I can't," he said, shaking his head and holding his stomach.

Luna turned to the Whomping Willow, walked over to the trunk and stroked it gently.

"Help him up," she whispered, just loud enough for Neville to hear.

"What, no, I-"

"Shut up Neville, it's not going to hurt you. It only did before because it thought you were upsetting me. Now, stay still." Two branches of the Whomping Willow snaked towards him, seeming to become thinner and thinner the closer they got. When they reached his, they were barely as thick as a finger. Neville was surprised when the branches wound themselves under his arms and pulled him gently to his feet, for he was sure branches that thin would not be able to support his weight.

Then the unique tree did something else he didn't expect. It picked him up, and brought him over to sit on its huge, gnarled trunk.

Luna walked over and sat down beside him.

"Nev, you said in your letter that you had something to give me?"

"Oh, rig- TREVOR!" Neville suddenly yelled, "Holy Merlins beard, where is he?"

"Wait, Trevor? You were going to give me Trevor?" Luna looked at him stunned, and then started looking around frantically as well, for she had become quite attached to his slimy little toad. Then she stopped and laughed, and the sound to Neville was like a chorus of bells, and made him forget his worries for the slightest second, as a smile flashed upon his tired face.

"Luna! Stop laughing, I need to find Trevor!"

"But you don't have to, silly!" laughed Luna, who pointed to a branch of the Whomping Willow, which was hovering about half a meter over Neville's head. On it was perched Trevor, who gave a croak as the branch was slowly lowered down so that Neville could reach up and grab his run-away pet.

Luna skipped over to him, suddenly in a very happy mood. Neville turned to her, and gently handed her Trevor, who willing jumped into his new owners' hands. "Take care of him, will you?" Neville asked, quite seriously.

"Of course I will, Nev, but why are you giving him to me? I mean, you can look after him and your Gran at the same time can't you?"

"Well, yeah, of course I can, I just... I just wanted you to have him, so that when I couldn't be here for you, at least you would have some part of me, no matter how small. Think of him as a little something to remember me by," he looked down, almost as if he was embarrassed, but Luna knew the truth. He was trying to hide his tears. Luna waved her wand and a lily pad appeared in mid-air. She sat Trevor down upon it before grabbing Neville's arms and wrapping then around her waist.

"Oh Nev," she whispered, pulling his face up to look at hers, before planting a kiss on his lips. "Please don't cry"

"Ok, ok," he said, wiping the tears off his face. He looked up at Luna, who now had a wicked look in her eyes, one that he had never seen before.

"Lu, wha-"

"Shhh," she said, putting a finger to his lips. "Are you leaving tomorrow?"

"Umm, yeah," he said automatically, surprised by the question.

"Well, then why are we standing out here in the dark?" she said playfully "Let's go enjoy our last night together," Luna winked at Neville and took his hand, and started toward the hole at the base of the Whomping Willow.

"Wait, what about Trevor?" Neville said anxiously.

"He'll follow," And sure enough, when the crept down the darkness of the tunnel into the emptiness of the Shrieking Shack, Trevor was right behind them, still floating on the lily pad.

"Trev, guard the door, ay?" Luna said playfully, before kissing Neville with a passion he had never known existed in her.

And so began their last night together.