Chapter 4:
Letters from each other, sort of
Ginny sprinted back to the common room, excited about what she had found out.
When she finally made it back, there were a few people still in the common room. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were lying on a rug, in a corner, putting the finishing touches on their Charms homework. A few first years were sitting in armchairs by the windows, talking amongst themselves. And there, by the fireplace, was Hermione, talking to a boy that was sitting in a chair, with a paper bag over his head.
Ginny immediately knew that was Neville. She ran over to where they both sat.
"It's ok Neville, really it is," Hermione was telling him soothingly when Ginny walked over.
"No it's not…," he moaned.
"What happened, Neville?" Ginny asked in bewilderment.
He peeked at her from under his bag. "What happened? Why don't you ask her?"
Neville was pointing at Hermione accusingly.
She looked shocked "What did I do, Neville? I didn't tell them. It's not my fault!"
"Well, they are your best friends… you should've known…."
Ginny sighed. "Would someone please tell me what's going on?"
Hermione gave Neville a sympathetic look.
"Ron and Harry found out about Neville's crush on Luna."
Ginny gasped. "Oh no, Neville. How'd they find out?"
Neville gave a tortured groan. "How should I know?"
Hermione looked at Ginny and said, "They've been making fun of him all night. Well… Ron at least. Harry doesn't know who Luna is."
Ginny frowned. "That prat! When I get my hands on him, he's going to be sorry, just you wait Neville, he'll get his."
Neville got up and grabbed Ginny's shoulders and shook them as he spoke. "He called me Neville Lovegood, Ginny, Neville Lovegood!"
He slunk back into his seat and put the bag back over his head.
"Well," Ginny said, a smile replacing her frown, "I've got some good news for you."
She heard a faint, "What?" from underneath the bag.
"I went to go talk to Luna, and—"
Neville looked at her from under his paper bag. "You did what?!? After I told you not to talk to her!"
Ginny rolled her eyes. "In my defense, you knew I wasn't going to listen to you anyway. Besides, she told me some things that might cheer you up."
Neville slumped back in his seat. "What? Did she say I was ugly and needed to get a life and some friends besides my plants?"
"No," she said, shaking her head, "she actually likes that you like plants."
Neville shot up so fast, he knocked the paper bag off his head. "Really?"
"Yup," she sat down across Neville and a bewildered looking Hermione to explain her conversation with Luna. "She said she liked the fact that you were different, but in the good way," she added hastily as Neville almost reached for his bag that lay on the floor. "She said you were different in the sense that, you were always kind of shy. She liked that." She decided to leave out the part where she called him cute, since she promised Luna she wouldn't tell anyone.
Neville beamed. "She said that? Those words came out of her mouth?"
Ginny nodded.
Neville was wearing a goofy grin. His cheeks reddened.
Hermione and Ginny exchanged a smile.
"Neville," Hermione said, "if you like her so much, why don't you just talk to her?"
His grin disappeared. He lunged for his paper bag, but Ginny blocked him.
"Neville!" Ginny said, yanking the bag any from his grip. "If you won't talk to her, at least tell us why!"
"Because," he said, "I wouldn't know what to say. I'd get all tongue-tied and," he leaned in to whisper, "If you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly very experienced at talking to girls."
Hermione laughed. "What are you doing now? Talking to hippogriffs?"
Neville sighed. "Yeah, but you're just friends." He slunk further into his chair.
"Well," Ginny continued, "if you're too shy to actually talk to her, why don't you write her a note?"
Neville looked like he was going to throw up, which he probably was. He shook his head so violently, Ginny was afraid it'd come off. "No. I'll just admire her from afar," he looked off onto the horizon, "it doesn't require me to speak, and it's much less painful."
Ginny gave Neville an exasperated look. "And what are you going to accomplish with that? Nothing, absolutely nothing!"
"I don't care," he said, grumpily, getting up from his seat. "I'm going to bed. Maybe now, Ron will feel too tired to call me Mr. Lovegood…."
He was about halfway there, lugging his feet on the ground, before he turned back around and got his paper bag back from Ginny.
"I might need this," he said.
After he was out of sight, Ginny turned around to face Hermione.
"What are we going to do now?" She crossed her arms looking upset. "Those two are clearly meant for each other, but neither of them will do anything about it!"
But Hermione wasn't flustering over what to do; she just sat there with an evil grin she only got when she had a brilliant idea.
"What?" Ginny asked, slightly worried.
"Well," she began, "they're just too shy to start a conversation with each other, not necessarily to continue one."
"So," Ginny said, getting where this was going. "We just—"
"We write to first letter, and watch the rest unfold."
Ginny smiled. "You're a genius!"
"And, I already know what the first letter's going to be."
She pulled out a pen and started to write, mimicking Neville's handwriting. It was a short letter, but Ginny thought it was perfect. It was exactly the kind of thing Neville would say!
So they sealed the letter in an envelope and went up to bed, thinking of what tomorrow might bring.
Ginny was sitting in her seat in Defense Against the Dark Arts, staring at the back of Luna's head. She had had "Neville's letter" the whole day, not able to find an opportunity to give it to her.
She tapped her finger impatiently on her desk, knowing that the class was now nearly over.
Finally they were dismissed. Ginny sprinted to catch up with Luna. When she reached her, she walked along with Luna.
"Hello, Ginny," she said.
"Hi Luna," she took out the note from her bag and held it in her hand. "I've got something for you."
Luna turned to her. "What it is?"
Ginny smiled. "Something from Neville."
Luna blushed and took the letter as Ginny held it out. "Thank you," she said. "Now, I have to go. I have to get to Care of Magical Creatures. But thanks again for the… uh… thing from Neville."
Luna hurried off with the letter clutched in her hand. She turned a corner and went straight into the nearest girl's bathroom. She rushed into a stall and ripped open the envelope that had "Neville's letter" in it. She read what was on the piece of parchment:
Dear Luna,
Hi.
-Neville Longbottom
Luna smiled. She kept the note in her pocket the rest of the day. She barely listened when people who walked by called her Loony. She was too excited.
When she got back to the Ravenclaw common room, she sat down in her dormitory and wrote a letter back to Neville.
The next morning, Luna saw Ginny eating breakfast at the Gryffindor table. She tried to get her attention with no luck.
When she started to head off to her first class of the day, Luna stopped her.
"Ginny," she said, handing Ginny her letter to Neville, "will you give this to Neville for me?"
Ginny grinned and took it from Luna. "Sure."
Luna smiled, then turned around and skipped off to her morning classes.
All Neville could think about that day was what Ginny and Hermione had said to him last night.
Should he have written Luna a note? Or would she think that was strange? He was confused.
As he thought of these things, he passed Ginny in a corridor. She waved at him and pulled him aside.
"Neville," she said, smiling, "Luna gave me this, it's for you."
Neville turned pale. He took the letter with shaking hands. "Thanks."
"No problem. See you later Neville."
He stared down at the letter once Ginny strolled away. He carefully looked around the corridor to make sure he was alone and opened the envelope. It read:
Dear Neville,
How are you doing? How's Herbology? Is life treating you well?
-Luna
Neville read the note about four times to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.
She had written to him. She actually cared how he was.
He looked around the corridor again and realized that this was the exact same corridor he had first crashed into Luna. He wondered how ironic the world could be sometimes.
Neville had had a lot of help picking what to say to Luna in his letter. Most of that help came from Hermione.
But now it was finished and waiting for Ginny to walk down the girl's dormitory staircase.
When she finally came down, Neville practically ran up to her.
"Ginny, I need you to—"
Ginny looked exasperated. "I know, I know. Just give it to me." But she said it with a smile.
Neville blushed moving aside, letting her pass. He looked after her, hoping all the editing had made a difference.
Luna was sitting at the Ravenclaw table during lunch. She sat there, eating by herself, like she usually did, when Ginny came up to her holding a note.
"It's from Neville," she said, sounding tired then walked back to the Gryffindor table.
Luna opened it eagerly.
Dear Luna,
I'm fine, thanks for asking.
Herbology is good, except for the fact that we're working with venomous plants, and I tend to be a hazard.
Life is treating me pretty well. I've discovered there is irony in the most unusual places.
Now, enough about me; how are you?
-Neville
Luna's heart soared. She couldn't believe that he had answered her note, and this one was so much longer than the other ones.
She pulled out some parchment and began working on a response.
Ginny was getting used to the passing-of-the-letter thing Luna and Neville were doing. Even though they had only passed three notes, she got used to it really quick. The nervous looks on their faces. The envelopes in their hands.
So she wasn't at all surprised when Luna approached her right after her last class of the day.
Luna smiled. "Ginny…." She didn't bother to complete the thought because she knew Ginny knew what to do.
"I got it. See you around Luna."
Luna looked down, a little embarrassed. "See you."
Neville was surprised to receive Luna's response that same day. Ginny was now looking mildly annoyed. She was happy for them, but why couldn't they just talk to each other?
"Here Neville," she said.
Neville opened it, full of excitement.
Dear Neville,
I'm doing fine. My classes are pretty good. Some people are nice to me.
You're one of them. Thank you for that.
Oh, and I think we should start leaving our letter somewhere we can only find them. Like, in that hole in the tree by the Herbology houses. Ginny is starting to look bothered.
-Luna
Neville ran to Hermione to start his response.
The next day, Ginny delivered a message to Luna. She didn't know it meant, but she didn't care. As long as the note-passing-between-her thing would stop.
She walked up to Luna. "Hey Luna."
She looked surprised. "Oh, hi Ginny."
Ginny took a deep breath. "Neville told me to tell you: 'it's in the tree'."
Luna beamed, Ginny didn't know why. "Ok, thanks."
She ran out of the Great Hall. Ginny stared after her wondering what the heck that was about.
So that's how a friendship through letters and notes started. Every day, one of them would go to check the tree, to see if the other had written back yet. That's how the friendship, and maybe something more, started between Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood.
