Chapter 9:

Jealousy for Luna

The next day, Neville walked out into the Great Hall feeling very nervous: He was going to ask a girl to go to Hogsmeade with him.

He had spent the entire night up with Hermione trying to figure out which one girl in the entire school, besides Luna, would go with him. That had proved difficult, because most girls would have rather went with Trevor to Hogsmeade than Neville. But, by the end of the night, they figured out the one girl who would go, even if it was just out of sympathy.

As he was sitting down, he noticed Cho Chang was staring at him. Wait, Cho Chang staring at him? Since he had sat down next to Harry, he safely assumed it was Harry she was staring at.

But Luna sure didn't know that.

When she sat down about five seats away from where Cho sat with her friends, giggling and pointing at the Gryffindor table, Luna, naturally, became curious.

There was Cho, giggling and pointing at, wait, Neville? She sat there and watched the older Ravenclaw girls for some time, before she couldn't handle the rage that had been swelling up inside her.

She shot up from her seat and stalked over to where Cho sat.

"Cho, honey," she said angrily, "would you mind putting your eyeballs back into your head?"

Cho looked down, giggling even harder now. "Oh, you saw that?"

Luna crossed her arms tightly, feeling the most infuriated she had ever felt. "Yeah, I saw that! And don't think I won't tell him!"

Cho stopped laughing and looked up at Luna in horror. "Luna, please don't. I'm not really sure how I feel about him! And… then there's Cedric—"

"Oh, don't worry," she snarled. "I'll tell Ceddy for you. And would you stop looking at him?! Neville's mine!" Wait, what? Did she really just say that?

Cho gave her a confused look. "Who's Neville? I was talking about Harry. Who were you talking about?"

Luna blushed and let her crossed arms unfold. "Oh, um, sorry. Don't worry, Cho, I… I won't tell Harry or Cedric. Good luck with that, by the way."

Cho smiled at her. "Thanks."

When Luna turned to sit back down, Cho tugged her on arm. Luna stood back where she had been a moment before.

"Oh, and," Cho said, her smile getting larger, "good luck with Neville."

Luna blushed even harder and managed a grin. "Thank you."

She walked back to where she had been sitting, feeling completely embarrassed.

* * *

When it was nearly time to leave, Neville thought it was now or never. He had to get up and ask her.

He walked over to where Lavender Brown was seated with her best friend Parvati Patil. Neville took a deep breath and walked forward.

When he arrived at the table, Parvati smiled at him.

"Hi, Neville," she said brightly.

Lavender looked up at him. "Hey, Neville."

"Um… Parvati?"

She furrowed her eyebrows and sat a little forward. "Yeah?"

"Um… I-I was just wondering… uh, you know, if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me."

Parvati blushed and giggled with Lavender. After she could breathe from all the giggling, she turned to Neville and said, "I'd love to."

He grinned. "Ok, well, see you around."

"I'll meet you in the common room on Saturday, Neville."

"Ok, bye, then," he said, unable to believe what had just happened.

Parvati waved and giggled harder. "Bye."

Luna had seen the whole exchange from the Ravenclaw table.

* * *

As Luna left the Great Hall, headed toward Charms, Neville ran close behind her.

"Luna! Luna, wait!"

She started to run up the stairs, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. Why, why did she have to pick now to lose her cool?

Neville caught up to her and tried to get her attention. "Luna! Hey, Luna!"

She just ran faster. Eventually, Neville caught up with her again. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back, stopping her from running away.

"Luna! What's the matter?"

Luna didn't look at him, she just stared at the ground. "Why did you ask Parvati to go to Hogsmeade with you?"

"Did you see that?"

"Yes, I did! Why'd you ask her? Do you… do you--" She couldn't finish the thought.

"What? I can't go to Hogsmeade with someone? You're going with Ernie!"

She gave him a shocked look. She had forgotten about Ernie for a second. "I-I… sure, I guess. But," she said, trying to find the right wording for her question. When she couldn't seem to find the exact words, she gave up and sighed.

"Luna," Neville began, grabbing her shoulders so she could look him in the eyes, a concerned look filled his face, "are you ok?"

"Yeah," she said softly. "I guess you can go to Hogsmeade with her. She's—She's a very… pretty girl." Luna fought back tears. She ripped away from Neville's grasp and ran to the Charms classroom.

She could faintly hear Neville, yelling after her. "Luna! Wait! Come back!"

* * *

All of that day, all Luna could think about was Neville, on Saturday, with his arm around Parvati. Luna wanted nothing more than for the peppy little Gryffindor girl to drown in the Black Lake.

Her usual calm-and-cool self was tossed out the window and shattered into a million pieces. She was going to the bathroom all day, finding herself choking back endless tears. And whenever she saw Parvati in the halls, it took every ounce of her self-control not to reach over and strangle the living daylights out of her.

Ginny was the only one who seemed to notice how strangely Luna was acting. How often was it that Luna Lovegood tried to kill someone, anyway?

She hurried to catch up with Luna after Defense Against the Dark Arts. They were on their way to lunch, so stopping her wouldn't be so hard.

"Luna," she said, running up beside her. "There you are. Man… you sure can run fast…."

"Oh! Hello Ginny." Her eyes seemed to be puffier than usual. "How—How are you?"

Ginny frowned slightly and said, "That's not important. What I came to talk about was how you're doing. What's the matter, Luna? You seem down in the dumps."

"N-Nothing's wrong," she half said, half hiccupped.

"Luna…. Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

All of a sudden, Luna broke down. She whimpered softly and tears started to stream down her cheeks. Ginny's eyes widened and she grabbed Luna's wrist.

"Not here you don't," she said, steering them both into an empty classroom.

Ginny put her arm around Luna's shoulders and gently rubbed her back, trying to comfort her. When Luna only started to cry harder, Ginny tried to get something out of her.

"Luna, what happened?" she asked, still trying to calm her down. "Who did this to you? I'll make them regret the day they were born." Ginny started to snarl menacingly. "I'll make them break down and cry."

"N-Neville!" Luna managed to choke out.

"Neville did this?"

Luna nodded and shook her head. She was positively howling now.

"Is that a yes or a no?" Ginny asked, completely bewildered.

Luna commanded herself to pull it together. After a while, she managed to calm herself down enough to say, "Yes and no."

Ginny tilted her head to one side. "So, it was him, but… he… he didn't know he hurt you?"

Luna nodded violently.

"Oh, Luna," Ginny said, softly rubbing her shoulders again. "How'd he do it?"

"He… he…," Luna tried to control herself enough so she could tell Ginny what had happened. "In the Great Hall today," she barely managed to calmly whisper, "I… I saw Neville and he… was talking to Parvati and Lavender. And then… then he asked Parvati to go to Hogsmeade with him." She started to cry again.

Ginny's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Luna, that's horrible! But… why'd he ask her? Wasn't he going to go with you?"

Luna suddenly hiccupped and stopped crying. She blushed and looked down.

"Well, we would be… but Ernie asked me to go to Hogsmeade yesterday and… and I said yes."

Ginny looked absolutely dumbfounded. "Why did you say yes?"

"B-Because, Neville hadn't asked me yet, and I thought he didn't want to go to Hogsmeade with me again."

"So, first you said yes to Ernie…," Ginny muttered, slowly nodding her head as if she suddenly understood. "Luna! Can't you see what he's doing?!"

Luna jumped back a little, slightly startled. "No, what?"

"He's trying to make you jealous! First you hurt him by saying yes to Ernie—oh, don't you see it, Luna? He wanted to ask you but couldn't because Ernie beat him to it! It all makes sense! And now he's trying to make you jealous of Parvati!"

Luna looked up. "He… he was going to ask me?" She felt like a complete and utter idiot.

"Yes! Luna, he likes you!"

Luna's cheeks flushed and she smiled. "He likes me? How do you know? He really likes me?"

Ginny grinned and nodded. "Yes, he likes you a lot! I know because he told me and Hermione. He needed some advice and help." She rolled her eyes. "Boys…."

"But, he's trying to make me jealous?"

"Yeah, and he's using Parvati to do it. Can't you see it? He's toying with your emotions!"

Luna suddenly shot up, tears gone from her face, and said, "Fine, if that's the way he wants to play it, then let the games begin!"

She stormed out of the classroom. Ginny looked after her.

"Uh oh," she muttered, knowing that if you ever made Luna Lovegood angry, things were not going to be pretty.

* * *

Luna walked back into the Great Hall. It wasn't unusual for students to be late to lunch, so not that many people stared at her as she strode determinedly into the hall and sat down at the Ravenclaw table.

No one stared, that is, except Neville. He watched her sit down and begin to stab her eggs with great force. Once, she looked up at him then looked right back down and kept bashing her eggs, this time with even more force.

Neville grimaced after every blow Luna landed on the eggs. Poor eggs, what'd they ever do to her?

When it was almost time to leave to their next class, Neville got up and saw Luna doing to same. He smiled and walked toward her, ready to walk her to class. But she wasn't headed toward his side, she was headed to the Hufflepuff table.

There was Ernie, sitting alone at his side of the table, one of the last ones left at the Hufflepuff table. Luna marched right up to him and sat down directly to his left.

Neville, being only about five feet away, dived to a position where Luna and Ernie could not see him.

Ernie jumped back a little, but then said in a cool voice, "Luna! What are you doing here?"

Luna giggled a girlish giggle, a sound that had never before dared to escape her throat.

"I just came to see how you were," she said in a sweet voice. Neville could see her hand slipping closer and closer toward Ernie's. His throat suddenly felt very dry.

"Oh, ok. Well, I've been good," Ernie said. He smiled at her. "First, I went to Transfiguration! We had a difficult test in there, and I'm not sure if I passed. Then we—as in the Hufflepuffs—we had Potions. Now let me tell you something about Potions, Ms. Lovegood, Professor Snape is a bloody wanker! You have to get on his good side to get a passing grade in there. Either that, or you have to be a bloody Slytherin. Gosh! I'm glad you're not a Slytherin, you probably would've bashed my face in!" Ernie paused for a deep breath. He failed to miss Luna's twitching eye and quickly asked, "So, how've you been?"

"I've been great!" She said, slapping a hand to her eye to keep it from twitching. Her hand had just come to rest on Ernie's.

Ernie didn't even look shocked. He just sat there, a goofy grin on his face. Neville snarled at him. That should've been his goofy grin.

Luna turned her head ever so slightly to catch a glimpse of Neville: There he sat, looking at the two of them, with an expression of malice on his face. She smiled to herself and turned back around.

Neville ducked. Had she seen him? Would she accuse him of spying, even though that was exactly what he was doing?

She turned to Ernie and said, voice littered with charm, "Well, I guess I should get going. See you after class." And then, she bent down and did the unimaginable: she kissed him on the cheek.

Neville sat there, absolutely stunned. He was about ready to commit murder. Well, it could have been worse. Her lips could've migrated a little to the right and—

He stopped himself as he saw Ernie smile up at her.

"See you later, Luna."

"Bye Ernie," she said, leaving him grinning there like an idiot. When she passed Neville's hiding place, he heard her say, "And bye, Neville."

He sat there for almost a whole minute. She had seen him there. She knew he was going to be there.

"Oh," he whispered to himself, "it's on now, girlfriend! Even though, you know, you're not my girlfriend! Yet!"

Neville then noticed he was getting odd stares from the Slytherins who were passing by his spot at the Gryffindor table.

* * *

On Friday afternoon, when Neville went out to the lake, he scanned the shore for two faces: Parvati and Luna.

There was Luna, at their usual spot, sitting at the foot of the tree, as if nothing was wrong. But, Neville could see, that Ernie stood with his friends, not too far away. Away, yes, but he was still there.

And there was Parvati, standing with Lavender and her twin sister, Padma.

Neville walked over to where Parvati stood, almost an entire ten feet away from where Luna was.

Luna turned to Neville, seeing that he was headed toward, not her, but Parvati. She narrowed her eyes and watched as Neville strode on over there and tapped Parvati's shoulder.

Parvati turned around. Luna could hear what they were saying from where she was, Parvati had just nearly screamed, "Neville!" and greeted him with her usual bright hello.

Padma dully said, "Hi," as if she disapproved of Neville. Or maybe she was just jealous of her sister going to Hogsmeade with someone?

Lavender just waved and said, "Hey."

Luna got up, leaned a little forward and heard Neville greeting them, giving each girl a compliment in turn, which made Padma's ears turn pink and reconsider what she had thought of him when he said she had lovely eyes. Boy, Neville was quite the charmer….

Now all the girls' attention was on him. He just stood there and smiled and let his hand slowly fall around Parvati's waist.

Luna's eyes widened and she gasped hugely, slapping a hand to her heart, and then quickly covered her mouth, afraid the whole wizarding world had heard her. Now she was ready to assassinate Parvati Patil.

Luna could see the back of Parvati's neck turn red as Neville began to talk, his arm still draped across her waist.

"So, ladies, how've your days been?"

While Lavender went on and on talking about the complicated Charms test, and Padma started to say it wasn't all that hard, that it was rather easy, Luna could see Parvati leaning closer toward Neville. She began to rest her head on his shoulder. Luna heard her sigh.

Luna made the mistake of leaning a little too close toward the scene that she tripped over a stray branch and lost her balance: She fell flat on her face right behind Neville.

The four quickly whipped around. Luna looked up at them, only really looking at Neville, blushing a deep scarlet.

"Sorry, I'm fine," she said, hastily getting up. She could see the smirk on Neville's face and backed away quickly.

"Luna, are you ok?" he asked. There was a look of triumph on his face.

"I'm fine," she said. Luna turned on her heel and started to run. When she reached the castle, she muttered to herself, as if to confirm if it was really true, "I'm fine…."

* * *

"Neville, you idiot!"

Ginny was in Neville's dormitory, yelling and scolding him. Hermione sat, not too far away, in the room, too. She, for one, wanted no part in their argument.

Neville tried to defend himself. "You should have seen the look on her face, though! Then she walked right by and said, 'And bye, Neville,' and it was devious and cruel!"

"Well, what about what you did to her?! That was pretty cruel!"

"Why would she even do that?" Neville asked, half to himself.

"Neville, you're so stupid. She likes you! Now she's trying to make you jealous!"

Neville heard nothing after, 'she likes you.' He just sat there with an idiotic smile on his face. He started to laugh lightly and blush.

"—and Neville, don't think Luna can't--"

"She likes me?" he asked, in a tone that had the same comparison as to having a little too much butterbeer.

Hermione grinned at him, speaking for the first time. "Of course, Neville! She really likes you!"

He kept giggling and blushing until Ginny finally dropped her scolding and sat down next to them.

"How do you guys know she likes me?" he asked, suddenly doubting the whole idea that Luna Lovegood could like him.

Ginny sighed and said, "Well, Luna told me…." She paused for a moment and then went on saying, "She told me that you were sweet and funny, and that she really liked you."

Neville went on giggling and swaying in his chair.

She liked him, she really liked him.

He suddenly frowned. And he had ruined it by asking Parvati to go to Hogsmeade!

He groaned and slumped in his chair, wondering if he would ever have the chance to win Luna back.