Moonchild

Chapter 12

Luna

Breakfast came far too early the next morning. Luna had stayed up late the night before, so it was very difficult to get up that morning. She ate with her eyes half open, still in that hazy area halfway between waking and asleep, when an unexpected owl swooped down and dropped an envelope on top of her Full English. She dazedly opened it, but quickly achieved lucidity upon reading its contents.

"The way he looks at you, it should be obvious. Go to the Astronomy tower on November 14. You will not regret it. He'll be waiting for you there. –V."

Luna stared bemusedly at this second note from V. Whoever V. was, he or she seemed to be watching Luna and whoever "he" was. Luna didn't even notice when Seleneo sat down across the table from her.

"Earth to Luna," he said in his fake accent after a few minutes. She blinked furiously to bring herself back to reality. "That must be quite important to draw you away from a breakfast like that."

"I think it is," she said hesitantly, "but I'm not sure what it means." She handed the note to him.

"Well," he said after he'd read it, "it sounds to me like it means you should go to the Astronomy tower on November 14." He handed it back to her.

"Very funny," she said as she took it back from him. "I got that. What I don't get is who this person means by "he", or who V. is. You don't know anyone with a V name, do you?"

"No," he said, tucking in to his Ulster fry. "Maybe it's Voldemort back from the grave." She gave him a reproachful look. "Too soon, gotcha," he said, and proceeded to stuff his face to prevent himself from saying any more.

"You've seemed distant lately," Luna said. "Something's bothering you. What is it?"

"Nothing," he said through a mouthful of black pudding. "I'm fine. I'm just super behind on all my work."

"Well," Luna said, "I've been thinking. I think you can afford to take a day off from schoolwork, because I think we should spend another day in the Clock Tower."

"Think so, huh?" he replied. "Well, I suppose I can get away with putting this stuff off another day."

They finished their breakfast, and then headed out onto the Hogwarts grounds until they came to the massive tower overlooking the courtyard. Soon they were sitting in their old places in front of the clock face.

"So," said Luna as her feet dangled out in front of her. "Here we are."

"Yep," Seleneo agreed. "Here we are. Seems like forever since we were up here last, know what I mean?"

"Yeah," she said uncertainly. "You know, this V. person worries me a bit. I mean, whoever it is sounds like they're watching me all the time."

"Let me see that note again," Seleneo said, gesturing for the note from V. Luna handed it to him and he looked it over again. "Yeah, this definitely sounds like a creeper for sure."

"What do you think I should do?" she asked.

"Well," he thought about it for a moment, "hmm…Tell you what, I'll hang on to this and talk to McGonagall about it. You don't need to worry yourself about this. I'm not sick anymore, so I'll be able to keep an eye out for you," he let his voice trail off, and then gave a sigh. "I'm sure Neville and your other Gryffindor friends will too." He cast his eyes out over the grounds. She immediately could see what was bothering him.

"This is about Neville, isn't it?" she demanded. Not forcefully or aggressively, not even angrily, but her voice was filled with conviction.

"No, of course not," Seleneo stammered, deliberately not looking her in the eye. "What does Neville even have to do with anything?"

"Don't lie to me," Luna insisted. "You're not a very good liar, you know. You may be able to fool everyone else that you're British with that fake accent, but that's about as far as it goes."

"You're accusing me of being jealous of Neville Longbottom?" Seleneo demanded.

"Yes, I believe I am," said Luna, "and listen, there's no reason to be. Neville and I are just friends, nothing more and nothing less."

"I've heard that before," Seleneo scoffed, "not that I don't believe you. I don't think you'd lie to me, but that's a statement that's hard to believe when your girlfriend tells you she and one of your best mates are just friends, and then she dumps you two weeks before Christmas because 'her gods told her it was best for her' and it's really because she's snogging said friend behind your back even though they're 'just friends'."*

"Well, it's a good thing I'm not her, isn't it?" Luna said. "Look, I can't force you to believe me, but Neville and I aren't together, nor are we going to be. We gave it a shot over the summer and it didn't work out. Besides, I have it on good authority that he fancies Hannah Abbott."

"I saw him ask you to Hogsmeade," Seleneo admitted. "That suggests to me that he's not over you, and if he does fancy this other girl, he's got a funny way of showing it."

"I knew you saw that," Luna said, "and it's about time you admitted it. Yes, he asked me to Hogsmeade, but that's because he's used to my company."

"But if he fancies this Abbott girl, why didn't he ask her?"

"You may find this hard to believe," said Luna, "but even though Neville's a hero having killed one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, he's still a bit of a weenie."

"I can relate to that," Seleneo said. "Not the hero part, but the weenie part."

"Is that so?" Luna teased.

"Oh yes," Seleneo continued. "Well, you remember the first few days of the semester, I didn't speak to anyone. I still don't like to, really. It's hard being different, you know?"

"Do I ever," she sighed. "I know everyone calls me Loony Lovegood, but I don't let it bother me. I am who I am and there's no point in being something else just for others' sake."

"Well, at least it's based on your quirks." She gave him a peculiar look. "Not that your quirks aren't great," he added swiftly. "If they weren't there, you wouldn't be you, and that's wouldn't be good. My point is the people who think you're crazy think so because of your idiosyncrasies, like your belief in the Crumple-Horned Snorkack or the fact that you sleep with your shoes on. If people knew I was from Kentucky they'd look at me like I was some backwoods idiot."

"I don't think they would," Luna said. "Quite a few of the upper-level Ravenclaws have commented on how smart you are, and in case you haven't noticed, the first and second-years moon over you all the time." She paused for a moment. "And how did you know I sleep with my shoes on?"

"You aren't the only Ravenclaw that talks to Gryffindors," Seleneo replied suspiciously. "I believe his name is Ron Weasley? That red-headed fella that hangs around with Harry Potter let the cat out of the bag."

"Oh," Luna resigned. "Well, I might be upset if it weren't true, and it's Ron and he is prone to let things slip like that."

"He does seem to lack a certain mental filter," Seleneo agreed. "Kept going on about how your Dad is a nutter for making that headband thing that was supposed to be a reproduction of Ravenclaw's diadem but didn't look a thing like it."

"He said that, did he?" Luna was suddenly perturbed. Not angry, particularly, but she could feel her cheeks getting hot. "Well, I'll have to have a talk with him"

"I don't think that will be necessary," said Seleneo. "Harry and Hermione both scolded him for it, Hermione especially. She seems to be able to exert punishment on him like no one else can."

"Yes," Luna agreed. "Ever since the two of them went public he's been sort of…"

"I think I can provide the term you're looking for," Seleneo interjected. "Where I'm from, we either say 'pussywhipped,' but if it were my friends they'd just call him a bitch. I know you asked me not to talk like that," Seleneo added, "but there was no way around it."

"Yes, well," Luna hesitated. "He is those things, I guess." They sat in silence for a moment before Seleneo finally broke it.

"Well," he said, "I'm glad I don't have to worry about Neville being a problem. I was afraid for a minute I'd have to beat him up."

"Oh, like you could beat anyone up," Luna teased. "You've got no muscles in your upper body."

"Yes I do!" Seleneo said indignantly. "They're not very big, but they're there!"

"And why exactly would Neville have been a problem?" she added.

"Well, um…" Seleneo sputtered, clearly caught off guard by this question. "I've seen a lot of good girls get hurt by what they thought were good guys. Not that Neville isn't a good guy," he added upon seeing the reproachful look that Luna gave him, "it's just that he may not be right. Well, obviously not because you said it didn't work out over the summer. I just know there's some guys that are good people, but they're insecure and so they fixate on a fantasy they have, and then try to force it to be real and then everyone gets hurt. It's like in that Green Day song When I Come Around, 'you can't go forcing something if it's just not right.'"

"I guess you've seen this firsthand, then?"

"I used to be one of those guys," he said, again doing his best to not meet her gaze. Luna didn't say anything, but took that moment to really take in Seleneo's features. He reminded her a lot of Harry, the more she thought about it. He had messy brown hair, although it didn't stick up quite as bad as Harry's mop. His chocolaty brown eyes were framed by glasses very much like those that Harry owned, and they rested directly on the bridge of his nose that had a slight bump in it. It didn't quite look like it had been broken, but there was definitely a slight bump. He had a thin face overall, and his mouth was ringed by a mustache and goatee combination. Normally Luna wasn't a huge fan of facial hair, but this seemed to suit him, she thought. As she took his features in, she thought about it and felt as though he had the look about him that his mood could change that of an entire group. There was something about him, but she couldn't figure out what – like there was some kind of sadness that was always present but somewhere in the background.

"What are you thinking?" he asked her after what felt like an eternity of silence. She was caught off guard by this; she was not used to hearing boys ask that kind of question.

"I'm thinking…" she trailed off. He's lied to me, she thought, I can lie to him for a while, too. "I'm thinking that if we don't get a move-on, we'll miss dinner. Come on." They got to their feet and started towards the spiral stairs down to the ground floor. Before they had actually reached the stairs, Luna stopped short.

"Wait," she said. Seleneo turned to face her, puzzlement in his eyes. She took a deep breath and prepared herself. She wasn't quite ready yet, but that was okay. She had all kinds of time. She stepped forward and took his hand in hers. "Let's go," she said, and together they walked hand-in-hand to the Great Hall.


*This actually happened to me for that actual reason.