"L-Luna?!" said Harry in disbelief. Luna Lovegood, a girl with wide blue eyes and waist length blonde hair skipped over to him, smiling.
"I see you've met Herbert." She smiled down at Ron, who was rolling on the floor, laughing, as the fuzzy creature tickled him with its tongue.
"Please- stop- no- more-" Ron managed to gasp out. Luna gently tugged at the leash, and the fluffy creature rose up into the air, making that odd humming noise again.
"What is it?" Harry asked curiously. The creature was cute to an extent: it had bright yellow, daffodil coloured fur, and appeared to be a floating ball of fluff with two tiny knarled paws and enormous black eyes. There was a gap where its mouth was, and two minuscule white fangs gleamed for a second, then the creature started whizzing around Ron's head, buzzing as it did so.
"Herbert's a Blibbering Humdigner." She watched excitedly as Ron nervously patted Herbert on the head. "I think he likes you, Ronald!"
"Uh, yeah." He got up, slightly sticky from all the Blibbering Humdigner spit. "Luna, what are you doing out here? It's dangerous, there could be Death Eaters." Ron's face was etched with concern.
"Oh, but Daddy and I sometimes come here to take Herbert for a walk." She patted the fluffy creature. "I'm really quite fond of these woods; you can see all sorts of amazing things." She looked around, and spotted an odd-looking fungus on a rotten tree trunk. "Look! An Iggletlius mushroom. Poisonous to humans, a cure for stomach ache to Dragons."
Ron's eyebrows shot into his hair. "Cool! But, Luna, It's freezing out here, not to mention early. Err…" he turned to Harry, wringing his hands slightly. "Shall we let her in?" he whispered, but before Harry could answer, Ron had turned back to Luna. "Come to the tent, you look cold."
He led them back to the tent, boiling the kettle over the camping stove for a cup of tea.
"So, how have you been?" he asked Luna, handing her a mug and sipping his own. Harry felt slightly put out that Ron hadn't done him one. Since when did Luna Lovegood come
before Harry Potter in Ron Weasley's life? Thinking he was overreacting slightly, Harry sat down by them.
"Oh, I've been good, thanks." She sipped her tea, allowing steam to warm her face. "I was fairly disappointed when I got the letter saying Hogwarts had closed, but I suppose it's a good thing, as there'd be attacks every other day. Daddy's been supporting your cause, Harry, I don't know if you've been reading the Quibbler, but Daddy's done all he can to get people to help you if you ever need it."
"That's good," smiled Ron, before Harry could mutter thanks. "But I hope he's not making it too public: the Death Eaters'll be after you." He looked very worried.
"Oh, don't worry about us. So, how's your secret Voldemort-killing mission going on?" she asked, as though they were discussing Harry and Ron's gardening project. They froze, and glanced at each other nervously.
"Err, who told you about that, Luna?" Ron tittered awkwardly.
"Oh, Daddy guessed it. Well, you have disappeared from the wizarding world, so it's kind of obvious, if you don't mind me saying. Would you like a Christmas card?" she asked suddenly, leaping from one conversation to the next.
Ron blinked. "Uh, what?"
"A Christmas card. It's at home, but I can summon it."
Harry and Ron exchanged confused glances. "Luna," said Ron slowly "it's nearly Easter. Why would you give us Christmas cards?"
"Well, I didn't see you on Christmas, so you can have them now. I'd feel very rude not to give you Christmas cards. I've got one for Hermione, too, but I presume she's asleep. So, do you want it?"
"Oh, blimey, all right…" She summoned three white envelopes out of thin air, and passed two of them to Harry and Ron.
"What's going on?" said a sleepy voice, and Hermione crawled out of her tent compartment. "Luna?"
"Oh, goodie, you're awake, Hermione!" Luna beamed excitedly. "Just in time for Christmas cards, too!"
"Christmas-?" Hermione looked bemused as Luna handed her her envelope.
"Uh, well, sorry Luna, but we haven't really got a card for you." Ron grinned sheepishly.
"Oh, that's ok. There'll be other Christmas's!" She drained her mug of tea and stood up abruptly. "Well, it's been a nice chat, but I'd better be off. Herbert's getting restless." The yellow animal was sniffing around Harry's sleeping bag. "I'll visit soon! Toodles!" And she floated out.
Hermione looked from the unopened card in her hands to the open tent door, and shook her head. "I won't even ask," she muttered as they slit their envelopes open.
Harry smiled at the cartoon snowman on the front, and inside it read:
"To Harry,
Happy Christmas and a merry New Year! (Or vicey- versa!)
Don't let the Nargles steal your presents!
Love, Luna
And there were a couple of kisses. Harry peered at Ron and Hermione's cards, to find they were the same, but couldn't help noticing Ron had one extra kiss than Harry and Hermione. Oh well, this was probably just a mistake.
Chuckling, Ron set his Christmas card on the table and put his fists on his hips. "Well, that's made my day. I'm glad this war hasn't changed old Luna, she's always amusing to talk to."
Hermione chuckled a bit too. "Yeah, her craziness is fun."
She hadn't meant it in an unfriendly way, but Ron frowned slightly. "I don't actually think she's crazy, you know. She's just… unique." He frowned thoughtfully.
"Don't you like unique?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, no, no, I love it! I just don't like it when people call her crazy. There should be more people like her, seriously." He examined his card closely. "Hey, look at that tiny Blibbering Humdigner!"
*
Luna became a regular visitor, and appeared to have no fear of being captured or killed, despite Ron's warnings. He even offered to come and pick her up under the invisibility cloak, but Luna kept insisting it was more dangerous for him than her.
Easter came and went, and it was nice having Luna buy them all intricately decorated Easter eggs, which Harry gave her the money for, but Harry's feeling of being useless was stronger than ever. It was now Easter, and they hadn't got a single Horcrux since just before Christmas. They had no ideas of what to do next; no clues, no information, they couldn't go anywhere as they attracted Death Eaters. Voldemort seemed to be getting desperate to have information on Harry: he really seemed to be taking control more now, and he had ordered his minions to find even the slightest trace of them. They had narrowly escaped several encounters with Death Eaters, all of them resulting in Hermione having to wipe their memories, and they had had to change the location of their tent a couple of times.
Someone had seen Harry casually buying a carton of milk from a village he had apparated to when the polyjuice potion wore off accidentally. There had been a Death Eater raid, which they fought in, but they couldn't visit that town again.
He was frustrated that they were confined by their lack of information, guilty that people were dying because of him. Ron was definitely getting tired of this too: he had obviously thought Harry would have a better plan than this when he suggested leaving Hogwarts.
Harry would sometimes catch him muttering his opinions to Hermione or Luna, pretending to be working when he caught Harry's eye. Harry felt anger well up inside him. He hadn't actually heard Ron, but had a pretty good idea of what he was saying.
Hermione tried always to be supportive, but even her patience was wearing thin. Harry felt incredibly disheartened by this, and felt ashamed sometimes to look in her eye, seeing the boredom in there. Now even Hermione was loosing belief in him. Argh, he was supposed to be their leader! He was turning out to be a pretty crummy one.
And what about all those people who were dying or being tortured, and he was doing nothing? He thought of poor Tonks, and Andromeda Tonks, who had lost their Father/ Husband just a few months ago. He couldn't stand not being able to do anything…
"Oh, Harry…" Hermione's voice drifted through his brain, bringing him out of his reverie. She had found him, huddled under the table whilst he brooded. It was a silly place to be, but it was a confined space, and that was how he felt: confined. "What are you doing under there?"
"Thinking" Harry muttered.
"About?" She sat down on a chair.
"Me being useless."
Hermione sighed with the air of someone who had been very frustrated for very long. "You're not useless, Harry."
"Then why haven't we found another horcrux?" he asked, looking into her chocolate brown eyes. "Why is it, that Voldemort is still living and breathing and killing?"
Hermione sighed again. "We will beat him. Something will come along, and we'll be able to find another horcrux. We will."
"When, Hermione?" he raised himself onto his knees, facing her. "I haven't got a clue what to do next, and it could be months until someone tells us where the next horcrux is. People are dying and I don't know what to do!" He rested his head on her lap, his forehead on her knees. "I've failed everyone."
"Oh, Harry…" she stroked his messy hair once, then slid onto the floor next to him, so she was eyelevel with him. "If there's something you're not, you're not a failure. You got us this far, didn't you? Something'll come along; we just have to be patient. You're a fantastic leader, really, Harry…"
He watched her lips move as she spoke, then looked straight into her eyes again. They seemed to be drawing closer… they were drawing closer… her face was inches from his, her body pressed up against his chest… In a heart stopping second Harry realised that in a moment their lips would be touching…
"Hey, Luna's here, you two!" Ron's voice rang into the tent. With a small thud! Harry and Hermione's heads crashed together.
"Sorry" they both muttered, rubbing the place where their foreheads had collided. Blushing furiously, Hermione stormed out of the tent without another word.
Harry couldn't believe Ron's timing. If only he'd yelled ten seconds later. What difference did ten seconds make? Well, obviously it would have made all the difference to him, but Ron could have afforded it. Or, why couldn't Luna have spared that ten few seconds? It had been so close…
"Stupid Ron" thought Harry savagely, rubbing his bruising forehead. "Stupid Luna. Stupid Hermione. Stupid ME." And he walked outside, his scowl evaporating as he saw Luna, though he was still seething. Hermione was determinedly avoiding his eye, and still rather red.
"Oh, well" he thought gloomily. They'd probably just forget (or pretend to forget, in Harry's case) that little encounter by tomorrow. It was probably just a spur of the moment thing anyway, at least on Hermione's part. They'd be perfect friends again in a day.
Just friends.
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