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"What are you doing, Luna?" Hermione asked when she saw her friend trying to cast a charm in the hidden corner of the library.

"I'm just trying to learn a new magic spell. The description seemed simple, but it didn't work for me."

Hermione looked at the open book on the table: Useless, tricky, and quirky charms. The open page was full of a series of simple spells, most of which didn't work exactly as you first thought. For example, there was one that made the caster able see through the walls, but it actually did nothing but blow a huge hole in the nearest wall. There were, however, far more harmless, but equally cunning magic spells. Surely Luna tried one of these.

"Which one did you try?"  Hermione asked.

"Here!" Luna pointed out "The hug charm."

Hermione read the instruction, in which the author clearly said that the spell would cause the caster to be hugged, but it didn't say that it is the spell itself that will do it. Suddenly, she understood what the trick was in this and what was the strange feeling that made her look behind the shelf where Luna was hiding.

"I can help you with that," she said chuckling.

"Will you help me learn it?" Luna's eyes flashed.

"No!" Hermione shouted, then embraced her.

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Not even for a moment, Hermione didn't resist as Luna took her hand and helped her up from the floor. Hermione knew that Luna couldn't even have guessed that she's been crying on the floor of the castle's empty courtyard because of her.

The blonde girl escorted her back to the building, then sat her down on a bench beside her and took out an enchanted blue mug from her bag in which the drink never cooled down and it was physically impossible to spill it out form it. She gave her the hot cocoa she had been carrying with her since breakfast, in case she was tempted to drink it during the day.

Slowly, Hermione began to sip, trying not to show anything to Luna that could've revealed the cause of her sadness.

"I'll be happy to help you solve any problem if you tell me what made you cry like a little bird that fell out of the nest." Luna said suddenly.

"Thank you, but I don't think you can help." Hermione replied.

"Then just tell me what's wrong, and you'll might feel better!"

With a terrible tight feeling in her chest, she turned to the pronouncer of the naive statement, then began to feel more anxious than before as she saw the pretty, sweet face.

"It's so easy for you to talk about your feelings, but I'm not even able to understand my own." she said with a sad look.

"That's why you cried so bad? Because you don't understand your feelings?"

"Yeah, that's why." Hermione's eyes wept, though no more tears came. "I can find no arguments, no reason, no sense in what I want. I know I shouldn't feel that way I do, but I don't understand why I do it anyways ... I don't even know if any of it is real."

Luna pulled her closer smiling, then placed her palm on her chest, exactly where her heart was, as if the touch could make the pounding pain machine reduce its terrible power.

"This little one in here," she began in a gentle voice, "sometimes knows what's better for you more than you do yourself. If sometimes you stop and listen to it for a minute, you will realize that it is not so difficult to understand what it wants to tell you."

And Hermione did exactly that. However, she didn't need a whole minute to comprehend, because for all of a sudden it was all clear as Luna pressed her palm to her heart. Carefully, she put down her mug, then gently held her soft, warm hand between her fingers and looked into her big blue eyes.

"I understand now," she murmured.

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"You've told me a thousand times, but I still can't believe it!" Hermione exclaimed loudly and not even for the first time that day. "Nargles do not exist!"

"Sure they do,"  Luna said in a very calm voice. "Though I haven't even seen any, but if I didn't have my charmed necklace to keep them away, they might have swarmed the entire castle by now."

Hermione could no longer sustain herself and slammed her book loudly on the table. She jumped up from her chair, then turned to face the Ravenclaw with his index finger raised.

"Tell me three things you think don't exist! Of course, only if you can list three actually imaginary things from all the ... stuff you've heard of your dad's friends."

"First, there's the blue-nosed butterfly," Luna began, "which turned out to be a fraud."

"Go on, please!" Hermione urged.

"Let's see... there are also the North American crumple horned snorkacks. As it turned out, they don't live there, only in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in Australia ..."

"That's ok! I accept that one, but with strong reservations."

"And for the third ..."

"I'm listening!" Hermione interrupted slightly provocatively.

"There is not a single day ... I spend without daydreaming about you,"  Luna whispered finally.

"What?" Hermione exclaimed, trying to contain her voice. She saw that her reaction had discouraged the blonde a little, who had absolutely no intensions to hurt her.

"Really isn't any?" She spoke again making her voice softer.

Luna shook her head slightly, but a sweet smile appeared on her face as if waiting for the Gryffindor's approval. And Hermione sat back down to her chair and she smiled too.

"I don't have a single day when I don't think about you either." Hermione said softly.

"I believe you!" Luna exclaimed happily.

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Hermione Granger has just been spending her second work hour that day in her own office, and was busy planning the budget for the elf welfare organization, when Luna Lovegood actually burst out of her fireplace with a loud, bright flash.

She arrived without any previous announcements, and also in an unusual condition. She got up from the floor with a painful expression while Hermione examined the unexpected visitor who wore torn clothes, face and hands covered with tiny cuts, and her hair messy and full of dirt.

"Hello, Hermione! Sorry about that!" the blonde said as she settled down on a chair still trying to catch some breath.

"What happened to you?" Hermione finally asked still in shock.

"I had a little confrontation in a Peruvian town with some strange folks." Luna began her tale excitedly. "I had to find someone who could sell me a newborn acromantula, and as it turned out, the "acromantula" in the pub where I was asking was actually a local little curse word. So I wasn't very appreciated when I stood up on a chair and I shouted if there were any acromantulas around that anyone wanted to get rid of."

"And what happened then?" Hermione asked. "Did they just attack you?"

"Yeah, well, they were chasing me all across the building, but luckily I found a fireplace that was illegally connected to the Floo Network, so I just jumped in and called the first destination that came to my mind."

Hermione immediately doubted this statement. She hadn't seen the world-traveling adventurer for months, so she was suspicious why her office was the first destination that had popped into her mind.

"How come you chose this place out of so many options?" she asked with her arms folded.

"I've been thinking about you a lot lately, to be honest."

"Wait, what?" Hermione started to doubt it even more.

"If I find myself in such situations, I usually think of what you would do if you were there." Luna admitted, and Hermione was slightly touched by that.

"This is really nice from you."

"Don't even mention it, but ... there's something else." Luna said as she jumped up from her seat.

"What would it be?" Hermione asked.

"I think I've been thinking about you so much because I missed you. Would you like to have lunch with me and talk about some things? Of course, only after I got a little tidied up."

Hermione suddenly got overwhelmed by a strange feeling, but then stepped closer smiling and took Luna's hand. This time the blonde was the one to be silenced by her surprise.

"How about a dinner instead?" Hermione asked kindly."There must be many things worth mentioning about your recent journeys."

"Oh, there are many indeed!" she answered.

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At the middle of the night, Hermione woke up form her nightmarish, depressing dreams that she kinda got used to by then. The soft noise of the waves of the sea, the dim moonlight soaking through the window, and the comfort of the unusually cozy bed beneath her, were accompanied by an unpleasant feeling. More likely the lack of a feeling as the warm, soft body disappeared from beside her and no matter how she tried strecthing, she was unable to reach it.

It had been three weeks since the Golden Trio and their companions had escaped the house of the Malfoy family at the unfair cost of Dobby's life, and they had been making their plans to continue their mission in Shell Cottage. Hermione looked up slowly and saw Luna staring out the window sitting at the edge of the bed with a sad expression on her moonlit face.

She sat up to gently embrace the girl again, who she'd been sharing her bed with for a while.

"What's wrong, Luna?" she asked, "I can see something's really bothering you."

"The nightmares again," she whispered. "I keep seeing them again and again every time I close my eyes."

Hermione pulled her closer and pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead as if she could help her with doing it, then embraced her again and started speaking softly.

"It's terrible what they did to you. I can't imagine being able to endure that awful place for so long."

"It was nothing," Luna began, and Hermione looked at her questioningly, "those moments keep coming back to my mind that happened after Harry and the others were locked in with us."

"What are you saying? You got out of there right after those. How could those be the worst moments? she asked, completely puzzled.

"Even now, I can still hear your cries." Luna's voice seemed even more melancholic than ever before. "It was so terrible to helplessly listen to Bellatrix torturing you. I thought it would never end, or if It did, I would never see you again. Those few minutes seemed longer than my whole time there before that. My only hope all along was to see you again, but then that was taken away from me and there was nothing I really wanted to get out of there for. I thought if you were gone I'd rather stay there forever than escape without you."

Hermione's eyes filled with tears as she listened to the confession, then hugged her even more tightly, hoping to make her doubts go away and fill the gap with the warmth of her body.

"I'm here with you now," she whispered in the repentant voice of the liars, and with a false smile "I won't leave you anymore. We will survive the war and we will be together. You don't have to be afraid anymore." She didn't believe a single word from what she had promised.

"I know it will be just like that." Luna gently cupped her face and pressed her forehead against her's. "I love you, Hermione."

"I love you too," she replied, now honestly believing it.

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On Christmas Eve 2003 the year's greatest storm's been raging in London. At nightfall the Big Ben was interrupted by the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning bolts made the Christmas lights look inferior.

Hermione Granger's been lying on her couch by the radio in her dark, small apartment. For the first time in her life she spent the holidays alone. More precisely she was just simply alone, and did not celebrate at all. She didn't decorate a Christmas tree, nor decorate anything else there, didn't make any Christmas cookies and she didn't give any presents, just as she didn't get any either.

It's been the request show running in the radio with all the Christmas messages alongside the corny Christmas songs that have already been played for more than a month. She only sit up to put out her cigarette and take a sip from her favorite walnut liqueur, after that she lay back ready to fall asleep and get over with all this.

She was sure, she fell asleep for a moment, because she didn't hear the message before the new song. That particular Christmas song used to be her favorite, until precisely one year ago she started hating it. No matter how much she didn't want to hear it, the singer happily did her job.

I don't want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need

Hermione's memories came to the surface as she listened, and she wished she could turn back the time and correct the biggest mistake of her life.

Make my wish come true

All I want for Christmas is you

She wished she realised earlier what was the most important thing to her, and that way she might've kept her anger at bay instead of letting it mess up everything.

I don't want a lot for Christmas

This is all I'm asking for

Her eyes slowly filled with tears until she didn't even want to think about such things, instead she wanted to get up and smash the radio to the wall.

I just wanna see my baby

Standing right outside my door

She wanted the song to be over as soon as possible, and it did end all of a sudden before she even moved a single muscle. The anchorman's voice was heard.

"I don't like interrupting songs, especially my favorite Christmas song, but the messenger asked me to read it out halfway through the song. We usually don't do this, but this one moved me so much, I couldn't resist, so here it is!"

"My love! This day it's been a year that we broke up because of a terrible mistake I've already regretted a million times. I'd like to send you this song, our Christmas song and ask you to forgive me, because I love you, and only you. I know that you're listening to this, because I'm standing right outside your door now, and I can hear the radio from here. Before this song ends, I'll knock and if you open the door, I promise to never tell you such terrible things ever again, and I just want you to give me one more chance because you've been my only true love and you'll always be. I know you're angry with me, but I also know that you love me back." The anchorman added one more sentence.

"We don't know who this message was sent to since our dear listener didn't mention, but anyways it was a really moving statement, I hope that you, who was called that particular lover, you will open that door and you'll forgive if you two really love each other. And now let's hear the rest of that song!"

I just want you here tonight

Holding on to me so tight

Hermione couldn't even move in pain. She thought about how lucky the person who was mentioned it the message could be, and she wished that it was her baby, who knocked on the door, but she quickly reminded herself not to believe in fairy tales.

What more can I do

Baby all I want for Christmas is you

Her sleepiness was gone, and all she wanted is to cry, but no tears came to give her some release. She grabbed the bottle ready to drink it all up instead when suddenly besides the thunders and rain some other noise was heard. There was a silent knocking at the door.

Feebly she stood up and walked there, ready to meet one of the neighbors who came to complain about the loud music. As she opened the door, someone unexpected was waiting outside. It was Luna, wet from the rain, with clumped strings of hair, holding the phone she used to send the message.

I just want you for my own

More than you could ever know

"I'm so sorry, Hermione. Please, forgive me!" she said in a bitter voice

Hermione's heart instantly filled with both warmth and remorse.

"It's okay!" she answered. "I shouldn't have driven you away like that. I love you!" She embraced the ice cold girl who've just got soaked to the skin. "You'll get cold like this, come in and get warmed up!"

The door got locked once again, but this time the staircase was left empty, and on the stormy December day the sounds of the rain and thunder were overwhelmed by the voice that's been singing the final lines of the song for them.

Make my wish come true

All I want for Christmas is you

Chapter Text

Somewhere on the frontier of the infinite darkness and planet Earth, two figures wearing spacesuits were floating side by side in weightlessness. The only thing that bound them to the realm of people was the pair of security cables that kept them from drifting away from the space station.

They only had two almost perfect reflections on their helmets of the bright image of the mighty Earth that covered their faces. If they looked at each other then they would have only seen their home so distant, yet covering a huge portion of the field of vision.

The two figures were holding hands, staring at the Earth in fascination when a voice broke out from the speakers of their suits.

"One more minute and you'll have to come back," their controller commanded them from the station.

"Let's make it two and we're going," one of them replied, who's nametag said 'Granger'.

"All right, but not a second more than that!"

"Fine!" Granger said and she cut the communication from the station with the touch of a button so only she and her companion could hear each other.

"They 're going to be really mad for that," said the one with the nametag saying 'Lovegood'.

"They'll understand that I wanted a minute with you only." With that, Granger only tightened the hold on her girlfriend's hand.

They continued to drift silently for a few seconds, then Lovegood uttered on a completely mesmerized voice.

"It's so beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes it is," Granger agreed. "It kinda makes me want to..."

"Break into song?" Lovegood asked, chuckling.

"Yeah, but is there any song you know that would fit right here?"

"I had many in my mind a few hours ago, but now I feel like none could describe it all."

"Is it really possible to put this look into words?" Granger started thinking quietly after her question.

"Some can imagine what it might be like, but the real experience when you're out here can't be written down." Granger looked at her as she said it, but of course she could see nothing inside of her helmet, only the reflection of the Earth. So, as she couldn't see her face, she turned back to the planet, but this time something changed. Suddenly, she remembered her eyes, as blue in her memories as the endless oceans lying in front of her, and her blonde hair curls shining gloriously in gold, just as the sun might've seemed to people from the far continents and islands who looked in their direction at that moment. "I don't think it would be possible even for a hundred writers working together to depict this sight." Lovegood finished.

Granger smiled behind her helmet, and a single drop of tear rolled down her cheek. She felt more secure in the grip of her companion's hand than in being tied to the station with any security cables.

Finally she said softly, "Neither do I."

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"Have I ever told you about the time when in Hogwarts Luna and I helped Lavender win ten galleons?", Hermione asked after they exchanged a bunch of funny stories. Her friends, Harry, Neville and Ron shook their heads while Ginny started chuckling quietly.

"I've heard it", the Weasley girl said "I'll go bring a bottle of Butterbeer for everyone while you tell it."

"How on Earth did that happen?", Ron asked wonderingly "When exactly you were friends back in Hogwarts?"

"We actually weren't", said Lavender who's been sitting in Ron's lap. "It was a pure accident. It started with..."

"Hey, let me tell it!" Hermione interrupted, but she looked back at her questioningly.

"It's way funnier from my perspective", Lavender protested and for once in a lifetime Hermione agreed and let her continue. "So it started when I and Parvati were coming down from the tower arguing about what we saw in the crystal globe in divination class."

"Did you ever argue on anything?" Ron asked and Lavender started frowning while she tried to recall.

"As I think about it now it really was the only single time. So she tried to convince me that what we saw was Hermione doing something with a white blurry spot, and she thought it was her petting a hippogriff. But instead I saw that it wasn't really white, but yellowish or even blonde, and she didn't just brushed it, but she even kissed it."

"Did you and Buckbeak become really close friend?" Harry joked and they all laughed.

"As I said", Lavender continued "I saw her kissing a blonde person, I was sure that it was the image of Malfoy and Hermione kissing, and at the end we ended up betting on that maybe not Malfoy, but she will kiss a blonde person in the near future."

"You forgot to tell, that during this conversation you two saw me coming in your direction in the corridor" Hermione added.

"Yes, I indeed forgot that. So we saw Hermione coming, then Luna showed up behind her in a hurry. In the same moment we shook our hands on the bet, she reached and stopped Hermione. We didn't hear what they were talking about, but it was obvious that Luna said something really resolutely. How exactly did you say it?", she asked Luna.

"I told her that..."

"The most sickeningly romantic thing I've ever heard", Ginny shouted as she got back with the Butterbeers "then Hermione brushed her face and kissed her on the lips."

"After that Luna started furiously shouting and coming at me", Lavender said "She thought I was laughing so hard on what they were just doing there with each other. I could barely explain myself."

"I got really mad, because I knew how embarrassed Hermione would've felt", Luna admitted. "I completely ruined our first kiss."

"You didn't ruin anything", Harmione reassured her. "It was so adorable that you protected me, even if there was nothing really to protect me from."

"To this day I still haven't heard a nearly half as nasty sentence full of cursing as that one" Lavender laughed. "But it turned out to be a happy end after all."

They all laughed and Hermione planted a kiss on her girlfriend's cheek.

Chapter Text

The moment she saw her, it was obvious she'd been nervous. With tension in her steps and blush on her face she entered the tattoo studio. For some reason her first thought was that she must've walked into the wrong place, until she stepped closer and said welcome with a smile.

The newcomer introduced herself as Hermione Granger but then she froze as she didn't even know where to look at on Luna's body and which small picture to inspect. The young blonde lady's been wearing a sleeveless shirt that allowed everyone to gaze upon her uncovered arms who wasn't in fact disgusted by it.

"Wow!" The word just slipped out Hermione's mouth as for a moment she even forgot why she was there.

Luna smiled and raised both her hands so her customer could take a better look. She got used to how most people got either amazed or horrified by her arms and hands that were almost entirely covered with tattoos.

Both of them were covered with smaller pictures and figures that were thematically bound together by small branches on one arm and with electric cables on the other one, so they gave the impression that she has one robotic arm and one arm formed by a living tree or a bush. The pattern continued on her body until it disappeared below her shirt and also she had some pictures and texts on her neck and face as well.

"What can I do for you?" Luna broke the silence and shook Hermione awake from her trance-like state. "I guess you're not here for admiring me."

Hermione laughed a little and the tattoo artist followed, then she explained what she came for. She didn't need a unique design because she arrived with a simple and exact idea. She handed over a piece of printing paper with a drawing on it that featured two of Venus' glyphs tangled together.

"It's so cute, nobody's ever given me such a little drawing of the design they want," Luna bursted into laughter.

"So will you tattoo it on me?" Hermione asked with an embarrassed voice.

"Of course I will if you're really sure that this is what you want."

"Yes," she nodded, "I'm sure. I'm sure now."

With a big smile Luna sat her client down and started working on her upper arm.

"Are there many people who ask you to make tattoos like this?" Hermione asked to distract herself from the unpleasant feeling.

"They do, but I made one exactly like this only once," Luna answered while working on the piece. "I've tattooed a lesbian flag before and one with the regular rainbow stripes, and once I made two birds for two girls that were carrying the two pieces of a rainbow striped heart that was cut in half."

The little symbol was finished quickly then Luna packed all her tools and told everything a first tattoo owner should know, but this time she found herself less confident than usual. The artist and the client were sitting in silence for a moment as they both struggled with forming words.

"You feel something weird too, right?" Luna spoke finally.

"Yes, but I thought it was normal," Hermione admitted.

"I've told you a moment ago that I've done one exactly like this before." With that she grabbed the neck of her own shirt and pulled it downwards as much as she could to reveal the exact copy of that symbol on her chest, right above her heart. It was the same two glyphs tangled together just like the other one.

Hermione wonderingly and unconsciously reached towards her and touched the symbol with the top of her fingers, and as she did, they both experienced a shiver with an unexplainable origin.

"Strange." The word slipped out Hermione's mouth.

"Yes, it is. Tell me," Luna looked at her with a thousand meanings in her eyes, "do you believe in soulmates?"

"No...no, I don't," she protested with a shaking voice. "I don't believe."

"You don't sound convincing," she whispered then carefully grabbed her touching hand to press her palm to her heart.

Chapter Text

13th February 2020, 11:50 PM

Luna closed the bedroom door carefully not to wake up her husband, then she took a peek into her children's room to make sure they are both sleeping tightly. She'd been sitting by the kitchen table when she heard a silent knocking sound.

She walked to the living room's window and let her unexpected late night visitor inside.

"I'm so glad to see you, but I thought you'd be coming to the party with the others. It's unfortunately over," she said in a quiet, sad voice.

"I'm sorry I just came like this," Hermione answered. " I just wanted to say happy birthday and give you this." She took out a small gift box from her pocket and gave it to her.

"It was a gift from me. Why would you give it back?" she asked puzzled.

"You told me back then, that you gave it, because you loved me."

"Yes, it's true and I did love you. I never lied, every word I said was true."

"I know, so were mine and also I'm not lying to you now," A painful tear rolled down her blushed cheeks." I've been thinking about you every day since then. I keep repeating your words in my head asking myself, will I ever be able to forget them?" Luna's eyes weren't only showing pain as she listened to her. "I always answer with a no."

"Hermione, please!" she whispered, desperately trying to keep her voice low. "Don't say it to me, because you know how I feel for you, and you know it's not only about us, too. I can't do this, my heart would break and I think yours would as well."

Hermione attentively wiped away her tears first, then Luna's too, who shivered a little as she touched her, but didn't show any discomfort.

"Since when are you the rational while I'm the dreamer?" she asked silently and as fondly as she would've asked her precious secret.

"Don't think that I'm only denying you because of my common sense! You have Ron and I have Rolf. I can't do this to them."

"Luna, tell me," she whispered in a bitter voice, "are you happy?"

"No," she answered strictly. "Not without you, but not with you either, if we gain our happiness in exchange for others', so please go now!"

Hermione couldn't say a word. She stood there with shaking lips, her fists clenched and with tears in her eyes, until Luna repeated her request.

"Go now, please go!"

At last she turned without saying anything, climbed out the window and vanished in the February fog among the trees. She walked only a few steps, when she collapsed, leaned against a tree and started crying. Then she heard the footsteps of someone coming and stopping right next to her.

She looked up with her tired eyes full of tears and saw a pair of familiar blue eyes, and their owner who wore the necklace decorated with brown and blue gemstones.

"You should've fled further, and not let me find you." she murmured as she embraced her, pressed their foreheads to each other and warmed her face with her breath in the freezing winter night.

"You shouldn't have come after me." Hermione answered and she noticed the same lying tone in her voice that she'd just heard in the woman's she loved.

Chapter Text

Hermione couldn't choose which color fit her better even after a long time of experimenting. Just to see the result, she tried putting the really light orange makeup with a little blush to one side of her face and the paler base with the darker blush to the other side, but she was still unable to make the choice.

"We have to go soon, but I still can't decide," she murmured by herself, then completely puzzled she stepped into the living room where Luna's been waiting for an hour ready to go.

"Which one do you like more," she asked, "left of right?"

"It's fine exactly like this," she answered with a huge smile. "At one side you look kind and confident, and on the other adorable but prestigious."

"You can't be serious!" Hermione laughed out.

"Wait, it needs one more touch!" with that she stepped closer and planted a kiss on her cheek only to leave a huge, bright red lipstick mark on it. "Perfection!"

Chapter Text

Luna's been gazing out their car's window, fascinated by the landscape they ran by for hours. Hermione couldn't understand what she found so interesting in the sight of the boring desert, so she just drove forward on Road 66 and was happy that her partner had fun after all.

At first she was worried what her girlfriend, who grew up in the Wizarding World will think about the idea of a journey around the world without using magic, but it turned out to be a pleasant disappointment.

"It just came to my mind that there's something else I don't know about Muggles," Luna spoke in a curious voice. "What does it mean when somebody shows their middle finger to others? I've seen it many times, but I don't understand what it means."

Hermione felt a little devil whispering a naughty idea to her ear, so she answered as seriously as she could.

"It can mean a lot of things, but if you show it to someone who is on the road, then it means that you wish wherever they go, they may arrive nice and safe." She could barely say it without chuckling.

"And what if someone shows it who's going somewhere to someone who doesn't," she asked.

"Then it means that everyone who's coming to you may arrive safe."

"I see now," she said and continued to gaze out the window.

Not a long after they stopped at a gas station and Luna stayed in the car while her companion left to pay. While waiting she noticed a really young gas station worker who's been trying to clean up a stubborn oil spot from the concrete with little enthusiasm and she thought this might even be his very first job.

After Hermione arrived back and started the car, their eyes accidentally met. The guy smiled at her, so she smiled back and in order to wish the best to everyone who stops here in the future, she raised her hand and shoved a middle finger to him. The worker switched to rather challenging smile and returned the gesture like if he just wished them the best.

"I knew that bastard's just been staring at me," Hermione said in satisfaction as they turned back to the road.

"How?" Luna asked honestly.

"Because you've just..." she didn't finish it.

Chapter Text

"Beautiful." It was the only word that slipped out of Luna's mouth after long minutes of staring into Hermione's eyes.

"What?" the girl's short question was asked.

"Your eyes, of course," Luna continued. "You know, in romantic novels they always write about blue, green and hazel eyes. I can't even imagine how they can forget about those beautiful brown eyes that you have." Hermione just smiled and tried to come up with a response.

"You really think they are pretty?" she spoke at last.

"Yes, but it's not all. Do you know what I see when I look into them? I see that you look at me just exacly the way I look at you."

 Luna assisted her words only with a huge, celestial smile and Hermione let her brush away a tear from her beautiful brown eye, to let only a gaze of love remain in it.

Chapter Text

Big-boned, thick, shapeless. Ever since she was a child, Hermione was dissatisfied with her body. She really didn't care much to be attractive in boys' eyes like she was always forcefully told to do, still, sometimes she found herself measuring her imperfect features.

Her body type bothered her the most, even though she wasn't chubby at all, but still just bigger than other girls. Her shoulders were annoyingly wide, but at least they served as a distraction, so nobody noticed her similarly wide hips, she thought. Her not so feminine movement and gestures were accompanied by her height, that didn't really bother her, still, she found it a bit too much, especially that this way she couldn't fall into the short, curvy, adorable girl category.

She was jealous of Luna. No matter how she inspected, she found her form much more beautiful than her own. Unlike her, she was small, not just thinner, but shorter as well. She had a pretty face and lovely hair, that unlike Hermiones seemingly didn't try to live a life on its own. She was sure, all the boys preferred the tiny, cute Luna over her, the stocky, ugly duckling.

She was jealous of her for a long time until one day the realized she was rather admiring her. Just as she cuddled her under their blanket for the first time, she was struck by a completely new feeling. Luna let her put her hands around her as she snuggled her up from behind so tight she could feel the soft, warm body from head to toe. At last, Luna just sunk even deeper into her hug like if the best feeling in the world was being cuddled by the bigger girl.

For the first time, Hermione felt she was just perfect for someone.

Chapter Text

"Do you think I can't see you?" Hermione whispered in a short-tempered voice, trying not to attract everyone's attention in the library.

Luna's attempt to unnoticeably peak out from behind a copy of the Quibbler was in vain.

"Hi, I've just been so immersed in this article it might've seemed like I was watching you."

"Right!" she growled provokingly as she sat down to the opposite chair and grabbed the magazine out of her hands. "Then tell me, what article you've been reading!"

"I've been," Luna murmured," reading about the migration of the yellow eared mountain cats." she finished distinctly.

With and angry impression Hermione gave back the magazine that was open at a double page article about the Rotfang-conspiracy.

"Listen!" she said even more quietly. "It isn't right. You're not supposed to be obsessed with me."

"I know," Luna answered a bit disenchanted.

"And?"

"I'm not changing," she said as naturally as possible. "As a matter of fact, I wouldn't want to, even if I could."

"Somehow I was expecting that" Hermione answered quietly.

They looked to their side as they both heard some silent murmuring, and they saw all the pairs of inquisitive eyes disappearing behind books and note pages.

"I've got an idea." Hermione hesitantly reached into her bag, and when nobody was watching she took out two little seashells. She gave one of them to Luna and asked her to rise it to her ear.

She held the other one in her palm and rose it to her mouth, and as she whispered into it, Luna could hear her voice like she's been whispering right into her ear.

"Listen in it at exactly 10 PM!" It was all she said then she planted a gentle kiss on the shell.

Luna saw that Hermione put her shell into the inside pocket of her robes as she quickly walked away. Out of curiosity, she rose it to her ear again and chuckled a bit as she heard the leaving girl's heart pounding like crazy.

Chapter Text

The first time Luna tried to cook, she ended up lighting the kitchen on fire. It wasn't a big one, they didn't even have to call the emergency services.

When her roommate, Hermione tried, she ended up with something uneatable, despite her best effort. She had some doubts, but Luna confirmed that it indeed was the worst stuff she'd eaten.

Eventually they decided to give it a go and make something together. They started with hands entirely covered in flour, that slowly but surely found it's way right to each other's faces. It was pretty unusual that they both agreed on something, but in the end, they had to come to the conclusion that flour by itself doesn't taste quite good.

Chapter Text

"I can't believe how you can just listen to me like this!" Hermione shouted at her girlfriend, who's been silently listening to her yelling for minutes now. "It seems like you're not even paying attention to what I say."

"Of course I pay attention," Luna answered calmly.

"Then how can't you even say a single word? At least yell something back at me and not just endure everything I say, because it's not fair!"

Hermione's words came to a halt and Luna just stepped closer to wipe out her tears from her face but remained quiet.

"Just be mad at me, too!" Hermione asked rather desperately than angrily.

"I'm not mad at you," Luna murmured. "I know you're angry with me, and I also understand why. But I have no reason to be mad.

"What are you saying? I don't understand. It's like talking to a wall."

"I just simply know that you're like this," Luna stated calmly." If somebody upsets you or when you feel you're wrong, anger takes over and you start shouting at people, but you don't really mean those things you say when you do this." She let a few seconds of awkward silence to happen. "I can't be mad at you for something you are, because that's just part of the person I love, too. Yes, you can be cruel sometimes, but you're still a good person and I know I can count on you any time."

"I said awful things to you," Hermione groaned painfully, "I shouldn't have."

"It's okay. They slipped out but also didn't mean anything other than you're simply angry and you don't watch out for what you say. See, this is what I'm good at. I absorb the bad words, so they won't bother you. You'll feel better, so I'll feel better." Only masters of literature could've paraphrased what appeared on Hermione's expression other than the mixture of thankfulness and guilt. "Please don't be mad at yourself for what I said."

"I...," she tried to protest, but she realized she doesn't want to, just like it wouldn't be reasonable, nor a clever thing to do. She simply stared back at the kind pair of eyes and decided to do just what she asked her.

"Can we talk it over calmly, now?" Luna asked with a smile.

"Of course we can."

Chapter Text

Between two chances to take a breath, a question run through Hermione's head. "Honestly, how could this all happen?"

The events of the last twelve hours seemed like a series of blurred images to her. She tried to remember exactly what could've happened that led them to this moment.

They haven't talked face to face in months, so she and Luna decided to have a Sunday lunch together. She couldn't figure out, at what part of their conversation they decided to spend the rest of the day together as well.

They roamed the fields near to Luna's house chatting about nothing really, until after sunset they somehow ended up lying on the grass in the middle of a field as they were gazing at the stars above them.

"For exactly how long were they snogging?" asked the voice in her head as she got to take a breath again, a longer one this time.

"What's bothering you?" Luna murmured, making Hermione open her eyes to see her clueless face in the moonlight.

"Many things," she answered, "but this thing between us isn't one of them. Honestly, I kind of forgot about them, it was only a question coming up."

"What was it?"

"How could this day end up this great?"

Chapter Text

"There are only a couple of words left and I'm finished," Hermione murmured while hunching over her typewriter. "At least with the first half," she quickly reminded herself.

After putting the dot to the end of the last sentence, she leaned back sleepily in her chair and gazed out the window, right into the bright light of the rising sun for long moments.

Morning came so quickly she couldn't even start the most important part. With her eyes kept open by only the greatest effort, as quick as a turtle and with the gracefulness of a hippo, she ambled to the kitchen.

"I'll finish typing down the rest by eight, then I sleep for a couple of hours and at two in the afternoon I'll have my meeting in the Ministry," she listed her plan for the day by herself as she kissed the freshly woken Luna on the cheek with robotic gestures, who's been spreading some jam on a slice of bread.

"Would you like me to make one for you too, Miss Night Owl?" Luna asked with a drop of sleepiness in her voice.

"No, I only want to drink a coffee now and then I'll finish the report," she murmured barely audibly while plodding with the coffee maker.

"It doesn't do any good to you that you work all night and just slip in a few hours of sleep here and there," Luna reminded her, who would've been ready to form an ordinary answer, or rather just to give her a lecture about why she's the one who shouldn't be bragging about not having any unhealthy habits, but instead she just let out an agreeing hum alongside a loving nod, as she wanted to keep all her mental processing power to her work.

Hermione took a seat after gently passing an other cup of coffee to her girlfriend, too. At this point, she was ready to for some daydreaming about a soft pillow while elbowing on the table and listening to the clinking sound of the spoon and porcelain with her eyes shut tight. She would've sworn she grabbed a spoon for herself as well, but it was missing from her cup.

"Hey, you know I like my coffee with two spoons, right?" Luna asked quietly.

"Of course," she murmured feebly.

"But not like this, with literally two spoons." Hermione opened her eyes and saw that the cup in front of Luna had both spoons in it.

"Oh, sorry!" she said, ready to take one of them, but Luna pulled her cup away. As she eyed her questioningly, she took away the other cup that had her coffee in it, too. "Hey!"

"You don't need this," Luna chuckled. "You'd better go and get a sleep! That report is not that urgent, and this way you'll even have a chance of finishing it because in this condition I'm not even sure that you could even find the space bar."

After all this, Hermione dreamed about coffee spoons and cups.

Chapter Text

"Have you ever caught yourself wondering about what witches and wizards might find if we ever managed to get there?" Luna said as they were staring at the Moon. "I wonder what sort of magical creatures might be lurking in that distant, barren wasteland."

Her voice was sleepy and barely audible. They've spent the last hour lying cuddled up on top of an old picnic table, watching the clear night sky.

"There's not a single living thing up there, Luna!" Hermione sighed a bit annoyed. "We've been there in the 60s and found nothing but rocks and dust."

"Yes, but those were muggles," said Luna. "There are tons of creatures that are invisible to muggles, like dementors."

Hermione smiled for a moment on Luna's naive comment, but then... Wait for a second! Suddenly a realization hit her like a brick, or more like a meteorite in the face. It was indeed unusual, but this time she made perfect sense.

"Luna!" she murmured, not taking down her eyes from the Moon. There was no response. "Luna!" Hermione looked at her girlfriend who's just casually drifted into a sleep after such a revelation.

Silently listening to her slow breathing, Hermione turned back to glare at the glowing disk. Like a little kid, she reminded herself that there is nothing scary out there. No, she did her best attempt to convince herself but failed. A cold shiver ran through her spine and she felt her limbs growing heavier with every second.

"There are no hideous monsters up there, this is ridiculous," she murmured to herself. "There is nothing scary out there besides the boring celestial bodies in the black void of space. Nothing but a few giant rocks, bright balls of plasma and possibly some microscopic organisms somewhere in the unimaginable distance, but absolutely nothing to worry about."

Still, she found herself snuggling closer to Luna as she still felt herself being naked in the moonlight despite the fact that she wore a coat.

"Luna, you little, evil master of cosmic horrors," she whispered, "how could you do that?"  

Chapter Text

Despite the fact that Hermione was the godmother, and that Harry often said they were almost like siblings, it always seemed like her goddaughter liked her girlfriend much more. Lily Luna Potter and Luna Lovegood were besties ever since they've known each other. From time to time, she was wondering just how much was little Lily's charming personality formed by her Luna, the adult Luna herself, and how much by the pure fact that she got a second name after her.

She was never jealous, though. Seeing Luna and Lily together was always the most adorable sight for her. With Luna being the co-owner of the Quibbler and Hermione writing novels for a living they both worked from home, so they often helped the Potters with some babysitting.

One day as Hermione was occupied with a ton of publishing-related paperwork, she heard little Lily asking something along the line of, "How did you and auntie Mione meet?"

Luna began to explain everything starting from their years at Hogwarts, and not only that part. She also explained in the most kid-friendly way imaginable why their relationship was different than the one between Lily's parents and made sure she understood everything properly. Hermione couldn't stop herself from listening to how Luna spoke to her goddaughter.

She heard stories from the old Wizarding World, including some about long-forgotten rituals that would've made it possible for them to have children together, but she also knew, the knowledge of those nearly ancient ways were lost forever, if they even existed. Something though was clear as daylight. In a way or another, whether she will be involved or not, it is one hundred percent sure that one day Luna is going to become the best mother in the whole history of Magical Britain.

After the Potters came for the children and they said goodbye to them (Lily doing this by giving Luna a big hug), Luna looked at Hermione.

"What's wrong?" she asked seeing tears in her eyes.

"Nothing," Hermione answered.

"You usually cry for a lot of reasons, but nothing is not among them, so tell me!" her voice was just as delightful and caring as always.

"Please, promise me," she asked with a weak smile," that you'll never going to become a boring and grumpy arse grown-up like me!"

Without any pointless attempt to protest, Luna throw her arms around Hermione and embraced her as tightly as never before, "I promise!"

Chapter Text

There were two people in the lecture hall, who didn't belong there. The audience that consisted of about a hundred people only noticed one of them.

Some students from the university knew her from other lectures, but she was never seen around here. The girl with blonde hair, weird accessories, and colorful clothes set up her presentation equipment in a very awkward manner, constantly asking for help, struggling to plug the cables into the right ports, and continuously affirming that the presentation starts in a matter of seconds.

"THE UNDEBUNKABLE PROOF THAT REPTILIANS RULE THE WHOLE SOLAR SYSTEM

Created by Luna Lovegood, Self Proclaimed Reptilianologist"

As the title appeared on the projector's image, many people left the room, others giggled, some just sighed, and didn't move a muscle. Luna introduced herself and excitedly asked the audience to forget everything they already knew since she's about to prove that everything they believed about the universe is false.

"I feel sorry for those who left, you know," she stated. "They have no idea what they just missed. But you've got nothing to fear since I brought you the truth and you will all see what they were trying to hide from you."

Grave silence. Everyone was waiting for something to happen, and suddenly a hand was raised. Most of the people only saw a hand sticking out of a giant bush of brunette hair from the further rows since the unfamiliar figure was sitting in the first.

"I see you already have questions, but please wait with them until the end. I want the second half of the event to be a Q&A." The hand slowly dropped.

Only minutes and a couple of slides have passed when some people already started wondering if Luna was just really bad in presentations, or she was absolutely insane. Despite her being excited and confident in everything she said, it seemed that she had no idea what she was talking about. The whole presentation wasn't convincing enough to convert a bunch of toddlers to 'Reptilianology', as she called it, but just boring and repetitive enough to lose all the interest of the audience.

Soon, the moment everyone was waiting for came and Luna asked if anyone wanted to ask any questions. The girl with the bushy hair from the front raised her hand. Luna looked in every direction to spot one single hand in the air other than hers but there was none.

"I just wanted to ask if you are really this stupid, or you're just pretending?" she asked and the whole lecture hall bursted out in laughter.

"You are stupid!" Luna shouted, "Why don't you come up here and convince everyone that your false beliefs that the governments and media planted in your brain are right?"

The girl with a bushy  hair stood up, "I'd be happy to do that, I'm Hermione by the way, but you can call me your worst nightmare."

"I'd stick with Hermione, thanks," Luna answered in an angry tone.

They spent the next twenty minutes furiously arguing with each other. Not a single noise was heard as everyone watched Hermione debunking all her 'undebunkable" pieces of evidence. She carefully explained stuff like how gravity works, why the moon landing couldn't be faked, and how it is absolutely insane to think that millions of people are in this conspiracy.

"I can't believe I'm having this conversation with a what, twenty-year-old?" she asked.

"Twenty-two." Luna's voice became bitter after that.

Seemingly in desperation, Luna started defending herself with arguments like "Why can't you just have common sense?" or "You just don't want the reptilians to exist!" or "I'm starting to think you are their shape-shifting agent, how could a human being have such a messy hair, after all?"

Slowly everyone went from laughing on Luna to a state where they just felt sad for her to be the target of such a cruel humiliation that was happening on the stage. They just wished it was over since Luna seemed really stupid, but she certainly didn't deserve it all.

"How can you be this mean?" Luna asked after about half a minute of silence.

"I don't know, how can you be this dumb?" Hermione said in a cold voice.

Seeing the unpleasant scene, a professor, who's presence was ignored all along, stood up and stepped closer to them for everyone's relief. "Ladies, I think we've just heard enough and it's the point when I have to ask you to end this argument." The professor looked at the waiting audience with a smile on his face. "You've seen Miss Lovegood and Miss Granger, the truly brilliant duo from our University acting group!"

Luna and Hermione jumped up from their seats and held each other's hands as they bowed in front of the audience. As they were holding hands, it was the very first moment that people noticed they had matching bracelets.

People cheered, clapped, and started chanting their names as they hugged in front of them, both in tears of happiness.

Chapter Text

Petal in the Moonlight

Then you came,

Blonde curls, bright heart.

Now I know

Love's just love.

We break apart,

Our story ends.

Pain in my heart,

Now a little less.

You taught me a lesson,

Made me understand.

Just a flower petal

In your two warm hands,

I just laid and gazed,

You sniffed me and smiled,

Held me to your face,

I felt how you loved.

The wind blew strong,

You let me fly.

Wondered what was wrong

With tears in your eyes.

"Nothing's wrong," I said,

"You taught me how to love,

Shoved me what you meant

When you said just a smile

That all it takes."

Now I know you're right.

Dropping tears, it makes

My head drop down.

You just were the Moon

On my clear night sky.

Still, thinking of you

Brings light into my heart.

Chapter Text

During the time Ginny and Luna were roommates there were quite a big number of cases when Ginny arrived home to see something unexpected going on in their living room.

They rented a two-bedroom flat together, but Luna's room was always overflowing with a lot of stuff she mostly didn't even remember getting, so most of the time she used the rest of the flat for everything.

"She's quite messy and does weird thing all the time, but I like her nonetheless," Ginny always said when someone asked about her roommate.

Still, there were some really strange things that were happening in their flat and somehow Luna was always around them.

One day Ginny arrived to a sight that their whole living room was turned into a potions lab. They didn't just build a 'regular do it yourself potion station', but literally the whole place was filled with tubes, scattered ingredients, tools, and note papers. Luna and her study partner, Rolf were in the middle of some experiment.

"Please, be quiet!" Luna whispered as she entered. "Sound waves might ruin our experiment or possibly open a portal to a parallel dimension." Ginny decided to not say a single word.

On the next occasion she saw the whole building being locked down and immediately knew who was behind it. Aurors escorted Luna out literally in chains and held her in the Department for some questioning. She managed to convince them that she knew nothing about the dark wizard that was living in a vase she bought in Borgin and Burkes a few days ago. She just took it home because she thought it was pretty. Ginny was speechless and decided not to ask what in the name of Merlin was she looking for in Borgin and Burkes.

Again, Ginny stepped into their flat when Luna simply said, "I can explain." Apparently Luna thought it was the best idea to temporarily shelter thirty nifflers that were rescued from an illegal magical creature trader right in their flat. Luna locked Ginny's room and hid the key, so the little troublemakers can't mess up her room, but one of them ended up finding it in the microwave, so they raided her room as well. Ginny was furious, but she knew Luna had such a kind heart, so it didn't bother her that much.

After a while, Ginny got used to it and as she stood outside their door, she always prepared herself for something she might not wanted to see. It was pretty dark inside and there were squelching sounds coming from the living room, so she expected some horrific monster jumping out from the dark as she peeked through the slightly opened door.

At first, she thought she saw some creature on the sofa with multiple humanoid hands and some brown fur on its head, but a second later she realized what she was looking at. It was Luna and Hermione, with the brunette laying on top as they were about to untangle their tongues.  They jumped apart in fright as they saw her enter the flat.

"Oh, sorry about this, but I accidentally put my room under a Fidelius charm and then obliviated its location out of my head." Said Luna like she was talking about something that happened every day. "I invited Hermione to help me find it somehow."

"And you were trying and trying and trying until you started snogging in the middle of the room, I guess."

"Ehm, yes." said Luna since Hermione was still silent from embarrassment, "But it's nothing official, so please don't tell anyone!"

"You know what," Ginny giggled, "I'll just pretend you two found the room and you're just in the middle of something in there. Or better said, I didn't see anything in here, only heard some muffled voices coming from Luna's room that I assumed was made by a kneazel or something."

They were thankful. Ginny entered her room and sighed in relief. It was definitely one of the better days after all.

Chapter Text

"It's the last one," Hermione mumbled as she helped Luna put her largest trunk up to the Knight Bus, "Are you sure you didn't leave anything at home?"

"I think we packed everything I needed," answered Luna as she was crawling out from the luggage hold.

"Are you ready back there?" the driver shouted ready to depart.

"Yes, just give us one moment!" Luna shouted back before turning back to Hermione. "Well, if I forgot anything, the rest of the team surely has one for replacement, or I can always buy a new one on the road, what do two or three Galleons matter in the whole expedition's budget, really?"

"Just make sure you don't spend all of it to stuff that should've packed instead in the first place!"

"I will and," she smiled at her like never before, "Thank you for helping me getting ready, without you I would've left everything to the last minute and forget half the stuff you helped me pack in."

"You know you can ask me any time, we're best friends, remember?"

"Yes," Luna murmured with a barely audible and not so confident voice and got ready to hop on the bus.

"Wait for a second!" Hermione said before she could step on the stairs, making the driver hit the horn a few times. "Please, would you write me a letter at least every week, so I'll know you're well?"

"Of course, I'll write to you every other day and tell you all about our adventures!" Luna exclaimed and stepped closer with a worried smile. "Would you do something for me while I'm away?"

"Anything, Luna. What is it?"

"Would you think about this until I return?"

"Think about what?" Hermione could barely say it before Luna pressed her lips to hers really softly and with ease, like if she wanted to be passionate, but didn't know what she was doing.

They stared at each other for a few seconds while the driver was already impatiently roaring the engine.

"What if I already know the answer?" Hermione whispered with glowing eyes.

"What if I'd prefer you waited with it?" she replied smiling.

"Have a nice journey then!" they nodded at each other as Luna hopped on and they disappeared moments later with the smell of burnt tires.

Hermione brushed away a drop of tear and tried to put her wand back to her pocket when she realized what was bothering her all along. She raised the wand and the Knight Bus reappeared in seconds.

"I can't believe, what now?" the driver shouted at her furiously. "We're already ninety seconds late!"

Luna reached out from the window so she could take her own wand from Hermione's hand. "Thank you, and bye!"

Chapter Text

There was a reason of course. A really complicated and pretty uninteresting reason how exactly things could've ended up like this. Hermione spent at maximum five seconds thinking about it before she realized, it's neither important nor she's capable of doing anything against it without upsetting people.

Luna and Hermione were sharing a bed. All the Weasleys, Potters, Grangers, and some of their guests spent Christmas in 12 Grimmauld Place like a giant family. Giant enough to fill all the rooms on all four of its floors. And there she was, a 22-year-old, single, straight girl lying next to an another, almost 21-year-old, also single and straight girl like a sleepover she never attended as a little girl.

There was nothing wrong with it, she thought. At least it was one of the things she thought since the other thing was that her pillows didn't feel right. She had two pillows stacked on each other and it was too uncomfortable for her.

"Hey, do you want one of my pillows?" she whispered knowing Luna was not asleep yet, because she'd been counting Moon frogs quietly. "Two is too high for me."

"No, thanks." Her voice was faint and sleepy. "I don't want your pillow. I'd rather have you as my pillow."

It took Hermione two seconds after tossing her pillow away until Luna's last sentence sunk in. "What?"

Without a single word, Luna came closer and threw an arm and a leg around her, resting her head on Hermione's shoulder. "Better," she murmured.

Only a weird shiver and a deep breath later, Hermione realized that she was having the most comfortable feeling she'd ever experienced.

There was a reason, she thought less than a year later as she was spending her honeymoon with Luna. A reason so silly, she didn't bother telling anyone.

Chapter Text

There was an event that Ron and Ginny never forgot in their entire lives. Every time they told the tale, they explained that after the stars aligned in a way that happens only once in every one thousand years, the Earth started shaking, storm clouds gathered on the horizon and the sound of a distant thunder was heard.

Everyone they knew was jealous that they couldn't witness the event that happens only once in every ten lifetimes, but after telling it over and over again in incomparable detail, people almost remembered it like they've all seen it themselves.

It all happened in the Hogwarts library one year after the Second Wizarding War was over. Hermione, Ginny and Luna were preparing for their final exams and Ron simply happened to be there, since a war hero was always welcome to stay at Hogwarts for a visit after all.

They were sitting by a table and talking about a bunch of unimportant stuff after a long study session when Hermione was asked about her parents. She decided to finish the school before bringing them back from Australia, but only after checking that they were doing all fine in their temporary home.

"I've always wanted to go to Australia and look for some magical creatures there," said Luna. "I'd love to go with you once we finish school if you don't mind."

"That would be great, Luna. Maybe we should take a short vacation there. I always wanted to see a Platypus in the wild, that's one of my favorite animals."

Luna chuckled and looked at her sadly, "But the platypus doesn't exist, that's made up by Muggles."

"Of course it exists!" Hermione almost yelled. "I even have a book about them somewhere."

Ron and Ginny looked at each other in shock and Ginny gestured with putting her index finger to her lips, to don't even think about interrupting what is about to happen.

"It was all a mistake," Luna started, "a Muggle saw a niffler that was lost by a wizard who was on an expedition to find the Marsupial Dragon and thought it was a non-magical animal."

"That's wrong," Hermione laughed, "It couldn't be a niffler, that looks very different."

"Yes, it does, but the Muggle who saw it wasn't an experienced zoologist so they failed to describe it properly."

"No, they even sent back a dead specimen to London to prove their discovery. The biologist who got it even thought it was a fake they stitched together from the parts of different animals like a Frankenstein monster for a sick joke." Her voice grew less and less confident as she finished the sentence. She reminded herself that it can't be a joke after all.

"See, I haven't heard about any Franklin-style monsters though, but they even made a fake one to prove that they didn't just make up the story. Isn't that a proof for you."

Hermione couldn't believe the conversation they were having. "We went to the zoo when I was a kid and there was a habitat built for them with a sign that the platypuses are about to arrive in a few weeks. I was very disappointed."

"I'm sure if we went there now, we'd only find the same sign or a completely different animal in their place. It might be a whole conspiracy, a tale about an animal that fascinates people with its uniqueness, but it's nonexistent in real life." Luna gently put her hand on Hermione's shoulder to comfort her. "I'm sorry, but there's not a single platypus on the entire world."

"No, that can't be." Hermione shook Luna's hand away from her. "I've seen pictures and I've seen in on TV, on motion picture, that can't all be fake. You're just making assumptions, you don't know what you're talking about."

"Just because you want it to exist, it won't, sadly. You have to accept the fact it's just imaginary. But don't be sad, we can still look for a ton of other animals that are just as exciting as the platypus."

"There's no possible way!" Hermione mumbled, "I will show you that they exist once we get there."

"You can't show me something that doesn't exist."

"But it does!"

"No, it does not!"

They stared at each other with flaming eyes, like two demigods of biology, Hermione already planning the trip to Australia to find out the answer, and Luna thinking about which issue of The Quibbler contained the story about the whole platypus scam. Eventually, they realized it was so quiet, they didn't even hear a breath other than their own.

As they looked back at the siblings, they saw Ron and Ginny bursting out in the biggest laughter they've ever had in unison.

"Stop it, you! It's not funny." Hermione shouted at them only to release a second wave of laughter from them and making Ginny snort loudly, that made Ron laugh even more.

The chain reaction continued with Luna joining too, after Ginny tried to slap Ron for laughing at her, but he managed to dodge it and because of that, he fell off the bench.

"Stop laughing!" Hermione repeated it anger and Ginny almost did, but as she noticed that Luna was literally in tears from laughter, she couldn't resist doing it again, louder that even.

In the end, they got kicked out from the library and Ron was prohibited to visit Hogwarts for a year, but it didn't matter, because they witnessed something that was rarer than a platypus and something that didn't happen again ever since.

Chapter Text

One day Hermione found herself in a situation, where she was unable to write down anything, no matter how hard she tried. Pages got filled with words afterwords, then the garbage bin got filled with the pages. Hermione had no idea, what she was doing wrong.

"You seem really worried, what's wrong?" Luna asked suddenly as she entered the room.

Hermione grabbed the latest page she wrote, tore it in half and threw it into the bin. "Do you think I'm a terrible writer?" she asked, "Since I'm more and more convinced that I am."

Luna grabbed a chair and sat down right next to her girlfriend, "I don't think that you are a terrible writer,  just think you're terribly not creative sometimes."

"Either way, I shouldn't waste my time with scribbling terrible stories and focus on non-fiction." Hermione murmured in a bitter voice.

"Maybe you just have the wrong ideas, that's all. May I help a little, just to spark up your imagination?"

"Yes, I'd be happy if you'd like to."

And she did. Hermione explained the whole story of her novel, introduced all the characters and their backstories, but there was a certain plot point she couldn't pass through. There was a love triangle between the protagonist and her two friends.

"You're saying that this girl, Violet doesn't know who to choose?"

"That's right. Both seem really bad decisions."

"Why would she choose any of them at the end?"

"Johnny is her childhood best friend, but he's not a really great person you see, he's mean to everyone, including Violet sometimes, but at the same time they know each other so much and fit together. She's just met Max, who's a brilliant man, even if he's such an outsider and everyone else dislikes him, but I can't see how their relationship could work. Max is always on the run and I doubt he'd ever want to settle down with an old fashioned small-town girl, like Violet."

"No, I didn't mean that. I asked why would she want to be with any of them if they just don't work out?"

"What would the ending be like then, will Violet just stay single?"

"Why not, it sounds like the best possible outcome."

"But the whole plot so far was about her struggling with her feelings and trying to decide between them. It's what this story is about, I can't just change it."

"Of course you can. The whole story exists in your imagination and the fact that you want to end it with her ending up with any of them is just the way you imagined it from the beginning. but it doesn't mean this is what has to happen."

Hermione thought about it a little and Luna's words made more sense with every passing second. "If I understand correctly, should she find out that both outcomes would be toxic in a way and move on? Now that I think of it, it doesn't even sound that bad."

Luna looked a bit concerned, but poured out an answer, "Yes, that also sounds good and could totally work."

"Wait, what did you want to say, if not this?"

"I thought the two boys should hook up with each other with Violet's help."

"But," Hermione lowered her eyes, "I'm afraid the readers will think that I'm just gay-washing the whole story.

Luna held her hand gently that made her look up, right into the blonde's unusually serious eyes, "Remember what that nice critique said about your last novel?"

"That I should put more heart into my stories and tell the tales that people didn't think they wanted to hear." A smile appeared on her face for the first time in forever.

"What is your heart trying to tell you about it?" Luna asked, "The final choice is theirs of course, but I think Max and Johnny would make a wonderful couple and Violet would learn a lesson for not forcing herself to fall for any of them."

Hermione's mouth twitched a little, and before she burst into tears she hugged Luna. "Who would ever need a heart, if they can have someone like you?"

Chapter Text

There was no response. Luna arrived home after work and called Hermione's name, but she did not answer. She looked at her girlfriend's work table in the living room to see it covered with lots of paperwork that was left unfinished. It made her sad because she knew what was happening.

Hermione heard her entering the bedroom, but she couldn't force herself to move a single muscle. She could barely lift her hand to wave a hi to Luna.

She always felt somewhat pathetic as she was lying there with a blanket stuffed below her head, paralyzed to the point where she couldn't move without releasing a new wave of pain that made her feel dizzy and most likely queasy in itself. Being in the indescribable state where not just moving a muscle, but even a single thought, a mental image was painful would've been more than enough, but the ignorance of others was the worst at many times.

"You're only having a headache," people always said.

"Yes, I was just too stupid to realize, " Hermione always added in her mental voice while imagining to stab these people.

Luna was different. Not like others, she could understand it without experiencing it for herself. Hermione always thought that it was so weird that out of all people, Luna was the one who understood, and not just understood, but she didn't judge or ask stupid questions every time.

It almost always started the same way. Hermione started feeling a headache on the left side of her skull. Generally on the left side of her forehead, in her left eye socket or between her left eye and her left ear, sometimes on the back of her head. Either this or feeling nauseous was the first sign of a possibly unbearable pain that was sneaking up on her. Hermione hated her migraine.

Luna knew what she has to do first. She closed the curtains to make the room darker since Hermione didn't do it after falling to the bed in pain and was unable to get up and do it herself. Then she sat down to the edge of the bed and comforted Hermione with some kind words as she turned to her right side to face her. Luna didn't ask the good old "Are you having a headache?" question. There was nothing that could make her girlfriend more upset then THE question.

Triggered by changing weather, repeating loud noises or twitching lights, it always came. Sometimes just scaring her and sneaking away just as it came, sometimes to hit her like a hammer, making her unable to do anything than lie down to suffer and occasionally get up for some old fashioned puke party.

People always asked the same questions. Painkillers did not help. She was not having a medical condition that could've been fixed. She was not getting better soon. She was experiencing it in her whole life. But most importantly, not paying attention to it until it goes away WAS NOT A HELPFUL ADVICE, YOU MORON! And no, people did not get it. They did not get why she was having these one-day headaches or why she was making career decisions based on the opportunity to be able to skip workdays or procrastinate on work for a day or two. Her life was partly built around her having migraines. And nobody understood.

On top of everything, she was sure that she's going to kill the next person who will say that she's just faking it.

"Where?" Luna whispered to her and Hermione pointed at her left upper arm.

It was one of the worst scenarios. Luna knew it since when Hermione's pain not only affected her head, but wandered down to her neck, her shoulder and finally to her left arm, it was already so unbearable everywhere that even saying a word or opening her eye was incredibly painful.

Luna grabbed a pillow and gently put it under Hermione's head as she was lying on her right side. Lying on her left to put some pressure on the aching parts helped if she was alone, but Luna could help her much more and she felt like it was her duty to relieve her girlfriend's pain as much as she could.

Luna gently pressed her palm to Hermione's left forehead and put the top of her fingers to the point by her left ear and started slowly massaging it. She felt sad for the fact that she knew this motion this well, because it meant that she's been doing it a lot, especially in summer, when Hermione's case was generally the worst. She massaged her left upper arm and her shoulder with the other hand to make those feel less painful too. Hermione didn't say a single word, just hummed in relief a bit as she started.

Luna saw a box of painkillers on the bedside table and felt a blunt smell. She didn't have to be Sherlock to tell that Hermione took some painkillers and then threw them up as most of the times when she was feeling this bad.

The massage always helped, no matter how bad she felt, but it was always just a temporary solution. At least her pain was lessened to the point that when she was able to think without it being painful. For a moment she imagined herself moving to Mars in a spaceship to live under a dome that had no stupid weather, no loud noises and no flashing lights. She felt exhausted from throwing up, fighting the pain all day long and not being able to eat anything without feeling nauseous.

It only took her minutes to fall asleep, that Luna could only tell because she noticed her breathing go slower and her whole body went more relaxed a little bit. She continued massaging her for a few more minutes before carefully leaving the room and hoping that she's going to be better by about 2 AM, when she will wake up to catch up on work she failed to finish today because of her painful curse. Well, if it's going to leave her a break by then.

Chapter Text

Hermione and Luna were both giant film nerds. It was pretty much the only thing they had in common. Well, obviously they had more than that, how else would have they gotten together, right? People always said that they were a nice couple, journalist and activist sound good together, anyways.

Still, they both loved watching movies, but there was a giant problem. Hermione’s favorites were the big old classics and art movies, while Luna fancied goofy trash monster movies and mystery stories, so their tastes didn’t quite match, but it was fine. They had exactly five movies they both liked, so they could at least rewatch those together sometimes.

One day they went to a garage sale together and found a whole bunch of VHS tapes, mostly recordings from TV. Luna had a giant collection of VHS movies (mostly recordings from TV as well), so they looked around a bit and found a whole box of tapes that had all the classic episodes of 'Scooby-Doo Where Are You?'.

“It was my favorite cartoon as a kid,” said Hermione with a nostalgic smile.

“You must be kidding me!” Luna replied, “It was my favorite, too. I had no idea you liked something like this.”

“I think I just always liked the whole atmosphere and the whole visual humor it always had. Shaggy’s always been my favorite. He was so silly, but always showed bravery and did his best if his friends were in danger, and always made me smile with going easy on everything like no one else.”

“Strange.” Luna wondered. “I always liked Velma the best. She was always the smartest and solved all the mysteries almost by herself. They would’ve never gotten far without her being there to find all the clues and everything.”

They smiled at each other, both sensing the absurd cuteness of the situation.

“Did we just describe each other?” Luna killed the moment, making them both giggle.

“Do you want to watch them together in a marathon? It would be so much fun to see them with you.”

“I’d love it!” Luna smiled, “But did you know that an official movie marathon is supposed to last for 26,2 hours?”

“Really? Then we should look around a bit more and see if we can find the old TV movies somewhere around here.”

Chapter Text

It was day 1.

“I need to tell you something,” said Luna, and it was followed by a long explanation.

“You did not!” Hermione yelled at Luna, but it was pointless.

“Why is it so unbelievable? I’m a Ravenclaw, so it’s expected from me,” answered Luna with such ease like it was nothing catching up with the curriculum and taking the exams to finish her 6th year at Hogwarts to be able to start her 7th year on September 1.

“No, it’s not. I know that I could’ve managed it by myself if I were you, but it’s highly unlikely that I wanted to do it in such a short time.”

“Well, you’ve been the one who got a time-turner to attend more classes, and that was in your 3rd year,” Luna reminded her, but it was still a weak argument.

Apparently Hermione was expected to believe that Luna, who was abducted and lost half a year because of that, did it all simply because she was a Ravenclaw, and this is what Ravenclaws do. 

“Since when do you care about what people think of you?” Hermione folded her arms, “You have to admit that it sounds a little odd.”

“There was one other reason, you see. You came back for your 7th year, so I wanted to catch up to be in the same year as you. I would’ve met Ginny either way since we are friends and the other Ravenclaws as well, but I was afraid that we’d never talk to each other.”

Hermione was thinking of a worthy reply, but it was hopeless. Did she really like her that much? Just like her that much in general, or… did she like her THAT way, as Hermione often caught herself daydreaming about despite her greatest effort to avoid it. “Really?” she mumbled at last exactly a second before they spotted the lights of Hogsmeade station.

It was day 11.

“I need to tell you something,” said Luna without any hesitation as they left a classroom together. It was their last lesson that day, so they had time to discuss some really important things.

“You are not joking, right?” Hermione felt that her voice was shaky, and it wasn't only her voice.

“I know how serious of a person you are,” Luna answered with an honest look on her face. “I wouldn’t joke about something like this with you.” 

It was day 111. 

“I need to tell you something,” said Luna as they were waiting for the Aurors to arrive to the scene of the solved mystery, since there was no year at Hogwarts without a mystery, and without some friends (or maybe more than just friends) to solve it.

“I know,” Hermione giggled but with a bit of bitterness. ”You knew it all from the beginning, and that was your reason to be in the same year as us, to help me solve this mess. Ginny told me.”

“That’s true,” Luna admitted, “but only the first half of it.”

Hermione raised her eyes in delight. “If that’s the chase, then…”

It was day 1111.

“I need to tell you something,” said Luna with some grief. “I lied to you. I cheated on the test.”

“You did what?” Hermione gasped at her.

“I cheated, so I got to be in the same year as you, solve the mystery together, and of course finally make you fall in love with me.” 

Hermione couldn’t believe neither what she was hearing, nor what she was about to say, “Well, it was a really irresponsible thing to do, but I’m so glad you did it nonetheless.”

“I thought you didn’t want to marry someone who keeps secrets from you,” Luna added before reaching into her bag to pull out a little box.

“Wait, wha…”

Chapter Text

“How loud are you, really?” Hermione asked, who was about to become her new roommate in the dormitory.

“It’s barely audible, just a whisper,” Luna replied, “but I always freak people out. You know, sometimes I say things that are a bit… wrong.”

It was unpleasant, sometimes even scary, but mostly just weird and somewhat funny. Luna Lovegood was talking in her sleep, so nobody wanted to share a room with her. Hermione’s former roommate got expelled from Hogwarts High School as she predicted, so there was an empty place next to her.

“Is this why they call you names?” 

Luna just stared for a few seconds. “Part of the reason.”

It was fine. They shared a room, argued a lot on minor things, but they got along. Hermione however, was weirded out, even if she didn’t want to admit.

“You go first!” Luna whispered into the darkness at around 11 PM, then tossed around a little. Hermione thought it was all she was going to say. “I can’t because my feet are covered in marshmallows,” she added, like always. Whenever she spoke in her sleep, it was always something unpredictable.

“When did this start?” Hermione asked the next day. “Since when are you talking in your sleep?”

“Ever since I...,” she thought for a moment.” Ever since I banged my head into something.”

Hermione wasn’t convinced.

“No! I don’t want to hurt her,” Luna murmured a week later in her sleep.”She has nice brown hair, so I don’t want to. No, I need wire, the rope will make her suspicious.” Hermione was freaked out like never before. 

“So these dreams, do you remember anything?”

Luna shook her head and just chewed her toast for a bit. “I said something really weird, right?”

“Don’t worry! I’m not going to make fun of you or anything.” she wondered if it’s what everyone said at first. Also, what did she mean when she said that sleep talking was just part of the reason?

Hermione couldn’t resist, so she started actively listening to the things Luna said in her sleep. She was trying to find a pattern or something in the things and find out what she’s hiding, but soon it became obvious that it’s hopeless.

“He sold the factory and bought a giant farm, where he keeps sheep.” It was the end. Hermione officially gave up. “I don’t want to go there, I’d rather stay. I’m starting to like her.”

Sometime later, the whole thing had an unforeseeable twist. 

“Mione!” Luna whispered, making her roommate jump. “Hermione, you have a... beautiful name. You are pretty, too.”

“Did she really think that?” She wondered, and also wondered about why she was wondering about it in the first place.

“Soft lips,” Luna chuckled.

“May I ask you something?” Hermione asked in the morning. “Have you been dreaming about me?”

“Yes, we...” Luna blinked. “We talked about penguins, yes! We traveled on a strange ship and we saw penguins, that was all.”

A few days later Hermione pulled out a dictaphone and gave it to Luna. “I feel bad, that you don’t know what things you are saying in your sleep, so I recorded some because I think you wanted to hear them.”

“They are just nonsense, right?” asked Luna, seemingly without bothering too much. 

“Mostly, but there’s a recurring theme.”

Luna started listening to the tape and as she did, she somewhat remembered her dreams, though not in full detail. “I’m so happy that you are my best friend, Hermione,” said Luna’s voice from the recorder. “I hope you don’t... mind... but I like you more... than a friend.” 

“You want me to leave, right?” asked the real Luna. 

“No, I don’t want you to leave.” Hermione stopped her from leaving immediately. “I... You said that you think I’m pretty and that you like me. But do you really like me?”

Luna nodded with an awkward smile. “I do, but what you would’ve been saying in your sleep if you were like me?” 

It was the weirdest version of that certain question Hermione ever heard. Well, it was asked by the weirdest person she's known. After trying to visualize a dream she never had for real, Hermione found her eyes slowly sliding to Luna’s mouth area and then back to her eyes. “Soft lips,” she whispered. 

Chapter Text

Ever since Luna was a little girl, people told her that she was different. She was told that she didn’t belong to a group or another on numerous occasions. Some people straight up ridiculed her, others didn’t even bother and only called her names behind her back. There were a few who liked her, but many fancied her outlandish personality in a way that also didn’t feel right.

Luna truly loved all of her friends and everyone who just cared a little and didn’t just see her as a verbal punch bag. She didn’t mind people making fun of her, nor she wanted to push away those who liked her because she was different or those who liked her because they falsely believed the opposite of that. 

The only bad thing was that all of it felt unnatural to a certain extent and there was an absence of something that she never really found in anyone, at least not until Hermione came. One might wonder if the older girl did everything on purpose and made her feel a long list of emotions through the first few years they’ve known each other. Maybe on an unconscious level, yes.

For Luna, there was something behind the whole annoyance thing that she felt from the beginning. She did dislike her for a long time. Hermione always had to be right, she always had to forcefully tell her every single last piece of knowledge to falsify her beliefs, always had to have the last word, always had to be better than everyone else. Still, there was something behind all the braininess and cleverness and... always-knowing-betterness.

Hermione didn’t just look at her. She saw her. Saw her in the exact same way someone acknowledges that there’s a barrier ahead of them that needs to be destroyed, and she tried to destroy her like she would’ve done with anyone else. She didn’t just accept the fact that she’s not like others in order to have an excuse to avoid fighting her, it seemed that Hermione just didn’t want to give up.

Luna however just wanted to ignore her out of existence. For the first time, she actively wanted someone to shut their mouth and keep their cleverness to themselves. It was a long way to go, but in the end, Hermione noticed something as well. Seeing the bitterness and the feeling of being somewhat outsmarted on her face, she approached Luna and asked if there was something wrong. Hermione knew that there was something, like she claimed to know everything important. That was the moment when Luna realized that she was important.

Hermione loved her like no one else. She didn’t love her for being different. Didn’t love Luna for being so much like herself, and most importantly didn’t love her for not belonging anywhere. She loved Luna, because of herself, who was worthy of love in Hermione’s eyes even if it was hard to get along with her. Didn’t love her despite all her traits, nor because of her traits, she just loved Luna. She didn’t have a reason to love her, she just did. Loved Luna from the bottom of her heart with all her flaws and values, with all the good and bad and uncategorizable weirdness, with all the prettiness and ugliness in her.

Because Luna was just a person like anyone else, even if some people failed to see it. She just happened to be by Hermione’s side, in arm’s reach to be hugged, looking pretty to be admired, having something properly indescribable in her that put butterflies in Hermione’s stomach, and just being a wonderful person to be loved.

Chapter Text

People often said that Hermione Granger is made of gold. It always annoyed Luna when they said it about her girlfriend.

Yes...yes... gold is valuable, gold is good, gold is prestige, gold is... rough and cold. Sure, if Hermione was made of gold that would worth a lot of Galleons. Luna never bothered calculating it... precisely. It wouldn’t make her the wealthiest witch in Magical Britain, but selling that solid golden statue, or rather just sawing off some of the least pretty parts and selling those would make her some sweet income. There’s a problem, however.

Hermione is awesome. She’s caring even if sometimes a little too much, she’s soft and it feels so good to cuddle her, it’s fun to do things together or just talk for hours, go to interesting places, or comfort each other by the fireplace. 

Hermione is annoying, she’s rude pretty often, has a bigger ego than all the Hogwarts Professors, all the Ministry professionals, and all the unmatchable people associated with The Quibbler, but Hermione comes in a giant bundle that contains everything, doesn’t have a refund option, but removing things would make the whole experience much less interesting and even less likeable.

Hermione is much better than gold.

Somebody once said that Hermione is a pure, beautiful, refined diamond, but Luna decided not to look up how much would that worth. She would absolutely, never in a hundred thousand billion years turn Hermione into a diamond, but she didn’t want to feel the temptation to start experimenting.

Chapter Text

It was a regular weekday’s evening. Hermione sat on her bed with a parchment in her hands and confusion in her head. Also, it was not a long story, just a drabble, therefore there was no giant exposition with a lot of foreshadowing, slow burn and strange encounters that served one purpose and one purpose only. It was only Hermione, in the Gryffindor dormitory, on her bed, a memory of her meeting Luna in the library... and there was the parchment.

1. She’s super straight, like the straightest straight.
2. She hates stupid people, and she claims that I’m stupid, so she must hate me
3. She’s a Gryffindor for a reason. People often say that she should be a Ravenclaw, but she’s not. She favors other values.
4. She’s a Muggleborn, so she must prefer Muggles’ ways.
5. She had Victor Krum as her date. She likes big and strong men.
6. She likes Ron a lot. She sais that they are friends, but I don’t believe it.
7. She’s a hero. I’m not.
8. She’d be embarrassed, so she wouldn’t bother with me.
9. She makes me feel like no one did before. She’s not doing it intentionally, so she’d blame me for it.
10. She wouldn’t want to be with someone who writes a list of reasons why she shouldn’t like her the way she does.

The next day Hermione gave Luna back her herbology book that she accidentally took with herself when they were in the library, with the parchment put back between pages 162 and 163, just as she found it.

Luna said thanks and quickly looked into it, just as Hermione thought she will. She checked if her list was still there and unseen by anyone. It was not. It was a different parchment, with a different list written on it, but not with her handwriting.

1. She’s not sure. She’d never even kissed a girl, but secretly she always wanted to.
2. She claims that there is a difference between someone who’s stupid and someone who just thinks outside the dox like crazy. And craziness requires strong foundational knowledge.
3. She’s a Gryffindor because she believes that there are more important things than knowledge. A Ravenclaw is someone who hasn’t learned that.
4. She’s a Muggleborn, who grew up with fairy tales and always wanted to be in one.
5. She knows that Victor is not the person everyone thinks he is. He is kind and caring like only a very few people. She likes those things the most.
6. She likes Ron a lot. She sais that they are friends. Friends with a good person, friends for life.
7. She’s not a hero. She’s a sidekick, who’d love to be on someone’s side who needs her.
8. She’d not be embarrassed because of anyone she’s with. It doesn’t matter what others think, it’s about what she feels.
9. She had no idea about her having such an effect on anyone. Also, she doesn’t blame others for her own mistakes, especially not when those mistakes are so pleasant.
10. She wouldn’t want to be with someone who doesn’t like her. Someone who writes such a list can’t be someone who doesn’t.

Luna looked at Hermione and they both smiled. They would have talked and everything if this was a long story. This was only a drabble, so they just kissed and lived happily ever after, since all fairy tales end like that... except Grimm fairy tales, but Luna doesn’t know about those, so they don’t count.

Chapter Text

Hermione felt a little peace for the first time ever since it started. It was strange, but not in a way anyone would call strange a thing in the Wizarding World. Feeling Luna’s soft and warm body as she was lying in her arms, being truly embraced by someone in a long time was strange in a way a breath of air might be for someone who was drowning. 

Nightmares still came, like always. She was alone in them, with hundreds and thousands of people passing by like watching a video in fast forward of a crowded street, only she was standing in the middle of it. Figures came and disappeared within fragments of seconds, but there was only one who was moving at a regular speed behind her. A person, whose face she didn’t even see was chasing her through the crowd.

It was a bizarre combination of stillness, where she was constantly trying to run only to bump into nameless people while trying to get a glimpse of that thing or person who was after her, and absolute chaos as everything went by in a flash and with deafening noise that completely suppressed her cries for help.

The heat of the giant mess of people was unbearable just as their sound that was formed into a constant unintelligible noise, but every time she tried to reach towards the night sky it was the polar opposite in the worst way imaginable. As she turned her face upwards, she felt the cold from above that bit into her pale skin and realized that the things she thought were stars, were shards of floating ice in reality. Above them, there was only the pure black sky that must’ve been silent enough to drive anyone crazy within seconds. She would’ve still chosen that though if she had a choice.

Breaking awake, she didn’t just hear her own heavy breathing, but someone’s heartbeat as well. She felt weakness, tiredness and sweat, like always, but not a cold shiver this time. Hermione felt Luna’s hand brushing against her cheeks.

“It’s okay, I’m here with you,” Luna whispered into her ear. “I always will.”

Chapter Text

It was not like how they imagined Halloween’s going to be like. Bad feelings and melancholy were slowly creeping on everyone in the recent weeks and months and there was very little they could do to help it. It’s been years since the core members of Dumbledore’s Army departed on their first mission together to fight Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, but this time there was a new and horrifying adventure ahead of them.

Luna and Hermione, the Wizarding World’s ultimate know-it-all couple were not standing alone. Their team was a little bit careless in the current situation, but surely the fact that they kept their numbers low and decided against sticking with a giant army of people was their best decision.

The two Weasley siblings along with Ginny’s fiance, Harry prepared the old headquarters for their meeting with the crew and made sure that every little detail was in its place and they didn’t forget anything important. Luna, Hermione, and their last friend, Neville arrived in time to start their newest quest after a little discussion.

“It’s safe enough,” Hermione stated. “We’ll be careful to not get others in danger.”

“Very well said,” Ron agreed. “So, are we ready to solve this mystery?”

They all nodded and it was time for them to start. Hours passed as they roamed the town of Arkham, Massachusetts. The foggy and foreign place might’ve seed much more friendly if they weren’t there to solve the mysterious murder spree that took place in the dark.

It was clear that they would never manage to find all the clues without splitting up and with splitting up, there came the inevitable danger. Harry almost died not long after, but Neville arrived just in time to slay the hideous monster that came from the shadows. Luna, Ginny and Ron bravely fought against half a dozen of cultists at the gates of Miskatonic University to save time for Hermione to solve the puzzle that led them to the final battle against evil.

The Great Old One emerged from the depth, casting its shadow on the town of Arkham as a pack of tentacled monsters covered in black slime approached from the misty shores.

“This is it,” said Harry in a hopeless voice, “We’re not going to make it in time.”

Ginny was not going to accept it. “We will if we stick to the plan and do our best! Luna and Hermione can close the portals in time, while we face the monster.”

“They won’t make it if I don’t help them,” said Ron.

“No, you have to stay here, I’m going” Neville stopped him. “I’m injured, but I can still face some of those tentacle monsters.”

Ron nodded and handed his silver Winchester to Neville. “You need it more than me this time, just keep them safe and we will stand our ground!”

“Let’s go, there’s no time to waste!” Luna hurried forward with her girlfriend and Neville right behind her. 

At this moment the fight didn’t seem so hopeless, and they all knew that even if they won’t make it alive, they will do their best to save the world from evil and fight until their last drop of blood.

It was a great decision for Harry and Ginny to invite over all their best friends to play Arkham Horror, the board game at Halloween. They all managed to forget the awful Dragon Pox pandemic for a night that they spent with their close circle in the safety of 12 Grimmauld Place. 

“Wonderful Hermione, you closed the last portal!” yelled Luna, a little too immersed into the game.

“Couldn’t have done it without both of your help,” Hermione smiled at Luna and Neville.

“It’s still not over,” Harry interrupted, who was dead by now, fallen in battle.

“That’s right, said Ginny, “Okay Ron, it’s your time to shine, it’s our last chance.”

“A’ ight’,” Ron mumbled while chewing a Halloween candy and picking up all the dice to draw for the final attack. “Gret’ old onne’ eh? Moo’ likely just a pile o’ slime. Watch dis’!” 

They all shouted in victorious cheer as he drew a six with all five dice.

Chapter Text

Hermione was standing still next to the station’s wall, not blocking the rushing crowd, waiting impatiently.

While humming Christmas tunes for herself, for a moment she thought about how these scenes look like in romantic novels. The person waiting for their loved one’s arrival finally sees the familiar face in the distance, the face of the love of their life searching for them among the many people. Then the one who arrived, after an eternity of waiting looks at them, and they both smile, maybe tear up.

Then, they start running towards each other, not even bumping into random people, since love is leading them through the crowd safely... or pushes other people away, she wasn’t sure how to imagine it. In the end, they collide, one of them lifting the other into the air while they laugh, or cry, or both. They hold each other close like never before and say things like how much they missed each other and how much they are in love.

The moment of a couple’s reunion is always something surreally beautiful in these stories, she thought, while furiously scanning the crowd with her eyes. Seconds passed and she wasn’t there. Hermione bit her lips anxiously while thinking about the sweet and sentimental scene she wished was anything like real life and that…

Luna showed up. Her face was just as pretty as before, looking around the station to spot her. “This is it,” she thought. The moment when she will look at her, then simply walk all the way, as Hermione is just waiting for her. They finally reach out their arms and share a comforting hug before walking home in peace. It wasn’t that awful as she gave it a second thought.

Many times, Hermione forgot that Luna was not an ordinary person. She started running right after their eyes met. Almost dropping her side bag and her nice hair getting messed up by the wind she ran towards Hermione, almost running into several people and apologizing when she bumped into some. There was a moment when Hermione thought Luna won’t even slow down as she approached, and she was right. A moment later she found both of them lying on the ground on top of a pile of snow, as Luna knocked both of them off their feet as she literally charged at her.

Hermione just laughed while some people looked at them with strange looks on their faces. At least some of them must’ve smiled too at their sight. They hugged and kissed like when they were little girls, not even understanding what they were doing. Back then, they only knew that it felt like nothing before, that they were meant to be in some weird way. Now they would’ve realized if any of them thought about it for a second, that they were right all along.

Chapter Text

Hermione felt something that would’ve been dreadful in any other situation she could think of. She was failing to find the right words.

“It’s definitely strange and creepy, to say the least,” she whispered, somewhat annoyed by not being able to describe everything properly as the two young women walked among the gravestones.

It was one of those moments that people don’t even think about until they happen. Yes, visiting a cemetery on New Year’s Eve, less than four hours before midnight was an event she never would’ve thought of… in normal circumstances.

“I wouldn’t call it strange or creepy,” said Luna in her dreamy voice.

Hermione had no idea why she said yes. During her lonely evening walk, she met Luna, her former classmate from high school. She remembered all the stories about Luna, that she was constantly called a weirdo behind her back, and that even she did call her awful things on occasions. Luna was calling herself a witch, a real one not in the way they are described in fantasy novels and movies. 

She remembered a lunch break where they talked a little and Luna told her that there is an infinite number of parallel dimensions and there must be one where they are both witches, who learn witchcraft in a giant castle. Hermione had no idea why it stuck with her, but deep down she liked the idea.

Luna, who she encountered years after they met for the last time asked her if she wanted to come with her. Come with her to the cemetery on New Year's Eve to visit some people. Weird idea, from a seemingly really weird person, but she still said yes, after the sound in the back of her head told her that it’s a good idea, so there they were.

“I don’t understand why people think that it’s a scary place and that it’s evil,” Luna murmured, keeping her voice low, so they wouldn’t bother anyone, even if they were the only two people in the whole cemetery. “It’s peaceful.”

Hermione desperately wanted to say something, “It’s a place where old people rest. Sometimes people who were taken before their time have come, but they rest nonetheless.”

“They don’t rest,” said Luna without any expression changing on her face. “They don’t feel tired anymore. They are not even here,” she took a moment before continuing, “They are gone forever, only leaving their memory behind, which lays here.”

Hermione had no idea why Luna’s voice sounded so.. normal while saying all this, but it felt like a good thing. Knowing that she admits such things even if she herself doesn’t dare to say it out loud made Luna morbidly sympathetic in a strange way. “Yes, just the memories,” Hermione whispered underneath her breath.

They arrived to a grave that had Pandora Lovegood written on it. Hermione instantly knew whose grave it was, she knew it was Luna’s mother. She saw the date of her death and quickly added the numbers together to know that Luna was only nine years old when it happened. She heard something about a household accident, but never thought about what that really meant.

“I always visit my mum on New Year’s Eve to tell her how my last year was and what I’m planning to do in the next.” She didn’t add why it had to be after dark.

“Didn’t you just say that they are not here?” she instantly recognized what she said and started to regret that she opened her mouth. “I mean, you believe that they will hear it, right?” she knew that the attempt failed horribly and she must’ve messed up everything with saying it.

“I know that it’s stupid,” said Luna. “People do stupid things all the time, so it’s not making a difference. It’s good to come here sometimes and act like a fool, because it feels right. That’s all.” For the first time, her voice sounded really different. It sounded painful, but also even calmer in a way.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that!” Hermione apologized.

“It’s okay. People often can’t find the right words, but it’s not their fault,” Luna responded with something on her face that kinda resembled a smile and without looking anywhere but at the gravestone. “Thank you for coming with me, Hermione!”

She nodded thankfully. “Would you like me to leave you alone for a moment?”

“Yes,” said Luna, still not looking up.

Hermione took some time and walked around for a few minutes while Luna was talking by her mother’s grave. Sometimes she heard a little sobbing that came from her direction.

She saw the grave of Cedric Diggory, the boy who died in a sports accident at the age of 17. People always said that he will eventually become a world-famous athlete and now he was lying in the ground in front of her. Luna didn’t even know him, since she came to the school the following year. She thought about saying out loud how she just realized fully that how easy it is to lose people in any moment and how everyone should appreciate others while they can, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it to Cedric’s gravestone. She thought that if she just thought about it, that’s just as valid and if Cerdic was listening (which she was sure was not the case), he would hear and understand it the same way.

“I told my mum that I’m going to make some friends next year,” said Luna as they were leaving.

“Did you tell her that you met the first one of them today?” asked Hermione with a sassy smile that felt so good after all those long, sad minutes.

“I should’ve,” Luna smiled at her.

Chapter Text

There was a really long period of time when Hermione was looking down on the weird girl from school, then a slightly shorter one where she was kinda embarrassed by her girlfriend’s strange habits. Yes, Hermione was in love with Luna, but some of her quirky things always annoyed her.. a lot.

“I’m a witch, you know,” Luna whispered, “I mean, a real one, not like in those stupid movies and novels.” 

Hermione almost said something mean, but everybody knew that it’s an impossible business to start an argument with Lunny Lovegood, the strangest student of them all. “That’s wonderful,” she answered instead with a forced smile, not like it would matter since it’s only their second conversation ever and it won’t come up again.

Then months and years passed, many things changed, but Luna seemingly stayed the same, even after the two of them… let’s just say that they had longer plans together, along with longer pauses between taking breaths in each other’s company.. who even knows how it all went this way..

“I’m a witch, you know,” Luna’s words echoed in the back of Hermione’s head, who remembered that fateful day like if she had photographic memory, because she did… because of it, she was unique even among the people she worked with in the lab. 

Entering the living room on foggy Sunday morning at the end of February, Hermione was reminded of something by the sight that welcomed her. She was a brilliant mind, a researcher with extraordinary memory, a person with multiple science awards, and… her girlfriend was a witch. A real one, not like in those stupid movies and novels, as Luna once said word by word.

“Would you like me to help with your ritual?” she asked Luna while secretly thinking how stupid it is. “Spring won’t come without our help, won’t it?

Luna grabbed a handful of candles and a lighter and gave them to Hermione. “No, it won’t, so we’d better not waste any more time.” 

While placing the candles in their places all around the room, Hermione, like always, started having the thoughts she was really trying to avoid, even if they were making sense, unlike Luna’s weird rituals that made the seasons change.

“It doesn’t change them, it doesn’t work like that, silly!” Luna’s words from their odd conversation from years ago just came to her mind. “We, witches are capable of doing many things, but we have our limits when it comes to more drastic things. We just help nature to do its own thing with our little rituals and through them, we too connect to it in a way, and we all do our part.”

Hermione tried many times to somehow make Luna understand that it’s worthless and placing candles, little leaves, and rocks around in certain patterns and then murmuring magic words doesn’t do anything, but with time, she had to admit that Luna can’t really be convinced that easily. “... and it won’t even do anything,” she thought, remembering the weather forecast and the fact that the foggy and cold winter is not about to leave for some more weeks. 

“Give me your hands!” said Luna as they were sitting on the floor with crossed legs, facing each other after carefully placing every little ‘magical’ item in its right place. Hermione did her part and held her girlfriend’s hands and both of them closed their eyes to let the ritual begin. Luna slowly started speaking to nature, telling all the little details of how winter is ending now and spring is just around the corner and they are here to help it come.

Hermione felt a warmth, not the one that originated from Luna’s hands, but a warm feeling inside her as always as she just sat there and listened to the smooth voice of her girlfriend, saying all sorts of nonsense about how they do make a change and how they really help spring to come with their ritual. 

She felt happiness in Luna’s voice, and she felt that it’s in her too now, that it doesn’t matter how silly it all is, this is something that’s really important to Luna, one of the few things her mother taught her when she was little and they sat in their home the same way, facing each other and holding hands as Luna’s mum said the exact same words as she called spring to come. Hermione knew it all, Luna told the stories so many times, that she’d remember every word of it even if she didn’t have such an excellent memory.

Hermione’s eyes opened as they both felt the cold shiver running across them just a few seconds after Luna finished the ritual speech. Later, she tried really hard to convince herself that all the candles were put out somehow by the wind at the same time, even while all the windows were closed.

“Spring!” Luna stated as if it was the most ordinary thing to say, as the rays of the sun all of a sudden were able to penetrate the fog outside and filled the whole room with warm light, for really the first time in the year.

Hermione’s memory was nearly perfect and through the next few weeks, she always stopped for a few seconds and stated to herself what the forecast said before and how it should be cold and rainy, but somehow, like it was magic, spring arrived earlier.

“Does your girlfriend still do all those mystical weather manipulations, and witchcraft, and things?” Hermione’s colleague asked one day, pointing at the clear spring sky and the trees that were covered in flowers. “Maybe she did all this.” 

“Most certainly!” Hermione laughed. “I know that it’s stupid and that she won’t ever grow out of things like that, but it’s part of why I love her.”

She really meant it, that it’s stupid and that Luna will never change and that it’s a good thing in a way. Like a thousand times before, she remembered her words, exactly how Luna once said them: “I’m a witch, you know. I mean, a real one, not like in those stupid movies and novels.” 

Chapter Text

Luna always enjoyed spending some time with her roommate, even if it wasn’t quite quality time. Ginny was really into sports, and she didn’t only play football, she always watched her favorite team’s matches with great enthusiasm and talked a lot about them in the meantime, even when nobody really asked. Luna always listened happily. 

Ginny seriously asked if it was a good idea to invite Hermione over to their finals, she even told Luna that it’s fine if they’d rather go on a date or something that watch the match with her, since Hermione wasn’t really enjoying any kind of sports events.

“No, I’m happy to stay and watch the game with you two,” said Hermione in the moment between sitting down to the couch with Luna on her lap, and the start of the game. “Yes, I still don’t understand how you can enjoy watching twenty people running after one ball this much, but it’s gonna be better with company.”

Luna giggled a little while already looking super relaxed and comfortable in her girlfriend’s arms. “Believe me, watching football is a great way to take a nap. When they are just running around, you fall asleep, but when anything interesting happens the commentator starts shouting and you wake up to see the most important moments.” 

Ginny rolled her eyes on the comment but she knew that this is the way Luna generally watches.. everything.

Nearly two hours later, all Ginny remembered about the other two was that a good ten minutes before that they lay on the couch and cuddled with Hermione being the big spoon. Ginny’s hands forcefully clenched around the edge of her armchair as she watched what was possibly the most intense scene she’d ever seen.

The commentators almost lost their voice while shouting what the players are desperately doing in the final minutes to somehow score a single point before the end. Usually she shouted and jumped and clapped when stuff like this happened, but this time she was pinned into her seat and watched the game completely silent.

Then came the moment that the fans of the team always just mentioned as their greatest moment of the whole year. Ginny didn’t even make a sound when her favorite player scored and won the game in the very last minute, she just dropped a single tear. The whole audience was jumping and singing after that, and she was sure that the same thing was happening in all the living rooms and bars where people watched it with their friends… with their friends…

Ginny just remembered that it was the greatest time for Hermione to watch her first match with her and Luna. She just wanted to see the look on their face, but then she was shocked to see that both of them were just asleep on the couch. As cute as it was, she couldn’t believe that they slept through everything, the commentators shouting, the cheers and cries of the crowd, everything… they just slept in each other's comfort like it was the calmest moment and the greatest feeling ever. It made Ginny look forward to the day when Harry’s gonna be back from his trip a little more.

Chapter Text

While sitting by a little table across Luna, on a coffee shop’s terrace, Hermione was wondering that her date on Valentine’s Day was going pretty bad. The main problem was that she wasn’t on a date with Luna. She slowly took another sip of her hot chocolate, but the warmth going down her throat wasn’t enough to save her from a painful shiver that went through her whole body in the cold February evening.. 

“Your date isn’t coming. I’m sure that it’s way too late to even hope that he’s going to arrive,” said Luna, who was pretty much forgotten by Hermione by this point and who didn’t even bother looking at her while telling the sad truth, she just continued glaring at the falling snowflakes.

“I know,” Hermione admitted with a sigh. “I guess it’s not my lucky day. Nonetheless, thank you for waiting here with me!” Hermione pulled out two tickets from her pocket and took a sad look at the concert hall’s entrance just across the street. “Everyone’s already inside, I can’t even sell these to anyone now. What a waste!”

She could even see that the images of Myron Wagtail from the two tickets were laughing at her. Even if it was impossible for a printed picture to grin or laugh like if it was magic or something.. and she remembered and asked Luna to repeat what she was saying about half an hour ago.

Luna took her time to catch another snowflake with her tongue before answering. “That The Weird Sisters are actually wizards. They play music for us, non magical people, and they are somewhat popular, but in a world of witches and wizards they are the biggest music band and every person of our age knows them. There are eye witnesses if you don’t believe me, like always. People even saw Wagtail himself turning into a giant fruit bat once.” 

“Wizards or warlocks or vampires, or whatever they are, I’m not seeing them tonight,” Hermione stated in a disappointed voice. “I just wanted to have a nice and normal date like everyone else and just a day when I could feel that I fit in.”

“I’m going with you if you’d like,” said Luna, making her frown a little in surprise. “I mean I don’t really like their music, but they are rather good I guess, and you seem like you’re in a desperate need of some company now, if you’d accept me as the person you go with to the concert.”

Hermione was not sure what to say and for a moment she thought that there was a huge misunderstanding between her and her friend.. or whatever you’d call someone like Luna. Also, it was very much an odd way of asking her out as a friend, but nothing else, just some comforting gesture. Luna must’ve known that she’ll turn off the offer, otherwise she wouldn’t have asked in the first place. All she needed is the obvious excuse before saying goodbye, ripping the ticket into pieces, crying in her bed for some time, then calling it a night.

“It’s kind of you, but it’s a Valentine’s Day concert, it’s only romantic themed and it was meant to be an event for dates, for couples.”

“I thought that maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if we went together. I don’t think that there’s anything bad about that.”

Hermione just smiled at her.. thing.. because she had no idea what to call it. Naivety or stupidity were way too harsh, she thought. “It’s so nice of you to offer to come with me as a friend, especially that you don’t like The Weird Sisters, but I’d rather not attend it like that. It would just be awkward.”

“Then I only have one solution,” Luna stood up, nearly knocking over the whole table next to theirs and reached her hand out for her. “Would you come on a date with me.. you know, just two friends going on a date. Nothing weird about that...” 

Hermione swallowed the question about the scenario if they go in there as friends, only to come out as something else and took her hand instead. “Let’s see if they will turn someone into a toad or a black cat on stage!”

Luna giggled. “ That would be too obvious. I know that they could do it, but they don’t need that much attention.”

Later, it was the night that Luna always remembered as the night when they saw The Weird Sisters shooting out magic sparkles from their hands that were a hundred-percent magical and not special effects… While Hermione always mentioned it as the day they kissed for the first time when the lights were shut down during the slow dancing session.

Chapter Text

“How in the name of Merlin did you do that?” Everyone in the Burrow turned their heads towards Luna, after Ginny asked the most honest question ever since the summer break started.

“Did what?” she asked while stroking the base of the giant, half-Kneazle’s ear, who was lying in her lap.

“Crookshanks... you’re… Hermione is the only person he tolerates. You’re the only other person who managed to touch him without being eaten alive.”  

“Yes,” Harry added. “Just look at these claw marks on my arm! The last time I had anything like this one, Fawkes had to carry us out from the Chamber of Secrets.”

Luna didn’t say anything to them, just looked at the giant purring furball. “You don’t seem like someone who’d hurt Hermione’s friends.”

The stairs were cracking under the weight of three people coming down from the first floor and Hermione’s angry voice became louder as she and the Weasley twins approached. “Okay, this is it, no more jokes! No more pranks, no more nonsense, nothing! Did you two understand? “

“Well, there are two ways of dealing with our little problem,” Fred held up two fingers as he hopped down to the empty half of a sofa. “One: We do it the hard way. You do your prefect duty with chasing us all year long, while we do our.. how should I put it? Our entertainment- and student welfare duty. Or there’s number two…”

“Please, not this again!” Hermione rolled her eyes in the armchair on the opposite side of the room.

“Yes, this again! We can learn to coexist with each other. You do your part, not minding out business, while we do our part, not minding your business.”

“Having the perfect symbiotic relationship,” George spoke next. “Like your murderous battle lion and our favorite manic pixie dream girl.”

It was such an unbelievable sight, that Hermione’s brain just filtered it out until that very moment. She took some long seconds to observe Luna, aka. the only other person who could hold Crookshanks the way she did. “He seems to be,” a pleasant picture flashed through her mind of being involved with Luna’s lap. “It seems to be comfortable. Crookshanks seem to like you for some reason.”

“Kneazles are really sensitive to their owners’ smell. Most likely even he can smell it on me.” Luna stated in a way that in Hermione’s interpretation, she didn’t even realize how weird it sounded.. and how she might’ve accidentally spilled their secret.

“Yes, it must be,” Hermione agreed, hoping that none of the others will ask about it, thinking that sharing a room might be enough for the effect, and that none of them will question why doesn’t Crookshanks treat her Hogwarts roommates differently, the ones she’s also sharing a room with.

Chapter Text

“I’m really not sure about this thing. It must attract a lot of creeps or something.” Hermione told her childhood friend sadly, leaning over a laptop, that showed a blank page.

Ron smiled at her comment. “Well, that’s sure as hell, but you’ll obviously get to know someone before.. you know. It’s like the opposite of friends with benefits, the relationship without the fun part.” 

“It’s just even more absurd if you say it like that.”

“The thing is, that you have nothing to lose, except your opportunity for finding someone who fits.” 

Hermione thought about the thing for some time and typed down the words. 

“ 23F, lesbian, I’m looking for a lesbian girl around London who I can meet sometimes and occasionally cuddle with. Not a relationship, just someone to talk to about very personal things and share some intimate space with.”

“This sounds right,” said Ron, gesturing towards the screen.

“Just remember, that if one day I’ll disappear or something, then it’s your fault!” Hermione hit the upload.

Less than an hour passed when she got the reply and.. she was hesitant to answer to say the least. There were obvious red flags, so many of them it was impossible to fall for this person, or at least Hermione thought.

“Luna Lovegood is a nice name,” Ron stated. “It alliterates, even if it sounds like, well, how should I put? It’s like a por..

“I know! It was my first thought.” Hermione exclaimed. “On top of everything, this girl has to be a really weird person, or just some crazy fanatic.” 

“Okay, okay, what are the odds that she’s going to murder you?” Ron giggled so hard on his own joke he almost choked on some food.

“Ehm.. I don’t know. She’s a mess, I mean..” Hermione turned her laptop towards him to show Luna’s profile.”Just look at this cover, some alien-pyramid-conspiracy stuff, and look at the stuff she was sharing! Reptilians, hollow Earth, real-life witches, giants.. I can’t believe that the only person interested is some crazy girl.”

“She’s pretty tough. Judging by those 3 pictures she has uploaded.” 

“She sent pictures in DMs, her room is pretty messy, there’s stuff scattered everywhere. At least no trash, just clothes and everything.”

“That’s a nice pair!” Ron pointed at some underwear that was clearly visible in the background, behind Luna. “Practical… if she needs something, she just looks around and grabs it.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “She’s living with her dad. Her mum passed away a long time ago. Her dad is a journalist, an editor in fact. Too bad, it’s some.. questionable magazine.”

“Her mum, you say? That explains at least some of it.” 

“You’re awful, Ron! How can you say that? Even about her, it’s wrong.” She took another look at Luna’s picture and realized that she felt something, a little sadness maybe.

“Sorry for saying that, I thought you’d rather not want to see her. Or do you?”

“I’ll think about it,” Hermione said, already knowing that she will ask Luna for a meeting. “There’s something in the way she writes. Not what she writes, but how she does it. It feels like someone who’s not quite shy, but got used to being mocked by others, who think she’s weird.”

The next afternoon, Hermione was sitting on the terrace of a little cafe, not far from her home, stroking her phone in her hand.. and Luna was late. She opened the messages to see if there’s anything, but there was none. The last one said:

“good meet u at the cafe 4pm see u! <3”

It was 4:12pm. Not even knowing why, Hermione scrolled back to the very first message Luna wrote to her and started wondering if it all was just a big game, a joke and she just didn’t notice some even bigger red flags. She stared at the rather big block of text.

“Hi my name is Luna. I saw yuor message about the cuddle buddy hunting. I’ve never had anyone to do tat with. I like girls, that way even bt i’M a litte confused sometimes. I understand if it’s an exclusion. I just thought that we could gibe it a go if you want it. People often find me unpleasent i have to admit, but i don’t care that much. You seemed to be a nice person, even if you end up being a know-it-all based on your pictures but don’tr worry I can be a little much sometines too. Maybe we might fit for that exact reason. Sorry for just writing all sorts of nonsense, I guess you wont’ answer. I just wanted to message you and tell yu that I’m interested in trying out how it would work with a girl. 22f btw.”

“Are you trying to contact me right now? If that’s the case, you can use your mouth and speak instead!” said a soft voice somewhere outside of Hermione’s phone screen.

Chapter Text

From time to time there was something that drove Hermione absolutely crazy, and about half the time Luna was involved in it. Luna always found a new way to plant some seed in her girlfriend’s brain that slowly started growing on her nerves.

Hermione attempted to concentrate on the paperwork while sitting in her office but there was a little tune playing in her head. The evening prior, Luna was humming it to herself and Hermione just didn’t even bother since she did that all the time, but this one was different. It got stuck in her head and it was slowly driving her absolutely crazy, because she remembered it from somewhere, but had no idea what it was.

Like never before, she had to correct five grammar mistakes she made on a single paper, which was her personal lowest. She's never had more than 3 mistakes on a page, not even at Hogwarts. Still, for some weird reason, anything she touched that day just turned out the best way possible, so it wasn’t a bad day at all. The thing that separated it from a really great day was the tune that kept playing in her head the entire day, but it was a fair price for all the fortunate events.

First, she met Minister Shacklebolt and almost lost her attention while listening to him because of the song, but then she learned that the Minister decided to increase the budget of her new S.P.E.W. event. Then she kept humming the song while helping Harry to find some old case in the archives and she just picked the exact folder they were looking for for the first try. Right after that, she got a letter from the Department of Mysteries that the ancient texts she sent there for translation were finished after they were previously thought to be written in a dead language, but someone accidentally found a way to read them.

It seemed that she just had an insanely fortunate day.. other than not being able to forget about that stupid song.. 

“... then they told me that someone was looking at my text upside down all along, and that’s why they couldn’t translate it.” Hermione talked about her day at dinner. “Can you believe this?”

“I’ve always said that they should always try reading everything upside down, but they never listened.” Luna seemed unusually satisfied to learn about the event.

“One more thing!” Hermione suddenly remembered. “What was that song you were humming last evening? It just kept playing in my head. I’m sure that I’ve heard it somewhere.”

“It’s ‘Fortune to All’ by Merlin’s Nephew,” Luna answered within a second. “Quite famous in the whole Wizarding World and it literally has magic on its own, but many people argue about that. It was one of my mum’s favorite songs, actually.”

After dinner, Luna pulled out a vinyl record of her collection and put it on the player. Hermione instantly recognized it as the real song started playing, even though she only heard a rather muffled version of it on Youtube before. Luna started singing along, the exact same lyrics Hermione remembered now:

“Like the wind,
You came running,
Take the consequence of leaving.“

Hermione joined by the time it reached the line, “There is only one way And it’s somewhere in your mind.”

“See, you know what this is! Fortune to All by Merli..”

“This is The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet!” Hermione cut her off.

“No, there’s no mystery about it,” Luna laughed. “Except of course its magical effect, but trustworthy people say that it’s true.”

“No, you don’t understand. I’ll show you!” Hermione opened her laptop aka. the weird ‘Muggle magic device’ that Luna was way too paranoid to touch, and she showed the exact same song. “There’s this whole team of people who are looking for this song, because someone recorded it in the 80s, but they didn’t know the band or the title, that’s why it’s called The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet.”

“Muggles know this?” Luna’s eyes just grew wider. “They are not supposed to, since all the magical songs are enchanted… so nobody… can remember their name who’s not magical.”

“This is it!” Hermione exclaimed, “This is why they don’t know. It’s a magical song!”

“What about its magical effect? Do they know about that too? That it brings fortune..”

“What do you mean?”

“This song was created right before the last member of Merlin’s Nephew passed away. It’s actually that person who plays every single instrument in the song and he’s singing too. Before dying, he said that he enchanted the song, so if a Muggle hears it, they will have a fortunate day. I don’t know if it works with Muggleborn witches and wizards or not. According to a person who wrote about it in the Quibbler, it will enchant someone’s day, but like Felix Felicis, it takes a few months to do it again. ”

“Luna! Muggles are listening to it constantly. They share it with others while looking for the original creator and they have no idea that they are listening to.. an audible version of Felix Felicis. This is why I had such a lucky day, it was the song that got stuck in my head. Too bad that they can’t find out, but still it’s great that it helps them even after this many years.”

Luna’s eyes were glowing. “I knew that it did have a magical effect! And this is not all. It’s enchanted to only be heard by someone when they need it the most, so its effect won’t be wasted.”

“I kinda doubt that it really was the most important day for me to..” Hermione was suddenly struck by a realization. She took a deep breath, then told Luna about that specific ancient text she suspected was the key to understand how Time-Turners worked, a knowledge that was thought to be lost for centuries.

Chapter Text

Hermione Granger’s life went in a different direction one day, a direction she never even imagined would be possible before that day. Her dad took her to a tennis match when she was 7, not to a giant match full of well-known players, just a local little club’s event, full of familiar faces from the neighborhood and full of… simple fun. Beer for the adults, cotton candy and popcorn for the kids.

Hermione was not happy about it for quite a long time. Meeting new people, especially strangers was not quite the fun time, unlike many kids her age would claim. Hermione would’ve rather read some more pages of some novel that was mandatory for kids in the 3rd or 4th grade. Until it all shattered like a glass window would’ve done in the way of the yellowish-green ball that flew in her direction.

Catching it was somewhat painful, her fingers did hurt a little bit for a moment. People were cheering but Hermione was sure that they weren’t cheering for her, who did nothing other than opening her hands and letting the ball fall into them.

Being shocked for a moment, she had no idea what she was supposed to do. She never even thought about the infinitely unlikely event of catching a tennis ball that flew off the pitch, still there she was, holding the little ball and looking into the eyes of the smiling woman in the tennis uniform. She did the thing that was the right thing to do. Hermione stood up from her seat, gathered all her strength and dexterity, and hoped that she wouldn't miss when throwing the ball back to the player.

She did not miss. It was a perfect throw, overshadowed by the realization a split second before the tragedy. Hermione took her eyes off the ball once it was flying and then was frozen still as she looked back at the tennis player, expecting to look into her eyes again, only to see that she’d already looked away and was not seeing what was coming towards her.

The ball hit her in the head right between her ear and eye socket as she was facing away in a ninety-degree angle. Her jump of surprise was followed by the whole crowd’s laughter, which scared Hermione more than any mean older student could’ve done in her school. She knew that it was bad, that she messed it up so bad that she deserved to be laughed at by every single person in whole Britain.

Hermione stood still and terrified as she watched the player laugh too, picking up the ball and jumping over the short barrier with ease. She was taller than it seemed from the distance, but in a moment the tall player became as tall as Hermione as she lowered herself to one knee and looked into Hermione’s eyes with a smile, then placed the ball back into her small hand.

“I’m sorry,” it was all Hemione could squish out her mouth.

“It’s okay. But you’re not supposed to throw it back, it’s yours now!”

Hermione was left completely confused. “But I don’t need it, you can continue playing with it.”

The tennis player immediately knew that the kid in front of her was not quite a little sports person and didn’t understand. “We have giant boxes full of brand new balls, but you caught this one and you can take it home with you, and you will remember this day every time you look at it.”

Hermione didn’t say anything, just smiled. Then the player planted a gentle kiss on her cheek and jumped back to the pitch through the barrier to finish the match.

From that moment on, Hermione did nothing but sat still and watched her. She found herself mesmerized by the player’s every movement, watched her slender figure running back and forth, her blonde ponytail flying after her after every move. Hermione stared at her and smiled whenever the player smiled, cheered whenever she scored, holding the yellowish-green ball tight in her hands.

When they got home, Hermione was still in a strange form of trance. “She just got tired,” her parents said, but they were wrong. Hermione never felt more energetic before. Before going to bed, she held the ball in her hand for a long time, just stared at it, like if it was anything but a simple ball, then touched her cheek at the point that was kissed by the unknown player and felt something she’d never felt before. She didn’t lie awake for long, it was just a fraction of a second, the time she spent with a question floating in front of her before drifting into a sleep, “Is this how love feels?” The next day she went to school like nothing happened.

“That girl, see?” Ginny Weasley pointed at a blonde girl, years after Hermione’s day at the tennis match. “They call her Loony Lovegood.”

“Loony? I’m sure it fits.” Hermione answered without thinking. She couldn’t describe what came next. She saw her hair, it was dirty blonde, her skin that was simply pale and the ordinary uniform the girl was wearing. Still, somehow a memory came up from her subconscious, more like a fragment rather than a whole memory. It was nothing but a yellowish-green color and Hermione had no idea where it came from or what it meant.

Chapter Text

At the end of a long talk, Luna switched to a voice so soft and sad that was unusual even from her in her numbest moments.  

“I’m a believer, Hermione. I’ve always been and I always will be. There’s nothing that could change it, not even you.”

“I know it, and I understand that we’re different. I’ve been thinking about what I’d say to you about this, now that we’re talking about it, I just have no idea what I’m supposed to say.” 

Luna sat at the edge of her bed with crossed legs and stared at the floor for a fair number of uncomfortably silent seconds.

“There isn’t anything you’re supposed to say, besides what your heart wants to tell. I know you don’t listen to it often, but it’s one of those great moments, I think. All I know is that I’m not going to change and I won’t stop believing, doesn’t matter how improbable some things might be.”

“I can’t relate to you in some ways. When I was a little kid, I believed in magic and dragons and everything and I know that those things were true in the end. Sometimes I forget that I’m living a real life fairy tale, one that is only a dream for muggle children. I spent my teens living in this dream, even with some aspects turning into nightmares. But I still can’t have faith in anything. I can’t believe something like you do, I need facts and knowledge, not old tales about things that might or might not be true.”

“Would you like me to tell you how I feel when you say these things?” she didn’t wait for an answer. “I feel that when you say that I’m wrong to believe in things and that you can’t do it the way I do, I feel that you can’t accept me. I feel that you don’t believe in me, but most importantly you don’t believe in us.”

Hermione sat right next to her and grabbed her hand as gently as she could and looked her in the eye with all her mental strength, knowing that the thing she’s about to say, the thing she finally came up with as an answer has to be performed at her best.

“I don’t need beliefs,” she stated. “You might say that I should believe in many things, but I only care about the facts that don’t lie to me. The facts are, that you are brilliant. You are an amazing journalist, an extraordinary magizoologist, a breathtaking artist, and you are the most important person of my life. There’s nothing that I need to believe, I only have to be aware of the facts, and I need to know how I feel, and I’m confident in everything.”

Luna took some moments to process all this and her exceptionally unreadable face showed a range of emotions all at once.

“Just tell me one more thing! How can you believe me when I say that I love you?”

“All I have to do is look into your eyes when you say it, and I know that it is the truth.”

Chapter Text

Hermione couldn't recall the last time she was out of words. She thought that it must've been a multiple-year-long streak that she just broke, but it was worth it. It felt like barely a few minutes but it might've been half an hour since she opened her eyes to see the most beautiful sight she's ever witnessed. The first page of a new book or a sky fully painted by fireworks couldn't be compared to it, not even seeing the sunrise over Hogwarts was as beautiful as the face of the sleeping Luna on the other side of her pillow.

Hermione kept staring at her for so long she nearly forgot about everything else in the world as if nothing existed, just her, the pale face with closed eyes that was partially covered by some strands of hair, and the few centimeters between these two. She spent some minutes thinking about what she should say, but by the time it all ended Hermione even forgot about that. She just stared and couldn't stop feeling happiness emanating from every single particle of light that bounced off that face and found its way to her eyes. Finally, Luna started tossing around a little bit and opened her eyes, not even suspecting that they will pin down Hermione for a few solid moments, then slowly closed the once more while having a silent yawn with barely opening her mouth.

Finally, failing to come up with anything else, Hermione said the most obvious words one could say at this moment. "Good morning!"

Luna tossed a bit more as if she repositioned her numb and maybe uncomfortable limbs and neck, then freed her hand from underneath Hermione's upper arm, who even forgot that it was there. With said hand, Luna gently cupped Hermione's face and moved a bit closer, then barely audibly whispered, "Of course it is, because you're here with me." Then she buried her face into Hermione's chest, who hugged her even tighter and planted a kiss on the top of her head.

They remained like this for some more comfortable minutes.

Chapter Text

I’m sharing one of the more obscure internet mysteries with you. The following text is the unedited version of a real story that was posted on r/nosleep on September 5th, 2021 by a user named ‘bookwormfromtheuk96’. The user was never seen online after posting the following story. Before that, she’s been active on multiple subreddits focusing on books, English history and literature, and similar subjects. This user also commented on some posts on r/otters, claiming that otters were their favorite animals and that they found them really cute. Now, this person's last post from r/nosleep:

My girlfriend might be a witch. I hope that she’s just crazy.

I’ve experienced a lot of bullying as a kid. Growing up in the 2000s and being a teenager around 2010 was hard for me since every other girl my age who I met on a regular basis was really different. I’ve always been an introvert with no real friends and I spent my years learning everything about the world with the dream in my heart that one day I’ll be a true historian.

While other girls partied on Friday nights and talked about boys, all I did was reading and learning and wondering about why I don’t fit in. Also, the thing about boys… No, I’m not interested in boys, though I never really told it to people. They wouldn’t have cared at all anyways.

I felt alone until the day I met a girl and fell in love for the first time. She was the one who was called funny names behind her back, the girl who nobody knew, still everyone seemingly looked down on her for being a weirdo. I still have no idea what drew me towards her and honestly, I really doubt that I’ll ever know. I just felt that I had to approach her. Everything else just happened somehow. 

We talked, we went out together, we kissed, we fell in love. Or at least I did because I have no idea what to think anymore. I’m afraid that the last 3 years were just a big lie. There were major red flags from the very first moment, but I consciously decided to ignore all of them. I was a fool and it might be too late now. I still hope it was just all just a joke, that it IS all just a joke because I can't bear the thought that what I’ve been witnessing and what comes now is reality. 

When we met, she sounded odd. Not because of the way she spoke but because of the things she said. You know, she’s a conspiracy and paranormal fan, but when I say ‘a fan’ I mean she’s absolutely nuts for this. I found it cute at the start, but I think that there might be something seriously wrong with her. I hope she didn’t go too far with something that I don’t know of. What am I saying? She definitely did. I still hope that all of it is just a sick joke.

I started noticing something, something that she might think she’s hiding well, but I saw it not long after we met. She talks about places and people who don’t even exist sometimes. She mentions things that sound unfamiliar to me, but if I ever call her out on them, then she never mentions that particular thing again. I searched many of them on the internet but I never found any, not even those weird paranormal and mystical sites she visits sometimes. I wonder if those are also a part of a lie or not. She also mentioned some witches and wizards that might exist in real life, but here’s the thing… she said ‘might exist’. She claims all sorts of strange things to exist 100%, but she just mentioned witches and wizards, but then never spoke about them again, even without me calling her out. You’ll see where I’m going with this...

I saw her doing strange things from time to time. Things that I place at places sometimes moved around when she was near, but she never touched any of them, long lost items were immediately found once she started looking. She pieced together a broken vase like it was never broken and claimed that she just glued it together with the superglue on my desk. I checked it and the tube of glue was still unopened. The same thing happened with multiple little items. Food that was supposed to be spoiled sometimes or even moisty just turned edible again around her, and these are not even the creepiest things, just stuff I deal with every day. I was thinking that she might wants me to slowly lose my mind, but I told myself that it’s not true because I love her.

Strange people seem to recognize her in public, people wearing out of fashion clothes, but sometimes even people in robes. They see her, and she nods or gently waves at them when she thinks I can’t see. Who are these people? And the owls… owls regularly find her, like if she was a druid or something. They fly near her, let her touch them without a flinch when I’m not around. I saw her talk to owls sometimes too.

And the stick… I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT THAT THING IS AND IT FREAKS ME OUT!!! She has a short stick that she keeps in her hair. It’s like a magic wand from an old cartoon. I saw her putting it behind her ear, but it vanished afterward. I asked her about the stick in her hair, but she never gave me a clear answer other than “What stick?”. I tried looking, touching her hair as she slept to find it, but there’s no stick. Am I going crazy? 

It’s getting long and there’s something going on right now.. It’s 3 AM and I heard her speak to someone on the phone yesterday. She said something along the lines of ‘she’s one of us, I’m sure now’ and ‘her time is here’, then she put down the phone saying ‘bye.’ When I asked her, she told me that it was her dad, but she LIED!! She always says ‘Bye, dad!’ or ‘See you soon, dad!’ Never just ‘bye.’ It was the people in the robes. She talked to one of them.

They came about an hour ago. I woke up to some noises and saw that Luna was not in the bed. I crept to the door and listened to her voice inviting in the three hooded figures. I barely saw them through the crack of the door as they walked by the room with her. Two of them are ginger and look like they were brother and sister, and the other one had a scar on her forehead underneath his black hair. I’ve never seen them in my entire life. I feel like I don’t even know who my girlfriend really is.

I barely heard what they were saying, but it was about something about me. One of the men referred to me with an M-word, but I don’t remember... Something-born. They talked about destroyed documents, that someone destroyed the documents of people who were born before 1997. There was something about me somewhere that was destroyed. I don’t know what it might be, I have no idea what Luna is doing with these people. I hope it’s just a nightmare and that I’ll wake up soon.

They said that they will tell me everything when I wake up in the morning before Luna sent them towards the guest room. I knew I had to pretend that I’m sleeping. She came back alone to our room and lay down next to me. I didn’t even dare to make a noise. She asked me gently if I’m awake, but I pretended that I was sleeping. I haven’t left the room. I just sat on the floor and pulled out my laptop to type this. She’s sleeping by me, while the strangers are in the guest room. I’m afraid to find out who they might be, I just want to forget about them and I want to trust my girlfriend again, but I’m afraid that it’s late. I don’t know who she is, after all, I NEVER KNEW!! 

I’m posting this in case I’ll never be able to speak again. The sun is rising soon and it’s time for any big revelation they have for me. Please, hope that she’s just part of some scammy, crazy conspiracy group and that she’s neither a cult member nor a real witch who will sacrifice me with her companions or something! She told them that I was special and that my time has come. I don’t know what to believe anymore. Please, someone, tell me what to do! Please someone just tell me already that it’s just a nightmare! 

…

This is where this mysterious story ends. A Redditor claims that her girlfriend acts weird and sometimes things happen around her that are borderline paranormal events. Not long before this was written and posted, some hooded figures showed up in their home and were invited in by the girl she thought she knew for real. The answer to the question ‘how this story ends?’ is simple. We don’t have the slightest clue. 

Maybe the writer was a troll who tricked us all into believing that all of it was true. Maybe the people who crept into her home in the middle of the night with inside help silenced her for good. Or is it possible that they told her that she’s been a forgotten witch all along and that there’s a magical place where she can learn the secrets of witchcraft? It’s been 7 years since this post was made and we will most likely never find out the answer. 

What happened to bookwormfromtheuk96 on that fateful morning? Is she buried somewhere, slain by the girl who she trusted and her friends, or she’s on her way right now to become the brightest witch of our age? Is this the story of a young girl's final moments as a mortal being, or is it just that every word of this story is a lie that was spelled out.

Chapter Text

“I only wish I was a witch.” said Luna somewhat sadly, “It would’ve been much easier for me if I had magic powers and everything.

“So, you’re simply capable of talking to the dead if I understand correctly,” said Harry Potter, the only survivor of the Massacre of Godric’s Hollow of 81’.

“Depends,” she answered,” they can communicate with me if they really want but it’s not always successful. I can feel their presence, much more than other people and sometimes I find clues that others can’t, but I don’t have magical powers like in tales.

“Tell us about that evening, Harry!” - Hermione asked who was sitting by the table with them, holding a camera. “I know that it’s hard for you, but it’s important for us to know everything.”

“This is where it began,” Harry led the two paranormal investigators to the foyer. “This is where Tom murdered my dad, who wanted to…”

Luna felt dizzy all of a sudden as she looked at a particular spot on the ground and felt Harry’s voice being muffled out. She saw a pool of blood on the ground that was spreading from a dying man who was wounded by an axe and then heard continuing thud sounds from a few meters away.

“Luna! Are you…” She heard Harry’s voice too once again.

“Don’t!” Hermione stopped him, still pointing the camera at Luna. “She sees something right now.”

“He wasn’t in pain for too long,” Luna mumbled, “it was a clean strike right in the neck artery. He barely felt anything.”

The statements like this one were the ones Hermione always told her to just not say out loud right away, but even she always realized way too late to remind her. Luna knew of course that it can really upset some people with these, but for her it was like breathing. She just uncontrollably said everything that she saw in these moments.

“Is he still here?” Harry asked in a slightly trembling voice.

“No,” Luna answered, “Tom left the door wide open behind him and he could just go. He couldn’t even choose, just got swept out like a leaf in the wind.” She saw Harry’s mouth opening again to say something, but she didn’t wait for that. “I heard something else from upstairs.

Just as she said it, she launched herself and after dodging both of them she ran upstairs towards the sound. She only realized only after a few stairs later that Hermione hated this one too, and constantly asked her not to start running around in people’s homes, but she couldn’t resist. She had to, before losing the connection.

Luna finally stopped in front of an empty door frame that led into a small room. Harry and Hermione reached her and stared at her for some time as she was staring into the empty room.

“That’s where it happened,” said Harry in a certain voice that is almost expected from people who are finally and undoubtedly convinced about Luna’s gift.

“She was full of terror,” said Luna, trying to hold back her tears. Harry couldn’t know that she literally never cried by herself. She could only cry by feeling other people’s suffering.

Luna built up some strength and reached for the doorknob with a trembling hand but she was unable to grip on it. She was searching for it for a few seconds in the air, trying to find the non-existent doorknob, then stepped backwards to free herself from the vision and to be able to see the thing that was really there, to see the empty door frame, sitting there like a broken, grim archway that led into the room that once was a nursery.

“There used to be a door here,” she said as she realized that the door has been missing for decades and she only saw a vision of it.

“They took it entirely,” said Harry, “But yes, it was here, and it was in Tom’s way.

Luna stepped into the little room and saw that there was still the little baby bed in the corner with a few toys and whatnot that they left here. Seeing the layer of dust, anyone could’ve told that it wasn’t touched for a long time. She didn’t even have to ask, she knew that since James and Lily died, nobody lived in this house. For a moment she started thinking if Harry even told her the names of his parents, but all of a sudden she felt a long range of emotions that started overwhelming her, and there was not a single pleasant one among them.

From one moment to the next she saw a giant collection of memories that flashed in from of her eyes at once, then she realized that she wasn’t there anymore, but she was sitting on a bed in the room next to the nursery, with a glass of half drank water in her hand. She snapped back to reality and felt as she lost control and she started weeping. It helped a lot that her girlfriend was there to hold her while she cried.

“I’ve never felt anything this strong,” said Luna a few moments later as she looked at Harry. “I heard you crying, and your mother too, and there was the sound of the door being broken apart. It was painful. I have to go back there!”

Hermione tried to argue against it without success, but Luna half commanded her to get the camera and follow her. As she reached back to the room again, she saw everything once again, but slower and in a comprehensive way, everything from the point where Tom raised the axe for the first time to smash it into the locked door, until the point when he was standing above the crying baby in the little bed like a bloody boogie man.

“Please, I have to know it, Luna,” Harry asked, “Why did Tom leave me alive? He wrote it in his diary that the voices in his head told him that they will go away if he kills me, or at least that’s what I thought until tonight, so why, what is the truth then?”

“I’m not entirely sure. Your mother is not here anymore by the way either. But Tom, he didn’t die here, he decided to leave and I’m not sure what happened to him.”

“He walked out of the house and reached almost the next street. The arriving police shouted at him to drop the weapon, but he charged at them and he was shot.” 

“I- I think I know. So that was him who I saw from the car as we were coming,” Luna felt the revelation as she pieced together the two pieces, that she indeed felt the death of Tom sometime earlier.”

“You know? You saw him?”, asked Harry in a not quite understanding voice. “Just how many people do you see walking around with axes?” He felt Hermione strongly grabbing his arm to make him stop.

“I didn’t see the axe,” Luna admitted, “Just felt someone in rage, and some others who were.. in something similar and that he died. The streets are full of them, you see. Accidents, murders, pain, I feel them all as we get close to them. They are not ghosts, or at least most of them are not. They are just memories.”

“I’m so sorry!” Harry bursted out as he realized what he just did, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to..”

“I know, and it’s okay,” Luna answered, “People get upset and emotional around me and they sometimes say bad things, it’s not your fault. If you have something in your mind, please don’t hold it back, it might help us!”

Harry and Hermione looked at each other slowly. Hermione still holding his arm, she nodded as if she was giving him the permission to say something.

“What did you mean, by saying that the diary was a lie?” he finally asked.

“What do you mean?” Luna asked. She felt that something was missing, but couldn’t tell what it was.

Hermione stopped the recording and opened a previous file on the camera to show it. On the recording, Luna saw herself entering the room and after a few seconds of standing still, she saw the scene that she didn’t remember. She started saying one sentence over and over again.

“The diary is a lie. The diary is a lie. The diary is a lie. The diary is a lie. The diary is a lie.” Luna on the recording kept chanting it until the sentence was so distorted, it became incomprehensible, “Tedirsalie. Tedisall. Diirisallie.”

She almost collapsed on the footage, but they took her out of the room and she even heard Hermione asking for a glass of water, the one she held in her hand minutes after the recording.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Luna admitted. Maybe it’s because I felt that…” she stopped.

Luna looked up from the screen of the camera and towards the baby bed and saw Tom. Not the way she saw him before, from baby Harry’s perspective, but from where she stood. “Tom!” she called for him and even to her surprise, Tom slowly turned back and looked her in the eye. “It’s the time, isn’t it? The anniversary?”

Harry looked at Hermione questioningly, not knowing what was going on, then Hermione pointed at the little digital clock on the screen of the camera. Harry understood what it meant. It was the time, maybe just minutes after the time his parents were murdered back in 1981. Luna called it without knowing the exact time.

Nearly forgetting about them both, Luna stepped closer to the weathered face that she saw, more clear than possibly anything before. “I’m sorry, Tom. I’m so sorry,” she said to the figure in front of her. “Please, don’t! If you have any of  what you felt before! I understand what I saw before. It felt so chaotic, but I see it now. You won’t make anything right if you do this, but his little child is not responsible for anything. Please, let him live!”

“What are you?” asked the figure, more clear than anyone she heard before. “Are you a guardian angel or something? 

“I don’t know it yet. Maybe I will be one day,” she answered.

Tom didn’t say anything to that, just slowly nodded, looked back at the baby bed, then walked out the room. As Luna saw the figure disappear behind the door, she saw Harry and Hermione once again standing in the room. 

“It was me,” stated Luna, not even fully believing it herself as she fought dizziness and grabbed the frame of the little bed to stay standing, and releasing some nearly forgotten dust into the air. Hermione jumped closer to prevent her from falling, but it was enough and Luna didn’t collapse either way.

“You!” Harry nearly shouted with tears running down his cheeks, “You saved me! Tom saw you standing there from many years ago and heard you as you asked.”

Luna didn’t nod or say anything, just looked at Harry, just looked at him in a way that he knew it was all true. Harry sat down to the ground, resting his back against a wall to prevent himself from falling. “You saved me,” he repeated while sobbing.”

Luna walked there and sat down in front of him and grabbed Harry’s arm in a comforting way. “It was my first time, so you can be proud.” They both giggled a bit, and Harry didn’t know that it was possibly the first thing that Luna said in the entire year that could be considered to be a little joking sentence.

“The diary was a lie,” she said next. “Tom made it all up so people wouldn’t know the truth. 

“What was the truth then?” Harry asked.

“He was in love with your mother. She was a student in her class at Hogwarts Academy.” Luna saw the way Harry looked again as she mentioned the school that he never told her about. ”He knew that it was wrong, but he couldn’t change his feelings. It was the final heartbreak for Tom when Lily chose James. When your mum chose your dad. I’m so sorry, Harry!”

A new set of tears started rolling from Harry’s eyes. “You saved me!” he repeated, “And you told me the truth that I was looking for in my entire life. No, you yourself were the truth who I was looking for in my entire life.”

“Big words, but it’s okay!” Luna smiled, then raised her arms towards Harry to give him a hug. Luna held him for a bit because this time he was the one who needed it. Hermione sat down too to hug them both without saying how proud she was to her girlfriend. She knew that it could wait.

Six years passed when Luna and Hermione were invited once again to the house in Godric’s Hollow. This time it was like every other house on an autumn afternoon, except for the visitors. The whole Weasley family was there alongside many friends and extended family at the little gathering. 

“Are you ready to meet a special someone?” Harry asked Luna. “Look, there she is!”

Ginny arrived, holding the baby and carefully gave their smallest child to Luna. She held her with the greatest admiration in her eyes, thinking that she resembled Harry and his mum a lot. “Nice to meet you, Lily Luna Potter!” she murmured.

“You told her that we’re naming our kid after her?” Ginny asked Harry. “I wanted to tell her.”

“I…” Harry almost said that he didn’t tell anyone, but decided to not tell that to his wife, the same way he didn’t tell the details of how he met Luna and Hermione. They agreed on that evening six years ago, that it would be the wisest decision. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

Bonus: The Harry Potter themed pictures of my Halloween artworks from this year:

Chapter Text

“Here it is! The Spectrespecs 2.0, it should work perfectly once we reach far enough from the shore.” The strange device that Luna pulled out from a box was the extended version of her old Spectrespecs, only it looked even more goofy than ever before. The thing was attached to an old knight’s helmet (that Hermione would’ve sworn was a replica) that Luna enchanted herself to absorb almost all light so it would’ve appeared pitch black if it wasn’t wrapped around by the ‘Mysterious Metallic Muggle Wrapping Sheet’ that had a striking resemblance to everyday tinfoil.

Luna continued to explain how the handy little device is going to allow them to see through the water molecules with the enchanted magnifying glass that was popped into the original glasses, but Hermione didn’t understand much while trying to calibrate the sonar. She swore under her breath that for such an expensive rental boat they could’ve kept someone who calibrates these things before departure and just maybe tells customers how they should use them.

After enchanting the engine completely silent and figuring out how to operate the boat, Luna carefully started heading further from the shore while gently humming to herself. Meanwhile, Hermione took a break in flipping through the sonar’s manual to just admire the beautiful sight of Loch Ness.

“You know, after witnessing all the mysterious beings up close and learning that many of the stories I heard before the age of 11 were true, I really thought that the Loch Ness Monster must also be real,” said Hermione.

“Nessie is real!” Luna smiled back at her. “I know that muggles have some stories as well that they also think to be fake, but it’s common knowledge in the wizarding world, just there is no proper documentation, that’s all.”

Of course, Hermione thought about the most possible scenario and remembered that when Luna said ‘common knowledge', it really meant that there were 5 to 10 people who claimed to have witnessed said thing, but none of them had proof.

Despite the somewhat sad truth, another thing crossed Hermione’s mind. The fact was that in a way it didn’t matter if they found any trace of Nessie. It didn’t matter if they didn’t find anything and she’d listen to Luna in the rest of her life telling people the story of how they almost found Nessie, or if they found something really vague that Luna will mention as the undoubtable proof of Nessie’s existence. 

The only thing that mattered was that they went on the adventure together. At least this was the thing that Hermione thought, but just until the moment when she saw the strange shape showing up on the screen of the sonar, just moments before they heard a strangely beautiful sound echoing from beneath the surface.

Chapter Text

“It’s so sad that muggles murder the trees that they have in their homes at this time of the year,” Luna whispered, while resting her head on Hermione’s shoulder as they sat in front of their decorated Christmas tree that stood in a giant pot.

“Sawing them off and selling them on markets is what they can do.” Hermione answered, sounding much less annoyed then most of the times Luna said something overly sentimental in her eyes. “It’s only our privilege that we can enchant a tree so it will walk home with us.” 

“Poor children, who will always see a different tree being thrown out every year. Mum said that she chose this tree for me. It was so tiny back then.”

At that moment Hermione realized the true nature of this tradition that unlike her family, magical people had. It was common for parents to choose a tree for their first child and enchant it so it would grow slower and then they’d use that tree on Christmas every year. It was the same tree for Luna. While as a muggleborn even if she had some faint memories about seeing her first Christmas tree or the few trees after that, Luna saw the exact same tree every year. 

They decorated the tree that Pandora Lovegood chose to her baby daughter each year and then as they took down the last ornament, they let the tree out and it went back to the nearby forest until next year.

She realized that despite hearing about the tradition and seeing the same tree every year at the burrow and the same giant evergreen in Hogwarts that was allegedly hundreds of years old, she never really gave it a second thought. The tree that they decorated just minutes earlier is the same one that Luna and her parents had together ever since her girlfriend was a toddler.

“She chose the right one,” Hermione said while feeling that the hand around hers is getting a little more firm. She looked at Luna, half expecting to see a tear rolling down her cheek but there was none. Hermione never saw her at Christmas before, this one being the first they spent together and she didn’t exactly know what to say, so saying the truth would be the best, she thought. “And she would be proud of you,” Hermione added.

“I miss her. I wish she could’ve met you and saw…” she cut it off and just buried her head into Hermione’s chest. They sat there like this, with each other’s embrace before Luna ended her sentence, “...saw how happy you make me.”

Chapter Text

It was the strangest feeling in the best possible way. Luna meant it by heart, she was not joking, she didn’t tease the fellow adventurer or anything. Luna meant everything exactly as she said. On the first night out in the mountains, after they set up their tent that had plenty of room for beds, she sat up her hammock and told Hermione how comfortable it was despite looking like the worst way to sleep.

Hermione was however not convinced but found the thing strangely pleasing for the atmosphere of their journey. If they hadn’t been magic users who could carry an apartment-sized tent in their bag, maybe it would’ve been the best solution. Then Luna asked the question that haunted Hermione for the next half an hour.

Luna asked her if she wanted to share the hammock and cuddle as they slept, but Hermione turned it down once. The next day they continued their journey to find the Yellow Eared Mountain Cat and slowly it became apparent that their way upwards the bigger and bigger hills was not getting easier. That night after they ate their dinner, Hermione turned down Luna’s offer for the second time.

Hermione felt even more distracted the next day and the reason behind it was a whole bundle of thoughts. Sure, Luna must’ve asked every single person she traveled with if they wanted to cuddle.

“Those tracks can’t be older than one or two days,” Luna announced while sitting by the campfire after dusk. “Maybe we’ll see them tomorrow. So it's time to go to sleep now. Good night!”

“Wait,” Hermione stopped her. “May I join you after all?”

“I’m happy you changed your mind. I take cuddling really seriously.”

The thought finally hit her after a few minutes. It was one of their last nights out there and they had to start their way back by the next evening, and the way back will take much less time, maybe not longer than a day. She realized that she missed out on two nights, but it didn’t matter, because hugging Luna closer felt way too good to feel any sort of grief.

When she woke up, she suddenly remembered the sound she heard, possibly just moments before falling asleep.

“I’m not sure, but I might’ve heard a sound similar to what you’ve described.”

“You heard the Yellow Eared Mountain Cats?” Luna’s eyes glew up. “Then they must be close, let’s not waste any more time!”

Chapter Text

Sealing the envelope was always the hardest part. What would she do if there was something important that she should’ve written down, but just forgot? What if something just wasn’t clear? Often times there are much better pairs of words, series of sentences, and groups of paragraphs than the ones that are already on the paper, even after multiple re-writes.

Luna always spent entire afternoons or nights carefully handwriting her letter before Mother’s Day arrives. She even felt a wave of dread when thinking about the possibility of skipping one year, or even just leaving something out from the letter that she wrote to her mother each year ever since she was ten years old.

“I always stress out when I have to write a really important letter or an assignment, but this is different, don’t take it so…” Hermione nearly bit her tongue as she caught herself almost saying that Luna shouldn’t take her little ritual seriously. She expressed her somewhat negative feelings towards the subject before, and despite her best intentions, she ended up hurting Luna’s feelings. 

“I don’t take it lightly, you know me,” Luna spoke quickly, not even realizing that she misunderstood it. “But now I feel like I said everything, maybe even more than I should’ve, but I only write these once a year, after all.”

Realizing that arguing would be pointless as always, and smiling to herself for accidentally evading some hurtful words, Hermione reminded herself how much it meant to Luna, and especially now that they are not just friends anymore she is supposed to find it equally as important. So she decided to let it all be the way her girlfriend wants it and gently grabbed her hand. “Then it must mean that you’ve written about us, right?”

“Yes, I did!” Luna’s eyes glew up from mentioning it, then she pointed at the thick envelope that contained all the thirteen pages she wrote this time. “Maybe even half of it is about you, actually. I even confessed earlier that I had some feelings towards you, and now she will be so happy to hear the stories about how you asked me out and how we managed to bond over the debate about the importance of divination when it comes to studying the history of magic.”

Hermione smiled for multiple reasons while strengthening her grip a little. For some reason she once again found herself thinking about how soft and warm her hand was instead of trying to come up with an answer, then she realized this is how it must feel when someone is listening to their heart instead. “Do you really think that she will like me?”

Luna nodded, “Yes, she will. Mum always told me that one day I’ll find the one who I will fall in love with and that she is going to love that person as much as I do.” She looked at the envelope again and didn’t hesitate for long. “It’s time to seal it now.”

The next day Hermione found herself thinking about something strange. She often wondered before if the members of the Ministry are taking some things way too lightly and go too far with some of the incredibly unsafe things that alarmingly seem to be an everyday occurrence. This included the service that one of the Unspeakables did whose identity was never revealed, not even to the Lovegoods who came up with the idea in the first place.

Hermione found it odd, that this time she was actually wondering if there was someone on the other side of the Veil who received the letters from the living that were tossed into it. She wondered if there was the slightest chance that the letter with the name of Pandora Lovegood on it did arrive on every Mother’s Day, but at the same time, the doubt whether Luna’s mother would like her or not was diminished. Even though not even Luna’s most honest words were enough to convince her of that if she decided to write down the incredibly awkward story of the Broom Closet Incident as well.

Chapter Text

9PM…

10PM…

11PM…

Hermione didn’t remember the last time she was this sleepy, but she was just unable to sleep. Something felt wrong. Something was strange. She got up from the bed and walked to the kitchen to pour a cup of leftover tea. She sat on her bed as she took one sip after the next and listened to the loud crickets outside her window and to the faint noise of cars in the distance.

Her phone rang, and of course she thought something terrible must’ve happened. Why else would anyone call her at this time?

“I’m sorry for waking you up!” - The soft voice spoke from the speaker of the phone.

“Luna, hey! I.. you didn’t wake me up, I wasn’t sleeping yet. Is everything all right?”

“Mostly. I just missed your voice.”

Hermione was fully awake but still wasn’t sure if she didn’t mishear it. “My voice?” 

“Yes,” - Luna said in a way as if she just answered if it was raining or not. 

“What’s the deal with my voice?”

“Oh, I missed hearing it, and I missed hearing from you as well. I couldn’t sleep and I just had this urge to call you, but you confused me when you were not asleep. I was ready to apologize for waking you up, but it wasn’t needed so I kinda forgot what I wanted to say.”

“Ehm..” Hermione was really not helped out by the explanation. “Maybe we should just meet for a dinner or something and talk about whatever comes up, or.. or something.. ”

“That’s it!” - Luna literally sounded like someone who had a great revelation of some sorts. 

“Sorry?”

“That’s what I wanted to say. I wanted to invite you for a dinner, because we haven’t spoken in a long time.”

After settling down with a date for a meetup Hermione put down her phone, wrote down the date in her notebook, and that was the last thing she remembered. She didn’t even remember putting her head on the pillow. She woke up feeling both well rested and hollow.

“Strange dream,” she said to herself, with the thought in the back of her mind answering, “Wish it really happened.” She thought about the scenario if Luna actually called her last night instead of leaving this sweet never happened moment in the realm of dreams. They’d meet up somewhere, most likely some strange place, since they decided to figure out where they’d have dinner when they met. 

She thought the best would be just staying home to make something together, even if Luna would likely mess up half her kitchen like that one time.. or they could just order something and eat on the couch. She imagined Luna taking a bite out of her favorite vegan pizza with extra pepper on it and imagined her slowly munching on it, then her heart sank a bit when she remembered that their phone talk never happened. She had no idea where these feelings came from. It was just a meetup with an old classmate, nothing fancy.

But then Hermione saw something. Her nightstand notebook was not in the drawer where she usually keeps it, it was on top of the nightstand. She opened it and saw the last used page. “Am I still dreaming?” she said loudly, the first half of her sentence coming out as barely audible as she spoke for the first time that day. She looked around the room and found everything in their place, including the blue scarf she kept on her table for some reason.

She looked at the clock to see if all the numbers were in the right order, then she looked at her hands to count her fingers. She was not dreaming. Not at that moment, and not when she wrote down ‘Dinner with Luna, wednesday, 6PM’ either. She felt something inexplicably joyful when she realized they did talk the night before, then for a split second she had another thought as well, just out of nowhere she wondered whether or not Luna will be wearing bright red lipstick.

Chapter Text

“I have not written in a long time, way too long to be exact.” 

“It’s okay!” Enid jumped into defending Wednesday from herself in an instant, “Everyone needs some breaks every now and then.”

“But not me, it’s highly unusual. On top of it all I feel like I’m not being myself.” Wednesday 

took a few seconds to stare at her screen while resting her hands on her keyboard. “It doesn’t feel right!”

Enid stared at the back of her head that she still didn’t move, already thinking about comforting her girlfriend, staring by running her fingers through one of Wednesday’s beautiful brunette braids. “Maybe the nargles have something to do with it,” she stated before moving.

“What are the nargles?” Wednesday finally looked back. “Another one of your imaginary creatures? Do you have a plushie of them too that you could show me so I’ll know what they don’t look like?”

“They are real!” Enid stated, “And in fact I have a nargle plushie somewhere.” She started digging through her collection but soon realised that something was indeed off, and in the very next moment Luna woke up in their bed.

“Good morning!” Hermione greeted her from the other side of the room, half dressed for the next day already, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up, I was trying to be quiet.”

“No, you didn’t wake me up, I just had a weird dream. You had braids.”

“That sounds nice,” Hermione smiled, thinking about how she’d have the worst nightmare making her hair into braids, but if Luna liked them, maybe..

“You looked silly,” Luna whispered while putting her head back to the pillow, wondering if she’ll find the nargle plushie somewhere in the pile.