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The castle slept and the only sounds she heard were the whispers and snores of portraits as she tiptoed passed, keeping her wand’s light dim and low towards the floor. It was June, so she knew the late-night prefect and professor rounds would be less than usual- everyone cramming and planning for their exams. She just wanted to get to the Astronomy Tower, just wanted to know if the stories were true. She supposed she could have asked someone who might know, but the idea seemed so silly at the time that she couldn’t bring herself to.
Starcrossed lovers who even Death couldn't bear to keep apart.
It was such a romantic notion, the sort her friend Violet would write poems about, but the possibility it was true offended her somehow. Shouldn’t she of all people know if it were?
So here she was, at five to midnight, making her way through the castle’s corridors in hopes of either proving- or disproving- the tale at least to herself. She darted up the stairs to the Tower, relieved until she reached the top and jerked back in surprise that she almost fell back down them.
“Shh,” came Flitwick’s response. He was standing at the opening, looking out with his back to her. He motioned her forward in a hurried hand gesture. “She’ll hear us.”
Lily Luna pursed her lips and padded over as quiet as she could to peek over him. It was dark outside but for the lights from the castle. A familiar figure came into view and Lily breathed in and held it. Her namesake walked as though it were a dance, breathing life into the warm summer night.
“Aunt Luna,” she whispered.
Her hair couldn’t possibly be anyone else’s, trailing behind her tangled with wildflowers. She was going down to the lake, aglow in the light of the waning moon, as the rumours had said she would.
Flitwick tapped the air with his wand, magic swirling around them a moment and fading for a silencing charm.
“Hurry,” he told her with a mild squeak. “Sit. Sit down. We can discuss wandering around the castle after curfew later.”
“Yes, Headmaster.”
She sat on the other side of him and pulled one of her knees to her chest, letting the other dangle out of the opening. She hugged the one knee tight, an anxious clenching in her chest from the suspense.
Aunt Luna didn’t appear to notice her avid audience, arriving at the lake and staring out for several minutes while the moon seemed to be getting higher. The wind shifted, chilling her up in the tower, but even from the distance she could see Luna’s eyes close and her lips smile. She lifted her arms and spread them wide, slowly leaning back as though she were falling- only to catch herself before she couldn’t. She spun, her bare feet frolicking on the grass in an unfamiliar rhythm.
She danced.
Her hair whipped around her as she went, and Lily would swear she could make out a wave of magic circling her. After a few moments it struck her that it wasn’t magic, but a string of fireflies that seemed drawn to her. As though her aunt were a beacon of light that drew in life in general and it was enchanting to see.
Lily blinked and Luna was no longer dancing alone, joined now by a faint flickering figure of a man that solidified as they moved; he seemed to know every step. Lily felt her breath catch watching them.
So this was love.
It made her chest warm inside.
It was beautiful. It was too beautiful. Their silhouettes reflected in the moonlight shimmering on the lake, shadows on the grass. It was magic and she was sure she’d never seen anything in the world so wonderful. Without her permission tears pooled in her eyes before dripping down her cheeks.
She wiped her face and sniffed quietly to herself.
The couple slowed to a stop, arms still around each other. The smile on Luna’s face was blinding. She lay her head on his chest and he held her closer.
“That’s Cedric Diggory,” she whispered, the name surfacing from old memories of old pictures.
“Yes, it is.”
She knew the story, she thought. Cedric Diggory was among the first casualties of the second Wizarding World. But there was a disconnect in her mind between him and her favourite aunt, and she said so.
“Only they know the whole story,” Flitwick replied, his voice quiet and just as mesmerized as she was. “What I know, what anyone who was there knows, is that he came to the Yule Ball in 1994 with Miss Lovegood. She was what he retrieved from the lake in the second task of the Tournament. And part of her seemed to die with him.”
Lily shifted, pulling her other knee up to hug them both to her chest. “But he’s back. Or, the rumours say he comes back every year. That their love was too pure for the fates to make them live fully without each other.”
“An hour,” he told her. “They get an hour together every year on the anniversary of his death. I don’t know about the rest of it, or why the gods chose them, but year after year they’re both in that spot.”
Luna and Cedric sat in the grass talking normally. As though they had forever to do just that. He brushed her hair back and touched her face. She smiled at him like he was forever.
“What do you think they’re talking about?”
“I imagine they’re catching up.”
Lily leaned against the stone wall. She blinked slowly, willing herself not to fall asleep. Afraid she would miss something. Anything.
*
“It’s time, Miss Potter.”
Professor Flitwick shook her awake and she looked around, rubbing her face and yawning widely. It was still late and it took her a few seconds to remember where she was and why she wasn’t in bed. When she did, her eyes quickly went to the couple at the lake who were now standing. They were locked in a gentle embrace, whispering low to one another.
Lily came to her feet with Flitwick, watching them. She didn’t want to look away. She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want him to have to leave, and it occurred to her that that was what they were doing. They were saying goodbye.
Cedric placed a tender kiss on Luna’s lips.
Luna’s shoulders trembled. She kissed him back and, as she did, his form faded away until he was gone.
And Lily cried.
And the world slept on.