Work Text:
Down it fell, the planes, the people, and the pretty, pretty disk shining in the sun. Luna watched it land in the water in front of her with a soft splash before resurfacing and bobbing over the choppy water in her direction.
She had been wading in the cold water up to her knees in search of the American equivalent to aquatic humdingers when all the explosions caught her attention.
Now, however, the water was becoming murky and oily as debris fell into it, putting her in a bit of a pickle. The pretty boat had come to her just in time, so she hopped into it and sat in its center. It had a very good balance for such a little boat. Luna had nothing to row with, however, so she let the current take her where it wanted to since it had been good enough to bring a boat to her.
Flames burned on the water's surface here and there, like small will-o-wisps, but dark and stagnant. A bad omen.
That's when she saw the first body floating face down pass her. A Muggle, possibly a soldier judging by the dark uniform. To be honest, Luna had no idea what was currently going on in the Muggle world, but she supposed a war was not out of the question. Wars were the curse of Humanity.
Her shiny boat continued on its merry way, without a care for the tragedy unfolding around her, and she hummed along to the sound of sirens and the tiny little wavelings crashing against the hull of her shiny ship.
"Hey!" a man called from the muddy bank.
Luna looked over at the bedraggled man greeting her, his dark wet hair covering most of his face.
Luna waved back.
"Hey, you! Are you… You can't do that!" he shouted in return.
He sounded offended, although Luna could not begin to imagine what she had done to earn his ire. She would learn soon enough though, because the man marched back in the water, pushing aside the debris and bodies in his way with extraordinary force.
"Hello," Luna greeted him when he had reached her, one hand clasping her boat.
She then observed the hand more closely, because it was as shiny as her boat, reminding her of the hand of the rat-man who brought her food when she had been a guest in the Malfoy dungeons. Except in this case, the metal went right up to his shoulder, and maybe more, so maybe he wasn't human after all. He had the worse case of nargle infestation she had ever seen too.
"I'm sorry," she added. "Is this your boat? I didn't steal it. I found it upstream."
"It's not… a boat," he replied with that same tone of voice Hermione usually had when speaking to her.
The metal-man raked a hand through his hair, looking between her and the bank where Luna could now see another man lying down in the mud.
"Never mind," he muttered and began walking back to shore, tugging her along in her boat.
Luna smiled and resumed her singing. She knew the river would provide a way back to safety.
The tiny boat accosted, and Luna jumped out, as light as a feather. Then, the metal-man picked up her boat and placed it next to the unconscious man. It was even prettier on the underside with its large white star painted in the middle.
"It's his," the metal-man said. He paused, considering her, while sirens wailed all around them. "Help is on the way. Look after him in the meanwhile."
He turned and left without another word. Luna glanced down at the unconscious man, and decided to stay since he had asked. She owed him that much at least. The sleeping man was hurt pretty bad though, so Luna knelt down next to him and, looking around to make sure there were no muggles close by, she took her wand out of her hair and cast a few healing charms, happy to see how well they worked. Then, she took out her handkerchief and began wiping his face clean until a small army of people arrived to put him in an ambulance. Free of her task, Luna turned around and followed after the metal-man, because she would really enjoy studying his unique case of nargle infestation.
