Chapter Text
The day they met, it rained.
Luna remembers it clearly, not only because it led her to Astoria, but because she has always loved rain.
In her opinion, rain was the highest, the purest form of water. The best way of water, she had written in one of her many journals. It was magical, how water would start falling out of nowhere and drench everything, how it would force you to become part of it even if you didn’t want to.
Water, rain, brought life down to the earth directly from the skies. How could people not want to be a part of it, Luna could not imagine the answer. How could they not love the feeling that they were being part of something bigger, something eternal and irreplaceable that will continue to happen even if the world was burning.
Rain was freedom and life and air and earth all joined together in these beautiful bundles of crystals.
And because of that, when it rained, Luna went outside to be part of it. The others always gave her weird looks about it, but her friends understood. Or well, not understood, not really, but accepted it as another of the things that Luna did just for the sake of being… Well, Luna.
The exception, as always, was Harry. He did not go out with her when it rained because he hated getting a cold from it, but once he did ask her about it. And after hearing why she loved rain so much, he hummed.
“It makes sense”, he had said, and after that moment whenever it rained, he would let her know no matter where she was. He would wait for her, just where there was some cover from the rain to keep himself dry, and he would always smile at her when she came back looking as if she had just cannon balled into the lake.
She had done that once, too. That time, Harry had not looked as happy when she told him of wanting to see Hogwarts from the squid’s point of view.
But the rain was free of charge. Luna woke up every day and thanked the Universe for living in Scotland, where it would rain practically all the time. She did like sunny days too, but nothing compared to sitting in front of the Forbidden Forest, with her eyes closed and chin raised up towards the sky.
That’s what she had been doing, that grey morning. It was a bit cold outside, the calendar had just arrived to the month of November, but nothing Luna couldn’t handle. She had wanted to ask Harry to come with her, but it had been way too early for sleepy lions to be awake. It didn’t matter anyway, Luna knew Harry would have told her no if she had asked. Still, she did it everytime simply because she liked hearing Harry groan about how cold the weather was and how he couldn’t afford to get a snotty nose.
But it was ok, Luna was sure she would get the opportunity to ask him later in the day, when the lions and the rest of the castle awoke. Was it really that early? The sun was just yet rising, but surely that meant it was time to go outside already. Breakfast would not open until another hour later, but whoever decided that food had to be the start of everyday was surely in the wrong.
It had to be water, and just like the trees and the flowers around her, Luna was going to take her needed soak.
Maybe she had gotten way too used to being the only one awake and out at those hours in the morning, because she did not notice the other person until the rain stopped and she opened her eyes.
Sitting cross legged right in front of her, was a girl who looked to be just about her age. Her hair was short, but not short at all. It was a wavy black mess that just reached her chin, with a wavy and careless fringe covering parts of her forehead. Luna thought it looked nice, especially with the way it made the girl look as if she had just gotten out of bed.
Maybe she had. Maybe she had just woken up and had tried to get her morning soak just like Luna, but from the looks of it, hadn’t reached the rain just in time. What a disappointment it must be to see another person be able to achieve that which one wanted. Luna suddenly wondered if it didn’t seem rude that she had been soaked, while the girl had not.
But the girl’s eyes were what caught Luna’s attention, just after her hair and her dryness. They were dark. Very, very dark. And open, and they looked straight at Luna as if she was a question to be solved. Luna did not mind, in fact she kind of liked it. Being seen as a question was better than being seen as a Loony, so she stared right back at those dark eyes.
Without looking away, the girl spoke.
“Why did you get rained on?”, she asked and if velvet was a sound, Luna was sure this would be it.
“I like rain”, she answered. “It makes me alive”
Ok, maybe that was not all of the things she felt for rain, but she did not quite feel like explaining to this girl the importance of rain. Even if she did not look at her as if she was a Loony, nothing could say that she wouldn’t start thinking about it after she listened through a lecture on rain.
“Huh”, the girl muttered, almost as if contemplating something to herself. “Do you think it will rain again later today?”
“Maybe”, Luna shrugged. “But if you look for Hyadens I am sure they will be able to give you a better answer”
“Hya… dens?”, the girl asked and crooked her head.
“Yes, you can find them beneath Lily Pads, but they are very squeamish so don’t make too much noise when looking for them or else they’ll get mad and then leave.
“Hyadens”, she repeated again, this time in that murmured voice that Luna supposed meant she was talking to herself. She was proven right when the girl, after a few seconds of consideration, nodded to herself. “Alright, I’ll look for them if I have the time”
“Good, if you find them let me know. I would also love to talk to them about the future rain cycle”
The girl nodded once again and slowly picked herself up from the ground. She patted her clothes, slowly making sure there was no dirt on her, before looking once more at Luna, directly to the eyes. The girl gave her the smallest smile and left, not looking back even once at where Luna still sat.
She stayed there for some more minutes, thinking. Those eyes really had been dark, hadn’t they? Almost like an abyss, a deep abyss. She recalled a phrase that Hermione had once mentioned when talking about one of those muggle authors she liked sharing with their friends every once in a while. Something about an abyss that could stare right back at the one looking.
Luna giggled a bit at that thought. What sort of creatures could live in an abyss that dark? Dabberblimps more than likely, they loved hiding in little nooks in dark places where no one would be able to catch them before they found a way inside one’s tea. Silly little creatures
With no more thoughts of girls with abyss eyes, Luna went on through her day. She asked Harry if he would have liked to join her out in the rain and she obtained the expected reaction. She asked Ginny why there were so many Nargles flying around her, and her dear friend sighed and gave her a sheepish smile before discreetly pointing at the Slytherin table. Probably another one of her ex boyfriends is acting out.
She went through her classes, and asked enough questions until McGonagall went red just like her house, and Snape gave up and decided to completely ignore her.
That seemed to be happening more often lately. The professor would simply ask her to leave the classroom, not even sneering at her like he usually would. How odd! He must be feeling sick. Luna should make him a potion for that, her daddy had told her many times that in times of sickness, pickles were always the answer. And Snape was green, just like the pickles! She was sure he would like them.
It wasn’t until after dinner that things changed, again. More than 12 hours had gone since the last time it rained, but the droplets were already falling down the sky once again. Harry nudged Luna with his elbow, and smiled at her when she gave a little squeak of excitement. Two rains in one day! That was surely a good omen.
Harry barely got time to say bye to Luna before she was running to the castle grounds, taking off her shoes and socks in an odd dance along the way. She wanted to feel the wet grass, the wet ground, the mudd, the everything. She wanted to be one with sky and earth, just like the rain.
Once out, she stood with her back straight, smiling up towards the sky with her feet well planted on the ground. She extended her arms to the sides and waited, for the rain to decide enough was enough. Thankfully, this time the rain decided to stay for a little longer.
The same girl from the morning was there once again. Unlike Luna, she still had her shoes and socks on, and didn’t have her arms wide open. She was simply staring up at the sky with an easy grin, and Luna knew right then that the girl was able to see in the rain what she had been trying to explain to her.
“Do you get it now? The rain?”
She had had to raise her voice to be heard through the sound of water, but it did not even matter. She was sure that, somehow, the girl would have understood it even with hearing at all.
“You were right!”, the girl screamed right back. “It makes us alive!”
She threw her head back, her dark hair looking almost straight from how wet it was. The girl laughed, and stayed there, laughing for so long that Luna had to start giggling too.
Hearing her, the girl turned her head to look right at Luna and smiled. She stared right at her eyes, just like she had that morning, and Luna stared right back. Even in the dark and in the rain, she was able to perfectly see how dark those eyes were.
This time, Luna was not able to hear her, but she could see the movement that her lips made as she spoke.
Thank you.
The day Luna met Astoria, without even knowing her name, she decided to throw herself head-first into that abyss that were her eyes.