Work Text:
Harry had been in the hospital wing more times than he could remember. He was shocked there wasn’t a plaque on the bed he usually ended up in. This time, however, when he had reluctantly walked in with Luna, their arms covered with a mixture of bright blue warts and boils, Madam Pomfrey immediately directed them to the isolation ward, making sure to stay several feet away at all times.
“What have you gotten yourself into this time, Potter?” she sighed, as she ushered them through the door and gestured for them to sit down on the beds. “You’re staying in here until we figure out what this is.”
“Oh, I know exactly what it is,” Luna piped up. “Harry and I were looking for Strawberry Cricket wings and ended up going through a nasty patch of Aching Dimbleweed. It’s very contagious.”
At Luna’s words, Madam Pomfrey paused her gathering of what potions she thought might help, looking to Harry for confirmation.
“Er, yeah that sounds right,” he replied. “It doesn’t hurt, though, just looks mad, so…” He wasn’t sure what else he could say, but Madam Pomfrey just nodded.
“Right. It sounds like I’ll need Professor Sprout. Are you two okay staying here by yourselves until we get back? And don’t leave . Or touch anything. Aching… Dimbleweed, you said?” Luna nodded. “Okay. I’ll be back in a pinch.”
The isolation ward wasn’t much different from the rest of the hospital wing, except there was a shimmering magical barrier in the door frame and only four beds. An extension of the main room that looked like it had been an add-on. Luna was sitting on the bed next to his, looking around the room.
“Have you ever been in this room before?” she asked softly.
“I haven’t, surprisingly. Usually I’m in here with something broken or bleeding. This is new, though.” He looked down at his own arms and turning them to inspect the lesions.
“I’m sorry you ended up with Dimblewarts, Harry. I didn’t think they were supposed to be in that part of the forest. Just don’t pick at them or they’ll spread.”
Harry paused, his finger about to poke one, and abruptly changed his mind, tucking his hands under his thighs to fight the urge. “No, it’s all right! They’re a nice color. I'd never even heard of those cricket things, to be honest, so I did learn a couple new things today,” he grinned.
“You don’t need them for many potions, and they’re very rare, which is one of the reasons people don't think they exist. Most people don’t believe things I tell them about exist, though. I’m used to it.” Luna mirrored Harry’s position, pulling her legs up to sit cross-legged on the bed and sliding her fingertips under her thighs, too.
Harry’s shoulders dropped a little. He would never get used to the fact that he’d still heard people call her Loony every so often in the halls, which he always got onto them for until they knew better than to talk about her when Harry was around. But Harry knew first hand how it felt to feel like no one was on your side, and he would do whatever he could to make sure no one else felt like that, even though Luna never seemed to mind. Sometimes he wondered if she preferred to be on her own. “I believe you, Luna.”
Luna’s gaze moved from the ceiling to Harry’s eyes, but he couldn’t read her expression. “Do you?”
“Well, yeah,” Harry said with a shrug. “I said I’m your friend and I meant it. That’s why I volunteered to come with you.”
“I thought it was just because you wanted something else to think about for a little while,” she replied in a manner that made Harry consider that she might know him better than he knew himself.
“I mean, I suppose that too.”
Luna waited a few seconds before asking, “Are you okay? I’ve noticed you’ve been a little… off again.”
“Again?”
“Well, after the end of last year with your godfather, I just want to make sure you’re all right.”
Harry couldn’t help but smile a little. He didn’t really think Luna cared too much, but if he thought about it, of course she did. Luna cared about everyone. That was one of the things that was so special about her. “Yeah, I’m all right. I will be, anyway.” He’d been so focused on Draco this year that he hadn’t realized that other people besides Ron and Hermione (who he was used to constantly hovering) would notice him behaving any differently. Was he? He hadn’t thought so, but again, it was Luna.
“Good. Because you’re a lot more fun to be around when you’re happy.”
Was Luna… blushing? Harry didn’t think he’d ever seen it before, but the contrast of pink against her pale skin was a little shocking. She’d looked away from him again, almost as if she didn’t want to see his reaction. As if she hadn’t meant to speak out loud. He felt his own face heating up as well - he was never any good with girls acting like this. He never knew what to say.
At least not until, “I think you’re fun to be around all the time,” slipped from his own mouth. “Sorry… I didn’t mean-”
“I think you’re quite handsome as well.” Luna frowned a little, tilting her head while Harry’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “That wasn’t supposed to come out.”
Harry felt another thought begging to surface, but he swallowed it down and kept his lips pressed tightly together, afraid that if he opened them, he’d say something that wasn’t supposed to come out, too.
“The… Dimblewarts,” Luna managed through her fingers. “It doesn’t happen often, but in some cases, it can make you-”
“Tell you that I prefer spending time with you over Hermione sometimes?” Harry wrenched his eyes shut, color further deepening on his face. Luna didn’t need to know that, but he couldn’t help himself, almost as if holding it back was making it worse. “She just gets on my nerves sometimes when she’s always trying to tell me everything I’m doing is wrong and you always let me think what I want and it’s so refreshing, Luna. You’re refreshing. You don’t have any expectations of me, and I really like that.”
Luna was smiling behind her hand at Harry’s words. Embarrassed, but smiling. Once he was done, she finally lowered it. “I think I’d like to hang out again, Harry. Just the two of us. If you’d be okay with it.”
“Yeah,” came immediately. “We… we could do that. Why are we having this conversation right now?” Harry asked, still slightly concerned that while the conversation wasn’t going in a bad direction, he preferred to be in control of the words coming out of his mouth.
“I’ve heard before that sometimes the Dimblewarts can… make you say things. Truths. Like Veritaserum. Nothing too terrible, of course, but it can be embarrassing. I think it goes away before too long.”
“Oh.”
“I probably should have mentioned it, but it’s so rare that-”
“No, it’s okay. Er, so you really want to… hang out with me? Like… a date?”
Luna nodded softly. “Is that okay?”
“Definitely. Just…” he looked down at his arms again, “maybe no plants?”
“Deal.”