The week seemed to crawl by slowly, like a dying snail, but finally the day of the reunion arrived. It was Saturday, so Neville didn’t have to go to work. At around noon Neville started to get ready. After putting on his nice black dress robes he was ready to leave. Luna came down the stairs wearing a long turquoise dress with her long blonde hair pulled up into an elegant French twist. They left with a pop.
Since you cannot Apparate within Hogwarts grounds, Luna and Neville had to Apparate to Hogsmede and walk the rest of the way. It was a nice summer evening, not to hot and not to cold. As Neville and Luna made there way up the hill that leads to the school they heard two familiar voices.
“Hurry up, Ron; do you want to be late?”
“I’m hurrying. I’m hurrying. It’s not like we ever used to be on time to the Welcome Back Feast while we actually went to Hogwarts so I don’t know why you care so much!”
“I just can’t wait to see everyone! Hey look! There’s Neville and Luna! Neville Luna, wait up!”
As they stopped and turned around Ron and Hermione came into view.
“Hello! How’ve you been?” Hermione asked politely.
“Great. You?” Luna replied.
“Magnificent.” Hermione answered. “Did you know that we are engaged?”
“Congratulations!” Neville said.
‘Thanks,” said Ron.
They kept up the conversation as they walked the rest of the way to the school. The wedding was set for October 29th and Neville and Luna said they’d be there. They reached Hogwarts and headed for the Great Hall. It was set up with many small round tables each set for six. The four of them sat down at one of the tables in the middle of the room.
After a few minutes of talking Luna excused herself. As she headed toward the bathroom she heard yelling coming from around the corner. The reporter in her set out to investigate. As she got closer she thought the voices sounded familiar and when she peered around the corner she saw that her hypothesis was correct. Harry and Ginny were fighting. And it didn’t just seem like a little argument, either. Their loud, harsh words seemed to be filled with loathing. These people didn’t seem like the Ginny and Harry that Luna knew at school. This wasn’t the same seemingly lighthearted, yet heartbroken young girl from Hogwarts. Harry didn’t seem like the same good guy, who hid deep down the truth of a terribly depressing past. What was different?
Luna sat there for ten minutes listening. She heard, “I thought you loved me!”, “What’s wrong with you?” and “Why do you seem so different? I miss the old you!” from Ginny. Harry’s replies of “That was a long time ago”, “There’s nothing wrong with me. What’s wrong with you?”, and “Maybe I’ve just grown up…. You should too!” would make anyone sad for the people involved. But for Luna, who actually knew them both, this was just too unreal. She couldn’t believe this was happening!
After they stopped talking Harry stormed out of the corridor, passing Luna, but not acknowledging her presence. She wasn’t sure if he’d even seen her. As soon as Luna thought Harry was out of earshot she headed around the corner toward Ginny. She didn’t know what to do or what to say but she knew she had to do something.
As Luna approached, she saw that Ginny was sitting on the floor sobbing into her hands. She didn’t see Luna coming, so she jumped about a mile in the air when Luna spoke.
“Hello, I thought you might want some company,” Luna said.
“Oh, He-hello Luna. You sc-scared m-me for a second there,” said Ginny.
“Sorry. Erm…. I heard you and Harry… and, um, I was wondering if you were, well, if you were ok,” Luna said uncertainly.
“Oh… I wish you ha-hadn’t heard that! D-do you think anyone else d-did? I
w-w-wouldn’t want everyone h-here knowing ab-b-bout a li-little fight that me and Harry had,” Ginny stammered through sobs.
“I don’t think anyone else heard, and that didn’t seem like a little fight to me!” Luna replied bluntly.
“I d-don’t know…” Ginny trailed off.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Luna asked.
“I gu-guess,” Ginny decided.
Ginny then explained everything to Luna. She told her about how at the end of her fifth year when Harry broke up with her “for her safety” she thought that if and when he defeated You Know Who that he would want to go out with her again. So she waited for six long years, until nine days ago, on the night before the final battle. That night Harry told her, knowing that the battle was soon to arrive, that if he survived he wanted to marry her, and if he didn’t he wanted her to move on with her life. She had felt so many emotions at that moment, fear for Harry’s life, happiness about this news, and excitement at the thought of marrying her true love. When she heard the news about the battle she was beside herself with relief and happiness. But when Harry didn’t come to see her she wondered what was wrong. She hadn’t been able to see him until just a few minutes ago. They got into a huge fight because Harry no longer wanted to marry her. She now felt confused, hurt, and like her heart had been torn into a million tiny pieces. She didn’t understand what had happened, and just wanted to know why Harry had changed his mind.
Luna listened through the whole sad, confusing story. She felt extremely sorry for Ginny, but she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t think of anything comforting to say so she remained silent, letting Ginny keep on crying, hoping that her tears would somehow make everything better. After a few minutes of sitting in silence listening to Ginny sob and hearing the happy roar of talking from the Great Hall she decided she had to do something.
“Ginny… I don’t know what to say,” she said. After a pause she continued. “I don’t want to sound insensitive, but do you want something to eat? We could go into the Great Hall.”
“NO!” Ginny quickly exclaimed. “I don’t want Harry to see me like this. I don’t want anyone else to see me like this.”
“Ok then, I’ll go in there and get us something,” Luna said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Luna didn’t think that Ginny was going to eat, though. Honestly, she wasn’t very hungry either. The real reason for her going to get food was to go get Hermione. She needed help.
When she went back to her table in the Great Hall she saw that Ron, Neville, and Hermione were eating. She also saw a fourth plate of food sitting there untouched.
“Luna! Your back! We were beginning to worry!” Neville said.
“Sorry…there was a bit of a problem…don’t worry… it’s just, well, Ginny…” Luna trailed off.
“What about Ginny? Harry said that she wasn’t feeling well. He was here… but he went to ‘mingle’,” Ron looked concerned.
“She’s not sick. Heartsick maybe, but any Healer would say she perfectly fine. I just came to get her some food,” Luna explained, and started to fill two plates with food. “Um… Hermione, do you think you could come with me?”
“Sure, of course!” Hermione said.
“Wait… I’m confused. Should I come? She’s my sister!” Ron asked.
“No, honey, just stay here and enjoy the party!” Hermione said.
“Ok… but if Harry did anything I’m gonna wring his neck!” Ron spat angrily.
With that, Luna and Hermione left, food in hand. As they walked down the hallway Luna explained everything to Hermione, who looked furious by the end of the explanation.
“I can’t believe this! What is wrong with Harry?” Hermione yelled.
“I don’t know, but try to stay calm in front of Ginny, she really worked up,” Luna said.
“I would be too!” Hermione sniffed. After that she tried to be calmer because they had arrived were Ginny was sitting.
They sat next to Ginny one on each side of her. They gave her a plate of food, but she wouldn’t even pick up her fork. Then they tried to start a conversation.
“Luna, uh, told me what happened,” Hermione said.
“I d-don’t want t-to t-talk ab-b-bout it.” Ginny said, still crying, trying to stop the conversation before it started.
“Why not?” Hermione asked.
After a long pause Ginny spoke. “You- you’re one off H-harry’s best friends… you won’t believe m-me.”
“Of course I’d believe you. I do believe you! And you know what else? Even before I heard about your fight I thought something seemed different… weird about Harry. When he came into the Great Hall he worked his way over to our table and told us that you weren’t feeling well, but that you might come later. Then he went to talk to people. He talked to lots of people, Slytherins, too. And guess what? I heard him talking to someone from the Ministry, who asked him if he ever thought of being the next Minister on Magic. And he said YES! He said that that might be a career idea for him. But Harry never wanted to be in the Ministry. He was dead set against it. I just don’t know what has gotten into him!” Hermione whispered. Then she said, a little too loudly “Let’s go over here!” and signaled toward the girl’s bathroom. After they got in there she explained. “Sorry, I felt like someone was eavesdropping.”
Then the door to the bathroom swung open. “Avada…” a male voice yelled.
But Luna was too quick for him. “Petrifcus Totalus!” she yelled and pointed her wand at the man. He fell, paralyzed by the spell. Hermione then ran over to get his wand, but then she realized, it was Harry!