Neville would've been lying if he said he'd always liked Luna Lovegood. When he met her for the first time in his fifth year on the train, he thought she was more than a bit odd and she made him rather uncomfortable. Most people he knew didn't wear radish earrings or read the Quibbler upside down, let alone read the Quibbler. Likewise, he could not deny that his feelings for her had changed over time. It's hard not to become close to someone after you've gone through something like the battle at the Ministry together. Neville was probably Luna's best friend, besides Ginny.

Walking down the path, Neville was startled to find Luna in Hogsmeade. She didn't normally come. He had been coming back from Honeydukes, because his gran gave him some money to spend.

"Luna! What are you doing here?" Neville approached her, almost tripping on the uneven path.

"Hello, Neville. I was just on my way to The Three Broomsticks, everyone says that they have the best butterbeer. Would you like to join me?" Luna said in her usual airy voice.

"Sure, let's go."

Once in The Three Broomsticks, both Neville and Luna ordered butterbeers.

"I've only been to Hogsmeade once before, when we started D.A.," she paused, "Oh! I was also here when Harry had the interview," Luna crinkled her nose. "Though both times I only visited Hog's Head. It isn't the most pleasant place."

Luna's lips curled into a faint smile, "I do miss it sometimes, the D.A., I mean." Neville gave her a sympathetic smile. He knew what she was feeling. He missed feeling like he was a part of something important. Luna continued, "It was a bit like having friends."

"You have friends Luna! Me, Ginny, Harry, Hermione, and Ron!" Neville said.

"Sorry, I just forget sometimes. Though I don't think that Hermione likes me much," she said. Hermione was always skeptical of Luna's theories and was always straight forward about it. She was overall smart, but a very closed-minded girl in Luna's opinion.

"I don't think it's that she doesn't like you, I think it's just that you two don't exactly see eye to eye. You're two completely different people. She has to see it to believe it."

Luna nodded. "If vision is the only validation then most of my life isn't real," she said absent-mindedly. It was true, she hadn't seen most of the things she believed in. Not in the flesh, at least. She had many books (and many editions of The Quibbler) that had detailed drawings of creatures like the Crumpled Horned Snorkack.

"So," Neville started. "Why don't you ever come here?"

"I like to avoid it when I can," Luna said plainly.

"'It'?"

She thought for a moment, trying to find the right words. "The taunting, I guess. I don't mind it too much, but it's not like I enjoy it. It's nice to get some peace and quiet sometimes."

"That's not fair, you should be able to enjoy yourself without having to worry about getting bullied," Neville huffed.

"Like I said, I don't mind it too much. It's not like they force me to stay back, I chose to."

"So why did you decide to come today?"

Luna shrugged. "I was curious."

The pair continued to talk for awhile until they were interrupted.

"Hey Neville! If I were you, I wouldn't want to be seen with someone like Loony Lovegood." They turned their heads to see Malfoy standing in front of their table. Even though Luna seemed to be unfazed by his comment, Neville felt the need to defend her.

"Shut up, Malfoy! That's not her name!" Neville started to clench and unclench his fists. He stood up so he was at eye level with Draco in an attempt to intimidate him. Despite his efforts, Malfoy didn't seem at all affected by him, in fact, he continued to taunt. Neville wasn't surprised, but rather frustrated. He knew he wasn't at all frightening.

"Though if I were Loony, I don't think that I'd want to be seen with someone who's such a klutz either... So I guess you two are perfect for each other! Have you ever considered dating?" Before Neville could come up with a good insult to send his way, Luna grabbed his hand and pulled him away, leaving their half finished butterbeers behind along with a laughing Draco.

"I do appreciate your bravery, but you shouldn't let him get to you, he's rude to everyone. And besides, he's probably got Wrackspurts." Luna said once outside. "It was a nice date otherwise, though. The butterbeer was very enjoyable. I'll have to come back sometime."

Neville felt his face get hot. He did pay for her drink, even when she insisted she pay for her own. But was it really a date? He had never thought of Luna as more than a friend. Did she?

Neville realized that they were still holding hands, their fingers intertwined, this only caused his ears to go hot. He was suddenly glad that Luna hadn't been on her way to Madam Puddifoot's.

"Neville, are you feeling alright? You're looking a bit sick." She put her empty hand on his forehead to check for a fever.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Neville released Luna's hand as casually as he could. He tried not to acknowledge how cold and empty his hand now felt without Luna's, how perfectly their fingers had fit together.

Neville spent the rest of the week trying to avoid Luna, but it proved to be more difficult than he would've liked.

"Oh, Neville, I'm glad I caught up to you. Look who I found hopping around in the corridors!" Luna ran up to him on the fourth day of Neville avoiding her, her wand tucked behind her left ear for safe keeping, like she often does. She revealed Trevor, Neville's toad, in her hand.

Neville's eyes went wide. He was so busy focusing on avoiding Luna that he didn't even realize he had lost him. He seized Trevor before murmuring a quick thanks and then hurrying off to Herbology.

It went on for another week, and it was to the point where Neville was taking a different route to his classes just so he could avoid passing by Luna in the corridors.

"This is getting ridiculous, Neville, and you know it." Ginny said one day when he was helping Ginny with her Herbology homework in the library. He had just seen Luna walk in and suggested that they study in the Gryffindor common room instead.

"What is?"

Ginny gave him a disapproving glare. "Why are you ignoring Luna?"

"Who says I'm ignoring Luna?" Neville said as nonchalantly as he could. But his insides were twisting madly. He didn't want Ginny on his case about it. He already had his conscience beating him up about it.

Ginny reached over and punched him on his shoulder hard enough to get her point across.

"Luna! You're hurting her feelings!" Ginny said in a loud whisper.

"How do you know?" Neville retorted, rubbing the sore spot Ginny had hit.

"She told me. And she seemed really sad." Guilt surged through Neville, he didn't know he was capable of making Luna sad, he didn't think anyone could make Luna sad. Ginny continued, "Just try putting yourself in her position. She has no friends in her house, and even though Harry, Ron and Hermione are kind to her, they aren't that close. So that just leaves us two. Luna feels like she's lost one of her only friends!" She raised her voice towards the end of the sentence, earning looks from the people at the surrounding tables.

Neville glanced in Luna's direction to make sure she didn't hear anything. He was pretty sure she didn't, because she was seated at a table on the other side of the library (alone), and she looked too absorbed in her book to notice anything going on around her. He averted his attention back on Ginny.

"I'm just scared," he said in a hush voice after a moment of silence. He proceeded to tell Ginny the Hogsmeade story, deciding to leave out the part about them holding hands. "If she does like me, I don't want her to feel bad because I don't feel the same way. I just don't want to mess up our friendship."

"Oh yes, the best way to preserve a friendship is to ignore them and make them feel like crap." Ginny said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. "Besides, I'm not sure if Luna is actually capable of having a crush."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Neville replied a little more angrily than he intended.

Ginny put up her hands defensively. "All I'm saying is you might have mistaken flirting for Luna just being Luna. Who knows what goes on inside that girl's head. Either way, you need to sort things out with her. Soon. Gather up some of that Gryffindor courage I know you have." She gave him a playful wink.

Neville let out a long breath."Alright, alright. I will do it tomorrow."

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me-" Ginny got up, gathered her things and walked towards Luna's table and sat by her. Luna looked up from her book and smiled at Ginny. Even though he couldn't hear anything they were saying, he watched them talk for at least a minute before getting up and walking to his common room.

. . . . . . .

Besides the characters that I made up, everything belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. Vote and comment if you enjoyed it. Thank you! Dedicated to NerdOwl because she has a great Nuna fanfic :)