It was the start of Spring. The birds were singing, the grass was green, the sky was blue, the flowers were in full bloom. There was one particular flower that caught her attention. A white rose. She walked over to it in her usual manner, like she was floating on air.
"Where are you going?" a voice called behind her. She turned around to see her red-headed and brunette best friends.
"I'm going to look at the pretty rose," she answered.
"Where is it? We'll come with you," the red-head said.
"It's over there," she pointed at the beautiful rose. It drooped. Lower and lower until you could not see it anymore.
"It's... gone," the brunette replied.
"Don't worry, it will come again."
The three friends walked away to the hammock, for there was no use standing around waiting for the rose to bloom again. It would bloom soon enough, but for now, there was work to be done in the sunshine.
It did bloom. More beautiful than ever. The white petals glistened in the sun, the thorns didn't even look harmful, and the stem tilted ever so slightly in a magical way.
"Hermione, you should put the flower in your dorm," Ginny said, looking at the flower. "It'll look beautiful there."
"It's true, it will, but I shouldn't," Hermione answered.
"Why not?"
"The flower is too beautiful to die," Luna replied. "It needs to live out in the open, where it can thrive."
"You're right," Ginny conceded. "You always are."
The three friends looked at the rose for longer. The white was bright, but the shadow it cast upon the ground was dark. Like it was hiding something.
"Let's go now," Hermione suggested, starting to walk away. Ginny nodded and followed.
"Are you coming, Luna?" Ginny asked as she noticed that the blondie did not move.
"In a minute," Luna said dreamily.
Ginny and Hermione shrugged and walked away, into the castle. In Luna's opinion, they did not understand the full beauty of the rose. They only saw that it was pretty, but Luna saw more. She saw the way it moved in the breeze; the way a petal might slowly drift to the ground, landing gently on the dewy grass. How soft the rose felt under her warm hand; the thorns giving a sense of danger, but really unharmful. Those were the things that made it beautiful. But most of all, the way the shadow moved with it as the breeze pushed it, and the way the rose seemed innocent, but when you notice the shadow, you think differently.
Luna slowly turned away from the flower and followed her friends. She would visit the flower once again tomorrow.
She did, and she visited the flower every day after that. Luna sat in front of the rose, looking at it, noticing how different it was from the day before. Maybe the petals were lower down; maybe the stem had gone straighter; maybe there would be no breeze and it would stay still. There were lots of different ways, but there was always a way.
The flower slowly drooped lower every day. Luna knew it would come back again though.
"Luna, you've been spending so much time outside lately, what have you been doing?" Ginny asked one day.
"I've been watching the rose," Luna answered simply. Ginny nodded but looked confused.
Luna walked away and back outside, watching the rose again.
She sat there, returning every day, even after she had left Hogwarts. The rose stood there, never leaving for exceptionally long. It was always there for Luna to come back to. She grew old, but she always came back to the white rose. Then one day, when all her friends had left her for the stars in the sky, she went back to the rose and just stared at it. She had looked at it as she grew up, and she would be looking at it when she decided to abandon life. And that's exactly what she did. Luna looked at the rose and took a last shuddering breath.
A/N: Thanks for reading :) This was one of my first works, I wrote it in July 2020, and I'm very proud of it. I hope you liked it and if you have any feedback, I'd love to know!
