The Curious Case of Luna Lovegood

Chapter 16: Freaks and Proud

Harry lay awake in his room as he stared at the ceiling. It was strange how alike he and Luna were. He just recently found out that they were both the subjects of prophecies. The difference was, Luna was already fighting to fulfill her prophecy without even knowing it existed. Harry remembered what her father said about the cost of such a prophecy. As if there wasn't enough reason for the world to be against her now she might be in the wrong after all.

As Harry felt himself drift off to sleep he heard the strangest sound. Harry soon found himself following the ethereal humming into the forbidden forest. He didn't need to hear the familiar melody of moonlight sonata to know who the humming belonged to. Eventually he found her sitting in the middle of a clearing. Harry could hear the sadness in her voice as she finished her humming.

"I don't understand Harry, I only want to help people, but all I do is hurt them," Luna whispered softly.

"I killed Pansy."

"No you didn't Luna, you didn't know..."

"I should have known! I gave her that pudding knowing it was tainted with Stone's icky saliva. I thought it would be funny. I guess he was right," Luna whispered.

"He?"

"Gandhi of course," Luna answered as if he was daft for not already knowing. "He was a Muggle who believed you could change the world without resorting to violence. He once said "an eye for an eye leaves the world blind."

Harry pulled Luna into a hug as she cried into his shoulder. "He sacrificed everything to free his people. You know what happened to him? He was murdered, in cold blood, just because he believed people shouldn't kill other people for being different. He only wanted to make the world a better place and they killed him!"

Harry tried to calm Luna down as her grief quickly turned to anger. "I'm such an idiot to believe I could make a difference. Muggles and Wizards will always be violent bigots. I give them a chance at unity and they will destroy each other. No wonder people want me dead. Well I'm done with them. I was never one of them I don't want to be now!"

Luna suddenly let out a short but shattering scream that sent a couple of trees to the ground. Luna eyes widened even more in shock. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I felt this strange feeling that if I didn't scream I was going to hurt someone!"

"Anger Luna, It is a powerful emotion that I know too well," Harry spoke as he looked away.

"I'm losing my mind. Every day it's getting harder. I'm too happy, I'm too sad, too angry. I wish I was back to being Little Loony Luna. Now I am a Loony!" Luna cried.

"Luna look at me" Harry said determined. "You are not a Loony, you are Luna. You are the most amazing and wonderful person I know. Your feelings are a part of life, the best part of life. I now they can be hard to handle but please don't run away from them. What about the good feelings."

Luna spoke bitterly, "You mean like Love? Happiness? That's all well and good until it's inevitably taken from me."

Luna looked up into Harry's eyes and he could see the fear in them as she spoke "We're going to die aren't we..."

Harry looked back at Luna for a second before looking up at the moon. "I don't know, but when has that ever stopped me. Luna what you do is up to you. What do you want to do?"

Luna followed Harry's gaze until she saw it too. "I want to run away. I want to go to the moon where no one will find us. I want to never have to see or hear about another person again that isn't you. I want to escape"

Luna the smiled as she took Harry's hand. Harry felt his feet leave the ground as they rose to the skies.

Their eyes never separated as they flew above the trees. They forgot about Magic, squibs, bigots, hopes, dreams, nightmares, violence, they even forgot about the moon.