The scars you can't see are the hardest to heal.
Date: August 27, 2001
Time: Early Evening
Location: Forbidden Forest - Thestral Grove
Characters Involved: Luna Lovegood and any of the people that want to wander her way…Hogwarts staff, whatever.
Rating: PG
A long time ago, Luna had first seen the thestrals. She had been a lonely 11-year-old girl with no friends and nothing but books and fantasies to guide her way. At first she had thought that they were just a fancy, something she had made up until she had asked Hagrid about them. He had sat her down and talked with her about them over tea. The tea had tasted awful, but it was the first time that anyone had taken the time to sit down and talk with her. Hagrid hadn’t made fun of her looks and had answered her questions honestly.
From her first year on, she had visited the thestrals very regularly, they were like a little family outside of her father. Pets of some sort, she wasn’t sure. They were deadly creatures, but she wasn’t afraid of them. They were gentle and tameable and once they trusted you, there were no better strange friends to have. Luna would have never been right with a herd of unicorns or even centaurs. The thestrals were like her. They were strange and some people were afraid of them. Only a few people ever really saw them. Otherwise they went unnoticed and unwanted. So much like Luna. She had few friends, a small family and very few people that ever took her seriously.
Luna was brilliant in her own way. She had a brain, she had the smarts, just like the thestrals. She couldn’t always get them right when she needed to. She could defend herself, she could defend others, but it was so rare that someone understood her. It was really only her father now. There was no one else, sure others knew her, but no one understood her. She tried for so long to keep everything under the surface, bottled where no one could see, ever since she had been a little girl.
Maybe it was the trauma of her mother’s death, but she had bottled so much inside a little heart that couldn’t always hold it all. She sat and watched the herd, the matriarch had been replaced by a younger female. She had died the winter before, no one knowing her true age. Luna had always seen her as a stately older lady that was well past her prime but still held things firmly in control. She tossed a liver into the clearing and watched one of the younger thestrals tear into it. It was just a treat. She had learned a long time ago to bring a bag of meat with her or they got cranky.
She just watched, so many things had happened in her life. Perhaps the last thing had broken her. Perhaps Seamus had broken the well that was her heart with getting married to that other woman. He had moved on and he was happy. She pulled her knees into her chest and sighed softly, maybe that explained her weird moods, her dark temper even with her father, how she had psychotically confronted a known death eater. She swallowed the lump in her throat and buried her face into her knees.
Maybe her heart just couldn’t contain all the emotions anymore. There was always a breaking point and maybe she had reached hers. She pulled her face out of her knees with a shakey breath and looked to the clearing, the thestrals were there, a comfort, but not as large a comfort as they had once been. She wasn’t the lonely little dreamer that had needed imaginary friends. She was a woman with her own dreams and her own troubles and her own feelings. She still had her beliefs and her dreams, but it didn’t keep her warm at night or sooth the crack in her heart.
Time: Early Evening
Location: Forbidden Forest - Thestral Grove
Characters Involved: Luna Lovegood and any of the people that want to wander her way…Hogwarts staff, whatever.
Rating: PG
A long time ago, Luna had first seen the thestrals. She had been a lonely 11-year-old girl with no friends and nothing but books and fantasies to guide her way. At first she had thought that they were just a fancy, something she had made up until she had asked Hagrid about them. He had sat her down and talked with her about them over tea. The tea had tasted awful, but it was the first time that anyone had taken the time to sit down and talk with her. Hagrid hadn’t made fun of her looks and had answered her questions honestly.
From her first year on, she had visited the thestrals very regularly, they were like a little family outside of her father. Pets of some sort, she wasn’t sure. They were deadly creatures, but she wasn’t afraid of them. They were gentle and tameable and once they trusted you, there were no better strange friends to have. Luna would have never been right with a herd of unicorns or even centaurs. The thestrals were like her. They were strange and some people were afraid of them. Only a few people ever really saw them. Otherwise they went unnoticed and unwanted. So much like Luna. She had few friends, a small family and very few people that ever took her seriously.
Luna was brilliant in her own way. She had a brain, she had the smarts, just like the thestrals. She couldn’t always get them right when she needed to. She could defend herself, she could defend others, but it was so rare that someone understood her. It was really only her father now. There was no one else, sure others knew her, but no one understood her. She tried for so long to keep everything under the surface, bottled where no one could see, ever since she had been a little girl.
Maybe it was the trauma of her mother’s death, but she had bottled so much inside a little heart that couldn’t always hold it all. She sat and watched the herd, the matriarch had been replaced by a younger female. She had died the winter before, no one knowing her true age. Luna had always seen her as a stately older lady that was well past her prime but still held things firmly in control. She tossed a liver into the clearing and watched one of the younger thestrals tear into it. It was just a treat. She had learned a long time ago to bring a bag of meat with her or they got cranky.
She just watched, so many things had happened in her life. Perhaps the last thing had broken her. Perhaps Seamus had broken the well that was her heart with getting married to that other woman. He had moved on and he was happy. She pulled her knees into her chest and sighed softly, maybe that explained her weird moods, her dark temper even with her father, how she had psychotically confronted a known death eater. She swallowed the lump in her throat and buried her face into her knees.
Maybe her heart just couldn’t contain all the emotions anymore. There was always a breaking point and maybe she had reached hers. She pulled her face out of her knees with a shakey breath and looked to the clearing, the thestrals were there, a comfort, but not as large a comfort as they had once been. She wasn’t the lonely little dreamer that had needed imaginary friends. She was a woman with her own dreams and her own troubles and her own feelings. She still had her beliefs and her dreams, but it didn’t keep her warm at night or sooth the crack in her heart.