Drabblefic #3: Neville/Luna, "Coconut Shy"

[gilpins_tales]

Title: Coconut Shy
Genre: Friendship; General; Pre Romance (am trying to cover all bases here).
Ratings & Warnings: PG
Word Count: 1948
Summary: Luna seeks out Neville after the first ever meeting of Dumbeldore's Army with a somewhat unexpected proposition... Set during OotP.
Author's Note: For calyndra, who wanted Neville/Luna and the prompt palm tree.

Comments

[calyndra]

I LOVE IT!

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow slightly, hoping he’d get her meaning that mad and she were passing acquaintances and had nothing to fear from each other.
This is priceless! My friend (who is a Potter person, but doesn't do fanfic) is over for spring break and even she thought that line was dead on for Luna and Neville. :)

I adore the tiny potted palm tree, as well as the greater purpose behind it. I can just see some death eater getting slammed on the head by a pretty blue coconut.

All the little Lupin references were wonderful too, by the way. Even when the story isn't about him he's still the hero. :) Very clever of you.

Thank you so much!

[gilpin25]

I am SO glad you enjoyed this. I must admit I was a bit, Er, Neville/Luna? when you asked for it, but it was very enjoyable to write once I'd got going and decided inside Luna's head was a great place to be. I think she's very much a sharp and clever Ravenclaw underneath all the vagueness and nonsense, and, like Neville, I also think she'd really appreciate her friends.

All the little Lupin references were wonderful too, by the way. Even when the story isn't about him he's still the hero. :) Very clever of you.

Sneaky, wasn't it?! I couldn't resist it, and it did seem to fit nicely into the story as I thought Neville would remember him fondly and what he'd learnt from him. There again, I could probably have used McGonagall instead, quite easily! LOL.

Thanks so much for the kind words, it was a lovely request to do!:D

[tegdoh]

This was so Luna. I love the way you've captured her convoluted (but really quite logical and ever so insightful) thought process. And of course she'd be the first to recognize the steel underneath Neville's shyness. These characters work so well together - I've never shipped them, but always thought they could be great friends, and understand each other as only another outsider could.

[gilpin25]

Thank you very much. Imagining being inside Luna's head was quite an interesting place to be, lol. I think I ended up trying for someone who is very much a Ravenclaw underneath the vagueness - there's a logic, intelligence and sharpness to what she observes. And I hoped it would be realistic that she'd hone in on Neville because she'd spotted he was an outsider too, as well as the fact that she liked him.

One of the nicest parts of DH (cough!) to me was when Harry and Co saw Luna's paintings of her friends on her ceiling. Like you, I've never really shipped Neville/Luna together, but I think they'd be an unexpected but close friendship.

Thanks again for reading and commenting. :)

[hrymfaxe]

*continues Delirium theme* ♥

When we see Luna through Harry's eyes she seems completely random, though eventually even he can tell that she lives by her own strange logic. In this piece, inside Luna's head, it all suddenly makes sense. In a quirky roundabout way. :) I love that Luna has already seen the beginnings of the Neville who continues the fight from inside Hogwarts in DH and doesn't dismiss as so many others did. She seems sensitive to others and it fits perfectly. I love this:
Neville smiled then, rather shyly, and she wasn’t quite sure what at, but he’d got a nice smile and she was pleased to see it at last. It would have been awful if he really had wanted to be alone and not just thought he did.And then she just takes it as a given instead of dithering about nervously. Luna is so great! But also not completely impervious to other what people say to her, like when she is more pleased than she expected that Neville is pleased at her idea. :D Aww

[gilpin25]

I'm really impressed with the Delirium theme - you've got black and white in return, but it seemed quite Luna-ish...and Lupin-ish ;) - and also the ability to do hearts. I got very excited when I found out how to do them, only now I keep forgetting I can and don't use them!

Icons aside, thank you for the very kind words. Inside Luna's head was a really fun and interesting place to be: I'm so glad it read in 'a quirky, roundabout way' because that's really what I was aiming for. Harry sees her as dreamy and nuttily vague at this point in canon, but then she suddenly makes these astute and caring observations. I wanted her to be very much a Ravenclaw, distracted always by the promise of a shiny new fact to gather up and think about, but also someone who is lonely and very much needs a friend. Like Neville. Even if she goes about getting one in a slightly unorthodox way, lol.

I also love how she says that she doesn't really know anything about palm trees and then rattles of a long list that I certainly didn't understand.Wiki and

[snegurochka_lee]

Enjoyed! Both of them were lovely, and it worked so nicely with canon. :)

[gilpin25]

Thank you! Both for enjoying it and letting me know that you did!:D

here via quibbler report

[secretsolitaire]

I was utterly charmed by this. ♥

Re: here via quibbler report

[gilpin25]

Aw, thank you very much.:D (And for letting me know it was on the Quibbler Report!:))