(Untitled)

[dreamily_luna]

Though many people believe or have believed that Luna is a crackpot who has no idea what the word logic even means, the truth is that like any Ravenclaw, she is razor-sharp in that department. It's simply that the facts upon which she bases her logic are rather different than other people's facts

Comments

[sixthhandlion]

It's like the world's turned itself upside down, somehow, because Ron has spent the better part of the day in the compound, trying to get the bookshelf to give him books. Sure, he's hoping for Quidditch books, stuff on team dynamics and how to be an effective beater- he'd mostly gotten books on eggs and cooking all day- but the whole thing had him feeling a bit like Hermione. It was mad.

He'd gotten annoyed with it, and was on his way out of the compound when he spotted Luna near the stairs. Even for Luna, this seemed a bit off.

"Alright, Luna?" he asked as he approached, though something told him she wasn't about to start going on about nargles.

[dreamily_luna]

It takes Luna nearly a minute to answer him, and she doesn't turn her face away from the doll to do it. "No," she whispers. One word, hushed and just barely hanging in the air before it fades away.

The closer he gets, the more he'll see that she's white-faced with terror, that she's shaking, how very wide her eyes are.

[sixthhandlion]

It wasn't until he got closer until he saw the doll set opposite to her in the hallway.

He'd had a few of those try and attack him at the party on Halloween, but everything was back to normal now. He hadn't seen Luna there, so maybe she'd had a worse go of it than he, Harry and Hermione'd had.

"They're not alive anymore," Ron said, then bent over to pick it up to prove it, "See?"

[dreamily_luna]

"Don't touch it!"

Her voice is sharper than it's ever been. Luna simply doesn't snap at people; she has perhaps come close when arguing with Hermione.

"Don't touch it," she repeats, feeling the spidery ghosting sensation of gauze that is no longer there. "I know it's not alive anymore, Ronald."

[of_badfaith]

He sounded worried.

He realized, as if standing outside himself, that his voice sounded frightened. Dropping into a crouch at her side, reaching to take one of her trembling hands, he said, "Luna? Luna, tell me what's wrong." He sounded frightened, because he'd just witnessed Luna Lovegood, his girlfriend, collapse to the floor as if her legs had given out under her.

What on earth had happened to him?

[dreamily_luna]

She fairly crawls into his arms, seeking out the space between his neck and shoulder for her face. She knows better, she really does-- it's just a doll, but it brings everything back more than she could have ever imagined.

"The doll," she whispers. "I was supposed to be a doll for her."

She doesn't say the name because that might bring her back.

[of_badfaith]

Draco didn't have to ask. He knew immediately whom she was referring to. They hadn't spoken a lot about those days, in detail, but he knew enough.

"But you're not. She's gone, and you're here," he said levelly, his arms around her before he could think twice.

[dreamily_luna]

"The dolls," Luna whispers, but it's no more than that. She's surprised at how warm he is, how solid and safe. "Please, can we make that one go away? Just-- put it in the basement. I want it far away, please."

It's all soft, whispered words into Draco's shoulder.

[teenagerenegade]

The minute he sees her, he knows that something's wrong. He steps in behind her, reaching out for her with easy hands, gripping her shoulders lightly and pulling her back against him. His face is still kind of a mess but it's damage that'll heal.

"Everything's okay," he says, quietly, even though he can't quite see what's bothered her.

[dreamily_luna]

Luna shakes almost violently in his arms, trembling like her Patronus might as it crouches in the forest. "The doll," she says. "I was all right during-- when they came to life-- but the dolls, oh, the dolls."

She feels as if she's been wrapped in gauze again, spidery crawling sensations on her skin.

[dreamily_luna]

"Oh, I don't know," says Luna in one breath, "being alone means she is not there which I would find preferable." Her eyes don't leave the doll, but she keeps brushing at her face and her hands, as if something is sticking there and won't come off again.

"I don't know what to do with it," she says, of the doll.

[dreamily_luna]

Luna watches him, and it's only now she realizes he does not speak English as a native tongue. That Ravenclaw part of her mind is momentarily wrapped up in figuring it out, but that too fades.

"Don't touch it--" she starts to protest, but she has to admit her chest feels lighter with the doll out of sight.

[ashotofgin]

Luna was one of her best friends. This was a fact. Luna, Neville and herself had made up their trio different from the one that made up of Hermione, Harry and Ron but no less special. It might have been a bit embarrassing and Ginny hated that she'd once felt a twinge of shame at being associated with the blonde girl, but that was done now.

Luna was her friend. There was nothing else to it. Frowning at the sight of her friend, Ginny diverted her course, not caring that the sack of dirty washing she was lugging about with her was heavy and taking up space. Such chores could wait.

"Luna, is everything okay?"

[dreamily_luna]

"No, it's not," says Luna, in a very distant place now. Ginny of all people will know that this is where Luna goes when she is actually afraid, be it of dolls or Hufflepuffs, or that she will find her father's name in the wrong sort of newspaper. "There is a doll staring at me. I wish he'd go away. There's a poem about such things, you know.

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away..."

She doesn't let her eyes leave the doll.

[ashotofgin]

Ginny had been expecting that answer. It was always hard when her friends were going through something that wasn't exactly tangible or easily fought. She had never been as good with those sorts of things as she would like. Of course she was a better at them than her brothers were, but that was all relative.

Sitting down next to Luna, she eyed the doll warily. "I've never heard that one, but I don't blame you. After what happened everything is more than a bit disturbing when it comes to kids toys and the like."

[dreamily_luna]

Luna reaches out and takes Ginny's hand, folding it in her cold fingers. "It actually has nothing to do with that happening, though it wasn't any easier that way." She breathes in and out, letting the sound and the warmth of Ginny's hand comfort her.

"There was something else that happened a long time ago."