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Hear the Moonlight Sing by goldensnidget92

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It was never really meant to happen. It just … did. They were both in need of someone, something, to hold on to. They found each other. It wasn’t like they had planned for it to be anything more than friendship, and indeed, many years later when Luna thought back to that period she wondered if it really had been anything more. She didn’t regret anything. Those months with Archie had helped her when she thought everything else had been lost. And although they had thought they were grown up, that they had discovered what it really meant to love, Luna now knew that it was the innocence of it that had saved her. It stopped her from growing up too quickly, and held her within the bounds of childhood for just a little longer.

She had been only twelve years old. It was funny, now, to think how sure she had been that she was growing up. Perhaps it was this illusion that kept her innocent. We only seem to grow up when we’re looking the other way, and when we realise what’s happened to us, there’s nothing we can do to change it. We spend our lives trying to recapture the innocence we were once so eager to shake off. Luna joined the adult world perhaps later than most, but she knew - possibly more acutely than most - that it was coming for her. So she made sure to make the most of what time she had left to her.

She had first met Archie in the library. It was a day when frost was creeping shyly across the window panes for the first time that year, and the grey clouds hovered low in the sky, trying to decide whether to snow or not. It was a Sunday, and the castle was slow and sleepy. Few people were in the library, and the silence slipped in and out of the books, winding between the shelves and brushing against Luna’s ankles like a sleek silver cat.

She was perusing the shelves, looking for an interesting book to add to the small pile she had collected in a cushioned window seat in the far corner. She picked up Mysteries Undiscovered and flicked through it, noting its pictures of upside-down trees and pigs sprouting antlers. As she wandered back over to the window seat, she was distracted by the sound of a book dropping to the floor with a muffled thump. She glanced over to the source of the sound, and saw a young boy with messy, strawberry blonde hair and a slightly dazed expression, tottering about holding a mountainous pile of books.

–Do you need any help?” Luna whispered. The boy nodded awkwardly, and she picked up the fallen book. It was heavy and leather-bound, with what looked like animal skin set into the spine. –Where are you sitting?” she asked.

–Over here.”

Luna followed the boy to the back of the library, to a large, round, wooden table and placed the book down. Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. –That’s an interesting title,” she said in a hushed voice. –Do you like dragons?”

The boy looked at her nervously, as though she would laugh at him. –Yes,” he mumbled.

–Oh, I’m glad you do! I think they’re rather pretty, don’t you?”

–I like their wings,” he said, non-committedly.

Luna’s heart had sunk then. She remembered that people didn’t like it when she talked to them about strange animals. They didn’t like it when she talked to them at all, really. This boy wasn’t going to be any different. –Sorry,” she muttered, and turned away.

She went back to her window seat after that, but didn’t read. She thought about the boy. She thought about the people who got embarrassed when she spoke to them. She thought about the girls she shared a dormitory with, and how they laughed at her when they thought she wasn’t listening. She pretended she didn’t care. But she did. Just as how, very deep down, she knew it was those girls who had stolen her vampire-repelling amulet, and not the Nargles. But it was easier to blame the Nargles. They didn’t mean her any harm.

–Excuse me,” a voice said, and Luna started out of her reverie. It was the boy. –I’m sorry I was rude to you just then. I just … I thought you were teasing me. But you weren’t, were you?”

–Oh, no!” cried Luna. –I wasn’t teasing you!”

The boy smiled. –I’m Archie Arkwright.”

–Luna Lovegood.”

There was a short pause as they observed each other closely, wondering who would make the next move. –What book have you got?” Archie asked, gesturing to the unopened book perched on Luna’s lap.

–Mysteries Undiscovered. I like learning about secrets. When I’m older I want to go exploring and discover all sorts of things.”

–When I’m older I want to look after dragons,” said Archie.

–Ooh, I bet that would be fascinating! Daddy wrote an article about dragons last month. He said that their tears have magical properties, and if you add them to Felix Felicis your luck will last for a whole week.”

–Wait - your dad doesn’t write for The Quibbler, does he?”

–He’s the editor. And he writes most of the articles, yes.”

–My parents buy that!” he exclaimed. –I read it too!”

–Do you really?”

–Yeah! Oh, that’s so cool that your dad writes it!”

–I’ve never met anyone who’s read it before! What do you think?” asked Luna excitedly.

Luna and Archie were friends from that point. Luna told him about all the stories her father was planning on printing, and Archie told Luna about his mother - a renowned Herbologist. Archie was a Hufflepuff second year, and Luna was surprised that she had never noticed him before. They were in the same class for Herbology and Astronomy. They both wanted to do Divination next year. Neither of them liked Potions.

Archie was the first person Luna had told about her mother. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed by the way her mother had died, but she didn’t feel like talking to the girls in her house because they wouldn’t understand. Archie understood. His dad was a Muggle, and had left when Archie was only five. He knew what it felt like to have a hole that never healed, or to hear the sounds of a parent crying in the room next door.

Archie told Luna about the bullying. He had a lot of lessons with the Slytherins, and they teased him for being different. They teased him and made him cry, and that made them tease him more. They said crying was for girls, but it wasn’t. Everyone cried and Archie said he didn’t understand why they were ashamed of doing it. Luna agreed, although she hadn’t cried for a long time. She hadn’t cried since her mother had died.

But then one night everything changed. It was January, and everyone was returning to Hogwarts ready to start the new term. Luna and Archie had agreed to meet in the Great Hall after supper so they could discuss their holidays. It was a crisp, clear night outside, and although there was a light dusting of snow they decided to go out anyway. The moon gleamed bright white, and the stars smiled out of the midnight blue sky.

They walked down towards the lake in silence, and when they reached its banks they saw how perfectly still it was: like liquid glass. The moon and stars were reflected back in it, and Luna felt as though she was floating in space, surrounded by planets and stars and secrets. She was standing so close to Archie that she was touching him, and could see his breath being released in puffs of vapour. She reached down and held his hand. It was a perfectly innocent movement, but it communicated a lot more than she could ever have imagined.

Archie enclosed her fingers in his, and smiled at her nervously. Nothing needed to be said. They understood each other perfectly. Luna couldn’t tell when her feelings had begun to change. It might not have been until right that second. But something about the infinite space above and below her made her crave contact with a fellow human, and alerted her to something else stirring in the very bowels of her consciousness. The stars seemed to sparkle with extra vigour as soon as their fingers intertwined, and she was sure she could hear a soft, unearthly sound emanating from the sky and the lake.

–Can you hear?” whispered Archie. –The moonlight’s singing.”

To anyone else this could have seemed ludicrous, but Luna knew it was the truth. Something powerful had happened between the two of them: something she couldn’t explain. But the moon had been watching, and it knew. And it wanted to celebrate the brilliance of what had past. It wasn’t the first touch of love which had begun to colour their hearts and minds that the moon rejoiced in, but the unconscious refusal to be spoiled by the world: the desire to remain innocent, for just a little longer.