A/N: Before I start, I'd like to thank everyone for the great response I got after posting chapter one. I've never gotten so many reviews on a oneshot before!
So as my thanks to you, here's a second oneshot. I hope you enjoy it as much as the first chapter.
Lots of love, dear readers.
Luna thought that searching for true love was a bit like searching for a Crumple-Horned Snorkack; most people didn't think it was real, but she knew that it was. She loved him because of the way she could tag an emotion onto every memory of him. She loved him because, quite simply, he was Dean.
Wonder
After OWL exams in Luna's fifth year
Luna was humming to herself when someone walked up behind her. "Luna?" the voice asked uncertainly. "Luna Lovegood?" She was sitting at the edge of the lake with her feet in the water and had long, silvery strings attached to her toes. She was gently swishing them back and forth, making the silver glint in the water.
She turned, seeing the boy who had been the object of Ginny's fascination for months. "Yes?"
"I'm-" he hesitated, "I'm Dean Thomas."
"I know who you are," she said, and he wondered how each of her words seemed musical.
"Would it be alright if I, er, talked to you about Ginny?"
"Certainly, Dean Thomas." She resumed the swinging of her feet below the water, and he watched the patterns of light reflecting off of the silver for a moment before continuing.
"Ginny and Harry... I mean, I see them together, but are they-?"
"Yes," she answered simply.
He sighed. "I guess I knew it would happen eventually. She fancied him for years."
Luna made no reply.
"I miss her, though," he continued. "Sometimes I wish that it had worked out, you know."
She did know. "Maybe it's for the best," she suggested, and she began to swing her feet faster to match the rhythm of her racing heart as he moved closer and plopped down beside her.
"What are you doing?" Dean asked, and for a moment she frowned because she thought he was being critical, like everyone else.
But when she met his eyes she saw genuine interest, and so she answered, "I'm trying to attract the Giant Squid."
"With string?" he asked, surprised but not, she was pleased to hear, incredulous.
"Yes. She loves silver, you know."
"Funny..." he pondered. "I've always thought the Giant Squid was male."
When Luna laughed, it sounded like a dozen bells. "Don't say that to her," she advised, "She'll send her children after you. They grow human legs at night and leave the lake."
He watched her for a moment before again saying hesitantly, "Luna?"
"Hmm?"
"I need to get my mind off of- Well, I need to clear my head. Would it be alright if I- if I drew you?"
She wondered about him as he pulled sketchbook and a Muggle pencil out of his pocket before nodding permission. He was left handed and rested his right hand on top of hers as he drew.
Dean Thomas, indeed, she wondered.
Fear
Platform 9 3/4, September in Luna's sixth year
Luna had sent Dean an owl forbidding him to come to Hogwarts. He had no proof that he was not Muggle-born, and it had been in the papers that Ministry of Magic officials would be checking identities at King's Cross before the train departed.
But then, he had owled her back, I won't be able to see you.
Luna had persisted, however, and finally he had agreed: he wouldn't come to Hogwarts.
This explained why she was not expecting to see him. After her identity had been confirmed and she had kissed her father goodbye (the Ministry was not allowing parents past the barrier this year), she was skipping towards the train when she was stopped by a man in Ministry robes.
"Miss Lovegood?" the stranger growled. His head was covered by a turban that came down low over his eyes, his cloak riding high on his neck so that the lower half of his face was also hidden. She could only see his eyes.
"Yes?" she answered pleasantly, though her heart was pounding. Dean, she thought wildly, they know that I've talked to Dean, and now they're going to find out where he is and it's my fault, all mine.
Her worst fears were confirmed when the man said, "What do you know about a seventh year named Dean Thomas?"
She gasped in spite of herself and tried to sound nonchalant as she replied, "Dean Thomas? I can't say that I know him," but her voice shook just a little.
"You need to tell the truth, Miss Lovegood. You see, I happen to know that you are both Gryffindors. Do you expect me to believe that you do not know someone of your own House who is only one year older than you?"
She closed her eyes briefly, seeing horrible things. Dean, being captured and tortured and killed, Dean's body covered in bruises, blood oozing from his beautiful face...
It couldn't happen.
More terrified than she had ever been in her life, she somehow managed to smooth out her beyond-worried features. "I'm afraid," she said coldly, "that I know no Dean Thomas."
The man frowned, looking hurt. He grabbed her arm, and she gasped, looking around wildly. But she had been early arriving to the station, and the only people around were other Ministry officials.
She was at the stranger's mercy.
He led her behind a pillar, where he pulled down the too-high cloak and lifted the turban. "Why Miss Luna," he drawled, and suddenly his voice was familiar. "Are you sure you don't know me?"
Luna gasped, and suddenly her head swam. Whether it was from her lack of breakfast, the wild fear she had felt only moments before, or her happiness and horror at seeing him somewhere where he shouldn't be, she couldn't say. But she nearly fell backwards as the world blurred in front of her and would have if Dean's strong arms hadn't caught her.
She steadied herself against his broad frame before turning to him. "Dean Thomas!" she exclaimed, and he noticed that her words were lacking their usual musical and floating quality. "Why are you here? You promised me!"
Dean grinned at her, and she melted just a little. "I promised you I wouldn't come to Hogwarts," he reminded her. "You didn't specify anything about King's Cross."
Luna was still unhappy, though, and pulled on his shirt idly as she spoke. "But the Minister himself is here, and if you're caught, he'll feed you to his army of Heliopaths or use you to enslave goblins or-"
He gently placed his finger over her lips, saying, "Shhh," and for a moment he held her.
"Why?" she whispered, "Why did you risk everything to come here?"
He swore. "I thought it was obvious."
Luna tilted her head, her long blonde hair spilling over her shoulder. Dean twirled a curl around his finger. "I came because of you, Luna."
"Me?" she asked, amazed.
"For a Ravenclaw," he teased, "you're certainly slow."
As he kissed her gently, she wondered how she could be so terrified for him and so irrevocably happy at the same time.
He held her in his arms until the Hogwarts Express came roaring up to the tracks.
Love
One year after the fall of Voldemort
Luna was singing rather loudly at the top of the Astronomy Tower when a hand snagged around her waist. "Dean Thomas," she said, breaking off mid-chorus. "What brings you here?"
"I could ask you the same question, Luna."
"I'm singing to those who have died," she answered.
This was an answer he wasn't expecting. "Come again?"
"It's been exactly one year, you know," she explained patiently. "That's when the traces of those who died truly leave."
He took her hand in his and waited for her to continue.
"The battle that happened one year ago killed the good and the corrupted. But when people die, they're not evil anymore, because whatever corrupted them when they were living stays here on Earth."
"If they're not evil or corrupted anymore, then what are they?"
"They're people, Dean. Everyone's alike, really. We all love and laugh and live and die."
He watched her in her light purple robes and her earrings made of Gobstones and thought that no one could ever, ever be exactly like her. "But why are you singing to them?"
"Wouldn't you like someone to sing to you as you passed on?"
He blinked, uncertain, but she hadn't been expecting an answer and asked the next question. "Why are you here?"
"Same reason you're here, I guess... I can't seem to leave Hogwarts until it's completely restored. We're close, of course, but the grounds are still a mess, and I can't leave it like this because it was my home for so long."
"But what brings you to the Astronomy Tower?"
Dean cleared his throat, and he looked the most nervous that Luna had ever seen him. He got down on one knee, her hand still in his, and her breath caught in her throat.
"Luna Lovegood, I love you. And I know you're only seventeen and I'm only eighteen, but I'd like to marry you, someday." He slipped a ring onto her finger. In the middle of it was a moonstone, and she knew it to be a tribute to her name. "I'll follow you anywhere, Luna... We can even stay at Hogwarts, if you like. We can name our children after the names on your favorite Chocolate Frog cards, and we can spend our honeymoon searching for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks or Blibbering Humdingers or-"
Luna laughed. "I shall marry you, Dean Thomas, someday."
She beamed at him, her heart overflowing with love, and then she began to sing again to the departed souls.
Dean joined her sweet soprano with his deep tenor, and their voices matched beautifully.
And as they sang, they saw what appeared to be wisps of smoke rising from the ground, the traces of souls that were now drifting upwards.
But there was no distinguishing the Death Eaters from the others.
Because when it comes down to it, all people are the same, you know.
Hmm... Let me know what you thought. I'm not sure what to think of this chapter, but I'm going to post it anyway.