A/N: Because TML is going away REALLY soon, I thought I'd better get down to writing this! Luna Lovegood…oh Lord…

Now the technical stuff: This is for the "Going Away" challenge at the Sober Universe. ("Luna leaving England") Thanks, mackgirl and respitechristopher, for the great challenge!

Disclaimer: I don't own. Period. I mean, if I did, Luna and Neville would SO be married. But that is beside the point.

Dedication: For ToManyLetters, because even though we aren't great friends or anything, I'll really miss your zillions of challenges on SU and just your presence! (Plus you're totally a Neville/Luna shipper too!) We'll all miss you!

Everything

For Loony Luna Lovegood, life was simply taken in stride. What happened happened, and she couldn't do anything about it. Her mother's death, her father's ideas, her peers' misunderstanding her, she accepted it all.

The second her mother died, Luna changed her life. That's what deaths were supposed to do, anyway. She became blunt, did not try to hide her differences. After all, it was her own silence that ultimately murdered her mum. She devoted her life to proving herself and her father right, and everyone else wrong—Wrackspurts were real, Nargles were affecting people. They just didn't know it.

She also began to plan. That was the way she was—she planned. Ravenclaws did such things, after all.

Her mother's death was a surprise. She would not let anything else be surprising to her. She anticipated the unbelievable, and didn't gloat when it happened. She was simply glad. Because she was ready.

She knew how her life would ultimately end up. She knew others would laugh at her; think she had a few too many screws loose. She knew that her father would protect her at all costs. She knew it all.

She anticipated it, and tried to make everything end up well, make it work.

And it did work. She became immune to everything said about her—but take a crack at The Quibbler, or her father, or worst of all, her mother, and she was ready. She tried to force her father to stick with beliefs no matter what, stick with her no matter what.

And she mostly succeeded.

But the thing that she didn't expect was friends.

Ginny was first. Sure, she laughed with the rest for their first few years, but she was nice, and she was never malicious. And one day when she called them friends, Luna was not prepared. "Pardon?" she'd said.

"I said that you're really one of my best friends, Luna. I love you!" And she'd squeezed Luna's shoulder in a way that made her beam—a friend! There was something sisterly about it, something Luna did not understand; but yet, for once in her life, she enjoyed being unprepared.

She was loved.

And then was Neville, and when he offhandedly mentioned their friendship, or introduced her as "My friend Luna," something warm spread through her body. Though it was disconcerting to be so surprised, she didn't mind so much.

She was his friend.

Later, she found that Harry, Ron, and Hermione considered her friends, too. And that was five whole friends—more than she'd had at once in a lifetime.

And being apart if the DA made her feel even more special. She was just a forgotten, loony fourth year, and yet here she was, part of something. She made up something.

Neville told her once, "Without you, the DA would be incomplete."

Something—incomplete without her? It gave her tingles just thinking of it.

She had five friends and an organization. She had her father. She had Hogwarts and all of the professors. She had The Quibbler. She had everything she needed, and she was ready—she had a plan.

Even when Voldemort came. Even in the Department of Mysteries. Even as she attempted to steal the Sword of Gryffindor, even as she ran the DA. Even, believe it or not, as she fought in the Battle, later officially named The Battle of Hogwarts.

She had everything.

And then, somewhere through it all, something horribly unexpected happened.

And not good-unexpected.

She began to like a boy.

Of course, in fourth year, she had an obvious obsession with Ron Weasley, but that was all part of the plan.

How could it happen?

How could she let it happen?

Must she like every single boy who paid a speck of attention, minus the name-callers?

Yes, it was true. She liked Neville Longbottom.

She was afraid to admit it, afraid to show it.

She knew that if he told her he liked her, or if he tried to kiss her, she wouldn't want to know. It would be too good to be true, and she needed her realistic plan back.

And then, after the Battle of Hogwarts, she'd kissed his cheek.

That was when she knew that she really loved him. She didn't need the plan—she needed him.

But then he began to date Hannah Abbot, and everything was gone. All of her foolish dreams, her discarded plans, her wishes—they disappeared.

She and Neville could never be. And she tried to accept it—life would do what life would do. But somehow, someway, she wasn't able to.

And so she ran. She went Ginny and Harry's joint wedding with Ron and Hermione, and ran afterwards. She hugged them all goodbye, she told Neville good luck with his future son, and she was gone. She fled to Australia, and it was the best thing she'd ever done.

She'd fled from her plans. She ran from Hannah and Neville and their baby Frank. She ran from Happily-Ever-After Ginny and Hermione. She ran from her father's failing health. She ran from Hogwarts, and she ran from England.

And it was a wonderful decision, because she met her other half.

She met Rolf Scamander, and everything changed.

For she no longer pined for Neville, or blamed Hannah. She was no longer jealous. She and Rolf could make their lists together, shoulder the burden of her dying father together, laugh and cry and fight and kiss and marry together.

Even though Ginny and Hermione got married so much earlier than her, even though Neville was not the least bit jealous of Rolf, and even though neither of her parents saw her marry, it was okay.

Because going away ended up being the one thing she'd never, ever anticipated, and it brought with it the one thing she wanted more than anything: True, requited love.

She really did have everything.