He remembered, oh it must have been years ago now or perhaps it only felt that way. He remembered being woken the night after DA had tired him out by Ron and Harry climbing into their beds. Half-awake he'd not really paid much attention to Ron's muttering to Harry.

"I still reckon Hermione's wrong, mate, she can't feel all that at once, you'd explode"

Harry had made that non-committal noise that Neville had always assumed meant Harry knew that Hermione was right but really wasn't interested in getting into it with his hot headed friend. Hermione was very rarely wrong anyway.

"And I don't have the emotional range of a tea spoon" There was a definite pout to that, Neville noted before he had fallen back to sleep.

Neville snorted at that a little even now. Perhaps if Ron had spent more effort examining his own emotions then he wouldn't have taken so long to realise how well he fit with Hermione after all.

Hermione was very rarely wrong.

His whole body ached, his left ankle was still puffy from weeks back and that awkward dive he made into the room of requirement before the Carrows could grab him, when he raised his eyebrow there was something a little sharp and a little damp that he didn't like the feel of and he was certain he'd done something to his shoulder when he had swung at that, Merlin forbid, giant arsed snake. Even with the physical exhaustion he kept getting flashes, flashes of over whelming emotion. Bellatrix Lestrange was dead there was a kind of joy in it, but also a kind of loss in it too for so long the hate he felt for her had made him want to fight, with that bitch dead would he be able to continue? But Voldemort was dead and crumpled in a heap at Harry's feet so there was no need to fight or be brave any longer surely. Was it wrong for him to suddenly feel like he'd miss everyone cramped up in the room together plotting and working so hard for each other, he'd really had friends there despite the torture of it all. And why did he suddenly feel so embarrassed that he'd wanted to cower when all those death eaters had laughed at his name. Merlin, he should get up and do something, anything to stop the tidal waves of strange thoughts threatening to drown him.

The sword was still lying next to him. The Sword of Gryffindor. And for a moment he didn't second guess the swelling incoming wave of pride.

Something blue and purple and smudged with blood and dirt moved on to the step next to him.

Luna.

It was dawn he realised and he was really supposed to be dead by now.

But Gryffindor's sword was lying between them and perhaps you don't need to be fighting evil to be brave.

So he smiled a little and she in her calm, implacable manner smiled back.

It was all he could manage for the moment but she would know that, for all her strangeness Luna had always known.

There would be time to talk about how she had been his first and only best friend and how very lucky he felt to have fallen in love with his best friend. And then he could talk about how terrifying it was to start the DA again. But that with Ginny all instinct and fire and her, such knowing and grace, he'd felt he'd follow them anywhere. He could talk about how they'd left him one by one and he kept fighting so that he could pretend they were still there.

Or maybe he wouldn't need to say any of it. Maybe after he'd found some food and a toothbrush, definitely a toothbrush, he could just kiss her.

After all he was supposed to be dead by now and he was a man with a rather large sword.

Quietly, beside him, she sighed thoughtfully and with a little start he noticed that the pleasing warmth of her body seemed to have stopped the flashes for now. Ron had been wrong you wouldn't explode with so many feelings but sometimes, if you were very lucky, one feeling could damn well cut the head off all of the others.

Screw the toothbrush.

"I've always wondered what the Room of Requirement would look like if you required nothing" she said in that curious lilt that could not have come from a hill a mile or two from where Ron had grown up.

"I…" Neville stopped he had an unnatural sense that now was not the time for the logical response that the room only appears when required, perhaps after years of knowing her, he was finally realising that sometimes she was just giving you a way of beginning the conversation. He grinned, an action that made the very sides of his face want to curse him. "I tried to find you"

"I know" when she smiled her teeth remained hidden behind her cut lips but her grey eyes still told him she was happy.

"More than once" he shrugged instinctually and regretted the small action.

"I know"

"But you… you're okay… I mean your message said you were safe?" for the first time he felt able to touch her as he grazed her soft cheek and the green and yellow blossoms of bruising.

"You did well Neville" she was always saying things like that, little genuine compliments like they were something that everyone said every day.

"The snake… I… ah" he wanted to brush away the sensation that he was exactly the same Neville Longbottom he'd always been from himself. This was supposed to be going much smoother than this when he'd tried to find her after the bridge with spit and gravel still in his stomach he had imagined he would be much smoother than this.

"Oh yes, the snake, the speech, of course" she tilted her head and a halo of sunlight filtered through the dishwater blonde strands of hair that escaped her braid. "You did well before that too"

Such a small thing to say and yet better than dittany, using the silver sword as a crutch he lent forward and pulled his dented frame off the step. There was a little pleasure in the moment of confusion that passed through Luna's eyes when he turned back to her offering his hand. She took it just as she had taken it to pull him back from oncoming death in the department of mysteries and lightly raised herself to meet him. He did not let her hand go.

"You know what Luna? Right now I reckon have everything I require" he set his jaw and did what needed to be done, something that he had got very good at since she'd left him at Christmas. "I say we try and find that room and get you some answers"

"Yes Neville"

As they weaved through the clumps of students, professors, families and elves in the Great Hall Neville held her bruised hand, a little concerned that should he let go he might be doing so forever. As they reached the broken arched entrance he felt her pause, he stopped and turned to her questioning. "One moment Neville there's something I think I need to do" He reluctantly let her go watching her every light step as she slipped on to a bench beside Harry. The shorter wizard looked so very tired and grey even against the rubble and he seemed to have a smile pinned to his face as though his brain had failed to tell his eyes. Luna quietly said something to Harry and though Neville saw him flinch a little at her sudden presence he saw him nod and say something just as quietly in response.

"Oooh, look, a Blibbering Humdinger!" She said dreamily in a louder voice and pointed out the window, everyone around her looked up. Neville did not instead he watched the little satisfied smile form on her lips but by the time he had focused again on the space around Luna, Harry had gone. He sank on to the benches placing the sword beside him and grabbing a piece of toast from a plate as he nodded at something Terry Boot had yelled congratulatory at him. It was a little rude to ignore the knot of people leaning in to see the sword but Neville could not help but concentrate on the little blonde figure in combat boots making her way back towards him.

"Ah twice baked bread" she nodded as she took the toast from his unresisting hand placed it between her teeth and tugged him upwards. Her bite taken and chewed she blinked as though his standing there was a mild annoyance "Wasn't there something we were going to do?"

"Oh" he chuckled "Yes, lots of things"

They got to the corridor that Neville had last remembered the room to have opened into to find a doorway but it was all ash and charcoal. As if they had had the same thoughts a little intake of breath sounded from both Luna and himself. It couldn't be the same room, the very same that had taught them, provided for them and sheltered them surely? Limping he moved between the stone piles to see inside. Luna followed behind he could feel her nearby and it settled him.

"Oh, this is very sad, I thought that it might be the one place left untouched" She said as if it was merely a problem of incorrect hypothesises. Neville rounded to see her face smudged and bruised but as open as always and was surprised by the little glitter of unshed tears in her eyes.

"Bloody Hell" He sighed "It was going to be… I was going to…" She just waited for him to finish. Neville wished for the first time that Luna might not be so understanding and patient. "But it's all just as broken and ruined as the rest, everything just… I thought it might be different now it's over… that doesn't make much sense does it?" He said sagging to the floor.

"Well," she said lyrically as she slid down beside him "it appears you may have a head wound, perhaps you are expecting too much of yourself"

Neville looked at her with a pang of frustration as she dabbed at the side of his head with her sleeve. Really? After all of this she still thought it was the ravings of a confunded boy. But then he saw it, the little satisfied smile, the blink and you'll miss it knowledge that other people were always underestimating Luna Lovegood. This close he felt he could breathe her in, in the ash and the charcoal between the bruises and the blood he pressed his lips to hers and counted all the feeling that could make you explode.

When she let go of his hair, when he slid his hand from her hip, they saw it strangely clean and new in the broken and ruined room.

A blue toothbrush.