A/N: For the 12 Days of Christmas Style Challenge and the Connect the Characters challenge.

Pairing: Luna/Harry.

"It's funny, you know," you tell him, crunching through the fallen leaves with your bare feet.

"What's funny?" Harry eyes you, raising one eyebrow in that skeptical way he has, although you think that is more directed to your missing shoes than anything else.

"Life," you gesture at the fringe of the Forbidden Forest around you, nearly catching one of the thestrals following you in the nose with a hunk of raw meat. It snaps affectionately at your fingers and you give it the treat, giggling as its tongue laps at your skin. "People. They all think they know what's best, and it turns out none of them do."

"Someone must know," he disagrees with you, sticking his hands in his pockets. You tilt your head and study him, the way his shoulders scrunch inward, the worry-line creasing his forehead, right across the lightning bolt.

"No," you shake your head, your radish earrings bobbing against your cheeks. "People know pieces of it. But that's the thing. Pieces aren't the whole."

"I suppose," he trails off, still looking doubtful. You smile anyway. He hasn't dismissed you as mental, that's the important thing, and the reason you went up to him in the first place, four months ago, and asked him, in the most forthright manner you could manage, if he'd like to go to Hogsmeade with you to find the fairy webs. You were both surprised when he said yes.

"Come on," you say, wiping your fingers off on your skirt and smiling airily. "It's time for dinner." As you walk back up to the castle, Harry entwines his fingers with yours, and you feel something prickle deep inside, the most content feeling you've known since your mum died.

"And Luna?" Harry remarks, out of the blue. You look up at him serenely, wondering what he'll say. "Let's find your damn shoes," he says, exasperated as he tugs you up the steps. Your giggles trail after you like soap bubbles as he pulls you after him.