Luna
“You seem more distracted than usual tonight. Would you like to talk about her?” Luna asked as she and Fred made their way out of the house. Pulling her scarf up around her face, she took the arm he had offered and waited for him to reply.
“Her? Her who?” Fred asked.
“Oh, the one you’ve been obsessed with for months? Years even?” This charade, while endearing, was getting a bit old.
“You really are part seer aren't you?” Fred muttered sarcastically.
“Perhaps. It hasn't been fully tested. Of course, Professor Trelawney said my inner eye was most decidedly closed. Though, that was after I contradicted one of her prophecies. She seemed a bit sour honestly.”
“I’ll bet,” Fred said with a chuckle.
“I imagine you’d like to avoid the topic of Hermione altogether. You always do.”
Shortly after the war, Luna had found herself standing outside the door to Fred’s hospital room. She hadn't remembered deciding to go there, she hadn't even been at the hospital, but she ended up there somehow. She had taken it as a sign, as usually was the case, that she was needed there and walked on in.
All of the most important things Luna ever did started with an indescribable feeling of being needed. Fred Weasley was no different.
He was still unconscious, lying on the bed as peacefully as sleep, though she could see that it was a very different thing indeed. George was on a cot in the corner, and his real sleep wasn't nearly as peaceful. Not really knowing what else to do, Luna began talking. She told him about everything she could think of. All the creatures no one believed in, the things that had happened to her during the war, at Malfoy Manor. The boy she had met in the middle of that final battle, the one who was interested in creatures just as much as she was, and who had plenty of his own stories to share. It was the first time anyone had let her just talk and she rather enjoyed it. So she kept coming back.
Once Fred had woken, she continued to come and they forged a friendship. They had found a way to put aside their ‘public faces’; hers incredibly strange, his far too bold. Together, allowing the other to see their real selves, they realised they rather liked each other. It was a friendship with few pleasantries and plenty of honesty, one that no one else quite understood, and that suited them both just fine.
“I wouldn't even know where to start.”
“Oh, it looks as if you are going to have to avoid her a bit later,” Luna said pointing to the apparition point where Hermione stood. She looked to be talking on her telephone, which meant it must be her parents. “Unless you’d like to turn around and go the other way?”
“Nah, it doesn't look like she's having a good go of it. She might need some cheering up.” Fred sighed, though he made no move to go closer.
They waited silently for her to finish, not intending to eavesdrop, though they could hear plainly everything Hermione was saying. Luna thought of walking away a bit, giving her some privacy, though the look on Fred’s face changed her mind. He looked to be hurting as much as Hermione. He really needed to talk to Hermione about how he felt.
Hermione’s tone changed abruptly and even Luna couldn’t help being drawn into the conversation.
“Yes.
No, I understand.
If that’s what you feel is best.
Mum, there was no tone. If you and Dad wish to stay then you should stay.
I wish I could.
Because I have responsibilities here.
I didn't say that.
Mum.
No, Mum, please.
Yes, alright. Tomorrow then.
I love you, goodbye.”
“Bloody fucking hell!” Hermione called out into the night.
“Language, Miss Prefect,” Fred said, a smirk playing on his lips, long gone the look of anguish.
A yelping sound came from Hermione and Luna nudged Fred. “It isn't kind to startle people.”
“How much of that did you hear?” Hermione asked, looking around for anyone else who may have heard.
“Just the end,” Luna said.
“I’m sorry, love,” Fred said, putting his free hand on Hermione’s shoulder.
“No, it's fine. It's just…”
“Complicated,” Fred finished for her
“Precisely. So what are you two up to?”
“I was just about to ask Luna here if she'd fancy a late supper. We’d love it for you to join us,” Fred said easily.
“That sounds wonderful actually, I’m starving,” Hermione said, visibly relaxing.
“I have to go check on Dad, actually, but you should check out that new pizza place in the village. I went there a few days ago with Rolf, it was lovely.”
“You sure?” Fred asked pointedly.
“Of course. I’ll see you both tomorrow?”
As Fred and Hermione answered in the affirmative Luna hugged them both at the same time, squishing them together a bit for good measure. She waved to them one final time then turned to apparate.
A vision passed through her mind of Hermione and Fred seated at a small booth in the corner of a restaurant, they were snuggled close together on the same side of the booth and sharing a bottle of wine while laughing in between kisses.
Luna chuckled softly at the sight, just because she had never been tested didn't mean she didn't know for certain she was a seer.