I had to find Luna. That’s all I could think of, really. Thankfully, she hadn’t moved out.
Some people had, when the news first came out, a year and ten days ago. Neville had, his Gran had pulled him out of Hogwarts just 6 days later. My parents had wanted to pull me out as well, but I had put my foot down. “I love school. I love the place and the people. If this is indeed the last year of my life, I want to spend it around my friends.”
They had agreed, of course, when it was put like that. It didn’t last long, though. There had been only sixty children left, out of the two hundred and fifty that had been in our year. The number of teachers had halved. We’d ended up spending the classes catching up with each other, learning things about the people around us that we’d never bothered to learn before. Eventually, the number of teachers and students had gotten so few that they’d ended up just closing the school.
Many people hadn’t believed it. Some people still didn’t, with just twenty four hours left. They’d been called the ‘Sceptics’. The Sceptics weren't ready to accept, what my parents called, ‘overwhelming proof’. They had continued with their lives, working as usual. On the other hand, ‘Believers’ had spent the year ticking things off their bucket list. Spending the year in their hometown, or travelling the world; either way, having given up on working.
Appa said that we had to be grateful to the Sceptics, without them, we couldn’t have even lasted this year. There were lots of Sceptics in the Wizarding World. Magic can make you feel invincible. Everything had closed down, shops, schools, offices, even the government had just given up. There was a famine. There was no food, scarce drinking water, no electricity even. Lots of people there had died, just six months in. Six months in from the day that everybody’s lives changed.
I didn’t even bother looking for a taxi. I just ran. I ran all the way to her building, and raced up the stairs. Panting, I rang the doorbell on the twelfth floor.
“Ginny?” Luna opened the door wide, taking in my flushed face, and hands on my sides. “What happened?”
I shook my head, “Nothing,” pant, “just ran all the way here,” pant, “I have to tell you something.”
She nodded, stepping out of the house, and closing the door softly. We rode the elevator down to the ground floor.
We walked over the field, crossed through the hedges, climbed under the railing, and pushed aside the curtain. The curtain had been Neville’s idea; Luna and I were perfectly sure that nobody ever went there. He had brought one from his house, his mum had thrown it away when they were renovating, but he’d rooted through the boxes and found it. In the days to come, we treasured it immensely. It had shaded us from the scorching Mumbai sun, and also given us a little cocoon where we could just be our crazy selves. It had ended up as our ‘secret hideout’ as Luna insisted on calling it, no matter Neville’s or my efforts to change the name to something cooler. All for the best, I suppose. We’d never been particularly cool people.
“What is it?” Luna asked, with genuine concern on her face.
“Luna, I have something to tell you.” I said again. I took a deep breath “Just say it!” I scolded myself. I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t. And isn’t that what this whole year had been for? Getting rid of regrets. Doing the things you had always wanted to so that you didn’t end up dying with unfinished business.
I rubbed my sweaty palms on my shirt, brought out a little box from my pocket, and opened it. Inside the box was a silver chain, with a crystal swan pendant on it. The sunlight glinted off the swan, defining the gentle pink stone of the wings. I had bought it way before all this, two years ago, when I had first realized my feelings. I had carried it everywhere, hoping that one day I’d be able to work up the courage to just say it.
“Luna, I-I love you.”
Luna just stood there for a few seconds, stunned. She blinked and looked down at the box, taking it from my hand.
There were tears in her eyes. “Ginny, I’m-I’m sorry. I need to find Neville.”
My heart felt like it was breaking into a million pieces. Literally. My chest hurt, and I was finding it harder to breathe. But it made sense. For Luna, it had always been Neville.
Luna pulled me into a hug, her shoulders shaking; her tears wetting my T shirt.
“Hey,” I said, but my voice, damn it, broke. “Hey. It’s not your fault, Luna. It’s OK, it’s alright” I mumbled soothing words into her hair.
She pulled away. “I wish it could be different, I really do. If this had been a different world, and we were in this situation, I would have; well, if we were in a different world this wouldn’t have been happening. What I’m trying to say is…”
“Luna,” I said. “Shut up.” I smiled. “Don’t we have a person to find?” She bit her lip and hesitated.
I held out my hand “Best friends?” I asked.
She gripped my hand firmly. “Best friends for life.” She hugged me again. I took the swan necklace off its velvet cushion, and clasped it around her neck.
“When this is all over, and you’re sitting on a poofy cloud in heaven, hold the swan, and remember me,” I told her.
She pushed me with her shoulder. “Shut up. You’ll be right there next to me.” I grinned, glad we could so easily go back to our normal teasing and joking. But then, as Luna said, if things had been different, it might have been awkward. As it happened, we didn’t have time for awkwardness.
I felt a tug on my hand. Luna had run ahead, and was trying to pull me along. I jogged ahead, and we ended up racing to the taxi point. Five taxis went by without even stopping.
“I’ve never wished to see a Sceptic this much in my life!” I grinned.
Luna opened her phone and requested a cab on some app. “It says it’ll take ten minutes. Intercity cabs always take time.”
“Exactly where in Pune is Neville staying right now?” I asked, casually.
“Floor 23, Mont Pristine, opposite Khadki Railroad, Chikhalwadi District. It’s only five minutes from the hospital, walking, so it’s convenient for…” she trailed off at the sight of my smirk.
She backtracked, “I mean, well, he, um, told us yesterday, um, that it was close, um.” I raised an eyebrow.
She mumbled, “I’m kind of - tracking his phone.” She said the last part very quickly.
“Wow! Since when?” I asked.
“When he first got a phone. Do you remember? We had gone out to a restaurant to celebrate. Afterwards, you and Neville were arguing about who should pay. He had left his phone on his chair. I accepted my own offer to track him on his Google Account.” she looked away.
“Luna! You sly minx!” I exclaimed.
“Please don’t call me that,” her nose wrinkled in distaste. “It sounds…”
“Kinky,” I supplied.
“Yeah, you know I-” Luna was cut off by the sound of a horn. There was a white car standing six feet away, with a yellow license plate. We ran over to it and got inside. Luna rattled off the address again. The car drove off. Luna put her head on my shoulder, and we sat in silence. Because really, what was left to say?
We three Musketeers had met back in kindergarten. Luna’s parents and mine had known each other earlier, so Luna and I were already best friends. Luna was a year younger than I was, so for the first time ever, I was going to be separated from her when I went to school for the first time. I had made a humongous fuss about going to school, even though my mom insisted that I would make new friends. I didn’t want new friends; my younger self had argued reasonably; I wanted Luna.
Nonetheless, I had had to go to school, and on the very first day, there had been a boy in my class who had made a great impression on me. I had chattered about him non stop to my parents, and when they got bored, I started talking to Luna about him. Everyday I would come back from school with a new story about him. Luna never tired of these stories.
That summer, Neville and I had a playdate at my house. Luna ‘accidentally’ came over at the exact same time, and we spent hours playing together. Neville and Luna hit it off immediately. It turned out that they lived in the same building, five minutes away from mine. At the end of the playdate, we signed a ‘contract’ on a piece of colored paper with crayon, promising to be friends for the rest of our lives.
We grew up together, after that. We held each other up; when I came out, they supported me; when Luna lost the National Art Competition, we consoled her; and when Neville’s sister had gotten cancer, we had been there for him. But the fabric of our group had changed the day the news came out.
It was really because of the hospital. Neville’s sister had been admitted in a hospital in Mumbai. But that hospital had shut down after the news. Neville’s family wasn’t sure where Suzy Didi should be admitted; they didn’t know which hospitals were safe. Then one hospital chain had pledged to stay open. They would provide high quality care, but for a steep price. The closest branch had been in Pune. Neville and his family sold their apartment in Mumbai and bought a smaller one in Pune. They used the rest of the money to pay for Suzy Didi’s hospital care.
Back in the city, Luna and I had started spending all the days together. Luna was insistent that if these were the last days of her life, she’d spend them learning as much as she could. I had made a plan for that. Luna was the one with ideas, and I was the one who made them happen. Usually, Neville was the one to make sure that my efficiency didn’t take over the point of the exercise.
We’d gone to the only library in the city, and checked out all the nonfiction books we could. I also took all the non fiction books (mostly astrophysics related) from my father’s not unsizeable personal collection. Then I revealed my plan. To maximise on learning, we’d both read different books at the same time, while taking notes. The notes would be a compressed version of the book, without the whole words and stuff in between. We’d sit in my room for the whole day, only coming out for meals. We’d stop at exactly 5:00pm, and trade notes. Most days, Neville would join us for this on video chat. I read the fastest, but Luna was better at taking notes.
At Neville’s end, things were getting desperate. The doctors said that they didn’t know whether Suzy Didi would be able to last much longer. She’d been able to talk less and less. In the beginning, we were able to say hi and talk to her on video chat; but now her family would spend all of the five minutes that she could talk with her. Neville also ate less, no matter what we tried to tell him.
That’s when Luna and I started made a pact. We’d talk to him together for an hour, and individually for half an hour every day. (Of course, these hours were separate from the study plan.) We couldn’t let him isolate himself. I spent an hour everyday scouring the newspaper and the internet for happy news around the world to tell him in my half an hour.
“Luna?” I said.
She jerked up from my shoulder, where she had nearly dozed off. “Mmmf?”
“Don’t sleep! This is not a time for sleep!” I scolded, “There’s less than an hour left!”
“Mmm,” her eyes were closing again.
“Oh my gosh, is that Neville? Hi, Neville!” I waved madly
She jumped up and looked wildly around her. “Where? Where?”
I sniggered.
She glared, “What was it that you needed to ask me?”
“I just wanted to know, what did you and Neville talk about in your calls?”
She bit her lip.
“Oh come on, tell me. There’s only two hours left anyway, what can I even do with the knowledge?”
Luna caved. “Oh all right.”
I grinned triumphantly.
“We used to trade love stories.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“We used to read each other love stories.”
“Oh my gosh!” I gasped, “I used to think you would talk about life, the universe, and everything; and you guys were actually reading erotica!”
“What? No! Not, that kind of love” Luna blushed. “I mean folk stories of love from different cultures. Our favorite one was of a chinese prince and a warrior who saved his life.”
I restrained myself from rolling my eyes. That was another thing that Luna and Neville had in common. They loved sappy stuff.
The taxi jerked to a stop. I paid the driver using the remaining money in my purse. Luna tried to pay, but I pushed her out of the vehicle.
“Why can’t I pay? You and Neville never let me pay!”
“This money will be no use to anyone in a little while anyway, so how does it matter?”
Luna pursed her lips, but didn’t push it. I turned to the taxi, which had started driving off. I spied a movement in the corner of my eye. A boy was walking across the road just in front of it. The car was going to hit him! I screamed and ran towards the boy, pulling him with all my arm strength. I slipped on my shoes and he fell on top of me onto the pavement. The car drove off, oblivious.
My head had hit the pavement. My ears were ringing, and I was seeing stars. I heard a voice.
“Neville?”
The weight on me was pulled off. I struggled my way into a seating position and blinked to clear my head. Neville was crumpled on the pavement next to me. His face was tearstained, his eyes were red and puffy.
“Neville?” I asked cautiously, “What happened?”
His weak voice broke my heart. “She died. She couldn’t wait for another hour and take me with her.”
Luna dropped onto the pavement beside us and put her arms around Neville. I did the same. Luna was crying too, and saying “Suzy Didi…Suzy Didi...”
We just sat like that for a long time, before I straightened up. “Suzy Didi wouldn’t want us to be like this.” I checked my watch. There was one minute left. I stood up. “Neville, Luna has something to tell you, don’t you Luna?”
Luna turned to Neville. “I have something to give you.” she told him. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
And the world ended.
I didn’t cry.
The last thing I smelled was the smoke in the air.
The last thing I felt was the gravel under my bare feet
The last thing I heard was two people saying “I love you.”
The last thing I tasted was the bittersweet taste of heartbreak.
The last thing I saw was the two best suited people I had ever seen, embracing each other, frozen in an act of love, two bodies seamlessly flowing into one.
The last thing I did was make the love of my life and my best friend the two happiest people in the world.