“Maybe the little bruises and cuts that show up on your body seemingly out of nowhere are actually little injuries that happened to your soulmate and you get the same marks on your skin as them.”
_
_
Luna looked around at the group of sixth year Slytherin boys slowly closing in on her. She grabbed her wand from behind her ear, holding it tightly, enough to turn her knuckles white.
“What’s wrong, Loony?” one of the boys taunted. “Scared, are you?” He pointed his wand directly at her. “Expelliarmus!”
Luna’s wand shot out of her hand, toward the boy, who caught it with a sick smile on his face.
“Where are your marbles? Those things that you talk about so much,” he said, twirling her wand in his fingers.
“Nargles,” she corrected him, subconsciously grabbing her butterbeer cork necklace.
He laughed, but it didn’t sound very joyful at all.
“Hey!” a voice said from behind Luna. “Leave her alone!”
“A fifth year, is it?” the supposed leader purred.
“That’s the girl that got detention for giving Ned the bat bogey hex,” another boy said. "Ginevra Weasley." Ned, apparently, covered his nose with his hand, gripping his wand in his other.
“You know you’ll get in trouble if you hex us, little Weasley,” said the leader.
Ginny looked into Luna’s silvery eyes as the blonde stood in the middle of the circle, seemingly undisturbed.
“It’s not like it matters,” the leader continued. “She doesn’t give a hippogriff’s ass what anyone thinks of her.”
“Of course she does, you twat,” Ginny answered, stalking up to the sixth year boy. “She just doesn’t show it.” Before Luna could say anything, she heard a loud thud, followed by a yell from the leader. He stumbled back, clutching his nose, blood already dripping between his fingers.
“Bloody hell,” one of the boys said. “You just got punched by a girl, mate.”
“Bugger off,” the leader groaned, voice sounding nasally. “Get me to the infirmary.”
The boys helped him away and towards the infirmary, and Ginny picked up Luna’s wand from the ground, dusting it off and handing it back to the Ravenclaw. “Hey, are you okay?” she asked.
Luna’s big silvery eyes looked into her before she smiled a bright smile. “I am always alright.”
“But you don’t have to be,” Ginny replied, her voice pleading. “Luna, why do you let them do these things to you?”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with my character. Only theirs,” Luna answered. She looked down, noticing the red marks on Ginny’s knuckles. “You’re hurt.”
“Nothing a little spell can’t fix,” Ginny said, stepping closer to her friend. “I know you’ll see to it that it heals.”
Luna’s breath hitched as Ginny came closer. “Yeah,” she breathed. “I will.”
_
_
That night Luna noticed her knuckles were a little red.