Christmas Tree

At the Christmas lights burned into his eyes, Neville turned to the sudden warmth against his arm. There was Luna Lovegood, eyes wider than usual as she looked at the Christmas trees surrounding the hall. Neville, caught in terror at the act of her starting to hug him, stumbled in surprise.

"I love trees," she told him, not moving her eyes. Neville wondered why she would be telling this to him at that moment, but waited for her to speak.

After a few moments of uncomfortable smile, the fourteen year old Ravenclaw let go of him and pulled a long scarf from inside her robes. It was longer than she was tall and had Christmas trees imprinted on it, dancing under a sort of spell. "Let's go."

Luna kept silent as she wrapped the scarf around her neck and started out. Neville stayed there, still confused. She glanced over her shoulder. "Don't you want a Christmas tree?"

Neville blinked dumbly. "But there's some here," was the lame answer. She shook her head, dashed back, grabbed him by the arm again, and pulled the boy outside into the cold air.

"There'll be trees around here," she told him, glancing around.

Neville never needed to be told that he was cowardly at times. Instead of telling the girl that he had no clue why they were there, he kept silent and watched her as they went.

Luna was at the edge of the Forbidden Forest when she waited for Neville to catch up. He trailed behind slowly as if not fully there, still some minutes behind in the conversation.

"We're going to find a tree," she told him sternly and Neville caught on after that. "A proper Christmas tree. Preferably fir. I think they would be near the edge of the forest."

"I hope you mean this edge," Neville cut in, glancing into the darkness and shivering. "Besides, there are plenty of trees inside the castle!"

Luna shook her head. "I said, we need a proper tree, not one of those."

"Where would it go?"

Shrugging, the girl starting to the forest, batting away branches.

"Hey, wait!" Neville called, going in. He tried to ignore the distant sounds in the forest and the fact that everything became darker as they entered. The sun was blocked out between the branches and he had no lights with him.

When they were deep inside the forest, Luna managed to find a clearing. However, 'clearing' was not the word most people would have used. It was a patch of snow, deep into the forest, only about five feet wide at most. Neville and Luna stood there, facing each other, smashing between the large branches of two trees.

"There's one," Neville told her, pointing to a fir tree and wincing as some twigs hit him in the face. "See, we found one. Don't expect for it to be chopped down, though," he added as a sort of warning.

Luna inspected the tree for a moment, touching the leaves and making soft noises. Neville hoped that they were pleased noises.

"I think I like this one," she said finally, glancing at him. "However, it's not a proper Christmas tree yet."

"What makes it a Christmas tree?"

Luna gave him a long stare, blue eyes popping out slightly as she glanced over him, staring at something behind him. "Christmas is about love. I think a proper tree needs this."

She leaned in and Neville, caught in shock, remained still as she planted a kiss on his lips. When she pulled away, her hands jumped to her hair and started shaking it around.

"What - what are you doing that for?" Neville asked, eyes widening.

"Making sure the nargles aren't there," she answered, still shaking out her hair.