Swans and Loons

When Cho Chang was in her fourth year, she started noticing a second year girl who seemed to spend most of her time in Ravenclaw Tower all alone in the common room. One afternoon, while going over Banishing Charms theory with Marietta Edgecombe, Susanne Fawcett, and Violet Burgess she noticed that some of the other second years were throwing bits of parchment at her. The girl seemed not to notice, but Cho doubted that anyone could not notice that her peers were throwing things at her.

"Marietta...why don't we invite that girl over here?" Cho asked her friend.

Marietta looked the girl up and down and raised an eyebrow. "She's wearing a necklace made out of muggle Christmas lights and painted her fingernails," Marietta paused and squinted, disbelieving, "Yellow plaid."

"There might be a reason she's sitting alone," Violet added.

"Oh, come on, no one deserves to be treated like that."

"I guess so..." Marietta said.

"As long as she doesn't bother us, and her 'admirers' don't follow and annoy us and her," Violet said.

Cho crossed the room, causing the second years to scatter. The girl put down her magazine.

"Hi. Do you want to come over by the fire and sit with my friends and me? It seems awfully cluttered around here," Cho said. She smiled at the younger girl, gesturing at the parchment.

"No, it's all right. I'm fine over here, thanks," the girl said vaguely.

"Are you sure? It's quite chilly over here," Cho nodded meaningfully at the second years, who were now pretending to read while they shot glances over their books. One boy was holding A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration with the pages facing out. Cho wondered how he had gotten into Ravenclaw. "It's much nicer by the fire."

"Well...all right," the girl said. She allowed herself to be led over to the fire, but not before she'd picked up some of the parchment.

I'm Cho Chang, and this is Marietta Edgecombe. What's your name?"

"Luna Lovegood."

After that, Luna sat with Cho and Marietta occasionally. She didn't talk much, but she seemed quite appreciative of how this arrangement kept her from some of the more obvious mistreatment from her peers. Their circle of friends began to regard Luna as a bit of a mascot. It worked out quite well for everyone involved.

A few days into her fifth term, Cho was sitting alone in the common room. She really wished she could go to sleep, but she had so much homework already that she half-wanted to fly off to somewhere where they didn't have O.W.L.s and come back when exams were over. Cho had reread the paragraph about the Draft of Peace three times in her sleepiness, and couldn't remember a thing. Tired and unfocused as she was, the words kept swimming across the page and looked like nonsense. She felt like tearing her hair out in frustration. She grabbed a lock of hair experimentally.

"You shouldn't pull your hair. It's quite lovely," Luna said vaguely from the foot of the girls' stairs. She was wearing purple flannel pajamas that were a bit too big for her. They were covered with pictures of cows jumping over a crescent moon.

Cho glanced up and smiled despite herself. "Thanks. What are you doing up?"

"Oh, someone seems to have hidden my pillow and blanket, and it's quite drafty in the dormitory, so I thought I'd do some reading here by the fire," Luna said, holding up a magazine.

"That's terrible! Do you want me to get Marietta to make them give it back? She's a prefect now, so they'll listen to her."

"No, don't wake her. I'm sure they'll return them before I go back up. They usually do when they hide things like that." Luna sounded quite unconcerned.

Cho was still concerned, but she supposed it was Luna's choice whether she wanted help. She couldn't blame her, though: Marietta was a grouch when she had to get up in the middle of the night.

Luna plopped down onto the couch beside Cho and opened her magazine. A large photograph of what seemed to be a giant mouse with six legs, the tail of a beaver, and a snout like a pig adorned the page. At least, that's what Cho thought it looked like. It kept darting behind trees, so it was quite hard for her to tell.

"What's that?" Cho asked.

"A Blibbering Humdinger, of course," Luna said.

"A Blubbery what, now?"

"Blibbering Humdinger. The Bulgarian Minister of Magic is having them bred secretly--they're a created species. They have large deposits of gold in their stomachs, so they kill them to increase their reserves. Isn't that terrible, that they're willing to do that to the poor things, just for the galleons?"

"That is terrible," Cho agreed, "But why haven't I heard about it before now?"

"The ministry here has a deal with their ministry, so they're keeping it quiet. My father is spearheading a campaign to increase awareness of the Blibbering Humdinger's plight." Luna sounded clearly proud of her father's efforts.

"How's that going?"

"Well, you probably won't believe this, but there are people out there who refuse to believe that Blibbering Humdingers exist, even after all the eyewitness accounts and everything. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Cho felt mildly skeptical, but after seeing the Blast-Ended Skrewts that Professor Hagrid had created, she thought that the idea of a giant mouse-thing with a golden stomach sounded downright reasonable. And, as her mother was quick to remind her, muggles didn't believe in unicorns or hippogriffs or anything; overly-skeptical wizards could be just as silly.

"Of course it's ridiculous."

Luna looked gratified.

Cho hadn't thought that a boy's lips would be that soft. His were like rose petals. It was quite unfortunate that they were at the eagle statue that blocked the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower. She would have liked to have spent a bit more time kissing those surprisingly soft lips. "Good night, Cedric," Cho murmured dreamily. "Magnum Opus." The eagle moved its wings aside, and Cho fairly floated into the tower as Cedric retreated, whistling to himself.

The common room was empty, save for Luna, who was seated in a large blue velvet armchair by a bookshelf, reading a large book called Really Fantastic Things the Government's Hiding. "Harry Potter fancies you, you know."

Cho did not know. "What do you mean? I thought Witch Weekly said he was dating Hermione Granger."

Luna twirled her hair around her finger a bit. "He spends an inordinate amount of time staring at you during breakfast, and he blushes when he talks to you. Doesn't that mean he fancies you?"

Cho's face fell. "Oh."

"I'd think you'd be more pleased about it. Lots of girls wish Harry Potter fancied them. Lila Watkins in Hufflepuff asked him to the Yule Ball this morning, but he said no. She was crying a bit in Charms," Luna reported. "He'll probably ask you."

"So that explains why he's been walking towards me and then running off when he sees me with Marietta or someone." All the bliss she'd felt with Cedric a moment ago had fled from her mind. Had she been leading Harry on? She hated girls who did that sort of thing and did not like the idea of joining their ranks.

"Most likely," Luna said mildly. "Why do you seem so upset? I think I'd like it if a school champion fancied me."

"You can have my spare," Cho mumbled. "Cedric just asked me to the ball."

Luna smiled brightly, switching gears. "Really? That's brilliant."

Cho blushed a little. "He kissed me, too." The younger girl grinned.

"Cedric seems really nice. You can just let Harry down gently. He probably won't be too upset."

Cho was feeling quite a bit better. "You're right."

"So, how did he ask you?"

"Well, he walked up to me after dinner and asked if we could go for a walk, and I said yes, of course. We went up to the Astronomy Tower--it was just getting dark, so it wasn't filled with classes or anything, and he asked me if I was going to the ball with anyone..."

Sixth year was awful. Reminders of Cedric were everywhere. The first night, it was apparent that most of her old friends had no idea what to say, and didn't really feel like trying. Even Marietta went to bed early, but at least she'd tried to comfort her. She just stared at the fire, feeling as though her heart had been torn out. Memories surrounded her, but she almost didn't recognize her own life.

"You'll see him again."

Cho glanced up. Luna. "What do you mean?"

"Just what I said: you'll see him again."

"He's dead, Luna," Cho said, as if every word destroyed something within her.

"That doesn't mean you won't see him again, on the other side."

"What, like heaven?" Cho asked, her tears reflecting the firelight, "After this, I'm not sure I believe in heaven."

"I do."

She was too calm. She couldn't possibly know what she was talking about. She couldn't have an inkling of what Cho was going through. "That's very easy for you to say, Luna. Have you ever even lost a goldfish? When something like this happens to you, then come tell me these fairy tales," she said, half bitter, half hysterical.

"My mother died when I was nine," Luna said quietly. "I was there. She was working on a new spell, to fight muggle diseases they can't cure, and it backfired and killed her."

Cho was taken aback. She'd never questioned that she'd never heard Luna mention her mother before. "How can you believe in all of that--how can you believe that this is the way the world's supposed to work, after that?"

"Faith. I don't understand why things happen the way they do, but I have faith that things happen for a reason. I know I'll see my mother again because I have faith. I believe you'll see Cedric again. I can't prove it, but I know it. Sometimes faith is what makes life worth living."

"But what if you're wrong?"

"Then I'll have had faith in something that gave me comfort and did me no harm. I love my mother. She was amazing, and I know that somewhere, she lives on. Cedric, too. We just can't see them right now," Luna said, her eyes wide and sincere.

"You really think so?" asked Cho.

"I know it the way you know before you're born that there's magic in the world. Muggles lose that, but we're the ones who have faith, Cho. You've got to believe in things."

"Maybe you're right." Luna gave Cho a little hug.

Cho smiled.

"Ginny Weasley mentioned something about a Defense Against the Dark Arts group at breakfast this morning."

Cho glanced up from Defensive Magical Theory. She hated the book as much as the teacher who assigned it. Why would she want to join a group based on that book? "I've got enough study groups, Luna."

"Well, it's not really going to be a study group," Luna glanced around the common room and lowered her voice, "More like a rebellion against Umbridge and the Ministry."

Cho was immediately interested. "How so?"

"Harry Potter is planning on leading it. Teaching us the spells Umbridge won't let us learn, so we can fight Voldemort. I wonder if he knows any spells to fight the heliopaths."

"I'll join," Cho said immediately. After Cedric, she couldn't not join.

"Be at the Hog's Head next Hogsmeade weekend. You're supposed to bring anyone interested." Luna said.

"Thanks, Luna. I'll bring Marietta."

Cho's eyes were still a bit puffy by the time she got back to the common room, but she was flushed with...happiness? Odd emotion, lately. Marietta, Susanne Fawcett, Violet Burgess, and Linda Hollingsworth were sitting on the couches by the fire. Luna was off to the side in a wing chair, and appeared to be knitting a Christmas stocking. A blue and bronze striped Christmas stocking. Ravenclaw pride Christmas décor--that was downright normal by Luna standards.

"Hi everyone," Cho said. Although calm by now, she couldn't control the slight tremor in her voice. Linda, Susanne, and Violet made quick excuses about having to get up early tomorrow and retreated to the dormitory. Hard to blame them, though she wished she could. Cho knew that she wasn't nearly as much fun as usual this year...but it made everything all the more difficult to be reminded of that.

"You've been crying, Cho," Marietta said, managing to sound somewhere between accusatory and consoling. She reminded Cho of her grandmother sometimes.

"It's just, I was talking to Harry, and, well, he just reminded me of Cedric," Cho said, feeling as though she had to explain herself.

"He always reminds you of Cedric. I don't see why you spend time around him, if it depresses you so much," Marietta told her.

"But...I do fancy Harry. I would've gone to the Yule Ball with him if he'd asked first. And I kissed him."

Marietta could see that this was getting rapidly out of hand. "Cho, if you were so upset, why did you kiss him?"

"There was mistletoe," Cho said. "You saw it."

"Mistletoe."

"Which reminds me," Cho said, glancing over at Luna. "Luna, what are nargles?"

"They're parasites that suck blood and transmit disease. They're used in a lot of Love Potions, though. They're in most sprigs of mistletoe."

Marietta stared. "Nargles?"

"Oh, Harry mentioned them under the mistletoe."

"And this is the guy you want to be your boyfriend." Marietta was shaking her head in disbelief.

"I really fail to see what nargles have to do with it," Cho said. "Luna, would you care if someone brought up nargles while under the mistletoe with you?"

Luna said, "No, of course not. I'd think he had his priorities in order."

"See, Marietta? It's only you who has a problem with it," Cho said.

"I see, but I don't think you do," Marietta said, rolling her eyes. "I've got to pack, anyway. Mum and Dad are taking me to Majorca over Christmas." She stalked off upstairs.

Luna was almost finished with her stocking.

"Where'd you learn to knit like that, Luna?" Cho said, changing the subject.

"A house-elf taught me. It's quite relaxing."

"I like that stocking. It's nice."

Luna smiled. "Thanks."

A few days later, when Cho opened her trunk at home, she found the stocking, neatly wrapped in paper with reindeer that tap-danced across the gift. She grinned, and hung it by the fireplace.

Cho was somewhere between tears and blind fury when the entered the common room. She'd run all the way back to Hogwarts after Harry had left to go be with Hermione Granger. She felt like a fool. Everyone had told her that Harry Potter always spent every waking minute with that girl--of course he fancied her. No, she'd been sure Harry was so bloody honorable, and wound up being just his morning date for Valentine's Day for that lapse of judgment. She should have gone out with Roger Davies when she had the chance.

Marietta, thankfully, had stayed behind to study. "Cho, what's wrong?" Marietta asked softly, getting up from under a pile of star charts.

"I f-feel like such an-an idiot. You t-told me he was going out with Her-hermione, and I didn't listen," Cho sobbed.

"If he doesn't see how great you are, he's the idiot," Marietta said.

Cho sniffled. "I guess you're right."

"He's not worth your time, Cho. None of this business with him has been worth a moment of anyone's attention."

"We're not quitting the DA, Marietta. You can stop asking."

"I worry about you," Marietta said, her green eyes averted. "Sometimes I'm afraid that maybe this whole DA thing is totally off the mark. All we have is Harry Potter's word, and...well, he hasn't been very reliable lately, has he?"

"Voldemort killed Cedric." Marietta winced at the sound of the name.

She sighed. "I don't know what to say to you these days," she said, walking up to the dormitory.

Cho sat in the wing chair nearest the fire for the rest of the afternoon, and well into the evening, alternately fuming and crying. The velvet had gotten slightly threadbare at the arms, and the teardrops that landed on the chair tended to roll along the velvet to the arms where they soaked into the blue fabric. Cho had no idea what was going on or what to do. She was just afraid, confused, stressed, and terrified about the way things were going. Didn't Marietta know that? Didn't Harry know that?

People had started to trickle into the common room by now, and they were conveniently skirting around her. Luna wandered in around half an hour before dinner. Cho was back to sniffling.

"Hello, Cho," Luna said vaguely.

"Hi Luna. What's up?"

"Oh, I just have to send an owl to my father about an article." Luna's mind seemed elsewhere, as usual. She didn't seem to have noticed that Cho had been crying. This was fine by her. It was quite nice to have a normal conversation for once this term--even if Luna wasn't the person you'd expect to have a normal conversation with.

"What's the article about?"

"It's an interview, really. Harry Potter gave an interview about the night Voldemort returned. I was with him, Hermione Granger, and Rita Skeeter all afternoon." No wonder Luna seemed distracted. Listening to that story would distract anyone. Or, at least, that's what Cho thought, considering that no one had ever told her anything about that night.

"Er...why was Hermione there?"

"She arranged everything. Hermione knows Rita Skeeter," Luna said. Cho felt relieved, but there was still a sliver of doubt.

"Did she act...oddly?"

"Well, Rita seemed to be under a lot of pressure, but I don't really know her, so I can't say."

"I meant Hermione."

"Not really. Harry seemed upset about something, though."

"Oh...today was our date...and, well, it didn't end well when Harry said he had to meet Hermione," Cho said. She felt a little guilty.

"That's too bad. I'm sure you'll work it out. I've really got to get this letter mailed, though." Luna went upstairs, got her bag, and left for the Owlery.

Cho wasn't really sure how to work it out, but she felt oddly comforted, if Luna thought so.

"I forgive Marietta." Cho said it as a challenge.

"She thought what she was doing was right. So did Hermione," Luna said fairly.

"Well...all right, then."

Luna was out that night, presumably with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville. She usually was. Cho, on the other hand, spent most nights revising for her Ancient Runes N.E.W.T. in the common room, helping Michael with his Transfiguration, or doing Arithmancy homework with Marietta. It was a bit of a reversal of the way things had been as long as she could remember. But then, her seventh year at Hogwarts had contained a lot of these reversals.

Things were different this year, that was for sure. At the Welcoming Feast, Dumbledore had informed the student body that, effective tomorrow morning, there would be no more house tables. An attempt to promote house unity, Cho supposed. She doubted it would make much difference. Sure, a few students, like Luna, already sat at other tables at breakfast sometimes, and there was the occasional inter-house couple who couldn't be separated, but Cho knew that on the whole, most people liked to stay within their own house.

How wrong she was. The first morning, there was almost an even mix of Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs at each of the respective house tables. Except for a few first-years whose childhood friends had been sorted into other houses, the Slytherins stayed at their own table. Cho had come to breakfast early, and watched with growing dismay as most of her old "friends"--Susanne, Linda, and Violet, for instance--relocated to the Hufflepuff table. It had been difficult to be around her last year, but to be abandoned like that had been a little cruel, to put it mildly.

Marietta had wound up spending half the morning in the dormitory trying to cover the remnants of Hermione's hex. She only showed up five minutes late for Defense Against the Dark Arts, coated in muggle makeup. Cho hadn't had the heart to tell her that for all her hard work, one could still see the word "SNEAK" on her face, only in a slightly more subdued shade of purple. Michael, on the other hand, eventually came down for breakfast ten minutes before classes began, kissed her, downed a piece of toast and a glass of pumpkin juice, and went off to Herbology. In the meantime, she had sat on the edge of a group of fifth years, who had been discussing the romantic potential of Colin Creevey. Odd girls, really.

Thus, she had spent most of the morning watching the Gryffindor table. Quite a few of the members of the D.A. had been sitting in a group, laughing and talking. And, she couldn't help but notice that Harry Potter seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time laughing and talking with Luna. When they weren't talking, he had spent a lot of time gazing at her.

Cho couldn't explain it, but she had felt jealous. Of Luna, for so easily winning Harry over, and of Harry, for getting to spend so much time with Luna, who, by all rights was Cho's friend.

Luna didn't even really seem to miss Cho. It was weeks into term now, and she'd barely spoken to her at all. Cho might have been partly responsible for this; her envy of Luna couldn't have gone unnoticed. Yes, she had Michael now, and really had no claim to Harry, but she couldn't help but feel a pang of regret whenever she looked at him. Maybe it could have turned out differently, but she would probably never know now. He'd moved on, she'd moved on.

Luna walked in past the eagle's wing, glanced over her shoulder and, dreamlike, said, "Good night, Harry."

He'd walked her back by himself. Despite herself, Cho had to smile. He'd never done that with her, but then, no boy had ever walked Luna back to the tower personally, just to spend a little more time with her before curfew. Jealous as she was, after hearing that she had to be pleased for Luna, really. Cho had always had one or two admirers around, but Luna was rather underappreciated.

Luna floated across the common room, more dreamy than Cho had ever seen her. She could see how happy being around Harry made her.

"Luna!" Cho called. She hated to break Luna out of her reverie, but...

"Yes?"

"Harry Potter fancies you, you know." Cho grinned at her.

To Cho's surprise, Luna looked upset. "Don't joke like that, Cho."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not you, Cho. Boys don't think of me as a potential girlfriend."

Cho was filled with indignation on Luna's behalf. "Harry Potter's special, Luna. And you can't have missed how he looks at you. He just walked you up to the tower personally. He never did that with me."

"Please don't play tricks on me. I thought I could trust you not to make fun of me like this." Cho couldn't believe this. Luna's words were like a knife to her heart.

"You can trust me. He fancies you. Do you honestly think he stares into your eyes so much because he's practicing his dueling eye contact? Harry Potter fancies you," Cho said firmly.

"Are you sure?" Luna asked, looking a little afraid.

Cho grinned. "I know it."

Luna wandered out of the tower. She was quite sure she heard Luna calling after Harry.

The next morning at breakfast, Luna dropped by the old Ravenclaw table for a moment, said, "Thank you," to Cho, and walked back to the old Gryffindor table. Harry was waiting there for her.

Muscle aches. Oh, the muscle aches! Cho had been flying so hard her eyelashes were sore. It would pay off tomorrow in the Quidditch final, though, wouldn't it? All she wanted was to get into bed and sleep until the match. Couldn't make it. She flopped down on the couch by the fire.

"Have a good practice?" Luna asked serenely.

Luna was sitting on the floor in front of the fire, charming an old hat to flash red and blue. It was completely gaudy, in a Luna sort of way that Cho had come to enjoy. Of course, other members of the team were shooting sharp looks at the hat, as though it had divulged information to the enemy. Michael, especially, looked annoyed.

"Blargh. If I ever have to move again, it's too soon. I can have a career from this couch, can't I?"

"They often do that on Titan. Most jobs are the sort where you can live on the couch, there," Luna said. Cho had to hold back from laughing. She was never quite sure when Luna was joking.

"Would getting to a moon of Jupiter require moving?"

"It's a moon of Saturn, actually. And probably," Luna said absently.

Cho laughed. "Probably not the place for me, then."

Luna hummed a snatch of some tune Cho didn't recognize, adding finishing touches to the hat. She enchanted a few small lion dolls and eagle dolls to dance around the brim. It was an odd effect, to say the least.

"I take it from your hat that you'll be supporting both sides," said Cho.

"Well, I can't cheer against you or Harry, Ginny, and Ronald, can I? So I'll cheer for both sides. I like cheering better than booing, anyway," said Luna.

"Of course. Who doesn't?"

"There's a secret society of wizards in Bristol who hate to cheer. They boo everything."

"Why would anyone join?" Cho asked.

"Free season tickets to represent the group at Quidditch games."

"Ah. Of course." Cho yawned. "I really should get upstairs and get some sleep, though. I'll be bloody awful if I don't get a good night's rest."

She got up and walked towards the stairs, though her body protested and strongly implied that it would be just fine if she never left the couch.

"Cho?" Luna followed her to the foot of the stairs and said, "I really do hope you get your name on the Quidditch Cup before you finish at Hogwarts."

It was just a silly game, and didn't mean anything in the long run, but it was...comforting, somehow that Luna would cheer for her, even if her attention would be divided. This was somehow worth more to her than all the unconditional well-wishes telling her, "Beat Gryffindor, Cho."

Cho and Luna were the first to be released from the hospital wing after the attack.

"Luna, can you explain something to me?"

Luna bit her lip, making the cut there worse than it already was. "Perhaps."

"What happened while I was unconscious? And why was that woman screeching about a prophecy when she cast the Cruciatus Curse on Neville?"

"We just went on fighting while you were out. Once I managed to Stun Mulciber, I went to revive you," Luna said, dodging the second question deliberately.

"But what about that prophecy?"

"I can't tell you, Cho."

"Can't or won't?"

"There are some things that need to be secrets. It would put you in more danger than you're already in to know," Luna said heavily.

"Luna, I've just been attacked by Voldemort along with the rest of the D.A. on the last night of my seventh year, and if you think there's more danger than that, you are loony." Cho regretted her words as soon as they left her mouth.

Luna gave her a cold stare. "If that's how you feel, I suppose I'm too loony to tell you." She left.

Cho didn't see Luna again the next day. The next few times she saw her, it was on battlefields, only for a second before a spell or a fighter blocked her view.

Cho rolled over and opened her eyes. She couldn't sleep. She tried, but she had never been able to sleep well before a battle, and this would be the biggest battle of her life. A year out of school, fighting on the front lines of the war tended to intensify insomnia. She looked around the tent, watching the others sleep. Ginny Weasley could sleep peacefully on the ground in the rain; she must have felt as though these sleeping bags on camp beds were heaven. Hermione Granger looked worried when she slept, the opposite of the calm face she put on during the day. She looked as Cho felt. Luna, on the other hand, either became invisible as she dreamt, or had snuck out.

She got up quietly, and peeled back the tent flap. Luna was outside, looking at the stars. Harry was with her, hands around her waist. He was looking at Luna as though this was the last time he'd see her.

Cho remembered the last time she'd seen Michael, six months ago. He'd been hit in the back with a curse, and his body was mangled. She could understand the way Harry stared so intensely at Luna. Cho had experienced what seemed to be the most common ending to a love story, these days.

Luna kissed him, seeming to want to kiss away the prophecy, the likelihood of the worst happening tomorrow, everything. She looked disappointed that this hadn't worked when she broke away. Cho felt voyeuristic, suddenly. She tiptoed back to her camp bed.

Luna soon returned. Cho saw in the sliver of moonlight that there was something in the way she walked now, a hidden weight that kept her from being the old Luna, who glided more than walked. Her eyes, once constantly wide with wonder, drooped a bit now. Cho imagined that she wasn't the same, either.

"Luna?" Cho whispered into the darkness. "I'm sorry."

She made her way over to Cho's bed. "I'm sorry, too," she breathed. "I've missed you."

In response, Cho embraced her.

"You were the first person at Hogwarts who cared about what happened to me, Cho. You're my sister," Luna said.

Cho knew that this was definitely one of those times where Luna's claims, outlandish as they were, turned out to be true. No matter what happened tomorrow, they were sisters.