Disclaimer: I don't think I'm Jk. Do you think I'm JK? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you that will take you directly to Hogwarts.

Luna sighed. One long, low, deep sigh that seemed to hint at the discontent that she felt in her life. She rolled slowly to her side and stared at the photograph on her nightstand. It was a photo of her and her mother. She didn't really look like her mother. Her mother had had dark brown hair and darker eyes. It was taken a couple of days before...Luna was able to see thestrals. Her father had taken the picture. They had been in Sweden observing the magical creatures there in their natural habitats. It was there that the Lovegoods discovered Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. Luna's mother was convinced that with some experimentation and some training that these magical creatures could prove to be very useful to the magical community. They captured one and in the process of some routine experiments the Snorkack attacked and her father came too late.

Luna sighed once more before finally shoving herself to her feet. As always, she reached for her wand and tucked it behind her left ear, both to keep it in reach and to keep her long blond hair out of her face. It was 5:30 A.M and her penchant for losing things didn't stay at Hogwarts with her mischievous (or maleficent) classmates. She could never keep up with her hair ties or anything else at school or at home. Her choice for wand placement was out of necessity. She shoved her feet into the moon frog slippers that she had made herself (when she tapped them with her wand they hopped and hovered for several seconds. Very handy when she needed to reach something on a high shelf) and still in her pajamas, she headed towards her mostly muggle kitchen. As an underage witch, Luna couldn't use magic to whip up meals for her and her father, but she knew that if she didn't do it herself it could be days before her father ate anything. So while he chased Snorkacks around the world she had outfitted the family kitchen with a working muggle stove, refrigerator and microwave. She liked cooking the muggle way, not that she had anything to compare it too, but this day today she wasn't looking forward to her time spent in the kitchen, mainly because she knew that she would be there all day. She was making enough meals to keep her father until she came home for the Christmas holidays. She had been working on the meals all week. She had 90 of the 120 dinners done, and had stocked the cabinets full of the peanut butter, tuna fish and butterbeer brands that her father preferred.

Luna smiled to herself as she looked out of the windows above the kitchen sink. It had rained the night before and the sun, apparently a late riser this end of July morning, had finally risen and was burning the dew and latent rain drops off of the grass. In an attempt to get rid of the doldrums that had been holding her hostage since opening her eyes that morning she kicked her slippers aside and plunged out doors. She ran outside with her arms stretched wide as if she intended to reach up and hug the sun. She wanted to inhale the orb and let the light warm her from the inside out and chase the shadows from her. When the sun was mostly over head she dropped her hands to her sides and lifted her face to the sky. This was her favorite part of the day. Before her father woke up, before anyone woke up. When it was just her and the sky. She wasn't "Loony" Lovegood then. She wasn't that dotty girl from Ravenclaw. She wasn't the dutiful daughter, the only thing preventing her obsessed father from completely diving off the deep end. Her mother had died because of her experimentations with the Crumple-Horned Snorkack and it killed her father that no one believed that the elusive animal even existed. Luna had always wondered exactly what people believed happened to her mother if they didn't believe that a provoked Snorkack attacked her in the private lab off to the side of their kitchen. But then again, it was hard enough at school knowing that everyone thought that her father was insane, she didn't need to know that they believed him a murderer as well. No, all she needed was the early morning hours when the sun was only mostly overhead, and there was still enough dew on the grass that her pajama bottoms clung to her legs and there were water droplets clinging to her clear up on to her calf. She opened her arms wide once more and began spinning around in a circle. She spun faster and faster until at last she fell to the ground. With her eyes closed she snuggled herself into the grass, moving her wand from her ear to lay across her stomach as she accepted this warm hug from mother nature.

"Luna?"

She suppressed the frown that wanted to cross her face. This was her time, she didn't want to have to worry about anyone else or what they thought of her. She tried not to let the negative thoughts of others taint her outlook on life. Swallowing yet another sigh she opened one eye. The other quickly followed. "Harry?" Her voice lost its unique dream-like quality, rising instead into a very decided squeak. Harry Potter was standing by her head looking down at her. His hair was falling into his eyes but from her position she could still see his scar fairly well. She had always wanted to kiss it from the very first time she had seen a likely depiction of it in a book when she was four. Every time that she talked to him she had to twitch her fingers back from reaching up and tracing it.

"What are you doing here?" They both said at the same time. Luna hadn't sat up yet.

"I live right round back that way."

"The Weasley's stay a little bit from here…." they still spoke over each other. Luna stood.

"I was out for a walk." The unison speak continued.

"Me too." Luna laughed, it was impulsive and broke the stillness that was surrounding them. She smiled at Harry. She realized that maybe her smile shouldn't be quite so large, considering that she knew all of the things that were awaiting the wizard in front of her. The loss of Dumbledore was something all of the magical community was still struggling with, but Harry had seemed to take the murder even harder than anyone that Luna knew. And Dumbledore's death was just another step on the path that he had to travel. His path was leading to Voldemort and there were no detours, rest stops or alternate routes that he could take.

"Will you be coming to school?" She stared into his eyes.

"No. I-I have to…" He hesitated and sucked in a breath. His hand reached out for her, without really touching her, he pulled his hand back and looked at it. He seemed to be slightly confused on how it had even reached out to almost touch Luna Lovegood's shimmering blond hair. She nodded, and her hair seemed to shimmer more. She knew what he had to do. Everyone knew what he had to do. He had to kill Lord Voldemort and save the wizarding world. Or die trying.

"Maybe Ravenclaw will finally win the Quidditch cup." Her eyes never left his. The weight of the world was on his shoulders.

"Nah. Your seeker is rubbish." His hand went up to muss his hair. She nodded in acceptance of this fact. Their seeker was rubbish. Impulsively she turned and accio'd for her butterbeer cork necklace. She wasn't sure if she believed in good luck, but if anyone needed any Harry Potter did. She dropped the necklace around his neck, and with her fingers still gripping the corks she pulled him down to her and placed a kiss on his cheek. And rising to her toes, another on his infamous scar. "You'll do it, Harry. You will." She lowered herself back to the ground. "Happy birthday." With that, she turned and jogged lightly to her house to begin preparing one last month of dinners for her father.

By the time she made it home the sun had hidden itself again and rain was beginning to drizzle down. She rolled her pajama bottoms up so the dampness wouldn't bother her as much and adjusted her wand once more behind her ear. As she reached for a plank of salmon to cook and eventually flash freeze so that it would last for several long months an owl screeched into the kitchen. Luna looked up and watched as it swooshed over head before dropping the note onto her head and leaving as suddenly as it came. It was a letter from the Ministry of Magic. The Improper Use of Magic office. With a lazy eye Luna read the missive reprimanding her for her underage use of magic. She shrugged her shoulders and placed them on a stack of letters waiting for her father to get back to from his offices at the Quibbler. He would want to examine it later. He had a suspicion that the ministry was using parchment recycled from a mixture of dragon's egg shells and Blibbering Humdinger blood and everyone knew that that was a highly poisonous mixture.

AN:

thanks to my temp. beta!

I have never written Luna before. In all honesty, I haven't read the book where she was introduced for a bit longer than a year. (Book 3 tends to be my favorite and I spend the most time there…when I'm not reading Snapes Worst Memory.) But beside the fact that I haven't read her recently, she's a character that I never forgot. The scene where she is putting up fliers for her lost things is one of the most vivid scenes in my head from the entire Potter-verse. I always thought that she should end up with Harry. They remind me a bit of Lily and James. The way that they are more typically portrayed in fan fiction anyway. Lily is always studious and kind of quiet. James is wild (sometimes angry) and this fun party type guy. They balance each other. Luna is the drifty space-cadet but is more honest and more down to earth than just about anyone. She's not so focused on game playing and where she should fit in the school hierarchy. Harry is very much aware of his place in the school and society at large. He's more firmly ensconced in reality than he wants to be. I think that they would balance each other very well. Despite what I said above, I realize that in this one-off that Luna does think a bit about peoples expectations of her (when she hears someone call her name) but I stand by that. No matter who we are we end up playing roles and wearing masks, even when we don't want to.