I must not disobey the rules.

I must not disobey the rules.

I must not disobey the rules.

Luna's right hand held the instrument of her torture. Her left hand had gone numb from pain hours ago when Dumbledore's Army had first started to write the lines required by Dolores Umbridge, the new Headmaster of Hogwarts.

It was their group punishment for being a member of Dumbledore's Army. The faces of her classmates around her were filled with the same solemn pain she knew was reflected on her own. Dennis Creevy's face was streaked with tears; the youngest member of the D.A. had succumbed to them first.

Luna heard heavy breathing behind her. A glance over her shoulder revealed Angelina Johnson had put her head down on her desk once again. The seventh year Gryffindor was not handling well, the sight of her own blood on the back of her hand.

There was a slight sound from the front of the room. It was that silly little amused two syllable giggle that Umbridge used to draw attention to herself. While the students were flaying their skin open with her punishment quills, the professor herself was seated upon Dumbledore's throne in the Great Hall, sipping tea from a service tray.

All eyes looked up towards the new Headmaster. Luna noticed that Fred and George Weasley off to her right were glaring daggers at the woman. She hoped they would have enough sense not to draw attention to themselves and gain further punishment.

Once every student's head had raised from their writing, Umbridge stood up from her chair. She laced her fingers together primly in front of her and stated, "I trust an impression has been made with your lines." She was pouring salt in the wounds on their hands. "The rules at Hogwarts have been set forth by the Ministry for the safety of the students and must be obeyed." Her sharp toned voice rang out over the hall as she said, "You may go."

Luna set down the quill. Students were leaving their seats like someone had set a firecracker off underneath them. She stood to her feet and glanced down at her hand. Some of the blood had dried, but rivulets from fresh wounds were still welling out of the deep lines made of her own handwriting.

As she left the hall, she noticed Cho Chang was waiting for them at the entry to the stairway. Nobody spoke to her fellow Ravenclaw as they silently passed her, some deliberately bumping into her on purpose. Luna paused in her walk, looking at Cho's face which was a mixture of apology and sorrow for what she had done.

She felt a modicum of pity for Cho. The entire D.A. was mad at her. Her pity didn't last as the numbness wore off in her hand and the painful burn of her punishment reminded her Cho was the reason for it. She walked past Cho heading up the grand staircase.

Ravenclaw Tower entrance was on the fifth floor but Luna didn't go back to her house just yet. She climbed the stairs heading to the Astronomy Tower. She wasn't tired and she wanted to comfort herself with the stars in the night sky. She ascended the tall staircase, keeping an eye out for the Bloody Baron who liked to haunt the corridor and also Filch who loved to catch students out of bed past curfew.

At the top, she stepped out onto the terrace that was surrounded by a parapet on all sides. The stone was wet, the rain during the day having left its footprints behind. Sometime during their punishment the sky had cleared up and the stars were visible. Luna made her way over to the waist length wall, leaning forward over it, tilting her head back to get a view of the sky overhead.

It was easier to forget the burning sting on her left hand when the stars of the galazy winked back at you from high above. She could spot Cygnus straight off and Polaris, the latter being her favorite wishing star.

"Star light, star bright, brightest star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have my wish I make tonight."

She was in the middle of making her wish when a footstep echoed on the stairwell behind her. Luna whirled to face the stairwell noiselessly, debating if she had time to hide before Filch or Mrs. Norris found her and gained her further detention with Umbridge.

The footsteps did not belong to Filch or his tabby colored, long-furred cat. The face that was coming up the corridor was a familiar member of the Army with her and one that she would call a kindred spirit.

"Hello Neville," she greeted when he emerged onto the rampart with her. Her body which had been taut with tension and fear at getting caught where she wasn't supposed to be, relaxed at his presence.

"Hello Luna," his voice was soft like hers and held a note of surprise as he said, "I didn't expect to see anyone up here."

"Neither did I," Luna admitted with a smile. "But I suppose I'm not the only one who knows this is the best spot in the castle for wishing."

"For what?"

"Wishing on the stars," Luna turned to lean on the parapet again, her head tilting back as her eyes sought out Polaris again. She glanced at Neville and then pointed upward at the Northernmost star in the sky.

Her movement did not go unnoticed by Neville whose eyes were not on the star she pointed at, but the blood and scars on the top of her left hand. They were identical in words, if not in the actual handwriting, to the ones on his hand. "Merlin's Beard Luna!" He snatched her hand out of the sky, turning it over to examine the welts. "Why haven't you cleaned your hand up?" His own wound had already been washed, disinfected and treated.

"I was going to," Luna said softly as Neville examined her hand. She watched him as he produced a handkerchief from his pocket. There was a puddle of water still settled on one stone brick of the wall and he dabbed the piece of cloth in the water. Still holding her hand, he began to clean the dried blood from her skin.

Once had had cleaned the blood away she could see that the bleeding had stopped though the wound was no less angry a red as it had been earlier. Neville was being sweet, carefully soothing the wound as he said, "You need to put Dittany on this."

Luna nodded her head, her radish earrings shaking with the movement. "I will," she promised. She peered up at Neville from beneath her blonde bangs, canting her head sideways as she asked, "You don't regret signing your name do you?" No need to ask where they had signed their name. She had been just behind him in line when Hermoine had asked them to 'sign up' their names on the list of students named Dumbledore's Army. She had signed her name upside down underneath his so that it was legible to Ron, Hermoine and Harry who had been sitting across the table from where she stood.

Neville brought his own hand up, holding it alongside her own. They stared at the lines on their hand. I must not disobey the rules. Neville's dark eyes were shadowed by his dark brown bangs as he looked at her and said, "Not a chance I'd ever regret that."

A small understanding smile lit up Luna's face as she replied, "Me too." She slipped her hand out of his as she turned once more to peer up at the stars above. Her musical voice lilted slightly as she said, "My father actually was quite proud of me for joining the D.A." She glanced at Neville and asked, "Your parents won't be upset will they?"

She watched as his gaze fell to the stone, his round face growing sorrowful as he replied, "My parents won't be upset. They can't feel anything like that."

Luna's pale brows drew together as she asked, "What do you mean?" She didn't know too much about Neville. She knew he was a Gryffindor, a fifth year, and that he liked plants; some of the girls in the D.A. had told her he was an ace at herbology. She knew it had taken him some time to master the Expelliarmus spell and that he had worked twice as hard as anyone else in the D.A. Other than the meetings in the D.A. though, she really hadn't had much of an opportunity to talk to him and get to know him.

"I live with my grandmother," Neville told her a moment later. "She won't mind that I joined Dumbledore's Army. Actually she'd probably throw me a party in honor of it." That would be like Augusta Longbottom, to tout the fact her grandson had finally grown a spine and did something for the greater good.

"That's good that she would understand," Luna agreed and then apologized, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you had lost your parents Neville." She paused and then said, "My Mum died when I was nine." She would never forget the explosion, her mother's body flying backwards and hitting the wall, her eyes which had been so bright and happy, dull and lifeless.

Neville inhaled sharply at her admission and then his own voice was apologetic as he corrected his mistake. "They haven't died." His voice held a note she couldn't identify until later as guilt as he said, "They were tortured into insanity by Bellatrix LeStrange. They're both permanent patients in St. Mungo's no thanks to her." He let out a shuddered breath, trying to maintain a hold on his hurt and anger but it escaped in his voice as he told her, "Now she's broken free of Azkaban and she's going to hurt someone just as badly or worse."

Luna could see his emotions flit across his face. She involuntarily reached out with her good hand to squeeze the his unwounded one. He glanced down at her, his lips pursed in worry and concern. She was seeking to console him as she said, "Then what we've learned from Harry Potter will be so that she can't hurt anyone ever again." Her lips curved up slightly in a smile of encouragement as she said, "We'll make it so."

She could see hope blooming in his eyes at her words and her smile widened knowing they had the effect to change his frown upside down. He whispered, "Do you promise?" looking so lost for a moment she felt her heart heart for his sorrows.

"I promise," she said nearly at a whisper in answer to his question, squeezing his hand again.

When they left the astronomy tower, she felt she knew Neville just a little bit better and unbeknownst to her, he had just developed a massive crush on a girl who had made him incredibly nervous just months before on the fateful day they had met.

Fate is strange like that.