They found Luna in the library, hugging her knees and staring absentmindedly out the window. The look she sent Harry when he sat down next to her was not a face he'd seen on Luna before. A passive, angry look. Serious and hurt.
"Ron, Hermione - can I have a moment alone with Harry please?"
They both gave them a nervous look but disappeared among the books. Harry decided to wait until Luna spoke. He knew better than to lie and pretend he did not know what this was about. (When rumors of the Cruciatus curse traveled around the school, there was no point in pretending it had nothing to do with Harry.)
"I don't understand why you would do that to me," Luna finally said in a whisper. "I've always done my best to respect your boundaries. I've known you were a necromancer for years, Harry. I don't think you ever noticed. I lied to Ron, Hermione, and my parents for you because I knew you weren't ready to tell me yet. I asked you not to do anything about my roommates. I don't understand how you thought I would ever be okay with what you did. You completely violated my trust. You hurt them, you - you tortured them!"
"I taught them a lesson! They hurt you!" Harry yelled. He couldn't lie to Luna and apologize for something he was not sorry for, but he could admit he'd known Luna would not be alright with his actions. Luna the pacifist. That she'd been lying for him for years made a burst of shame flood through him, turning his ears red. She was his oldest friend, his first friend and he would do anything to protect her, and she had been doing the same for him. "They made you cry, you've been suffering for the whole year without any of your things, without any friends in your classes, without a shred of respect. How was I supposed to let that continue?"
"That does not justify what you did! I've accepted that I'm weird, that I'm Loony Lovegood. I'm not going to let their bullying bother me anymore. I know who I am, and I know that I have friends who accept the real me, that is good enough for me. I can't make everyone happy. If the girls in my dorm want to behave childishly, then that is their problem, and all I can do is ignore them."
"So you're just going to let them get away with how they treated you?" He growled out in rage. His temper had instantly gone from zero to one hundred and while he half-assed some breathing exercises, all he could think about was the heady call to rip and tear and kill.
"Fiona and Cordelia are in the Hospital Wing! That goes beyond revenge, Harry Potter!" She stood in a huff. She and Harry had never fought before. She had never imagined that he would do something like this. She could understand and tolerate his violent tendencies, had turned the other cheek at his Dark magic, knowing that it was a part of Harry that he could not change any more than she could change herself. But this… Luna wasn't sure what she was feeling, a haze of numbness over her mind.
It felt like no one respected her. She was not a confrontational person, it wasn't in her nature. She was perfectly alright about going with the flow, but she couldn't help but feel like people were taking advantage of that. Nobody bothered to ask Luna's opinion because they all thought she would go along with anything. She had trusted Harry to not go past her boundaries, but he had punched right through them without a care in the world.
Once again she was struck by the painful thought that no one really bothered to know her, to understand her, to appreciate her. She was alone. And sure, it was easy enough to get over the antagonists, her bullies. They were childish and petty in a way she had learned to ignore. But the only thing helping her through that mess was the knowledge that her friends did appreciate her oddities, her looniness. It meant everything to know that her friends did care. Or so she had thought.
Had Harry seriously thought she would support torture? Or had he even spared a single moment of his time considering her before he acted? Was her opinion not important to him? Had he assumed he knew what was best for her?
"I would appreciate it if you left me alone for a while," she decided. They were at an impasse. Harry was not going to be apologizing - they both knew he did not regret his actions. Actions she could not support. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but she held up a finger. "You are my best friend. I have stood firmly at your side through everything and I have never complained once because I trusted you! I have sacrificed enough of my morals for you already, don't you dare ask me to let this go. Please give me some space."
She left him sitting there alone.
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