Sanity ~ A Luna Lovegood Fanfiction

Breakfast

I heard my name being called but it was muffled through the foggy haze.

"Luna," the voice repeated.

I could barely hear the soft-spoken vouce through the ringing in my ears but I knew it to be a voice I was familiar with.

"Luna, wake up."

Now I was being shaken. My shoulders were grabbed and I was jostled gently. I felt the fog clouding my mind start to melt.

"Luna, it's alright, we're here now, it was only a nightmare, that's all."

I was able to open my eyes and squint upwards; up into a pale, young face, that I'd known for years and years; a face that was sprinkled with bright orange freckles.

Ginny's forehead was creased with worry as her eyes appealed into mine.

I shifted uncomfortably. Only then did I realise I was drenched in sweat. Every orifice of my skin was sealed to my clothes. My long, wavy hair was matted and tangled. The back of my neck was perspiring still.

I panted as I pulled myself up to balance om my elbows.
Behind Ginny, Hermione was crouched and further down the room, Harry and the rest of the Weasleys were gathered my the door. Mrs. Weasley's face was stricken with worry, her wrinkles evem more pronounced than usual and sunken into her cheeks.

"It's okay. We get them too," Hermione said softly but to me, her words were anything but reassuring.

"I'm sorry," I breathed. I spoke in as loud a voice I could muster and yet the words were tiny, quiet things. "I'm sorry for waking you all up... I've never had them so bad."

Oh, how I wished to be curled up in my own bed, away from this burning hot embarrassment and their concerned faces.

"It's okay," Harry answered softly, "Sometimes they get worse."

I saw the raw, hard experience in his eyes and my mortification didn't feel quite so bad anymore. Deep in my chest, my heart yearned to pull him against me in a desperate hug and to tell him, "It's okay, Harry, it's okay. Everything is going to be okay."

"Don't worry, dear," Molly said,"Come have some breakfast, it will make you feel better"

"Thank you," I said, trying to smile but I was too weak.

As the others shuffled out of the room quietlt, Hermione and Ginny stayed beside me and Harry and Ron came and sat on Ginny's bed.

"Look, don't worry about it, okay?" Ginny said directly to me as the others seemed to glance at each other nervously. "We are all here for each other, right?" She was the most reassuring, her voice was soft and steady; almost as if she'd consoled someone like me thousands of times. Maybe she had.

A lighter conversation took hold of the room and I let their words and chatter flow over me, trying to get myself back down to earth even though my mind was still running over the images I'd witnessed during the night and every night prior.

Mrs. Weasley's voice sounding like a foghorn from the kitchen broke me out of my reverie. "Ginny! Ron! Harry! Luna! Hermione! Breakfast!" she yelled.

Ginny leaned back on her heels and used her palms to power herself upwards.

"We better go," she muttered.

"I hope there's toast," said Ron quietly in a longing voice.

****

Hermione announced at the breakfast table that she must go to Austrailia to find her parents and that she'd be leaving that very afternoon.

Molly's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when she'd heard the sudden, out-of-the-blue announcement and started gathering all sorts of things from all the cupboards and cabinets, muttering about how she should have told her earlier.

Ron looked dazed and had been so shocked that his hand, which held a piece of freshly buttered toast (he'd been delighted that there was toast), had stopped mid-air. I could imagine him conducting a massive debate with himself inside his head. And after a few minutes he croaked, interrupting Percy on his lecture on safe travel,"I'm going with you, obviously."

"I knew you'd say that," Hermione sighed. "You know... there are spiders in Austrailia. A lot of them."

Ron didn't even hesitiate. "Don't try and throw me off, 'Mione," he grumbled. "I'm coming, and that's that. Spiders or no spiders."

I saw the the clogs in his head turning. "I can't believe you even thought I was going to let you go alone."

"Maybe I should have known better," she said, smiling carefully.

Ron grunted in reply and returned to his beloved toast.

Mrs. Weasley stopped dead in her tracks when she heard this addition to the conversation and her eyes widened even further than before.

"Now I have to double everything," she said flusteredly as she started digging in more cabinets and performing the Accio spell more times than I thought possible in such a small amount of time.

Harry started asking Hermione all sorts of questions, like how they're getting there, or where in Australia her parents are, or that Austrailia is a very big place, how does she expect to find them.

Hermione spoke calmly and matter-of-factly, using words like, portkey, the Ministry and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

George sat silently drinking it all in yet offering no addition.

I was also quietly absorbing every word, not wanting to interrupt anybody by expressing my own opinions.

All the chatter abruptly stopped when there was a knock on the door and Mrs. Weasley, stressed enough as it was already, went to the door.