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Story Name: Life is hard
Author: Tor Petty
Rating: G, really.
Synopsis: Luna decorates her room.
Send replies via: PMing is fine, or you can reply to this thread; considering it's just a one-shot.


Luna Lovegood nodded out of her trance to notice her father standing just inside the entrance of her bedroom. As she acknowledged him, his demeanor noticeably changed: he smiled energetically, his yellow robes folded around him as he stood up straight. Xenophilius’s candy floss hair was noticeably combed and tidy, reflecting that he wanted to look presentable to his daughter, who hadn’t been home for quite some time.

“My, you look smart. What’s the occasion?” Luna dreamily said to her father.

“We have a wedding to go to this afternoon!” Xenophilius declared with a gracious sweep of his egg-yellow sleeves. “Dear Bill Weasley and his fiancé, Fleur. Mind to wear something sunny, Luna, for luck.”

“I have the perfect robes,” Luna replied, glancing towards her closet.

“Oh. We won’t be heading over there until late afternoon. Try to clean up this morning, Luna,” he added, gesturing at her room.

Luna nodded. She had been meaning to do something with it for quite some time; she wasn’t sure what, however.

Luna looked around, and closed her eyes. What can I do with this room? She shook her head. She shan’t ask that until it was clean.

The carpet was a pale blue, but it was far too dirty and stained. Her walls and ceiling were gray, and there were stacks of old magazines in front of the closet. Her brow furrowed.

Working hard before they had to go to the wedding, Luna cleared out the forgotten magazines, scrubbed her walls of anything old and faded or stained, cleaned her floor’s carpet, and organized the books on her shelf.

While doing the latter, she came across an old photo album. Inside was filled with dozens of pictures of Xenophilius, Luna, and Luna’s mother. Luna stumbled upon an old favorite: a younger version of herself hugging her mom. This would be a part of her room’s makeover.

Luna procured a photo frame from the depths of her closet and put the photograph inside. Her first decoration; it would go beside the bed.

Now that everything was clean, the challenge was to make this bedroom look much less drab.

Luna, for some odd reason, decided to start with the ceiling. What is the most important thing in my life? Luna wondered to herself, looking out the window. That was easy. After the last couple of years, the first thing that came to her mind was her friends: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville.

Life had been hard for Luna, starting with the day her mother died. She had been ignored for an immense portion of her Hogwarts years, and took comfort in her father's imaginary world. She knew she'd probably come to terms with that someday, but it wasn't the time nor the place.

Luna tugged on her radishes.

Life was hard, especially when she'd rather live an imaginary one... But all was better now that she had Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville.

Luna took a step away from her ceiling and grabbed her paints…

***

An hour and a half later, a beautiful mural of her five favorite people in the whole world covered the ceiling. She stepped down to take a look at it from afar. Yes, it would do. And it was pretty accurate, even if she was painting by memory. She supposed that her powers of recollection had something to do with being in Ravenclaw.

At that moment, her father stepped into the room. “My! I love what you’ve done with this place,” he commented, looking pointedly at the mural. “Young Harry Potter and the rest of your friends?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Luna replied. “I was meaning to ask you if you would change my walls blue. I think it would take a long time painting them…”

Xenophilius immediately charmed the walls the same color as her newly-cleaned carpet. He, then, stepped forth and took a closer look at the mural. “Rather still, isn’t it? Do you want me to do something with it?”

“Yeah, sure,” Luna said with enthusiasm. She was far from being done.

Xenophilius murmured an incantation, and the mural came to life. They pictures didn’t move like Hogwarts paintings, but they seemed alive somehow, all the same. As if they breathed.

“Wow,” Luna said in awe. “Thanks, Dad!”

“I don’t know,” Xenophilius replied. “There is still something missing about it. You’ll have to work on that problem yourself, though.”

Luna watched her father leave the room. Happily looking up at the painting, she was not quite sure how to finish. Her room was now a brilliant sky blue, and had the addition of the mural.

She vaguely wondered what time she would have to get dressed in her special robes. Luna pondered the yolk color of her fathers’. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her.

Luna rummaged through her dresser, looking for something that she had picked up in Diagon Alley during her second year: a quill that wrote in gold ink. She found it lying next to her Transfiguration text.

Luna stepped back up, looking at the ceiling. She then began to write, in miniscule letters, the word ‘friends’ repeated a thousand times in a line.

Once she was finished, it was almost time to get ready. She was pleased at how her room had come out. The gold ink had made the words look like small chains linking the five of them.

Luna smiled. They were linked. Just not in the written sense. Turning away from her recently-decorated room, Luna headed towards her closet in order to get ready for the Weasley wedding that would take place in an hour or two’s time.

Thank yew very much <3

LOL

I did have that same reaction.

I wanted to show that she meant it in the best way.

Thanks for the lovely feedback <3