Harry leaned back on his elbows, listening to the surf. It was good to be able to take a vacation from his job as an Auror to come to the sea, even if it was winter and there were not very many people on the beach.

 

He loved the sea, had ever since his eleventh birthday, when Hagrid had told him he was a wizard. That trip, with the Dursleys, fleeing his Hogwarts letters, had been Harry’s first trip to the sea, but not his last. It was not until his stay at Bill and Fleur’s, in what should have been his seventh year that he realized how much he loved the sea. And how much he loved…

 

“Luna?”

 

“Mm.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“For what?”

 

“Nothing. I was just thinking.”

 

“Thinking about what?” Luna sat down beside him and pulled his head into her lap. “I was thinking about Yarwals.”

 

Harry decided not to ask what Yarwels were. Instead, he said, “I was just thinking about the sea.”

 

Luna nodded absently. “Yes, I was, too, like I said. I was thinking there are probably quite a lot of Yarwels in it; it’s quite foamy today.”

 

Harry smiled sleepily. “How would Yarwels make it foamy?”

 

“When they breed, you see,” she said, a faraway look in her eyes. “The male emits a—”

 

“Actually, I don’t want to know,” Harry quickly amended. After a brief pause, he finally admitted, “I was remembering Shell Cottage.”

 

“Yes, that was a nice place,” Luna said quickly.

 

“I’m sorry I was so dumb then,” Harry finally. “Living there with you, not realizing…”

 

“It’s all right,” said Luna. “I understand. It wasn’t your fault.”

 

“Yes, it was!” protested Harry, sitting up to look at her. “You were always there, but I never realized it! With Cho… with Ginny…”

 

“You didn’t realize I was there?” Luna asked, blinking in surprise. “But you asked me to Slughorn’s Christmas party, as friends. You had to realize I was there.”

 

“Well, I realized you existed,” said Harry. “I just only thought of you as a friend!”

 

“Don’t you think of me as a friend? I think of you as a friend.”

 

“Well, of course, I do. But now you’re more than a friend.”

 

“Oh, I see.” Luna twisted a strand of her straggly blonde hair around her hand and gave Harry a spacey look that she had to know made him go wild. “That was when you had your Nargle problem.”

 

“My Nargle problem?” Harry blinked in confusion. “What’s that mean?”

 

Luna smiled. “When you were infested with Nargles, silly. In fifth year! Well, it was your sixth, but…”

 

“Wait,” said Harry, very confused. “I thought only mistletoe was often infested with Nargles.”

 

Luna shook her head. “No, Harry. Boys can be, too. Girls, sometimes, but most often, it’s boys. The effects are quite similar to Amortentia, but you don’t act as stupidly and it’s not the object of your affection’s fault. I don’t blame Ginny. It wasn’t her fault, especially after you kissed her like that.”

 

“What?” Harry shifted uncomfortably. Yes, he and Ginny had remained on good terms since their breakup, but he still didn’t like Luna talking about his ex-girlfriend like that. “It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. I was sixteen.”

 

Luna nodded. “Sixteen and infested with Nargles. And then you went and infested poor Ginny.”

 

She must have noticed Harry’s blank look, because she added, “Harry, if you listened to me more often, you’d know these things. Sometimes, when a boy is infested with Nargles-”

 

“But how did I get infested with Nargles?”

 

“Oh that’s easy. The mistletoe in the D.A. room was full of them, couldn’t you see?”

 

Harry shook his head. Luna sighed.

 

“You really ought to read all the old back issues of the Quibbler. Plus, it would make Daddy really happy.”

 

“Luna…” began Harry, but she smiled.

 

“You must have gotten the Nargles when you kissed Cho Chang underneath the mistletoe,” Luna explained.

 

“Okay…” said Harry, a little uneasily. “And I had them…”

 

“For quite a long time,” said Luna. “Almost two years.”

 

“But, I smelled Amortentia in Potions—”

 

“Oh, did the Nargles affect that?” asked Luna curiously. “I didn’t know they would. That’s very interesting.”

 

"How did I get rid of them?" he asked, suddenly intrigued.

 

"I expect it was when you died, of course," she said thoughtfully. "They're parasites; they'd have abandoned you right when you died. I wonder who they attatched themselves to next." She put a finger to her lips. "Was Voldemort in love with anyone?"

 

Harry shook his head. “I don't think so. So you’re saying… I never really liked Ginny?”

 

Luna shook her head. “Oh no, I’m not saying that. You consider her a friend, don’t you?”

 

He nodded enthusiastically, remembering Luna’s distinctions. “She’s my friend. What I mean is you’re saying I was never really in love with her.”

 

“Yes,” said Luna. “That’s what I’m saying. Nargles were behind it. After all, it was incredibly sudden, wasn’t it?”

 

Harry suddenly remembered that he had never really thought about Ginny in that way until he smelled the Amortentia. “It was,” he said slowly, almost beginning to believe Luna. “Now that I come to think about it.”

 

Luna beamed. “Oh, Harry this is such an interesting case study! You must let me interview you for an article I’m writing. I’ve got to warn people about the Nargles. You’ve been infect and – oh, come on, let’s go Floo Ginny; she can be in the article, too.”

 

She leapt to her feet and thrust out her hand to Harry who took it and hauled himself to his feet. As they returned to the cottage together, Harry decided that he was quite glad the Nargles were gone, even if he had had to die to let it happen.