With their lives on the line in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Neville Longbottom confesses romantic feelings for Luna Lovegood, yet that doesn’t really make sense given what the franchise told us to that point. Neville and Luna are both close to Harry, but they are social outcasts otherwise. They perform well within Dumbledore’s Army but even Harry is unsure of their prowess in a fight against Death Eaters.

Given their status as beloved side characters and their unique personalities, Neville and Luna are the kind of romance that fans would root for, meaning it’s understandable why filmmakers chose to include this in the movie. However, this isn’t something that comes from the books, so there’s not a lot of buildup for it. In fact, on top of there not being a romance while they’re kids, both are revealed to have gone on and married completely different characters.

Neville’s Confession About Liking Luna Was Never Built Up

The Confession Comes From Out Of Nowhere

Not every film adaptation is going to be totally accurate to the score material and that’s often okay, as long as it doesn’t alter the main crux of the story. Putting Luna and Neville together for the movies wouldn’t have impacted the overall story that the franchise was telling and is likely the kind of change that fans would’ve welcomed. The issue is that the filmmakers never chose to tease this kind of relationship. At no point in any prior film is there even an inkling that Neville likes Luna.

Neither really has any romantic interests otherwise, so it’s not too far-fetched. Neville goes to the Yule Ball with Ginny, but that’s more of a friendship date than anything else. Meanwhile, Luna and Harry are a pairing that many fan fiction pieces have been written about, given their chemistry and similarities. Without a proper build or tease, having Neville say he’s interested in Luna that way feels forced and like something the filmmakers just threw in at the last minute.

Again, while this isn’t something that completely changes or ruins the experience of the final film in the franchise, it does come across as somewhat careless. Luna and Neville are two who get solid character development over the films in short screen time, going from overlooked outcasts to trusted friends and fighters against the ultimate evil. These characters are loved and, if there was going to be a romance, it deserved to be handled with more care.

Who Neville Actually Marries In The Books

He Wed A Hufflepuff Classmate

In the books, neither Neville nor Luna have an official romantic subplot. Of course, author J.K. Rowling dove deeper into the futures of key characters years after the final book was released in 2007. That included revealing who the supporting characters went on to marry and what they went on to do with their respective careers. Luna ultimately marries Rolf Scamander, grandson of Fantastic Beasts protagonist Newt, and they have twin sons.

Even more interesting is who Neville gets married to because she attended Hogwarts with him and the rest of the main characters. Neville ultimately weds Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff from the same year. Hannah only gets very limited screen time in the films but is a bit more prominent in the Harry Potter books. She’s the first name called out by the Sorting Hat in Harry’s first year, she becomes a prefect alongside Ron and Hermione, and she’s a member of Dumbledore’s Army. In the future, she becomes the landlady at The Leaky Cauldron while Neville teaches Herbology at Hogwarts.