Honor and Loyalty A/N: So, this is for the Ten Commandments Competition on the HPFFC forum from FlamingMooseNinjasOfEpicness. Thank you so much for giving me this idea! I chose two commandments actually, numbers 1 (You shall honor your Lord thy God) and 2 (Thou shalt have no other gods) because they kinda go hand in hand to me. I'm not religious at all, so none of the beliefs in this fanfiction are coming from me, just my weird brain, and my knowledge of D&D (Dungeon's and Dragon's for those of you who don't know. Yes, I'm a nerd. No, I don't care.) Honestly, I'm kinda surprised that J.K. Rowling didn't address the religious conflict some people might have experienced upon learning they were a witch or wizard. Some people have been raised to think that magic is evil and must be destroyed, or that if they practice magic, they'll go to Hell for it. Sorry, while I was writing this, I noticed that. lol Anyway, so enjoy and and hope I win! lol ^_^
Honor and Loyalty
There was a sob from the corner as Luna entered the common room, and she looked to see a young girl crying. A first year. 'She probably misses her family...' she thought as she drifted over and knelt down in front of the girl. "What's wrong...?" she asked, her voice as dreamy as ever.
The girl jerked away from her voice, and glared at her through tear filled eyes. "Get away from me, witch!"
"Well that's rude considering you're a witch too."
"Not by choice!"
"I never chose this either."
The young girl had no answer to that, but continued to glare at her.
"Why don't you want to be a witch?" the blonde asked, smiling at the girl despite her watery glare.
"Because magic is evil! It's the tool of the Devil to bring the good to Hell!"
Luna nodded in understanding. "Well, you were put into Ravenclaw for a reason. You're intelligent. Why don't you think of your time here as training to keep the magic under control to keep from going to Hell? Doesn't your god encourage learning?"
"Well, yes and no. The knowledge can't go against His will... So I'm not supposed to be here..." The girl had stopped glaring, but tears still fell from her eyes slowly.
"Well, knowledge for knowledge's sake is what's important in here. Take advantage and learn whatever you can. Kmowledge of magic can't be enough to send you to Hell, can it?"
"Um... Probably not... But, what if it is? What if I go to Hell because I know about magic and I used it, even though I didn't want it?" Her eyes were wide and panicked, tears falling faster again.
"Well, then you'll just have to talk to the Devil and tell him what happened to make it see sense, and then you can go with your god." Luna smiled at her.
The girl blinked at her, convinced she was crazy. "You can't just talk to the Devil! He's evil! He'll probably torture you for fun before he let's you talk..."
"Well, what kind of evil is he?"
"What?"
"What kind of evil is he? Chaotic or neutral or lawful or what?"
"I don't... quite follow..." The poor girl was so lost.
"Chaotic evil, they do whatever they want when they want because they can. Lawful evil, they manipulate laws and find loopholes to get what they want, but always keep their word. Neutral evil they have a plan basically to take over the world. Or a part of the world. Does it make more sense now?"
She nodded, wide-eyed. "I didn't know there were different kinds of evil... I thought that evil was just evil..."
Luna nodded. "Most people think that way. I know different though. So what kind of evil is the Devil?"
The girl thought hard about all of her lessons about the Devil and how he manipulated people to get what he wanted. "...Lawful."
"Then he won't torture you." Luna smiled at her. "If your knowledge makes you go to Hell, which I don't think it will, then you can talkt o the Devil and get him to let you go with your god."
"How are you fine with all of this? How are you ok with knowing you'll go to Hell?" the girl asked unabashedly.
"I don't know that. I think there are many gods, and that we can worship them if we so choose, but we don't have to. I think we're judged based on our actions in life, not the things we can't control like being a witch. I choose to believe that the god Thoth exists to validate my belief that knowledge is all important."
"Who's Thoth?" asked the girl curiously. She was no longer crying, but her face was still clearly tear-stained and red.
"He's the Egyptian god of knowledge. For him, nothing is more important than knowledge of all kinds. Knowledge transcends all other boundaries of life. If you know something, you can say that without a doubt in your mind that you know that thing. I know my name is Luna. I know that I don't know your name. I know that I would like to know your name. And I know that I would like to know that you're wiling to stay at Hogwarts."
The girl was silent for a long moment, then smiled at the blonde with the wide eyes. "Evelyn. That's my name. And yes, I will stay at Hogwarts."
Luna smiled at her. "I know that it's time for us both to get to bed, as well."
Evelyn smiled sheepishly, and scampered up the girls' staircase to the first year dorms, and Luna followed more slowly to the fifth year ones. She had few friends, but those she had were definitely worth her time, and she knew that. 'Thank you, Thoth, for this opportunity to expand my knowledge.'
A/N: So I know the title was slightly off putting, since neither word was part of this, but I wasn't addressing the story, but the 10 Commandments with the title. Yes, Thoth is the Egyptian god of knowledge, I have a book for deities and demi gods for D&D (Dungeon's and Dragon's) that includes the Olympian, Egyptian, and Asguardian pantheons as well as the D&D pantheon. Thoth is a neutral deity who believes that nothing is more important than knowledge. His worshipers include scholars, scribes, wizards, sorcerers, and some clerics. His origins are not known, and many believe he isn't related to any of the other Egyptian deities, while others say he is. He has no children, and no wife. He's a level 20 wizard, level 10 cleric, and level 10 loremaster. If anyone is interested in him in relation to D&D, I will be happy to provide further information.
Yes, it was short, but that was kinda the point. It wasn't supposed to be long. It was supposed to be a quick one-shot to kinda help explain Luna from my point of view, while doing the 10 Commandments Competition. I had a lot of fun with this, so thank you so for this opportunity!