Written for the A-B-C Fast or Slow Challenge, for Lavender, Luca Caruso, lion, library, and light.
At eleven o'clock, the torches extinguish themselves, and the library is plunged into darkness.
Lavender curses, suddenly paranoid that Filch will find her immediately. She didn't realize how late it had gotten, despite the windows outside displaying a dark and gloriously starry sky. Lavender has been caught up in a lovely little collection of books on the different types of divination, and without Parvati there to warn her of the impending curfew (she left Lavender much earlier in the evening in favor of spending a few hours with her new boyfriend, a Hufflepuff bloke in the year above them), the hours have sped by her like a passenger train.
She doesn't have her wand with her. It was left in the dorm when Parvati excitedly burst in, informing Lavender that she had found a new divination text, causing the brunette to leave the dormitory in haste. But before she knows it, she is saved.
"Lumos," comes a decidedly male voice which sounds as if it is several bookshelves away, muffled and faint.
Lavender starts as the library is engulfed in light; she had no idea that anyone else was, too, in the library so late. "Who's in here?" she asks, desperately hoping it's not a Slytherin, then realizing that it perhaps may not have been the most brilliant of ideas to announce her presence so willingly.
"Er, it's me," says the voice unhelpfully. There's a tense pause, though Lavender begins to calm down when she realizes this boy would likely not answer her if his intentions were malicious. "Just a moment."
Footsteps echo throughout the brightened library as the source of the voice makes his way towards her. As he steps into view, Lavender's mouth drops open in surprise; she knows this boy. "I recognize you."
"Yeah, er, you too. Lavender, yeah?" says the boy, looking just as surprised as she that the pair of late-night library patrons know each other.
"Exactly. You're Luca, right?" She doesn't need to ask, really. Luca Caruso is rather attractive, and though she'd deny it to anyone but Parvati and, unfortunately, Hermione Granger, she talks about his gorgeousness for hours. He's part of Dumbledore's Army; as a seventh year, he's probably one of the Weasley twins' friends, she thinks.
"That's me," he says.
If Lavender was anyone else, there would likely be an awkward pause, but Lavender is Lavender. "You're in the D.A. with me, then, yeah? Did you enjoy the lesson on Patroni the other day?"
"Yeah, it was interesting. What's yours?"
"Mockingbird," she says with a little laugh. She's somewhat amused that such a small creature will somehow protect her against dementors. "You?"
"Mine's a lion," he says in a mockingly gallant tone.
"Oooh, Luca," she says, laughing harder now; Luca is a Ravenclaw. "What a Gryffindor you are."
"Well, it's late, I've got to go," Luca says as they calm down. "We should talk more sometime, Lavender."
"Yeah, I'd like that."
They both grin, and then, with a short little wave, Lavender turns on her heels and leaves the library.