Title: Of dancing Wrackspurts and Nargle infections
Chaser 3: Advertise the Weasley Twins product: Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher
Dialogue "I want to lick his face."
Restriction: No Gryffindor or Slytherin Characters
Quote: I may be drunk, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly - Winston Churchill
I know the quote might be hard to find in this story, I decided to show the contrast between the serene attitude of Luna and the nasty way some girls go around talking. In that contrast you see that underneath the layers (herein, strange and pretty) you see that what lies underneath is something pretty and something ugly.
I may be drunk, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly - Winston Churchill
Luna had gotten up early so she could read some before the dance of the wrackspurts. They were particularly active during the morning, which many excused as being the remnants of sleep fading away.
She thought it was strange that people couldn't see their outline against the morning light at dawn. Their twirling forms were distinct, so she had been working on drawing them for a while now to get a picture for the Quibbler. Today she hoped to finish the drawings as the student body of Hogwarts made their way into the Great Hall where she was nibbling on some toast, her hair in a messy bun that was held together by her drawing pencil.
There were a few scattered morning people like herself there already, some of them might have read her dad's article last month about early risers avoiding wrackspurt infections. She had lived by that belief for years, so she was glad other people had come around to see the truth.
As the first stragglers arrived and started filling up the four house tables, she caught the sight of wrackspurts as they danced around the heads of the students that didn't have the forethought of waking up early to avoid them. Luna pulled the pencil out and her hair fell down around her shoulders catching the reflection of the light streaming through the windows and down from the enchanted ceiling. Being considered strange had the unfortunate effect of people sitting far away from her. Instead of seeing that downside, Luna found it fortunate because the later people woke up, the more wrackspurts were surrounding them. The people that had gotten up last would be the ones surrounding her so she would be able to see the wrackspurts up close.
As the last of the Ravenclaws arrived, she was surrounded by a group of girls. The girls in question were the very same that called her names and tried to make her life difficult. She felt a strange sense of satisfaction in knowing that the had the worst infection of wrackspurts. Ravenclaws were the smartest at school, there was no doubt about that, so they were the ones that suffered most from a wrackspurt infection.
"Ernie Macmillian is looking quite fit," Cho Chang said as she sat down facing the Hufflepuff table.
"Too bad he has a girlfriend," Morag MacDougal said. She seemed to be the one least affected by the wrackspurts floating around her head as she loaded her plate with bacon and eggs.
"I heard they just broke up," Padma Patil said. Her eyes flashed in the direction of Mandy after she had said it.
The girls had now sat down all around Luna, but seemed to completely ignore her presence; she might as well have been the Grey Lady for all the attention they were giving her. Luna couldn't really blame them, it must be hard to concentrate when you are battling creatures you don't even know are real.
"Who told you that?" Lisa Turpin asked, forgetting the toast she had just put her plate as she craned her neck to get a better look at Ernie.
"I have my sources."
"Bad for news for her, good news for me. I've been trying to make him dump her for ages," Mandy Brocklehurst said. Padma rolled her eyes at her and started picking at her breakfast.
"I want to lick his face," Marietta Edgecomb said, eyeing the boy the girls were all talking about.
"Let's hope he doesn't want to return the favor," Lisa said and snickered while the rest of her year mates laughed. Cho stayed silent and looked at Marietta who had turned an interesting shade of purple.
"You're one to talk," Padma said. "I'm just glad you started using the 'Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher'. I think you did us all a favor when you started using that."
Marietta seemed smug and Lisa looked angry. Luna was practically jumping in her seat, their conversation had an interesting effect on the wrackspurts; they were going back and forth in between the girls instead of just floating around one at a time. She hadn't been this close before so she hadn't managed to observe a behavior like this before. Her dad would be ecstatic to hear about it.
"It doesn't really help when you continue eating like you do," Mandy said. "If you really want to stop the pimples you should start eating healthier."
"It's not what you eat, pimples are the result of Nargles. Have you been standing under any mistletoes lately?" Luna asked. The rest of the girls seemed startled at the sound of her voice and turned to look at her.
"There is no such thing as Nargles," Morag said.
"Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not real. You should read the Quibbler, daddy writes some great articles that prove they exist."
"Oh, your daddy does, does he?" Marietta said.
"That magazine is just a bunch of crazy people that see things that don't exist," Cho said.
"Tabloid," Luna corrected. "Muggles don't believe in magic, but we are living proof it exists."
"Is that why you don't have any pimples? Is that what you are saying?" Padma said.
"Of course, the Nargles don't attack me, I wear this." Luna shoved them her necklace, ignoring the looks most of them were giving her. At least she didn't have a face full of zits caused by mischievous Nargles causing trouble.
"These Nargles, are they the same ones that keep stealing your shoes?" Lisa said, the group of girls laughing at her remark. Luna felt her heart sink a little at her jibe, but she never let it get to her, she rather thought that Nargle infection must have had a lasting impact on poor Lisa. She should have started with the treatment much sooner.
"Ignore her, she is just strange."
"I might be strange, but at least I can look at myself in the mirror and not be disgusted by the person I see. Can you say the same Lisa Turpin? Can any of you?"
There was no point in staying at the Great Hall any longer; she had finished her drawing and classes were about to start. "I'd rather be strange than be ugly on the inside. No amount of the 'Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher' can change that."
Still, she should talk to her dad about putting an advert in the next Quibbler advertising the product. There were many people that struggled with Nargle infestation all of their life, and if this product could help them the way it had helped Lisa Turpin it was a great product indeed.
She twirled and twisted her pencil around her long blond hair before she gathered her belongings and skipped out of the Great Hall. She left behind a group of girls that had fallen quiet by her words. Maybe a miracle product didn't help stop them from being nasty to others, but perhaps the words of a budding reporter like Luna could.