Nargles

By Brando


Dedicated to Katie

Rated: PG-13 for some violence and mild language.

Summary: Harry develops a crush on Luna, but every time he tries to tell her something goes wrong. Now Hermione and Ginny are trying to help him. Meanwhile Ron finds a real life Nargle and someone at Hogwarts is a spy for Voldie! HP/LL RW/HG

Disclaimer: Now if I owned Harry Potter I'd be rich. Vis-à-vis, I wouldn't be here. I'd be sailing in my yacht while listening to Jimmy Buffett tunes on the radio.

Since I'm not doing that, it's safe to assume I do not own Harry Potter.

----

"Right. So then Professor McGonnigal put me –"

"Us, Ronald." Hermione corrected.

"- in charge of decorating the castle for Christmas. So prefects, fall into line and get ready."

As with every new year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there was a Holiday on the horizon. Always did something come up that would cause for a festive cheer and an excuse to throw a noisy party in the common room. Halloween was great because of the feast; and Easter Holidays were very helpful to catch up with Snape's essays before finals. Though Halloween was only an extra dinner, and Easter was always filled with homework. Therefore the students of Hogwarts always took great pride in the Christmas Holiday since it was their one true break. Every year the Head Boy and Girl would oversea the decorating of the castle; or they'd assign those duties to another pair of prefects.

This year; the sixth year since Harry Potter arrived at Hogwarts, the Head Boy and Girl had given the job of being in charge of decorations to Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Now the entire group of Sixth and Fifth year perfects (plus a few others who volunteered to help) were gathered in the Great Hall. They were using the tables normally reserved for the Gryffindor and Slytherin houses. The entire group could have fit on one table; but Draco Malfoy, the prefect for Slytherin, claimed that if he sat on the Gryffindor table he would become deadly ill.

"Now I figure we can all tackle this room first, since it's so bloody big." Ron explained as he strolled around proudly. Most of the time he neglected his prefect duties, however when it came to bossing people around (especially Malfoy and his mates) he found he enjoyed being a prefect much more than normally. Hermione seemed annoyed at Ron's military like mood.

Harry sat on the edge of the Gryffindor table. To his right was the new fifth year perfects Jack Sloper and Ginny Weasley. Jack looked a bit afraid of Ron; but Ginny was rolling her eyes to his every word. Occasionally as Ron would fall off into melodramatics Ginny would catch Harry's eye and they'd both have to bite their tongues to keep from snickering. On Harry's left were Luna Lovegood and a boy he didn't know who had been elected the new Ravenclaw prefects. Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil; the Ravenclaw sixth year prefects as well as Hanna Abbot and Ernie; their Hufflepuff equivalents, were next on the row. Neville Longbottom; who, like Harry was volunteering to help, and a few people he didn't recognize were at the end. Across from them at the Slytherin table were a very bored Draco Malfoy and his usual gang of Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson. Theodore Knott and Blaise Zabini had also shown up and sat at the end with looks of dreaded boredom also apparent on their faces.

"So then everyone find something and decorate with it then." Ron wrapped up his little speech. As soon as he did Malfoy sat up and opened his mouth; and as soon as he did that Harry prepared for trouble. Truth-be-told Harry would love to test some new jinxes on Malfoy if given an excuse.

"You seem to know a lot about decorating Weasley." Draco said knowingly. "And here I thought your family was too poor to afford such things."

"Shut up Malfoy."

"Leave Ron alone."

"At least our dad isn't in jail."

"Snuff yourself."

Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Harry had all replied to Draco in a second and the Slytherin seemed alive with an icy rage. However he had developed some intellect because he knew he was out numbered (since the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws would all obviously back the Weasley clan) and he sat back and shut up with a foul look on his face. Harry slinked back down into his own seat and sat backwards. It took him a moment to notice Luna Lovegood beside him, who was shaking as if she was afraid.

"Hey, are you okay?" Harry asked, eyeing the blonde-haired girl with a peculiar glance. Then again peculiar didn't even scratch the surface of the cobalt-eyed, butterbeer-bottle-cap-necklace-wearing, giant-lion-hat-creating girl beside him. Then again Harry usually gave her the benefit of the doubt since he knew (from much experience) that not all people called "crazy" are odd at all. She turned to him with her protuberant blue eyes and shook her head from side to side.

"No, no Harry I'm not. We're all in danger. I've been telling Ronald all morning but he refuses to believe me."

At the word "danger", Harry's neck hairs began to stand up. His hand was mechanically gripped around the handle of his wand; as it usually was these days. He had become a regular sixteen-year-old Alastor Moody with all of his paranoia. He was constantly on edge and ready for a fight; and he'd dug out his old pocket sneakoscope and carried it with him. (Unfortunately it kept going off in Professor Wiltra's – the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher – room.)

"Is it Voldemort?" Harry asked nonchalantly. Even thought the people around them could have cared less about Harry and Luna's conversation, a ripple of flinches and winces went through everyone who could hear Harry's voice. Luna looked confused, rather than afraid and she shook her head while quirking one of her unusually pale eyebrows.

"No." She replied as he pointed a nervous finger at a large gray box near Ron's feet. "Mistletoe."

Harry was instantly annoyed at this and he returned the wand to his pocket. Malfoy, while unable to hear their conversation, did see Luna and Harry whispering to each other and then pointing at the box of mistletoe. Malfoy's thin lips began to curve into a sneer and he then turned around on the table and began to hum to himself in different tunes as if he was trying to write a song. Harry didn't notice, though.

"Why are you afraid of mistletoe?" Harry asked her.

"Nargles." Luna replied as her eyes remained on the box of white berries. "We talked about this before."

"We did?"

"Last year. I don't think you remember. You seemed more interested in Cho Chang." Luna informed him. Harry did not quite remember the incident before; but he could not forget his infatuation with Cho Chang. It had been a long-time crush that became a short-lived romance. Back then Harry had been wondering if he'd get to kiss her again after that first time; now he was wishing he had followed Oliver Wood's advice when he first met Cho and knocked her off her broom.

However Harry's annoyance with his former crush was driven from his head as Ron gave him a sharp poke in the side. Harry glared up at the redhead; who dropped the box of mistletoe into his lap. Apparently while he was brooding about Cho they had finished the talking and began to decorating. As soon as the mistletoe was sat down Luna shimmied down the table and moved far away from Harry. Ron shook his head and muttered something sounding like 'mental' before he vanished to go boss Malfoy around. Harry shrugged and dropped the mistletoe box; having no real interest in decorating when he was now once again sad.

Harry got sad very easily. And not because of Cho; she was a jerk and he was very sorry he had wasted his time on her. No; he was upset because thinking of Cho meant thinking of last year which always lead to thinking about Sirius Black. Harry's stomach clenched into a painful knot at the mere thought of him. Anything from the mention of the color black to the sight of Severus Snape would send Harry back into a world of pain. This world was filled with the arrogant cries of a dark haired Godfather just before his death. The questioning sounds of Cedric Diggory before his life was swept from his body. The heroic sounds of a father fighting to protect his wife and child; and of course, the screams of a mother pleading with Voldemort for her child's life.

And above all of those sounds were the simple laughs. Voldemort's low, cold laughter that could freeze the bone marrow quicker than a dementor in a snowstorm. And the high, hallow sound of Bellatrix Lestrange's insane laughs that would boil blood and cause Harry to want to scream with fury. These laughs made him simply crazy and they always seemed to drain the fun out of whatever he was doing that day. That kind of horror would not go away within a mere half a year of mourning his Godfather's death.

Harry would not be able to continue his self-pity wallowing; however. He was shaken out of the horrible world of black sadness and laughter by the sounds of grunts and kicks. Harry whirled around and his vivid green eyes fell on Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. The three of them were at the base of the Christmas tree and they were all kicking something. It took Harry a moment to notice the large lump that the feet were colliding into was actual Ron, who was curled up with blood coming down his sides. Harry's wand was out in a split-second but he was already too late.

Hermione got there first.

Hermione's fist came smashing into Draco's face with such force that he went tumbling straight into the hard marble floor. Before Draco could move Hermione was on top of him and giving him a beating worse than last year when Harry and George had done the same thing. Draco was pathetically fighting back but Hermione was so ferocious in her pursuit of Malfoy's blood that no one dared interfere. Once before Ron had seen Hermione loose her temper like this but never had he seen her so violent. He was certain that no one short of Voldemort himself would have the guts to throw a punch at the bookworm. Crabbe and Goyle stood flabbergasted as they watched but a second later Anthony and Ernie had grabbed Crabbe around his arms. Crabbe gave a grunt of surprise and began to thrash around violently which caused Anthony's head to collide into the tree with a harsh crunch.

Across the room Blaise Zabini had been going for her wand when Ginny jumped her from behind and knocked her on the ground. Ginny was slapping, punching, scratching and kicking Blaise from behind as the two of them hit the ground. Theodore Knott aimed a curse at Ginny but Justin Finch-Fletchly; who had come with Ernie and Hannah as a volunteer and had always disliked Theodore, was faster and hit Knott with a spell that caused his nose to inflate to the size of a small killer whale.

Harry turned his eyes back to the Christmas tree where Hermione was continuing to bloody her robes as they pressed into Malfoy; whose nose was spewing the red liquid like a fountain. Crabbe punching Ernie behind the table but Goyle had managed to get rid of Neville, who had been feebly trying to punch him down, and was now heading straight for Luna Lovegood. Luna didn't seem to notice and Harry instantly aimed his wand and yelled out the incantation to the first spell he could think of.

"Fistula Pustule!"

A white ball of light launched from Harry's wand and collided with Goyle's face. The scream that followed was one of the most horrifying sounds Harry had ever heard. Everyone in the room; even Hermione and Malfoy, had stopped fighting and turned to face Goyle. The titan of a teenager was on the ground crying and whimpering as a huge suppurating sore had appeared. Pus was oozing out onto the floor like a river as it mixed in with an ocean of red blood that followed suit. Only Luna Lovegood's protuberant cobalt gaze was on Harry as she stared at him unblinking. Harry didn't notice because he was too busy watching Goyle twitch in pain.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Instantly everyone turned away from Goyle. Everyone except for Luna, who was still gazing at Harry; and Harry himself who didn't want to face the master of the voice that had screamed his name. However an instantly later a red stunner hit Harry in the back of the head and he fell to the ground with a thud. Perhaps to a normal student (that is to say someone who hadn't been tortured by Voldemort in the past) would have been knocked out by Severus Snape's stunner. However Harry was still awake and now gazing up at Snape.

Snape's thin lips were ground into a fine sneer. His eyes were wide and angry and a vein was pounding in his pasty forehead. His large nose was bent down low next to Goyle before he muttered a spell which caused the fester to heal and vanish. However Goyle had still lost a lot of blood and was still in a small puddle of pus and Snape jabbed a finger at Crabbe and commanded he take his fallen friend to the hospital wing. Snape then rounded on Hermione; who hadn't bothered getting off Malfoy. She didn't shrink under his gaze of pure anger but she did climb off Malfoy, dust off her skirt, and walk over and take a seat on the counter. Afterwards Snape glared at the rest of the room and the remaining students were separating. Then Snape turned back to Harry and he spoke in a voice that reminded him of Basilisk venom.

"You could have killed Mr. Goyle with that, Potter." Snape's hissing voice spat. "I shall be informing the headmaster and the Ministry of Magic about this. Then we shall see if famous Harry Potter can keep himself out of Azkaban, much less detention. And I believe I shall take ten points from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff for each of its students involved in this attack. Fifty from Miss. Granger because she apparently has a temper to match her know-it-all personality; and one hundred from you Potter because of your homicidal nature."

"And I believe one hundred from Mr. Malfoy for starting this awful fight, don't you agree Severus?" An aged voice came from the doorway. Harry felt a sense of relief at Dumbledore's tone since it seemed quiet and cautious instead of angry. From the look of frozen poison on Snape's face it was clear that he did not agree with this one bit; but Snape knew better than to cross Albus Dumbledore.

"Sorry Snivellus." Harry hissed quietly. Snape's face became a ugly shade of puce and paste and he looked as if he may jinx Harry again; but Dumbledore cleared his throat and stepped between them wisely.

"That is all Severus. You shall take these students to the Hospital Wing. I shall be assigning detentions myself so you don't need to."

Snape opened his mouth to complain; but then he stopped and turned away with rage fuming out of his entire body. As he shook violently he barked a quick order for everyone to follow him to the Hospital Wing and Hermione shot Harry a nervous look as she bit her lip and helped Ron stand up. Hermione's temper was gone and now she looked positively frightened as to what she had done. Ron, however, was staring at Hermione in awe as if she was Merlin himself.

"You too Miss. Lovegood." Dumbledore spoke without even bothering to look behind him, and Harry wondered if he had some Mad-Eye Moody skill to see from the back of his head. Luna's face crept with a pink hue and she quickly followed Ron and Hermione out of the great hall. As she did Dumbledore bent down on his knees and extended a hand to Harry. Harry allowed himself to be helped up to the table.

"Harry." Dumbledore said very seriously. "I shall not expel you today, or any other day that can be helped; however I shall not impede on Snape's point taking and I do believe you should serve some detention."

"Okay." Harry replied trying to hide his smile. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he stood up and looked down at the puddle of Goyle's pus and blood.

"That was a fine Festering Charm." Dumbledore announced with a hint of pride behind his aged voice. "However it would be useless against Voldemort."

Harry's face, which had risen at the announcement that his charm was adequate, fell considerably. He had read about the charm in an advanced dark arts spell book that the Room of Requirement had helped him attain. Dumbledore smiled a bit at Harry and then walked over to the table and stared into his vivid-green, almond-shaped eyes with his old, sparkling ones.

"Harry, I know you wish to be well vested in spell-work for when the time comes to face Lord Voldemort." The Headmaster announced. "However I must impress upon you not to use your classmates as target practice anymore."

Harry nodded and apologized once again. Dumbledore turned around and exited the great hall without a word. Harry stayed seated at the table for a minute before he rose. He obviously wanted to go visit Ron and Hermione in the hospital wing; but he also wanted to wait till Snape was gone. Not only had he nearly killed Goyle but he had called Snape "Snivellus"; which he had taken to doing whenever he got the chance in honor of Sirius Black.

At the memory of Sirius, Harry was launched back into his black world of death and laughter. The cold sound of Voldemort's echoing mirth was drowned out this time by the hot, heckling sounds of Bellatrix laughing. Her cackle was like white-hot fire that pierced Harry's heart and made him want to scream. Harry was shaking and he could feel tears welling up behind his eyes. Suddenly he could feel a hand on his shoulder. Harry reached out and gripped the hand in a death grip that could have broken the wrist is he had wanted too.

Harry's eyes opened to find Luna Lovegood's blue equals staring back at him. He released his bone-crunching Quidditch-like grip on Luna's wrist and she rubbed it for a moment as if it was sore. However she made no move to complain. Instead she untied the butterbeer cap necklace from around her neck and she then worked away the knot at the end. Harry was about to ask what she was doing when she pulled one of the bottle caps off and placed it inside the palm of Harry's hand. She then pushed Harry's fingers closed. Harry was no longer confused on what she was doing; but why was still a question.

Luna returned the necklace to its proper place around her neck and then smiled at Harry with a dreamy look on her and an equally dreamy sound to her voice as she spoke at last.

"Thank you." Were the words she spoke. Then she turned around and headed for the exit. Harry blinked twice before turning and looking after her and blinked once more before he replied.

"Hey wait a second!" Harry called. "What's this for?"

Luna turned back around and gave him a look that reminded him strongly of third year when Malfoy had asked Hagrid how to open The Monster Book of Monsters. Harry felt a bit embarrassed but he honestly had no clue why she had given him a bottle cap. She then spoke in a quiet voice that lost the usual dreamy quality.

"To remind you." She answered him.

"Of what?" Harry inquired.

"That pain goes away in time." Luna answered sagely. "You know I watched my mother die Harry, but I'm okay now. You will be too someday."

Before Harry could even begin to think of a reply to that, Luna was gone. She had vanished out the doors and down the hallways. Harry couldn't quite understand it at first but somehow hearing Luna say that sent quite a few emotions through his body. First was anger that she'd tell him it would be alright. Everyone said that but none of them knew. Then as he realized that she had lost her mother; Harry began to wonder if maybe she was right. Harry began to feel that he wanted to talk to Luna about it. Harry was very confused by this whole day and he decided that even if it meant seeing Snape he had to find Ron and Hermione. He had to clear his head, and get rid of this odd knot in his stomach that had appeared when Luna held his hand like that.

----

It was Harry's luck that the hospital wing was Snape-free. Madam Pompfrey had separated the Slytherins and the Gryffindors into separate rooms. Harry avoided the room reserved for Malfoy and his group and instead went to the very back room of the infirmary to find some of his friends. Jack Sloper was being treated for a bad black eye that Crabbe had given him, but it looked much better now that Madam Pompfrey had cured him and Harry was guessing that Jack was simply faking further injury and trying to get out of class.

Others weren't so lucky. Neville had a broken rib from Goyle and Madam Pompfrey had given him a horrible tasting, slow-acting potion to fix it up. He was sitting on a chair near Ron's bed when Harry showed up and as soon as he did he burst into applause. Ginny, Jack, Ron, Seamus and Dean (who had both shown up after hearing what happened) and Pavarti all did too. Hermione, who was sitting on the edge of Ron's bed, waved shyly but Ron clapped her on the back.

"We're having a party for you two tonight!" Ron announced. "Damn Harry, I dunno what you used on Goyle but you better teach us in the next DA meeting!"

They had all decided in the first week of school to continue with the DA. And they now had nearly ten times the members with Voldemort's return. Since Dumbledore didn't mind he had actually cleared a block of time on Fridays for the DA to meet. It meant they had an extra lesson every Monday; but that was fine as the extra lesson was Defense Against the Dark Arts and Professor Wiltra never gave them much work anyway. Harry was still teaching the DA and in the few months of school so far he had brought nearly everyone up to par on Stunners, Disarming Spells, Shield Charms and most of the older members were doing well with Patronums. Hermione was excellent with hers and Neville was making the best work on stunners; perhaps because of seeing Bellatrix Lestrange last year and wanting revenge for his parents. Harry didn't have the heart to tell Neville that if anyone was going to kill Bella it would be him.

"I'll admit." Hermione said suddenly. "Malfoy deserved what he got. But Harry you really could have hurt Goyle . . ."

"Which is why Harry is so freaking cool!" Ron laughed beside her. Hermione glared at him but Ron merely continued laughing. Harry cracked a smile and sat down.

"Dumbledore said my festering charm was excellent." Harry announced with a sly grin. Hermione glared at him too but Jack and Neville both applauded once more and Pavarti gave an awed squeal. Harry looked around the room and found no sign of the Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw classes.

"Where are the others?" Harry asked.

"Well." Ron replied. "Justin and Anthony are both down the hall since they got pretty roughed up. The rest went to tell Dumbledore what happened. I think that Zabini woman went with them."

Ginny snorted. "I got her in the eye."

Ron beamed. "That-a girl."

"Ginny!" Hermione cried, aghast. "You could have poked her eye out!"

"You're the one who went Rocky on Malfoy." Harry reminded her. Hermione gave a slight smile and blushed deep red. It was obvious that everyone else (except for Jack Sloper who was also a pureblood) hadn't gotten the joke. Hermione however had and she did grin at Harry while nibbling on her bottom lip, which was now raw and pink from her constant biting.

"I suppose I did."

Harry fell into silence from his seat (He was now sitting between Jack and Pavarti) as his fellow housemates recalled their own heroic fight tales. Neville was honest with his beating from Goyle, but would always end the story by reminding them that Harry had nearly killed the big lug. Jack was retelling of how Crabbe had knocked him in the eye but he had bitten his finger and eventually they even managed to get Hermione to crack a smile and retell the experience of beating the snot from Malfoy's body with excessive force. Harry however was quiet when they talked to him; and so Ron quickly changed the subject and told how he could have taken Malfoy is he wasn't ganged up on.

Throughout the whole time Harry stayed quiet. His finger was inside his pocket and it was twisting the butterbeer cap around as he thought about Luna Lovegood. He wasn't sure what was going on but he had only today noticed how pretty her hair looked in the false sunlight of the Great Hall's ceiling . . .

---- ---- ---- ----

Current Tunes: -Listening to Toby Keith's I'm Just Talking About Tonight-

Author's Notes: Well that's chapter one. Not exactly my shortest, but I've also done much better in the past.

Anyway, the story is more PG than PG-13, but because of all the fighting and Ron's occasional cursing I had to up the rating.

Anyway, dedicated to Katie cause I told her I'd write her a Harry/Luna story; and I'm not about to break a promise to her.

Okay. More coming later. Harry and Luna will have a talk