This story was written for the Third Round of the Seventh Season of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. I'm writing as Chaser 3 for The Tutshill Tornados.
Name of Round: Round 3
My task this round is as follows: write about a character who makes a friend that makes them peaceful (This can include feeling peaceful or curbing their violent tendencies)
These are the prompts I'm using to as a chaser to score some extra points: 6. (quote) "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt, 9. (song) Music of the Night - Phantom of the Opera, 10. (movie) Top Gun
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Harry Potter.
Thanks to all my betas!
WARNING: Angst.
Title: Into the Night
Words: 2218
The world no longer made sense to Pansy Parkinson.
In the wake of Voldemort's death, Hogwarts had changed. Two days ago, she had been on top of the world—a decent student in a sympathetic system, with views in line with all her friends and a whole house filled with like-minded individuals.
Now, Hogwarts had turned from a bastion of safety to a battlefield. Its walls were riddled with holes, its lights went unlit or were otherwise destroyed, and half of the life had vanished. Whether dead or just gone, there weren't many students remaining, and none of them were treating her how they had before.
Every student she passed had time to give her a dirty look, ones she'd have punished them for if her prefect badge still meant anything. Even her fellow Slytherins had no kindness to spare for her. Some shunted her away for drawing everyone's ire to them thanks to her outburst in the Great Hall. Some resented her for having escaped the Battle of Hogwarts unscathed—like it was her fault her parents weren't dead like theirs.
As if that weren't enough, all of the people whose names would never be uttered without fear of reprisal during Snape's reign were being paraded through Hogwarts like heroes. Potter, Granger, Weasley: those three might as well be covered in gold with all the attention they got. Even Longbottom was being treated like Merlin and for what? Beheading a snake? She could have done that, if she'd wanted to.
Which she hadn't, because that was wrong, wasn't it? The Death Eaters were right. Muggleborns deserved to be kept underfoot. But that wasn't what everyone was saying, not anymore. She dared not even say Mudblood for fear of somebody trying to hex her.
It was these thoughts that plagued Pansy as she crept through the remains of the Great Hall. The sun was fading and casting long shadows across the seats and she was blissfully alone. Her parents were being questioned somewhere and the Express couldn't take her home for a few days yet. She'd taken to walking around aimlessly since nobody seemed to want her in their presence. It was their loss.
Or that's what she might have thought once, would genuinely have believed it in her heart, but now, such thoughts came as much through reflex as anything.
Pansy nearly leaped out of her skin when she spotted something moving beyond the doors. Had somebody come for her? To hex her? It was what she'd done when she was on top—one lone person, no friends, the perfect target. She shuffled into the shadows and peered out.
There she was. One of the heroes of Hogwarts. Fluffy blonde hair, a kind of careless walk, and a pair of ridiculous spectacles on her forehead. It was Luna Lovegood and she had her shoes for once. Once, she'd been maligned, but now she could walk around without a care in the world. That was the most annoying part, Pansy decided.
And it was a part she could fix if she wanted to. Luna had always been an easy target. And if she was alone, she was no different than she'd ever been. Pansy bit her lip and nodded to herself, then rose to follow the wandering Ravenclaw out into the night. Luna was walking across the grounds, even though there were no lights to guide her, with no knowledge of what dark beasts might still be lurking in the darkness surrounding her.
Pansy paused beneath the door, right at where the protection of Hogwarts ended. She chastised herself for being silly; if Loony Lovegood could manage it, then so could she. She'd just have to be quick.
The darkness embraced Pansy just as readily as Luna, but it did little to settle her nerves. She could feel the grass crunching beneath her feet, the chill of the wind, how it tugged at her robes like it was trying to lead her somewhere. She could hear her own breath, her heart pounding faster by the second, and, worst of all, the doubts echoing in her skull. All she could focus on was the golden hair of Luna, leading her away from the light.
"Hey, Loony!" Pansy called out. Luna smiled as she turned to face her. "Where are all your friends, huh?"
"They're inside, or somewhere else," Luna said. "Are you okay? You seem unsettled."
"What?" Pansy cast a glance over either shoulder. Nobody was there. "I'm fine. It's you who should be worried."
"Should I?" Luna slowly looked around. "Why?"
"Because..." Pansy could feel her will waning by the second. "Because it's dark out. And you're alone. Anything could be out there. Anything could happen to you." Her whole world could change in an instant. She could be walking along without a care in the world, then the ground might fall out beneath her feet and leave her scrambling for something to hold onto.
"Don't you think that makes it more interesting?" Luna turned her back to Pansy, which set her fingers twitching. Nobody would have dared to turn their back on her before. "I'm going to go exploring." And she set off walking.
Pansy glanced back at Hogwarts, at the few lights that were left flickering in its windows, then at Luna. One was closer, she told herself and hurried to catch up.
"Are you quite sure you're okay?" Luna asked as Pansy caught up to her.
"Of course I am," Pansy lied. "I just wanted to see what a little weirdo like you is doing out here."
"I don't know if it will interest you," Luna said. "Why don't you spend time with your friends?"
"What friends?" Pansy didn't mean to spit the words, but they were all gone. Not a single one had stood by her side, not even Draco; he'd run off with his parents right after the battle. She didn't have friends. She didn't have allies. She didn't even have victims anymore.
"Oh." Luna regarded Pansy from the side. Pansy didn't like those eyes—they were too accepting, too kind. She'd have preferred fear or anger. "Is that why you're sad?"
"I'm not sad!" Pansy snapped. "My parents are fine. Everyone I know is alive. Why would I be sad?"
"Because your life is not what you thought it would be."
Luna said it as easily as putting one foot in front of the other.
"You lost the Pansy Parkinson in your head."
"… What?" Pansy frowned.
"The other day, you thought that you'd spend the rest of your life like you were. You were going to have lots of friends, you'd pick on Muggleborns, and you'd get married to someone with lots of money. But now, people don't like everything you thought they liked, and you don't know what you're going to do, and you're going on a walk with me. Which you wouldn't do unless you had a good reason to."
"That's not true," Pansy growled. "I'm walking with you so I can… Hex you. And break your stupid glasses."
"Oh. I don't feel hexed." Luna shrugged. "Perhaps it is one of those hexes that takes a long time? You must be a very good witch."
Pansy fell silent. As much as she hated to admit it, Luna had a point. She'd lost her nerve within a minute. She was just happy to have somebody to talk to, even if it was Loony Lovegood.
"Fine," Pansy said. "Let's say you're right, which you're not. Why doesn't… Why wouldn't anybody like me anymore?"
"You're cruel," Luna said. "And my friends proved that cruelty doesn't work."
"But that's not true! People are being cruel to me!"
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent," Luna said.
What was it with Luna and spouting nonsense? It was like trying to talk to Professor Trelawney on one of her bad days.
"And what does that mean?"
"It means that the reason you feel sad enough to talk to me is that you think they're right." Luna was staring at Pansy as they walked. "They say that you're mean and you know that you are. They say that you made everyone blame Slytherin because you did. If you didn't believe them, it wouldn't hurt you. Just like if I told you there were Nargles in your robes. Which there are."
"What a load of rubbish," Pansy scoffed.
"My dad taught it to me. And I knew it was true. That's why people picking on me never hurt me. They said I was mad or weird or got dropped on my head, but it didn't matter, because I didn't believe them."
That much was true, as far as Pansy could recall. Luna was always an easy target, but she wasn't a very fun one. She'd have her things stolen, insults hurled at her, even her family dismissed, and she'd walk off with a spring in her step every time.
"So how do I stop believing them?" Pansy glanced back at Hogwarts.
"Stop looking back." Luna reached out and gently turned Pansy's head back to the path they were following. The imaginary path, Pansy decided, because she couldn't see her own feet. "And start looking where we're going."
"There's nowhere where we're going." Pansy squinted in the darkness, but still, she could discern nothing.
"There will be if you let it," Luna said as she held up her wand and the tip became an orb of light. "Catch." She flicked the tip of it.
Pansy grabbed her wand and caught the orb on its tip, but Luna had started to move away. "We're playing catch? Really?"
"Throw it," Luna instructed, and Pansy reluctantly did just that. "Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before." She glided a little further away, and Pansy suddenly realized she'd gone behind a tree. "The things about Muggleborns and bullying and where you thought you were going to be." Then she re-appeared a little further away and threw the orb to Pansy. "And open your mind to the now."
Pansy darted to the side to catch the orb and swung it back with the same motion.
"You can't fight the night and you can't fight the world changing," Luna said as a whip of light sprouted from her wand and caught the orb. "And the reason you can't find your way through them is because you won't let go." She disappeared again, between the trees, into the shadows that Pansy could no longer see through. "Open your mind."
"But I can't see!" Pansy snapped, but her voice felt just as lost as she was.
"Hear it." Luna's voice came from somewhere behind Pansy and she spun around to face nothing. Then Pansy listened more closely—she could hear the wind, leaves rustling, twigs breaking underfoot. "Feel it," She touched the ground around her with the tip of her shoe—there was a little incline, leading to the side. "Savor each sensation." She pushed her hands forward and found the trunk of a tree. She shifted slowly around it until she saw the orb of light, where it had been thrust into the hollow of the tree.
"This is stupid! I'm not trying to move through the actual night!" Pansy grabbed the light with her wand and flung it to the side. Then it vanished, leaving her in nothing but darkness.
"But if you can find your footing here, you can find it anywhere." Luna was to her other side, at least, that's what Pansy's ears told her. She darted towards it, but nothing was there, not even a strand of Luna's golden hair. "It's confusing, but that's okay." Pansy rushed to where she heard it, and still, there was no Luna. "Just trust me. Okay?"
Pansy's eye was twitching, as much with frustration at herself as Luna. What was she doing wrong? She was doing what she'd normally do. Obviously, that wasn't right. She had to think on Luna's terms. No, the night's terms. Luna was perfectly okay with moving through it because she already had.
So Pansy stopped replying. She listened to the sounds around her, as closely as she could. Wind, leaves, nothing. She placed a hand on the tree to her side, then moved away from it, in a straight line. There was just emptiness. She moved back to it, shifted to the other side, then walked away in a straight line. Emptiness. The same went for all four sides. Pansy reached up and found a thick branch to take hold of, then pulled herself up Then another, then another.
Luna met her with a smile and another Lumos spell. The night peeled back to reveal the only tree in the area, the same one that had always been there.
"Okay. Fine. I get it." Pansy had to admit, she was proud of herself for figuring it out. If she wanted to be able to brush off the comments like Luna did, she had to start accepting how the world really was, rather than what she'd thought it would be. And then find a place in it that satisfied her.
"You're still stubborn," Luna said. "But you can be my friend any time."
That rankled Pansy.
"No, Luna." She straightened her back. "You can be mine."