A bit of a warning before we start:
This is a revised version of the first multi-part fanfiction I ever wrote. In fact, the original draft was written before "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" came out, that's how old it is. (Though the story is actually DH-compliant.) And, well, my writing has evolved since then. (For the better, I hope.) And it's very noticeable in this fic; though it still contains some ideas I like, it does have some Unfortunate Implications that younger me plain didn't see.
So if you come to this story from my other, more family-friendly fics, most notably the "Weasley Girl" trilogy, then be warned that this story is nothing like that.
And for those of you who saw the "femmeslash" in the summary; it's not is a romance either. And despite the amount of sexual content here it's really not very erotic. The story depicts emotionally abusive and manipulative relationships, sex with dubious-at-best content, and some disturbing implications. Though there are moments of levity here, and not all that much actual angst, it's really not a fun story.
I mainly wrote it back then to see if I could. Sometimes writers' minds take them to dark places, and sometimes the writer needs to go through those dark places. And it's a story I'm ultimately glad to have written, but which I'm well aware won't be for everyone.
Now that I have warned you... the story can start.
BECAUSE SHE TOLD ME TO
Based on the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling.
CHAPTER ONE:
Neville's Discovery
It was really a coincidence that Neville got involved in it all.
In truth, he'd never really considered himself to be all that close to Luna Lovegood - oh, she was nice enough, in her nonsensically spacey way, and they had struck up a kind of friendship after the big battle at the Department of Mysteries; but he had his lessons at Hogwarts and she had hers, and she wasn't even in Gryffindor, so it wasn't unusual for days or even weeks to pass between each time they spoke. In fact, the entire first month had passed of Neville's sixth year and Luna's fifth, and they had barely said two words to one another since returning to Hogwarts.
But then came the day that was to change everything. Even years later, when Neville thought back to the events that transpired that year, the last year when Albus Dumbledore was Headmaster at Hogwarts, the year that so many things happened and the world would change forever, he could still pinpoint the exact moment in time when the events started that would change everything for him, and more specifically, drastically change his relationship with Luna.
It was a cold and blustery Sunday morning in early October, just after breakfast, when Neville made his way down to the greenhouses to see how his Mimbulus Mimbletonia was doing. (The previous year he'd kept it in his dormitory, but after one complaint too many from his dorm-mates, he'd managed to get Professor Sprout to agree to keep it in Greenhouse Number Three.) About halfway there, he discovered that Trevor the Toad had once again escaped from his normal place in Neville's robe pocket and gone hopping off, presumably on another of his "expeditions."
Sighing and hoping that Trevor hadn't managed to get too far this time, Neville put the trip to Greenhouse Number Three on hold to look for his toad.
It was then he saw Luna approaching. She was running at top speed up the path, her robes fluttering around her and - very strangely for such a cold morning - revealed two bare legs, completely free of any kind of shoes or socks.
"Hello, Neville," she said breathlessly as she came closer to him, slowing down and flashing him a brilliant, if somewhat teeth-clattering, smile. The wind tussled up he long, dirty-blonde hair and made her look even stranger than usual.
"Er. Hi, Luna," said Neville, trying not to stare at her bare legs. He'd never understood why some people would go without shoes even in the summer, let alone in early October - but then, he remembered something Harry had told him last year. "Did - did someone steal your shoes or something?"
"Oh, no," said Luna, clearly trying to get her clattering teeth under control as she hopped from one naked foot to the other. "I'm just not wearing them."
Neville blinked. "Er, okay. Er, not that it's any of my business," he added, as gently as he could, "but isn't it a little cold to go barefoot?"
"Yes, that's why I'm rather in a hurry, you know." Luna balanced unsteadily on her right foot while rubbing the left with her hand. "The ground is very cold to walk on."
"I... can imagine," Neville said. "Why did you go out without shoes in the first place, though?"
"Because she told me to."
Neville blinked again. He'd expected a long, implausible story on how walking barefoot in October was the only way to ward off Vermicious Knids or something like that. He was about to ask her who this 'she' was, when Luna shifted over to her left foot so that she could rub her right one - and as she did so she hiked her robe up probably a little higher than she'd intended and revealed something that gave Neville quite a start and made him quite forget his question:
She was completely naked underneath her robe.
Neville's cheeks burned hot and his mouth ran dry. He had never seen a naked girl in real life before and wasn't at all prepared for anything like it - the glimpse only lasted for a second before Luna's robe fell down again and covered her nakedness, but that brief second had been more than enough. The roundness of her hips, the smooth pale thighs, the dark blonde tuft of hair between her legs; the moment with all its details was etched in on his inner eye, momentarily crowding his mind and pushing away everything else.
"I, er, you...?" he began, and then realised he had absolutely no idea how to continue that sentence. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to remember how to speak properly.
Luna looked at him, her large grey eyes concerned above her still-clattering teeth. "Are you all right?" she said, and didn't even seem to realise that she had, however briefly, bared herself for him to see. "It was a Wrackspurt, wasn't it? There's been a lot of them around lately - making people's minds go - all strange. It's happened to - me - as well." This last part came out in a rather halting manner, as her teeth were beginning to clatter even worse.
Whether it was her reference to yet another of those creatures that nobody except her had heard of, or the fact that she was obviously freezing and uncomfortable, Neville couldn't say; but this snapped him or of his momentary daze, and he regained control of his voice. "L-Luna!" he said. "You're freezing! You're going to catch a cold if you stay out here with no - shoes!"
She beamed at him. "It's so nice of you - to be concerned about me!" she said. "I'll go warm up - I promise! I'll see you later!" And with that, she pushed past him, picking up speed again and running down the path at top speed.
Leaving him standing there, flustered and confused, all of a sudden noticing that his heart was beating rather faster than normal. Merlin's beard! his mind screamed at him. I just saw her -!
What was Luna doing, going around stark naked underneath her robes... oh, and in this weather? And here at school? What if she ran into a teacher, or...? Neville swallowed several times. He knew Luna was a bit of an eccentric, but surely even she had to see what a bad idea this was? She was all round and soft and -!
He slapped himself, hard, to get his mind away from the thoughts that ware suddenly crowding up, thoughts he really shouldn't have about his friend. It helped, but only a little.
No, no, he couldn't get involved. He couldn't tell her that he had seen, he couldn't. Besides, she would go and get properly dressed now, right? She wouldn't let herself freeze, would she?
Forcing himself not to think about Luna naked (and only partially succeeding), he set out looking for Trevor again.
After fifteen minutes, he had mostly managed to get his mind back on track.
He'd found Trevor hopping around down by the lake, and had just managed to catch the toad before he jumped into the water for a swim. Apologizing profoundly to the toad for interrupting the swim ("but I don't want any of the merpeople to mistake you for a snack!"), he scooped him up and returned him to his proper place in the deepest, most comfortable robe pocket.
With Trevor recovered, Neville could once again set out for his original destination; Greenhouse Number Three and his beloved Mimbulus Mimbletonia. He wasn't thinking of Luna at all, really, as he approached the greenhouse, his mind now mostly on Herbology and the proper care of plants. He didn't even pause as he heard the muffled voices from within the greenhouse - after all, the greenhouses were open to everybody, even if it was rare for anyone else than him (and sometimes Professor Sprout) to bother taking the trip down here on a Sunday. Probably a couple of students were looking for Potions ingredients or something.
But then, just as he was to open the door to the greenhouse, he stopped. Even muffled by the glass, so that he couldn't make out the actual words, there was no mistaking that one voice that came from within; it was Luna. Luna was in there, together with at least one other student - a girl, judging by the sound of the other voice.
Of course. When he had met Luna earlier, she must have been on her way to the greenhouses. He just hadn't made that connection at the time, because -
Immediately, and quite without his consent, his mind replayed the sight of her naked bottom half for his inner eye, as clear and detailed as if he was still looking at it in real life.
Neville clenched his teeth. And he'd just managed to get his mind off Luna, too! If this kept up, he'd never again be able to see or hear her without picturing her naked! What would she say if she knew that about him? But if he started avoiding her, she'd probably start wondering why, and then...
He looked towards the greenhouse. He couldn't see anyone through the glass walls, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Luna, and whoever else was in there with her, could easily be standing behind one of the bigger plants and be obscured from his view.
Whenever he thought back on this moment later, Neville couldn't say just why he did what he did next. He was usually not one for snooping; his grandmother had taught him from an early age that private conversations were not meant to have audiences. But right now, and almost without thinking, he began digging in his pocket (the one without Trevor) for his Spynoculars.
The Spynoculars had been a gift from the Weasley twins, one of the few gifts Neville had ever received from someone outside his immediate family. Almost two years earlier, after the party for Harry in Gryffindor tower where Fred and George had tricked him into eating that Canary Cream and temporarily turning into a giant bird, they had taken him aside, thanked him for "helping them test out their product" and given him the Spynoculars "as a small token of their esteem." Of course, the way they had kept "casually" asking him how the Spynoculars were working over the next few months had clued him in that the real reason they had given them to him were to test them out as well. Still, Neville had thought it was a nice gesture, and perhaps because he had hardly ever received any presents from his fellow students before, he had taken to carrying them around in his pocket, even if he hardly ever used them anymore.
In short, the Spynoculars were a smaller, cheaper and much less advanced version of the Omnoculars that Neville had seen advertised in magazines and papers. While they couldn't record or play back what you had seen like the Omnoculars could, the Spynoculars had one big advantage: You didn't have to look directly at whatever it was you wanted to see. They could look around corners, or directly behind you, and give you a perfectly clear view of anything that would otherwise be difficult for you to see - and you didn't even have to move your head in the direction in question. (Neville had once, out of curiosity, used the Spynoculars to look up his own nose, and afterwards he had promised himself never to do that again.) They couldn't see through solid objects or walls, but since the greenhouse walls were made out of glass, this particular limitation wouldn't be a problem.
Fishing the small, magical binoculars out of his pocket, Neville brushed the worst lint off them and placed them to his eyes.
At first, as he focused on the inside of the greenhouse, he saw only the usual familiar plants, not a trace of Luna, nor of her unknown companion. But he was hearing their voices still, and now there were other sounds as well; distorted and muffled by the glass, but sounding a little like someone being slapped. And there was distinct movement there behind one bench, down by the floor.
Neville wasn't even thinking anymore; he automatically maneuvered the view of the Spynoculars in around the plants and downwards to get a good look.
And then nearly fell backwards in surprise when he found himself staring directly at a girl's bare bottom.
It was Luna, he realised, struggling to keep his balance. Luna, naked as the day she was born, was lying stomach-down and draped over the legs of an older girl Neville didn't know - a rather pretty girl with long, dark hair that somehow contrasted nicely with Luna's scraggly blonde hair. And the girl, right in front of Neville's disbelieving eyes, was bringing her hand down on Luna's bare bottom, again and again, the sound of the swats muted by the glass walls but still audible to Neville.
Then, almost without warning, the girl pulled Luna's head up and kissed her on the lips. From her somewhat awkward position, Luna responded to the kiss as well as she could, before being let go and flopping down over the older girl's lap, bottom high up in the air.
The girl grinned and said something that Neville couldn't quite make out before resuming the spanking - and now her swats were considerably harder, judging by the moans and whimpers that escaped Luna's throat and reached Neville's ears, and he thought he heard her say "yes, yes, yes..."
As if suddenly waking up from an enchantment, Neville pulled the Spynoculars from his eyes, feeling his cheeks burn hot and his heart beat much faster than normal. Turning around, he fled from the greenhouse as fast as he could, several chaotic emotions struggling for domination inside him.
Neville had no idea how he ended up in the Room of Requirement, but thankfully it lived up to its name and provided him with exactly what he needed right now: A quiet, secluded place where he could sit and gather his thoughts for a while. Today, it had taken on the form of a small, cosy room with no furniture except for a comfy chair and a small table, both placed by a large window, enchanted to appear like it was overlooking a calm, serene forest scene.
After removing Trevor from his pocket and placing him on the ground so he could hop around as he pleased, Neville slumped down in the chair and took several deep breaths. He could still feel the heat of his blush on his face - and what was worse, he could feel a familiar but at the moment extremely unwelcome discomfort in his nether regions.
He was a bad, bad person. That scene had been private, not meant for him to see at all, and yet he had gone out of his way to spy. And now he was sitting here and feeling horny because he had seen it. Neville had been brought up to respect women (Gran had certainly seen to that), and he was certain this was about as disrespectful as it was possible to be.
It was just that - he had never imagined Luna - that Luna might -
He swallowed several times as the scene played for his inner eye again, and he was powerless to stop it.
Well, he knew, from being forced to overhear many a late-night conversation between Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan (who often talked about girls, and in such embarrassingly intimate details that Neville never knew how to react) that there were girls who were sexually attracted to other girls, and there were girls who rather liked being spanked as well. Dean had even shown him a Muggle magazine once, featuring still-standing pictures of naked Muggle girls doing all sorts of things to one another. It had taken Neville's face nearly to hours to return to its normal colour, and afterwards he hadn't quite looked at girls, or Dean for that matter, in the same way.
It had just been a shock to find that someone he actually knew was out there right now and doing, er, naughty things together with another girl. And for it to be Luna... Neville liked her quite a lot, strange and eccentric as she was, but he had never thought of her in any sort of sexual way before. But now, all kinds of sexual thoughts were crowding his mind, all of them starring Luna. He could still picture the soft roundness of her bottom, the way she squirmed and whimpered when -
For the second time that day, he slapped himself to stop his mind from running away with him to places he didn't want to go. Luna was a friend, not an - an object for him to lust over. And he had intruded on a scene where he hadn't been invited and seen things that were really none of his business.
That's right, he scolded himself. It really is none of your business. It's none of your business that Luna likes girls "that way." It's absolutely none of your business that she likes to be spanked. And it most especially is none of your business that she's probably still with that other girl right now and having her arse smacked and probably doing all sorts of other things, and, and she's the first girl you've seen naked and, and, and I never knew she had blonde hair down there, and she looked so soft and -
He slapped himself for a third time to shut his mind up. His mind took revenge by suggesting to him that maybe, just maybe, somewhere in this very castle someone else was sitting and slapping themselves because they liked it!
Neville grabbed a pillow that, typically of the Room of Requirement, was just within reach, pressed it to his face and let out a series of frustrated screams.
Feeling a little calmer, he put the pillow away and sat back in the chair to think.
Okay. All right. So Luna was attracted to girls, just like the Muggle girls in Dean's magazine. He had no problem with that, more power to her. But why had she and that other girl chosen the greenhouse, of all places to, er, act on their attractions? And why had Luna gone outside with nothing on underneath her robe? Of course, she had clearly intended to get naked once she reached the greenhouse, but... well, why subject herself to such an uncomfortable experience as walking barefoot outside in October? She very clearly had been very cold, so the thought that she might use a charm of some sort to keep warm was unlikely. Was it all a part of the sexual experience?
For that matter - was she actually allowed to do any of this? What did the school rules say?
Neville had barely finished the thought when he noticed a rolled-up piece of parchment lying on the (previously empty) table next to him. He grabbed and unrolled it, and was unsurprised to find that it was a list of the school rules.
"The Room of Requirement delivers again," he said to Trevor, who had settled down beside the chair and looked fairly uninterested in the entire deal.
The list turned out to be a lot longer than Neville had expected. There were many rules, some of which seemed rather absurd and oddly specific ("Students may not Transfigure their umbrellas into parachutes and jump from the Astronomy Tower"? "There is never to be more than three ostriches on school grounds at the same time"?), and Neville wondered a little how many rules there were here that he himself had broken without ever knowing.
But finally, after much searching (and he wasn't completely sure he hadn't messed up and read the same paragraph twice a few times), he found the one rule he was looking for, the one about sex on Hogwarts grounds.
"Any sexual activity involving one or more students is prohibited on school grounds," said the rule. "Depending on circumstances, students discovered willingly participating in any kind of sexual relations will be punished by loss of House points, detentions or, in serious cases, expulsion. Sexual relationships between students and teachers,"(now there was a disgusting thought) "will be punished by the immediate termination of the teacher's employment and the expulsion of the student. Sexual relationships between any human and non-human," (even more disgusting) "will result in the expulsion of the human in question, combined with a longer stay at the psychiatric ward at St. Mungo's Hospital."
Well, that answered that. Neville wondered how many students knew about this rule, and how many students willingly broke it - there were a lot of romances and relationships going on between students at any time, surely some of them decided to -
He shook his head. No, better not to think about that. The important part here was that Luna was breaking a school rule that could potentially lead to her expulsion. Maybe that was why she and the other girl had chosen Greenhouse Number Three as the place for their, er, meeting; they thought it was a place where no-one would discover them. Who visited the greenhouses before breakfast on a Sunday, after all?
...Well, obviously he did, but they probably didn't know that.
But reading the rule had made Neville's mind up on what to do with hie discovery about Luna: Absolutely nothing. If it ever came out that she - that she -
And now he was blushing again. And seeing the entire scene for his inner eye, in detail. And feeling that certain part of his anatomy acting up again. He'd go mad if this kept up.
But he didn't want to see Luna get in trouble. Not to mention, he'd probably die of embarrassment if he had to tell anyone what he had seen. He'd just pretend he'd never seen anything, and no-one would be the wiser.
For the next few weeks, Neville managed not to think too much about Luna. It helped, of course, that he, like everyone else that year, had a lot of other things on his mind.
Most prominent, of course, was the schoolwork - the NEWT-level lessons were taking up a lot of time for everyone and even more time, it seemed, for Neville, who had never been a great student. (Thank goodness for Hermione Granger, who was usually willing to help out and had a way of explaining things so Neville could understand them.)
Less prominent in the day-to-day life of the average Hogwarts student, but no less significant in the big scheme of things, was the knowledge of the looming war. You-Know-Who was out there, and while the war had yet to reach Hogwarts, there were several rather disturbing signs that maybe the school was not as safe as Neville had always been told. The most obvious, and most disturbing, sign being the horrible affair with Katie Bell.
Somehow, while out in Hogsmeade, Katie had been placed under the Imperius curse and almost been killed, and now she was in a coma at St. Mungo's hospital with no word as to when, or even if, she would recover.
Neville hadn't really known Katie all that well, but she had always seemed like a pleasant sort, and he couldn't imagine who'd would want to kill her, or why. He had made a point to check his DA coin at least once every day after that, just in case Harry would decide to start the DA meetings again, but it never happened. And somehow, after the conversation he'd had with Harry on the Hogwarts express at the start of the term, Neville didn't really want to be the one who brought it up. If Harry needed the help of the DA, he'd let them know, wouldn't he?
In short, there were so many things to occupy his mind that Neville almost managed to forget Luna and what he had seen. Only occasionally would the thoughts come, whenever he happened to meet her in the hallways or in the Great Hall (but he always managed to act normally during those times, and she never seemed to suspect that he knew something) - or late at night when he couldn't sleep and the fantasies would just force themselves upon him... but he always did his best to forget those times afterwards. They were horribly disrespectful and always made him feel very guilty.
Still, and it might be that his guilt was fueling it, whenever he did think about Luna, after the first heated thoughts had calmed down, he was beginning to feel more concerned about her - well, about her and that other girl; Claire Savelle, he'd found out her name was, a seventh-year Muggle-born Ravenclaw.
Was it just because he knew about them now that he began seeing the connections, or were they being horribly indiscreet about their relationship? Did nobody else ever notice how Claire always seemed to be nearby wherever Luna was, almost always sitting close to her at dinner, often found "casually" standing in the hallways whenever Luna walked around the school? Was it possible for anyone to miss the way Luna would suddenly become shy and avert her eyes whenever Claire looked at her? (Luna never averted her eyes from anyone, not even from Professor Snape when he was at his most horrid!) And was Neville really the only one who saw it that one time when Claire took Luna's hand and dragged her off to parts unknown, with no explanation?
No, it really seemed like nobody noticed. Nobody cared enough about Luna to see what was so obvious to Neville, and he couldn't decide whether that was a tremendous relief or horribly sad, or both.
It's hard to say how long things would have continued the way they were, it it hadn't been for what Neville would later think of as the Dinner Table Incident.
It had started out like a completely normal dinner at Hogwarts. Neville was quietly eating and listening to the conversations around him. The subjects were pretty much the same as they had been all year: Schoolwork, Quidditch, and a few hushed murmurings about the war and about Katie Bell. Neville didn't really feel he had anything to contribute to either of these conversations, and so he didn't join in.
Quite by chance, somewhere around the middle of the meal, he happened to look over at the Ravenclaw table and spot Luna. He noticed that unlike everyone else, she wasn't eating, just staring off into space with a glazed look on her face. He might not have questioned this if he hadn't also noticed that Claire, who was sitting right next to Luna, was using only one hand to eat, because her other hand was under the table and judging by the positioning of her arm might be in Luna's lap -
Oh, no. She wasn't, was she? Right here at the dinner table?
And then Luna's lips parted in a small gasp, and she sat up just a little straighter, and Neville was so startled and embarrassed that he drove his face right down into his mashed potatoes with a large CLANG and a softer SPLAT.
The next thing he knew, the air around him was filled by laughter and jeering, courtesy of his fellow students. "Forget your table manners, Longbottom?" - "There's a man who enjoys his food!" - "Neville, aren't you getting enough sleep?" That last one was Hermione; concerned as always.
He managed to dodge the questions, quickly raised himself and ran out of the Great Hall, tripping twice because he couldn't see very well with the mashed potato in his eyes.
Oh well, at least he had managed to draw attention away from Luna and Claire. He couldn't believe that nobody had noticed them! Were they trying to get themselves expelled?
After having stumbled, half-blind, down the hallways for a while, he managed to find a boys' restroom where he could clean the mashed potato off himself. (At least, he feebly thought as he opened the door and nearly tripped inside, he hoped it was a boys' restroom; it would be just his luck if he had managed to go wrong and entered a girls' restroom by mistake.)
Leaning over the sink, he looked at his own potato-covered face in the mirror. What wasn't covered by potato was still looking rather red and flustered, he noticed, but hopefully nobody had noticed - or if they had, they had attributed his blushing to his embarrassment over dropping into his food like that, not to anything else.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down before turning the tap and splashing the surprisingly ice-cold water over his face. The cold was a good cure for his blush, he discovered; as he grabbed a towel to dry himself he found that he'd gone back to his normal colour again.
Now that he was a little calmer, and the blush was gone, he could think.
What was going on with Luna and Claire? Well, all right, yes, he knew what was going on, and he really didn't want to start blushing about it again, but... Was this sort of thing normal? Had people in love always done things like that in public, and he'd just been too wrapped up in himself to notice?
For the first time since that fateful day when Neville had first discovered Luna and Claire, an awful thought struck him: What if this wasn't just a romance? What if it was something else, maybe something bad?
Now that he thought about it, for all the small moments he'd noticed between the two girls, he couldn't remember seeing Luna smile, not even once. Not since that day, when when she had smiled at him and called him nice for being concerned about her. He felt a little pang of guilt at that; in his opinion, he should have been more concerned about her and less about himself and how the situation had made him feel.
Still... Not that Neville had any experience to speak of, but weren't people in love supposed to smile a lot and be very happy? They weren't supposed to - to - Well, whatever it was Luna and Claire did, that wasn't it.
For a moment, Neville envisioned Claire as a Junior Death Eater who had placed Luna under the Imperius curse and made her do all sorts of - (don't start blushing again!) - things for her. But he dismissed that thought almost as soon as it had appeared; Death Eaters might be rampant in the rest of Britain, but surely there were none at Hogwarts? Not among the students, anyway?
There was something Luna had said that day, though, wasn't it...? Something that might help explain everything... but his memory wasn't always very reliable, and besides, every time he tried to think back to the moment, the sight of Luna's (don't blush!) nakedness tended to drown out most of the other things that had happened at the time. He was certain she had said something, but he couldn't remember what.
Neville sighed and - not for the first time in his life - wished that he'd been Hermione Granger. Hermione would have remembered everything. She would also have known exactly what was wrong, and what to do about it. She wouldn't have spent several weeks trying and failing to ignore everything, she would have gone and done... well, he didn't know exactly what she would have done, but it would have no doubt been something very clever, and would turn out to be precisely the right thing to do.
But he wasn't Hermione. And he didn't dare ask her for help either. She was so busy these days, and... and... well, he just couldn't tell her that he had seen Luna having - (Don't blush!) - things done to her. This wasn't the sort of thing you could talk to a girl about, not even Hermione.
He briefly thought about his other friends, and what they might do.
Ron Weasley was the easiest to imagine; he'd probably fly off his handle in some way and go off to confront Claire Savelle and ask her what the hell she was doing to Luna.
Harry Potter was harder to predict, but maybe he'd have used that Invisibility Cloak of his to spy on Luna and Claire until he was certain whether Claire was doing anything bad to Luna or not.
Ginny Weasley would definitely talk to Luna about it; she was straightforward like that.
Ginny's boyfriend, Dean Thomas, would probably decide that it was none of his business anyway, maybe just refer to the events of those Muggle magazines of his, and not get involved.
As for Seamus Finnigan... Neville shook his head, perfectly able to imagine Seamus's face as he made lewd jokes about girl-sex and completely failed to take any of this seriously.
No, none of this was helping any.
Neville was just, well, Neville. He didn't have any talents for finding things out - or for anything much, really. But Luna was his friend. Maybe not his closest friend, but still... they had fought together at the Department of Mysteries. They had been in the DA together. And she had never been anything but kind to him. If anything bad happened to her because Neville hadn't done anything to stop it, he'd never forgive himself.
He'd find some way, he decided, giving his mirror-self a nod to boost his confidence a little. He may not be brave, smart or talented, but he would find a way. With that, he walked towards the door and pressed the door handle.
Just then, he heard a giggle from outside which made him let go of the door handle and take a few steps back. He'd have recognized that voice anywhere by now; it was Claire Savelle.
Was Claire outside the restroom together with Luna?
Neville's mind raced; what would he do? He could go out and confront them both right now, of course, but... no. He fumbled in his pocket for his Spynoculars instead. Luckily, the door hadn't completely closed when he'd entered the restroom, there was still a tiny crack between door and wall, and that would hopefully be enough for the Spynoculars.
Pressing them to his eyes, Neville quickly adjusted the vision and found that he could see the outside just fine. The Hallway was empty, apart from Claire Savelle, of course, who was in the middle of a passionate kiss with -
That wasn't Luna!
The curly red hair, the faded acne behind heavy layers of makeup still spelling the word SNEAK. Even Neville, with his less-than-perfect memory, could never forget that face even if he tried: It was Marietta Edgecombe, the Ravenclaw girl that had sold the DA out to Dolores Umbridge last year!
Neville was so startled that he fell backwards, landing on his bottom with a loud THUD! and at the same time accidentally kicking the door open. Before he could raise himself, the two girls were peering in, looking at him with red and flustered (and in Marietta's case, acne-and-makeup-filled) faces.
"Longbottom? It's Longbottom, isn't it?" said Marietta, as if she had expected someone else. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing!" Neville squeaked. "I just, I, I thought I saw a spider!"
"Maybe it was the same spider that caused you to try eating with your nose at dinner?" said Claire with a smirk.
"Yes!" It wasn't much of a reply, but it was the only one Neville could think of. He got to his feet, hoping the girls wouldn't notice the Spynoculars he was clutching in his hand as he pushed past them and out the door. "Excuse me - got to - got to go!" he managed to say before storming off.
He had to find Luna.
After almost half an hour of frantic searching, he found her in the Great Hall. She was still sitting at the Ravenclaw table, in pretty much the exact same spot she had been sitting at dinner, reading an issue of The Quibbler.(Although how she managed to read with the magazine upside-down was way beyond him.)
"L-Luna," he panted.
"Oh, hello, Neville," she said seriously, looking up from her Quibbler. "Your face looks much better without the mashed potato on it."
If this had come from anyone else, Neville would have thought they were making fun of him - but Luna was different. "Thank you," he muttered, sitting down opposite her while catching his breath again and wondering where exactly to begin.
"If you wanted a second helping, I'm afraid you're too late," she continued, looking at him with a grave expression. "The table's cleared and all the food is gone."
"Then why are you still sitting here?" Neville asked.
"Because she told me to," said Luna, turning the page of her magazine without looking at it. "Luckily I had an old Quibbler to read so I wouldn't get bored. Have you read this one? It's the one with the article about how many Muggles really know all about magic, but pretend that they don't because they write these books about -"
"Wait" Neville exclaimed as the memory, quite suddenly, appeared in his mind. That was it! That was the missing memory he hadn't been able to locate before, the very first hint that something had been wrong!
"Wait for what?" said Luna.
"Because she told me to!" said Neville and felt like kicking himself. How could he have ignored this the first time around?
Luna raised an eyebrow. "Wait for because she told me to? That doesn't make any sense," she said, probably for the first time in her life.
"No, no - that was what you said to me back in October, when you weren't wearing -" Neville stopped, suddenly unsure on how to continue this. Seeing her curious expression, though, he took a deep breath and threw himself out into it. "Luna, I know about you and Claire Savelle!"
"Oh." Luna looked at him for a long moment. Then, she sighed and rolled her magazine up to a thin cylinder, sliding it down the front of her robe. "All right," she said in a resigned voice. "So how many times do you want to fuck me? I'm not really used to doing it with boys, you know, but if we get in some practice I could probably get quite good at -"
Neville sputtered. "What are you talking about?" He tried to say it as a whisper and a shout at the same time, resulting in a low-pitched squeal that sounded a lot like Crookshanks that time Neville had accidentally trodden on his tail.
"Well," said Luna, as if it was self-evident, "isn't that how these things go? You know an embarrassing secret about me, and now you want to fuck me in exchange for you not telling anybody."
"Luna...! That's not...!" Neville had to sit down and take a few deep breaths before he could continue. "Luna, I'm not going to blackmail you into -" (Don't blush!) " - into doing that with me!"
"Oh," said Luna, sounding surprised. "Why not?"
"Because only a horrible, horrible person would even consider doing anything like that!"
"Oh."
"Yes!"
"You don't even want me to suck your -"
"NO!" (DON'T BLUSH! DON'T BLUSH!)
"That's probably a good thing then. I've never done that before either. Maybe I would have done it wrong." There was obvious relief on Luna's face as she said this.
It was a good thing there were never that many people in the Great Hall at this time of day. If any of Neville's friends had been present then, they might have grown concerned and came over to them to see what was wrong. As it was, the few who were there to see Neville repeatedly beat his head against the table merely assumed he was doing some sort of reprise of his dinner stunt with the mashed potatoes, and went on with their own activities.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Luna finally asked.
Neville raised his head and groaned. "Luna," he said. "Why did you think I would come here to blackmail you?"
"Well," said Luna in a matter-of-fact tone, "Sex between students is illegal on school grounds, you know, so I wouldn't like for any teachers to find out."
"But -" Neville opened and closed his mouth a few times.
"Oh, I didn't really think you were the blackmailing sort!" said Luna, as if suddenly afraid she had hurt his feelings. "At least, I never thought it before, and I'm really glad you're not, because you always seemed like such a nice person, but I was so surprised when you told me you knew about Claire and me! She'd told me that if any boys found out about us, they would blackmail me, so if I agreed that I mustn't tell anyone unless I really wanted to have sex with them as well." She paused. "I mean, fuck them. She told me to use the word 'fuck.'"
"And - and you believed her?" said Neville, desperately trying to ignore the casual use of the word 'fuck' and wondering in the back of his mind how gullible (or how distrustful of boys) a person could be.
"She sounded very certain when she said it," said Luna.
Neville opened his mouth again to answer that, but then thought better of it. Instead, he decided to bring the conversation to the topic he had originally planned before the conversation had got away from him. "I promise I won't tell anyone, or blackmail you," he said. "But I do have some rather bad news to tell you, about Claire. I didn't want to get involved or anything, but just now I, I saw her and Marietta Edgecombe - er - I saw them -"
"Oh, yes, they were going off to snog," said Luna calmly. "That's supposed to be a secret as well, but since you already knew -"
"Wait," said Neville, desperately trying to keep up. This wasn't going anything like he'd imagined. "You know? And you're not angry about it?"
"No." She gave him an odd look. "Why would I be? Claire and Marietta have been girlfriends for almost three weeks now. They're always off somewhere and kissing. Sometimes they even do it in my bed, which I don't think is very nice of them at all, because then it always takes ages before I can go to bed, and I end up having to sleep in a chair in the common room."
"...Marietta is Claire's girlfriend?"
"Yes."
"But... I thought you and Claire were - I mean -"
"Oh, I'm not her girlfriend. I'm just her naughty little slut."
"You're her WHAT?"
"Naughty - little - slut," Luna repeated slowly, as if to make sure he got it this time. "She calls me that, you know. When she grabs me and touches me in all the nice places and my body goes all tingly and then -"
(DON'T BLUSH!) "Yes, thank you, I get it!" Neville glanced around to see if any other people had heard this tirade. Nobody were staring, at least, so they were probably safe for now, but if she was going to continue talking like that, it was only a matter of time before... "Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else?" he suggested.
"Claire told me I shouldn't go anywhere." said Luna.
"Well, why do you have to listen to Claire?" said Neville.
"Because I'm her naughty little slut, and naughty little sluts do as they're told," said Luna. "Are you going to start hitting your head on the table again?" she added, looking at him with some concern.
"No," Neville lied, straightening himself. "Luna, you're not just a -" (Don't blush!) " - naughty little slut! And I don't think Claire has any right to treat you like one, and if she tells you to do something you don't want to do, then you shouldn't do it, no matter what she calls you!" And then, remembering something Harry had said to him during their first year, he added: "You're worth twelve of her!"
"Oh? Why?" Luna got a vaguely interested look on her face.
Neville almost sighed. The 'you're-worth-twelve-of-that-jerk' argument had seemed so much more convincing when it had been Harry who said it. He decided to take another line of Harry's, from much more recently: "Well, shewasn't in the Department of Mysteries, was she? She didn't fight Death Eaters and tell the world about You-Know-Who. You did. You're practically a hero, you know!"
Luna seemed to think about it. "I'm a hero?"
"You are!"
"All right, then." She smiled then; the first smile he had seen from her in ages. "We can talk in the Room of Requirement. Claire is going to want to punish me, but if I'm a hero I should be able to take it."
He didn't know what to answer to that.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Author's notes: Like I told you at the opening, this isn't much like my other fanfics and contains several themes I normally don't write about. In retrospect, it contains several themes I wrote rather clumsily and which I would have handled differently if I wrote the story now. I wavered back and forth for a long time on whether I should publish this story on this site or not, but in the end I decided to go ahead. It was my first completed multi-chapter fanfic, and I just trying to erase it and pretend it never existed would be wrong.
So if you're reading this and are getting disappointed, frustrated or otherwise put off by it... well, so am I, now. If you found some entertainment in it and still want to continue... thank you.
I think I see what I was trying to do with this chapter, but I lacked the writing experience to really pull it off. There are bits and pieces I still like, like the overly-long list of school rules or the concept of the Spynoculars. And some of the upcoming scenes; I learned a lot from writing Chapter Four in particular. And that's what first-fic writing mistakes are for, right?