|Lovegood: Building strength| Story 1
AUTHORS NOTE:
Please read before continuing.
This story is based in the Harry Potter universe, and coincides with the storyline of the JK Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This is not an original story, and yet, it's not a fanfic of a redone segment of the book, I have no clue what to call it. It is, by definition a fan fiction, but I want it to be more than that. I am a novice writer, and I'm still learning, so any constructive criticisms that you might want to give are welcome, just don't be a butthole. Anyways, this story is about a first year student named Shepard, but if you want me to release a second version in fanfic format, I will. Thank you for deciding to read, I hope this quenches your thirst for Luna Lovegood!
(Also I will be adding romance to this story, but that comes later.)
General Info:
Word count: 10'510
Mature Content: No
Fiction rating: K
Chapter 1
It was my first day at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, and I was nervous. Nervous about a lot of things, the classes I'd be taking, making friends, but most of all, what house I was going to join. I had no clue as to what house I even wanted, the only thing I knew, was I didn't want to be in Slytherin. All these thoughts went through my head as I walked down the aisle of the Hogwarts express. I was so preoccupied in my thoughts that I bumped into a trio of wizards. The one in the front turned to me, looked me up and down, and spoke.
"Move it, Mudblood"
"I'm s-sorry" I stammer, and then realizing what he had said "what did you call me?"
"A mudblood, a filthy, disgusting mudblood." he said with poison in his words. I looked at him closely, he had light blonde hair that was slicked back, and blue-grey eyes, he wore a white button down shirt with a green and silver tie. His green robes shook when he spoke, as if he were talking with his entire body.
"What's that?" I asked cautiously.
"Are you daft?!" He snorted, "A mudblood is the abominable mix of magical and non-magical blood"
"Is that a bad thing?" I asked. He seemed taken aback by my response.
"Yes!" He nearly shouted, other students started to look over at the scene the wizard was causing.
"Why?" I asked calmly. This nearly threw him off balance.
"B-Because!" He shouted. He then signaled for his entourage to follow him.
"Let's get out of here, this mudblood is crazy!" He proceeded to stomp through the aisle, cursing, and pushing his way through the crowd. I simply stood there, and tried to recall exactly what I'd done to vex him. I continued down the aisle, looking for a carriage to sit in, most of them were filled with people who had already made friends previously. I was not one of these people, I grew up on a magical farm, far from most towns and cities, pretty much the only friends I had were people who worked on the farm. As I was again, lost in thought, I almost missed a very soft spoken voice that came in from my right.
"You can sit here if you like."
I stopped walking, and turned, there sat a young witch with long light blonde, almost silver hair down to her chest, she wore a white button down shirt with a dark blue jacket and pink pants, her wand was tucked behind her ear and she was looking up from a newspaper that she was holding upside down, she had a grey messenger bag placed neatly next to her, it was filled with copies of the same paper she held in her hands.
"I'm sorry, what did you say? I must have been lost in thought again, happens quite often with me" I chuckled.
"You can sit here if you like, I know you're looking for a spot, I can see it in the way you walk." She said. I paused, and noticed that the entire carriage she was sitting in was completely vacant, which was strange, seeing as how every carriage around hers was packed with people.
"If you don't mind my presence," I said "I tend to get lost in thought, so I might not be the best choice of company."
"Oh nonsense," She smiled. "I can tell that you'd be great company."
"How so?" I inquired.
"I can tell by the look in you eye." She said in a light tone.
"Can you really tell so much about me just by looking at me?" I asked.
"I can," She said. "It's all here." She lightly shook the paper she was holding.
"There's article in that paper about reading people's movements and eyes?"
"Why yes, there's all sorts of useful information in here, would you like a copy?" She said, reaching into her messenger bag and pulled out a newspaper and holding it out to me. I accepted, and looked at the title.
"The Quibbler?" I said, puzzled.
"Yes, my father edits for the paper, so he asked me to bring some to school to give to people."
"I see," I said, looking for the name of the author. "Xenophilius Lovegood"
"That's him, she said happily. When I looked back down from the paper she had her hand extended.
"Luna Lovegood." She said with a small smile, we shook hands briefly.
"Shepard Jaraba" I replied with a smile of my own. I sat down across from her, placing my book bag next to me.
"If you don't mind me asking, why don't you have anyone sitting next to you?" I asked. Luna set her copy of the Quibbler aside, and looked at me.
"Well I sort of live in isolation, so I don't know many people to begin with, and those who do know me, tend to think I'm insane." She said in a tone too light for the things she had just said.
"Huh, I live in isolation as well." I remarked. "I live out on a farm pretty far from civilization." At this she beamed.
"Do you have any magical animals on your farm?" She asked in an excited tone.
"Why yes," I reply. "In fact we supply this school with the Thestrals that they use to pull carriages and such." Her smile widened, and eyes shone bright.
"Thestrals are such beautiful creatures aren't they?"
"You can see them?" I asked, curious, if I remembered correctly the only people who could see them, are people who've witnessed death. Her smile faded ever so slightly.
"Yes, my mother died when I was seven. She was experimenting with spells, and one of them backfired." She looked down at her shoes, and then looked up at me again, her blue eyes just a bit sadder than before.
"I'm really sorry." I say apologetically. "I didn't mean to bring something up that would upset you." She shook off the sadness, and continued smiling.
"It's fine, really." She said, and then furrowed her brow. "If you know about the Thestrals, then can you see them too?"
"I can." I replied. "My uncle died when I was young, my father told me that he was a good man that hunted bad guys, but one day, one of the bad guys found out where we lived, and my uncle died protecting me."
"That's terrible!" She said, placing her hand on mine. I looked down at her hand, and squeezed it in mine.
"It was hard at the time, but after awhile I moved on, and I've been working with Thestrals ever since, and that's made me happy." I smiled and let go of her hand, and looked up to see she was smiling as well, and at that moment, I knew that we were gonna be good friends.
Chapter 2
Later that night at the main hall, after Dumbledore gave his welcoming speech, the sorting ceremony began, and I sat next to Luna with anticipation, and soon enough my name was called out.
"Shepard Jaraba!" I slowly walked up, and sat down on the stool. When the sorting hat was placed on my head, he sighed and spoke.
"Ahhhhh, so indecisive this child, hmmmmm indeed, I see… Definitely not a Slytherin… Gryffindor? No no no, not quite. Oh.." He took a deep breath. "Ravenclaw!" I beamed, I looked over at the Ravenclaw table, and all my new housemates who were all clapping and smiling, and I knew that's where I belonged. I sat down by myself, hoping that Luna might join me. Shortly thereafter, Luna's name was called, and she walked up confidently to the stool, and sat down. The sorting hat was placed on her head, and he smiled and spoke.
"Ahhhh, this one is much more decisive, you child shall go to Ravenclaw!" He shouted. Luna smiled, and looked over at me. I clapped and cheered with the rest of my new housemates. She walked over and sat down next to me.
"I'm glad that we got placed in the same house." She said. "I was worried I'd get put into Slytherin" She said with a small giggle.
"Slytherin is probably the last place the sorting hat would put you." I laughed.
"Why do you say that?" She inquired
"Well I don't think you'd fit the profile of your average Slytherin." I said. "But to be quite honest with you, I had the same fear" She laughed again,
"Well I'm glad that it worked out in our favor."
"Yea me too." I said, I couldn't help but smile, thinking about all the fun we were going to have.
After receiving the house tour and our robes and ties, we were assigned our beds. I placed my luggage next to my bed and sat down, I was pretty tired, but still excited to see what the future held. Then to my left I heard the sound of baggage hitting the ground. I turned to see my new neighbor. He was a wiry fellow, who wore circular frame glasses that fit neatly under his short black hair.
"Ummmm, hi, m-my name is Nicholas, but please call me Nick." He spoke in a near whisper, and seemed a bit slouched over. I stood up and took a step forward.
"Hi Nick, my name's Shepard" I extended my hand, which he shook it in earnest, his grip was strong despite his wiry frame, and he looked me in the eye. I've always prided myself in being able to judge a person's character pretty well, and I could tell that we would get along just fine.
"Is this your first year here as well?" He asked.
"Yes, I'm pretty excited to start going to classes, how about you?"
"Yea, I'm looking forward to learning from the great professors here." He was smiling from what seemed to be ear to ear. His smile was infectious, immediately spreading to me. For some reason, I just started to laugh, I started laughing so hard that I nearly keeled over. As I was laughing, I realized why I was laughing, earlier today I was so concerned about making friends, and getting into a good house, and here I was, making friends within my new house. As I looked up, Nick was looking at me with a small smile on his face mixed with a bit of confusion.
Chapter 3
The next morning I met with Luna in the common room, and I introduced her to my new friend Nick. When Nick tried to say hello, his voice caught in his throat, and he began stuttering.
"H-h-hello." He managed weakly. Luna giggled and stuck out her hand for him to shake, but he only stared at her hand with a weird expression on his face. I kicked him in the back of the leg, and he snapped into motion immediately kicking into gear and firmly shaking her hand and shakily introducing himself.
"My name is ummm. Nicholas, but you can call me Nick ok?" Luna giggled and said
"Pleasure to meet you Nick, My name's Luna, Luna Lovegood."
"Luna, yea, Luna, good." He stammered.
"Now that you two are introduced, shall we get going? I believe we have classes to attend" I smiled. Nick managed to nod his head, and Luna smiled in return and we started walking to class.
"Get a little nervous around girls there Nicky boy?" I whispered to him.
"Shut up mate, It's not my fault." He whispered back
"Oh really? Then whose fault is it might I ask?" I asked. He looked at me with a sheepish look on his face.
"Magic?"
The next few weeks were great. Nick, Luna, and I spent our time learning more about each other over meals and study sessions, which quickly dissolved into chatting and listening to Luna's theories, some of them tangible, while most others were crazy and generally fun to listen to. Nick thought that sometimes she could be a bit much, but I thought there was a certain charm to her madness. After a while, Luna had gained a reputation for being odd, and was a target for the occasional remark, or tease. She let is slip right over her head, and never once got mad, and she always had me and Nick to defend her if anyone got to be too big for their britches. All of us found enjoyment in the study of things natural, whether it be animals, spells, or plants. Luna took a liking to studying many of the magical animals the campus had to offer, and so much of our time was spent in Hagrid's hut, learning from him about magical animals. Nick took a liking to potions and growing the ingredients necessary to create them, so a lot of time was spent in the greenhouse with professor Sprout, and as little time was possible with professor Snape as was humanly possible. I on the other hand took a liking to learning different spells, so much time was spent working with Nick and Luna on perfecting spells. As time went on, more and more people, especially from Slytherin, started teasing and berating Luna, calling her "Loony" and messing with her in many different ways. Nobody tried to attack her with reckless abandon, seeing as how Nick and I were alway there to protect her, but some people went as far as to steal her shoes and hide them in crazy places. On one particular evening we were out looking for her shoes, it was late fall so there was a nip in the air. Luna was wearing a pair of flats she had borrowed from one of our friends, Cho Chang. As we were walking down the hall, our least favorite group of Slytherins walked down the hall towards us, as they approached us, Malfoy spoke.
"Well if it isn't Loony Lovegood, and her entourage of freaks!" He said with a laugh, Crabbe and Goyle started laughing behind him.
"Bugger off Malfoy, we don't have time for you games." I smirked
"What did you say to me mudblood?" He asked, whipping out his wand, Crabbe and Goyle do the same behind him. Nick and I pulled out our wands, ready for a fight if one arose, Luna however, just stood there, looking confused. Malfoy made the first move.
"Stupify!" He yelled, I managed to block, the next few seconds were a blur, spells and blocks, hexes and counters. Soon enough, realizing that Luna was defenceless, Malfoy shot a hex at her, knowing she couldn't defend herself, I stepped in front of the spell, blocking it, but knocking me off balance, leaving me vulnerable to attack.
"Ascendio!" Crabbe had his wand pointed right at me, and there was nothing I could do. I shot up into the ceiling, crashing my head into the stone above. I saw stars, and and my vision went narrow, as I was falling, all I could hear was.
"He's going to hit the spike!" It was Nick, he was panicked. I knew I had to do something, but my body didn't respond in time, I was too disoriented. I felt the spike hit my shoulder, and tear across my body down to my lower abdomen, there was no pain at first, but I had been in enough accidents to know that the pain would come. I hit the ground, and almost immediately felt it, it was searing, and red hot, as if someone had slashed me with a fiery whip. I screamed out in pain, and started to tear up involuntarily. Through my pain and disorientation, I could only make out a few things.
"-We gotta get outta here!" Malfoy, I would get him back.
"Somebody help!" Nick. Surprisingly, with how shy he could be, he was quite good under pressure. I was proud of him despite the situation. Nick popped into my extremely limited view.
"Alright mate, you're going to to be just fine. Luna! Get over here! I need your help to stop the bleeding!" He ripped off his robe, bundled it up, and put it under my head. Took off his shirt, and pressed it up against my wound.
"Gah!" I screamed, the pain was nearly unbearable now. I looked out for Luna, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see her standing off to the side, her hands covering her mouth, she was shaking her head and saying something, but I couldn't make it out over the sound of my groaning. Then I heard a voice coming from down the corridor.
"What happened here?!" It was professor Mcgonagall.
"Malfoy and his gang attacked us!" Said Nick, loudly but firmly.
"Damn that child, and I bet that he'll get away with this as well." She muttered. "We have to get him to the hospital wing immediately!" She yelled, students began to gather around, and in all of the faces, the main one that stuck out was Lunas.
Chapter 4
I woke up the next day with a huge pain in my chest, wondering what had happened. I tried to sit up, but I couldn't, the second I tried I yelped in pain, and someone gently cradled me back down. I looked to see who it was and it was Luna.
"Don't get up yet, you're not ready." It suddenly came back to me, the fight, how I got my injury, and oddly enough the only thing I could say was..
"Luna, are you ok? Did they hurt you?" She immediately started crying.
"How can you say that with the condition you're in?" her tears fell onto the bed next to me, I pulled her in with my good arm and embraced her.
"Because I'll always worry about you." I said. I held her in an embrace for a minute and let her cry. After a while, she looked up at me with her eyes still clouded with tears.
"I'm so sorry." she cried out. "I was so useless. You and Nick had to fight for me, and I couldn't even help you when you got hurt." I smiled and said.
"How about this, as soon as I get out of here, You, Nick and I in our free time go to the forest, and we'll duell and practice magic, sound good?" She smiled at me and was about to say something, but was cut off by the sound of the doors to the infirmary opening, and someone stepping in. We both looked over at who was entering, and saw a young boy about our age, maybe a year older, he had on Gryffindor robes, and glasses, his hair was black, and cut into almost a bowl cut. He walked over to the head of my bed and spoke.
"You're Shepard right?" He asked.
"Yes, who're you might I ask?" I replied.
"My names Harry Potter. I came to ask you about what happened yesterday, is it true you were attacked by Draco Malfoy?" He asked. I nodded and said
"Yes, he was making fun of my friend and I got hurt in the fight that ensued."
"I see," he said "Well that makes sense I guess, he is quite a pain in the arse. How are you feeling?" he asked sympathetically
"Honestly not great," I laughed. "But hopefully that'll change soon." He laughed in return, and then looked to his right, noticing Luna for the first time
"Hello, I'm sorry I didn't notice you, what's your name?" He asked
"Luna" She said through sniffles. She still managed a smile through her puffy eyes.
"Nice to meet you Luna, are you Ok?" He asked, a bit worried.
"I'll be fine." She replied, she shook her head. "I just need to get stronger."
"I understand that," Harry said. "Don't worry, hard work always pays off in the wizarding world." Luna smiled and nodded, and Harry turned back to me and said.
"When you were battling Malfoy, did you notice anything odd about him?
"How so?" I replied.
"For example, was he more powerful than you remember, or was he different in his fighting style?" I shook my head.
"Not in any way that I can think of, it was actually his goon Crabbe that got me. Why are you asking?" I asked.
"Well I'm sure you've heard about the caretaker's cat being petrified, as well as the message that the chamber of secrets has been opened, yea?" He explained.
"Of course, so you think Malfoy might be behind it?"
"Yes." Harry replied. "I do." I nodded in response, and just before I could reply, Nick walked in, he had a potion in his hand, and said.
"Luna, I brewed a potion that should help Shepard with the pain when he wakes up…" He suddenly noticed my consciousness, as well as Harry standing at the foot of the bed.
"Oh, um hello…" He looked surprised.
"Hey Nick," I said. "This is Harry Potter, he's come to ask some questions about the fight." Nick smiled, and introduced himself to Harry.
"Hi, Harry, my name's Nicholas, but please, just call me Nick."
"Hello Nick, pleasure to meet you. So you were in the fight as well?" He asked
"Yea, Malfoy and his gang attacked us after Shepard here defended Luna, I was lucky to get out of that without a scratch, meanwhile, Shepard here…" He paused, and handed me the potion. "Needs this." I took the potion from him, popped the top, and took a swig. I was expecting the worst, potions often taste terrible, and cause pain before they start helping, but I was happily surprised. The potion tasted, like a light vanilla, and there was minimal stinging before I felt the pain drain from my body. I sighed and felt my body relax a bit.
"Nick, that's incredible, how did you get it to do that?" I asked, perplexed.
"Some favors from professor Sprout to get some rarer ingredients, and a bit of experimentation my friend." He smiled, pleased that I enjoyed the potion. Harry looked impressed, and looked to Nick.
"You're good with potions?" Harry inquired, Nick smiled, always happy to talk about his hobby.
"I believe myself to be yes."
"That's great," said Harry. "Maybe you could help me out some time, I'm not very good." Nick laughed.
"Any time mate." Nick replied.
"Well I better get going, I need to do some research about what's going on, I'll see you guys around?"
"Hopefully soon" I laughed. Harry smiled in return, then nodded goodbye, and left the infirmary.
"Nice guy." Said Nick.
"Yea, hopefully he gets to the bottom of this chamber of secrets business, the thought of what might be down there is pretty spooky." I replied, then turning to Nick. "Hey Nick, how would you feel about joining me and Luna in the forest for special training as soon as I'm healed?" Nick smiled.
"I think we can definitely use it, especially since we're going to have to get Malfoy and his goons back after what they did to you."
"Then it's settled," I turned to Luna. "As soon as I'm able to get out of here, we're going to train to get stronger." Luna smiled her normal smile again, and began to laugh, we all started laughing, and I started feeling better about the future.
Chapter 5
Hagrid opened the door with a smile.
"Shepard, my boy! How are you feeling?" Hagrid's gruff voice was always comforting to hear, I had heard it plenty of times when he taught Nick, Luna, and I about the magical creatures that dwell in the forest.
"Feeling quite a lot better now, thanks to you." I replied, Hagrid had been sending me care packages of food that he had prepared himself, and while Hagrid was no chef, he knew how to make meals that would get you back on your feet.
"Oh, thank you Shepard, I'm glad you liked the meals I sent ya, I know that infirmary food can be ehhhhh…" He trailed off looking for the right word. "Lacking." He was right, the food in the infirmary was healthy, but lacking in the world of taste.
"Anyways, Hagrid, we've come to ask a favor." I continued.
"Come to learn more about the magical creatures of the forest have ya?" He said, obviously excited.
"Sorry, no, we were wondering if we might be able to use your woods for practicing spells, specifically duelling spells." I replied.
"Doesn't professor Lockhart have a dueling club just for this sort of thing?" Hagrid asked.
"Well yes, but duels go on one at a time, and so we might not get to duel if we go, and since I'm still injured, they might not even let me in in the first place." I replied
"And we need him," Luna chimed in from behind me. "He's the best out of all of us when it comes to spellcraft." Hagrid thought a moment, then sighed and said.
"Alright Alright, you can use the forest for your practicing, but listen up, ok?" He paused to look us all in the eyes. "Do not go to deep in the forest. The things I've been showing you have been nice and friendly for the most part, but the deeper into the forest you go, the more dangerous the creatures be, understand?" We all nodded. "And I want you back here by dark, the forest is a dangerous and disorienting place at night, and come in and check with me, so I can have some piece of mind knowin ya got home safe alright?"
"We understand Hagrid. We'll be extra cautious, and thank you." I said. Luna comes from behind me and gives him a hug.
"Thank you Hagrid, this means a lot to us." Hagrid smiled and said.
"Alright now, off with ya, go into the forest and start training, and make sure you're back before dark."
"We will, thanks a million Hagrid." I say as we leave the hut and start heading out into the forest. We head to the place we agreed would be the best to start training, the clearing where Hagrid had started to introduce us to magical creatures. It was a clearing, about 80 meters long in either direction. The trees that surrounded the clearing were tall, tall enough to hide us and anything we were doing from even the tallest tower in Hogwarts. There was a small cobble wall to the side of the clearing, and I put down our supply bag on the top of the wall, and reached inside of it, retrieving a thin disk of clay around fifteen centimeters across.
"I thought that I'd start our training off by giving a demonstration." I say as I pull out my wand and point it at the disc.
"Imperium eisque" I chant, and flick my wand up, sending it hovering about two meters away, I flick my wand again, sending it even further, until it's about eight meters away. Luna and Nick look at me, impressed.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Luna asked.
"I got a lot of reading done while I was in the infirmary." I reply. "Anyways, we all know basic spells such as the disarming charm, and the stunning spell, but we've never really delved into more useful spells, such as this. Reductor!" With a flick of my wand, the clay disc is shattered to pieces sending the pieces flying away from where I'm standing. Luna and Nick both look stunned.
"Thats incredible!" They say in unison.
"That spell will reduce any target you hit to bits and pieces, this is especially useful when someone is using a physical shield to repel or block spells." I say, twirling my wand in my hand. "Or when something is being thrown at you using a spell, you can reduce it to harmless dust, and avoid getting gravely injured." They both nodded their heads, I further instructed them on how to cast the spell, and then said.
"Ok, Luna, why don't you give it a try?"
"Are you sure?" She asked nervously, not yet confident in her ability to try the spell.
"I'm sure Luna, just be confident and you'll be fine" I reply calmly, she steps forward and I send a disc into the air about five meters away from her. I once again show her the wand movement, and she gives it a go.
"Reductor!" The disc cracked down the middle, but still remained floating and in one piece.
"Don't be discouraged Luna, that's good, it's just going to take practice, and that's what we're here to do." I smiled to encourage her. "Ok Nick, why don't you give it a try?" I sent a disc hovering towards him, and left it to float again about five meters away from him. He lines up the shot, and casts the spell.
"Reductor!" His plate snaps down the middle and falls to the ground, he smiles and looks at me.
"Great job Nick!" I exclaim. "We still have a ways to go, but we've got some time out here so let's keep working." For the next two hours, I had Luna and Nick working on the reductor curse, and they slowly got better and better, until both of them could shatter the plates coming at them into twenty pieces or more, which could be painful, but not very harmful. After our training session was over, we walked back to Hagrid's hut, to confirm that we were ok, and started walking down the hall toward the Common room. Turning into the corridor that leads to the Ravenclaw tower, I saw Harry Potter, leaning against the wall. He looks over, and sees us walking down the corridor and greets us.
"Hey guys, good to see you're up again Shepard."
"Good to be up again," I reply. "Was there something you wanted to ask us?"
"Yes there was, specifically to you Nick" He turns to Nick, and Nick looks up at him.
"Me?"
"Yea," He replies. "There have been more petrifications, and we need to get to the bottom of this, so we need to question Malfoy, but the problem is, he won't just tell us what we need to know, so we need to trick him into giving us the information."
"I like where this is going" Nick said with a smile. Harry leans in as to not be heard by anyone who might be eavesdropping.
"We need to brew a Polyjuice potion, and we need your help. We can brew the potion ourselves, but we need the ingredients, and any pointers you can give us on how to brew it." Nick was practically jumping up and down with excitement, then, after his celebration, he looked Harry dead in the eyes and said.
"I'm the man for the job."
Chapter 6
"Ok guys great job today, you have really improved in your spellcasting." My wound has pretty much healed, I was back in full swing and was no longer in a sling. It was a little over 3 weeks since Harry had asked for Nick's help, and he had delivered very well, but apparently Harry's lead had been a bust. Malfoy wasn't guilty of opening the chamber of secrets, only of being a huge pain in the arse.
"Are we still going to work on our spell tonight?" I asked. Luna and Nick looked to each other, and nodded, and Luna said.
"Yes, I think we're up for it"
Walking down the halls to get to the common room, we encountered Alexa King, a pretty brunette who we had become acquainted with through the classes she had with us. She, like us, was a Ravenclaw, and was carrying an armful of books, and appeared to be struggling with them. Nick immediately ran up to her and offered his assistance.
"Alexa, do y-you need help?" He stammered
"That's very kind of you Nick," She said with a smile. "I really appreciate it." Nick took the larger half of the books and started walking along side her.
"Do you think Nick is too obvious with Alexa?" I asked Luna, she looked up at me.
"Not at all" She replied. "In fact I think he's not being obvious enough." I looked at her, confused.
"How do you mean?" I asked, she started to skip lightly on one foot, being as odd as ever.
"Well I think if he really likes her, he should just tell her."
"Yes well this is Nick we're talking about here, do you remember the first time he met you? He could barely say hello." I laughed, Nick wasn't exactly what you'd call "Smooth".
"Well hopefully he can get there," She continued. "I'd hate to see him like this forever."
Later in the common room, as we all sat by the fire looking at spell creation books, Alexa walked up to us, coming from the girls dormitories.
"Hey guys, why're you up so late?"
"We're working on creating a spell," I replied. "Why're you up so late?"
"I'm simply going on a midnight stroll." She said, somewhat nervously. Nick said nothing, he just continued to stare at her. "I'll be back before long, so if you hear me knocking, let me in, I don't feel like dealing with the knocker this late at night." And with that, she walked out the door with Nick starting at her the whole time.
"Be careful there Nicky, If you're anymore obvious about you're staring, I think you might run up to her and proclaim it." Nick blushed and Luna and I laughed.
"It's not that," said Nick. "Didn't she seem a bit off to you?"
"It could be Nargles" Chimed Luna.
"Not this again." Nick chuckled. "If you can't see them, and you've never seen them, how do you know they exist?"
"Seeing isn't always believing Nicholas." Luna said with her slight smile.
"Either way, I'm worried about her."
"Don't worry Nick, she's just out for a stroll, I'm sure she'll be fine."
"Ok…" Nick paused. "You're right, I just have a bad feeling about this."
"Look either way, we've got our own problems, for example, how are we going to test our new spell?" Nick looked over, not totally convinced, but understanding that it was probably nothing. We continued talking for the next hour or so before Nick spoke up again.
"Guys, shouldn't Alexa be back by now?" Luna looked up as well, and furrowed her brow.
"Yes, she probably should be back by now, maybe we should go look for her." Luna looked to me expectantly.
"You're right guys, let's go look for Alexa, she is taking a really long time." I said, picking myself off of the pillow I had been sitting on and grabbing my robe. We walked out of the common room and started down the stairs of the tower.
"It's so dark in here." Nick murmured. I smiled, although not visible and pulled out my wand, I was starting to get a knack for this teaching thing.
"Ok guys, mini lesson, check this out. Lumos." The tip of my wand glowed bright in the darkness, and we could see where we were going. "This is an easy charm that most people pick up on the first try, so you guys try." They both nodded and pulled out their wands.
"Lumos." Light sparked on the tips of both of their wands and now I could actually see them smiling. We continued on, bothering the occasional painting with the light, until we reached the main corridor, to the right of us was the corridor leading down to the library, and I heard Luna to my right gasp.
"Is that?" I looked down the corridor, and there appeared to be two people standing at the end of it. I don't spook easily, but that was a scary thing to see. One of them appeared to be Alexa, and the other, we couldn't tell. Nick called out to them.
"Alexa!" His voice was whispered, but sounded like a yell in the empty corridor. "Is that you?" No response. The empty silence was killing me, until after what seemed like an eternity, Luna spoke.
"You don't think that they're…"
"Only one way to find out." I relied, as I took my first step forward. The first step was the easiest. As I took each consecutive step forward, the picture became clearer and clearer. Another step closer, I could tell that both of these girls were in fact petrified. Another step closer, I could see that one of them was indeed Alexa. Another step closer, and I could tell that the other girl standing next to Alexa was Hermione, one of Harry's friends. One final step closer, and I could tell that Nick was upset, I could hear it in his voice when he repeated the same word over and over again. No. At last we finally stopped walking and took in the full scene. It appeared that both the girls were looking into a mirror to see what was behind them, and both of them had no time to react to what had frozen them like this, seeing as how they only looked nervous, and not terrified. I immediately felt terrible about telling Nick that it was 'probably no big deal'. We stood there for what seemed like forever before Nick spoke.
"We need to get professor Mcgonagall out here now."
Chapter 7
I walked into the infirmary to check on Nick, he was sitting at the front of the bed reading a book, he looked up when I approached him and gave a weak smile.
"Hey Shepard."
"Hey, Nick, I'm so sorry, This is all my fau-"
"See, I knew you were going to do this." Nick cut me off. "You had no way of knowing mate. This is no one's fault except for the monster that did this. What matters now is that we find out how to fix them." I nodded, he was right. Just then, the main doors to the infirmary opened and professor Mcgonagall walked in followed by Harry and Ron. Harry was wearing his Quidditch gear, and Ron his regular robes and a Gryffindor Scarf. I'd forgotten about the game today, this must be the first time Harry's hearing about this.
"I warn you, this could be a wee bit of a shock." Professor Mcgonagall said, walking towards Hermione's bed. As they walked, Harry looked around the room, and saw Nick and I sitting next to Alexa's infirmary bed. All I could manage was a weak smile.
"Hermione!" Ron gasped. Harry's attention was immediately brought to the bed across from Alexa's. There lay Hermione, in the same position that we found her down in the hall.
"She was found near the library," She paused and picked up a hand mirror that was placed to the side of the bed. "Along with this." she paused, lifting the mirror for them to see. "Does this mean anything to you?" Harry and Ron just shook their heads.
"I'll give you boys some time." She said as she walked out of the room. I waited a moment before walking up to Harry and placing my hand on his shoulder.
"I'm really sorry mate, we're working on a way to fix this."
"Thanks Shepard, Ron and I are going to follow up on something we found that might lead us to what's in the chamber of secrets." He replied
"Care to clue me in?" I ask. Harry sighed, then turns to me.
"I'm not really sure if it's true, but from what I've learned, it's looking like Hagrid was the one who opened the chamber of secrets."
"What?" I said, baffled. "You can't possibly think that Hagrid did this? Can you?"
"I really don't want to believe it either, but that's what it's looking like." He said, sadly. I knew that Harry and Hagrid were friends, and I couldn't believe that Harry would say that. He must have very solid evidence to be saying such things. Nick walked up next to me and tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey, I want to go to the library and research ways to un-petrify the girls, can you give me a hand?"
"Sure, I'll go get Luna and see if she can help." Nick turned and started walking out of the infirmary. I looked back to Harry.
"I gotta go, we're going to try to help these girls, and don't you worry, we will find a way." I said.
"Ok, good luck." I nod, and left the infirmary to go get Luna.
Sitting in the library looking through book after book is usually what we Ravenclaws live for, but tonight, with news we had just received, it was absolutely nail biting. Nick sat across from me, with the biggest stack of books that I had ever seen anyone get a hold of, leafing through pages, scanning them for details on how to save Alexa and Hermione. Luna was sitting next to me doing the same, but she seemed off, antsy. Finally she closed her book and looked at me.
"I can't take it anymore!" She looked frustrated. "We need to go talk to Hagrid." I sighed, she was right, no matter what happened, Hagrid had been a friend to us, and we needed the truth.
"Ok, I have a plan." I turned to Nick. "Nick, you stay here and keep researching how to un-petrify those girls. If these books don't work, then look in the restricted section." Nick didn't even look up from the book he was reading.
"Got it." I turned to Luna, she had excitement in her eyes.
"You and me are going to Hagrid's, we're going to try to find out what's going on." She smiled her little half smile, and I chuckled in return. We immediately started to fast walk down the halls to get to Hagrid's hut. Soon we arrived outside, and started walking down the slope to Hagrid's house. I could immediately tell something was wrong, usually there was a warm glow coming from Hagrid's hut, but tonight, it was dark as the night sky. When we reached the door, the hut looked empty, but just to be sure, Luna knocked on the door.
"Hagrid, are you there?" There was no response, so Luna opened the door, it was empty as I'd thought.
"Lumos." Light sprung from Luna's wand and illuminated the small abode. Everything looked normal, but there was an unsettling sound, almost like a clicking, but not nearly as audible. We searched for the source of the noise, and found it rather quickly. There was a line of spiders crawling from the floor to the window sill, they were coming from a source unknown, and I was fine keeping it that way. The spiders appeared to be crawling into a small hole in the window. I looked to Luna.
"Follow the spiders?" She looked at me calmly, and nodded.
"Follow the spiders." We walked outside and found the trail of spiders, and started walking along side it, we were silent for awhile, listening only for the sounds anything that might be a threat to us. Finally. I broke the silence.
"You're not particularly afraid of spiders, are you?" I asked.
"No, not particularly, I just think of them as insects, and they're not all that bad." She replied. "How do you feel about spiders?"
"They're not too bad I suppose." Luna looked up.
"Well how do you feel about giant spiders?" She asked.
"Please tell me that you're asking simply out of curiosity." I asked nervously. She shook her head and pointed up. I looked up and was rewarded with the sight of ten or so giant spiders climbing down the trees.
"Any possibility we could outrun them?" Luna asked, sounding rather calm. I looked back and noticed three more spiders crawling over the ridge we had just climbed over.
"I have no clue, but I don't think, we'll be granted the opportunity." I replied pointing behind us. She turned to see our cut off escape route. We went into a back to back battle stance, our wands at the ready.
"You ready?" I asked.
"About as I'll ever be." She replied, I pointed my wand at the nearest spider.
"Then let's get started. Stupify!" I send the spider flying backwards into a tree, behind me I can hear Luna casting spells and curses, but I can tell it's not enough, there are too many on my side, no matter how many I take out, they are closing in faster than I can take them out. Then, out of nowhere, a car, out of all things, races past us, taking out five spiders in the process. There is a pause from both spiders and humans alike before the battle resumes. Having had the car even out the odds, we dispatch the remaining few with relative ease.
"Reductor!" The last spider in front of me falls to ashes. Luna and I take a breath, but before long, I can see spiders in the distance charging us. I grab Luna and face her towards the impending threat.
"Um, Luna?"
"Yea?"
"Remember your earlier question about running?"
"I do."
"Fancy now as a time to try it?"
"I think that would be best, yes." We turned around and ran as fast as we could, dodging and weaving through trees. Finally we reach the edge of the forest and burst out, making sure there's more than a few meters between us and the tree line.
"Do you think they'll come after us?" Luna asks, I shake my head.
"They shouldn't, they're creatures of the forest, they know where their territory ends. I said through ragged breaths. Just then, I see a light coming from in the forest, it grows brighter and then the car we saw earlier bursts through the trees. It was flying, but not for long, it came crashing down no more than a meter from where me and Luna stood. Harry pops out of the passenger seat, walks over to the driver's seat and opens it. Ron is seated with his hands stuck to the steering wheel, Harry shakes Ron in an attempt to get him to recover from the shock. Finally he slaps Ron across the face, and Ron shakes his head and looks at Harry.
"What did I miss?"
"Not much Ron, let's get going."
"Why do I think that I was just attacked by a horde of spiders?"
"Well mostly because we were Ron." Ron only managed a whimper as Harry guided him out of the car, and toward us. Luna was immeasurably calm.
"How was the drive Harry?" Harry looked up at her.
"Rough, but at least we learned something from it."
"And what's that?" Luna inquired.
"Hagrids innocent, and I'm never getting in a car with Ron again."
Chapter 8
We were getting nowhere. Through all of the books that we looked through, we could only find bits of information that would only help us if we could see the big picture. Nick had bags under his eyes, and I hadn't seen him sleep for two days now, but his concentration was as laser focused as ever. He had only eaten him what Luna and I had been able to sneak past the librarian at the front desk. I'd never seen him like this before, but he refused to take a break for anything other than eating. I didn't know what to do to help him other than try to help find out how we could un-petrify the girls. As we were leafing through another set of books, Cho Chang walked up to us, she looked panicked.
"Shepard, Luna, did you hear what happened?"
"No, what's happened?" I replied.
"Ginny Weasley has been taken by the monster into the chamber of secrets! Professor Lockhart is going to go in after her!" She said, obviously scared.
"Thanks for letting us know Cho." She nodded and ran off to go warn others. I turned to my friends.
"I don't like this guys," I say closing my book. "I've had a bad feeling about Lockhart ever since I met him, he seems like a coward to me." Luna looked up from her book.
"I agree, I can tell by his walk." She said with a smile. I smiled back and nodded.
"We should go see what he's up to, Nick, are you going to come with us?" I asked, he looked up from the book he was reading, he was smiling for the first time in a while.
"No, you guys go on without me, I think I've finally found something, I need to go to the restricted section, but I think I got it."
"That's great Nick! Keep on looking, we'll go check out Lockhart." Nick nodded, and Luna and I ran out of the library and headed for Lockhart's classroom. Before we could turn into the Lockhart's room, he came out, followed by Harry and Ron. Lockhart looked at me and Luna with a sheepish grin on his face.
"Hello Shepard, Luna…" He trailed off as Harry pushed him to keep him moving forward.
"What's going on Harry?" Luna asked. Harry looked at us.
"Professor Lockhart here, was trying to escape rather than face the basilisk like he's supposed to."
"I figured you for a coward Lockhart, but this is low, even for you." I said, angrily. He looked up from the ground, and tried to grin.
"It's not what it looks like Shepard, come on now, I'm sure that you can convince Harry here to let me go, can't you?" He asked, sheepishly. I had no time to reply, from the opposite side of the corridor, Malfoy and his gang came running down. Malfoy looked around, saw us, and yelled.
"Potter's trying to kidnap professor Lockhart!" Fortunately there was no one else around to hear him.
"You'd better get going Harry," I said urging him along. "We'll take care of these fools.
"Thanks guys, we appreciate it." Harry stepped past us, turning a corner and disappearing from sight. I stepped forward to confront Malfoy.
"Malfoy, it's not what it looks like."
"Oh I think it's exactly what it looks like." Spat Malfoy, he drew his wand, ready to fight. Luna and I drew ours in return.
"You really think you can stop us?" said Malfoy with a laugh. "The odd's are three to two in our favor." He paused, looking at Luna. "Or more like three to one." At this Luna whipped her wand at Malfoy.
"Expelliarmus!" Malfoy's wand shot out of his hand, and he stood looking at his hand, dumbfounded. Crabbe and Goyle drew their wands and stepped in front, pointing their wands at chairs that were sitting on either side of the hall, they flicked their wands at us, sending the chairs flying our way. Luna and I knew exactly what to do.
"Reductor!" Both of our curses hit true, and the chairs tumbled to ash. Crabbe and Goyle looked stunned. In the heat of the moment, I focused on Crabbe, the one who had gravely injured me. And I knew just what to do.
"Stupify!" The spell hit him in the chest, forcing him to fly backwards, and hit his back on the wall. He lay on the floor unconscious, and as Goyle began a counter attack Luna hit him with the same spell.
"Stupify!" Goyle was sent flying backwards just like Crabbe. Malfoy looked up, realizing the position that he was in, got ready to flee. Luna looked at me, and I looked at Luna, and we both knew who to try our new spell on. We both faced Malfoy, and flicked up our wands.
"Terradica!" The spell worked beautifully. Malfoy's feet stopped in their tracks as the ground seemed to snake up his body, holding him in place. The ground grasped his arms and held them at his sides, the ground had moved up to his waist now. By a sudden flick of my wand, the earthen shackle rode up Malfoy's back and forced him to bow down. He looked up from his bowed position with fear on his face, as I reached my hand back and closed it into a fist as if I was going to punch him in the face. He cowed, and tried to hide his face, when he realized the punch wasn't coming, he looked back up to me, where I was waiting. I flicked him hard on the nose, causing him to whimper and hide his face again. I laughed, and started to leave, beckoning for Luna to follow. She skipped up next to me, and smiled, and I smiled in return.
Chapter 9
When we went to the library to go find Nick, and tell him what happened, he was gone. There was only a note left at his seat that read. "I've cracked the code! I'm going to bring the recipe to professor Sprout, meet me in the common room whenever you get back." I smiled and tucked the note into my robe pocket. I looked to Luna, and smiled a weak smile, all the adrenaline from the fight had left our system, and our constant studying was finally catching up to us. We walked slowly from the library to the common room tower and climbed the stairs, there was hardly a soul in sight, they must all be in lockdown mode in their dormitories. When we finally reached the common room, we saw a sight that made us laugh even in our weakened state. Nick sat on the ground with his back up against the wall and his head hanging loosely to the side, completely asleep. I laughed, and bent over and picked him up. As I was cradling him, Luna knocked on the Eagle knocker, it shifted and spoke.
"What walks on four legs in the beginning of it's life, two legs in the middle, and three at the end?" I'm sure that the knocker could sense our exhaustion, and let us off easy.
"Man" I say, and the door opens for us, revealing a near empty common room. Luna walked over to a couch seated nearby a fire, and collapses on it.
"I'll be right back, I'm gonna go put Nick in bed." I said, carrying Nick up to the boys dormitory. Luna smiled in return, and crossed her legs. Nick wasn't heavy, being as skinny as he was, but he sure felt heavy carrying him up those stairs. Once I reached his bed I plopped him down and pulled the covers over his body. I patted him on the shoulder.
"You did it buddy, you found a way to un-petrify your girl, I'm really proud of you mate." I stood up, and walked back down to the Common room. Luna was still sitting on the couch, and I sat down next to her.
"You know, I think in the end, everything's going to work out for us." I said, turning to her, she had her little half smile going, and it made me smile. "I think Harry will do what he has to do, and the girls will be saved, and we're going to be just fine."
"I think you're right," She replied. "Shepard, I'm really glad I met you, I'm afraid if I hadn't, then I would be just like any other plain student."
"I'm glad we met too, but had you not met me, I think you would be different, but 'Plain'?" I shook my head. "No matter what, I don't think you could ever be plain." She smiled at me, and looked into the fire, and I did the same. An overwhelming sense of peace flooded my body as I continued to stare into the fire, and I think Luna was feeling the same thing, I could tell by the way she was sitting. We both rested on the couch, until sleep took us both.
"Shepard" I felt someone tapping my shoulder. "C'mon Shepard get up." I opened my eyes to Nick tapping me on the shoulder.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Apparently we're being summoned by the headmaster, so we have to go to his office, you should wake Luna too, she's being summoned as well." I felt something on my other shoulder, and looked over to see Luna was asleep next to me, and had her head resting on my shoulder. She looked very peaceful, her mouth was slightly open, and she drooling on my shoulder, her face looked totally relaxed, and it made me laugh. I reached over and lightly shook her shoulder.
"Luna, time to get up Luna." Her mouth closed, and her eyes opened. She looked at Nick, then me, and finally my shoulder. She started to blush when she realized what she had done.
"Oh no, I've created a mess." She said sheepishly.
"It's fine," I said pulling out a handkerchief from my robe pocket and dabbing it on my robe. "See, all gone." I said with a chuckle. She smiled and sat up straight.
"Well we better get going, we have to talk to the headmaster." Nick said, and we got up, and we started walking towards the door, Luna in the front, followed by Nick and I in the rear.
As we entered the waiting room for the headmaster's office, we didn't even have time to sit down before a soft voice came from inside the office.
"No need to sit down, come on in. I've been expecting you." We entered the room and say the headmaster standing behind the chair of his desk.
"Please, sit." He motioned for us to sit in the chairs in front of his desk. We sat down, me on the right, Luna in the middle, and Nick on the left. The headmaster placed his hands down on the back of the chair and spoke.
"Now I have brought you three here today because professor Snape has gotten it through his head that it was you who attacked Malfoy and his friends, and I had to tell him, that it must be impossible for that to be true. I told Severus that there was no possible way for three first-year students to both create the antidote for the petrified students, but also to create and use such a complex, and well put together spell." He smiled at us. "Am I right?" He asked. None of us said anything, but rather, just smiled in return. He swept his gaze across all of us and landed on Nick. "Now would I be wrong in thinking that you did all of this work creating an antidote, so that you could cure your friend Alexa?" Nick looked down.
"Well sir, I did it to save all the other petrified students as well." He said softly. "But I don't think it'd be crazy of you to say that." Nick smiled at the headmaster.
"Please, no need to call me 'sir' just call me Dumbledore." He said calmly. "And your secrets safe with me." Dumbledore winked at Nick, and then turned to the rest of us. "And if that's the case then you might want to head to the infirmary, I heard that they're going to be administering the antidote soon." Nick's face lightened at that.
"Thanks Dumbledore! We'll head down there immediately." Nick stood up, and then looked at us, we smiled and got up with him.
"Please do, and give the girls a warm hello from me." We nodded, and started to leave the office, before Dumbledore called out one last time.
"Oh, and Shepard?" I turned to face him, he looked at me, and then looked away. "Nevermind, perhaps another time." He said before turning away. I turned back as we started to head towards the infirmary. I wondered what he was going to say.
As we walked through the doors to the infirmary, we caught them just in time, a nurse was walking up to Alexa's bed to administer the antidote, and let Nick do the honors on hearing that he was the one who created it. Nick stood at the side of Alexa's bed, and slowly poured the elixir into her mouth. He then placed the empty flask next to her bed. Alexa's body relaxed as soon as he placed the flask on the table. She blinked, sat up, and looked around.
"What's going on?" She asked
"You were petrified by the basilisk, and we had to create an antidote to un-petrify you." Nick replied.
"Nick created the antidote." I said. "He worked for days on it."
"Didn't sleep or eat until it was finished in fact." Chimed Luna from beside me. Alexa looked at Nick and smiled.
"Thank you so much Nick!" She got up and hugged him, he hugged her back, albeit a bit awkwardly, but still hugged her back. Nick looked at me and Luna through the embrace, and gave us a big smile. We looked at each other and laughed. After the embrace was over, she looked over at Luna and I and said.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving. Would you like to go to the dining hall and get something to eat?" I looked over to Luna, just now realizing exactly how hungry I really was. She nodded, probably feeling the same thing that I was feeling.
"That sounds great Alexa." I said, and we all started walking towards the dining hall.
"I'm going to miss you guys." I say as I look back at the train. I turn around to face Nick and Luna, and I can feel a lot of emotions welling up inside of me.
"Let's try to write each other every week, ok?" I said looking at the two of them. They both nod, I see Nick look over my shoulder, and he waves.
"There's my parents, I gotta go, I'll try to visit when I can." He said before giving us one last embrace and farewell. "I'll see you two soon hopefully." He said. Nick turned around and started walking towards his family. I turn back to Luna.
"I'm really gonna miss you Loony," I said with a smile.
"Don't act like you're not going to see me again" She said, returning my smile. I felt tears well up in my eyes.
"Look who's the strong one now." I said, wiping tears from my eyes. She comes in and gives me a warm hug.
"Both of us." She said tears clouding her eyes as well. I look up and see my family waving to me.
"That's my parents, I'd better go. I'll see you when I see you?" I ask, she nods in return. We embrace one last time before saying our final goodbyes. I walked over to my family, and my father pats my shoulder.
"Good to see you again Shepard, how was your first year at Hogwarts?" He asks, I look up at him, with a smile on my face.
"Incredible."
END
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