Hermione had been trying to study in the library for the last hour. Unfortunately a truly heinous migraine had started plaguing her with increasing frequency these last few weeks. This always happened when she felt stretched thin by her schedule. The Gryffindor desperately forced her eyes to pay attention and analyse the hundreds of letters, numbers, and magical symbols on the pages before her, but the pain in her head was stubborn and refused to be ignored. Luna had come to the library hoping to find information on Yithians, when she noticed her friend rubbing at her temples while hunched over a table, eyebrows creased and evoking great discomfort.
"Are you in pain Hermione?" The Ravenclaw asked in that tonal mixture of friendly concern and unfazed positivity. A sincere combination that probably no one else could affect. "Has Ron annoyed you again?"
"Hmm? No, it's nothing like that." Hermione would've chuckled at the question, but now was not the time.
"Monthly trouble?"
"Luna!" Hermione caught herself and gave a quick look around to make certain no one heard that. "It's a migraine is all." she whispered while trying to ignore the burning sensation in her blushing cheeks. "I'm perfectly fine, just... in agony. That's all."
Luna leaned rather close to Hermione's face, staring intently at her head for a bit.
"Hmm... If you come with me, I can help. It's no trouble."
Hermione looked briefly down at her book. Not in a million years would she expect to ever think this to herself, but...
Oh god, no more reading.
She looked back up at the towheaded girl with a small but appreciative smile.
"Thank you, Luna. I should probably take a break anyway, shouldn't I?"
Luna eagerly took her hand and led her away from the table and out of the Library.
"Just where are we going?" the Gryffindor asked.
"The Muggle Studies classroom. It has everything we need, and it's empty right now." Luna said in a voice that was somehow whimsy-er than usual.
They found their way to the classroom, through the Muggle Studies showroom. They passed a myriad array of muggle artifacts. Television sets, reclining chairs, vacuum cleaners and radios just to name a few. The classroom itself contained even more muggle wonders, (Wonders at least from Luna's perspective). Being muggle-born, Hermione recognized the majority of the objects out on display. Being surrounded by so many familiar things, she couldn't help but feel a little homesick. Luna seemed to notice this, and gave her hand a small squeeze. Hermione hadn't realized until then, they had been holding hands the whole time.
"Take a seat now and make yourself comfortable." Luna said. "I'll go fetch the tools."
Tools? Thought Hermione. What kind of muggle tools could help with my head?
Luna disappeared into a dark corner of the room, cluttered nearly to the ceiling with random odds and ends. She emerged a couple minutes later carrying a tote bag, the side of which displayed an image of some strange yellow creature with a tail shaped like Harry's forehead scar, and cheeks even more red then Hermione's were just a short while ago.
The Ravenclaw took a seat next to her friend and dug through the bag, pulling out a curious assortment of objects, some mundane, others rather strange.
"What's all this for?" Asked Hermione.
"I discovered that certain sounds calm me down when I feel stressed, or sad."
Hermione never really thought that Luna could be susceptible to such things, which in retrospect was a very silly assumption. It was just difficult to picture Luna in a truly negative state.
"So, I've been experimenting with different items to find which sounds work and which ones don't. I've had quite a bit of luck with these muggle trinkets."
Hermione didn't take Luna for being the kind of person that would conduct experiments either. She realized she should make a conscious effort to stop misjudging her from now on.
"First, some questions." Luna got out a small clipboard, and clicked out the lead of a mechanical pencil. "Are there any sounds you don't like?"
"Open mouth chewing." Hermione answered with a small wince.
"Are you allergic to rubber, plastic or other common substances?"
"Not to my knowledge."
The questioning continued for several minutes, during which Hermione's head made no improvements.
"Just one more." Luna announced with eagerness. "Are you at all interested in vampires?"
"Not rea-." After so many mundane inquiries, Hermione was caught off guard by this one.
"No. Um... Why is that relevant?" She asked with some concern. Luna was staring down at her paper, biting her bottom lip for a moment before looking back up at Hermione.
"Oh, no reason." She answered with a small sigh, and put away the pencil and clipboard. "Alright then. I think we should start with a scalp massage first." There was a note of excitement in her voice as she brandished an instrument that looked something like a broken whisk.
"What on earth is THAT thing!?"
"Ssshhh..." Luna responded as she oriented the object over the Gryffindor's brown hair. "The scratchy sounds are very nice, and it feels good anyway."
"Luna...". Hermione stated in a perfectly flat tone. "this is bizarre."
The eccentric Ravenclaw was utterly focused on performing hypnotic hand movements in front of Hermione's face.
"Are you feeling any tingles yet?" she asked, sounding especially ethereal in her whispers.
"No. You can stop that now."
They had been at this for around fifteen minutes, and as her migraine persisted, the Gryffindor was only becoming increasingly confused by Luna's experimentation. Scalp massaging, tapping, velcro pulling, hand rubbing and more. None of these things were helping. Luna said a peculiar tingling sensation might occur, and that Hermione would surely recognize it if she felt it, but alas there was nothing.
"Alright. Let's move on to ear-to-ear whispering."
"What?"
Hermione's shoulders tensed as Luna leaned incredibly close to her left ear, beginning her whispers.
"Colloportus..." She then moved slowly to the right ear, crossing the Gryffindor's blushing face, noses mere inches from touching.
"...Doxy..." Then left again. "...Episkey..."
Hermione closed her eyes and was pleasantly surprised that her migraine was finally passing. The words and phrases were seemingly random, yet quite pleasant for whispering. Each recitation brought more and more relief. That's not to say it was the least bit relaxing however. Hermione's heart felt like a newly winged flitterby moth, and her breaths were quick. In the back of her mind she thought that this sort of thing probably would be relaxing... if it were anyone else doing it. Anyone other than the icy-eyed blonde sitting before her.
"Rita Skeeter..."
"Hmm. Bad one." Hermione said in a sardonic tone.
"Sorry..." This whisper brought out a chuckle from the Gryffindor.
"Quintaped... Beetle... the bard..." She could feel a soothing sensation starting to emanate from her scalp, and tickling gently down her spine. Doubtless this was the feeling Luna described.
"Expecto-" In her left ear. "Patronum." In her right. The Ravenclaw traveled around and continued whispering from directly behind Hermione's head.
It felt like eternity in the best possible way as she anticipated each new whisper. On her left, she could feel Luna's warm breath, followed by a teasingly long pause.
"Crookshanks." She was certain that she felt the girls lips lightly graze her ear, which elicited a sharp intake of excited breath.
"Luna..." She struggled to find something to say. She wanted to express something, but her thoughts were in tangles. "I-". She was interrupted by a loud crunching at her right ear.
Hermione opened her eyes, thoroughly snapped out of her euphoria, and turned to look at Luna.
The strange girl was staring back with an expectant look on her face. Also, she was eating a pickle.
"Is your head feeling better?" She inquired before taking another bite.
"Um, yes it is. Thank you. You're really quite good at... whatever this is."
"Thanks." Luna retrieved her spectrespecs from her pocket and placed them over her eyes. Gazing all around Hermione's head, she responded. "The wrackspurts seem to agree with you."
"What are wrackspurts?"
"Would you like a pickle?"
