Disclaimer: I'm not JKR, so Harry Potter is not mine. I don't make profit from writing this piece of fanfiction.
Author's Note: Written for the Seven Deadly Sins Challenge by reveur-de-minuit (sin: sloth, character: Luna Lovegood), the Harry Potter Femmeslash Project Competition by Gamma Orionis and Cheeky Slytherin Lass (theme: fluff), the If You Dare Challenge by Slytherin Cat (prompt 12: socks) and the Ultimate Femmeslash Competition by fanfreak-121, all at the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum here at FFN.
Reviews very much welcome.
Pairing: Lavender/Luna.
Not a Hufflepuff
Or: Lazy but beloved
Of all houses of Hogwarts, Hufflepuff would have suited Luna least, Lavender felt as she picked up some of Luna's clothes from the floor where they had been thrown in a corner two days ago.
Luna was curious and smart enough for Ravenclaw, she knew, and the Sorting Hat had confirmed so. She could also be quite witty. It wasn't Luna's fault that most other people didn't understand her humour, after all.
She was brave enough for Gryffindor. Brave enough to go with Harry to the Ministry of Magic, despite the real danger. Brave enough to be herself in a world that did not understand her. Brave enough to stand up for Lavender when some of her dorm-mates had made fun of her after a potions accident during her last year at Hogwarts. The year she had fallen in love with Luna.
Luna would stand by her friends, rare as they might be, and go into danger for them. Risk death for them. She was willing to give up everything to make those she cared for happy. What was that, if not chivalry and courage?
Lavender looked back over her shoulder to the bed and her sleeping girlfriend. She looked so calm, peaceful and happy – and above all else, cute – that Lavender didn't have the heart to wake her up, even though it was noon already.
Even Slytherin fit the beautiful but eccentric blonde Lavender loved so deeply pretty well.
Luna could be cunning when needed, cunning enough that few saw the real her. Saw how hurt she was by the bullying of her classmates. She was ambitious, for what is more ambitious than trying to discover something even you are not completely sure exists?
Because for all the certainty she showed to others when it came to mythical creatures, deep within her heart and mind she was not sure if she was right.
One night, in the darkness, Luna had confided in her that she was not as sure as she seemed. Lavender felt happy that night that Luna could confide in her, trust her with something seemingly small but to her so important.
She had told Lavender that she wanted them to exist, because her mother had said they did before she died. That she desperately wanted to prove her mother right. Did that mean they did exist? She didn't know. She only could hope.
Lavender turned back to the room, picking up a single sock that had ended up on the windowsill somehow and another sock – from a different pair, clearly – that had somehow made its way to one of the bookshelves.
Hufflepuff… No, her dear girlfriend could never have been a Hufflepuff.
It was not that she wasn't loyal. If anything, her loyalty to her mother's faith in the existence of all kind of creatures, even years after the woman's death, proved that she had loyalty in spades.
Lavender walked out of the room to throw the clothes in the laundry basket, then walked back into the room.
No, what made Luna completely unfit for Hufflepuff was laziness, sloth. Whether it came to cleaning up after herself or coming out of bed on a normal hour, Luna was incredibly lazy.
As though the girl had heard those words, she opened her large, grey eyes and blinked lazily.
"Why don't you come back to bed, Lav?" Luna asked slowly, letting each word roll off her lips, stretched as though it was a sentence of its own. "Please?"
Yes, Lavender thought, Luna was incredibly lazy, but also completely impossible not to love.
THE END