Chapter III
Luna awoke to find herself lying on the hard floor outside the potions class room. Was that all a dream? Luna thought as she pushed herself to her feet. Blood rushed to her head as she stood. Her arm flung out to her side to grasp the wall to support her weight. When the feeling had mostly passed, she opened the door to the classroom. Oops! Snape was giving a lecture to the sixth year class, the one she was supposed to be in.
"Aw, Ms. Lovegood, you have finally decided to join us. Twenty points from Ravenclaw for your classmate's tardiness!" Snape said with pure disdain. Oh great! Luna thought sarcastically, but she just nodded her head and tried to find a seat. There was only one seat remaining, and it was next to Draco Malfoy. She mentally swore and strutted her way over to the seat.
"Excuse me, why would I want your filth next to me?" Draco exclaimed rudely, peering out from the corners of his eyes, looking her up and down in a disgusted manner. Luna sat down despite Draco's insolence. Images of his father melted back into her mind from their strange encounter that day. The illusions of Lucius holding the wineglass and his wand pointed firmly at her strangled her mind in ways she had never felt before. It was like he was inside her, like his breath was against her neck again and his hand around hers when they apparated to the Manor and his eyes looked into hers. The emotions were too much for her to handle. His face appeared in front of her with that same sly smirk, pasted on.
Suddenly, a voice, a very vague voice pulled her out of her trance.
"Ms. Lovegood! Take the book!" Snape yelled impatiently. Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice and her soft blue eyes focused on his, which appeared almost black. As she looked closer, she noticed they were more hollow than usual and rimmed with red. Black lines flowed down onto his cheek bones, showing his lack of sleep. Her eyes drifted downward to the long, thin fingers that held the book that was thrust out towards her in a stiff gesture. Before she had any more time to look, the book was placed in front of her and Snape had retreated to his desk.
Once he had resumed his place at the front of the class, he turned his torso and flicked his wand to shut the blinds, which created a gloomy feeling in the classroom. "Turn to page three hundred and forty six," he spit out to his mumbling class. He turned back around towards his desk to handle some papers, while some of his students started to whisper amongst themselves.
"Professor Snape? This says that we are to be brewing a Draught of Living Death, which as I read earlier, we are not to brew until almost halfway though the year," Luna said, somewhat confused. Snape turned around to look at her with an intense expression.
"Ms Lovegood, my patience with you is wearing thin. If I were you, I would shut up before your house loses more points," he said as he turned back towards the blackboard. Luna's mouth opened again, but quickly closed when she noticed the anger emanating from the professor. A woozy feeling came across her, like the one she had when she woke up after the encounter with Lucius Malfoy. Her vision became blurry and her mouth went dry. Her fingers held on to the edge of the desk to support her weight.
"What's wrong Looney? Too many wrackspurts in your head?" Draco said sarcastically with a chuckle. All the Slytherines in the room laughed, but Luna kept her poker face and looked directly at Snape. The corner of his mouth twitched into a smirk, but black orbs of his eyes showed pity.
"Five points from Slytherine!" Snape said and all the laughter from the Slytherines ceased. Their eyes went wide and their mouths gaped.
"What?" Draco exclaimed in utter shock.
"You heard me, Mr. Malfoy. Five points from Slytherine, and if you would like to take that accusation any farther, you will be in my tight grasp in detention," Snape said evenly. Somehow, Draco did not recognize that Snape had the higher hand in the matter.
"But…How can you defend her? She's mudblood!" The whole class looked stunned at Malfoy's use of the offensive word. Luna's eyes darted downward, embarrassed.
"Detention Mr. Malfoy!"
