fanfic by volly
harry potter (c) j.k. rowling
...
Title: Constant
Theme(s): overflow, the sound of waves
Notes:
randomness. this little thing just exploded into my head one day. it was hard trying to keep ahold of all the details in the story until i had a chance to write it down--my parents don't like me being on the computer much nowadays. i'm not very satisfied with the ending--tell me what you think?
Spoilers: none.
...
The thing about Luna was that she was never uninteresting, Ginny mused as she picked out the miscellaneous objects from within the bedstand drawers. Luna Lovegood was sitting on her bed, patiently arranging her odd belongings into piles around herself, in a certain order Ginny couldn't really grasp. A dented silver compass was placed carefully into a heap of paper flowers. A maroon ribbon was tossed thoughtlessly into a mound of variously colored scraps of parchment and chocolate frog cards.
"Luna? Are you sure you want to take all of this home?" Ginny inquired, while trying to remove something gooey from inside of the cabinets. Whatever the creature was, it seemed to have adhered itself to a wooden wall and was very reluctant to come out.
Luna glanced upwards, quirking a brow as if the answer should be obvious. Maybe it was. "But of course. I have uses for all of them, you know."
"Really now?" Ginny was finally able to pry a glob of aqua-colored slime out of the nightstand, and threw it on the bed, watching as Luna expertly captured the critter in a potions vial and sat it next to an empty package of Every Flavor Beans. "And what would these uses be, pray tell?"
Luna ignored Ginny's sarcastic tone of voice, opting instead to pluck a brass bell from its nest inside a padded box. "This is for warding off doppelgängers. This," and here she pointed to a feathery sort of contraption hanging from a string, "is for attracting pleasant dreams. And this," Luna gestured to an elegantly carved ivory flute, "is for calling to snidgets."
"Hm." Ginny examined each article in turn. Though she'd never tell, Luna's posessions were extremely entertaining--far more so than her own, at least. "And what about this?" she challenged, handing over a plastic violet bag.
"Moon rocks." Luna didn't skip a beat.
"And this?"
"Butterfly net."
"This!"
"It sings."
"What?" Ginny stared in disbelief at the conch shell she held in her cupped hands. "What do you mean, it sings?"
"Exactly what I said." Luna responded, voice lilting in amusement. "It sings. It's really very lovely at it, too."
"Right." Ginny turned the item over, fingers rubbing hesitantly at the smooth surface of the peach-hued shell, poking inside the cavern cautiously. "How do I listen to it, then?"
The Ravenclaw smiled. "Place this end here," she tapped the rim of the conch and Ginny's ear, watching with mild curiosity as Ginny lifted the shell up and listened. And she heard--
--the sound of waves. The music of water meeting the shore, the sea greeting land at long last. Gently the song lapped at her ear, overflowing into her mind, spilling into Ginny like the water did when it was sucked back into the sea, forced away from its reunion with solid ground once again. And though the sounds consisted primarily of--
--the sound of waves, there were, also, voices in the background that Ginny realized actually accentutated the soft melody of liquid kissing the sand. The distinct calls of sea birds, the cheerful cries of children romping on the shore, the click and rustle of an ocean breeze. The realism of the sounds pouring into Ginny's consciousness grew to be so undeniably powerful that if the redhead closed her eyes she could sweat that she was standing at the beach herself, underneath the blazing sun and periwinkle sky and just listening and basking in--
--the sound of waves.
With more effort than she'd ever care to admit, Ginny removed the shell from her ear and opened her eyes--had they even been closed?--to Luna's widely-grinning face. "Well? Wasn't that nice?"
"Wow." Ginny breathed, glancing down at the conch, as if expecting it to jump up at any time and start up its soulful song. "Yeah. Just wow."
It didn't look out of the ordinary at all, and yet the voice that lurked inside was heavenly, for a lack of better adjectives. Ginny wasn't aware of how long she'd simply sat and stared at the shell until Luna's soft, wry voice interrupted her musings. "I thought, Ginny, that you were going to help me pack up my school supplies?"
"Sorry, Luna." Ginny apologized, setting the shell absentmindedly on Luna's pillow, apart from the rest of the items. Suddenly realizing what she was doing, she picked up the conch again, blushing for a reason she couldn't quite pinpoint. "Where do you want this?"
The Ravenclaw sighed, but a knowing smile was on her face. "Actually, Ginny? You can keep that--I see that you're quite in awe of it, aren't you?"
"Wh--what?" Ginny stammered, still cupping the conch in her hands. "Luna, I can't accept...?"
But her blonde friend cut her off. "Do you really think I'm giving it to you for free?"
Ginny flinched--she had zero gold in all. Luna merely grinned. "I think that helping me pack next year would be sufficient, don't you?"
The redhead beamed, clasping her new gem to her chest. She didn't say anything, but she didn't have to as she enveloped Luna in a warm one-armed hug.
The thing about Luna was that she was never uninteresting.