Midnight Lilly: Yes, but if Luna did that she wouldn't be Luna. I think she'd handle any kind of backlash with calm, understanding and some degree of aloofness.
Prompt: Gossip (#136)
October Rumors
Nearing the end of October, Luna's little protrusion was becoming visible beneath her robes. Despite Hermione's offer to charm Luna's ever-expanding abdomen so that it would go unnoticeable, Luna declined. She didn't really care what people thought of her and she didn't feel that she should made to feel ashamed for something that was perfectly natural.
However, that did not stop people from gossiping and before long, the rumors were spreading. Luna, who had endured years of people calling her Loony and being treated like something on the bottom of somebody's shoes, didn't let it bother her.
Unfortunately, while most rumors were relatively harmless, other's were quite hurtful. And as much as Luna knew not to give the ugly words people liked to spew in their ignorance, Luna found that her body was no longer quite her own.
The life growing inside her made its presence known every day. The flutters she had felt the previous month, had now becoming more substantial movements that caused her heart to skip a beat and smile to light her face.
However, it was not all fun.
Her breasts had grown to a size that she did not find easily manageable and seemed quite an uproar amongst the males. They made her back hurt, and Luna was finding it a chore to sit down, and stand up or lay down and then stand up.
Her feet started to ache, and she could no longer skip down the halls as had been her wont to do. And this was not taking into consideration the other aches and pains she'd feel on the occasion.
Worse yet were the hormones. They had invaded her body and seemed to have taken complete control over her emotions. She found herself crying over the silliest of things, and getting angry, which was not something that happened much before.
As Luna stood up, after perhaps the sixth time peeing in the day, she froze with her hand on the door handle. She'd been thinking about pudding when the chatter of a pair of girls distracted her. "-I can't wait till she's the size of a whale," one of the girl's said.
"Who do you think the father is?" said another girl.
"I don't know, I've tried to pry it from Ginny, but she won't say anything. But I doubt she even knows," the first girl replied. "I've head it's a Malfoy's, and if you ask me, it fits."
Luna felt her stomach revolt at this and she frowned, hand frozen on the latch to her stall.
"How do you figure that?" the other girl asked, not sounding nearly as horrified as Luna felt.
"Well, think about it. She was abducted last year around the holidays and I've heard she was imprisoned in Malfoy Manor for several months. Who's to say she didn't get knocked up during those months by one of them? And if it's not true, why all the secrecy?" the other girl asked, her voice fading as she and the other girl started exiting.
"I don't know-"
However, Luna heard no more as the door shut and with it, she felt herself falling apart. She could feel her body trembling as she sat down on the closed lid of the toilet, her eyes filling with tears. Her body was vibrating with something, but she wasn't sure if it was hurt, or anger as she let the tears flow. Wrapping her arms around her belly, she rocked herself, wondering how people could be so cruel.
TBC...
