I'M BACK! In return for the long LONG wait, here's the longest chapter yet. And I still don't own a thing...shoot...
Warning: Music featured is not Canon-Time Period compliant because I'm too lazy to look up 90's music. I also give TwiLyght (who wrote that piece of FanFic legend, the Hogwarts Blog) all credit for their idea of introducing Muggle music to the citizens of Hogwarts.
Luna Lovegood's Diary
Am too happy to think of a curse...
Same time, Same place, all that jazz...
So we were just sitting with Ginny and talking. She was threatening me, Neville was threatening her, and I was playing with the centerpiece.
Did you know that pumpkins bounce up to seven feet into the air if you use the right angle and amount of force? AN: They don't really. Well, I'm not positive because I've never done it, but I think it's a safe assumption to make. Remember, Luna has MAGICAL pumpkins! Do not try this at home. DO NOT!
Well, we were doing that and then the food came.
It was good food.
So we were eating and that kind of thing, when Neville suddenly looks up from his plate and says, "Luna. You never told me something about yourself!"
I blinked. He was right. In all the excitement (Did you know that the Carrows don't like it when you bounce pumpkins?) I'd forgotten.
I bit my lip, trying to figure something out that would be a secret but not of the overly humiliating or pity inducing type. "Uh, sometimes I like to tease Moaning Myrtle by telling her that the Ghostbusters are going to come get her."
"Aw, come on, Luna!" Neville rolled his eyes. "Everybody teases her! Maybe not in such a creative way as you, but still!"
"Fine." I conceded with a sigh. "Let's see...I enjoy painting portraits of people?"
"That's awesome! And exactly what I was talking about. I wish I could paint..."
I smiled weakly, glad I'd left out the part about me painting a portrait of HIM...on the ceiling of my bedroom, no less...
Eurgh. Now THAT would be embarrassing if it ever got out...
"That's why you were so good at our, ah, decorating session!" Neville realized with a grin.
"Yep!" I said, then pulled off the gloves the RoR had provided for me to hide the incriminating evidence. "I've still got the paint on my hands."
"Wow." Neville said with raised eyebrows. "Isn't there any way to make it come off?"
"Yeah, it's only on the top few layers of skin or so, so in about a week it'll be gone." I sighed. "I'll miss it though."
Neville smiled. "Ah, well. One less thing to convict you of 'wrongdoing', I suppose."
"Oh, look!" I said in excitement. "I think the music is starting!"
Indeed it was. Neville turned to look at the stage and grinned in agreement with me. "Good, this is getting sort of boring."
"What?" I said in mock horror. "Are you suggesting that I'm not a fascinating person to talk to?"
"No, of course not!" Neville said immediately, then stopped and sighed. "That was more sarcasm, wasn't it."
"Yep!"
He just shook his head. "Well, let's just watch, kay?"
"Okay, fine!" I gave in with a grin.
Which then slid off my face like butter on a bald monkey.
Because Amycus Carrow had taken the microphone and was beginning to talk.
"Aw, no..." Neville moaned. "I could see this coming, but..."
We sat there in misery as he gave a lecture on how important this day was in pureblood history and how it would be commemorated by true magical folks for ever.
"Get a life, Carrow." Ginny mumbled with a smirk. I gave a small smile back, but inside I was seething. How dare they do this? Talk about MURDER as if it was something to be proud of!
Then I grimaced wryly. Of course they could talk about murder as if it was something to be proud of. They worked for Voldemort! In their minds, it WAS something to be proud of!
I felt sick. Not sick to my stomach, like I was earlier. No, this time I felt sick at heart.
And so then, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. "Now," Carrow began, "We weren't able to get a real band to show up for this dance, so me and my sister and Snape will be providing the music tonight."
Not even the Slytherins cheered at this remark.
"Please don't tell me Snape is singing!" Neville muttered in horror.
"No," I said in pain, "It looks like Alecto will be taking care of that. Snape seems to be playing the violin."
"And Amycus?" Ginny asked. "Don't tell me he's going to be playing guitar."
"No." I answered, confused and incredulous. "It looks like he will be playing the cowbell."
"Cow bell?" Neville snorted.
"Oh, come on!" Ginny scoffed. "You don't expect me to believe that!"
About twenty seconds after that remark, she believed it. "My ears...." she rasped. "They're bleeding!"
"Oh, no!" Neville groaned. "I think he's going to start singing backup!"
"L, la la la la, la!" Amycus squealed, his voice magnified by a spell.
"Make it stop..." Ginny moaned.
"And I didn't think it could get any worse!" I said, watching in horror as Snape picked up his violin.
"Actually," Neville said after about thirty seconds of his playing. "He's fairly good."
Truth was, Snape was excellent. "So that's what he does with his spare time." Ginny said. "He plays violin."
"What, exactly, though, is he playing?" Neville asked. "My grandmother has made me listen to practically every classical piece of music ever written and I don't recognize this at ALL."
We sat in silence for a bit longer, and then it hit me.
"Oh my God!" I said in horror. "He's playing The Immigrant Song!"
"The WHAT?"
"It's by Led Zeppelin." I explained. "Famous Muggle song. Obviously, the Carrows haven't a clue what they're doing. Some Muggle Studies teacher she is!"
"Okay," Neville said. "Everybody else is dancing, so let's do that for a couple songs or so."
"And then leave!" Ginny instructed. "Because this music is giving me a migraine!"
Neville and I walked out onto the dance floor, but the cacophony that out teachers were producing was, quite simply, impossible to dance to.
"That moron!" I hissed. "He keeps changing the tempo! It's the one thing a cowbell has to do, and Amycus is incapable of it!"
"That's not exactly surprising." Neville said, with an eye roll. He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me into a niche in the side of the great hall. The others were all filled with couples resolutely trying to drown out the terrible music by snogging ceaselessly. Well, I think they'd be there regardless of the music, but whatever. At first I wondered what on earth Neville was doing over here.
But I understood immediately after he pulled the DA galleon out of his pocket. "That's it!" he sighed. "The party's starting. NOW."
"No," I corrected him. "In twenty minutes. Maggie, Ginny, Padma and I need time to set up. And Colin Creevey."
"What?" Neville said indignantly. "You let Creevey help decorate but not me? How is that fair?"
"Oh, you misunderstand." I said. "The Creevey brothers promised to do the music for us if I modified their iPods and speakers to run on magic."
"Oh." Neville said. "I suppose that's okay then. Okay, you guys go set up and I'll spread the word around."
"Great!" I said, and then left. Padma was already sitting with Ginny back at the table, and I saw Maggie talking to a couple of Gryffindor fifth years by the door. I nodded to her and it seemed as if she saw me because I saw her leave the room.
I approached Ginny and Padma, trying to force my face into an expression of extreme sadness. That was not only the signal we had arranged earlier, it would also attract the attention of other DA members who would understand it. And the non DA-ers would simply think that Neville Longbottom had dumped Loony Lovegood, which wouldn't be a surprise at all.
Ginny put her arm around my shoulders and I left the Great Hall looking like I was about to cry. In reality, I was trying to not laugh, but both produced the necessary shaking shoulders and shortness of breath, so what does it really matter?
Meanwhile, Padma had walked over to her sister Parvati and was whispering something into her ear as the pink-clad beauty danced with Dean Thomas. Most would assume it was a piece of gossip about my and Neville's presumed breakup, but the truth was that it was a message about the beginning of the new dance. Parvati was nearly as fast as the Galleons as far as information spreading goes, and much less suspicious.
Maggie was waiting for us outside and together the three of us began walking upstairs. Padma caught up with us at about the third floor.
"The message is on it's way." Padma notified us. "So, are we going with color scheme one or color scheme two?"
"One." Maggie and Ginny said together.
"Two." I said.
Padma rolled her eyes. "Guys..." she sighed. "It's a little late to be arguing."
"One is too boring!" I said in exasperation.
"Two is too weird!" Ginny countered.
"It's not weird!" I said as we stepped onto a moving staircase. "It's black with orange bats! That follows all the Halloween requirements!"
Maggie blinked. "No," she said. "That's color scheme one. Color Scheme two is an enormous mural of Voldemort being viciously killed."
"What?" I said in outrage. "I thought we threw that one out long ago!"
Padma just sighed. "Black with bats it is." she declared. "Oh, the Creevey brothers already set up their stuff so they'll be up in about ten minutes."
"Great." Ginny said, and then clapped her hand to her forehead. "Oh no!"
"What?" Padma asked.
"We don't have any food! And the room can't conjure it, remember?"
"Oh, yeah!" Maggie said. "I'll run down to the kitchens and grab something!"
"Okay." Padma said. "But just get snacky stuff, okay? And lots of pumpkin juice, or punch, or something like that."
"Punch?" Ginny said with an evil grin.
"The nonalcoholic type!" Padma clarified immediately.
"Okay." Maggie said, and ran back down the stairs. We continued up to the Room of Requirement and stopped in front of the tapestry.
"Well." Ginny said to Padma. "I believe it is your turn to command the room."
She nodded, and began pacing with a look of intense concentration on her face. The familiar door appeared, and we entered.
I smiled. "It's perfect!" I said happily. "Did you Anti-Carrow it?"
"Yep!" Padma said proudly. "Here, Ginny, let's do a few last minute arrangements of all this stuff."
Ginny complied, and I began putting up more protective enchantments. I was sure the room had taken care of all of that, but it couldn't hurt to make sure. I threw up a few evil detecting charms, a couple curse reflectors, and Muffliato. Hermione Granger had taught it to me over the summer during those times when she, Ginny, and I would spend time together. She told me to only use it when I absolutely had to, because Snape had created it and nobody wants to use spells created by HIM. Well, I figured the situation wasn't desperate but it would help, and besides: I wanted to make sure it worked before a time came when when the situation really WAS desperate.
I finished and turned around. I smiled even more: the room really was perfect.
The walls were black and shiny, so reflective I could see my face in the surface. Orange and black bats drifted eerily about ten feet off the ground, magically suspended. Most of the room was covered by a dance floor made of dark polished wood, and the remaining floor space was taken up by a bright orange carpet with the table where the food would go. The Creevey's stereo system was set up in one corner. The room was lit by eerie, bobbing candles emitting a faint green light, but the widespread pale light was more than enough to illuminate every square inch of the room.
Colin walked in next to Maggie. They were laughing and talking, Maggie with her arms full of food, Colin carrying a box presumably full of CD's and his iPod.
"Wow." he said as he took in the setup. "Just...wow."
"I take it we chose our decorations well?" Maggie said, walking over to the table and depositing her armload of comestibles.
"Definitely!" Colin agreed, depositing his load of musical items and setting them up.
The first guests began trickling in. Some looked thrilled with the decorations, some looked thoroughly unnerved.
Neville came in near the end of the flow of people and walked over to the wall by the music setup where I was standing. "Nice job!" he marveled. "And this room is even more soundproof than I thought it was!"
"Ah." I said. "No, that would be the muffliato I set up."
"Well, whatever it is, it works. So, does the music start soon?" he asked.
In response, Colin who was standing a mere five feet away smiled and turned on the speakers.
"Well." Neville said. "This is better than the Carrows, certainly. It's very good, actually. I think I may have heard this before."
"It wouldn't surprise me if you had." I told him. "This is U2. It's very popular."
We stood in silence for a bit. Neville was listening to the music, and I was looking for Ginny among the crowds of people.
Neville took me by the hand and led me out onto the dance floor. People were just beginning to dance, so we were about to join in when the music abruptly changed.
Half the people there looked quite pleased with this development. A few Muggleborns or halfbloods were snickering, and the remainder of people were looking stunned and shell shocked.
"Ok." Neville said, voice pitched a bit loud to reach over the blaring music. "What is this?"
"This is something that Colin is going to have to explain right now." I said, and set off through the crowd back to the music corner, pink skirt swishing behind me.
"Colin!" I said in irritation. "What are you THINKING?"
"But Luna!" Ginny protested, appearing out of nowhere. "I quite like this!"
"Well, I do too, as a matter of fact." I told her. "But this kind of thing is something you need to be eased into gently. Look at poor Hannah Abbott! She's crying!"
"Her boyfriend just dumped her by owl post, Luna. Of course she's crying." Colin cut in. "And what's wrong with this stuff?"
"They swear a lot!"
"So? They've heard it all before."
"It's hard to dance to."
"No it's not! Have you seen the music video? The whole thing is one enormous dancing session!"
"It's depressing!"
"Okay, you win that one." Colin said with a sigh. "No more My Chemical Romance."
"You can play it." I said with a sigh. "Just play Welcome to the Black Parade, or Teenagers, or one of their less creepy songs. I mean, Helena? What are you trying to do, permanently traumatize these people?"
"Well..." Colin said with a grin.
I rolled my eyes. "Just stick away from the depressingly emo, okay? I like that kind of thing, but you're scaring too many people. Normally I'd think that that's hilarious, but right now the last thing they need is something else to be afraid of. Right now they just need a night of pure fun, and MCR isn't fitting it." AN: I absolutely LOVE MCR, I'm just assuming that most people Hogwarts wouldn't.
"Fine, fine." Colin said with a sigh. He switched it away from Helena and started playing Viva la Vida by Coldplay. The happiness levels of the DA rose drastically.
I made my way back to Neville. "Sorry about that." I told him as we started to dance. "Had to take care of that."
"The song wasn't so bad." he said.
"I'm glad you feel that way, but most people, well, don't."
"Yeah, yeah, very true." he said.
We danced in silence for a while, and then I spoke up again.
"Neville?"
"Yes, Luna?"
"You can't dance at all, can you?"
Neville flushed. "Well, ah, no."
I smiled at him. "That's okay." I said as the song shifted into something less recognizable. "Just-can you please get off my foot?"
Neville turned an even darker shade of red. "Of course!"
We walked back over to the snack table and got pumpkin juice. Then I stopped and sighed again. "Colin!"
"No, I'm Neville."
"Not you!" I said with an apologetic grin in his direction, and returned to Colin's station.
"Yes, Luna?" he said.
"I love them and all, but please! Refrain from playing Panic! At The Disco at all costs."
"Fine, fine." Colin said. "How's this?"
I smacked myself in the forehead. "No. You are not playing SAFETY DANCE!"
"They all like it." he pointed out helpfully.
I turned around and looked.
They did all like it.
"Well, they're morons." I sighed. "Look, just play it and then pick something better. Is that clear?"
"Crystal." he said.
We went through a few more repetitions of that sequence before something truly drastic happened.
Blaise Zabini walked in.
As the tall Slytherin entered our Halloween party, the entire room fell dead silent.
"Damn it!" Neville said eventually. "I mean, nothing to see here. Move along."
Blaise rolled his eyes in that condescending way all Slytherins have down pat. "I know this is a, what was it? Oh, yes, "DA" meeting."
"Well, in that case, everybody EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!" Neville shouted. But Blaise just rolled his eyes.
"Don't worry." Blaise said languidly, stretching. "I'm not here to report you. I'm here to sample some pumpkin juice. Take in the gorgeous decorations. Dance with a pretty girl or two."
His comment was met with complete and utter silence.
"Look." he said, all the bravado gone and his voice filled with complete honesty. "I'm not here with the Carrows. I'm not here with Snape. I'm here because I've seen what they're doing to the Mudbloo-I mean, Muggleborns. And I don't really like it."
Nobody said anything.
"The Zabinis are Switzerland! Figuratively, I mean. Not literally, that would be creepy. Cool, but creepy."
Silence. Again.
"We are neutral." he continued. "We do not side with anybody. We just get sorted into Slytherin and make our way up into the hierarchy of Wizarding life. We answer to nobody but ourselves. All we want is power, and before we've gotten it by siding with the dark. But I look at all the people in my house who used to be my friends and see that by joining He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, they haven't gotten any power. All they've ended up with has been a lot of pain and I don't want that. You-Know-Who has told my family to take a stand. He said to them, either you're with me or against me, no more of this neutral stuff. They chose your side-well, our side now, I guess. Because now the Dark Lord is out to get us, and I figure if my Mum can stand up to him, I can too."
There was a short pause, and then Ernie MacMillan began clapping enthusiastically from where he stood next to Susan Bones. "Bravo!" he cried. "Bravo!"
More people chimed in, until nearly everybody in the room was cheering enthusiastically. "Go Zabini!" they cried, or "Score one for filthy traitor Slytherins!"
Okay, that one wasn't exactly a cheer, but it's the sentiment at heart that matters, right? Actually, I think that one was Ginny, and that makes it completely okay. Right?
And then came a surprise that nearly overshadowed the rest. Blaise walked across the room and kissed Padma Patil.
When they surfaced for air, silence had returned. All eyes were back on him.
"Okay," he admitted. "That might have had a bit to do with my decision too."
A couple people laughed, but everybody else just returned to their previous activities.
The music returned, normal again. I had just added Fall Out Boy to Colin's list of music he can't play (they are not only emo, they also kind of suck) when Neville grabbed me by the hand.
"What?" I said cluelessly.
"Well, ah, er..." Neville stuttered.
"Out with it already!" I laughed.
"Will you teach me to dance?"
I smiled warmly. I'd been doing a lot of that recently, thanks to him. "Of course."
Most of the younger students had cleared off by now, so it was just fourth years and up dancing and there was plenty of room for me to teach him.
I quickly learned that he simply wasn't very good.
"Ow, Neville!" I complained. "That used to be my foot!"
"Sorry." he said with a wince. "I have coordination issues!"
"Trust me." I replied with a sigh. "I know. Remember that time when you were in third year and I was in second, and the dementors attacked Harry at the Quidditch game?"
"Yes..." he said warily.
"Well, when you stood up to see what was going on, your scarf whipped around, smacked me in the face, and knocked me off the bleachers."
Neville chuckled, then caught himself. "Er...I'm sorry! I didn't realize..."
"Don't sweat it." I told him. "I wasn't in the hospital wing as long as Harry, I just broke my arm."
"Oh, Luna!" he said. "I'm so sorry!"
"I told you, don't sweat it!" I lowered my voice theatrically, looking around as if someone might be spying on us. The only people left were Padma, Blaise, Maggie, Colin, Ginny, and Ernie MacMillan, who was talking to Susan Bones.
"What?"
"Your mind was being controlled by an Aquavarius Maggot. It wasn't your fault."
Neville smiled. "Thanks."
"No problem." Colin was back to playing metal, but I didn't care. Nobody left did.
I looked over. Him and Maggie were laughing together hysterically. Maggie's face was bright red, and Colin was bending over he was laughing so hard.
Ginny was sitting on the floor in the far corner of the room, arms wrapped around her knees. Padma and Blaise were sitting at a table that had appeared out of somewhere and were talking animatedly about something. Ernie was lecturing Susan Bones, who was nodding off.
I looked back at Neville. The song had just shifted to a slower, more acoustic tune: Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. AN: You should go to YouTube and play that song right about now. He smiled. "May I have this dance?"
"If you promise to not step on my toes." I told him. We started rotating slowly on the spot.
"Thanks for coming to the dance with me." Neville said.
"It was my pleasure." I responded, and then I stopped dancing. "Oh, this is ridiculous!"
"What?" he said, face puzzled and vaguely sad. "What did I do?"
"You're leading the dance all wrong!" I sighed. "Like this!"
And then the dance shifted. It was still clumsy, still just a little awkward, but now we were moving, in time with the music. It didn't feel perfect like it always does in the storybooks. But it felt right, like we were meant to be here, together.
The lights had changed somehow. They weren't green and eerie, they were soft and white and thoroughly honest. I could feel his palms sweating, and suddenly my heart was pounding liike mad, faster and rougher than the music.
It was still playing, but somehow we had stopped moving and were just standing in the middle of the deserted dance floor. Zabini, Padma, Susan, and Ernie had all left. Ginny was still in her corner, and from what I could see Colin had his arm around Maggie.
But that didn't really seem to matter to me right then. All that mattered was that he was here, with his arms around me, and we were staring at each other-
And then he kissed me.
And come on! What else is there to say?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
So...did you like it? 11 whole pages, a personal best!
Now, for the next chapter I want to skip over the time between now and Christmas, because it'll all be just pure fluff (not that it hasn't been so far) and I want it to move quickly.
So here are your options:
1.I just don't write it. I put in a quick summary in the next chapter and just move along.
2.I write the month of November like I'm supposed to, but it's exceedingly boring.
3.I write November in the form of a third person one shot that's Padma's POV on Luna and Neville's relationship.
So tell me in a review, because I honor your opinion. WARNING: If no feedback is received, I'll go with option #3. If you like that one anyway, well, tell me anyway. Please?
