HARRY POTTER DOESN'T BELONG TO ME
08: Colin Creevey
No one had to tell Luna who Colin Creevey was.
The boy happened to be anywhere and everywhere it seemed like.
The little eager eleven year old always trailed after people and took photographs with excitement etched across his features. The brunet mainly followed after fellow upper years in the Gryffindor House.
He obviously wouldn't follow after the Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs were probably fun when it came to getting honest opinions where he could fan girl over the amazing Harry Potter while eating snacks. Then there was the Ravenclaws, he sometimes went to them but not that much—especially since most of them gave him the stink eye when it came to seeing him walking over to them with his camera. They were studying and they didn't need an irritating first year asking them their opinions on going to the same school as Harry Potter and how amazing it was to breathe the same air as Harry Potter did and not to mention…Harry Potter.
The Slytherins liked to charm Colin to make sure that he would trip over his feet or they would try and find ways to charm his camera. He was fun to torment on—he basically begged them to bully him, especially since he didn't know how to keep quiet about his hero worshipping around the Slytherins.
Luna did look up at the sight of Colin Creevey sitting at the Gryffindor table across the Great Hall—looking sunken in and saddened that he had upset Harry. He was going to apologize to him due to his inappropriate picture that had taken shot when Harry had been injured in the mud with his messed up arm.
"Creevey looks like he's about to go drown himself in the Black Lake if he keeps looking so sullen."
Luna turned her head, finding that Padma Patil was sitting near her for once and the Indian girl had a piece of food in her hand that she was about to eat—her pretty Indian skin and pretty brown eyes caught on the sight of Colin Creevey off in the distance.
Padma Patil was the twin of Parvati Patil. Parvati was in Gryffindor, but the both of them were identical. Luna could say that she didn't really know much about the Indian twins but they seemed nice. Padma seemed to be the one that analyzed something a little longer than her sister but that could also be the reason why she had been sorted into Ravenclaw than Gryffindor like her sister.
"Didn't you see? He went down there and was taking pictures of Harry when he was in the mud. I would be pissed off too if that idiot Lockhart had messed up my arm even more and an annoying pest was trying to take pictures of me at an inappropriate time and wouldn't shut his bloody mouth."
Luna looked back down to her meal and continued to eat, as the others around her began to converse about how much they found Colin Creevey irritating and that they were glad that Harry Potter hadn't been sorted into Ravenclaw or otherwise they'd have to have that camera happy boy trailing around and trying to get into their Common Room so that he could take pictures of Harry in the Ravenclaw Common Room.
She didn't pay attention to the voices that sometimes were drifting towards the topic of her for some odd reason, which any reason to talk about Luna was odd but that was besides the point.
She finished eating before excusing herself, getting up from her spot at the Ravenclaw table Luna left the Great Hall despite the fact that she hadn't been formally excused by the headmaster.
Trailing down the corridors, Luna smiled at the portraits that called out to her; some of them were asking why she wasn't still in the Great Hall while others were just happy to have someone that could actually let them know that they were there and that they could hear them. Luna knew that she would be lonely too if she was a portrait and no one stopped to tell her hello.
Luna thought about going to the Gryffindor Common Room but she didn't know what the password was. Besides she would have rather had Ginny with her so that they both could sit on the comfy couches that were in the Common Room. She quite liked how it was comfortable in the Gryffindor Common Room, not that she had ever been in the Common Room, but there was only one Common Room that was the most comfy and that happened to be the Hufflepuffs.
Luna didn't have any friends that were in Hufflepuff. So she couldn't go down to the Common Room and sit in the yellow themed Common Room where every square inch was meant to be comfy living and feel like a summer home than anything else—like being one floor higher than the lake where the Slytherin Common Room was.
So instead Luna went back upstairs to her Common Room and sat down at the loveseat that faced automatically at the fireplace. She curled up and leant her head down against her pillow as she watched the warm flames flicker to and fro. They were little dancers made of burning gasoline that twirled in their own way and danced to their own rhythm that no one else could hear.
She closed her eyes and fixed how she was lying so that she was lying on her left side and her hair fell forward a little in front of her face. She took light breaths, her chest moving up and down and recording her breaths as she allowed the peacefulness and emptiness fill her.
She wanted to be up here so that she could be alone for once, and she didn't want to be around the other students where they would be asking her if she had a slight moment of sanity when it came to blurting out that Lockhart was a liar and that they shouldn't trust him.
"Luna, wake up!"
Luna blinked a few times and let her eyes open all the way before she rubbed away the crust that had acuminated in her tear ducts. She sat upright and found that Mandy Brocklehurst was standing in front of her, no crouched in front of her—with the slight gaze of Padma in the background.
"Hello, Mandy. How was the pudding tonight? I wasn't in the mood for it," Luna admitted, earning a bewildered look from Mandy before she shook her head and crouched down even more so that she was sitting somewhat on the carpeted flooring.
"Pudding was all right, Luna. I heard that there was another attack and I was afraid that something had happened to you. The portraits told us."
Luna turned her head around, finding that there were more students that were in the Common Room than she thought. If she was more naïve she would have thought that they were all concerned about her. Instead she knew that they just wanted to see if she was alive or not.
"Oh no, I just wanted a nap. I'm happy that you listened to the portraits though, they get quite lonely since no one really talks to them."
If Luna was anyone else she would have felt saddened at the fact that they were only interested in coming up here to see if she was the latest victim but she didn't. They weren't her friends, she knew that they would feel maybe a little bit of guilt but relief would wash over them and depending on how they truly were they could either let one swallow the other emotion whole.
Luna got up from her spot on the loveseat and smoothed down her clothes before she began to head towards where her dorm was. Behind her she could hear the rustling of people that let her know that everyone was starting to get settled in for the night. She didn't care to be in the Common Room anymore—reading a book or doing anything really, because she knew that she wouldn't be able to feel that peacefulness that she had felt before she had fallen asleep.
The next day, Luna found out with the others that the second victim happened to be Colin Creevey. She could hear a couple of the Ravenclaws muttering about how being too curious was going to be the death of Colin Creevey. He would do something that he wasn't prepared for—both mentally and physically.
"Luna, are you okay?"
Luna blinked a few times, surprised to find that Cho Chang had actually taken a spot that was a few seats down from her. Usually the oriental girl sat further down the table with her friends but for some reason she had moved closer to Luna and she craned her head to the side.
"Oh, I'm fine, Cho. Thank you for asking though." Luna reached down and picked up her fork so that she could stab a sausage from her plate. She looked back up to find that Cho Chang studied her for a second before she nodded her head, as though she was telling herself that Luna was really okay.
"Did you know Colin Creevey?" she probed towards the light blonde haired girl, earning a no from said blonde. Cho Chang allowed her eyes to peer at the Gryffindor table, finding that everyone at the table was stiffened and confused as though they wanted to know what was wrong, especially since the first human victim happened to be Gryffindor.
Everything would go to hell if the next victim ended up being another Gryffindor. Both Ravenclaws knew that tensions would increase between Gryffindor and Slytherin since the Gryffindor's knew that this must have some connection with the house of Salazar Slytherin.
Luna finished her breakfast before she got up from her spot at the table and left, waiting in the hall so that she could see Ginny once she left the Great Hall. She had wanted to check up on her and see how she was.
She was happy that the second victim didn't happen to be Ginny. She would have been devastated if she had lost her only true friend. Sure she wouldn't be dead, since Mrs. Norris wasn't dead but was petrified.
People left the Great Hall, a few of them glancing over at Luna before dismissing her, whispering the words Loony Lovegood and how she wasn't the one who had been a victim since she had all types of creatures follow her that could supposedly protect and ward off the creature.
She kept her hands tightened around the leather strap of her satchel as she waited for Ginny, her eyes trained forward.
When Ginny finally left the Great Hall, Luna smiled and waved at her—earning Ginny to smile at her weakly before she made her way towards Luna. She motioned for Neville Longbottom to go on, telling him that everything was going to be all right and that he shouldn't be worried about her.
Reaching her, Ginny wrapped her arms around Luna suddenly, causing Luna to widen her eyes before she pulled away some. "I'm so happy that it wasn't you, Luna. When I heard that there was another attack I was scared that whatever it is that is out there happened to have snatched you too."
Luna smiled softly at her, "oh, no. I was taking a nap, I was tired last night. I wasn't in the mood to be in the company of others. All the creatures around me kind of make me exhausted sometimes. I have to admit that I am not surprised that it was Colin Creevey that ended up being the second victim."
"He followed after Harry all the time, would try to take pictures with him. He got a picture of him with Professor Lockhart and Harry. He got Professor Lockhart to sign it but Harry wouldn't do anything with the photo. I think that he hates him."
"I hate him too. I don't trust anyone with Videra Expera's around them. Only those who are complete liars and spill no truths have them surrounding them," Luna informed the red haired girl.
"Mum loves him. She has so many books of the man at home. When she found out that he was going to be teaching here she was excited," Ginny admitted, her face showing sourness at the remembrance of her mum squealing like a teenage girl when she had found out that Gildeory Lockhart was going to be teaching at Hogwarts.
Luna started walking with Ginny next to her; neither of them paying attention to clustered group of Gryffindor's that was passing by them. They ignored the sounds of some of the Gryffindor's asking Ginny why she was hanging out with the loon.
Ginny would turn her head to the side every time that they would call Luna a loon and she'd glare at them—the trademark female Weasley glare that would make people have their knees quiver and they'd apologize profusely before they'd run away.
"Do you want to come up to my Common Room this evening? It would be nice to hang out with you." Luna waited for the response to her offer, earning a sigh from Ginny before she looked off to the side.
"I can't. Percy and Fred and George and Ron say that I need to stay around the Gryffindor's so that they can protect me. They're afraid that something is going to happen to me. As soon as this…whatever it is…is over then I will come over to the Ravenclaw Tower and hang out with you, okay?"
Luna nodded her head, her eyes flickering away from the guilty look upon her best friend's face—only for Ginny to be knocked into by a wandering Slytherin—making her own satchel swing forward and her black journal to go out and skittle off on the stone floor.
Luna suddenly felt sickened to her stomach and took deep breaths, reminding herself to breathe as the vibrant dark aura around her sunk itself into her. She opened her satchel and began to dig around before she found her protection stone—holding it to her chest Luna felt the darkness around her be yanked back so that there would be a foot of protection all around her.
"I—I thought that you got rid of that, Ginny." Luna watched as Ginny plucked the journal up from the ground and turned her head towards Luna, seeing that the girl looked paler than she normally did. Her hands were shaking even though she was holding her protection stone.
"I was going to but I decided not to. Sometimes I just need to vent my feelings out and it makes me feel—" Ginny stopped, as though someone had just interrupted her and clamped her mouth shut. She stuffed the journal back into her satchel and looked away, "I have to go, Luna. I don't want my brothers to be worried."
Luna didn't have time to say anything before the red haired girl disappeared around the corner with a strong aura of darkness clinging itself to her, leaving Luna standing there holding a protection stone that was warding off that very aura.
