They laughed at her as she walked away from them, her dangling vegetable earrings swaying gently as she glided away, seemingly oblivious to their words. It was a pretty night. The lights were twinkling with life, as though they were little eyes blinking attentively at all who passed by their radiance. The hanging decorations swayed in a breeze only they could feel and the people dancing to the cheery melody were the same. She smiled dreamily as she stared into the middle-distance at something only she could see. Her date for the evening had just left her for a moment but she knew he wasn't coming back.
She liked him, she really did, despite all the nargles that were drawn to him like trouble to a Cornish pixie. He was a curious boy. All that hate had only made him love harder, fiercer, and more strongly than many others she knew. The eccentric young woman liked to think they were alike in that way. For all that she was bullied, teased, ridiculed and dismissed, she didn't hold it against them. They were just overly infested with wrackspurts, after all, which wasn't really their fault. Easily enough fixed, but to her confusion they always refused her offers of assistance. She blamed the wrackspurts; Hogwarts was infested with them.
The boy who loved so strongly had dismissed her assistance too, she recalled, but she respected that he did it with more grace than the others. He liked to do things on his own. She accepted that. He also wanted to be alone tonight but had asked her if she'd like to join him anyway, as friends, of course. She did and had made sure to wear her brightest to express how happy she was, but as she watched him flee the party after his quarry, she knew he was too distracted to pay her attention again.
Nargles were a nasty nuisance. She'd always said so.
Awesome work on the last chapter. Bloody Umbitch and Pudge. Haha, nah, Dolores Umbridge and Cornelius Fudge were the pair featured last and a huge congratulations to islanzadi heap, TheFantabulousPotterHead, 03hermione1992 and darkswansea for the correct guess! Yaaaaaay! Also a very flattered thanks to 5sunday5 for the specific compliment (and a shared depression that the fish named Sunday is now dead - that beast was over five years old and it was just your average, store-bought freshwater fish that grew into this giant fish I thought would eat me) and a great big, heartfelt Hearts Are Broken welcome to MistyForestQueen! Right, now this one is up. Care to tango with me?
Hermitt
P.S. I can't tango except in my head. Be warned.