Card the moon

Chapter 14 – Ain't no rest for the wicked

"Could have gone better. Bah! It couldn't have gone much worse. Lucky he's even alive. And him. Oh, not good, not good at all."

Luna muttered to herself as she pattered through the hidden 'cat door' into Gryffindor tower. The portrait guarding the little hole was of a fat orange cat. It only opened if he noticed you ignoring him.

Whoever put it there clearly had some thoughts on cats.

"Need to rethink this whole thing. Maybe work ahead in the curriculum, kill two birds with one stone. That could clear out some time. Efficiency, that's the key. Need to be more efficient. And sleep, heaven sakes."

She was still muttering as she stalked into the nearly empty common room. She went silent finding someone still up so late. Her expression soured when she saw who it was.

There was another problem, and this one had an obstinate streak.

"Ehem!" she ehemed.

The girl looked around in confusion; black bags weighing down bleary eyes that looked everywhere but where they should. "Down here."

"Oh, Luna. I—~~—didn't see you there."

"I'm quite amazed you can see anything right now."

"I'm fine," the bushy-haired girl claimed, rubbing her eyes and simultaneously ruining her case.

"You should be in bed. You keep losing sleep like this it's going to negatively affect your performance and your grades are going to start sliding."

"Wha! No; no, I'm fine I…"

"B's Hermione. B's!"

It was a testament to how transparent the girl was that Luna had her completely figured out in the short time they'd been together.

"Well—maybe it can wait till morning to finish," she hedged, glancing between the dorms and the big heavy book. So big; so wordy; maybe just a little more…

"Hermione."

"Eep! I'm going."

She only stumbled a little on her way to the stairs, turning before she was two steps up, "Luna, you haven't seen Harry by any chance?"

"Judging by the look of him he's probably asleep by now. I'm not entirely sure he was ever awake."

"Yeah. Maybe I should check on him…"

"Hermione."

"Alright, I'm going, I'm going."

"Hmm." Another one bites the dust, so to speak.

It had been a calculated move, intentional. He'd placed the youma somewhere obvious, yet not too obvious to seem suspicious; the intent being to draw out the mysterious youma slayer, if one in fact did exist. The evidence was sadly, inconclusive.

Signs of the battle were easy to follow, the youma wasn't subtle. Huge chunks of stone had been torn from the walls and great gouges marked her passing.

"It was here, they killed her here," he thought aloud, looking at the deep hole where a fist had torn right into the wall, and the opposing side where someone had been slammed, hard enough to crack the stone.

It wasn't clear how she'd been killed, but there was no further sign of battle, it must have ended here. But how, and who?

Waving a hand, he repaired the damage, leaving no trace the fight had ever happened. "It wouldn't do to arouse suspicion."

His enemy was cagey, if enemy they were. He needed more information before he started making plans. Another trap need be set. A more subtle youma. Or better yet, two. One as bait, the other to observe.

"Hmm, now who should it be?" Casually he walked back to his office, pondering the question.

"So unguarded," he really was. Fast asleep, he looked so unguarded, so innocent, such a nice boy.

If she were being honest, and she was almost reasonably sort of confident that she might have been, he probably was a nice boy. She'd just caught him on a bad day. It's not like he was trying to be mean to her. He didn't even know her.

Not that it had stopped anyone else from picking on her in the past, but he was a nice boy. She was at least forty five percent almost positive he could be.

He stirred in his sleep. Unconsciously she ran a hand through his messy black hair. She'd heard of such hair being called a 'rat's nest' before. She didn't think that was literal, but she could certainly imagine the sort of things that might make a home in there.

Whatever private demon troubled him quickly subsided, but she saw no reason to stop what she was doing. It felt right, she thought it did anyway. Some might have disagreed, thinking it not at all right standing over a sleeping person contemplating what she was contemplating. Well, they weren't there to stop her so HA!

She'd only come for what was rightly hers. The cards didn't belong to him, and they were right there, winking at her from his back pocket. Not even a hands length away. She could take them and go, and he'd never know it was her. She could, that's why she was there. She could do it. She could… she could.

*sigh* "Oh Harry."

Regretfully pulling her hand away, she turned to leave. Her perpetual look of surprise served her well upon discovering a certain black cat standing in the doorway staring at her intently. Cats were well known for their stare, but the young witch felt there was a bit more to this one than the average kitty.

"Good evening."

"That seems entirely subjective at the moment."

Yep, definitely not the average kitty. "I was just leaving."

"Were you?" The feline's tone suggested her plans may be changing.

Time for a non-sequitur, "He really is a nice boy," she said.

"He is," the feline agreed. "A very nice boy."

"Yes," she had thought so. "I wonder, do you think we could be friends?" She didn't have any friends; except Kero of course, but he was going to be very annoyed when he found out what she'd done.

The cat considered her with a penetrating stare, "Would you really be his friend. You might not wish to be, if you knew what he was involved in."

"I don't think friendship is dependent on that sort of thing. Or if it is, it shouldn't be." If friendship was situational it would never last long, that seemed silly.

"Hmm," the feline hmmed, hopping onto a nearby desk and staring at her some more. "And you're not even going to mention that I'm a talking cat?"

"Is that strange," Kero talked, and didn't look near as smart as a cat.

"Context I suppose," the cat sighed. "You should go."

"I should," she agreed; it would have been rude to argue. "Just one thing," she said at the door, "I don't think I caught your name."

"What did you say your name was?" the cat asked with a suspicious grin.

"Luna," replied Luna.

"There, now you caught it."