Mating Dance
By Sarah Elisabeth
Rating: G
Characters: Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood and the giant squid.
Summary: In which Harry attempts to rid himself of Luna but does something very foolish and squid-like instead.
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling except the plot because she'd never write anything this short or foolish. Ever.
Apology: I would like to take this moment to apologize to everyone who reads this. It is an extremely unfortunate piece of writing; however, it came to me and I had to write it. It's short. It's sweet. It'll never happen again.
Harry looked out at the lake. The giant squid appeared to be thrashing about—maybe in an attempt to scare away the birds or something like that. It was probably just very bored and could not think of another way to go about amusing itself. Hagrid would most likely find it adorable.
He turned around and spotted Luna coming towards him. That girl had an uncanny ability for turning up right when he wanted to be left alone. He sighed as she plopped down next to him. Her messy ponytail was held up by her wand today—God forbid she should ever set her hair on fire with that thing. Harry looked at her uneasily as she stared at him.
"Hi, Luna," he said after a couple minutes passed with her not saying a word.
"Hullo Harry."
Harry blinked and looked at her, becoming more uncomfortable with each passing second. "Umm…What's up?"
"Oh! Well, I saw Mars yesterday and we know that can't be a good sign at this time of the year."
"Is that so?" Harry wanted nothing more than for her to go away and let him sit in peace.
"Yes. That or it means that there will be a question of great importance asked. I don't know which one though."
"Trelawney says that the position of every planet in accordance to anything else usually means I'm going to die."
Luna stared out at the lake and didn't respond.
In months to come, Harry would still be unable to explain what made him act the way he did at the lake that day. Almost without thinking about it, Harry began to thrash his legs about, mimicking the giant squid. The way he saw it was, it scared away the birds, so maybe it'll scare away Luna. Instead, she smiled at him.
"I'm very flattered, but you know I can't accept."
Harry stopped, feeling very foolish. "What?"
"I was surprised. I've never known a wizard to propose using a squid's mating ritual before, but you know what? It was perfect." Harry was dumbfounded. "I really am flattered. I just can't accept! We're still too young." And with that she patted him on the head and walked away.
It wasn't until Luna had disappeared into the castle did Harry finally understand what had happened. The giant squid hadn't been playing a game or attempting to scare away the birds as he originally thought. It had been looking for a mate. He just preformed a mating ritual in front of Luna Lovegood. Harry blushed, silently cursed, and prayed to every god he knew of that no one would ever find out as he made his way silently back to the castle. It figured that someone like Luna would know how squids mate. She was weird like that.
The End
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