(special 2.75x drabble)
About Them Nargles
"Don't stand there, Harry!" Neville yelped.
Harry looked around him, then at his two classmates. "Why not?"
"There's nargles." Neville looked at Luna as Harry looked above him this time. "Tell him about the nargles."
She sniffled, slightly miffed. "I already told him once last year; he seemed to understand at the time."
"Yeah, I remember," Harry said, frowning at the mistletoe and stepping aside. "What did you say those things were?"
"They're insects that latch onto your skin and suck your blood, like vampires." Neville said. "They leave a nasty bite and they live in mystical plants and trees, where they can fall down on you."
"And then they roost in your hair, grow fat and large from your blood, and have to be taken off with a very precise fire spell or you'll get an infection if not attended to," Luna finished.
Harry started to nod in acceptance, then stopped. "This is a magical creature?" he asked after a second of thinking.
Luna nodded. "Oh yes."
"Oh," Harry said, a bit disappointed. "I thought it sounded kind of like a tick."
"A what?" Neville asked, but they ignored him.
"No, no Harry. Here; look," Luna said, getting excited at the prospect of converting another person. She whispered a spell and the mistletoe clump disconnected from the ceiling and floated down to her hands. She peered at it intensely for a moment, then reached in and picked up a tiny blackish brown speck between her fingernails.
"See?" So they all looked. "This is a nargle."
"That is a tick!" Harry retorted indignantly, pointing at it like its existence offended him.
"A what?" Neville said again, and was ignored again. Luna gazed at Harry, mouth open in a little oval of confusion.
"What's a tick?"
