The Love of a Lion
Chapter 4
Running Away
Day after day, week after week, month after month all passed as a blur for Luna. Class after class passed monotonously. One class stood out for Luna though, like a gunshot.
--
That fatal class was Herbology, on a Tuesday morning. The radishes for her earrings swayed in the wind. She seemed to be the only one working, everyone else it seems was gossiping. "Honestly, The Quibbler confirms about half of these accusations." She played 'answer the question silently in her mind' for about half an hour, until she got to a rather difficult one. She stopped trying to feed her Venemous Tentecular, and listened instead.
"Are you sure it's true?" Cade Narcissus paid no attention to her Tentecular, which was trying to eat her robes. Instead she was leaning over the table, out of Professor Sprout's watchful eye, gossiping to Loretta Atalanta, a jock in her own way.
"Of course! I saw them snogging in the corridor. Snogging, snogging, snogging, snogging, snogging!" Loretta looked at Cade, disgusted.
"Apparently, this couple did a lot of snogging." Luna returned to her Tentecular, pinching the flower shut. With the other hand, she quickly grabbed the seeds. She couldn't stop overhearing the gossip though. It was like watching a train wreck. You just had to watch/listen.
"Ooh! Won't Granger be tickled pink! Can't wait to see her face Lori!" Cade twisted a lock of her reddish blonde curly hair.
Granger? Was it Hermione? She didn't know any others...Luna slapped her Tentecular as it tried to eat her robes.
"It'll never last."
"You sure it's true Lori?" Cade leaned forward, Ravenclaw crest on her robes practically in Lori's face.
"I shouldn't be listening!" Luna thought nervously.
"Of course it's true! Ron Weasley is going out with Lavender Brown!"
"No..." Luna's face fell, her heart sank. "It must me true. It had to be. Why would Loretta go spreading false gossip? No, it had to be true." Nevertheless, a small flicker of hope burned in her chest. A flicker that burned all through out her classes, almost smothered by the sadness and depression of the horrible truth.
She went to dinner, eyes red from all the crying she had done. As she nonchalantly finished her dinner, next to Malfoy snogging Elizabeth, she caught a glance of the Gryffindor table. There he was. Snogging her. Hermione looked on in disgust, while Harry absent-mindedly picked at his potato.
"Of course." Luna sniffed, wiping away tears. "I knew it was true."She stood up, leaving the half-eaten remains of her dinner at her plate, and ran. She ran away from the Great Hall. Where she was running to, she had no clue. She just wanted to run. She ran past classrooms, bewildered teachers, and confused students. As she ran, she thought. She thought about...him. "Why? Why did he choose her? She's not all that good-looking. What does she have that I don't? Why- oh lord, what am I saying? Ronald Weasley is just a friend. He's just a friend. Why'd he choose- JUST A FRIEND!"
"Fine then." said a rather quiet voice. Unknown to Luna, she had said that last part out loud. Luna snapped out of her running and thinking, and saw she was in a bathroom. The only other person in there...wasn't a person. It was the ghost of a teenage girl.
"Myrtle." Luna said, almost laughing. "That's good. This is only the second floor girls bathroom. Very good."
"Come to make fun of moping Moaning Myrtle?" The ghost said, looking at Luna.
"No, I'd never do that. It's just...I think I'm sick."
"Ooh, tell me." Myrtle said, flying down to Luna. She carefully inspected her, looking her over, and passing through her a few times. "You don't look sick." Myrtle said, frowning. "But if you die, you'll have to find another toilet-"
"Have you ever been mad at a guy for going out with another girl?" Luna said, rather fast.
"Of course! That dratted Tom Riddle-"
"Could you help me? My heart always beats faster when he's around. I'm always trying to talk to him, and when he found out he has a girlfriend I just felt dead!" Myrtle sniffed, blinking back tears. "No offense." Luna said quickly.
"None taken."
"Anyway, I just felt dead! Like I had no right to live! I CAN'T TAKE IT!" Luna was panting, furiously. 'Had I just said all that?" She slumped against a wall of a bathroom stall, trying in vain to catch her breath.
Suddenly, with a crack Peeves appeared. "Oh damn it all." Luna thought. "Not that bloody poltergeist."
"Looney's got a boyfriend! Looney's got a boyfriend!" Peeves taunted laughing. Myrtle broke out into tears, perhaps out of annoyance, teasing she had undergone herself, or this...Tom Riddle person she liked. Luna walked out, contemplating what Peeves had said.
"I-It can't be true." Luna ran away, down the stairs and outside. "It can't be true." Luna ran past Hagrid's hut, near that hippogriff-who she forgot the name of- all the way to the Forbidden Forest. "It can't be true, it can't be true, it can't be true!" A flock of birds flew out of the forest, cawing loudly. She wiped her eyes free of tears then sighed. "It is true. I love Ron Weasley with all my heart."