The Ravenpuff Chronicles
by Denajane

chapter the first:
the incredible disappearing cat

Luna Lovegood was rather frantic, in such a manner that only Luna Lovegood herself could accomplish.

She was preparing to head home for the Easter holiday, and whilst in the process of packing various oddments -- lime-flavoured quills, striped toesocks, tattered copy of Wuthering Heights, and her pet biscuit tin, Heathcliff -- she realized that she had not heard the jingle of her cat's collar in some time.

She checked under her bed, and in her trunk and in her bookbag. The sound of footsteps hurrying up the stairs made her turn her head, but as her cat did not tend to wear trainers anymore, she did not expect him to appear. Instead, Ava Bradley, one of her roommates, came rushing through the door, dressed in her Quidditch robes and looking rather out of breath.

Ava was not one of Luna's most favourite human beings, and Ava would readily say the same about Luna. Without so much as a greeting, both girls spoke at once: "Have you seen--" and immediately stopped, staring at one another. Ava was silent, staring at Luna with a raised eyebrow. "What?" she asked after a pause, as if implying can't you see I'm in a hurry? Ava was always in a hurry.

"Have you seen my cat anywhere?" Luna finally asked.

Ava scoffed at her, rolling her eyes. "I didn't take him, if that's what you're implying," she said. Luna was constantly posting lists of things that she was missing around the dormitory and common room, and Ava always took this rather personally.

"I did not say that I thought you did," Luna replied calmly, looking at Ava with as much of a glare as she was capable of, considering her usual demeanor. "I simply asked--"

"I haven't seen your stupid cat," Ava said impatiently. "Have you seen Fawcett anywhere? We're supposed to head to the Pitch for practice and she's making me late."

Luna stared at Ava for another moment before shaking her head. "I have not seen her since arithmancy," she said, leaving out the part about Shannon's plan to go to the library to work on a project for ancient runes. She wasn't exactly lying. And Ava was not exactly the most pleasant person. So she did not feel bad.

Ava sighed. "If you see her... tell her I'm going to kill her," she said before turning to run back down the stairs.

"If you see my cat," Luna said at her back, "tell him that I would appreciate him emerging from whatever state of hiding he has found himself in, because--" She cut herself off, as she was rather sure Ava had not been listening to her in the first place, but also because she was now out of earshot anyway.

After a search of the common room that proved entirely fruitless, Luna plopped herself down in her favourite armchair and thought. It wasn't as if Lucian had been carried off in the night by frooples -- it was the wrong time of year. He had to be around the castle somewhere... and with a sigh, she returned to her dormitory, took out some rather bright blue parchment, and began to make a new missing items notice.

LOST:
One Black Cat
wearing Blue Collar w/ Bells
(may or may not be wearing trainers)
ANSWERS TO LUCIAN FAUST LOVEGOOD
If Found Please Return (in person) to
LUNA V. LOVEGOOD
Ravenclaw

By breakfast the next morning, just about anyone who was paying attention knew that Luna Lovegood's cat was, indeed, missing. Ernie MacMillan, however, was not paying attention, and was still rather sleepy, but Hannah had insisted he come to breakfast that morning. They hadn't been talking lately, and if she wanted to see him now... well, it would be his last chance until after the Easter holiday to set things straight with her, so he'd agreed.

He made his way down to the Great Hall rather somnambulistically, not really aware of what was going on around him until he was stopped short by a piece of bright coloured parchment was thrust in his face with a picture of a rather sadistic-looking black cat glaring up at him.

"Um, thanks," Ernie said, blinking once and reaching up to take the parchment lest he receive a papercut across the bridge of his nose. He read it through bleary eyes before looking up at the person who had thrust it upon him -- Loony Lovegood herself.

"Although I cannot imagine how he would get all the way down to Hufflepuff," Luna said brightly. Honestly, was everyone a morning person but him?

"I'll keep my eye out," Ernie mumbled, making his way past Luna to the Great Hall.

He wasn't going home for their week off. He never had for Easter. Christmas hols were, of course, spent at home, but he didn't see the point of taking a week off in the middle of the spring. On the other hand, having a week's break from classes was entirely welcome, considering his workload this year, and his duties as Prefect. It may have been nearing the end if the year, but he needed to keep himself up to his personal standards: despite not having O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s to worry about this year, there was the fact that he was in the running for Head Boy, which left him with no time for slacking off.

Sixth year was proving to be quite odd, though. He'd accidentally admitted to Hannah in February that he liked her, and since then it had all been downhill. Six years of best friendship had culminated in one botched date in Hogsmeade, and a series of awkward moments and avoided glances. They had barely spoken in weeks, as Ernie had lamented to Justin Finch-Fletchley and Megan Jones whenever he'd enter the Hufflepuff commons to see her stand and retreat for the girls' dormitories.

Megan had proved to be a useful asset (and, in doing so, a very good friend, providing him with plenty of good conversation, advice, and colouring books galore), which helped him get his mind off of Hannah, but she wasn't a Hannah-replacement. For one thing, that would just be mean -- Megan was his friend, too, and would be even without the loss of Hannah... but then again, no one could replace her, either.

And yet, he was still rather surprised when he looked up from the charmed blue parchment to scan the Hufflepuff table to not see Hannah anywhere.

Megan, however, was sitting and reading that morning's edition of the Prophet over her pancakes and cocoa. Ernie sat down across from his redhaired friend, and she looked up at him, eyebrows raised. "Ernie MacMillan at breakfast? It's the end of the world, isn't it?"

"Have you seen Hannah?" Ernie asked, rather abruptly. "I mean, hi Megan. How are you this--" (he yawned) "--rather obnoxiously bright and early morning?"

"I'm all right," Megan replied calmly. "Nothing being blamed on Mum today, so I'd say it's a good day to be a Jones. And no, I haven't seen Hannah. Should I have?"

"Well, you do sleep in the same room as her," Ernie replied, his brow furrowed. He reached and poured himself a glass of milk. "I was supposed to meet her for breakfast. She wanted to talk."

Megan shook her head sympathetically. "She was up and out before I even got up this morning," she said with a sigh. "Apparently she's--"

"Still avoiding me," Ernie finished for her. "I don't get it! What did I do? She said herself things wouldn't get weird, and I was all set for them not to. Girls are stupid."

"Hey!" Megan's voice was trying to sound indignant, but she couldn't help but smirk at him.

"Sorry," Ernie apologized, shaking his head. "I didn't mean--"

"It's okay," his friend said with a smile. "I know what you mean."

"Are you going home for Easter?"

"You're good at abruptly changing subjects this morning, you know that?"

"It's early. I'm not used to this," Ernie said. He generally slept as late as he possibly could while still making it to class on time. He loathed being late... but he loved what little sleep he could get. "And you didn't answer my question."

"I am going home," Megan said with a nod. "I didn't get to for Christmas hols, after all," she added softly, looking down at her paper again.

Ernie bit his lip. "Right. That makes sense." He didn't want to dwell on a painful subject for any longer than he needed to... He stood up from the table, abandoning his glass of milk."Well, if I don't see you before the train leaves, have a good holiday. I'm staying here, and going back to bed while I still can."

"You can keep your eye out for Luna's cat," Megan said, handing him the parchment that he had been ready to abandon on the table along with his glass of milk.

Ernie snorted a bit, taking it from her and shoving it in his pocket. "Yeah, thanks." He waved goodbye to Megan as he made his way out of the Great Hall, past Luna, who was still passing out fliers to everyone who entered (although she was currently chattering with Ginny Weasley, with whom she was good friends, and allowing people to sneak in without being attacked by her persistance).

Ernie reached the entrance to Hufflepuff and gave the password, glad to be almost back to his dormitory. He fancied his bed still being nice and comfortably warm as he'd left it before heading down to breakfast...

And as the portrait hole swung open, a flash of something black and jingly whizzed past his feet, taking up residence underneath the first armchair it passed...

author's note the first.

Hello and welcome! I am Dena, your friendly neighborhood crackshipper, and this is a story based on the first RPG that me and my best friend Amy were ever in. (She has stories up on here somewhere too... you should go read them. Find MaySoFarAway in my reviews, because she WILL review. Because she loves me.)

ANYWAY THE POINT BEING this... is based quite a bit on our extensive RP logs of Ernie and Luna and how they came to be. We enjoy our slightly ridiculous ship, thank you. I'm posting this firstly because someone reviewed my E/L ficlet to say they'd never read Ernie/Luna before, and I needed to remedy that... and also, because Miss Amy is writing the doomiest AU-version of the end of said RPG (which was called Evinco -- the game, that is, her fic, incidentally, is called A Captive Path and you should go read it). And thus I needed to balance out the doom with a little bit of fluff. MUCH MUCH CREDIT goes to Amy, and to Evinco in general, for the characterizations of everyone but Ernie, really. I wouldn't be able to write Luna's loonyness without her.

And I don't own any of these characters. JKR does. I just like to write about them. And stuff.

Anyway. This is the longest author's note ever. Hope you're enjoying the story. Leave me lots of reviews and I'll write more, and faster. XD Ta!

-Dena!