Chapter 7: Impact
It was early morning, and Luna was wandering the halls on her way back from the kitchens for breakfast, planning a schedule for the day. She heard a voice call out, "Hey, Loony!"
Recognizing the voice, Luna kept walking. She saw a bright red flash reflected off one of the walls and felt a sharp pain on her right arm as if stung. Shocked, she clutched her arm and turned around, trying to understand what happened. She spotted her assailants just before a sickly yellow flash filled the hallway, and Luna collapsed onto the floor, crying out in pain. There was a shout of laughter followed by running footsteps that slowly faded away.
The hallway was silent. Luna slowly pushed herself up and felt her face with her good hand. It was covered in painful bumps. Why would they come after her? She had never even spoken to them before.
She took a deep breath and started to shuffle towards the hospital wing. There was a hidden staircase behind the tapestry two corridors down which would take her up to the floor above the hospital wing and allow her to bypass the grand staircase.
"Hey! Are you alright?"
Of course, the failure of secret passageways is one needed to get to them first. "Yes. Nothing to concern yourself with Penelope."
"Don't lie to me Lovegood," the sixth-year prefect insisted, "Let me see your head."
Luna slowly turned around and saw the prefect recoil – with shock or disgust was anybody's guess. She supposed her face looked worse than it felt.
"Who did this to you?"
"No one. I got some powdered doxy droppings on my head. I thought they would cure my acne…"
Penelope was already shaking her head. "In that case, I would have expected a large rash, not blisters. Do you know what hex it was?"
"No."
"Then you're going to need to come with me to the hospital wing. I can't treat you."
"I was going there anyways."
Penelope took her hand – luckily, her good hand – and started guiding her the normal, long way. "What happened?"
"I walked into a hex. Does it matter?"
"Yes, it does. Students can't go around attacking each other. Who hexed you?"
Luna shook her head. "It doesn't matter. You can't change anything."
"Yes, I can. We can go to the Professors. They'll get put in detention."
"Why will that change anything? Its just a detention and a stern lecture. They'll ignore it and just come back."
"They won't. The Professors will look out for you. The other prefects. I'll look out for you."
"I'm sure they already know."
"No one is omnipotent. They won't know – can't know – unless someone tells them. Unless you tell them."
"They won't believe me."
"Of course, they will. Do you really think you're the first student at Hogwarts to be bullied?"
"No, but…"
"Have a little faith in us… in me."
Luna sighed. "Eddie Carmichael and Kenneth Young in third year. At least, they are the ones I saw this time."
"Thank you. We'll go to Professor Flitwick and Professor Snape after you're better."
"No."
"What?"
"I'm not going to talk to them. If you want to try, I won't stop you."
"Its nothing to be ashamed of."
"I am not going."
"Alright. I guess I have to respect that." She knocked on the door and Madam Pomfrey let them in. She took one look at her face and asked, "Have you been fighting?"
Luna shook her head, but Penelope responded "She hasn't. Some third years hexed her. If you're alright Lovegood, I'll go report this."
Luna nodded and the matron hustled her in and asked her to sit on one of the beds. "What hex caused the boils?"
"I don't know. I think it was yellow," Luna replied.
Madam Pomfrey nodded, "Wait here. I'll be back in a minute. Don't pop any of them while you are waiting. It will only make them worse."
She walked out into her office, and Luna could hear her searching. She glanced around the hospital wing and saw she was not alone. Harry Potter was asleep on one of the beds further down, probably recovering from whatever injury he had from the Quidditch match yesterday. Luna felt sorry for him. He must have been hurt much worse by the bludger than she thought. It would have needed to be serious for him to be kept overnight. She hoped he would be okay.
There was another bed, surrounded by curtains. Curious, Luna walked over and called out, "Hello, is anyone there?"
Hearing no response, she pulled back the curtains and recoiled in shock. The last time she had seen Colin Creevey, he was hiding among the trees, laughing at her after helping scare away the Thestral. Now he lay before her, stiff. His skin was devoid of all its usual color. It had an almost grey pallor. Lifeless.
There were footsteps and a pair of hands pulled the curtains close. Madam Pomfrey scolded her and pushed her back to the bed. Luna sat down and felt her rub something on her face. She blinked a couple times to clear her head and asked, "What happened to him?"
"He was petrified," Madam Pomfrey replied tersely.
"What? Like Mrs. Norris? Will he be okay?"
"Yes. He'll be fine. Now will you sit still and let me finish."
Luna remained perfectly still while the matron applied some cream from a small jar that she must have retrieved from the office earlier. When she was done, she asked, "Are there boils in any other places?"
"No." The pain in her right arm had already faded.
"Wait here for a few minutes. The swelling is already going down. I'll be back soon to check on your progress. It goes without saying, but please leave the other patients alone."
Luna lay back on her bed and let her mind drift. Why had someone hexed her? What had she done to make anyone want to hurt her? Why was Colin Creevey petrified? Luna thought he was a muggle-born. Did that mean the Heir of Slytherin was attacking students now? Would there be more attacks?
Penelope tried to be good to her word. She found Luna later in the day to tell her that both boys had been put into detention. However, the following month before Christmas break were Luna's worst in the castle. The name Loony Lovegood became so widespread that Luna wondered if anyone remembered her real name. The first few times, she tried to correct people, but soon even students she had never met before were calling her Loony. Sometimes it wasn't even malicious.
The atmosphere in the castle became increasingly tense following the attack on Colin Creevey, and hexing Luna in the hallway was one of the preferred releases for the pressure. She quickly got used to the stinging hexes and tripping jinxes and started taking secret passageways everywhere just to avoid other students. After the dueling club – which Luna chose not to attend for obvious reasons – she also became target practice for disarming spells. The faculty, Penelope, and the other prefects took off points if someone from another house attacked her, but they couldn't be with her at all times. Besides, they had more important things to worry about. Her father always warned her not to trust authority figures. She supposed this proved him right.
It took two weeks for the recipients of the detention to find her, but eventually they caught her alone on the way back from the library, or at least one of them did.
A force slammed into her back, sending her tumbling into a wall. Shen she finally struggled to her feet; a third-year boy was looming over her. Kenneth.
"Hey Loony, I think we're due to have a little talk."
"I don't have to listen to anything you say," Luna said, turning to walk away.
A fist connected with her stomach, forcing the air out of her lungs. "You see, that is exactly what we need to talk about. You seem to have some misconceptions about the way things are. You're a Ravenclaw," he said, jabbing a finger at her house badge, "you should love to learn things."
"There is nothing I can learn from you."
Another punch landed on her right arm. Her hand went numb. "I've never really liked the whole pureblood/mud-blood divide. It never captured the nuances of society. So, I came up with a new model. You see, Loony, there are two types of people. Those who will accomplish something and those who never will," he said with a sickly smile, "I'm one of the former, you're one of the latter, understand?"
"Yes."
A third punch landed on her left ribs. "You're not learning yet. You see, you don't talk to me. You don't interact with me unless I want you to, and you certainly don't make problems for me. Do you understand?" His smile showed too many teeth, almost like fangs ready to tear out her throat.
Luna nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
"So you can learn. The next thing you need to understand is you don't matter. What you want doesn't matter. What you feel doesn't matter. You don't get to go scurrying off to your little friends or the prefects or the professors when we talk. You shut up and take it and move on. You see, this is Hogwarts. The worst they will ever do is put me in detention, but I really don't like detentions. They make me angry, and then I am going to come and take it out on you. So its really in your best interest to just let things lie."
Luna nodded again. He made his point.
"Good. I'm glad we reached an understanding. I hope we won't need to have another one of these talks in the future," he turned to go. "Oh. One more thing. We haven't balanced the previous detention yet."
His fist connected with her right eye, and Luna saw stars. She collapsed to the ground. By the time her vision cleared, he was long gone.
Luna scrambled nearby, thankfully empty bathroom and inspected herself in the mirror. The area around her eye was bright red and rapidly swelling. There would be a bruise that would be impossible to hide, but at least it looked like he hadn't broken any bones. She might get away without going to the hospital wing, so she limped down to the kitchens to get some ice.
By the time she reached the portrait of the pear, Luna had come to a decision. She wouldn't be reporting any more bullying incidents.
Reporting only made things worse.
Luna was relieved when winter break finally came, and Luna found herself sitting blessedly alone on the Hogwarts Express on her way back home. When she spotted her father standing on the platform, Luna felt the happiest she had felt in months. Her father was unaware of her recent troubles in school and wanted to hear all about her experiences in the wondrous magic schools, despite their weekly letters. Luna shared all about her lessons and explorations of the castle. Her father turned out to be a great source of information on the Chamber of Secrets and found some articles from fifty years ago when the Chamber was last opened, and a girl named Myrtle Warren was killed. There was a ministry investigation (or cover up, depending on the source). Rubeus Hagrid was expelled as a scapegoat, but the true culprit was never identified.
Christmas was nice, but melancholy as it had been every year since her mother died. It went by too quickly and Luna found herself standing on platform nine and three quarters preparing to spend another five months with her tormentors. She hugged her father and assured him she would look for the Bowtruckle colony behind the pumpkin patch. She luckily found another empty compartment – or perhaps no one wanted to sit with her – and found herself on the way back to the castle.
With no more attacks, the castle relaxed after Christmas break, and Luna settled into her new normal. She attended classes, explored the castle and grounds, and kept her head down in the corridor, trying to ignore the hexes and jeers.
While her social life left much to be desired, Luna was quite satisfied academically. She was doing well in all of her classes, with the exception of a slightly tense relationship with Professor Snape who seemed to never get over his suspicion of her after the incident earlier in the year. Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic were both jokes, and, while she initially struggled a bit in Transfiguration, she was doing fine there as well. Charms was her favorite class by far.
"Today we will be continuing our discussion of mending charms," Professor Flitwick said, calling the class to order from the top of his desk. "Can someone share with me limitation of mending charms?"
"Some magical objects can't be repaired," Chloe called out.
"Very good. Anyone else? Yes, Mr. Richards."
"Incomplete objects."
"Exactly. The spell can only be used when two requirements are fulfilled. First, all of the broken parts are present. Second, the caster knows what the object is supposed to look like. But, if both are true, any object can be repaired, no matter how often it is broken or how completely it is shattered. Let's test these theories shall we," Professor Flitwick said with an amused gleam in his eye. With a wave of his wand, a pair of wooden blocks and a small pile of glass shards floated in front of each student. "We covered severing charms last week, so I expect all of you can still cast them. Please split each block in two and repair them. Also try to repair two halves of different blocks together and observe the result."
Luna looked down at the two blocks in front of her. She muttered, "Diffindo, Diffingo," and the pair of blocks were split into perfect halves. She envisioned the block reforming and muttered "Repario" and one of the blocks fused back together. Luna split it in half again and tried to match the halves from opposite blocks together and they refused to repair as expected.
Luna looked around the classroom. Many of the students were struggling to split their blocks, and some were already working on repairing them. She still had a bit of time to experiment. She looked at the four halves and pictured in her mind the blocks rearranging, so the matching parts went together. She cast the incantation, and felt a smile break out on her face as each piece floated into the air to match with their original partner.
Perhaps the reason she loved charms so much was she was really good at it.
She looked down at the two blocks in front of her and split them each into eight equal sized cubes. She mixed them together until she no longer remembered which part was from which block. She tried to cast the charm again, but this time, the blocks remained stubbornly in place.
Frustrated, she tried to picture how the blocks should move to form the final cube but wasn't able to. It was the same reason she always had trouble with Transfiguration. She knew what she wanted the final object to look like, but she couldn't picture the exact path to reach it. However, this was not Transfiguration. Professor Flitwick and the textbook were both clear that she just needed to know what the final object must look like. Luna closed her eyes shut and pictured the pair of blocks in her mind, splitting into eights and reforming, over and over. With her eyes still closed, she muttered, "Repario."
Luna felt a gentle warmth in her wand, and she knew that the spell worked. She opened her eyes and there lay the two perfect cubes of wood, completely reformed.
Professor Flitwick stopped in front of her desk and quietly said, "Well done, Ms. Lovegood." He then turned to help one of the Gryffindors nearby. Luna beamed and she thought she even felt her wand vibrate slightly, like it was proud of their work as well. Satisfied with the two wooden blocks, Luna turned her focus to the shards of glass. She sifted through them, but quickly concluded whatever it used to be, it was broken beyond all recognition. She looked up to get Professor Flitwick's attention to ask about the pile, but he was helping Evan on the other side of the classroom. He was sitting near Chloe and Liam, and Luna did not want to risk bringing their attention down on her.
Luna tried several times to cast the spell, but nothing happened. She supposed that she actually needed to know what the object looked like initially. A glance at the clock on the wall showed she still had another twelve minutes to experiment. The pile lay in front of her, mockingly.
She spent a few minutes trying to guess what the shape was supposed to be, but none of them worked. She spent the remaining time trying to piece the object together, but it was broken too thoroughly.
Professor Flitwick called the class back to order, "Well done everyone. Almost all of you succeeded in breaking and repairing your blocks. Your assignment for next week is to practice both the severing and repairing charms. I also expect a short essay on the limitations of the mending charm. Half a roll of parchment will be plenty. Please, be creative. Class dismissed."
All around her, the students put their wands away, grabbed their bags, and started filing out of the room. Luna remained seated as the classroom emptied. She had quickly learned which classes she needed to leave early and which she was safe to wait in. Much to her satisfaction, Professor Flitwick – like Professors McGonagall – tended to remain behind after class, making it safe to remain behind to ask questions. When most of the class had left, Luna walked up to Professor Flitwick's desk and said, "Professor…"
"Yes, Ms. Lovegood?"
"I was wondering what the glass was for."
"It was for the few of you who I knew would finish with the blocks with time left. It was a bit of a puzzle. What do you think?"
"I think it was supposed to prove we needed to know what we were repairing was supposed to look like."
"Correct. Have you been able to guess what it used to be?"
"No," Luna replied a bit frustrated. "If I had, I would have repaired it."
"Then let me give you a hint. It was a dog."
Luna looked down at the shards and closed her eyes. She pictured a glass dog, but something felt off about it. Mentally, she gave it a slightly longer tail, shorter ears. It felt a bit closer. Maybe different positions? She moved the dog around until it was laying on its stomach with its front two paws stretched out. Somehow it felt right, and she said, "Repario."
She opened her eyes and a small glass dog lay in the palm of her hand, exactly as she envisioned it. Before her, Professor Flitwick was beaming. "Bravo. Ms. Lovegood. Bravo! Twenty points to Ravenclaw for that excellent work!"
"I can't believe that worked. Is it alright if I keep this?"
"Of course."
Luna packed up her bag – specially reinforced with some thin metal cords in the base after the second time someone cast a cutting curse on it in as many weeks – at the end of Charms, bid farewell to the professor, and slipped out into the hallway, when she heard a voice call out from behind her, waiting to ambush her. Normally, she would have ignored it, but the voice had used her real name.
She paused and quickly glanced around to see Ginny trying to weave her way through the crowd. Ginny raised her hand and called out, "Luna. Wait."
Luna kept walking. There was a hidden staircase nearby that would take her up to the seventh floor. It had a few trick steps. She picked up her pace.
Something touched her arm. She tried to shake the hand off, but it had a firm grip. Ginny had caught up to her. "I need to talk to you."
Luna looked at Ginny. She wasn't looking well. She was pale and there were bags around her eyes. "Let me go."
Ginny obliged and Luna took off down the corridor. Ginny cursed behind her and chased after her, "Luna, Stop!"
Luna heard Ginny whisper a tripping jinx. She stepped to the side, and the spell hit the floor next to her. She rounded on Ginny, wand drawn. "Leave me alone, or I will hex you. I know some really good ones now."
Ginny held her arms out, "We haven't spoken in months. There are a lot of things I need to tell you. Can we just go somewhere private?"
"Not a chance. I may be a troubled, delusional girl, but I am NOT stupid," Luna replied. She cast a sticking charm on Ginny's shoes and ran. She was almost at the passageway.
Ginny cursed again. Luna turned when she reached the entrance and saw Ginny chasing after her, shoes left behind on the floor. She climbed the staircase, careful to avoid the second step. A few seconds later, she heard a crash behind her. The trick step worked. Ginny called once more, "Luna. Please wait!"
Luna took a slide from the seventh floor down to the basement before slowly making her way back to her hidden room, confident that she had lost her pursuer.
Luna's birthday came a few days later. It fell out on Saturday this year, so she was able to spend it in peace without interactions with any of her tormentors. She received a card from her father along with her birthday present – a new sketchbook with two dozen different colored chalks. Luna immediately made her way to the Thestral heard in the Forbidden Forest where she spent a pleasant morning sitting with the herd, sketching.
What Luna found truly fascinating was how unique each Thestral really was. Midnight, for example, was a bit of an albino with his dark blue eyes. Most of the other Thestrals had the same pale white eyes. Nyx, a shorter creature with solid black coloring, seemed to be the oldest of the herd yet was absolutely silent, seeming to materialize out of thin air. Pax, the herd's leader, was at least a hand taller than any of the other Thesrals and was too aloof to interact with her when she came to visit but tolerated her as long as she brought them treats.
After completing a couple sketches, Luna spent an hour playing with Spot and Dot, a very energetic pair of Thestral foals (named for bright white patches behind their ear and on their snout respectively). She then bid farewell to the herd and returned to Castle for a late lunch. The rest of the day was reserved for completing homework assignments and researching invisibility charms (which turned out to be much too complicated for a first year) and the much more accessible silencing charms. The confrontation with Ginny earlier that week had shaken her a bit. She needed a slightly more reliable method of vanishing. Eventually, Luna returned to her room and fell asleep while reading Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
She was walking down a corridor. It was familiar. One of the paintings was frantically trying to get her attention, but she ignored it. It was a bit barmy after all. She had an appointment she needed to keep. The corridor had a slight upward slope, and it soon narrowed into a spiral staircase. She climbed until reaching the landing on top. There was a trap door set in the roof. A class met there. There was no way up, so she turned and started making her way back down the staircase. This time, there was a door set in the wall a third of the way down. She knocked on the door, and it swung open to reveal a small sitting room. Inside, a witch was sitting at a small table with two teacups. She moved to the unoccupied chair and accepted the cup of tea.
Luna bolted up in bed. She pulled her dream journal out from a nearby desk and started recording. When she was done, she skimmed the entry again, confused. What was the point of a dream where nothing happened?
I am so so so so so so so so …
What?
… so so so so so so so…
Stop it.
… so so so sorry.
Ginerva. Is this you again?
Yeah. I took the diary back from Harry.
Ginny, did you try to flush my diary down a toilet?
Yeah…
What made you think that would be a good idea?
I thought there was a curse on your diary.
Ginerva, we discussed this already.
I know, but it would explain everything. If someone left a curse on your diary, sort of like a parasite, that then attached to me and made me attack people, it would explain why I never remembered where I was.
We discussed this. I would know if there was some other magic that strong in the diary. I would be able to sense it. Further, I know you could not have attacked that cat because you described deserts to me from the meal while the cat was being attacked. I do not know where you were when Colin was attacked, but when the ghost and the other boy were petrified, you were with me in the diary practicing disarming spells. I realize you might not remember it, but this theory of yours that you are attacking the other students is a bit absurd. I know you are worried and looking for a big explanation for all of these memory gaps you have had, but the truth is rarely as fantastic as you think it will be. Your memory loss is probably a simple matter of too much stress. Your trouble sleeping and headaches are also consistent with that, and the more you worry about it, the worse it becomes. You need to trust me Ginny. Let me remember for you.
I know that makes a lot of sense, but I only had these problems after getting the diary…
Which is also when you came to a completely new and difficult environment.
I realize, but I was so afraid and worried and for a moment it all seemed so clear.
You should have talked to me.
I know and I'm sorry. I just thought if I could get rid of the diary then the headaches and forgetting would go away.
Ginny, you realize I am in this diary, right? You tried to murder me!
I didn't mean it like that Tom! When I had more time to think I went back to look, but the diary was already gone. Harry had found it. Once I realized he had it, I tried to get it back. Can you please forgive me?
I will try, but it is difficult when you do things like this. I understand that you were worried, but putting me in danger like that… I thought we were friends.
You are my best friend, Tom. Don't you EVER doubt that!
I really want to believe you Ginny, but how do I know I can still trust you?
Tom, I promise I will NEVER do anything like that to you again.
…
Tom…
Yes, Ginerva?
Did you tell Harry any of the things I told you?
Of course not. I keep my friend's secrets.
I am so sorry Tom. You have never been anything but kind to me, even when I don't deserve it. I swear that I will find a way to make it up to you.
A/N: Normally, I think it would be unnecessary to put this note in but... if you are a victim of bullying, tell an authority figure be it a parent or teacher. The worst thing you can do is stay silent. For everyone else, if you see something, say something. It can really make a difference... ok... I'll get off my soap-box now. I hope you enjoyed!
