"You stink of onions when you sweat, Blitzo," Loona complained hushedly. Blitzo and Loona were walking down the halls of Hogwarts, heads completely covered by the invisibility cloak that Moxxie had left for them. The previous night, they had decided that Blitzo and Loona should go off to examine the grounds, see if they could gather any information on the mysterious first task Moxxie was to go through, and see if they could spy on someone.
So far, however, they'd mostly just wandered about without direction, seeing nothing but hordes of pubescent students milling about, talking in their weird accents. "You know how much this cloak will help with I.M.P once we get back? Imagine being able to kill someone and being invisible," Blitzo said excitedly, ignoring Loona. "If we ever get back," she grumbled back. "And stop whacking me with your tail," she hissed. For some reason, when Fudge had turned Blitzo back into his normal form, he hadn't bothered to change back his weird tail.
Maybe he thought it was actually a part of him. Blitzo rolled his eyes, blinking away the sweat that had dropped in them. "It smells like a dead old woman in here. Do you think that if someone killed us right now and we started rotting in this cloak that no one would find us until the smell got too strong?" Loona asked. "You know, I really don't want to think about that right now, Loony," Blitzo swallowed. "Whatever."
They were both in a foul mood - so far, their little expedition had been fruitless, and all they had found were the natural limits to what one could tolerate of stuffiness and proximity to another person. Just as Loona was preparing herself to throttle Blitzo and leaving him out to see how long someone would notice his invisible, dead body, they noticed two massive doors open to the public.
There didn't seem to be anyone around. "Where do you think it leads to?" Blitzo whispered. "Does it matter? Let's go in anyway," Loona urged. They walked in swiftly and found themselves in a massive, deserted library. As if synchronized, they shrugged off the cloak and sighed, eager to be free of it.
Once they had taken a few gulps of fresh air (as fresh as it could be, anyway, in a library full of dusty old books), they walked around, looking about uninterestedly. Neither of them were the type to get particularly excited about old books. Or books in general. "We shouldn't get too comfortable here - even if there was something to learn here, reading isn't exactly my forte," Blitzo pointed out. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're illiterate." "What- no, I'm not," Blitzo argued defensively, following Loona through stack upon stack of massive, ancient, leather-bound books. It was actually pretty impressive.
They jumped out of the way when a tall step-ladder moved by itself. They probably would never get used to the weird shit that went on in this castle. Loona was looking around, walking with a wondrous expression on her face, with Blitzo trailing moodily behind her.
It was as if she was expecting to find something of interest, but sure enough, there was nothing there that would be of any help to them unless they intended to shove a book up Fudge's ass. "Yeah, we should go. Maybe outside, there might be something?" Loona asked hopefully. "Wait," Blitzo put a finger up, looking around him, alarmed. Loona's ears perked up.
She heard what Blitzo meant. Voices. Fast approaching. "Shit," Blitzo muttered, trying to drape the cloak around himself as quickly as he could. But the voices were too close, and even if he did manage it, he wouldn't be able to hide Loona as well. From one of the book stacks emerged two kids, around fourteen or fifteen, with a real nerdy look to them.
Loona and Blitzo stood frozen, staring at them. The kids were so entranced in their conversation, and their books were piled up so high in their arms so that they couldn't see, that Loona and Blitzo half-expected them to just walk past without paying any mind to their existence. But, sure enough, they were far too flashy to pass unnoticed.
The boy's books toppled to the ground as he caught sight of them, wide brown eyes widening even further, but the girl gripped her books to her chest even tighter, her face quickly turning pale behind her bushy hair. "Why, hello, kids… wizard… young children," Blitz greeted awkwardly, preparing to flee. Neither of the kids replied. "Hey, I know you," Loona said, scrutinizing the girl through narrowed eyes.
The girl paled even further, now resembling a piece of blank paper.
Loona snapped her fingers, trying to locate the girl but coming up short on her name. The two kids flinched at the sound. "You were with that ginger kid. What was it? Rum?" "R-Ron," the girl stuttered, looking at Loona suspiciously. Loona looked down at her furry paws and laughed. Not two seconds later, she shifted into her human form before them, hoping that would get the girl to recognise her.
The only thing it served to do was make the other boy squeal like a little pig. He seemed physically ill. "Right, what's your name, then?" Loona asked, trying her best to be amicable. It didn't really suit her, though. "Hermione," the girl replied, looking like she remembered the situation in the hallway with Loona and Moxxie very well.
She seemed incredibly distrustful of them below her fear. "Right, Her-mayo," Blitzo cut in. "We're friends with Mr. H. Potter. Otherwise known as the Justin Timberlake of this world. He asked us for help on the… Triwizard thingy." "With Harry Potter?" Asked the boy, looking like he really was about to faint, but his curiosity seemed to be getting the better of him. "Right, exactly. Do you know anything about the first task?" He asked the kids eagerly.
He had assumed that they wouldn't know shit about it, but they were already in this sticky situation - he might was well try to get something out of it. The kids looked stunned, like they had used up all the words that they had in stock to speak to them. Blitzo sighed and rubbed at his temples.
He and Loona had easily gotten landed with the most annoying job in the world. He would much rather be killing people, not fraternizing with two stupid kids. "What's your name, boy?" He asked. "N-Neville. Neville Longbottom." The boy replied hurriedly. There was a pause. And then Loona and Blitzo burst into maniacal laughter.
The fit lasted a good two or three minutes, what with them clutching chairs and holding their stomachs in an attempt to keep erect. The two kids looked at one another awkwardly. "N-No. I mean, seriously," Blitzo insisted, his voice shaky, wiping the tears from his eyes. "What's your name?" "Neville Longbottom," the kid insisted, blushing intensely, which only resulting in another fit of laugher, this one blessedly shorter. "Right, anyway, Mr. Neville Minaj, do you know anything about the Triwizard Tournament? When the first task is going to be, what it is, anything?" The boy gulped, and Hermione looked around at all of them guiltily, as if she had been caught with her hand in a cookie jar.
Loona got a real prissy vibe from her that she didn't like. The other boy just looked a bit dumb or naive. Neville looked at Hermione as if asking her for support, but she just kept her eyes trained to an invisible point somewhere in the bookshelves. "Well, the tournament is tomorrow… everyone knows that," the kid said. "What?" "You didn't know that?" Hermione snapped. Blitzo shook his head. "And no one is supposed to know what the first task is. But… I think I saw something. I don't know…" "Neville!" Warned Hermione. "Hey! Shut it, squirrel-face," Loona barked at her. Hermione blushed. "What did you see, Neville?" Loona asked. "I-It's out beyond the Quidditch field. If you like, I can show you," he offered timidly.
Blitzo licked his lips and rubbed his hands together, looking like an interested fly. He reached out to take Neville by the shoulders as if they were old friends. "That, my dear Mr. Longbottom, is an excellent idea."