Title: Nine Ghosts in Malfoy Manor
Author: uflesh940, Chaser 2 of the Appleby Arrows
QFLC Season 9 Round 9
Prompt: The number nine must be of significance in the story.
2. [creature] Ghost
6. [setting] Malfoy Manor
11. [character] Luna Lovegood
Description: People die. Not all of them stay dead. A peek into the lives of nine ghosts, cursed to forever wander the halls of Malfoy Manor after it all went wrong.
"It was amazing." Said Hermione. "Living, interacting with the world… it all mattered so much! And I cared! You've seen me when I was alive, Luna. Look at me now."
"Hmm." Said Luna.
Hermione nodded. "I felt like I was really changing things, you know? I was making a difference! The house elves would be better off because of my work, Voldemort would be defeated, partially through my own efforts, and I would be making the world a better place!"
Luna tried putting a leaf on Hermione's head, but it fell off immediately.
"What are you doing?" asked Hermione.
"I tried putting a leaf on top of your head," said Luna, "but it fell off."
"That's ridiculous," said Hermione. "First of all, there aren't any leaves in here, and even if there were any, you weren't holding them. Furthermore, ghosts cannot interact with physical objects, so you couldn't've picked up a leaf anyway, and the leaf would fall through my head, because my body would be incapable of keeping it from falling through my head."
"Not if you were secretly a heliopath," said Luna.
Hermione sputtered, and Luna airily slipped away through the dungeon, passing several imprisoned muggles and ignoring all of them.
"Hmm," said Ollivander thoughtfully. "I suppose you would need a more sturdy wood, perhaps oak, to contain the power properly. But perhaps willow might do the trick. I suppose I can't really be sure without knowing the Guttenberg constant."
"The Guttenberg constant?" asked Luna.
"It's, hmm, a kind of magical resonance, rating magical creatures by an unknown effect, on a scale of zero to ten," explained Ollivander. "A phoenix will usually fall between a nine point one and a three point seven, while unicorns are generally restricted to the low fours. It doesn't have many applications, so it's unlikely you would know what that would be for a Crumple Horned Snorkack."
"Negative seven," said Luna.
Ollivander blinked. "Pardon?"
"Snorkacks have a Guttenberg constant of negative seven," explained Luna.
"That's impossible," said Ollivander. "You couldn't use any working wand wood with a Crumple Horned Snorkack. Unless… unless you used… actually, you might get ice to work as a stabilizer, if you can manage to enchant it into a wand wood, somehow."
Luna beamed. "Excellent! How long would it be?"
In the drawing room where the death eaters formerly held their meetings, a furious screeching echoed.
"Tom! You coward! Show yourself!"
Death had not been good to Harry Potter. His beliefs had twisted his mind and body, and as a ghost, he was barely recognizable as his former self. The lightning bolt scar, which had formerly been confined to his forehead, now stretched across his entire body.
Luna barely spared him a glance.
Albus Dumbledore frowned as he roamed the manor. He had first started doing so directly after his death. A spectral spy, if you would. Like most of the others, he had never really gotten over his failures in life, and thus ended up stalking the manor even after the living no longer used it. What had been a way to take his mind off his failures originally had turned into a habit, before further evolving into a core aspect of his very being. Movement!
Luna had had a couple of nice conversations with him at first, but as he focused more and more of his personality into movement, he began talking less and less, as his eyes gradually became unfocused, losing their twinkle and their sharpness. At this point, he was barely sentient.
Luna huffed angrily, and left the room, after Dumbledore drifted past her without reacting to her presence.
Neville nodded at her passing. "Hello, Luna."
"Greetings, miss Lovegood," said Lucius Malfoy, Neville's primary post-mortem companion.
"Hello!" said Luna cheerfully. "Have you talked to Hermione today?"
Neville shook his head. "She cares too much. Still trying to do something with herself. It's doomed to failure. It is not our place to interact with the living," he added coldly.
"You know how she reacts to my presence," said the Malfoy patriarch.
Luna shook her head sadly. "Give it some time, she could come around!"
"She's the most stubborn person I know," said Neville. "It was a strength for her when she was the 'brightest witch of her age', but it's to her detriment now."
"It's quite sad," said Lucius. "I might enjoy conversing with her. Alas, she has lost too much of herself to her emotions."
"Ah, Lucius, you and your theories," chuckled Neville.
"Her real issue," said Luna, "is her lack of chlorophyll."
In the silence that followed, Luna smugly floated out of the room.
"Hello, Voldemort," said Luna brightly.
Voldemort was sitting on the roof of the manor. It would've been cold and unpleasant had he been alive, but now that he was dead, he simply enjoyed the view.
"Hello there," said Voldemort politely. "What has today been like?"
"Ollivander is being interesting again. He just helped me think about how to make a wand out of a Crumple Horned Snorkak."
Voldemort chuckled. "I don't suppose you'll ever tell him that Crumple Horned Snorkacks aren't real?"
"This again," said Luna, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, you're almost as bad as Hermione with this. Just because people haven't discovered them yet, doesn't mean they don't exist."
Voldemort sighed. "Right. Of course. How is Dumbledore?"
Luna shook her head sadly. "He hasn't been showing any improvement. Hermione seemed slightly more reasonable today, though. You should really talk to her!"
"Perhaps some other time," said Voldemort. "I don't suppose the Potter boy has shown any improvement?"
"His scar is getting larger by the day," said Luna sadly.
"I suppose that leaves Lucius and Neville, then," said Voldemort. "Really, their friendship is remarkable!"
"Yeah, they're doing fairly well, as always."
"You know," said Voldemort, "you haven't told me anything about the ninth one of us. What is Snape doing these days?"
Luna turned away from him with a huff. "I don't want to know what he's doing."
Voldemort rolled his eyes. "Look, Luna, I know you're still upset that he killed you, but-"
"No," said Luna. "And you can't talk - you're still hiding from Hermione right now."
Voldemort sighed. "I suppose Neville and Lucius are the only people who can really befriend their killers."
"Yes," said Luna, eager for a change of topic, "but they both killed each other, so there isn't really a sense of differing feelings towards each other, so they became friends fairly quickly."
Voldemort smiled. "I suppose so."
Luna shrugged, and began to sink through the roof, to reenter the manor.
"Luna," said Voldemort. Luna paused. "Thank you," finished Voldemort.
Luna smiled, and left.
Voldemort lay down on the roof, and began watching the clouds.
Another day had passed for the nine ghosts of Malfoy Manor.