Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: A reminder to everyone that "wix" is a gender neutral term for an HP witch or wizard and that "wixen" is both the plural and adjective form of that word. Also, head's up: Blaise is female in this.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Hola, Bonjour, Jambo; Misunderstood (Y); More than England (Y); Sapphic Bribery (Y); Black Ribbon (Y); Black Ribbon Redux; History Lies; Ravenclaw MC; Slytherin MC; Lion's Moon & Shadow Bribery (Y); Brush; Fall Leaves; Seeds; Shipmas; No Proof; Interesting Times; Golden Times; Old Shoes (Y); Location, Location, Location; Themes & Things A [Love] (Y); Themes & Things B [Protection] (Y); The 3rd Rule (Y); Advice from the Mug; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; Quiet Time; Rian-Russo Inversion; Flags & Ribbons; Gender Bender; Letter of the Day; Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 09
Subject (Task No.): Beauty Therapy (Task#9: Write about someone who feels like they can't breathe.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [178](Injustice); 365 [17](Veil); Galleon Club (Fury); Pinata [Medium] (Femslash)
Space Address (Prompt): Wi Bingo [5C](Dark)
Representation(s): Luna Lovegood/Blaise Zabini; Love at First Meeting; Autistic Luna; Creature Blaise; fem Blaise
Bonus Challenges: Second Verse (Bechdel Test; Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Clio's Conclusion; Lock & Key; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Most Human Bean; Casper's House; Hot Apple; One Man's Cow; Under the Bridge); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench; Surprise!; Turtle-Duck; Getting On); Demo (Ariel's Temptation); Demo (Tootsies)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terrarium); SN (Spare); FR (Satisfaction; Evolution); O3 (Olivine); SS (Schooner; Sanctuary); SuMd2 (Genderswap); Wings (Icthyology); DP (n/a)
Word Count: 1238

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The Moon's Protector
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Blaise prowled the corridors of Hogwarts, restless for some reason she couldn't quite pinpoint. It wasn't anything that she wasn't used to by now. For the first few weeks every year since she has started Hogwarts five years ago, she has been driven to these nightly walks. The only explanation she could up with was that being surrounded by so many different magical signatures irritated her innate sensitivity to such things.

Of course, all of the dark wixen knew that the self-proclaimed Dark Lord had been resurrected at the end of the past June, regardless of what the Ministry was reporting in the news. Already, the aberration had put out notice that he expected all of them to pay homage to him, as if he were worthy of it from any except the few families that bought into his disgusting rhetoric about purity. It was an insult to everything their traditions had always been against. The dark protected; it sheltered those who needed it when the light would burn and blind and break. The dark did not care about purity in any regard, knowing that having the blessing of magic was enough for them all to be equal. It had always been the light that restricted how life was allowed to be lived.

No amount of lies could change that. No amount of fighting between Voldemort and Dumbledore's forces would ever change that. The truth did not care what lengths people went to in order to ignore it.

Tonight's path took her into Ravenclaw territory. The halls around the Eagles' tower were decorated in various blues cut through with bronze and copper. Even the armors in the area were made of bronze and copper instead of the steel of the main body of the school. There were also more hidden libraries in that portion of the castle than in any other, each dedicated to a different topic and protected against the contents leaving its designated library. Just like how Gryffindor territory had lions everywhere, Ravenclaw territory had eagles everywhere, and as one might expect, all of them had dark talons.

A soft sound, barely audible even in the silence of the night, drew her attention away from her restlessness. She stretched out her senses, already preparing to be annoyed if she found someone's pet. She honestly didn't know why so many students brought them and then let them wander freely. It wasn't safe, not when half of them were prey animals for the creatures inhabiting the castle and its grounds. Not to mention how nothing had been done to prevent repetitions of the Kitten Boom of 1976, when a particularly ambitious tom managed to knock up every queen in the castle at the time.

It was not a pet, even if the magical signature didn't register the same way that a wixen's signature would. Cautiously, Blaise approached the cupboard where the signature was. Was it a boggart, laying in wait? Or something more dangerous? The sound of something gasping tore at the heart the other Slytherins claimed that she didn't have.

(She had no time for how the unfairness of that assessment made white hot fury bubble within her chest. Daphne Greengrass, Ice Queen of Slytherin and one of Blaise's best friends, at least got a heart even if they claimed it was frozen for everyone except Tracey Davis. But Blaise was labeled as heartless of her mother and just as likely to kill anyone who sought her hand.)

Blaise reached out and took hold of the threads of magic that made up the wards locking the cupboard. They tasted of bitter cruelty mixed with the saltness of jealousy. With great pleasure, she ripped down the wards. She gave a toothy grin as she allowed her magic to burn away the disgusting flavor. The pettiness of the act had nothing on how petty the original caster must have been to lock another magical Being away like an unwanted toy.

Without the magic holding it shut, the door immediately fell open. A body followed it, having been propped up against it. Blaise fell to her knees beside the shivering girl who was gasping for breath. The lace on the bodice of her nightgown made a quiet scratching noise against Blaise's robes as the girl clung desperately to her rescuer. Familiar with the signs of someone suffering a panic attack (as one quickly became if they were friends with Tracey), Blaise carefully pulled the girl against her torso with her head nestled between Blaise's breasts.

Then she proceeded to run her fingers through the other girl's pale hair. Gently, she worked out as many tangles as she could without resorting to an actual brush or comb. Blaise also hummed quietly as she rocked her newest foundling—for a part of her knew already that this stranger would now become important to her, in the same way that she knew when the tides were changing despite being so far from any ocean or sea.

"Sah-sorry," the girl gasped after several long moments. Her breathing was still rough, even if it did seem to be coming just a bit easier than when Blaise had first found her. Blaise gently shushed her before pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She smelled of something delicately floral with just a trace of rosemary (which Blaise would recognize anywhere, as it reminded her of ocean cliffs covered in the clinging shrubbery). "It's—it's the dark. And the-the small spah-space. I can never—can never breathe in them."

"Your apologies are not required," Blaise told her simply. It had the benefit of being the truth. Whatever circumstances led to her having the Ravenclaw in her arms, it was clear that it was not the other girl's fault. Someone had deliberately locked her in that cupboard, likely knowing exactly how badly the girl would react to her imprisonment. With the otherness flavoring the blonde's magic, Blaise could not help but see the bigotry in this act, despite not knowing exactly what bigotry had been the seed.

"I'm Luna," the girl whispered. She still hadn't made any motion like she wanted to pull away. The warmth from that bit of trust helped to balance the fiery rage coursing through Blaise at the sudden recognition of the girl.

Of course, it was the strange Ravenclaw from the year after her. The scandal of the spare Malfoy heir being disowned because he had wedded a foreign witch of unknown blood status had been legendary for all that it had happened before Blaise's birth. Dione had come from a Grecian island that had the similar legends surrounding it as the British Avalon did—that some powerful wix had taken it behind a Veil in order to protect the magical inhabitants from a serious threat. Living in a place outside the world and so drenched in magic left its mark on a body, even long after leaving it. Such marks being passed from parent to child was not uncommon.

"I'm Blaise," she whispered back without letting any of her protective fury leak into her voice. She had never understood Daphne's insistence that she had just known that Tracey was the one within moments of meeting her. At that moment, with Luna curled against her and still occasionally gasping for breath quietly, Blaise finally understood.

And silently Blaise vowed to make Luna's bullies pay for the injustice they had shown her.