Written for the Quidditch League Season 9, Prophet Challenge 2. The theme is Celebrate Good Times.
Special thanks to my excellent betas, Caerphilly's kid and CupCakeyyy! They're my awesome teammates for this year's Quidditch League. Go Catapults!
Using prompts
Chaser 2: passing an exam
(restriction) no male characters
(genre) friendship
(animal) bat
Words: 2337
Enjoy!
"I could not believe the look on her face," Ginny said, practically skipping her way into the Entrance Hall. "Every time she tried to catch you out with another question, you had the answer out before she was even halfway through!"
"Well, she would have found it easier to examine me if she'd let me apply my Nargle repellant on her," Luna said, following Ginny back into Hogwarts castle. "The poor lady was practically infested with them."
Ginny couldn't keep the grin off her face. "You have to stop saying 'examine me' like that, Luna. It sounds so wrong!"
"But that's what examiners do. They examine you," Luna said, as if stating the obvious to her silly friend.
Ginny flushed bright red. "Okay, okay. I get what you mean, it just sounds like an examination Madame Pomfrey would do." She caught her breath. "I'm so glad that exam is over. If I never have to feed a Thestral again it will be too soon."
"They're quite gentle creatures, really."
"I know. It's just a bit unnerving seeing food disappear into thin air like that."
"So, you aren't going to be taking the NEWT class next year?" Luna asked.
Most people wouldn't catch the undercurrent of emotion in Luna's wispy voice, but Ginny knew the girl too well to miss it.
"I- I don't know. Maybe? I don't have your natural skill for it, but the nifflers and other smaller animals are cute."
"Mmm, they are cute," Luna said, not meeting Ginny's eyes.
"Hey." Ginny pulled Luna into her side and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "No matter what, we'll have classes together and you know I've got your back."
A smile finally sprouted on Luna's face. "Yes. I know."
"What do they cover in the NEWT class then?" Ginny asked, genuinely curious as she led the two of them further into the castle without a clear destination in mind. Maybe the library so they could continue studying for the other OWLs, or the Room of Requirement so they could hang out for a while before dinner.
"There is lots of theory, I think." Luna furrowed her brow as she mentally checked off what she could remember about the curriculum. "I doubt they'd be able to bring a Phoenix to class. If Daddy and I manage to find a Crumple-Horned Snorkack this summer, I'll ask if I can show the memory for extra credit."
"You wouldn't try to capture it and bring it in?"
"Oh Merlin, no, Ginny. They're endangered, don't you know? We must preserve their ecosystem as much as we can. Taking them away from their family would just be-"
"Well, well, if it isn't Loony and the she-Weasel," a voice called from further along the hallway, interrupting Luna.
The two girls looked up to see Mila Carrow, Sophia Flint and Xena Rosier, the three nastiest Slytherins in their year. They were a group that was better to steer clear of, as they practically ran the rumour mill in their year and always seemed to have a teacher backing them up whenever a confrontation began.
"I'm surprised you could even pull yourself away after that exam, Loony," Mila continued, smirking at Luna as she ducked her head, folding in on herself to make herself as small a target as she could. "I thought you would love to be back there, crawling through the dirt with the other flobberworms."
Ginny gritted her teeth as the other two laughed. She pulled Luna to her side, hoping it would snap her out of her tendency to hide from encounters with the Bitch Trinity.
"Well, Carrow, I didn't think that harpies were going to be on the exam until you three showed up," Ginny snapped back, cutting their laughter short.
It was Ginny's turn to smirk at the three Slytherins.
"Harpies wouldn't like our climate," Luna said quietly.
Ginny nearly glared at her for undercutting her comeback.
"They prefer dank, cold places, probably with lots of aromas in the air. Maybe you three would prefer to go and find a nice sewer somewhere?" Luna asked with complete seriousness.
Ginny sometimes forgot how brilliant Luna was. She cackled at the look on the three Slytherins' faces, foregoing any semblance of restraint.
"You-" Sophia started.
"Unless that is why the Slytherin common room is in the dungeon," Luna interrupted her, still sounding as ethereal and disconnected as usual. "Are there pipes connecting off from it that you each use as your bedroom? That must be nice."
"You're the one who probably sleeps in sewers, Lovegood!" Xena shouted.
"Oh no. That's not for me." Luna shook her head seriously. There was absolutely no sign that she was joking, and Ginny felt her smirk widen. "I much prefer having my own, dry bed. And showering every day as well- oh sorry, it must sound like I'm saying you smell."
"Shut up!" Mila stormed along the hallway towards them, the other two flanking her.
Ginny and Luna kept up the ruse, pinching their noses and pulling faces as they got closer.
"It's not like your family can even afford to shower, Weasley," Mila snapped.
"Yeah, you probably all cheer whenever it rains at that hovel you call a home, so you can all go outside and wash the filth off," Xena said.
"Why are you bothering us?" Ginny asked, her voice nasally as she continued holding her nose. "Looking to take out some of that pent up anger at failing Care of Magical Creatures?"
"We didn't fail," Xena said matter-of-factly.
"Projecting much?" Sophia asked. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she glared at them. "You and Loony here would be lucky to get Troll grades."
"Please." Ginny released her nose and gave the three of them a slow look over. "I doubt you've got a single EE since the course started, and Luna is top in our year."
"Only because she's the one who is least human," Mila said. "That's why she has no friends. Anyone spending more than a few minutes around her can tell what a freak she is."
Ginny glared at Mila, fingering her wand as Luna turned into herself as the Slytherins re-established her as their target. They knew Ginny wouldn't back down and Luna's defense mechanism tended to be staying silent until they got bored, but Ginny wouldn't be waiting until that point.
"You're such a bitch."
Mila laughed. "Aw, Weasley, it's okay, she'll always stay a loyal pet to you. Following you around like a pathetic, ugly puppy."
"Just make sure you feed it twice a day," Xena said, "and don't let it up at the table."
"She needs to learn her place, after all," Sophia said.
"Luna's worth ten of each of you. As a witch and a woman, and in any other category you could come up with."
"'As a woman'," Mila parroted back, sneering at Luna, "You've got to be joking! Look at her. I doubt she even knows what a beauty potion is. No way anyone looks at her twice."
"I don't know, Mila," Xena pondered loudly as she inspected Luna like she was some kind of specimen for Care of Magical Creatures. "Her face is like a broom crash, a disaster you can't look away from."
"You'd have thought her mother might have taught her some way to turn heads, even if it was just by using a little love potion," Sophia said, a savage smile on her face.
"Oh- didn't you hear, Sophia?" Mila's voice turned a sickening tone of fake sadness. "Little Luna here doesn't have a mother."
"Stop it!" Ginny pulled out her wand. She glanced at Luna, who had her hair hanging in front of her face, hiding the tears that fell silently down her cheeks.
"Probably couldn't stand what a failure her daughter was," Xena said.
"Can you imagine the shame?" Mila looked between her two friends, pulling a face of embarrassment. "I'd probably blow myself up too-"
Mila was blasted back as Ginny fired off a spell without thinking, one she'd learnt the previous year in the DA. The Slytherin hit the ground a dozen feet down the hallway, screaming as she landed.
Merlin, how the Gryffindor wished she'd broken something!
Ginny grabbed Luna, pulling her back down the hallway as Xena and Sophia pulled out their wands. The motion drew Luna out of her shell as her wand appeared in her hand and she stood prouder, fiercer, a seriousness on her face that was rarely present. The tear streaks on her face remained, undisturbed and ignored.
"Protego," Luna said, a shield shimmering into existence, absorbing the two hexes from Xena and Sophia.
Ginny aimed her wand around the edge of Luna's shield, the two of them making use of a strategy they'd practiced in the DA, one of them covering while the other went on the offensive. Xena was caught by a stunning spell but Sophia managed to set up a shield to block Ginny's itching curse.
Ginny cast her own shield charm to give Luna a chance to go on the attack but Mila was back up on her feet again and demonstrating a much more extensive knowledge of dark curses than what was taught on the Hogwarts curriculum.
Ginny's shield was blasted apart by a shield shatterer. She fell to a knee from the brunt of the blast. She hissed as a sharp pain shot up her leg.
Luna dived to the floor, barely managing to avoid a violet coloured curse that streaked by her. It was bright enough it hurt to look at, and when it hit the wall beyond Luna, the brickwork tore loose into a short lived vortex of movement before collapsing to the ground.
"You'll pay for that," Mila shrieked, stalking towards them as Ginny tried to recover from having her shield broken.
Ginny fired off a tickling curse to buy herself time, forcing Mila to throw up a shield of her own. Luna took the opportunity to get to her feet, summoning and then banishing some of the bricks beside her towards Mila, forcing the girl to move away from her shield.
Sophia summoned a snake, which immediately started to close the distance to Ginny. The red-head retaliated, not on the snake, but on Sophia, casting another stunner, and catching the girl as she finished casting the snake summoning charm. Clearly, Mila was the only one of the three Slytherins who had any sort of experience in dueling and the Gryffindor couldn't help but wonder why.
Probably a Death Eater in training, Ginny thought and grit her teeth as she jumped to the side, just in time to feel another one of the witch's curses burn through the air beside her.
Damn, she was fast!
"Incendio!" Luna cried, incinerating the snake before it managed to sink its teeth into Ginny's ankle. Luna threw herself into the wall to avoid another vicious looking curse from Mila, this one spiralling in the air as it travelled along the hallway. It detonated with a shockwave at the other end of the hallway.
Ginny cast off her signature hex, catching Mila unaware with how low she'd directed the shot, hitting her on the leg. It was a spell that only affected one area, no matter where it hit the target on their body.
Mila's hands shot to her face, trying to stop what was happening but Ginny had had plenty of practice with the spell and was rather proficient with it. One dark wing extended out of one of Mila's nostrils, about the length of a finger, and then another.
The bat fell out of her nose. It extended its wings before it hit the ground, flapping up into the air and began hovering near Mila's face.
Mila Carrow was a little too occupied to deal with the bat, however, as another had just fallen loose from the other nostril, and another's wings were extending again from her first nostril.
The Slytherin staggered a few steps away from Ginny, opening her mouth to cast a spell, and got a mouthful of bat wing. She started sputtering as four more bogey-turned-bats appeared from her nose, fluttering around her face as they tried to get back into their 'home'.
Ginny smirked for a moment before turning to Luna and pulling her from the wall. The blonde was holding her side and winced as she stood upright. She must have hurt herself diving clear of Mila's spells.
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked, ignoring the screams from Mila, who was sprinting along the hallway as a cloud of bats chased after her, more appearing every second, her fellow Slytherins left behind, stunned and abandoned.
"Yes," Luna said, wincing a little as she touched her side, "we've had worse than a few scrapes." She smiled sadly at the memory of the battle they had been a part of at the Department of Mysteries the previous year.
"Still," Ginny said, looking around at the partially destroyed hallway, "might as well get Madame Pomfrey to check you out. Examine you, that is."
"Okay," Luna said, smiling, before abruptly hugging Ginny. "Thank you."
Ginny hugged her back and smiled into the girl's shoulder. She knew that Luna didn't need to explain what she was thankful for because there weren't words to describe what their friendship meant to her. She stood there in silence for a few moments, enjoying her friend's heartfelt embrace.
"It's okay," Ginny said. "And, for the record, I think your mum couldn't be prouder of you. Outdueling Slytherins, fighting Death Eaters, top of the year in Magical Creatures."
Luna laughed, a soft and beautiful sound, and the sadness in her evaporated. Their hug broke apart.
"I think we've found at least one animal you handle better than me," Luna said, before leaning in conspiratorially and whispering, "Bats."
Ginny laughed with her.
"I suppose you're right there. Maybe I should take that NEWT class next year after all," Ginny said as the two girls set off for the hospital wing.
