The Hundredth Story

by Bad Mum

So I've made it to 100 Harry Potter stories and this is a celebration of that fact. 100 drabbles and oneshots based on a list of my favourite characters and pairings and a few surprises and prompts issued by the members of the Teachers' Lounge.

6. IX, X

A last couple of prompts from Sara... Character choice is mine.

IX

(Tortured – Minerva)

There had been more tonight, and there would be more tomorrow. Sitting there and letting it happen was the hardest thing that Minerva had ever done. And was she a coward that she sat in her office while she knew the torture was going on and no longer lingered near the dungeons hearing her students scream and cry? She had done that at the beginning of the year, and it nearly broke her.

The students needed her. They needed her to be strong and calm and the Professor McGonagall that she had always been. They needed her help and her knowledge. And she could not be there for them if hearing them scream turned her into a gibbering mess.

But did that make her a coward?

X

(Accident – Dean and Luna)

Dean shut the lid of his trunk with a bang and looked around the dormitory with a sigh. Would he ever see it again? The way things were going, it looked unlikely that it would be safe for him to come back to Hogwarts next year. For all he knew, his absent father might have been a wizard, but he had no proof one way or the other and no way of finding out. Dean was a realist. He knew that there were people fighting against You-Know-Who, but what chance did they have now, now that Dumbledore was dead? And with them in charge, someone like him, with no known magical ancestry was in trouble.

He left the dormitory, went through the unnaturally quiet common room and headed for the stairs down to the Great Hall. Halfway down the stairs, he collided with someone.

"Whoa! Careful!" he cried, putting out a hand to catch the girl on the step in front of him. Pale hair, a slightly dazed expression, strange strange earrings. Luna Lovegood.

He scarcely knew her. He had never exchanged a word with her as far as he could remember. But now her expression was changing and she was looking at him as if she knew him.

"It's Dean, isn't it?" she asked, and carried on before he even had time to nod. "You look worried, Dean. Don't worry. It will all turn out right in the end."

Then she smiled at him, and continued on her way up the stairs. Dean watched her and found himself smiling. She was crazy of course. But she had made him feel better.