Chapter three, in which Literature is Discussed

Marie was making friends quickly. By the time she came down to breakfast the next morning she was already surrounded by younger girls who admired her. She was just telling them about the Slug Club meeting on the train (Romilda had always wanted to be invited to join the club and meet all the cool people, but Professor Slughorn couldn't even remember her name) when an owl dropped a scrap of parchment on the table in front of her. Marie picked up the note and read it.

'What is it?' one of the girls asked excitedly.

Marie read it aloud. The girls giggled.

'Who's it from?' another girl asked.

There was no signature on the letter.

'A… secret admirer,' Marie said. There was more giggling.

'Maybe it's that cute Hufflepuff…' someone wondered 'what's his name again? You know, the one…'

'Or maybe it's someone from the Club?' someone else suggested.

As the girls speculated and giggled (The speculation was obviously mostly based on which boy Marie would look cute with.) the dark-haired elf looked up at the other end of the table.

'Who could it possibly be from?' she asked out loud, because that was how these things happened.

At this point she really should have accidentally made eye contact with Neville across the table. She should have smiled and he should have blushed, and angels should have sung, and Marie should have still failed to get a clue. Unfortunately, Marie already knew and Neville, tired after the sleepless night, chose this moment to fall asleep with his face in a bowl of porridge. The angels remained silent.

XXX

McGonagall looked up from her paperwork to see a small creature with ridiculously large eyes and ears. It was wearing a skirt and an oversized maroon sweater, which made it look rather like a really ugly doll. It was staring at its own feet as if it had never seen them before.

'What's the matter, Winky?' McGonagall asked.

The House-Elf looked up.

'Headmistress told Winky to come here if Winky sees anything unusual,' she said a bit uncertainly.

'Yes, I think I did.'

'Well…' the House-Elf said 'Luna Lovegood came to the kitchens last night, Headmistress…'

'Five points from Ravenclaw,' McGonagal said 'It's not that unusual, though.'

The kids did that sort of thing all the time, didn't they?

'But she took a frying pan, Headmistress! A big one!'

This changed everything. Lovegood often noticed things before anyone else did.

'Iron?' McGonagall asked, alarmed.

'Yes, Headmistress.'

This was bad.

Somebody knocked on the door and Winky disappeared with a faint pop.

'Enter,' the Headmistress called and the door opened.

Luna Lovegood walked into the office. Something was sticking out of her overstuffed bag. It looked like the handle of an enormous frying pan.

XXX

Luna caught up with Hermione in the library.

'I talked to McGonagall,' she said.

'What about?' Hermione asked.

'Marie.'

'You really shouldn't have bothered her,' Hermione replied 'I bet she's got a lot of work to do right now.' Then she glanced at Luna's bag and added 'Why are you carrying that with you all day anyway?'

Luna looked at the handle still sticking out of the bag, but said nothing.

'Never mind,' Hermione said at last 'I don't want to know. What did McGonagall say?'

'She told me not to jump to conclusions,' Luna admitted 'But she looked worried.'

XXX

Marie looked around the Common Room. Ah, there he was, sitting in the corner reading a book. The elf strolled casually across the room and sat down in the armchair next to his. The boy glanced at her, blushed and buried his face in the book.

'It was very sweet of you,' Marie said.

The boy dropped the book and turned to her, blushing.

'What?' he said 'How did you know it was me?' Those were the first words he said to Marie.

'Oh, right, you forgot to sign it,' she replied, giggling 'I just… guessed…'

'So… um…' Neville tried to say something, but then she touched his arm and he suddenly forgot how to speak.

'Yes,' Marie said softly 'I think that's a very good idea. How about Saturday?'

XXX

'But seriously, why do you read it?' Hermione tried her best to avoid further discussions of elves, frying pans and why anyone should worry about them anyway 'You always knew what magic is really like.'

'Yes,' Luna agreed 'But it's interesting to see what people think it's like, isn't it?'

'Well… I suppose,' Hermione said 'It is kind of funny. Where do they get those ideas, eh?'

This turned out to be the wrong thing to say. A mysterious, knowing smile appeared on the younger girl's face.

'Exactly,' Luna said quietly.

'What?' Hermione asked, confused. What had she done wrong?

'Why are witches evil in their fairytales?' Luna whispered with a dreamy expression on her face 'Why are elves always perfect?'

There had to be a logical answer to these questions, Hermione was sure, one that didn't involve Marie's pointy ears or a reason for Luna to go around with a frying pan in her bag, but she couldn't think of one.

'You mean there really are elves like that?' she said in disbelief.

'No,' Luna said 'There aren't. That's why I carry this,' She indicated the handle sticking out of her bag 'I'm not sure what she's up to yet, but - '

'Hello,' someone interrupted her. The girls turned around to see Neville.

'Hi,' they both said.

'I hoped to find you here, Hermione,' Neville said 'Would you mind taking a look at my homework? I'm not sure if I got it right…'

The older girl accepted the paper gratefully. It was an excuse to change the subject.

As she read through Neville's essay, correcting his mistakes, she suddenly realised that the boy was humming.

'What's the matter?' she asked, looking up.

'Oh.' For a moment Neville looked slightly embarrassed. 'Nothing,' he said 'I'm just happy.'

'That's nice,' Luna said 'Why?'

'She agreed to go out with me,' he said dreamily.

'Who?'

'Marie…' Neville said with a sigh.

Luna muttered something that sounded like a curse (of the not-particularly-magical variety) and reached for the frying pan.