Hey everyone,
I decided to throw a little shocker into the whole ongoing plot and that is that someone who is well-known to the HP cannon will be one of the people who have indeed turned white, but who did not realize what kind of behavior will no longer be tolerated. Who will it be? Well, he was quite popular in a chapter for CoS.
Care to guess,
Venquine1990
Chapter 17
End Of An Era, Indeed
Ernie's POV
What happened about four days ago is just too bizarre to comprehend. One minute we've all finished our O.W.L.S for charms, the twins left Hogwarts with a bang and we were all celebrating their amazing way to get back at Umbridge for everything she has been causing – and the next Potter is suddenly crowned King of England.
To make matters even more incredible did his crowning also bring forth the return of both Merlin and Godric Gryffindor – who was actually hiding himself as Granger's cat – and did he actually show how important it is going to be for our world to integrate with the Muggle and did he bring forth a very confusing new rule for Hogwarts.
The boy had been quite vague about this rule, stating that it concerned some kind of behavior that apparently some of my own Year Mates have been suffering under and that he even has the portraits now as sentry guards to make sure the so-called behavior would be monitored and would no longer be acted upon.
Yet, to me the whole thing sounds as vague and strange as the whole thing with the Chamber and while I know darn well now that Harry isn't the Heir of Slytherin – as he managed to prove he descends from two of the other Founder lines – do I feel that I right now have other things to worry about than my new King.
Why, because my hormones have made me catch the sight of a very pretty fourth year who still seems unknown as to what side she should swing and to make her mine would feel just divine. The girl has been almost annoyingly ignorant of my courting so far, so I decided that if nice words don't cut it, straight truths might.
After all, I've studied her long enough to know that under that pretty face and those amazingly well-developing curves, a simple minded idiot is actually living as the girl believes in dumb things like Nargles or something like that and how someone like her can be a Ravenclaw is something that is still a mystery to me.
Yet the girl has a good-looking body and while she is very dreamy and often not even quite there with her focus, do I feel blessed with the fact that I joined the Dumbledore's Army as it allowed me a few chances to try and court her; chances she constantly blew by just practicing on her own work so much she was obvious to everything else.
The first time this had happened, I had been furious, yet I had not let myself get blown out of the field just yet. I had tried several times since, feeling very glad that Harry himself was too into that dingbat Chang to even notice the pretty little blonde, yet none of my advances, whether direct or vague, ever broke the girl out of her trance.
And so, after the seventh time of meeting with the DA, going over the spells and using it as a way to prove the Lovegood girl I could be a good match only for her to focus somewhere else, did a voice inside of me – which I later learned to believe comes from my hormones – tell me that the time for words was officially over.
Yet this voice had only come up two weeks before the DA had been busted and during those two weeks had I tried my hardest to think of a good plan through which I could ensnare the girl and finally get her attention – even if only physically. Yet all those plans had been blown out of the window when Dumbledore was forced to leave.
Umbridge had begun to rule and with that the Snakes had pretty much taken over Hogwarts. Sure, Harry still received the brunt of Umbridge's ire – for Merlin knows what reason – yet snakes like Crabbe and Goyle had been more interested in Badgers like me, Hannah and Susan and it had been a hell to survive their taunting.
The two had actually proven themselves to have brain cells as their comments and some of the spells they shot at us – declaring it to be for the good of the school and in name of their squad – proved that they had been paying attention to Moody's darker classes last year and we had visited the Hospital Wing quite a few times.
But now that reign is over as Umbridge is still somewhere in the forest – according to rumors caught by the local Centaur herd – and the girl of my teenage hormonal dreams is once more all by herself, making me know that it's now or never. I have to get the girl and I have to get the physical relief I have been dying for all year.
Smirking in a way I think would make even Draco Malfoy proud, do I approach the girl, having a book in my hand that has a title on it any Raven would be interested in, yet the cover of the book is also charmed so that anyone other than me touching it would make the person fall into an instant physical coma.
The charm itself had been hard to come by and it's only because Umbridge is now gone that I managed to trick Madam Pince in believing I had permission to enter the Restricted Section that I was able to find it, yet because I want Lovegood's attention but not her spellwork is this spell the perfect candidate to realize my dreams.
"Hi, Lovegood, right?" I then ask the girl, who is twirling with her strange necklace while leaning on the edge of a windowsill – which I think is completely nuts as we're a few floors up in the Astronomy Tower – and while the girl keeps doing this, does she look at me and tilt her head before she aggravates me as she says:
"You have a lot of Nargles surrounding you." And with that comment does she go back to starring out the window, making me hold back an angry growl before I smile and say: "Thanks for telling me, but I already knew that." This, finally, seems to get the girl's attention and she asks: "You did?" I nod and with a silent smirk tell her:
"Yeah, that's why I got this book from Madam Pince. Want to see?" The girl looks intrigued and while I can only hope that she will look at little me with that same intrigue later on, do I show her the book, smiling with barely veiled glee as I see her hand reaching out for the cover, but then something happens I never expected.
"STUDENT ALERT! STUDENT ALERT! LUNA LOVEGOOD! LUNA LOVEGOOD! STUDENT ALERT! STUDENT ALERT!" A high and shrill voice shouts from the entire corridor and while this actually makes the dreamy expression vanish off of the girl's face for the first time since I met her, does something else follow it.
Potter himself rushes from the corridor on the far left end on the one I am in and when he sees me and Luna does a look of pure fury appear on his face, his tan suddenly completely gone and his eyes burning with a rage that feels like it can burn me to cinders right where I stand and makes me tremble in my shoes in pure fear.
The boy seems to only need a minute to assess the situation and then – to my utter shock – draws Excalibur as he shouts: "Luna! Move! NOW!" The last word more a barked order than a shout and before I know what is happening, do I actually have Excalibur's blunt side against my throat while Potter now has my wand.
Wondering where my book went, do I see that it is where I was standing only moments ago, meaning I must have dropped it in my shock and then my situation turns from bad to worse as the girl actually touches it, making her drop on the floor seconds later, her eyes wide, but not a single other limb moving a muscle.
Potter sees this and before I can fully grasp what is happening, does he shout: "Hogwarts, seal this bastard so I can tend to my people." And to my utter shock do the steel banisters that form against the walls and have circles in their midst bend halfway up and seal me in their grasp as Potter moves and turns to the girl.
"Luna, you okay?" He asks, the anger and fury that was on his face now gone and replaced by worry and concern, his tan still white, yet his eyes no longer blazing and while I try my hardest, does Potter turn from his silent and comatose fellow student to the book that caused it, but before he can touch it, do I shout:
"WAIT, STOP!" The boy looks up and glares, the same venom as before back in his eyes and I say: "Whoever touches that book becomes comatose, at least physically. It's charmed so only I can touch it." Yet while this makes the young King withdraw his hand, does it not change a thing about the fury on his face.
With that same fury he stands up and asks: "She's Petrified?" I nod and say: "Only in body. She can still feel, hear and think.""Why?" Potter asks, the word almost spat and I say: "She's hot and ignored my advances. I was just listening to my hormones, what's so bad about that?" Yet then the bomb drops on me as Potter says:
"What's bad, MacMillan is that such behavior would disgrace Luna and her family. It's nothing short of rape and that's exactly the kind of behavior I was referring to four days ago. I really believed all those of fourth year and above would be hormonal and wise enough to understand, but I guess I just thought too high of some of you."
And while I feel like a total idiot does something else happen that makes it even worse. Led by the Headmaster and Professor Flitwick does almost my entire House from fourth year up rush into the corridor, Hannah and everyone else in my year stopping short when they see the state that Harry, Lovegood and I are in.
"Mr. MacMillan, explain yourself this instant!" Professor Flitwick exclaims, his fury just as Luna is one of his own and is still on the floor Petrified, her eyes assessing everything that happens around her and still skipping past me every time she looks from Harry to the teachers and then the students that slowly come to surround her.
"What's wrong with her?" Terry Boot asks and Potter answers: "Apparently she touched that book over there, which MacMillan charmed so only he could touch it. Anyone else would become like Luna is over here. Though why MacMillan thought it a good idea to do this four days after my very explicit warning is just beyond me."
And while my fellow House and Year mates look at me flabbergasted and like I'm some kind of idiot – the same kind of looks I received when news broke out of Granger being Petrified – do I only have eyes for my book as I just don't want anyone accidentally stepping on it or touching it, which so far has yet to happen.
Then, to my utter shock, do Potter's mates arrive at the scene, the Redhead that actually captured Potter's attention on the day he arrived summoning the strange weapon that he summoned that day and that strangely enough looks like a combination of a sword and a key and aiming it at the girl as he says: "Curaga."
And leafs and flower petals actually leave the flame shaped tip of his key-like sword and drop down on the girl, my eyes widening when I see that they actually get absorbed by her skin before she – to everyone's utter shock but Potter's starts to move and sits up, a happy and content smile on her little face as she says:
"Much better, thank you." And yet, before anyone can truly fathom what just happened, do I suddenly scream as several very painful spells all hit me in quick succession before the girl's voice sounds again, strong, confident and as pissed as Potter looked minutes ago: "In case you didn't get the message before, not interested."
And with that, a shocked to silent crowd and a happily pleased Potter, does the lithe blonde stand up, start to hum as she returns to twirling with her necklace and does she actually leave the corridor, the crowd that she walks to parting with wide eyes and a bit of fear in their step as they part ways for her, some of them even trembling.
"And that is why she is one of my best friends ever." Potter then says and when we all look at him, does he say: "She's the kind of girl who lives up to expectations – even when you don't have any. You expect her to be dreamy, strange and even an oddball and so she is, but under that, she's a real Raven and a real fighting genius.
Which is exactly why I was always so proud with her when she left our lessons. More often than not it was a race between her and Hermione who could perfect the lesson spell first." And while many are shocked at hearing this, do I feel incredibly stupid as my memories of when I chased after Lovegood – prove that Potter is indeed right.
The young king then dusts himself off as he had been crouching besides the girl and then stands up, his stance as strong and proud as four days ago when he announced the new rules and instantly everyone's eyes are on him once more, some of the students at the back standing on their toes to get a good look at him.
Yet Potter still seems one with the magic of Hogwarts as his voice sounds like a very clear echo as it rings through the entire corridor and he says: "Let this be a very clear message to all of you. This –." Potter points at me as he says: "Is exactly the behavior I mentioned. Such disrespect to a partner's rights will no longer be tolerated.
The people you saw being hidden by Professor Dumbledore have been harassed and intimidated in exactly the same way as MacMillan tried with my friend and neither I, the Headmaster, the Heads or the portraits or ghosts of Hogwarts will ever tolerate this again. This is the end of an era and I hope you realize that. For once and for all."
And with that, his sword back in the scabbard on his back and his mates standing as strong and fierce as Potter was when he showed up to the alarm, does the young king move, the crowd around him parting even more as he walks and his face proving how serious he takes his words, making me shudder and think:
"End of an Era, indeed."
Okay, that's it.
Okay, so the chapter's a little short, I will admit that and it didn't really have any real threats or danger in it, like some of you may be expecting, but I was trying to keep to the rules and any explicit signs of rape or sexual behavior is strictly limited and even forbidden here, so I had to keep it to what you see here.|
Also, MacMillan never struck me as the brightest bulb in the bunch and I wanted to put emphasis on how Harry ended the reign of intimidation and harassment and what better way than to have someone close to him – like Daphne, but different – be the last victim of such behavior. It felt right and it fitted just right too.
You like, yes?
Venquine1990
