Chapter 13
DISCLAIMER - None of these delightful characters are mine, all belong to JK Rowling.
The feel good effect carried Luna right through the evening until it was time to join her guardian in his private quarters for supper. She was delighted to have the opportunity at last to tell him the myriad things that had made her first days at Hogwarts so utterly memorable and so very special. In fact, she talked right through the first course of steaming bowls of soup and fluffy white rolls, served by an aged house elf named Florrie.
If Severus noticed the name of Neville Longbottom coming up rather frequently in Luna's conversation, he chose to ignore it. Likewise, he made no comment on Luna's choice of new friends, among them Harry Potter. Instead, he bestowed a look of approval on the child when he finally managed to get an opening in the excited chat she was having with him. Florrie had brought mouthwatering platters of buttery peas, golden carrots, crisp baked potatoes and two large and aromatic steaks.
"Professor Flitwick speaks very highly of your performance in Charms, Luna. And by his telling, you have made yourself quite at home in Ravenclaw," he said.
She beamed happily.
"Oh yes. I love it there. We are looking forward to Quiddich starting. Some Third Years told us that the after match parties are legend! And when Ravenclaw win, they are out of this world, especially when we beat Slyth… when we beat the strong teams," Luna became very interested in her food as she realised what she was saying.
Snape pursed his lips.
"Indeed. Be warned, little Miss Lovegood, the Quiddich Cup is very much in Slytherin's sights. I wouldn't like to bet my dessert course on Ravenclaw denying us, if I were you," his black eyes twinkled at her.
"Do you go to the matches then?"
"Oh yes. I find that a bit of moral support from the Head of House spurs my Slytherins to greater things," he intoned silkily.
It was an evening that Luna thoroughly enjoyed. She was experiencing a truly affirming sense of belonging that had started to grow within her in the days since coming here. She was making friends, she laughed often and she felt within herself a confidance that came with succeeding.
To top it all, she had a haven to look to with the Professor. He was genuinely interested in what she was doing and how she was getting on. It was not the same as having her dad back but it was a good and safe feeling just the same.
After dinner, they fell into a familiar routine, settling in to his study, where he was soon immersed in correcting a pile of Second Year homework and she lost herself in one of her books. To Luna, it felt like a return to the days when she had first come to live with him. Now, though, her life was so much fuller. She was not leaving something, as she had then. The loss, the questions, the threat she could feel, even if she could not name it. This time, she was moving towards something. She was on her way to being a witch, to growing up, she was no longer alone.
"Luna, love. It's late."
The Professor's voice called her back from a warm and very pleasant nothingness and Luna opened her eyes, saw the fire had burned to a reddened ash. She reaslised that she must have dozed off on the couch. Severus was stooped over her, his face kind.
"I didn't realise the time. It's too late to return to your dorm now. Your bed is made up. I suggest you take that sleepy head of yours off to it," he said.
Luna picked up her book, which had fallen to the floor, still opened to the page she had been reading. Following the Professor's advice, she considered that as ends to a really good week could go, this one was among the finest.
Two days later, Luna was racing from the Ravenclaw dorm to her first flying lesson. She was late, she'd been delayed in her last lesson, Defence Against the Dark Arts. Their teacher, Professor Quirrell, a man who always appeared overwhelmed with nerves and unspoken fears wore a strange turban and spoke in a stuttering stream, even when he spoke to students on a one to one basis.
Ravenclaw and Slytherin were paired for the Dark Arts lessons. The Malfoy boy spent most of the lesson nudging his elbow into the ribs of the large, block shaped boy beside him and sniggering whenever Professor Quirrell's back was turned. Luna wasn't sure whether she or the Professor was the cause of his amusement. Certainly, Draco was unsparing in the snide remarks he made on the lesson, flustering the already skittish teacher even more.
"My father said that the Hogwarts purse was getting light. But even he didn't know it had come to this! Where did Dumbledore get this guy, the desperate teachers order book?" Malfoy spoke in an undertone, loud enough for Quirrell to catch as he went past the Slytherin bench. His companion, the boy named Goyle chuckled maliciously.
Professor Quirrell was wringing his hands by the time he got back to the top of the classroom. In a stammering voice that was almost a whisper, he began to tell them about the potent effects of smoking lumpweed when faced with will o' the wisps, tricksy little creatures renowned for leading travellers astray.
"What are you looking at, Lovegood?" Malfoy eyed her coldly.
Luna blinked and returned his stare.
"Not much, really. I was just wondering if you intended for your lumpweed to scorch the sleeve of your robe," Luna replied and Malfoy's icy gaze fell to his arm at once.
His pale face took on a shading of pinks across his cheekbones as he pointed his wand at his smouldering robes. There was a laser of white light, a hissing sound and the thin drifts of smoke faded from the black cloth.
"Think you're so clever do you? You'd be in a home for the dotty if Dumbledore hadn't foisted you on Snape. Don't get too comfortable, you'll probably end up there anyway!" Malfoy hissed at her .
"Have a care for yourself, Malfoy. I wonder where Snape will send you if he hears you've been disrupting lessons and costing Slytherin valuable points!" Emily Evans, one of Luna's dorm mates spoke beside her.
Malfoy's lips curled in a sneer but seeing Quirrell eyeing them warily, he reluctantly turned back to his lumpweed.
"He's a dreadful show off, jealous that you have got such a lovely stream of perfect blue smoke going from your lumpweed," Emily said quietly, making Luna smile heartily at the compliment.
When the lesson ended, Luna still felt bad for poor Quirrell, who was looking about at the unsmoked sample of the herb that lay across the surface of his desk, as though putting it away was a treacherous task. He produced his wand, dropped it, bent to see where it had fallen and then straightened quickly, readjusting the turban.
"Miss Lovegood, per.. per.. perhaps you c…c…could spare a moment to hel…help here" he called as Luna made her way to the door, one of the last to file out.
"Certainly, Professor," Luna said cheerfully, setting to the task of replacing the lumpweed into the creel shaped baskets it had come in.
It hadn't taken her long but it meant that she was behind everyone else as she raced to her dorm to stow her bag before going out onto the lawn, where Madame Hooch had arranged the flying lessson.
As Luna jogged down the staircase from the dorm into the vacant Ravenclaw common room, a vague popped had her slowing even as she had almost reached the door. She glanced back over her shoulder, then came to a complete halt at the sight before her eyes.
A house elf half knelt, half crouched on the blue and silver carpet. She emitted a low, keening sound that was barely audible but very distressing for all that. Luna turned back and walked slowly toward the creature, frowning as slow recognition filtered. The elf raised her wrinkled face, her large, luminous eyes filled with tears.
"Oh Miss, I is so glad you is alive. You can't know how I is been worried," she sobbed.
With no small degree of trepidation, Luna realised this was the same elf she had met in Diagon Alley that day last summer and her first instinct was to turn and flee the common room as fast as her feet would carry her. Yet she found herself edging closer to the creature instead of running in the other direction as a strong part of herself urged.
"I never is meaning you harm, Miss. Never," the elf's voiced was hoarse, the ragged sobs rasping in her throat.
Luna's misgivings were suspended as she felt the waves of upset radiating from the little creature. She frowned and tried to think of something to ease the torrent of anguish.
"I am alright. There's no need to cry about it," she said, leaning over to put herself more on a level with the little elf.
Instead of causing the tears to abate, Luna's words dragged an ear shattering wail from the elf, who now dropped to her knees and began pounding her head against the floor.
Alarmed, Luna reached out and laid a hand on a thin and quaking shoulder, he egsture automatic, all thought of danger to herself evaporating in the face of such abject misery.
"I don't bear any grudge about it," Luna said, more yelps of agony emitting from the writhing elf.
"You is too good, too good to be talking like this!" the elf half choked.
"What is your name? And you can call me Luna," Luna tried again, thinking to get a conversation going, move away from talk about the last time they had met. The creature was clearly distraught about that.
This time, the elf stretched full flat on the carpet and clasped her ears in her knobbly fingers and yanked them in what had to be a most painful way.
"You is talking to me like is the same as you….. Oh Miss, you is too kind and I is wretched!" she cried, her voice muffled by the carpet.
"You haven't come to try to poison me again, have you?" Luna asked, not sure if the elf could hear her over the din she was making.
"Noooo! Oh Miss, please don't be thinking of me as a bad elf, I isn't. I says it again, I don't mean you no harm," she protested.
"I is here to save you! And my poor master, he is in such terrible danger. I is wanting only to stop …." the gasping, tear sodden words petered out, replaced by a heart rending cry and the elf was suddenly hitting herself about the head with a large block of timber that lay in a wicker basket before the fireplace.
"Never… speak… ill of … family… Oh what is I coming to?" the creature's eyes were glazed before Luna managed to wrestle the wood from her hand.
"What do you mean? What danger?" Luna was regretting not raising an alert now.
"He is already here. But Miss must not be hurt! I is owing her that! The cloak, it belongs to the boy who is living. He will take it but if Miss is hiding it, Miss will save him and save herself. He can't get it but he is here, he is here!" the hysterical ramble faded to a wheeze as the elf collapsed on the floor, overwhelmed and possibly dazed from the blows she had dealt herself with the block of wood.
Luna had no idea what she was talking about, she was utterly lost and desperately shaken by the desperation convulsing the elf.
Then, she heard a crack as the porthole into the common room opened. Luna looked around at the noise, in time to see a fourth year boy hop across the threshold.
When she looked back at the ground beside her, there was nothing there, the aged creature had vanished.
The boy looked at her curiously but then gave her a quick nod as he moved to settle into one of the empty armchairs. Seeing Luna Lovegood look lost and at sea was nothing new and he was already getting one with his own business.