WRITTEN FOR THE HOUSES COMPETITION, YEAR 10, ROUND 1
House: Slytherin
Class: DADA
Category: Standard
Word Count: 1561
Prompts: [Weather] Flood; [Title] Luna the Crumple-Horned Snorkack slayer
Warnings/Disclaimers: none
Tried a new style, hope it works out!
"It started raining right away.
"No one noticed at first. Everyone was too relieved; students whooped and cheered, and people ran all over to embrace their loved ones. The Death Eaters fell to their knees right there on the Hogwarts grounds, but even Aurors like Kingsley were too busy to care about those losers. Don't tell anyone, but I swear I saw Kingsley twirl Minerva around like she was a schoolgirl."
Ginny smiled at the girls' delighted gasps and soft giggles.
"Anyway, we were busy, and covered in all manners of weird substances anyway—one of Professor Sprout's greenhouses had exploded all over some of the fighters, and we have to be glad the consequences weren't more dire. As things stood, we were all dirty from head to toe, sweaty and splattered with mud, and that's to say nothing about the cuts and grazes oozing blood."
Victoire grimaced in disgust, but Dominique leaned forward, eyes shining as she listened to the details of that night.
"So we were celebrating Voldemort's fall, mingling with the others who fought, right? And word about the people who didn't make it started to spread. No one cared about having to flip wet hair away from their faces when everyone was so desperate for news. Even when things calmed down a little and all the Death Eaters were rounded up, the fact that they'd been kneeling in three inches of mud was low on the list of priorities. So what if they were wet and uncomfortable? We all were, and getting out of the rain was as easy as walking inside the castle. Hogwarts was scarred but still standing proud, welcoming and protecting students old and young. You'll find out what I mean when it's your turn—"
"Unless we go to Beauxbatons!" Victoire piped up.
Ginny snorted.
"I guess we'll see," she conceded, trying hard to respect her sister-in-law and not mock such an outlandish notion. "But if you go to Hogwarts, and you sharpen your eyes, you'll find the marks of the battle etched in stone, and perhaps even the marks of the water that rose to wash away that day's sins. Of course, we didn't see things quite so poetically when we woke up the morning after the battle to a full-fledged flood. The soft rain of the day before had turned into a deluge during the night, and the Black Lake overflowed like it never had before, flooding the grounds as far as the eye could see, from the castle's main doors to the edges of the Forbidden Forest.
"It was clear very quickly that the flood wasn't natural, but who would dare curse Hogwarts in such a way after she withstood Voldemort's attack? The professors and the students who had fought were exhausted, having stayed in the castle only to recover from the battle, and everyone else had gone home the previous day, when the rain still seemed natural and the lake hadn't overflowed yet.
"We couldn't even open Hogwarts' main doors, as the water blocked them, almost as high as them. We all had to lean out of the first floor's windows to aim spell after spell at the water, trying to drain the grounds quicker than they could be flooded. It was more futile than trying to make Flobberworms perform a trick. The situation only worsened, brownish water rushing all around the castle like an enormous, swollen river that ate up more and more land for every minute that we couldn't find a solution."
"What did you do then?" Dominique burst out, wiggling in place as if she couldn't contain herself any longer.
Victoire directed a truly scathing look at her sister.
"This is obviously when Aunt Luna saves the day," she said, looking down her nose at Dominique.
Ginny thought that if someone had looked at her like that when she had been a child, she would have sent them back home either limping or bloody. As an adult, she found Victoire's snobbish tendencies almost cute, though she was prepared to look the other way for a few seconds if Dominique tried to retaliate. Younger sisters' solidarity and all that. Her niece was more restrained than that, though, only poking her tongue out.
"I want to hear Aunt Ginny tell it!"
"And so I shall," Ginny said, lowering her voice and choosing her words to lend more pathos to her story. "For the brightest minds of our generations were absolutely stumped by the flood, and the most powerful fighters could do nothing against the power of the elements. Except for…"
"Aunt Luna!" Dominique yelled happily.
"Except for Luna, who'd slept for a full ten hours and had a proper breakfast before she wandered to the first floor where everyone was still hanging out of the windows. She asked us if we were trying to combat the effects of a Blibbering Humdinger, and when we said that no, we were trying to stop the flood, she frowned a little and looked out of the window too. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open, and she announced for everyone to hear that she could not believe that the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks were trying to make Hogwarts their new mating ground."
"What's mating?"
"People scratched their heads," Ginny continued quickly. "Because, as you know, Crumple-Horned Snorkacks originate from Sweden, and seeing them in Scotland, let alone in such numbers that they could combine their magic to flood the Hogwarts grounds, was unheard of. Luckily for all of us, Luna knew exactly what to do.
"She led me, Dennis Creevey, and Sarah Feyard all the way down to the dungeons, where it was dark and damp—perfect conditions for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks to make their nests. Luna gave each of us a small sachet full of powder that we had to sprinkle in corners and beneath torches, while she performed the ritual that would banish the Snorkacks. She chanted and chanted, leading us ever-downwards, in a part of Hogwarts that we'd scarcely had reason to visit during our school days. Dennis, Sarah, and I kept sprinkling the powder that Luna had provided.
"Everything was quiet. It was almost eerie after the noise of water rushing over the grounds, torrential rain, and people screaming over each other to try and find the spell that would stop the catastrophe. It was so quiet except for our footsteps, that when I first heard another noise I thought I was making it up."
Dominique wiggled and clutched at her bedsheets, unable to sit still as Ginny built suspense.
"It was a high-pitched sound that bothered me terribly. I did my best to ignore it, but finally, I couldn't take it anymore and had to rub my ears. That's when they attacked.
"Crumple-Horned Snorkacks are invisible in the right conditions, and a damp dungeon was the perfect terrain for them, but the powder we had been spreading offered us a measure of protection. They hesitated to come too close to it, and Luna took advantage of their pause to try and negotiate with them. She explained that Hogwarts was taken, a very important human settlement, and if they wanted to mat—er, to find a new home, they should look further north where there was nothing but wilderness.
"The Snorkacks wouldn't listen. They gathered themselves for a frontal attack, but they underestimated Luna. She brandished her wand with a beaded necklace wrapped around it, its radish pendant held in her hand right next to the wood. When she was done with them, there was no more trace of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks anywhere in Scotland. The rain slowed and stopped, and everyone's spells started working to contain the flooding and drain the water.
"And this is the story of Luna Lovegood, the Crumple-Horned Snorkack slayer, who saved Hogwarts so that sprogs like you could run around the Quidditch pitch instead of swim in it."
"Oh, must you use that moniker?" Ginny looked up at Luna's voice, a besotted smile curling her lips before she could control herself. "It's such a pity those Crumple-Horned Snorkacks were too stubborn to relocate."
"Aunt Luna!" Victoire and Dominique both jumped out of their beds, rushing to their aunt to claim hugs and kisses. "We missed you today!"
"Sadly, Umgubular Slashkilters wait for no witch," Luna sighed, petting her nieces' golden hair.
Ginny joined the group hug to peck her wife on the lips.
"It's fine. Bill's only picking them up after dinner tomorrow, so we'll have all the time in the world to get into some mischief." Luna blinked at her, and Ginny smiled widely, almost daring her wife to deny the accuracy of her words.
The girls giggled, and Ginny pushed them back towards their beds.
"Go on, then," she said. "I told my brother I could handle you two and not disrupt your bedtime too much. Don't make a liar out of me."
Victoire and Dominique were sweet, really. They didn't even argue with her or try to bargain for a few more minutes—Ginny couldn't wait to tease Ron over how much easier they were to handle than Hugo and Rose.
Ginny and Luna kissed everyone goodnight one last time; then Ginny closed the guest room's door and embraced her wife once more—with no impediment in the form of small children this time.
"Shall we head to bed too?"
Ginny took Luna's wide smile as a yes.