THC/The Houses Competition

House:Gryffindor

Category: Standard

Class: Potions

Prompt(s):[Scenario] Being invisible (literally or metaphorically is up to the writer)

[Action] Secret Handshake

Word Count: 1587

Summery: Lily is feeling that she is invisible to the world, Luna comes up with a way to make her feel better.

Title: The Secret Handshake

Lily Luna Potter swung her legs under her chair as she had her dinner, paying little to no attention to the conversation her brothers were having. What she could understand was that The Wimbourne Wasps was taking The Appleby Arrows by storm in the Quidditch World Cup, whatever that meant and apparently it was the end of the world according to her older brother, James. Lily never really cared about Quidditch even though it was a big part of her family's lives, how could it not be with her mom playing for the Holyhead Harpies as Chaser, but Lily never found it exciting as her brothers and dad did. To her, Quidditch was just a bunch of people on brooms, chasing a little golden ball around a field and throwing balls into hoops.

She tried to get into other spots in hopes of joining in on the excitement such as Quodpot which was just a variant of Quidditch. She tried getting into Broom Racing but once again it was just a bunch of people on brooms all trying to be the fastest. She thought she could get into Snidget Hunting but that was a bust along with Owl Racing and Polo, and Gobstones was a complete disaster in her opinion. But that still didn't stop her from trying, she took in a deep breath, twisting her fingers together as she felt her stomach tighten with nervousness. "You know, I've been reading Quidditch Through the Ages and…" but before Lily could finish her sentence or even the thought she was cut off by her mother.

"I'm sure The Appleby Arrows will make a come back." Ginny reassured, giving her son a small smile, not even hearing what Lily just said.

Lily couldn't help but to frown, but she tried again, once again she took in a deep breath before speaking "You know, I been reading Quidditch Through the Ages and I think if the Appleby Arrows try…." but once again Lily was cut off in the middle of her sentence but this time it was from Albus.

"Mum, The Appleby Arrows are too far behind. They are never going to get enough points to win." Albus explained before stuffing his face with more mashed potatoes and gravy.

Lily didn't bother trying again. What was the point? She was completely invisible to her family. She took after her Aunt Hermione more than her parents. Books were her life, she loved books, even muggle books. She was currently reading a trilogy written by a muggle named J.R.R. Tolkien. It was a story about a group of heroes who try to save their world from evil, The Lord of the Rings. Lily could only figure that she enjoyed the trilogy so much because she was a lot like the main hero, Frodo. Frodo was part of a race called Hobbits, and even though Frodo was happy to live among his friends and family in the Shire, his pure, incorruptible heart set him apart not only from other Hobbits, but also from other races as well.

Lily was able to acknowledge Frodo's pain, she too felt set apart from everyone, invisible as if she had the one ring on and was unable to get it off. The only difference was that she wasn't out to save middle-earth. She was just a girl trying to survive in a world that didn't see her.

Lily let out a long sigh as she set down her silverware "May I be excused? I'm finished.'' Lily politely asked as she waited for an answer that would never come. She let out another long sigh, this one more annoyed than the last before getting up and leaving the table as her parents and brothers continued to talk about Quidditch along with other things that didn't intrigue her.

Lily's frown only deepened when she entered her room; even her room felt invisible. Plain, off-white walls that matched her bookcases that lined her back wall. A single twin bed was pressed against the conner of the room and a worn out desk sat upright to the small window that looked out onto the garden. The only spot of color were the book bindings that lined her many shelves. Her room looked nothing like her brothers. She didn't have Quidditch posters on her walls or sporting equipment laid out on the floor for people to trip over. Her floor wasn't covered in mud from her running into her room after a long day of playing outside. The only thing she had of importance was, , a stuffed hippogriff that Aunt Hermione had given her on her fifth birthday. Lily only flipped off her light as she dragged herself to bed and fell asleep.

The next morning Lily found herself sitting next to her Aunt Luna with her dad having to go into work early this morning for an emergency meeting and her mom having to practice with her team for the upcoming match with The Ballycastle Bats. James and Albus objected to having a babysitter, saying that they were old enough to look after themselves. Lily had to disagree, if her brothers were left alone they would probably end up setting the house on fire or worse.

"I just can't help but to feel invisible," Lily confessed after a lot of prodding from Luna for the past thirty or so minutes. "I just feel like…I don't know. I walk into a room and no one even notices that I'm there," Lily tried to explain how she felt as best she could.

"You're not invisible," Luna responded as she sat up a little. "You are a little different from your family but that doesn't mean you are invisible. There's nothing wrong with being a little different from everyone else. Its just means that you're unique." Luna explained, in hopes of making Lily feel better. She, more than anyone Lily knew, knew what it was like to feel invisible to everyone else.

Lily titled her head as she rolled her eyes a little, "Really? A couple of days ago I was sitting in the living room with my dad and he asked where Lily was. I was sitting right across from him. I was in the same room," Lily explained.

"Lily….." Luna started only to be cut off by Lily. "I was in the room!" Lily repeated herself, feeling as if Luna wasn't understanding her.

Luna nodded, a frown appearing on her face before it quickly went away when she came up with an idea that her mom did with her when she was Lily's age that made her feel better about being different.

"Stand up." Luna instructed as she stood up from the couch "I'm gonna teach you something very special that is just going to be between us." Luna explained.

"...Alright," Lily said, a bit hesitant but she still stood up and faced Luna.

"It's called a secret handshake, I'm going to show you how to do it, and you follow along the best that you can. It might be hard at first but do the best that you can," Luna explained taking in a deep breath.

"This is how it goes.

The regular,

the side five,

the octopus,

the triple scoop,

the kiss-kiss,

the brush-off,

elbows,

Knees,

the monocle,

the monkey,

the turkey,

the snail,

confetti toss,

poppin' corn,

super fly high five and then, bump the butt."

Luna named off all the moves as she demonstrated them. Lily watched with intense interest as Luna showed her the moves. First it was just a plain, old handshake followed by slapping their hands together sideways. The octopus was Luna's hand going over Lily's fist as she wiggled her fingers before pulling away and showing Lily how to do the triple scoop. Luna made a V sharp out of her two fingers and then they stacked their fists on top of each other, making a triple stacked ice cream cone.

Next, they bunch their five fingers together and touched them at the tips before making kissing sounds. Lily watched as Luna brought her hand up to her shoulder and made a brushing motion twice, Lily followed the action before Lily and Luna touched elbows and then touched their knees together.

Lily couldn't help but to laugh as Luna made a circle with her pointer finger and her thumb, placing it over her left eye before bringing her hand up and lightly pulling her ear away from her head and puffing out her cheeks.

Luna then helped Lily to make the turkey, placing her open hand on the back of her fist. Lily wiggled her fingers a little as Luna made turkey gobble noises by using the back of her throat before she slid her first up Lily's arm to make the snail that quickly followed after the turkey.

The last four steps were easy, stretch your hands up from your waist like you are throwing confetti in the air, snapping your fingers as you brought your hands back down. Lily jumped as high as she could as her and Luna gave each other a high five before the two of them bumped butts together to end the secret handshake.

From that day forward, whenever Luna and Lily saw each other they would do their secret handshake that only they knew, and to Lily, it made her feel just a little less invisible to the world. It was nice to have this special thing, and know that it would be the same every time.