So, I got pretty sick these last few days, I managed to start the next chapter but my head is too foggy to write all of the important bits right, so to avoid leaving y'all hanging, I decided to write the interlude early instead.
Luna
The first month of classes was normal-ish. Beyond the training with Professor Snape and her rekindled friendship with Ginny, her month with Alex put her ahead of her class in every subject except History of Magic, but that wasn't that far away from where she was previously.
The name-calling and missing things still happened. But to a lesser degree than in her previous years, especially after applying some spells Professor Snape taught her to her belongings.
The Triwizard Tournament was something she only started to seriously consider by the beginning of October, the only person she knew who could compete was Cedric but she had barely interacted with him since the World Cup.
The idea of multiple schools coming together reminded her of that day at the campsite with Alex, of learning any bit of magic that interested them and having mindless fun with everyone there.
The flashes of blood splatter filled her vision and the sound of crunching bone filled her hearing for a moment, barely a split second, but it was enough.
It happened every time she thought about the World Cup or the events surrounding it. Flashbacks, Professor Snape called it. He had been trying to help her deal with it, not only with Occlumency training sessions but also by talking to her about it.
It was slow going. She still didn't have a good handle on meditation to properly organize her thoughts and their talks usually devolved into a friendly chat about what had happened since the previous one.
But as Halloween approached, her excitement started to win out, she was at Hogwarts under the direct protection of one of its scariest professors.
She'd still rather be protected by Alex.
One day before Halloween, she stood with the rest of the school to watch the new arrivals.
The boat arriving from under the lake and the carriage being pulled by the beautiful Abraxam gave all Hogwarts students a spectacle they'd all remember for years to come.
And while the students of both schools tried to look aloof, the excitement from Hogwarts students was too high for it to last long.
Sitting in the Great Hall, she took her usual spot isolated from the rest of her House, waiting for the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students to arrive for the Tournament to officially start.
What she wasn't expecting was for a group of Beauxbatons girls to sit down around her.
She wasn't fluent in French, but she was good enough to understand why they were isolating themselves from the rest of the student body.
"Ugh, they are already staring," a pretty blond girl said.
"I know! Why did we agree with this again?" A cute brunette asked.
"Eternal glory?" a tomboyish girl replied.
"Speak for yourself, I want that 1000 galleons!" The pretty blond said.
"Easy for you to say, Fleur, you don't need eternal glory when everyone treats you like a queen whenever you go." The cute brunette said.
"Please, as if any of us would act differently if we were in her shoes." A black-haired girl said with a snort.
All of the girls surrounding her nodded at that.
"Uh, hi?" Luna said uncertainty.
The girls turned surprised looks at her, just noticing her presence.
"Hi! How are you? And what is your name?" The pretty blonde, Fleur, said.
"I'm Luna! And good." Luna replied. "But, why did you sit here? Is it because of the staring you mentioned?"
"Oh, you know French? And yes, boys are ever so predictable." Fleur said with a roll of her eyes.
"Just a bit," Luna said and, tilting her head slightly, asked: "And how are boys predictable?"
"Oh God, not another one!" The cute brunette exclaimed.
"Why are there two of them? Why are there two of them!?" The tomboy despaired.
"What are they talking about?" Luna asked Fleur.
"I don't know," Fleur replied, tilting her head slightly to look at her friends. "Madelaine, What is this about?"
The cute brunette sighed and pointed at Luna.
"She's just like you a few years ago," Madelaine said.
"Yeah, a clueless ethereal beauty, what are the odds?" The black-haired girl sarcastically.
Fleur turned to look at Luna, confusion evident in her face, but with a shrug, she decided to just ignore her friends for a more pressing question.
"Luna, why were you sitting by yourself?" Fleur asked her seriously.
"Well, you see…" Luna said as she began her tale.
The following weeks were just as good as they were weird for Luna, the harassment by her House dropped to almost nothing thanks to the help of her new friends from Beauxbatons, and, while her training had to be spaced out due to her having other things to do, her progress kept at the same rate since she decided to help Fleur in her preparations for the Tournament.
Although she didn't much care about the Tournament itself, aside from her jumping at the chance of training with someone close to her age, the only time she actually involved herself in a talk about it specifically was to warn Fleur that Harry's name coming out of the goblet was probably part of an assassination attempt.
In the beginning, Fleur didn't take it seriously, but a few days before the First Task she came to Luna, pale-faced but with a determined glint in her eye, to say that she fully believed that someone was trying to assassinate him.
Luna didn't bother asking why Fleur changed her mind, just being happy that her new friend believed her.
She found out the why of Fleur's change of mind during the First Task, dragons sure put things in perspective.
She was worried, but confident her friends would make it past the challenge without harming themselves or the dragons and their eggs.
Her heartbreak upon the destruction of the eggs during Krum's turn was almost enough to make her leave, but she wanted to support the others and Ginny and her other Beauxbatons friends were with her to cry over such a tragic loss.
It was a few days after the First Task that she learned about the existence of the Yule Ball.
It was nice being involved with all of the preparation the girls were going through, and helping Ginny choose someone to take her was fun, but a part of her was sad to not be able to go.
"You can just find someone to take you!" Fleur said. It was less than a week from the Ball, and all the girls were doing final checks on their outfits in an empty classroom.
"It wouldn't be the same," Luna said, giving Fleur a bittersweet smile before going back to looking out of the window.
"Why doesn't she want to go?" Madelaine, the cute brunette student from Beauxbatons, quietly asked Ginny. It was something that was bothering the girls for a while but, up until that point, they always decided that they'd learn in time.
With a sigh, Ginny pulled Luna's bag open to get a paper from it. "Because she wants to go with only one person," she said, handing the paper to the Beauxbatons girls. "And he isn't in Britain at the moment."
The girls clamored around the paper for a while, rapidly talking in French about the images.
"And how do they know each other?" Anjelique, the black-haired girl, asked.
"He lived with her for a month during Summer break," Ginny said, smiling when she heard the girls cursing. "Yeah, and Luna is territorial too, I still can't believe she ended up following up on her threat of making me go with Neville."
The girls shared wide-eyed stares for a moment before turning to look at Luna, who was peacefully enjoying the snowy scenery.
"Better let her be," Madelaine said, receiving nods from the other girls.
A while later, the girls were walking down the corridor having just left the unused classroom when they were stopped by Professor Snape.
"Miss Lovegood?" He said.
"Yes, Professor?" Luna replied, moving in front of the group.
"I was tasked to inform you that you will be participating in the coming Yule Ball with a guest of honor," Snape said, looking at the group of girls carefully. "Hopefully your friends will help you get everything ready on such a… Short notice."
Luna's widened eyes at learning that what she'd hoped would happen came to pass were replaced by terror once she felt Fleur's hands heavily drop on her shoulders.
"She will be ready sir!" Fleur declared, with sounds of assent from all the girls surrounding her.
"Then I'll leave her in your capable hands, Miss Delacour," Snape nodded.
With that, the girls quickly dragged Luna away, all of them giggling and whispering.
As girls moved out of sight, Severus allowed himself a small, self-satisfied smile. He knew Alex would come through for her.
As Snape moved on with a smile, Harry, under his invisibility cloak, vowed to find out what nefarious plan he had put in motion.
The professor had been acting weird since the start of term, and for the last month, Malfoy had too, so Harry was on high alert for whatever disaster they cause next.
Hopefully, Run and Hermione would have an idea of where to start.
A/N: Shorter than I wanted but still hit all the bits I wanted to, although I had to scrap some scenes that I couldn't make work right now.
I should be better next week to properly finish the cliffhanger I left y'all with the last chapter.
Like my writing? Want to be able to read a full three chapters ahead? Then check me out on P a treon . com (slash) NickKane.