Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ "Because She Told Me To!" ❯ Planning Ahead Over Christmas ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

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"BECAUSE SHE TOLD ME TO!"
Chapter Five:
Planning Ahead Over Christmas

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"Potter loves Loony! Potter luuurves Loony!!" sang Peeves gleefully as he soared through the castle, cackling all the way. "Potty wee Potter asked Loony Lovegood to the Christmas party! Oh, Potty and Loony, sitting in a tree...!"

"I never understood why people would climb up into a tree to snog," said Luna, looking up as the poltergeist passed her for the fifth time that day. "I should think that'd be rather inconvenient." But she was smiling as she said it. She had been smiling almost continuously for an entire day.

It had come completely out of the blue.

Purely by chance, shortly before the Christmas holiday, Luna had come over Hermione Granger crying in one of the girls' bathrooms over something Ron Weasley had either said or done -- Luna never found out just which it was.

While Hermione had never been one of Luna's favourite people in the world (her scoffing words about the Quibbler had annoyed Luna more than once), she was still much preferable to most of Luna's House-mates, so Luna had decided to try and comfort her a little.

Borrowing Neville's technique, she'd spent some time stroking the older girl's hair, although disappointingly enough, this did seem far less effective on Hermione than it had been on Luna. But at least Hermione managed to compose herself after a while and agreed to come out of the bathroom while Luna patted her on the back.

It was directly outside the bathroom they ran into Harry, who seemed to have been looking for Hermione. At least, that was what Luna assumed, since he was carrying a bunch of Hermione's things and handing them to her as soon as he saw her. Why he'd dyed one of his eyebrows yellow was completely beyond Luna, but she'd noticed that he sometimes did strange things.

Hermione didn't seem interested in talking to him, though; she politely excused herself after receiving her things, hurrying off. And Luna strongly suspected she was going off somewhere else to cry some more.

"She's a bit upset," she informed Harry. "I thought at first it was Moaning Myrtle in there, but it turned out to be Hermione. She said something about that Ron Weasley..."

"Yeah, they've had a row," said Harry, looking quite weary. Luna had the distinct impression that Ron and Hermione had had a lot of rows lately, and that Harry was quite sick of it. She felt sympathetic; it couldn't be much fun to have two best friends who constantly fought.

They set down the corridor together, and as Harry didn't seem to be too interested in talking about Ron or Hermione when Luna brought them up, they got to talking about Luna instead; how her year had been.

She decided against talking about Claire -- somehow, it didn't strike her as quite proper to talk about being seduced by another girl in front of Harry, of all people. Instead, she talked about missing the DA and how Ginny had stopped two boys from using the 'Loony' nickname the other day, and was just about to talk about her developing friendship with Neville --

-- when he had suddenly asked her. "How would you like to come to Slughorn's party with me tonight?" he'd said, just like that.

For a short moment, Luna thought that her heart would stop beating, but luckily it started again before she fainted or anything silly like that. She'd heard about Slughorn's party, of course; the new Potions teacher seemed to like having these get-togethers with students who were either famous or exceptional in some way. It was no surprise that Harry was invited to the party, but for him to ask her...!

He seemed to be just as surprised as her that he had asked, and hurried to add that he would be taking her there 'just as friends.' And that made the entire thing even better. Harry was a good and honest sort, and he would never have said that he only wanted to be friends if he didn't really want to be friends.

"I'd love to go with you as friends!" she beamed, feeling a wonderfully warm sensation spread inside her. "Is that why you dyed your eyebrow, for the party? Should I do mine too?"

Of course, Peeves overheard them, and for several hours afterwards, he flew about the castle, singing about how Potty and Loony were a couple now. It wasn't strictly the truth, but it still felt much less annoying than she'd have thought.

She got to tell Neville and Ginny about it before Peeves managed to give them any wrong ideas about the party, anyway, and that was the most important thing.

"This is brilliant!" said Ginny, looking almost as happy as Luna felt. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"Yes!" said Luna. "It means that I get to go to a party as friends! I've never done that before! Should I dye my eyebrows, you think?"

"No," said Ginny with a laugh. "What I meant was that when word gets out that Harry took you to the Christmas party, the Ravenclaws are bound to let up on you!"

"You really think so?" said Neville dubiously.

"Of course," said Ginny. "You don't think that a smart lot like the Ravenclaws would risk agitating the 'Chosen One' by harassing his girlfriend, now do you?"

"But I'm not Harry's girlfriend," Luna pointed out. "I would have known if I were."

"I know that, but it won't really matter what you or Harry say about it," said Ginny. "Rumour is going to be that you ARE his girlfriend."

"Oh," said Luna. "Shouldn't I tell him that?"

"He probably knows," said Ginny. "He's had to deal with this sort of thing for years."

"Lucky this didn't happen last year, when everyone thought he was insane and unstable, then," Neville murmured. "Although, come to think of it, they might have been even less keen on bothering his girlfriend then..."

Luna turned to him. "I wish you could come to the party as friends too," she said solemnly. "I think it would be even more fun if you were there."

"I don't think Harry would want to take me," said Neville with a weak smile. "No telling what kinds of rumours that would start."

Ginny laughed. After a moment or two, so did Luna. "I do wish you could come along, though," she said afterwards, when they'd calmed down a little.

Neville fidgeted. "I don't do so well at parties," he said. "And Professor Slughorn... well, he's nice enough, but I don't think he thinks very highly of me. He probably doesn't feel I live up to the, er, legacy of my parents. Not that I can blame him for that," he added thoughtfully. "I don't think I could ever become like them..."

Luna looked at him. Neville hardly ever talked about his parents, but after she had told him the story of her mother's death during one of their many meetings over the last few months, he had briefly told her about how they had been highly-respected Aurors who were tortured into insanity by Death Eaters. They were still at St. Mungo's to this very day. A lot of things about Neville had begun making sense when she knew this.

"I think they'd be proud of you," she informed him.

He smiled again, and she was surprised to see that his face had gone slightly red; it hardly ever did that anymore. "Well... you just go and have a good time at the party, all right?" he said. "Tell me what it was like afterwards."

"Would it make you happy if I had a good time?" asked Luna hopefully.

"Er, of course." He looked at her, a little oddly. "Shouldn't it?"

"In that case I'll make sure to have an extra good time!" she exclaimed, and then, because it seemed like the natural thing to do, leant over and kissed him on the cheek.

When she left the room with Ginny to find her dress robes and 'doll herself up a little,' as her mother had used to put it, she could see in the corner of her eye that he was touching the spot she had kissed, with a bright red face and a sheepish smile. She wasn't altogether sure, but she thought he murmured something like "I didn't think she'd do that..."

And the party turned out to be just as much fun as she had hoped. The perfect way, in fact, to end the term before the Christmas holiday.




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Aft er the girls had left, and Neville was absolutely sure his face had returned to it's normal colour, he decided to walk back to the Gryffindor tower to see whether he had remembered to pack everything he needed for his trip home for Christmas -- and make sure Trevor wasn't getting the urge to start wandering. Even though the toad was a lot calmer in the winter and generally happy to stay in the dormitory, you never knew if he'd suddenly get the idea to take a little trip and possibly stay away for a few days, and Neville didn't want to leave him behind at Hogwarts for Christmas.

As he reached the seventh floor, though, and was just about to walk down the corridor towards the painting of the Fat Lady, he heard a noise behind him and instinctively turned around to look.

There, seemingly having appeared out of nowhere (at least giving no signs of being out of breath from having climbed all those stairs), stood Claire Savelle, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"Longbottom," she said, making his name sound almost like a curse word. "There you are."

"Er, yes, hello," he answered. "If you'll excuse me, I -- I have to go pack for..."

"You cost me my girlfriend, Longbottom," she growled, her voice low and quiet but with an unmistakable air of menace to it that made him immediately -- as subtly as possible -- check his pocket to make sure he still had his wand. "Don't even try to deny it. It was Loony who told you, wasn't it?"

"Er," said Neville again. "Look, if you're talking about my, er, conversation with Marietta a few days ago --"

"She's a very fragile girl, you know." Claire began slowly walking towards him, keeping her voice silent. "And her mother is not the most accepting of witches. If she ever found out that her daughter was a lesbian... well," she added, making a sort of 'fill in the blanks yourself' motion with her hands. "But you didn't think of that, did you?"

"I really didn't know," said Neville, taking a few steps backwards to keep some distance between them. "And -- and besides, I wasn't going to tell her mother! I haven't told anyone!"

"Really?" Claire shook her head, smiling sardonically. "That's funny. She certainly thinks you have. Actually, she thinks that you and Loony Lovegood have both told everyone."

"We haven't," Neville protested.

Claire shook her head again. "Doesn't really matter, now does it?" she said. "Both of you told someone. Loony told you, and you..."

"Her name is Luna!" Neville squealed, trying to get the same kind of fierceness in his voice that Ginny Weasley was so good at.

Claire ignored him. "I see that I'm going to have a few words with Loony," she said, stressing the nickname a little. "She wasn't supposed to tell anyone, and still... Well, you know, I could tell you a lot of interesting things about her too, you know. You see, Marietta and I aren't the only lesbians around in Ravenclaw..."

"I know," said Neville. He swallowed several times to keep his tongue from going completely out of control. "I know that Luna likes girls as well, she told me..."

Apparently, she hadn't expected that one. She stopped dead in her tracks and blinked. "She told you that?"

"She told me a lot of things," said Neville, taking a few more steps back just in case. Maybe it was time to get a bit more on the offensive in this dialogue; but it wouldn't hurt to have some extra running space. "Luna's my friend, Savelle! You didn't think nobody would notice how you've been treating her this term, did you?"

"I..." Claire's eyes narrowed again. "Oh yes, of course! It makes sense now. She's been shagging you, hasn't she? That's why she has been acting the way she has, isn't it? I didn't think she went for boys at all, really, but you got to her! All that girl-sex, and you convinced that she should try fucking a 'man' for variety, perhaps?"

"I --" Neville paused, just about to tell her that she was completely off and that he had never even touched Luna that way, when he changed his mind. "Maybe I did and maybe I didn't," he said, trying to keep his voice as casual as possible. "Doesn't really matter. If I did, at least I never tried having two girls separately. Did Marietta know about the two of you?"

The glare Claire sent him was more than enough to make him wish that he'd kept his mouth shut. "Think you're bloody clever, don't you?" she hissed, her mask of calm vanishing. "I'm warning you, Longbottom -- keep playing with fire and you'll get burned. I'll personally see to it."

Neville tried backing away further, but found that he had miscalculated his direction and foolishly backed up against the wall. Before he could change direction and go down the corridor instead, she was against him, blocking both his possible escape routes with her arms.

"And if you don't stop sticking your nose into other people's business," she continued, her voice once again calmer, "you never know... I might find out that you need to be taught a lesson as well. How about it, Longbottom? Fancy to, oh, I don't know, have Professor Snape walk in on you when you're fucking your darling Luna? I can arrange for that to happen, you know. Or maybe her new boyfriend, Harry Potter, would be interested in seeing just what the two of you get up to in private."

"I..." Neville began.

"Oh, you don't think I could make it happen? Maybe you think you'll be able to keep your paws off her?" Claire grinned coldly, and continued, in a whisper and with a threatening sub-tone that would have made Professor Snape proud: "You have no idea how much magic there's out there purely dedicated to sex, and to make people want to have sex... A few drops of love potion in your breakfast cereal, perhaps... a quick lust-inducing charm on the both of you... And before you know it, you're both expelled from Hogwarts. If you survive Potter, that is."

Neville didn't answer, partly because he now regretted pretty much all his previous lines in this conversation, and was not particularly eager to get himself deeper into trouble by saying even more stupid things.

You shouldn't let her intimidate you like this, he thought to himself. You wouldn't have let Bellatrix LeStrange boss you around like this, and she is much, much more dangerous than Claire Savelle could ever hope to be!

It might have worked, if he had found himself able to believe himself when he claimed those things. As it was, he chose the coward's way out: Breaking her hold, he ran away as fast as he could, down the corridor and all the way to the Gryffindor common room..

He spent the remaining night at Hogwarts completely unable to sleep; both worrying about Claire's less-than-subtle threats and wishing more than ever that he had been someone else; someone who could deal with such threats.




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Ove r the holidays, he kept repeating the scene in his head, cursing himself for letting Claire handle him that easily and thinking up things he could have said and done... but the problem was that it was all too late now. You don't get a second chance in these situations, after all; once something is done, it's irrevocably done, and no magic can undo it.

He tried not to let this get him down; at least not enough to raise his grandmother's suspicions. He managed fairly well at first too, and she seemed to treat him the same as ever right up to the evening on Christmas Day.

Generally, Neville's Christmas holidays followed pretty much the same routine: He'd be picked up by Gran at King's Cross, then return home to a Christmas-decorated house and have dinner together with her; all while telling her about his term and listening to her opinions on her rant-topic-of-the-year (this year, it was her disappointment that he had chosen Charms instead of Transfiguration for his NEWT classes), a conversation topic she would generally return to at least once a day for the rest of the holiday. The next couple of days would be spent in preparation of the big family dinner on Christmas Eve, when Great Uncle Algie and Great Aunt Enid, usually accompanied by a few other distant relatives, would visit -- and then, on Christmas Day, Neville and Gran would always go to St. Mungo's and see Neville's parents.

As far back as he could remember, Neville had both loved and hated these visits. He was always glad to see his parents, but it always... hurt... to see them the way they were, as well. Often, he'd fantasized about what it would be like if his parents had been sane and well, and could have been with him all the time like a proper family. But fantasies had never helped him with anything.

This year, he couldn't help but wonder, as he gently talked to his mother (who as usual showed no sign that she even knew who she was), if they would have been able to help him with his predicament. He had never really had anyone to go to for advice, at least not someone he felt he could completely trust to have the right answers and at the same time not look down on him for not managing to take care of things himself, but the situation with Luna and Claire was getting so hopelessly complicated that he could really have used a mother or a father to advice him.

Maybe this was what had clued Gran in.

"Out with it, Neville," she said after they had returned home.

"Out with what?" said Neville, looking at her nervously.

"Whatever it is that's bothering you," said Gran, placing her hands on her hips and looking back at him, in the process shattering his look to pieces. This was Gran's Look, against which there were no known defences. "There was obviously something wrong with you at St. Mungo's today. You're not ashamed of your parents again, are you?"

"No..." Neville had long since given up explaining to her that he had never been ashamed of his parents, and the reason that he had never told the others at school about them was that, well, it was just painful to talk about... and it would just have made him seem like he was fishing for pity, anyway.

"Well, then?" The Look intensified.

Gran had always been an impressive witch -- at least, she was extremely good at being overwhelming. She had her distinct opinions on everything (many of them, sadly, being about Neville and what Neville should be like) and was never afraid to voice them, or even enforce them physically, if that was necessary. Neville had sometimes thought that if You-Know-Who ever met her and encountered her Look, he'd quickly find that Albus Dumbledore wasn't the only one he should fear.

"It's just..." Neville fidgeted. "I'm not sure if you'd understand..."

"Neville," said Gran, in that tone of voice that tolerated no arguments. "I have lived for one-hundred and fifty-three years. I've experienced two wizarding wars, not counting the one we're entering now, raised one son and one grandson, buried two husbands and a considerable number of other relatives, and -- believe it or not -- I spent seven of my formative years as a student of Hogwarts, just like you. Whatever it is you're going through, don't presume to tell me that I wouldn't understand!"

That's not very encouraging at all, Neville thought, but couldn't think of any other excuses. "Er, Gran..." he began, wondering how to start this. "It you've... I mean... have you ever known anyone... er, you know, that ... sort of fell in love with people of their own sex?"

Gran's Look vanished, replaced by an expression of shock. "Neville!" she exclaimed. "You aren't telling me that you're...?!"

"No! No!" said Neville hurriedly. "It's not me! It's, er, well, it's complicated. You remember Luna Lovegood, right? She was in the battle of the Department of Mysteries," he added hopefully.

Gran nodded slowly, as if something suddenly dawned on her. "I see," she said. "You have fallen for Luna Lovegood, but she turned you down, because she prefers girls. Well, we weren't nearly as open about such things in my day, but the Lovegoods have always been strange. I seem to remember that her mother --"

"It's not that," said Neville miserably. "I mean, I'm not in love with her or anything."

"Well, what is it, then?!"

And before he really knew what he was doing, he had told her the entire story: How he had noticed Claire's sexual abuse of Luna, how he had decided that telling the teachers would just lead to trouble and instead managed to get Luna to stand up for herself, how Claire had threatened him just before the holidays. He didn't leave out anything, not even the story of Marietta, and felt vaguely guilty about the small pleasure he felt to see the repeated look of complete surprise on Gran's face. He had never actually been able to shock her before.

After the tale was done, Gran just watched him in silence for a long time.

"Well," she finally said. "This is certainly a situation, Neville."

He nodded.

"Of course, had it been your father, he would never have allowed this girl to push him or his friends around," she continued, a bit more sternly. "He would have confronted the girl, and he would have done it properly. None of this mucking about and letting her threaten him."

"I know..."

"He would instead have threatened to turn her into a newt if she didn't behave. Your father did take the Transfiguration NEWTs, after all!"

Neville sighed.

"However," Gran continued, "at least you had the sense not to inform the teachers about it. Yes, Neville," she added as he looked at her with surprise, "I completely agree with you that ratting out to the teachers would just have created more problems than it solved. These things have a tendency to spread rumors, and your friend could very easily have found herself the subject of some very nasty ones, even if she wasn't expelled from Hogwarts. Keeping the entire thing a secret was probably the smartest thing you could have done in this situation. However, you need to remember that you're a Longbottom! The Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor for a reason, and it's about time you realized that!"

"Oh," said Neville, blinking. He wasn't used to this kind of praise from Gran, not even when it was presented in such a roundabout way as here. Usually it was more along the line of "You're a good boy, Neville, but..." and then some reminder of one or more of his many flaws.

"You're a good boy, Neville," said Gran (oh yes, here it came...). "You obviously care a great deal for your friend, and your standing by her like this is a praiseworthy thing. But you have to start showing some backbone! Remember your Gryffindor spirit, young man! I know you have it, or you wouldn't have gone to the Department of Mysteries last year! I was so proud of you for that -- finally, I thought, you were coming into your own! My boy, fighting against Death Eaters and even You-Know-Who himself! And now you're telling me you're afraid of a mere seventh-year Hogwarts student?!"

"I can't fight her," said Neville. "She'd flatten me completely. She's one of the best witches in her year, and I'm..." he let his voice trail away, not really feeling like listing up his own failures.

But Gran wasn't having any of it. "Get help! There are other people at Hogwarts who know the Gryffindor spirit, unless I'm much mistaken! You already recruited other people to help you watch over miss Lovegood, but why stop with them? You have other friends! I know Harry Potter counts both you and miss Lovegood as his friends, for example -- that much is apparent from what I've heard from the battle in the Department of Mysteries!"

"Harry's... busy these days," Neville murmured, thinking that Gran was a little more obsessed with that wretched battle in the Department of Mysteries than he was entirely comfortable with. "He has more important things to think of than --"

"Neville...!" Gran frowned. "If you're not going to even try, you might as well walk up to this Claire Savelle and start kissing her feet."

He didn't really have an answer to that, but the words stayed with him all through the holidays, as he tried to figure out something -- anything -- that would help him and Luna get Claire Savelle off their backs, preferably without involving any teachers.

No matter what Gran said, though, he couldn't ask Harry to get involved. Harry might be the Boy Who Lived, but after having known him for more than five years, Neville knew as well as anyone that even Harry couldn't be everywhere and do everything -- and he really had enough to worry about without Neville adding to it.

For much the same reason, asking Ron or Hermione for help was a non-option. Maybe he could reveal a bit more than he had to Ginny... but could he really trust Ginny to keep her temper in check and not go off to hex the living daylights out of Claire?

It wasn't until after New Years' that he got the idea... the idea that slowly led to his plan taking form...




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W easley's Wizard Wheezes was, to Neville's great relief, not particularly busy that morning. He'd decided to get an early start, in the hope that most of the customers were using their holidays or sleeping in, and had Flooed over to Diagon Alley around nine in the morning.

He'd only been to visit the Weasley twins' joke shop once, during Summer holiday the year before, and then it had been so crowded with both Hogwarts students and other young witches and wizards that he hadn't managed to get a good look at all that many of the items offered for sale (he hadn't even seen whether the twins had started putting Spynoculars out for sale yet).

But this time, as he entered, he was greeted by an almost empty shop save for George Weasley, who was sitting behind the counter and wearing those magenta robes that looked absolutely horrible on him, the robes Neville guessed was the official staff robes for the people who worked in the shop. For a moment, he wondered if whichever of the twins had picked out the staff robes was colour-blind or something like that, but he shoved that thought away as George looked up and spotted him.

"Hello there, Neville!" the red-haired boy cried out, raising himself and smiling widely. "What's a nice boy like you doing in a disreputable place like this?" He fixed Neville with a mock-stern glance. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

"School doesn't start until next week," said Neville, trying to return the smile, but feeling a little overwhelmed at the over-enthusiastic greeting. The Weasley twins did have a tendency to make him feel like that; they were simply too energetic for him to comfortably deal with at times. "Er, didn't Ron tell you? He can't have gone back to Hogwarts yet, can he?"

"Oh, Ron never tells me or Fred anything," said George airily. "Unless you count telling us what big gits we are, that he tells us all the time. Wouldn't put it past him to leave for Hogwarts without even saying goodbye to his older brothers, who always look out for him and never think of anything but what's best for him." He grinned, evidently biting back a chuckle. "But now that you mention it, I do have a vague memory of hearing his snoring as we left the Burrow this morning...."

"Well, either it was him, or one of those Muggle chainsaws Dad keeps out in the shed," said Fred, who had just entered the room through a door that led to what appeared to be a back room of some sorts. "Ever heard those things? It's a wonder not all Muggles are deaf!"
"It's a wonder nobody in out family is deaf, with Ron in the house," said George. "But enough about Ron -- what can we do for you, Neville?"

"Yeah, maybe you need a few things for the new school term?" said Fred. "Couple of tricks to make the harsh life of Hogwarts a bit less stressful?"

"Yes, sorta," Neville answered. "You, you, well, ... you're still selling those Shield Hats and Cloaks... right?"

Fred and George exchanged looks. Fred raised an eyebrow, and kept it raised as he turned back to look at Neville. "Of course," he said. "Big sellers, those. But why are you, of all people, asking about them? Don't tell me that you've forgotten how to do a basic Shield Charm?"

"Yeah," George added. "We saw you at it during the DA meetings, and --"

"No, no, no;" said Neville hurriedly, discovering to his embarrassment that all the carefully-planned-out words he'd had ready for this were rushing out of his mind quicker than a top-trimmed Firebolt. "This isn't... it's, well, I, er..."

"Well, out with it, Neville," said George. "The way you keep going on, a bloke might think you've gone and got yourself into some kind of trouble."

"A bloke might be right," Neville muttered. "I mean..." he paused, taking a deep breath. "Look, I've got a somewhat unusual request for you. It's sort of a secret, er, weapon I want you to, er, try developing. I'll pay for it, of course," he added quickly. "I have some money saved, and --"

"Wait, wait, 'secret weapon'?" said George, holding up both hands.

"You want us to develop a weapon for you?" said Fred. "For use at Hogwarts?"

"I don't know whether we should turn you in to the Aurors..."

"...or ask you 'who the hell are you, and what have you done with Neville Longbottom?'"

The twins both stared at him.

"Okay, maybe not an actual weapon," Neville murmured. "More like something along the line of -- that is -- I've, well, Luna and I, we've had a few close calls with this, this older student who's been harassing Luna..."

"Older student? A Slytherin, eh?" said Fred, looking like he was trying to make sense of the entire thing.

"No, a Ravenclaw."

Fred whistled.

"Suppose you tell us exactly what it is you want," George finally said, "and we'll tell you whether we think we can help you. Deal?"

"All right," said Neville, trying to pull himself together. "I need something that's a bit like those Shield Hats, but, well, it has to be a bit different, too.."

With a few more false starts, the words finally came back to him, and he was able to lay out for the twins exactly what it was he was after and why. Like with Ginny and the others, he managed to leave out the exact nature of the 'Ravenclaw's harassment of Luna' -- it wasn't that he didn't trust Fred and George to keep a secret, but he wasn't sure if they could have managed to resist the many jokes that would have presented themselves along with the information that Luna was a lesbian.

Both of them listened intently, and Neville was relieved to see the spark of mischief appear in their eyes as he described the item he wanted. After all -- if they thought his idea was funny, they'd be sold at once.

"Why, Neville," said George in the end. "I believe you just went and presented us with a bit of a challenge!"

"But -- could you make a thing like that?" asked Neville.

"Tricky..." George paused, rubbing his chin theatrically. "But yes, I think we can. What do you say, Fred? Take him up on it?"

"Oh, we'll have to," said Fred, nodding with exaggerated self-importance. "Why, our honour as pranksters would demand nothing less!"

"We have honour? When did we get that?"

"We've always had honour, oh brother of mine. Just because it's hard to find doesn't mean it's not there. Why, when you get to be my age, you'll see that --"

"Your age? I'm half an hour older than you, young whippersnapper!"

"Yeah, but I matured quicker than you, so I'm definitely your elder, and better, when it comes to wisdom."

"My better when it comes to spouting out a lot of complete tosh, more like."

"That as well." Fred grinned and turned back to Neville. "All right, Neville, we'll do it. Sounds like an interesting challenge, and for a noble cause, as well."

"It might take some time, though," George warned. "We do have the business care of as well, so we can't dedicate all our time to that project. And there's bound to be some difficulties involved in the developing... at worst, it might take a couple of months. Will you be all right until then?"

Neville wasn't quite sure that they would, but he nodded anyway. "Thank you for doing this," he said.

"Oh, anything for a fellow Gryffindor!" said George cheerfully. "We'll make sure to contact you when it's done, okay?"

When Neville left the shop, he felt that he could be at least cautiously optimistic about the future. Hopefully, as long as Harry was still thought to be Luna's boyfriend, and as long as he and Luna were careful and didn't provoke Claire more than necessary, the older Ravenclaw would be careful about doing anything too drastic. With a bit of luck, the Weasley twins would have come through by the time the truth came out.

And who knew -- maybe Claire would decide not to do anything after all? (That would, of course, be the best scenario of all, which was why Neville sincerely doubted that it would come to pass... but it was nice to hope.)

It was with a considerably lighter heart, and a solemn promise to Gran to inform her how the Luna situation developed, that he returned to Hogwarts a few days later.





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Luna had a wonderful Christmas holiday, even if it did contain at least one very unexpected surprise.

As always, her father had closed down his Quibbler office for the Christmas week in order to avoid the dreaded Christmas Week Craxiot (a curious bird-like creature which, come Christmas Week, would find the most productive newspaper publisher around and keep him awake for the entire week with horrible knock-knock jokes -- which was why the editor of the Daily Prophet always seemed so cranky and stressed in his editorials during this week), and so, as always, Luna and her father had an entire week in which they both did exactly as they liked.

They went for long walks in the snow, they spent hours talking about their trip to Sweden and the Crumple-Horned Snorcack, they made their traditional infusion of Gurdyroots (which neither of them really liked, but was fun to offer guests), and tried to out-do each other in who could come up with the most original Christmas decoration.

This year, Luna won the competition, even though her decoration didn't have anything to do with Christmas at all: After having read about the famous Muggle painter, Michael Anchovy (or whatever his name was), whose most famous work included the beautiful paintings on the ceiling of an Italian church, she had spent hours decorating her own ceiling by carefully painting a picture of Neville's face there.

She was so satisfied with the result that she decided to keep it there even after the holidays were over, and maybe even, if she had the time during the summer, paint Ginny there as well, and Harry, and maybe even Ron and Hermione. Having friends to watch over you while you slept probably made for sweet dreams, she thought.

Her father did tease her a little about a "boyfriend" when he saw the painting, but he was impressed enough with it to declare her the winner of the decoration competition.

The "boyfriend" remark made her think a little, though. While she somehow didn't think it quite appropriate to tell Daddy about having spent a good part of her year being Claire Savelle's "naughty little slut" and repeatedly fucking another girl, she nevertheless felt she had to be honest enough to say something along the lines of perhaps liking girls a little better than what was strictly normal for a girl her age.

"Daddy," she said over dinner the same day. "There was something I wanted to ask you about this 'boyfriend' business..."

"Yes?" Xenophilius Lovegood looked up from his soup.

"You wouldn't be terribly mad at me if I decided to get a girlfriend instead, would you?"

Xenophilius put his spoon down and looked at her, without speaking for a long time. Then, he smiled, a little sadly. "I always did say that you were a lot like your mother," he said. "But I must admit, I didn't realize you would take after her in that respect too."

"Mummy liked girls?!" said Luna, surprised.

He nodded solemnly. "She never made any attempt to hide it, which was one reason why a lot of people thought her a little odd. You know how narrow-minded people can be when confronted with things they don't consider 'normal': Either they say it's unnatural, or they go one step further and completely deny that it exists at all! It's exactly like the Craxiot, or the Crumple-Horned Snorcack, the Blibbering Humdinger, or even the plain fact of the highly beneficial nature of gnome bites! But yes, Luna, love, your mother did have quite an eye for the ladies. She even had one or two girlfriends back in the day, if I remember correctly."

It took a few moments for Luna to digest this bit of news. "But... not after marrying you, though?" she asked.

"Oh, no. She was a very faithful woman, your mother." Xenophilius smiled. "Don't be fooled, ours was a happy marriage... even if it did turn out much shorter than either of us would have liked. I loved your mother very much, and I know that she loved me back."

"So," said Luna thoughtfully, "it's possible for a girl to like girls, and still like boys at the same time? I did wonder about that."

"Yes, love, it's very much possible." He nodded again. "I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you. You are the way you are, and no matter what might happen otherwise, it won't change the person you are. And you are a very special person, Luna -- with you taking so much after your mother, how could you be otherwise? Don't let the narrow-minded ones fool you into thinking otherwise. So, you are seeing a girl, then?"

"Nor really," she answered, not wanting to lie. "At least, not conventionally so. I don't think I'll see her much more anyway, we didn't really make for a very good couple."

"Not everyone does," said Xenophilius sagely. "But whatever you decide, don't be ashamed of it, and don't think I would be angry with you for it. I've always been proud of you, and I always will be. So would your mother have been."

And no more was said on the subject. Luna did wonder briefly whether her mother had ever had girlfriends at Hogwarts, perhaps even sneaking around and having sex with her girlfriend in the very same places that Claire had dragged Luna to -- but after only a few seconds' thought, she decided that she'd rather not know. There were some secrets parents should be allowed to have for themselves.

But, Luna thought, what would Mummy have done if she was in the same situation as me? She would probably have decided to prepare a bit more against Claire, for the next time she tried something.

Now, it wasn't really Luna's policy to prepare for things that weren't sure to happen. Of course, she always made certain to prepare for Hogwarts classes and exams, because she knew beyond a doubt that they would happen; and she had always prepared for DA meetings, because they were definitely certain to happen (even now, she checked the DA coin every so often, convinced that it would sooner or later pay off); but it had always seemed such a waste to start preparing for things that only might happen. For instance, if she was going out for a walk and wasn't certain it was going to rain, she never bothered to take her waterproof robes. It was easy enough to keep herself dry with a basic charm anyway, if it did start to rain -- and if she happened to be outside Hogwarts where she wasn't allowed to perform any charms, it wasn't as if she would die from a little rain. Likewise, she never prepared herself for dealing with the various tricks her House-mates pulled on her, because she never knew when, or if, they would happen.

But perhaps she should make an exception just this once and prepare a little more. Ginny might be right that Claire would back off with the rumours about Harry being Luna's boyfriend going around, but that wouldn't last. When the holidays were over, she could get together with Neville and perhaps see if he had any ideas for dealing with Claire.




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Luna wasn't, afterwards, completely sure which of them it had been that came up with the idea, but shortly after the Christmas holidays were over and she was back at Hogwarts, she and Neville decided that they should at least prepare a bit more for an eventual confrontation with Claire by practicing some more defensive magic.

Neville had said something about a plan that he was working on, or someone else was working on for him, but would take a bit of time, and that they should make do with what they could in the meantime.

So, once a week (generally Sunday afternoons, when there wasn't so much other work to be done), they'd get together in the Room of Requirement for a spot of extra practice. They practiced shielding spells, jinxes and counter-curses, as well as spending some time experimenting a bit with the Room itself to figure out what it could and couldn't provide for them.

It was Neville who found out most of it, exclaiming that it would be good to know these things if they ever felt the need to hide out in the Room of Requirement for some reason. The only thing he couldn't figure out was how to get the Room to provide food or drink -- but as he said, it wasn't all that likely that they'd ever have to stay in there for so long that they were in any danger of starving anyway.

"It's kind of like we're keeping up the spirit of the DA, isn't it?" said Luna after one training session.

"Yeah... too bad nobody else seems to be interested in it," Neville answered with a small sigh. "Truth be told, I'd rather have the DA teaching me Defense against the Dark Arts than sit through more of Snape's Defence classes. That man is just awful."

"I think he's a vampire," said Luna thoughtfully. "You know, I met a vampire at Slughorn's Christmas party, and he wasn't entirely unlike Professor Snape. A little taller and thinner, maybe, with dark shadows under his eyes, but otherwise he was pretty similar. Maybe Professor Snape is so grumpy all the time because he really wants to take a bite out of all the students, but isn't allowed to."

Neville shook his head. "But I've seen Snape out in the daylight before," he said.

"Yes, but he is a Potions master," Luna pointed out. "He could easily be brewing some of that sunscreen potion that you rub on your skin so you don't get burned."

"You know, that's a very good point," said Neville with a careful smirk. "Would explain a lot about him."

Luna's spirits soared. The sensation of having someone, who wasn't her father, to do things like this with -- to actually discuss her theories with and not have them automatically scoff at her -- was a very pleasant one.

Add to this the fact that the other Ravenclaws were leaving her alone for the most part, and that many Gryffindors and even a few Hufflepuffs were growing friendlier with her (she'd found that Neville's dorm-mates -- and former DA members -- Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were making a point to be nice to her whenever she met them), and Luna was beginning to think that despite the steadily-increasing work load for her OWLs, and the constant threat of You-Know-Who looming over the world in general, she had never had such a good year.




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When she was getting ready for bed that night, she paused a little when she saw the small bag of peppermint humbugs on her nightstand. She couldn't remember having bought any peppermint humbugs lately, and was just about to ask her dorm-mates if any of them had left them on her nightstand by mistake, when she saw the note stuck to the bag:

Dear Luna,

Thank you for believing in us. Here's a little present as a token of our gratitude. Have one, they're lovely before bedtime.

Signed,
The Blibbering Humdingers.

Luna read the note again with great excitement. Blibbering Humdingers? She hadn't even known they could write! Imagine Daddy's surprise when she told him that -- it would mean a complete breakthrough in the Blibbering Humdinger research!

Then again, she realized with considerable less enthusiasm, she had no real way of knowing that this was really a gift from the Blibbering Humdingers. It could easily be just another prank. Maybe there was something strange about the peppermints... maybe they were picked out from those Skiving Snackboxes from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and would make her faint, or vomit, or something like that, if she had one?

Then again again, she couldn't remember any of those Skiving Snackboxes containing peppermint humbugs... and she did very much love sweets...

After a bit of internal debate, she decided to have just one before changing into her nightgown. If she started feeling sick, she could rush up to the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey would probably even be relieved that it wasn't anything sexually-related this time.

With this comforting thought, she opened the bag and took a peppermint, discovering to her pleasant surprise that it tasted lovely and didn't make her feel sick or faint at all. In fact, she felt perfectly fine even several minutes after she had swallowed it, so she decided that there was nothing wrong with them after all and that she could safely have another one before changing into her nightgown and going to sleep.

In the middle of that second peppermint, she suddenly realized that she was feeling terribly, terribly sleepy and simply had to lie down before she fell asleep where she stood.

Collapsing onto her bed, she made a token attempt of at least undressing, but before she could even remove her stockings, sleep swallowed her up, dark and warm and snug, and everything else stopped mattering...

...and the world became a haze of erotic bliss, and Claire's disembodied, sensual voice began whispering to her as Luna's entire body seemed to explode with pleasure, from the tip of her nose and all the way down to her feet, and invisible tongues ran down her skin, invisible mouths suckling on her nipples and kissing her navel, and her vagina, her pussy, her cunt, spasmed again and again, and it felt so good, it felt so incredibly fucking good, in fact it felt so good that she had to say it, she had to tell Claire how unbelievably fucking good it felt...

"Ff-feels good," she gasped. "Fuck... fuck... f-f-f-fffuck..." And then, as Claire's voice laughed, she came. And came, and came, and came....

...and when she opened her eyes again, it was morning, and she was lying in her bed, completely naked and covered in dried sweat and other juices.

After staring up in the ceiling for a few seconds, she immediately rolled over on her side and grabbed her wand from her nightstand.

"Evanesco!" she breathed, pointing the wand at the bag of peppermint humbugs still on her nightstand, and breathed a sigh of relief as it vanished soundlessly.

She would never, ever again eat peppermints before bedtime, certainly not ones that claimed to be presents from Blibbering Humdingers and gave her erotic dreams about Claire. She had, to be honest, almost expected that she would eventually have had some nightmares about Claire's treatment of her, but this hadn't even been a nightmare, it had been... well, nice.

Feeling disgusted with herself, dirtier than she could remember ever having felt, she got out of bed and went to take a long shower, hoping that she wouldn't have any more dreams like that, because once was more than enough.

But she did.




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Auth or's Notes: Well, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out why Luna suddenly had that dream and what role the peppermints played, should it?

Of course, a couple of the events in this chapter are things that we'll see the direct results of in Deathly Hallows, most notably Luna's ceiling painting (Harry sees the finished results a year later, when visiting the Lovegoods' house), and Neville's figuring out of the Room of Requirement (though he won't solve the food problem until DH).

It was also fun to take a little peek at Neville and Luna's home lives and how differently they relate to their parents and guardians. Luna always did strike me as a bit of a Daddy's girl, having few problems talking to her father about anything (that curveball about her mother was certainly a surprise, though), but Neville's relationship with his grandmother is considerably more strained. But interestingly enough, it's Augusta Longbottom and not Xenophilius Lovegood who is told the entire truth... mostly because she bullies her grandson into telling everything, while Xenophilius seems to just assume that Luna has told him everything.

Augusta was easily the most fun character to write in this chapter (though all the characters here, including Xenophilius and the Weasley twins, were very fun to write here!), and her age (153) and the hints of her past (most notably the idea that she was married twice) are just my inventions to flesh out the character a little. It's obvious that Augusta Longbottom, while clearly caring about her grandson a great deal, doesn't understand him at all. She is an incredibly strong, confident person and never quite understood what it's like to feel weak and uncertain, like Neville all too often does.

(Oh... and just because I know you want to ask... it was Augusta's second husband who was Neville's grandfather.)

Hmmm... now that I re-read this chapter, I feel I must apologize to the Luna/Neville shippers here... it certainly does look like I'm pushing them together here, doesn't it? Well, I'm sorry, but I'm sort of bound by canon here, and since Luna and Neville don't get together in canon, they won't get together in this story. This won't stop a lot of other characters in the story from thinking they either are or will get together, though... as you can plainly see from several scenes in this chapter. I'm not fundamentally opposed to Neville/Luna as a romantic couple (it is cute), but for this story, at least, they will remain "just" friends. (But hey, having good friends is a good thing too, right?)