Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ "Because She Told Me To!" ❯ Sensualis Strikes Back ( Chapter 7 )

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

------------------------------------------------------------------- -----

"BECAUSE SHE TOLD ME TO!"
Chapter Seven:
Sensualis Strikes Back

--------------------------------------------------------- ---------------




Neville's mind raced. Claire had him at wandpoint, so there was no way he'd be fast enough to pull out his own wand, or do anything else, before she could fling any hexes or curses at him. Luna wouldn't be any help; she was too deep under whatever spell Claire had placed her under. He was still wearing the protective Weasley bracelet -- but then, so was Luna (it was the only thing the girl was still wearing, apart from the ever-present Butterbeer cork necklace), and apparently the bracelet hadn't protected her, so he couldn't count on that.

He was completely stumped for what to do. Get her talking, he thought desperately. Give yourself time to think.

"What are you going to do, anyway?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from trembling. "Are you going to force me to... to..."

"Silly Longbottom," Claire smirked. "I'm not going to force you to do anything. You're going to do it all of your own free will. But first of all, you're going to give me your wand. And no trick, and no moves I don't like, or this little get-together is going to turn a lot less pleasant. Go on."

"I'm -- I'm not carrying my wand," Neville tried.

"Stupefy!" A bolt of red light whizzed past Neville's head, missing him by mere inches. "That was what Muggles refer to as a 'warning shot,' said Claire lazily. "If you lie to me about your wand again, I won't aim for the wall. And then I'll take your wand, whether you like it or not, and I might even snap it in two. Give it to me now, and I promise I'll leave it in one piece."

Reluctantly, and noticing that he was shivering, he fished his wand out of his pocket.

"Put it down on the floor and then kick it over here," she commanded.

"I-if you t-think you can blackmail us with, with this," said Neville as he slowly placed the wand on the floor, "you're wrong. We have just as much on you as you could hope to get on us!" He gave the wand a little kick, causing it to roll across the floor and soundlessly come to halt beside the bed.

"Oh, but I'll have so much more on you," said Claire with a smile, not bothering to pick up the wand, just staying in the same position. "I'll have proof. Neither you nor the slut here can ever prove that I've done anything, but..." She motioned towards the nightstand next to the bed, where Neville now saw a camera almost identical to the one Colin Creevey always carried around. "This room is amazing," Claire continued. "I just had to think that I needed a camera in order to blackmail you, and there it was! But don't you get any ideas; I still have you at wandpoint!"

"Nnn," said Luna suddenly, her hand sliding away from her crotch as she tried to sit up. "Nnneville...! Don't...!" she said flatly, but with a hint of concern in her voice as she stared at Neville with dull eyes.

"Quiet, Loony," Claire snapped. Without looking away from Neville (or taking her wand away from him), she grabbed Luna's hand and guided it back to her bare crotch, beginning to manipulate Luna's fingers with her own. "Your lover-boy will be along before you know it. In the meantime, why don't you just masturbate some more... that's it, move your fingers like so..."

"Nnn-n-n..." said Luna intelligently, sinking back down and losing herself in the world of self-pleasure once more. "F-f-ff-fffff...."

It wasn't Neville's intention to stare, but it was incredibly hard not to, as Claire finally removed her hand and Luna was again touching herself -- quite unaided and quite without a care for who might be watching.

"It's impolite to stare, Longbottom," said Claire, never having taken her eyes off him. "Or have you never seen a shaved cunt before? I noticed that Loony hadn't been very good about shaving down there, so I did her the favour of hitting her with a long-term Hair Removal Charm. She'll be smooth as a baby for at least another week."

For some reason, this sentence seemed important to Neville, but he couldn't quite put his finger on just why. True, the last time he had seen Luna naked, several months ago, she had been covered there with dark, curly hair, and now she wasn't, and just how long-term was a long-term Hair Removal Charm, again? And why was he wondering about that now?

"Well, enough chit-chat." Claire stood up and walked a couple of steps out on the floor, still pointing her wand at him. "Strip."

W-what?!" said Neville, startled.

"Don't pretend you're deaf, that never helps," said Claire. "Go on, strip."

"But..." Neville could feel himself going red.

"Aww, are we shy?" Claire's voice became a mocking parody of sweetness. "Don't worry, Longbottom. I'm still a lesbian and won't take any particular pleasure in seeing that ugly body of yours. But look at your darling Luna there, all naked and horny and waiting for you to come fuck her. So," and the sweetness disappeared, giving away to a more businesslike tone, "either you strip now, at this very moment, or I Vanish all your clothes."

Neville gulped. "And then what?" he said and hoped his voice didn't really quaver as badly as it sounded to him. "I'm not going to touch Luna, not that way, and not to give you blackmail material. Whatever love potion you've cooked up, I won't drink it. So what are you planning to do, Imperius me? That's an Unforgivable, you know, they'll find out and you'll be thrown into Azkaban for life!"

"STRIP!" roared Claire, waving her wand threateningly.

His hands began obeying almost as if they had their own will, beginning to pull off his robes.

"Better," said Claire, a little calmer, as he struggled with the robes. "And to answer your question, I wouldn't dream of turning myself into a Dark witch for your sake. There are other ways... like I did with the slut here."

Neville let his robes fall to the ground. "What did you do with her?" he asked, trying to sound casual as he began taking off his shoes. "She's been distant all week... more than usual. Was that your handiwork?" There was that elusive thought about the length of a long-term Hair Removal Charm again... could it be...?

"What are we playing here, Twenty Questions?" Claire snapped. "But all right, Longbottom, I'll indulge you. You probably don't get to witness, or even hear about, a lot of high-class magic, what with being in Gryffindor and all." She smiled tauntingly. "It didn't take long for me to realize the truth... that everyone's precious Harry Potter wasn't the least bit interested in Loony here as a girlfriend. So there was no point in making an enemy of him and risk having the entire wizarding world turn on me, but you... You're just like Loony, nobody cares about you."

Neville felt the sting of her words, although he tried not to. They were just all too easy to believe in -- he was a spectacular failure as a wizard, weak and unimportant in very way, why should anyone care about him? But no, this was not the time to think about that. Think about long-term Hair Removal Charms instead... there's something important about them, I just know it!

"They say that revenge is a dish best served cold," said Claire, looking at him with an evil smile. "So I decided to go for the long-term plan. First, I tricked Loony into eating one of my special peppermints -- loaded with sleeping potion, of course, and then it was the easiest thing in the world to sneak into her dormitory and with Sensualis and a few Dream Charms that she would have nice, erotic dreams about me. That was the start of it... it's so easy to turn dreams into obsessions if you just know the right magic."

Neville didn't know what a Dream Charm was -- at least he couldn't remember Professor Flitwick ever mentioning them in class -- but it wasn't too hard to guess. How long did they last, the fleeting thought asked, bringing with it the beginnings of an idea. He slowed down his undressing, hoping that he could stall until Claire had finished her story. "And nobody else noticed?" he said.

"If they did, they never said anything to me," said Claire with a shrug. "I reckon that if they noticed anything, they just thought I was setting up one of the traditional 'Ravenclaw-pranks-against-Loony-Lovegood' that are so popular in our House. Nobody cares about her either, you know."

"That's not true," said Neville, swallowing heavily. "I care."

"And now I'm giving you the opportunity to express your caring in a physical way!" said Claire. "You should thank me, really, this is the only way you'll ever get a woman." She giggled, a cheerful sound that sounded quite out of place. "You lied to me, didn't you? You never fucked Loony, you just let me think that. I should have guessed that you wouldn't have the guts to do anything... no-one with small Quidditch brooms on their underwear would be man enough to try fucking a girl. Oh, or someone who wears silly friendship bracelets -- that's the same kind of bracelet that Loony's wearing, isn't it? How disgustingly sweet."

Neville looked down. He was down to only his drawers, and of course he had put on the ones with Quidditch brooms, the ones Great Aunt Ermitrude had given him for Christmas. He tried to ignore it, the elusive thought was becoming less and less elusive for every second, and the idea was turning into a plan.

Just keep her talking! he thought. It's better that she focuses on your drawers than your bracelet right now! "You don't know anything about friendhip, do you, Savelle?" he said as defiantly as he could. "It's not about sex, it's about... it's about spending time with people because you like them! Because you enjoy their company! Just because you aren't planning on, on, fucking someone doesn't mean they're not worth spending time around!"

"This from the man with the Quidditch underwear," said Claire mockingly. "Which, I notice, is still not off. Strip."

Neville knew he was playing a dangerous game here, but right now it was important to keep Claire talking, to wait for the right moment. He demonstratively grabbed his drawers and pulled them demonstratively a little higher. "You still haven't told me how you got Luna to volunteer for Quidditch Commentator."

"Oh yes, that was a good touch, wasn't it?" said Claire. "It's called 'subliminal suggestion. Muggle scientists have debated it for centuries. With Loony's resistance to me having collaped thanks to a nightly diet of dreams and orgasm, I managed to, well, for want of a better word, let's just say I hypnotized her."

"Hypno-what?" said Neville.

"Oh, that's right... you're a Pureblood, aren't you?" said Claire. "Pureblood wizards are so, so one-dimentional. They never bother to find out anything about the world around them unless it's bright and shiny magic. It's a pity, really, because I've found out, first-hand, that combining age-old Muggle techniques with the right kind of magic can get really effective results. It's not really like the Imperius curse, but it is an interesting way of planting commands and suggestions into others and then have them think that it's their own idea. So it was, oh, a week or so ago, that I hypnotized Loony and planted in her head the idea that she really wanted to do the commentaries for the next Quidditch match."

Neville had only the vaguest of ideas what Claire was talking about, but it didn't matter. Claire had given him the last bit of information he needed, and his plan was almost fully-formed...

"And, and, the goal was to, to make sure I figured out something was wrong," he said, "so I'd come, come over to the c-commentator's podium afterwards and get told to come here... where you waited for me!"

"I knew that Professor McGonagall hadn't managed to find anyone; it seems like most of the students would rather just watch the game than comment upon it. And when I -- prized student who always gets top marks in Transfiguration -- personally asked her to give Loony a chance, she relented. I imagine she regrets that now, but I reached my goal with it. And of course, it was a bonus that Loony managed to make a complete arse of herself at the podium," Claire laughed. "That commentary of hers... Complete humiliation. And the best part was that I didn't tell her anything of what to say! All of it was her own! Loser's lurgy and Hospital Wing records and all!"

"I, I thought she did extremely well," said Neville bravely -- and untruthfully.

"You're not even fooling yourself," said Claire. "They'll be laughing at her for years afterwards... almost as long as they'll be talking about the shagging session she had with you afterwards, Longbottom." Her lips curled upwards in a smug grin. "Speaking of which -- drop your drawers now or I Vanish them!"

Neville let his drawers fall to the floor; he was painfully aware that save for the bracelet still on his arm (which didn't cover anything important anyway), he was completely naked under Claire's piercing eyes, and it was all he could do not to curl up and shield himself from her gaze.

"Much better..." Claire smirked. "But I see you're all limp, poor boy... isn't it exciting enough to be naked in the same room as a girl who's eagerly touching herself and waiting for you to come and give her a good fucking? Come over here, and I'll tell her to help you get it up... and then we'll see if it's true what they say, that it gets bigger when it gets harder..."

Neville braced himself. "N-no," he said.

Claire's grin broadened. "Excuse me?!" she said cheerfully.

"No!" Neville repeated, feeling his voice grow a little stronger. "I'm not playing along anymore, Savelle!"

"Oh, come on..." said Claire sweetly. "She's not that ugly, and you are a sixteen-year-old boy! You should be jumping at the chance! Don't tell me you have never thought of it? All that time together with her, and you never once even wondered...?"

"That doesn't really matter, now does it?!" said Neville. "This is wrong, and I am not going to do it!"

"Oh, I hoped you'd get stubborn," said Claire, her grin turning evil as she waved her wand at him. "Now I get to do this to you: Sensualis!"

Neville immediately braced himself, half-expecting the sensations of cruel pleasure that Luna had described to engulf him -- but they didn't. Instead, Claire gave a gasp of surprise, toppled and fell down on the bed as if her knees grew weak, her wand falling out of her wand and hitting the floor with a small, dry sound.

Neville didn't waste a second. He threw himself forward and grabbed for the wand before Claire managed to raise herself, immediately finding out why it wasn't a good idea to throw yourself down naked on a stone floor but still managing to get the wand.

"Now," he said, breathing heavily as he pointed the wand at her and tried to raise himself without shaking too much, "now the tables are turned, aren't they? Don't move, or I'll hex you!"

"You -- You!" Claire yelped, her voice a mixture of amazement and sheer fury. "What did you do to me?! That felt like -- it felt like --"

"You're not the only one who can plan long-term, Savelle," said Neville, finally having managed to get to his feet and struggling to stay up. "I'll hex you, I swear I will, if you so much as move! I don't know that Sensualis spell, but I can do many others!"

Claire glared at him.

"You should never have gone after Luna," said Neville, taking a step forward, still pointing the wand at her. "Maybe I am a clumsy and inept coward that doesn't matter in the least and nobody has any reason to care about -- but the Sorting Hat put me into Gryffindor for a reason! Gryffindors never, ever turn their back on a friend!" He took another step forward.

And stepped and slid on his own wand, which was lying just beside the bed. He tried to keep his balance, but it was too late, and he fell on his backside with a huge, painful THUD!

Immediately, Claire was on him, pinning him to the floor, grabbing for her wand and snarling like a madwoman. Neville tried to fight back, but the fall had knocked all the breath out of him, and his back and bum hurt terribly, and he couldn't muster up enough strength to properly shove her off him. Both of them struggled, fighting and wrestling, but Claire managed to get a proper grip on the wand and yanking it out of Neville's hand.

"Now!" she hissed, her eyes flashing with madness and anger.

"NO!" came a loud voice from behind her. And then, like a flesh-coloured, dirty-blonde blur, Luna Lovegood tackled Claire, knocking her off Neville. All the dullness was gone from her eyes, replaced with an anger that Neville had never seen in the normally gentle Luna before, as the girl punched Claire repeatedly, screaming: "DON'T -- TOUCH -- MY -- FRIEND!"

They rolled around, Luna fighting and hitting and biting like a wild cat, but Claire had the advantage of being bigger, stronger and heavier, and after a short struggle managed to pin the furious naked girl.

"That's it!" she growled. "No more leeway! It's about time you got another lesson, Loony! Sensualis Continuare!" She pointed her wand at Luna...

...and suddenly squealed, losing her grip on her wand and falling back, twitching, moaning and grunting loudly.

Luna slowly sat up, staring at Claire with big, grey eyes as the older girl rolled around and started rubbing her crotch furiously against the floor. "What --?" she began, in a whisper, looking as if she had just fallen down from the Moon --or at least from a cloud.

Then, she seemed to remember something, and immediately turned towards Neville, crawling over to him at top speed. "Neville! Are you all right?!"

Neville managed to sit up as Luna reached him, looking concerned. " 'm fine..." he managed. "Just a few bruises." He didn't get any further before Luna had wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug -- which was not at all comfortable against his bruises, but at the moment he found he couldn't care less.

They stayed in the hug for a few seconds, before Neville suddenly remembered that they were both naked. Carefully and gently, he pushed Luna away, murmuring "Better -- better go and -- make sure Claire doesn't -- doesn't.... yeah..."

Luna reluctantly let him go, turning back to Claire, who was still lying on the ground, twitching uncontrollably. She had pulled up her robe to over her stomach, and had torn her knickers off, now furiously stroking and fingering herself with long, drawn-out cries of "Aaaauuuugh! Ooooooohhhhhh!" Her wand had rolled a little way away from her, and Neville quickly picked it up, breathing a sigh of relief.

"What happened?" said Luna, looking at Claire with raised eyebrows. "Why is she doing that? Did you get an invisible Whingler to attack her?! It must have been an extremely powerful one!"

"No..." Neville averted his eyes and got to his feet, making his way over to his clothes. "It was the bracelets..."

Luna held up her right arm and looked at her bracelet. "These bracelets?"

"I got them from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," Neville explained as he hurriedly put on all his clothes. "They act as a special kind of Shield Charm... Fred told me that they won't work against the stronger curses, but minor hexes or jinxes or... or charms, they'll not only protect the bearer from them but send them back to the caster, three times as powerful..."

Luna looked back at Claire, who was still groaning and touching herself, oblivious to everything else. "So when she cast the Sensualis Continuare on me..." she said.

"...she got a triple dose of it sent back at herself," said Neville. "I wasn't sure if it would work first... I mean, er, you know, you were obviously under some kind of spell, and I thought that, that maybe the bracelets didn't work... but then she told me that she'd placed all those charms on you a full week ago, which was before you got the bracelet. So I was hoping..." he smiled sheepishly. "I was hoping that it would work and that she'd cast something strong enough to, er, put herself out of commotion before she realized what the bracelets did."

Luna sat heavily down on the bed. She didn't bother to cover herself up; she seemed to be of the opinion that since Neville had seen her naked for this long anyway, there was no point in suddenly being shy. "It wasn't just the charm, you know," she said airily. "She fed me some kind of potion too. When she took me here, she got out a potion and made me drink it, and since I was Compulsed into obeying her I did, and all of the sudden I just felt all dull and sleepy and horny." She shrugged. "I would probably have been perfectly happy lying there and fingering myself for as long as the potion worked, but then I noticed that you were there, and she was threatening you... so I began to fight the potion. When she jumped on you, I guess that was what made me shake completely free of it."

"Probably saved us both, then," said Neville, trying to smile. "It was your jumping on her that got her so mad that she -- yeah, you know."

"I know." Luna was quiet for a while, her face devoid of any emotion as she sat there.

Neville sat down beside her. "...Are you all right?" It was an extremely stupid question, but it was really the only one he could ask.

"No," said Luna, still without any emotion. "No, I can't honestly say that I am."

"Look," said Neville. "I'm sorry that I -- I mean, I thought, I hoped, that she was still just biding her time... I didn't realize that she was... I didn't even imagine that she..."

"It's not your fault. It's hers."

"But I could have prevented it if --"

"Oh, just... just stop!" Luna snapped, suddenly angry. "You're always apologizing and having a go at yourself and thinking you're not worth anything, and it's driving me... loony!"

Neville blinked. "I didn't mean to --"

"No! Don't apologize!"

"Sorry --"

"No!"

And then, without any of them really knowing how it had started, they were hugging again.

Accompanied by the grunts and frustrated moans of Claire Savelle, who was still lying on the floor and masturbating furiously, they held each other tightly, wordlessly comforting each other as they cried, partly with anger, partly with grief, and mostly with the sheer relief that it was all over.




------------------------------------- -----------------------------------




Except it wasn't over, of course -- things seldom are. Eventually, they had to let go of each other, and they had to make plans for what to do next.

As Luna went to find some clothes, conveniently and characteristically for the Room of Rquirement laid out for her on a nearby chair, Neville retrieved his wand from under the bed, noting to his relief that it hadn't been damaged at all by his accidental stepping on it

"Look!" said Luna, holding up the clothes and suddenly looking a lot more cheerful than she had in a long time. "These are my clothes! The ones Claire Vanished all those months ago! This is my favourite robe... and look! All the things I had in my pockets are here too! And my stockings, and my purple bra... The exact same! I thought I'd never see any of it again!" As she got dressed, her normal relaxed attitude seemed to return, and when she stood there, fully clothed and smiling brightly, Neville thought it was almost impossible to imagine that this was the same girl who, not long ago, had tried pounding Claire's head in and afterwards snapped at him and then cried in his arms.

"You know," she declared, as if having guessed his thoughts, "I do feel a lot better now. Maybe it's true what they say, that the robes make the wizard. Or, in my case, the underwear makes the witch. I'm feeling in a very purple mood right now."

"...and that's... good, is it?" said Neville uncertainly.

"Of course it is. I like purple."

Together, they picked the wriggling Claire up and placed her on the bed before Neville pointed his wand firmly at her.

"Finite Incantatem," he commanded, and Claire let out a huge wail, spasmed and shook, and kept on spasming and shaking.

"Almost a minute," Luna said calmly when Claire finally calmed down, lying limply on the bed and breathing heavily. "That's not quite as long as it lasted for me that one time, but I was under the spell for much longer, even if it was probably not as powerful in my case."

"Savelle?" said Neville, poking her shoulder with his wand. "Can you hear me?"

There was no answer, but Luna nodded. "She can hear you, she's just a little overwhelmed right now. We should probably get her to the hospital wing."

For a moment, Neville considered saying no; saying that there was no way he would lift a finger to help someone like Claire Savelle... but only for a moment. "All right," he sighed. "At least she's still dressed. Somewhat," he added with a glance at the torn knickers that lay in a crumpled heap on the ground. Somehow, he really didn't want to spend any time looking for a new pair or dress Claire with them. "I'll support her while you follow us and hold her at wandpoint, in case she wakes up and decides to try something."

Luna agreed, but the plan proved a bit more difficult to follow up on than either of them had really anticipated.

The Quidditch match had been over for ages, and since there were no classes today, there were more than a few students out and about in the hallways. This made it practically impossible for Luna to cover Claire with her wand without raising suspicion -- not that they needed the wand to call on attention as they made their way down various corridors with a delirious Claire Savelle supported against Neville.

Not for the first time, Neville wished that he'd had an Invisibility Cloak like Harry did. It would have saved a lot of time if they could have gone past the students unnoticed instead of going through the same "She's ill, we're taking her to the hospital wing" routine every time they met someone either they or Claire knew. Of course, no Invisibility Cloak in the world could have disguised the occasional string of curse words Claire muttered out in her half-present state of mind, which clearly shocked a few of the questioners.

"Colin! Colin! Did you hear what she said?! She said --" Dennis Creevey's voice vanished behind them as they walked on, Neville trying to go as fast as possible in spite of his burden and Luna strolling along, once again with her wand behind her ears and looking completely unconcerned with everything that took place outside her own mind.

Neville wondered how much of it was an act, and how much of it was genuine. Was it really possible to make yourself feel calm and happy even after weeks of what had to be like horribl torture, just by wearing purple underwear? Somehow, when he was around Luna, he could almost believe that it was.

"Marietta!" Claire suddenly gasped.

Neville looked up -- and true enough, there in front of them came Marietta Edgecombe, the word 'SNEAK' still faintly visible behind heavy layers of make-up, and a deadpan, emotionless expression in her eyes. When she noticed who was there before her, she shot them all an icy glare and sped up to walk past them as quickly as she could.

But Claire, more swiftly than Neville would have given her credit for in this state, had stretched a hand out and managed to grab the front of the girl's robes, holding her. "I need you!" she sobbed.

"Let go!" Marietta shrieked.

Claire didn't. With a sudden spurt of strength, she wrestled herself out of Neville's grip and pressed herself against Marietta, both hands suddenly wrapped around the girl and squeezing her buttocks through her robe. "I love you I love you I love your arse and your face and your tits and your cunt and your..." she babbled uncontrollably, ignoring Marietta's shrill cries of "NO!" and "Let me go!"

Neville grabbed her shoulders and tried pulling her off the unfortunate girl, but Claire clung on as if she had been fastened to Marietta with a Permanent Sticking Charm, pressing her lips against Marietta's in a forceful kiss. Marietta squirmed and struggled and cried, but the moment and her own fogged mind seemed to have given Claire an inhuman amount of strength, and Marietta was helpless to resist, just as Neville was unable to pull her away.

"Aguamenti! came the sudden voice of Luna from beside them, and a jet of water suddenly hit Claire in the face, causing her to gasp and sputter, in surprise letting go of Marietta who slid limply to the floor, shoulders shaking. Neville, unexpecting of the sudden lessening of weight, pulled Claire back so hard that they both toppled and fell over as well.

"Cold water helps if you're horny," said Luna, the only person left standing, as she stared dreamily at Claire, who was waving her arms frantically and trying to get back up. "I think you should take more cold showers."

Neville got to his feet and dragged the soaking wet Claire up with him. He was panting heavily, his heart seemed like it might jump out of his chest at any time, and he felt that he was getting very close to lose his patience. "We are going to --!" he began, but cut himself off by saying "OOOFF!" when Claire gave him a hard elbow in the ribs.

Heaving for her breath with loud, shrill grunts, and with the manic look of an insane, or at least desperate, woman on her face, Claire began running unsteadily down the corridor, her wet robe whipping around her and exposing her naked backside to them with every other step.

While Luna had dropped to her knees to take care of the motionless Marietta, Neville tried ignoring the pain in his ribs and looked upon in growing astonishment as Claire ran unsteadily down the corridor and collided with Professor McGonagall, who had just appeared around the corner together with Seamus -- and as Claire, seeming like she had gone completely mad, threw herself at the Professor and tried to kiss her as well.

"Mmm! Mmmm! Mmmmgh!" was all she said as she tried forcing her lips against McGonagall's the way she had with Marietta.

For a brief moment, it seemed like McGonagall was completely, and uncharacteristically, at loss for words. But only for a brief moment. "MISS SAVELLE!" she shouted. "What is the meaning of this?! Never in all my years...!"

Claire fell back, as if the teacher had slapped her, and as she landed on the floor, her robes whipped around even further and exposed her naked crotch to McGonagall (and to Seamus, whose eyes looked like they would fall out of his skull if they got any bigger).

"Miss Savelle..:!" McGonagall repeated.

"F-fuck..." Claire murmured, but then spasmed violently and lay completely still, without even bothering to cover herself up.

Professor McGonagall stared. So did Seamus, but a quick look from his teacher made him blush and quickly look another way.

"You lot," said McGonagall after having covered Claire up and checked to see if she was seriously injured, directing her gaze towards Neville, Luna and Marietta. "Can either of you give any reasonable explanation for this... this behaviour?"

"She was trying to rape Marietta, Professor McGonagall," said Luna calmly from her spot on the floor, stroking the crying Marietta's hair. "Neville and I managed to stop her, but then she went all strange." She paused, adding in a thoughtful voice: "I thought cold water was supposed to stop people from being horny, not make them lose their minds completely."

McGonagall actually looked shocked. Her eyes looked unusually confused and uncertain as they met Neville's. "Mister Longbottom," she said in a hushed voice. "I trust you to be honest. Is what miss Lovegood says true?"

Neville swallowed and nodded.

"Right," said McGonagall, suddenly all strict firmness again. "All of you, my office. Now."




------------------------------------- -----------------------------------




As it turned out, it was Seamus they could thank for McGonagall's timely interruption.

After things had calmed down a bit on the Quidditch pitch, and he had been able to fend off the curious Parvati Patil, the Irish boy had discovered that he had lost sight of Claire, and after searching the Quidditch pitch with the borrowed Spynoculars, had discovered that neither Neville nor Luna were anywhere in sight either.

He'd gone back to the castle, in the hope of finding them in the Room of Requirement, but no matter how many times he walked up and down the corridor, no matter how he pleaded or wished, he couldn't get the room to appear for him. It was then he'd grown truly worried and had tried locating Ginny and Dean in order to get their help, but they had vanished off to somewhere, and he couldn't find them either.

After a few minutes' wavering, in which his over-active mind dreamt up several unpleasant things that Claire might be doing to Luna and Neville at that very moment, he sought out Professor McGonagall instead, figuring that with Harry and Ron at the hospital wing, Hermione busy elsewhere, and Dean and Ginny nowhere to be found, the Head of Gryffindor House was the most sensible choice in who to turn to. He was fairly certain that she already knew of the Room of Requirement after that scandal with Marietta and Umbridge last year, and would probably be able to find some way to enter the room where he couldn't.

"Wasn't that a bit risky, though?" said Ginny thoughtfully as he told this part of the story. "She could have entered and seen..." she bowed her head, letting the sentence trail off.

They were all gathered -- Neville, Luna, Seamus, Dean and Ginny -- in the same empty classroom that Luna had once hid in to escape humiliation from Claire, just before this entire situation began. It had been Luna's idea to gather them all here; she claimed that it just 'felt right to complete the circle this way.'

And she had told them the entire story, just like that. Not a single detail was left out in her retelling of her twisted relationship with Claire, or of Neville's discovery of it and subsequent actions to help. Both Ginny and the boys had turned an interesting shade of dark red by the time she had finished, but nobody had attempted to stop her or leave the room.

Seamus, being quicker to recover than the others, had offered to fill in with the details on how he and McGonagall had come to be in just that corridor at just that point, and he had surprised them by telling it quite level-headedly and with no half-witted attempts at jokes or innuendoes.

"You know McGonagall," he said with a weak smile. "She may seem like a stuck-up prig who only thinks about rules, but she can't help admiring students who show the traditional Gryffindor spirit of courage and friendship."

"Some courage, going straight to a teacher for help," muttered Dean, but with no real venom behind the words.

"It takes a brave man to admit when he needs help," Seamus returned. "Old Irish proverb."

"It is not!" said Dean with a grin. "You always say that something is an old Irish proverb. You once told me that 'damn it all to Hell' was an old Irish proverb."

"Well, it could have been." Seamus shrugged. "In any case, I know I would've thought of something if I had to, but it turned out that I didn't need to, since you two were out and about with the bitch under your control," he finished, nodding at Neville and Luna.

Ginny shook her head. "I didn't even know that you were... that you liked... I mean..." She looked a little uncertainly at Luna. "I thought it was only a rumour that... So you're really a lesbian?"

Luna paused. "You know, I don't really think I am."

Ginny stared at her. So did Dean and Seamus, and, Neville realized after the first few shocked moments, so did he.

Seamus was, not unsurprisingly, the first to manage to speak again. "You spend several months having sex with another girl, or fantazing about having sex with another girl, and now you say you're not a lesbian?! How the hell does that work?"

"Well, she did seduce and manipulate me so much that I didn't really know which feelings were real and which feelings weren't in the end," said Luna, as calmly as if she was merely discussing the weather. "But the thing is, you can only be a lesbian if you don't like boys, right? I mean sexually. I know I like girls, but... that doesn't mean I don't like boys as well..." She cast an almost shy glance at Neville.

There was a long, stare-filled pause. Then, Neville chose to break it by laughing and pulling the girl into a hug. "Luna," he managed to say. "You are truly one of a kind!"

"I'm not, you know," said Luna, leaning against him. "My mother was the same way. Daddy told me this Christmas. She liked girls, and she liked boys. She had a couple of girlfriends while at Hogwarts. I don't know if she ever fucked them, but I think she might have --"

There was a strangled noise from Ginny, whose skin turned almost as red as her hair.

"--but she ended up marrying my father anyway, and he's not a girl," Luna continued, oblivious to Ginny's extreme colour change. "I should be proof of that. Two women can't have a child together, you know, no matter how many times they fuck." She paused, glancing up at Neville. "Oh, I'm sorry, you don't like it when I say 'fuck,' do you? It's just that I've grown used to the word, and --"

"It's all right," said Neville with a grin. "I think I'm getting used to it as well."

She smiled to him. "I'm glad you're my friend," she said.

"I'm glad you're mine."

And just like that, a moment had passed between them. Neville wasn't sure if it was love, or friendship, or something else entirely, but he knew, as he let go of Luna, that he was immensely fond of her and that the feeling was mutual. And that was really all that mattered, as far as he was concerned.

"I'm glad you're all my friends," said Luna to the three others, who seemed like they were trying and failing compltely to work out what the hell was going on between Neville and Luna. "What with you all helping out to protect me... I didn't really think I had that many friends. I'm going to have to get a bigger ceiling!" She looked very pleased.

"It was all Neville, really," said Ginny, still seeming a little embarrassed. "We didn't do all that much."

"No, but you would have," said Luna. "And that's what counts! I think that's what Claire never understood. With Marietta and all that... she probably did love her, but she didn't really know her. Or trust her. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that their relationship ended as it did."

"What did happen to Marietta anyway?" said Ginny.

"She's still at the hospital wing," Luna answered. "I went up there to see Harry earlier, you know, to see if he had recovered after that Bludger. He'd already left, as it turned out, but Marietta was there. She didn't want to talk to me, though. I think Claire's assault, on top of everything else, proved to be too much for her. Poor girl."

"Poor girl?" said Dean. "This is the same Marietta who sold us out to Umbridge last year, remember that?"

"Yes, but still. It's not easy getting on that side of Claire. I should know. I cried almost all night, you know," said Luna casually. "Did you do that, Neville?"

"Not exactly, but... I didn't get much sleep either," said Neville.

Luna nodded. "It was probably just a delayed reaction or something like that -- I think that's what it's called, anyway. I know Claire probably won't ever come back, but I couldn't stop thinking about what she did to me, and what she almost did to you."

They fell silent, nobody really feeling like discussing Claire Savelle and her actions any more than they needed to.

Of course, Claire had been expelled from Hogwarts the same day. If attempted rape of a fellow student hadn't been enough, her trying to force herself on a teacher would definitely classify. The next morning, McGonagall had informed Neville that miss Savelle had left Hogwarts and was probably looking at a longer stay at St. Mungo's, since it appeared that the girl had quite lost her mind. Neville couldn't help wondering if this insanity was a side-effect of the bracelet reflecting that Sensualis charm on her, and had promised himself to ask the Weasley twins whether they had added some extra features to the bracelets the next time he saw them.

"By the way," said Seamus after a while, looking at Dean, "where were you two while I was looking for you?"

"Nowhere," said Dean hurriedly. "It's not important.""Not important!" Ginny huffed. "I'll tell you where we were! This insensitive lout here kept laughing about how McLaggen had almost killed poor Harry with that Bludger --"

"Oh, come on --" Dean began.

" -- so I took him aside and spent some time telling him exactly what I thought of such behaviour," said Ginny hotly.

"I keep telling you, I wasn't laughing about that," said Dean. "I was laughing about how McLaggen looked when Professor McGonagall told him off afterwards...""And then you said it was almost worth Harry almost dying, just to see McLaggen like that!"
"I didn't say it like that!"

"You meant it!"

Neville sighed as Ginny and Dean began arguing again. He still couldn't shake the feeling that he'd contributed to the wedge between them by inadvertedly planting the idea that Ginny was a lesbian in Dean's head, but he couldn't think of anything to say or do to repair the damage to their relationship.

As these unpleasant thoughts churned around in his head, he felt a soft and warm hand beginning to stroke his hair. He looked to his side to stare directly into Luna's eyes.

"You're blaming yourself for things again," she said solemnly. "Don't."

He couldn't help but laugh again. "I'll try not to. Thank you, Luna."

She nodded, satisfied. Her hair brushed against him. "You know, I think I'll ask Professor McGonagall if I can keep the job as Quidditch Commentator," she said softly.

"Really?" said Neville, surprised.

"Really. I know I originally just did it because of Claire. But I did actually enjoy it while I was up there. And I talked to Professor Dumbledore earlier today, when he gave me a note to deliver to Harry, and he said that my commentary had been very unique and that I should by all means continue if I wanted to... not to mention, when I talked to Ron after that, he said he'd loved my commentary -- apparently he could hear me from the hospital wing. So I thought, well why not? I'll continue doing it. But this time I'll do it because I want to... and not because anyone told me to."

Neville smiled.




----------------------------------- -------------------------------------




"And the Ravenclaw chasers are flying in some form of triangle," Luna said into the megaphone, "but I'm not sure if that means anything, because it's Gryffindor who has the Quaffle. The weather's lovely today, and the sky is a very nice blue -- just the sort of day for flying, in fact. I like flying, but I'm not as good at it as Ginny Weasley, though. I rode on a Thestral last year, and that was very interesting, and very quick, you know. Professor Hagrid says that nothing's faster on the wing, except for maybe dragons, but I think he's forgotten about the Stripe-spotted Burglegumps, because they can fly halfway around the world in a minute. That's why nobody's ever managed to catch one, because they're too fast --"

"Seventy-ten to Gryffindor!" McGonagall interrupted, her voice resigned.

"Oh yes," said Luna. "Nice shot, but the triangle didn't work. I think maybe the Ravenclaw Chasers were forming it so that the Gryffindor Chasers would get distracted and forget to score, but it obviously didn't work. I was distracted by a triangle once -- did I ever tell you that story? It was like this..."

The stands were filled up with students who were partly laughing and partly groaning in frustration as Luna continued her story.

At one point, she looked down to see Neville sitting just beside the commentator's podium. He happened to look up at the same time, and as their eyes met, he smiled and gave her a 'thumbs-up.'

Luna's heart soared.

"You know, the 'thumbs-up' is a very interesting gesture," she said happily into the megaphone, hearing her own voice echoing across the stands. "Here in England, it's a sign of encouragement, but in Sweden it means 'I hope your donkey explodes.' At least I think it does, but I might be remembering it wrong. But since we aren't in Sweden now, it's a very encouraging gesture! Thank you, Neville! Oh, look, Cho Chang is threatening Ginny Weasley with something, I can't hear what she's saying, but it's something about... sex? No, wait, it's Snitch. Well, that's good, because I have it on good authority that Ginny doesn't like girls that way. Now Cho's face is going very red, and she's glaring at me, so maybe she didn't like hearing that... Ronald, if you don't stop laughing like that, you'll fall off your broom, you know..."




---------------------------------- --------------------------------------




Far away, in a closed ward of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, a young woman was lying in a bed and pondering her future.

She was being kept for observation, they'd said, which she was bright enough to realize probably meant they thought she was completely off her rocker. This was clearly not the case -- if she really had been insane, she would obviously have been the first one to know about it -- but when it came down to it, it was probably better if they thought she were. She was fairly sure that her supposed insanity was all that kept her out of Azkaban at this point, because the proof against her was overwhelming.

Rape. Illegal sexual magic. Trying to assault a teacher.

Her parents had been very shocked, and had immediately agreed, as her next of kin (even though they were Muggles) that their daughter should be kept at St. Mungo's for the time being.

Nobody would listen to her if she told them how justified she had been in everything. Well, except for the way she had treated Marietta, she admitted to herself. She had really tried to rape Marietta. She hadn't been quite conscious of what she was doing at the time (damn Longbottom!), but she supposed that didn't really matter -- she had still done it. She hoped Marietta would be okay.

She herself, however, was going to face some difficult times. She might have escaped imprisonment, and if she played along with the Healers they would probably release her from St. Mungo's eventually, but the fact remained that she had been expelled from Hogwarts. They had taken her wand, and she didn't know if it was still in one piece or not, but rather suspected that as soon as they thought she could handle it, she'd be informed it had been snapped and she would forever be forbidden from doing magic ever again.

If that was the case... well, it didn't matter. After all, she was of age, that stupid Trace was gone from her, so they couldn't stop her from practicing magic in secret. Because she would have her revenge on Longbottom and Lovegood... she would.

Feeling a little better, she closed her eyes and lost herself in highly pleasant dreams of her revenge... which eventually turned into highly pleasant dreams of Marietta returning to her and declaring her love and forgiveness...

Unseen by anyone, a single tear trickled down Claire Savelle's cheek.




------------------------------------ ------------------------------------
THE END!
-------------------------------------------------------------- ----------




Author's notes: And it's done -- once again, I might have said, since this is the revised version of Because She Told Me To! The original version was written before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, and this new version is written to be DH-compatible. (Fortunately, it turned out that there wasn't all that much in DH that didn't fit with Bevause She Told Me To! -- at times it almost seemed like canon was supporting my story, particularly with Neville's expertise on the Room of Requirement!)

Probably the biggest changes DH brought on from the original version (apart from the Room of Requirement not beinfg able to provide food -- I goofed on that) are the inclusion of Xenophilius Lovegood and Luna's ceiling paintings -- it's safe to assume that she did paint Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny there during the summer holidays and was probably going to include Dean and Seamus as well, but never got that far. There are other, more cosmetic changes as well, but I won't bore you with listing them all.

Now, I know that some of you are wondering whether that last conversation between Neville and Luna means that they are in love. After all, Luna all but said that she liked Neville, and he didn't directly turn her down. Well... there is something there.

It is, however, canon (because JKR said so!) that Luna eventually marries Newt Scamander's grandson Rolf, so we know that whatever happens between her and Neville they don't actually end up together I like to think, though, that they do remain friends and possibly very intimate friends... that was really what that last dialogue was all about; them acknowledging that there might be something more between them sometime, but above all they are friends and they know that they are both better off for it.

Whether they ever take their relationship to a more physical level.... we-e-e-lll... We have to save something for a possible sequel, don't we?

Yes, there is a pretty good chance that I'll write a sequel to this story. I'm not making any direct promises, but there seems to be more fun to be had with the new and deeper Neville/Luna relationship -- and I do have a number of ideas, mainly dealing with Neville, Luna and Ginny in the Hogwarts Resistance, and what happens there.

Final note, in case you were wondering: Once again, Luna's somewhat dubious source of Swedish culture has given her faulty information -- 'thumbs-up' means exactly the same in Sweden as in England. The 'I hope your donkey explodes' meaning is, in fact, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and is said to be from the fictional land of Klatch (a parody of Arabia, more or less).

Thank you for reading.