A/N: Well…I'm sorry this has taken me so long to type everyone (it's not even long!) , I've had a lot going on in my life….I just haven't had enough time to type my fanfictions! LoL I know that sounds strange seeing as this chapter is uber short…but hey, no one's perfect right? ~_^
Chapter Four
"Miss Lovegood," called Professor Snape. Luna got out of her seat and took a sample of her potion to her professor's desk so that it could be tested. They were making Sleeping Draughts today, and Luna thought hers would be pretty satisfactory. It was the color it was supposed to be, and she had reread the instructions on the board over and over until she had basically memorized them. She walked away from his desk and sat back down in her seat while the next person walked up to his desk.
"Mr. Russell, are you sure you added the Fluxweed to this potion?" sneered Professor Snape, studying the potion with disgust. The poor Hufflepuff boy muttered a `no sir' and headed back to his desk, his cheeks red and his face contorted in worry. Luna shook her head slightly as she opened One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and glanced through it until the end of class. The bell rang right as Michael Corner left Professor Snape's desk. Luna glanced down at her schedule, which was already in her hand. She had Defense Against the Dark Arts next, and she would meet her new teacher. She couldn't wait, especially since she had heard various things about Professor Dutton. One of the things she heard was that the Professor was extremely sharp and strict, and the lessons were murder. Luna didn't pay attention to rumors however, since there was just no good in them and no one could tell much about her with only one class.
She walked into the almost empty classroom followed by some of her classmates from Ravenclaw. As soon as she entered the room, an unfamiliar chill ran down her back. The room now had dark blue walls with black tables that a group of four people could sit at. The chairs were made of iron without cushions for the seats. None of the dark purple candles were lit, and the far wall had a large portrait of two wizards dueling. Some of the students were shivering, and looking around the room cautiously. Somehow it seemed that the room was proportioned differently; maybe it was because instead of all the portraits that used to be there, there were built-in bookshelves and smaller tables with tools and devices where the aquariums or cages were previously.
Gryffindors were taking this class Luna looked around and realized Ginny wasn't in the room yet, and Professor Dutton was probably in her office behind the classroom. Luna pulled out the new textbook, Defense for the Young Witch or Wizard, Volume 1, and started flipping through it haphazardly until someone took the seat next to her. Ginny heaved her book bag onto the table and started taking things out.
"What's wrong with you?" asked Luna, still flipping through the book. It took Ginny a few moments to get her desk situated, and then she answered.
"Don't ask… All I tried to do was talk to him, and what does a sister get; an ignorant brother who doesn't want to listen to anything but his own miserable thoughts?" she sighed. Luna looked down at her book again and pushed her hair behind her ear. It sounded as if Ginny had had a conversation with Ronald. She thought about yesterday when he helped her with her books in the Entrance Hall…. Ginny snapped Luna out of her dreamy state when she pointed to the doorway from Professor Dutton's office. Professor Dutton was standing there surveying her classroom, staring at the students one by one with her piercing grey eyes. The teacher gave off an aura of extreme power, which made the room go extremely quiet so that you could hear the trees swaying outside the open window. However, with the wave of her wand, all of the windows slammed shut and all the candles lit up.
"Good day class, my name is Professor Dutton and I will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for as long as it seems fit to stay. You will be learning how to defend yourself against powerful spells that might do worse than stun you," she walked further into the classroom. "I have found that this class has only had two satisfactory teachers in this subject, am I correct?" A few students nodded their heads slightly. "Am I correct?" she asked again. All of the students in the class nodded their heads this time around, and Professor Dutton looked down at her roll book.
"Miss Lovegood, can you tell me who is absent in Ravenclaw house today?" she looked at Luna.
"No one is absent Professor," said Luna quietly, looking past Professor Dutton at the portrait.
"Please look at me while you're speaking to me child, it shows respect," said Professor Dutton, looking at Luna penetratingly.
"Everyone is here today," said Luna resolutely, staring at her professor. The woman smirked and looked back down at the roll book again.
"Miss Weasley, please tell me who is absent in Gryffindor house," she said. Ginny told her everyone was here and Professor Dutton closed her book and pulled out her wand.
"Does everyone have their copy of the assigned textbook, Defense for the Young Witch or Wizard, Volume 1?" Most of the students had the book on top of their desk already, although some still had them in their book bags. She crossed her arms and waited for the remaining students.
"Take out your wands please," she said unnecessarily. Everyone already had their wands out, hoping that they'd be using them on their first lesson. Professor Dutton smirked when everyone already had their wands out.
"Now, no one will think that this chapter is very useful, but believe me it is." She leaned against her desk. "Every wand has a function, whether it is great at Charms, Transfiguration, Defense, and etcetera. It is essential that everyone know the history and origin of their own wands before they do anything complex with them. Coincidentally, the wand reflects the wizard. Let's take my wand for example," she placed her wand in both of her hands and held it up. "Its core is of dragon's scale, and is made of ebony and mahogany. What does that tell you?" Luna stared at Professor Dutton even more intensely. "The dragon's scale tells you that the owner of the wand is brave, and the type of wood signifies that my wand is suitable for hexes and charms.
"Now, you will have a quiz on Thursday over this chapter. We only have a few minutes of class left, I advise you take that time to study." Luna looked at Ginny then opened her book to the first chapter. She read for a few minutes but could feel herself drifting away. She had barely gotten any sleep the night before, so she was easy to fall asleep today. She was basically staring at the lines on the page of the book with a dazed look on her face, and her eyelids kept on fluttering open and closed. She flipped onto further pages in the chapter, where it has examples of wands and famous wizards who owned them. Luna wuickly noticed that Roina Ravenclaw was one of the people, and grinned. She always loved studying the heir of her house. The last five minutes of class were spent packing books into book bags. Ginny had her head down and she was snoring, so Luna quickly tapped her on the shoulder before the bell rang for the next period.
"I don't know what's wrong with me lately…I just can't sleep at night and I am so very twitchy when I wake up," she sighed. "I guess it's just nerves. Ron said that they would come more during OWL year." Luna nodded her head and they both headed to their last period of the day, Care of Magical Creatures.
.+.
After mostly everyone was done and scarred for the day, Luna headed to the Hospital Wing to get a healing tonic for her own wound, which was a third-degree burn. They had been `studying' firecrabs, and none of them had gotten nearly as burned as Luna had. The accident happened when class was almost over, so she just waited until it was over until she headed to the Hospital Wing. As she clutched the cloth to her bleeding hand she headed through the door into Madam Pomfrey's office, since no one was in the Wing.
"Yes dear?" asked Madam Pomfrey. Luna held out her hand and the Hogwarts nurse started bustling around searching for the potion immediately.
"What were you lot doing in class this time?" she asked demandingly as she poured some liquid from a glass tube into a bowl from her desk.
"We were studying firecrabs today," said Luna.
"Firecrabs?!" shrieked Madam Pomfrey. She huffed and hurriedly did something to the potion with her wand. "What these wizards are teaching children…" she muttered almost to herself. Luna shook her head as she looked down at the floor. Madam Pomfrey took the bowl of potion and asked Luna to dip her hand inside the bowl. "Now we'll leave your hand there for about an half hour, I'll come and check on you," she said quickly. Luna nodded and grabbed a pillow to put behind her head. She crossed her legs as she lay on the bed, staring out the window to her right. Nothing was in sight, just the trees billowing in the wind and birds flying in the sky. Luna looked at what effect the potion was having on her hand, and saw that it was just beginning to heal. She looked around the Hospital Wing uninterestedly and found herself bored.
"I wish someone was here…" she muttered quietly to herself. Usually she was okay with being alone with nothing to do, she just would think. She ran all of her thoughts through her head and got into deep thought about the potions essay she had due tomorrow…
"Hello?" she heard a voice say loudly. She looked quickly at the door to the Hospital Wing and saw the one person who had been haunting her thoughts for about a week now leaning on his best friend's shoulder. Ronald was leaning on Harry's shoulder and was standing on one leg. The other was extremely bloody and his pants were torn at the knee, and he was obviously in absolute pain. His face was sweating and his eyes were barely open. Madam Pomfrey came rushing into the Wing, and helped Ronald to a bed down from Luna.
"What on earth happened to you?" she asked, looked at them both fearfully.
"Ron and Malfoy got into an argument and Malfoy used his wand. We don't know what kind of spell he used, but it made Ron's leg pretty severed," said Harry. Madam Pomfrey went to go get a potion as fast as she possibly could. She was muttering angry words to herself and was mixing a load of tonics and antidotes together. "…what kids are doing in the halls…"
"Hi Luna," said Harry breathlessly, looking at her petrified face.
"Hello Harry," she said in a dazed voice. She was still staring right past Harry's head at the table behind him, avoiding his eyes by a few inches. She usually never looked at anyone in the eyes, it made her feel odd. Madam Pomfrey started to treat Ronald's wound and Luna looked the other way. She hated this for him, she really did. She was now feeling pretty sick at her stomach, so she clenched it silently as she looked everywhere but at the bed a few feet away from her.
"You'll be in here overnight Weasley, if not longer" Luna heard Madam Pomfrey say after a while. Ron had somewhat calmed down from what she could hear, so she looked over at him. His leg was wrapped with loads of cloth and bandages, and Harry was standing by his side talking to him. Luna acted as if she was invisible, which usually worked wonders when she didn't want to be noticed.
"I can't believe he said that to me," Ronald said quietly, almost to himself.
"Don't let it get to you so much," said Harry. Ronald shook his head and looked down at the stone floor.
"But I just couldn't help it."
"Don't worry about it Ron."
"I'll try not to. I don't want to get in a fight with Malfoy over that subject again…" he trailed off as he looked over at the girl next to him, not noticing her before.
"What happened to you Luna?" he asked inquiringly.
"A firecrab burned me during Care of Magical Creatures this afternoon. They're nasty little creatures, really they are," she said, laughing softly. Ron nodded his head and studied Luna's face for a moment. She felt a little uncomfortable under his stare, but just looked away and hoped he would do the same. He did, and Luna was appreciative.
"So did anyone else get hurt?" asked Harry. Luna shook her head slowly and looked around the room for Madam Pomfrey. Thankfully she was coming over to Luna to check her hand.
"All I really need to do it wrap this up and send you on your way dear," she said as she grabbed bandages from the table. Luna waited patiently as she wrapped her hand, and winced slightly as she did it tighter and tighter.
"Come by tomorrow afternoon and I'll check it. Goodnight Miss Lovegood," she said as Luna got up from the bed.
"Goodbye Harry, Ronald."
"Goodnight Luna," said Harry. Ronald nodded his head and waved quickly. She smiled and headed out of the Hospital Wing, cradling her hand in her other arm. She walked up the stairs to Ravenclaw Tower while realizing that it was probably past curfew, which was 9 o' clock. Luna didn't have a watch, so she couldn't tell what time it was until she got to the Common Room. When she got there it was almost empty, except for a few people reading a book or doing homework. She headed up to the fifth-year girl's dorm and opened the door to go inside. She heard whispering, and knew it was coming from the bed beside hers. While slowly getting her pajamas on, she thought about what Ron and Draco were fighting over earlier this afternoon. Maybe it was what they always fought over, Ronald's family. He wasn't exactly the richest bloke in the world, but so what? Draco always teased and taunted him about it, and it was the best way to test Ronald's temper. Luna had seen it happen on occasion, and it wasn't a very nice sight. But was it really about Ronald's family this time? She sighed as she climbed into her four-poster and pulled the sheets over her. The girl's whispering had died down, and Luna was ready to sleep. She grabbed an extra pillow from the foot of her bed and propped her hand on it as she turned over on her stomach.
.+.
A/N: I know that this chapter was really short, I'm sorry about that. Starting out the story means shorter chapters for me for some odd reason, I don't know why. There was actually a scene I was going to add in here, but I decided not to. It just didn't fit… So yeah, I really hope the next chapters to come are a lot longer, but the more reviews I get the better I write! So please send reviews people, they'd be very much appreciated. *_*
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