Walking from the Room of Requirement, tears silently sliding down her cheeks, Luna didn’t have a specific destination in mind, only to get as far away from there as possible. She was just walking. And after walking awhile, passing posters hung up about Umbridge’s tyrannical rulings, including a fairly new one about how each student must be submitted to questioning about a possible illicit, student-run activity (a.k.a. the DA), Luna found herself in a section of Hogwarts she had never been before. Pausing for a moment, and swiping at a few of the tears that strayed on her pale face, she looked around.
The hall was filled with live tapestries of centaurs engaged in active hunts through treacherous forests, beautiful ladies dancing in elaborately woven dresses, and men toasting each other with full glasses of rum at luscious banquets. Luna watched for a few minutes in silent wonderment, the small moving figures capturing her attention and causing her to forget her pain for just a little while.
Then Luna turned back to the previously empty corridor that now did not appear to be quite so empty. A lady stood in the middle of the hall, watching Luna quietly. The woman wore a long gray gown that was gathered pleasantly at the waist where small speckled flowers played and winding vines ran up the seam and around the neckline. Looking down at the hem of her dress, Luna saw that it was hovering just above the ground, yet no feet emerged from underneath the full skirt. It was then, and only then, that Luna looked at the lady’s now seemingly translucent face and realized exactly who this was, and what she was. It was the Gray Lady, ghost of Ravenclaw Tower.
Recognition and realization must have been quite evident on Luna’s face because the Gray Lady just smiled sadly at her.
“Yes,” the seemingly dead woman said softly. “It is I. They call me the Gray Lady.” Then the woman scowled, tossing her dappled cocoa curls over one shoulder. “I detest that title.”
“You’re Helena Ravenclaw, Rowena Ravenclaw’s daughter,” Luna spoke now, knowledgably.
Helena smiled again, this time more softly than sad. “It is nice to know that someone knows me by my true name. And you are?”
“Luna Lovegood.” Luna shuffled her feet nervously just a bit, and swept away one final tear.
“Why so sad, child?” Helena cooed softly, floating just a bit closer to Luna now.
“I’m hardly a child anymore,” Luna said confidently. “I am but fourteen years of age, practically a woman.”
The Gray Lady smiled. “Yes, that may be so, but I am more than one hundred and fourteen years, my child. I am hardly just your elder.”
Luna shrugged in defeat.
“But why are you here, in my corridor, wandering aimlessly and teary-eyed, none-the-less?” the Gray Lady questioned again.
“I hardly see why it matters,” Luna murmured hopelessly.
“Why of course it matters, child,” Helena stated simply.
“Thank you for your time and I am sorry for the intrusion, but I think it might be best if I be going now,” Luna said quietly, beginning to walk away.
“NO!” the Gray Lady cried suddenly, startling Luna and causing her to turn around with a start. “Please do not leave me yet.” There was a deep pleading in this woman’s eyes and Luna couldn’t help but oblige.
“Please,” Helena began again. “I do not get to speak to many beings, living or dead, often.”
“But why hide out here, then?” Luna questioned, suddenly interested. “And why speak to me?”
“I sense a kindness in your heart, one that few others deeply and truly possess. I feel that I can trust you.” she answered.
A slight tint of rouge, the faintest hind of a blush, appeared on Luna’s pale-toned cheeks.
“But tell me, child, why do you worry? What are your woes?”
Sighing, Luna took a breath and gushed. “I feel so alone in this world. Everyone sees me as so strange, as they have every year, but this year it seems worse and I’m having a harder time keeping control of my emotions and trying to hide them. It seems every little thing has been getting me upset lately; nothing seems to go in a way that would help me. I’m sick of people always laughing at me and the one person I put my trust into, the one person I thought of as a friend, just betrayed me. I don’t feel as if I can go on in this state, living like this!” Luna paused for a breath, new tears flowing freely now. She peeked up, embarrassed at the Gray Lady. “Sorry,” she gasped wearily. “I must sound so stupid and weak to you.” She looked back at the floor.
Pausing for a moment, the Gray Lady stared contemplatively at Luna, as if deciding carefully the words she would next chose to use. “Not at all.”
Looking up surprised, Luna stared in wonder at the transparent woman before her.
“You asked me before why I stay here, away from everyone else. I couldn’t handle being with all of those people; I didn’t want something to happen like before.”
Now, thoroughly perplexed, Luna watched Helena carefully.
“You see, like you, I was afraid of what others thought of me. I couldn’t take the snickers of those unknowing schoolchildren anymore. And there was… there was….” Helena stopped for a moment, mouth open mid-phrase. “Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you.”
“You can tell me,” Luna said quietly. “If you want to, that is.”
Helena hovered silently for a moment, deciding. Then she spoke. “Perhaps I should tell someone. Perhaps, just some of it.”
Silence.
“Well, years ago, there was this…boy. He was charming and he…confused me. And then he used me for something…I cannot tell. But ever since, ever since he did that, I have locked myself out from the living world and the dead. I haven’t wanted to go back since, not really.”
The words were confusing to Luna, and she stood there perplexed for a moment. She wished she could know more, but she knew not to press a woman who was centuries old and had just told her bits of a secret that no one else knew.
Then Luna spied the setting sun out a nearby window and knew that it must be about time for their evening meal. She was just a bit hungry now, not much but a little. Luna turned back to the Gray Lady.
“Thank you for sharing,” she said kindly. “I best be going now.”
Helena’s face fell.
“But, perhaps I shall see you tomorrow.”
The Ravenclaw ghost’s transparent face shadowed a smile.
“Yes,” Helena said. “I think I would like that very much.”
And with that, Luna summoned just a bit of renewed hope left in her heart and skipped back down the corridor towards the Hall.
YOU ARE READING
Luna Lovegood
Fanfiction[BOOK ONE] Loony Lovegood--the girl everyone made fun of. The girl with more to her than what meets the eye. She's different, you know (although I presume you already figured that out for yourself). She's special, and she has a story, too. Foll...
