Luna Lovegood

Raven Strong

            Ravens are just annoying, large, black birds.  They hog the bird feeders, and caw like crows.  They flap their feathery wings and enjoy pestering pedestrians with loud squawking noises.  There is absolutely nothing interesting about them and they are just down-right pests.

            Well, not according to Luna.  Their wings are not wispy and greasy.  They are elegant and sleek.  Obnoxious screeching?  A cry of desperation.  Ravens are not nosy seed-stealers, but determined minds.  They will plot their every move and persevere to the end.

            This was Luna.

            She would not give up on herself.  On her body.  Because Luna Lovegood never gave up.  She would never stop trying.

            Fighting for breath, she grasped her father, crushing his limp hand in her grip.  He stared back at her in awe, amazed at the sudden energy she possessed.  Luna’s eyes were squeezed shut in concentration, and her knuckles turned white.  Her dad let out a gasp of surprise and pain as her grip had turned firm and began crushing the bones in his fingers together.

            “Luna...?” he whispered, unsure of whether or not his only daughter was about to explode in a burst of blonde fury right in front of him.

            “Daddy,” she gasped, breathing heavily as beads of sweat formed on her brow.  “I think…it’s working.”

            “Oh Luna-” he said in relief, but was interrupted by his daughter slumping to the ground, out cold, her head a soft crack on the floor.

***

            Luna woke up in an unfamiliar place, on an unfamiliar cot, with an unfamiliar bandage on her head.  The room smelled like muggle cleaning supplies.  With her eyes cracked open, and her head lying to the side on a pillow that crackled with her every breath, she could only see an overly-shiny tile floor and a pair of white, polished shoes.  The body attached to the footwear bent down and touched her head.  A nurse in an ironed uniform, prim hat, and rubber gloves was before her.

            Oh no, Luna thought.  Oh no, oh no, oh no…

            She was in St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

            Her daddy must have brought her here after she…well…she couldn’t quite remember what had happened.

            “How are you doing, dear?” the woman in the room said softly to Luna, almost as if she were talking to a child.

            Luna could only produce a small groan in reply.

            “There, there, hon,” the lady crooned, patting her matted down blonde hair.  “Now, let me just take a look at how your head is healing.  You got a nasty cut, poor thing.”  And then, the nurse began to gently pry the soaked fabric from Luna’s forehead.  Pain greeted her with a malicious snarl and she winced.  As the nurse pulled the bandage away, Luna caught sight of her own blood on it and shivered.  She must have really hurt herself badly.  The gore made her stomach ache and the floor spin.

            Just then, the sound of shuffling feet and a door swinging open brought Luna from her dizzy trance.  And in a blur of yellow robes, her daddy was there beside her.

            “Loon…” he moaned, nestling his head of shaggy gray hair by her nose.

            “Daddy…” she replied in equal pain.

            “Oh, my baby!” he cried, this time in open anguish.  Seeing his Luna like this broke him inside.  She was all he had left; she was his everything.

            It was at that moment of deep desperation that the nurse chose to tap the wailing man on the shoulder, trying to release him from a moment of pain, and herself from awkwardness in the process.

            “Sir,” she said politely as Mr. Lovegood rose to face her.  “I am going to have to ask you to kindly step aside as I tend to your daughter.”

            The father quickly stepped aside as questions left his mouth, “Is she going to be alright?  What is wrong with her?  Can you fix her?”

            “Mr. Lovegood,” the lady said calmly.  “I need to finish assessing the situation before I can come to any conclusions.  So, if you would allow me to finish examining Luna, she will be fixed in no time.”

            With that, Xenophilios steped aside and the witch proceeded with her job.  A few minutes passed and she turned to the man, face grave.  Tucking her wand in her pocket, she said,

            “It seems to me that your daughter has a rare case of corpus glacies.”

            “Excuse me?” Mr. Lovegood questioned in dismay, not recognizing the disease’s name.

            “It basically means that her body has ‘frozen’, sir.  She will-”

            “You can heal her, right?” Luna’s father interrupted, forgetting his manners in his time of distress.

            “Yes, yes,” the witch said quickly, clearing her throat.  “It will just take some time.  Luna needs to be under 24 hour care for at least a week longer.  Then she should be able to resume her daily activities, with some restraints of course.”

            Luna and her father were silent for a moment, processing the information.  She would have to be arriving at Hogwarts a week later than usual, at least.  If she was lucky.  Unfortunately, she would be missing the pleasant train ride back to her second home and the review D.A. meeting.  She knew her spells fairly well, but Harry had said at one meeting that there was a possibility of learning patronuses and she did not want to miss that.

            “I am just curious though,” the nurse said, warping her out of her worries.  “how Luna got this disease.  It is quite rare and not common in Britain.  The main cause is from being exposed to extreme cold for an extended period of time; but the cold must be infected with Dirigible Plum essence.  The plant is not commonly grown in Britain, though.  In some parts of the country it was made illegal for the bacteria it produces that preyed on other endangered plants.  I don’t see how Luna could have been near this though.  Do you have any idea of what could have caused this?”

            Luna and her father locked eyes as the witch spoke, fear creeping up into their pupils.  But then Mr. Lovegood spoke, continuing to stare at Luna.

            “I have no idea,” he replied in a solemn monotone.

***

            Closing her eyes to rest again that night, Luna relayed the day’s events in her mind.  It was all so sudden and new.  It was frightening.  But Luna was not scared.  Like the raven she knew when it was cowardly to fear and when it was foolish to not.  It was now that Luna knew she would not be at risk for being at ease with her situation.  Worry would lead her nowhere.

            Because she was a Ravenclaw, Luna was like the raven.

            She was raven strong.