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After some time a faint clanging jerks me out of my daze and I realize I should get going. I sigh, because I'd rather not. "May I know your name?" I ask finally.
"I like you," she says, still not turning away from the window. Any other girl might blush when saying that, but she doesn't. I get the feeling she means it exactly how she says it – no romantic undertones at all. "My name is Luna."
"I like you, too, Luna," I say in a voice that I hope sends the same message. "I'm glad we got to enjoy the view together. Maybe we can do it again some other day?"
"That sounds pleasant. Are you leaving now?"
"Unfortunately."
"Okay."
"See you around, Luna."
"Goodbye, William."
I walk away toward the nearest corner, glancing back to find Luna gone from the window. I didn't hear her go.
Suddenly I feel bad for messing with her on the train. Shaking my head to clear the odd interaction from my mind,
I come to the first corner, which looks quite familiar. I'm fairly sure it's the corner from the fifth movie, so I walk back and forth in front of the wall, keeping an image of a sort of half-library, half training area in my mind. After many circuits I open my eyes...
To a blank wall. Damn.
Crossing the stairwell to the next corner, I come across a moving tapestry depicting a man amidst a bunch of trolls in tutus of all things. Underneath is a plaque that mentions 'Barnabas the Barmy.' I don't remember the trolls, but that name sounds familiar! I fix the image in my mind once again, and after three laps I am rewarded with the groaning of a previously solid stone wall forming a door.
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My face flushes with righteous anger at the thrice-cursed, damnably stubborn entity just beyond the tip of my wand.
"Fuck you, feather! Fuck you and the fucking imaginary bird you came from!" A string of further probably unintelligible grumbles and growls that question the integrity and fidelity of the feather's imaginary family escape me. I sit and stew for a few minutes, occasionally lobbing particularly scathing insults as they come to me.
The fact that I don't come up with them right away further pisses me off. Finally I stand up and glare at the feather again. "Alright you dirty son of bitch, let's do this shit."
Swish and flick. "Wingardium Leviosa! Fuck!"
I toss my wand – okay, I hurl that piece of shit – at the couch behind me and point my finger menacingly at the feather. "You listen here, you—hwaaa?" A familiar rush emanates from my stomach, up through my shoulder and out my finger, and the feather flies upward off the table but floats back down almost immediately, and I realize it must be because I lost concentration.
I stare in shock for a moment as the feather floats gently to the floor. I pick it up and turn it over in my hands before replacing it and concentrating, trying to take it slow.
Sure enough, a much smaller rush of what I now know to be magic flows out of my finger and lifts the feather off the table, less violently this time, but still too roughly.
I let go, but before the feather reaches the ground I try again, trying to send just enough magic seep out to keep the feather afloat.
Yes!
I dash back and pick up my wand, and return the feather to its place. I point the wand and concentrate, and the feather gently lifts off with barely a trickle of magic! I let it fall and try again.
Swish and flick. "Wingardium Leviosa." The feather stays still.
Well, I'll be damned.
I concentrate again, aiming for the small trickle. Just when I feel it seeping down my arm, I swish and flick. "Wingardium Leviosa." Nothing. The motion and incantation are ruining my concentration!
I aim again for the small trickle. This time no swish and flick. "Wingardium Leviosa," I say absently, instead focusing on my magic. The feather lifts off.
Small trickle. "Leviosa Wingardium." Feather lifts off.
Small trickle. "Yakka foob mog." Feather lifts off.
I laugh in maniacal delight, then an idea strikes me.
Small trickle. "Stupefy." Feather lifts off.
Small trickle. "Avada—" A shiver breaks my concentration.
I decided not to try that one again. Still shaken I stand and approach one of the training dummies hanging from the ceiling, and take aim with my wand. "Stupefy!"
Nothing. I tuck my wand in my pocket and hold my hand directly at the dummy. Aiming for a decent rush of magic and concentrating on what I want it to do, a jet of red light jumps from my hand and strikes the dummy, causing a slight physical movement. Not the physical blast the spell gets in the movies.
Yeah, Stunning an inanimate object isn't going to work. Same for the Impediment Jinx, I imagine. I decided to skip those for now. There's a strange pull in my stomach after that Stunner, so I have the room provide a clock only to find it's nearly lunchtime.
I figure I've got time for one more.
Stepping back, I give a cruel smile at the training dummy, picturing what Ginny does to it here next year. I hold up my hand as a large rush of magic builds in my arm until a large blue ball of energy erupts out of my hand, but I don't get to see the results as the recoil sends me sprawling.
My stomach clenches painfully when I hit the ground, and everything is hazy. I open my eyes – wait, I had them shut? – and I squint at the light which causes my head to pound.
Thankfully the lights dim. Who did that? Where am I again? Oh yeah, the Room of Requirement. I look up on the wall and the clock appears once again. Almost five-thirty.
"Wait, what?" The sudden noise and movement causes me to clutch my head and cry out in pain.
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章 10: Chapter 10: Teasing!
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The four of us walk to the Great Hall in an uncomfortable silence after that and begin eating.
"Hermione," I say, breaking the silence when I'm finished.
Her head jerks up from the book she carried with her and started reading several minutes earlier.
"Do you know where the R—" I stop, realizing that this is Fourth Year – they don't discover the Room of Requirement until Fifth Year. That means nobody knows about it except me.
'Yeah, that wouldn't look suspicious at all.' I clear my throat to stall for a moment.
1"How do I...how many floors does the big staircase out there go up?" I ask, gesturing toward the staircase outside the Great Hall.
"That one goes all the way up to the seventh floor, which is the highest you'll get without entering one of the towers. If you follow the corridor around you'll find an entrance to the stairs in the Astronomy Tower on the other side of the quad. Why?"
Excellent. "I didn't catch much of the tour...too busy gawking and all," I say with a shrug. "It looked like it went up pretty high. Where's the nearest restroom?"
"The loo? There's a boy's one just off the same staircase on the second floor."
1"Thanks," I say, smiling at her obvious enjoyment at being able to act like a mini-Prefect. She smiles back happily. "So what are you three up to today?"
"I figured we'd go have a chat with Hagrid," Harry suggests.
"I thought we'd go to the library," Hermione says, eliciting a groan from Ron which triggers an eye roll. "Honestly Ron, this is his first year here, so he might need to catch up on some things."
I smile at her inclusion of me. "I'd love to take you up on that, Hermione, in fact I know I will." Her eyes light up, but momentarily dim back down as I continue, "but I've got something to take care of today, and I need to see McGonagall about something we talked about last night. I wouldn't mind holding up in the library tomorrow and Sunday, though."
1Her smile comes back. "That would be great!"
At the same time Ron makes a face like it would be anything but.
"We could just go flying instead, right Ron?" Harry offers.
This swaps the faces of disgust and happiness, and I jump in before Hermione has a chance to scold them.
"Not all day, I'm sure," I say, which places Hermione, then I shoot her an exaggerated sad face with my bottom lip sticking out. "My company isn't that bad, is it?" I think I even make my lip quiver a bit.
1She flushed with embarrassment. "N-No, of course not, that's not what I—"
I can't stop my face from cracking into a smile.
"Oh, you..." she lifts her hand up as if to smack my shoulder but catches herself before she can.
1"Violent, that one is," Ron mutters, which earns him the patented Hermione glare through her blush.
I laugh. "Well I have to use the restr—the loo. I'll catch you guys sometime later. Lunch, maybe?"
Pleased that I managed to escape without arousing too much suspicion, I immediately set out for the Room of Requirement, continuing right past the second floor.
Unfortunately for me, these floors are not my familiar ten-foot stories, so I'm pretty winded when I reach the top of the stairs.
Out of the corner of my eye I see somebody down the corridor walking toward me, but since I'm too tired to chat I just walk over to a window and lean against the sill to catch my breath.
I sweat a bit more than the climb would warrant, since now I'm worried about being discovered when I'm opening or leaving the Room.
Damn, I wish I had my own Marauder's Map.
"Hello again," a sing-song voice says.
I smile as I realize who it must have been. "Hello there," I say, glancing at Luna. "Sorry about the train, you took off before I could tell you it was a joke. My clothes were just too big."
1She smiles at me. "That's okay, I couldn't find my notes anyway." Then she turns her face to the window, so I do the same.
"Nice view from up here, is it not?" A soft and peaceful face framed by long, dirty blonde hair appears quite close to my shoulder.
I glance at her again, and my eyes flicker down to her feet to verify that, as expected, she isn't wearing any shoes.
Thankfully it's a pleasantly warm morning, so the stone can't be too uncomfortable for her.
I turn back to the window to see the late summer morning sun reflecting on the lake, and my eyes follow the dense forests and farmland toward the horizon.
"It is beautiful," I agree in a whisper. It reminds me of home somehow, despite the fact that I'm on the seventh floor of a magical castle.
She stands next to me, gazing silently outward. Oddly, it's a companionable silence, and we maintain it for several minutes.
Then it strikes me that we've never actually introduced ourselves.
"I'm...you can call me Bud, by the way," I say awkwardly.
"I could," she says, remaining silent for a few moments. Just as I breathe in to say something else, she cuts in. "Is that short for something?"
I have no idea, actually. "William," I say instead.
"May I call you William?"
I smile at that; it sounds good when she says it. "Somehow I don't think I'll be able to stop you."
"You would be correct, William."
"William it is, then."
Our conversation takes place entirely as she gazes out the window, though I sneak a few peaks at her serene face. She doesn't seem to notice, returning to her silent sky-gazing.
After some time a faint clanging jerks me out of my daze and I realize I should get going. I sigh, because I'd rather not. "May I know your name?" I ask finally.
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