“Sit next to me today, will you Harry?” Ron said with a timid voice. “I don’t want to end up next to…”
“It’s alright,” Harry said with a laugh. Ron frowned. After the kiss Ron had received from Hermione the night before, he knew breakfast would be quite awkward.
“But what’ll you do if she sits across from you?” This made Ron blush harder.
Harry and Ron got to the table pretty early, with Neville just behind them. Neville didn’t ask any questions when Ron yanked him into the seat next to him. When Harry and Neville flanked Ron on both sides, he was finally comfortable enough to dig into his heaping breakfast. A few minutes later, however, they were surprised to see Hermione and Ginny come in with Parvati and Lavender at their sides. They came to the table and sat down across from the three boys. Ron stared intensely at his food as if no one else existed.
Ginny slid onto the bench, giving Hermione a weird sideways glance. Parvati and Lavender had never sat with them before.
“Morning, Mister Naked and Sir Undie-Hat,” Ginny said plainly to Harry and Ron. Harry couldn’t help but laugh while Ron accidentally dribbled pumpkin juice onto his robes.
“So, Neville,” Lavender said with a coy grin. “You remember your dare, don’t you?”
Neville’s face went pale. Unfortunately, he did remember.
“Yes, er… Draco…” Neville turned his head ever-so-slightly towards the Slytherin table. They were all talking amongst themselves, Draco waving his hands about and smiling with that evil, pinched face of his. Neville began to whimper.
“You don’t have to do it now,” said Harry. “Wait till after second class, when we have a break. Ron and I will go with you.”
Hermione’s eyes widened. “We have Potions as second class today, with the Ravenclaws!”
They all turned to look over at the Ravenclaw table, where Luna Lovegood was sitting alone. As every day, none of the other Ravenclaws would dare sit near her. She was chewing her breakfast obliviously and swinging her legs, as though it was a day like any other.
“Do you think she’ll do it?” Parvati hissed wickedly. “Do you think she’ll ask Professor Snape if he’s a vampire?”
“Why not?” Ron said suddenly, not looking up from his scrambled eggs. “She probably would’ve asked him anyway, she’s bonkers.”
As they filed into the Potions classroom, everyone was so distracted that they found it difficult to find their seats. Hermione and Neville grabbed their usual desk together, while Ron and Harry sat down in the back. Parvati gave a quick smile to her sister Padma, who was in Ravenclaw with Luna. She’d obviously told her sister what would go down in class. When Luna ambled in, everyone tried not to look at her. She sat down at an empty desk in the middle and began drawing circles in the air with her finger.
As Professor Snape had not arrived yet, many of the students were buzzing amongst themselves. Two Ravenclaw girls, Connie and Nikita, were whispering amongst themselves and pointing at Luna. The girls looked quite alike, both being short with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Nikita said something in Connie's ear, causing her to burst into giggles.
Padma began snapping her fingers, trying to get her sister's attention, but Parvati was busy talking to Lavender. Finally Lavender pointed Padma out.
“Remind her!” Padma mouthed.
“What?” Parvati mouthed back.
“Remind her, stupid!” Padma mouthed, her eyes furrowed.
“Sod off!”
Padma frowned as Connie snickered behind her.
Suddenly, the door flew open with a whoosh. It was like their voices had been sucked out of their throats as Snape strode quickly to the front of the class. He turned sharply on his heel and demanded that they have their cauldrons out and turn to page 635. For a moment, there were only the sounds of metal scraping and textbook pages fluttering. Suddenly, Luna raised her hand.
"Yes, Miss Lovegood,” Snape responded airily.
“Professor, may I ask you a personal question?”
Snape’s beady eyes widened. “What on Earth-”
“Sir, are you in fact a vampire?” Luna asked curiously. Her hand was still hanging in the air. Everyone was trying to stifle their laughter. Even Hermione was biting her fist.
Snape slammed his thick potion book on his desk, causing a large cloud of dust to rise.
“Miss Lovegood,” he hissed, “You can-”
“Are you or are you not,” Luna continued in a melodic voice, “a member of the undead?”
This time, Snape paced quickly up to Luna’s desk and grabbed her arm.
“Thirty points from Ravenclaw for appalling behaviour,” he said with a low growl. Connie and Nikita groaned.
“Admission is the first step to acceptance,” Luna said helpfully.
“DETENTION!”
Snape pointed forcefully to the door, his teeth clenched. Whether she was to go see Dumbledore or just get out of his sight, no one knew. But Luna arose from her seat and walked lightly out of the room without hesitation.
If Snape wasn’t so frightening, they all might have burst into applause. Instead, they had to settle for laughing into their sleeves.
"You find this comical, do you?" Snape said icily. A Gryffindor girl called J.J. was hanging her blonde hair in her face to hide her laughing, but it wasn't working. She bit her lip and looked up at the greasy, pale-faced professor before her.
"Ah...no, sir."
When class finally ended, they all practically ran out into the hallway. Ron and Harry were laughing so hard they had to lean against the stone wall. Padma ran up to them with Parvati and Lavender.
“If I see Luna in the common room later,” Padma said breathlessly, “I’ll tell you what she says.”
“I doubt you’ll see her, “ Parvati replied. “She’s got detention, remember?”
Ron threw an arm around Neville, who looked like he was trying to sink into the wall.
“First we’ve got to go Slytherin-hunting, haven’t we, Neville?”
Before Neville could say anything, Lavender started pushing them out towards the staircase.
“We have a break before the next class,” she said hurriedly. “Draco’s probably sitting out in the courtyard with his ugly mates! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
As they stepped out into the early morning sun, they found that Draco and his group of friends were indeed in the courtyard. Draco and Goyle were sitting on an intricate stone bench, while Crabbe, Blaise and at least twelve other Slytherins were gathered around him. He had apparently just said something quite hilarious as Neville and the rest slowly approached the courtyard. But before they could say anything, Draco caught sight of them.
“Look here, fellows!” Draco said sarcastically. “It’s Potty, Weasel, and Dungbottom!” The Slytherins cackled aloud.
“Ugh, what is that?” Draco exclaimed, pinching his pointy nose. Suddenly he pointed at Hermione.
“Thought I smelled a mudblood!” This made the Slytherins cackle even harder.
Suddenly, Neville stepped forward, his arms awkwardly at his sides.
“Shut it, you.. you scumbag arse-face!”
Draco’s face immediately went pale as his friends stopped laughing. Harry reached into his pocket instinctively and grabbed his wand. Ginny glanced behind quickly to see that Parvati and Lavender were not backing them up, but were in fact standing by a tree a good distance away, gaping.
Draco arose from the bench. “What did you call me?”
Neville’s face went white, but he stood his ground.
“I said…. Y-you’re a scumbag arse-face!”
“And a twitchy, flea-bitten ferret!” Ron called out.
“And an elitist prick!” Hermione said firmly.
Draco turned to face her, storming forward.
“Don’t you dare address me, you pathetic mudblood!”
Suddenly, Ginny hauled back and punched Draco across the face.
“Thank Merlin!” Ron roared. “If you hadn’t done it, I know Hermione would’ve!”
Draco got back up to his feet as his fellow Slytherins stared on in shock.
“You’ll pay for this… all of you.”
Then, Neville began to speak in a loud but quavering voice.
“I might be t-terrible at potions, a-and hopeless at transfiguration, b-but I’ve g-gotten quite g-good at Herbology and the uses of plantlife. So if you give any of us any more t-trouble, I can think of a d-dozen ways to give you unbearable hives in... in the most inconvenient places.”
Then, before Draco could respond, Neville marched quickly off. Stunned, his friends followed behind him.
“Miss Weasley,” came a stern voice. Ginny turned to see Professor McGonagall standing behind her. “I saw that, and I’m afraid I must take away ten house points from Gryffindor.”
Ginny sighed, giving the professor a weary “he-asked-for-it” look.
“You’ll serve detention with Professor Snape tonight, as I will be busy with other… orders,” she said pointedly. Then she turned and faced Draco.
“You, Mister Malfoy, also lose ten house points from Slytherin for cruel and uncouth language. Detention for you, as well.” With that, the Professor turned and left.
Ron gave Neville a proud pat on the back. “I knew you could do it! I certainly couldn’t have!”
But Ron mostly beamed at the idea that his two favorite girls had at some time punched Draco in the face, and he couldn’t smile any bigger than he was right then.
“Where’d you learn to punch like that?” Harry asked her.
Ginny started to blush. “Certainly not from him,” she said, gesturing to Ron. Hermione put her arm around Ginny’s shoulder with a grin.
“At least you’ve got detention with Luna tonight. It might actually be interesting. And Draco won’t start any trouble, now that you’ve stood up to him!”
Even Lavender and Parvati came running up to shake Neville’s hand and congratulate him.
"Well done," exclaimed a passing Hufflepuff girl with layered brown hair and hazel eyes. Neville blushed.
“Can we go on to class now?” Neville said shakily. “If I think about it any longer, I might faint!”
As they walked to class, smiles all around, Harry gave Neville a light punch on the shoulder.
“Could you really give Malfoy hives?” Harry asked with a smirk.
“And in very inconvenient places?” Ginny added.
Neville gave a crooked but proud smile. Silently, ask they walked across the grounds, they all pondered having another round of Truth or Dare that very night. Except for Ginny, of course, who was plotting her survival of that night’s detention with Malfoy and Luna.
That night, the whole school would be talking.