Chapter 17: Enter the Spirits

So, as we've clearly established, I don't own anything of any value…unfortunately. This includes Harry Potter -

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"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

— George Bernard Shaw

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"Best ball of the century, they'll be saying. It had everything, a contest, music, lovely decorations," Luna waved her hands in the air dramatically, "a crystal chandelier falling from the ceiling almost crushing the students… Oh, yes, greatest ball ever."

Ginny chuckled at her friend's sarcasm, "You know the funny thing is I think part of you really enjoys the fact that you were almost killed at a ball by a chandelier."

"Well, it does reinforce my theory about dances being the hangout for irate, malevolent evil creatures. They are irked by the loud music, drawn to crowded areas, and all-around enjoy crushing people with things. I've always said balls are quite possibly the cornerstone of evil. I told you our third year didn't I? 'Go to that dance, Ginny Weasley,' I said, 'and you'll regret it forever.' And what happened? Neville squished your feet to pulp. Not that he meant to do so, poor dear. All I'm saying is nothing good happens at balls. This proves it."

Ginny chuckled. "You are positively raving mad, Luna."

"Why, thank you. I don't hear that quite as often anymore."

Ginny smiled. She was finally out of the hospital wing. While she knew she should be worried about someone trying to kill Luna again, she couldn't possibly bring herself to be sombre. Such a thing was impossible with Luna, especially since it was the first time she was walking around for days. The hospital wing was annoying.

They were taking a stroll outside per Luna's insistence.

'Nothing bad can happen outside.'

'Oh, and why not, Luna?'

'It's the magic of the grundlepixies. They spook the air. No matter how bad something seems, it'll turn out okay in the end if you stay outside. And don't you say grundlepixies don't exist. They do.'

Ginny put her hands up in surrender, 'Wouldn't dream of it.'

So there they were, outside. "Speaking of which, Luna, while I was in the hospital wing, Draco and I were looking at the books you let me borrow and…well, we came to a conclusion."

"You mean theory."

"Yes, of course." Ginny brushed her hair aside. "Well, we think there's a very good possibility Som's a spirit."

Luna looked at the red-head. "A spirit? Spirits reside in their world, not ours."

"We think he's a banished spirit whose mission, for some reason I've yet to discover, is to protect…you."

Luna scoffed, "Me? Preposterous. I think it's more likely he's trying to kill me."

"If he were trying to kill you," Draco drawled appearing out of nowhere, "he would have succeeded by now."

"Besides," Blaise murmured into her ear. She saw him smile wolfishly as she shivered slightly. He moved back a bit and raised his voice so the others could hear, "Why would he try to get you romantically involved with someone and then kill you? It makes no sense."

"To throw off suspicion," Luna defended.

Ginny's eyebrows knotted together, "Do you really think he's trying to kill you?"

Luna sighed. "No. But protect me? How ludicrous is that? Why would the mission of a spirit be to protect me? I'm nothing special."

"I beg to differ." Blaise said coolly. Ginny's hand had at some point during the conversation intertwined with Draco's, Luna couldn't help but smile at the small affection. Blaise's arm was draped across Luna's shoulder, "Sickly, adorable morons aren't they?" He murmured in her ear.

"Ginevra Weasley, what the hell do you tank you're doing?!" Belted out an angry voice.

"Oh, bugger," Blaise muttered drawing his hand up to his forehead. "He's only said one sentence and I can sense the beginning of a headache coming on." He rubbed his temples as a furious red-headed boy approached the four of them.

Ronald Weasley.

"The only thing more annoying than Granger is her over-protective, idiot of a boyfriend." He mumbled irritated.

"Why, whatever do you mean, brother dearest?" Ginny asked innocently.

Ron Weasley spluttered for a bit before he was able to form a coherent sentence, "You are holding hands with Draco Malfoy. And I've been hearing that you are doing other – other things like – like—"

"Kissing, snogging, perhaps fucking." Draco drawled.

Ginny slapped him on the arm, "We have not done that and you know that."

"Oh, we've most certainly done the first two."

"Well," Luna interrupted before Ron could erupt again, "As sure as I am that this conversation will be magnificently interesting I have better things to do, like counting the ceiling tiles, creating a blanket out of tissue paper and just staring at the wall." Luna held up her hands, "And don't worry, I wont miss a second of vital information. I've got the run-down of this conversation already mapped out in my head.

"Ronald yells. Ginny gets furious. Ronald insults Draco. Ginny gets angrier. Somehow my relationship with Blaise gets mentioned. I'm subtly insulted. Blaise gets insulted. Draco gets insulted again. Ginny goes into a fit of rage and attempts to kill Ronald. And for unknown reason Draco stops Ginny from killing Ronald, probably because he does have an ethical code. Draco forcefully, sternly and angrily tells Ronald to back the hell off. They then argue and insult each other for a while. Ginny then stomps off in anger at both Ronald and Draco. Ronald then goes away to complain to someone else.

"See? I know the story." Luna waved, "So, buh-bye!"

The blonde girl then ran off, leaving Ron flabbergasted and annoyed, Draco confused, Ginny irate, and Blaise in laughter.

xXxXx

Luna looked down at her feet then back at the bundle in her hands. She was balancing five books in her hands and was trying to figure out if it was safe to take both herself and the books downstairs to the library at the same time. She could of course use a levitating charm but that would require her to put the books down, open her bag, pull out her wand, cast the spell, close her bag, and then head down to the library. It just seemed like too much work. Besides the books weren't all that heavy…

Luna bit her bottom lip and mentally shrugged. It should be ridiculously easy to head down with the books, besides the worst that could happen is that she would trip and break her arm. That wasn't too severe. After all, madam Pomfrey could fix that in a jiffy.

Luna skipped down the winding staircase deciding no levitating charm was needed.

"Luna Lovegood!" A stern voice called out from somewhere below her. She shifted the books a bit, pausing her skipping to see him. Blaise was looking irritated, his eyebrows knotted in frustration, eyes narrowed.

"What?" Luna sang at him happily. She could tell he was a bit frustrated with her, but just seeing him, angered or not, made her content.

"Are you mad? You're going to fall and crack your head open!"

"Of course I'm mad. What kind of sane person isn't crazy? And for your information, I'm not going to fall."

His eyebrow was twitching. "Luna, you're a witch! Use a levitating charm!"

"Too much work." Luna replied and continued hopping down the stairs.

Blaise tried very hard not to roll his eyes and snap at her. Such actions would normally make him feel peeved that she was risking her life unnecessarily, but considering someone or something was trying to kill her, he was more than peeved. He wanted to shake her until sense sunk into her brain. "Oh, bugger." At this rate, she alone would be responsible for her own death. He quickly searched his robe for his wand and headed to the stairs Luna was on as fast as he could manage. Having her die was not in his plans, thank you very much.

At the foot of the stairs Luna was heading down, was a metal knight statue holding a spear in its right hand. The statue was turned slightly so the spear pointed in the direction of the floor right before the stairs. He thought absently that if someone were lying by the foot of the stairs and that spear managed to pitch forward it would really harm them. That statue didn't appear to be in a very safe place…

Luna was still content that she was balancing the books perfectly as she made her way down the stairs that she paid no mind, to Blaise's protests.

"Luna! Put the books DOWN, woman!"

Luna groaned. "Fine!" She placed the books on the step and put her hands on her hips. "Happy?"

Blaise leaned against the rail trying to catch his breath, looking up at his blonde erratic woman, she was still several steps ahead of him. "Yes…Now leave the books there. I will pick them up."

"But you're all the way down there." She complained. "You know what, I'm just going to—"

Blaise swore as he saw his moon's eyes widen horribly. Luna was known for many things. One of those was her balance. The blonde never lost her balance. The mere fact that at the moment she wasn't even carrying anything, made the thought of her losing her balance more unlikely. But there she was, swaying, trying desperately to stay on the step as if someone had pushed her, but Blaise had been watching her the whole time – no one had.

Luna's eyed jammed shut as she pitched face-forward. She hit the stairs on her right side with a loud thump and kept stumbling forward. Blaise sprang up and caught her, but she was rolling forward with too much momentum, he tumbled down with her.

They landed at the foot of the stairs with a hard thwack. Luna was lying on top of him breathing raggedly; he was lying up his back to the floor, also breathing raggedly. He was about to ask if she was fine when he noticed the spear of the statue seemed to slide downward.

He wrapped his arms around her and turned over – away from the statue, so that he was on top of her now, and they were NOT at the foot of the staircase.

The pointy spear hit the floor where they'd been not one second ago with a loud clanging sound.

Blaise rolled off of her and looked at the area the spear had hit. There was a large crack on the floor. Blaise groaned, he felt sore everywhere and knew he'd be covered in bruises the next morning. If whoever it was didn't manage to kill Luna, they would surely kill him second-hand. He looked back at the blonde Ravenclaw.

She sat up carefully, pain evident on her face. Her eyes were wide, her blonde hair was sticking to her face and scrambled about everywhere, and her breathing rash and spacey.

Blaise watched her expression. "Are you alright?" she didn't seem to be wounded, but who knows.

Her mouth opened but she said nothing.

"Are you alright?" He repeated.

"Alright?" She squeaked. "Alright!" She scrambled up from the floor and started jumping up and down stomping on the floor like a little child throwing a tantrum. "This is the third time someone's tried to kill me! And," She screamed, "they almost succeeded this time. Plus I bet if I tell someone they still won't believe me! Not, I am most definitely not alright."

He edged away, a bit. "Stupid question." He ruffled his hair, and watched her, afraid she'd explode again. The blonde settling angrily onto the marble floor. "I believe you." He said to her.

"Why do people want to kill me? I didn't do anything!"

An excellent question Blaise figured. Why bother trying to kill the blonde creature? She was already accident prone enough; killing her took the entire sport out of murder. Although, of course having him always watching her probably made it more fun for the sicko…Nonetheless, if you were going to kill someone it would only be sporting to pick on someone who wasn't quite a deficient as Luna was into getting into horrible predicaments on all her own.

Life, just plain sucked.

xXxXx

"I know you're here." Som called carefully. He was crawling around in the inside of Hogwarts ceiling. It really was rather uncomfortable. Bits of piping and insulation prodded him every now and then as he made his way around the area. "Come on out, Daeyll. I think it's about time we talked. We haven't seen each other in ages…"

"Trying to capture me, Som?" A haughty voice sang. Som couldn't figure out which direction it seemed to come from. "I was always the more talented one. I still am. You can't beat me. I even got the better form."

True to his words, Daeyll did have a better form on earth. Som'd always resent that. Som had been deemed the more threatening spirit, so he was given a useless form and Daeyll a good one. Some spirits overlords they were, they couldn't even separate fact from fiction. "You need to stop." Som warned. "You're going to hurt her."

"That's the point, old pal! What fun would it be if I left her intact?"

"You haven't even given her the chance to give it to you."

"I never intended to. The warnings? A ruse, just for theatrics. I was always going to kill her. Just like I did with your last owner."

Som scowled. "It won't work, Daeyll, quit while you're ahead."

Daeyll chuckled. Some felt a thin needle dig into his skin. Poison. Som's body felt shaky, he flopped down, barely conscious.

"Knockout potion." Daeyll chuckled. His Animagus form appearing before him. A furry hamster before him. "Some interesting witches gave it to me. I don't want you dead just yet. I want to see you in pain, as I kill this one too.

"You always did get the short end of the stick."

"If you hurt her, I'll kill you. Old friends or not." Som's eyes closed slowly.

"As if you could. I will always be the smarter and stronger one."

xXxXx

Luna was sitting in McGonagall's office, her hair a mess, bruises everywhere, cuts and scrapes all over her body and fragile skin, and her pale legs swinging in the chair she was seated in. She was humming a lullaby and twirling a strand of her blonde hair in her right hand. Luna was calmly waiting for the Transfiguration professor to come back in.

McGonagall walked back in, trailed by a sheepish Ginny Weasley.

Ginny's face was flushed and her hair was all messed up.

"'Ello, Gin." Luna sang.

Ginny mumbled in greeting.

McGonagall pursed her lips. "You are in trouble, Lovegood, you shouldn't be happy!"

"When it comes down to it, I'm really not, McGonagall. Especially since I'm in your office. I really don't like you, you know. But I happen to believe there is no good excuse for bad manners. You have to greet people."

"You didn't greet me." McGonagall pointed out.

"I don't like you. A greeting would be wasted on someone I dislike. It might after all come out more like an insult…"

McGonagall sighed. "Just…detention, okay? Three days worth. You too, Miss Weasley."

"What'd you do, Gin?" Luna asked as she walked out of McGonagall's office.

"Improper display of affection." Ginny chanted.

"So why isn't Draco in trouble?"

"Snape's punishing him."

"Ah."

Ginny looked at the blonde. "What did you do?"

"Rather loud temper tantrum. Someone tried to kill me again, so I tore apart a statue, yelled at some first years, set fire some poor kid's books, cussed at McGonagall…You know, nothing that would really merit me getting detention." Luna ticked off all the points on her fingers. "Rather innocent actions if you ask me."

Ginny couldn't help but chuckle.