Torment and Turnips

TORMENT AND TURNIPS

CHAPTER 2 - MIXED FEELINGS

Cho could hardly believe her luck. Although entirely coincidental, she'd gotten a reprieve of sorts when Snape cancelled the previous day's afternoon Potions classes while he and Flitwick investigated the case of the missing Veritaserum. Or at least, Cho assumed that's what they were doing; so long as she had another chance at her assignment, that's all that really mattered. Cho had therefore taken full advantage and had made it a point to finish her paper the very next morning.

By now Hogwarts was abuzz with endless gossip about the events of the previous evening; the general consensus currently going through the grapevine seemed to be settled on two possibilities: either Loony Lovegood had fabricated the whole scene to some unknown end, or that she had finally slipped over that precarious edge and fallen headlong into that world of self-delusion she so finely straddled. Luckily for Stephen and his accomplices, Cho realized, the students didn't yet appear to suspect she'd been the victim of Veritaserum poisoning.

It was with an unexpected sense of relief that Cho greeted the news that Loony had survived the night thanks to Madame Pomfrey's expert ministrations; despise the girl though she might, Cho had no wish to see anyone lose one's life through some botched practical joke!

Cho's stomach had twisted into angry knots when she noticed Harry and his other Gryffindor friends so conspicuously absent during the day's lunch. No doubt they were all visiting the little fibber in the Hospital Wing and giving her all the attention she so desperately craved. Cho supposed that Luna should even be grateful to the conspirators; after all, she was now the subject of the hour throughout the school!

Cho had spent the day swinging back and forth between a curious mix of satisfaction and frustration. On the one hand, most of her fellow students now seemed to think Loony was more senseless than ever, but Harry and his group had apparently included the girl as one of their own, and to such an extent that Cho found herself silently cursing the events of the previous night. And how could Hermione Granger, of all people, be so blind to Loony Lovegood's manipulations? At least she had a brain! And Harry...well, he clearly didn't know how to tell the good from the bad at the best of times...

She sighed as she closed her copy of Quidditch Weekly and dropped it on her night stand, gazing out through the window above her bed, the rain clouds of the previous day having been replaced by a dark, starry canopy twinkling back at her.

Though she didn't particularly feel up to it, she decided she may as well make the rounds. She had a feeling she wouldn't be getting much sleep this night, anyway.

She drew herself quietly out of bed, donning her shoes and robes before heading down the spiral staircase to the deserted Ravenclaw Common Room, the crisp crackling emanating from the fireplace the only sound to be heard. She walked by the hearth, her fingers drifting along the back of the chair that Marietta usually occupied when they would gather with their friends after classes and go over the latest gossip.

There'd been no such gathering that evening, however. Marietta was still upset at both Cho and the conspirators, and had gone up straight to the dormitory after dinner.

Cho gazed at the empty chair and sighed. She could understand why her friend had gotten so upset at the conspirators, but it hadn't been Cho's idea to slip Veritaserum into Loony's drink in the first place, after all; hopefully she would come to realize that.

She left the fireplace and walked to the notice board, staring at the false notice her housemates had posted that afternoon. Their fabricated password was emblazoned clearly on the parchment in a very credible imitation of Flitwick's handwriting. Cho flipped the paper over and read the real password on the reverse side one more time to commit it to memory.

She let the paper drop back against the notice board, recalling the exuberant glee from Orla Quirke earlier that day as she explained to those in the Common Room about their plan to keep Loony in the dark about the change. Though Cho had briefly questioned the timing of this latest prank, she consoled herself that it at least did not endanger anyone's life as the last one had, even though inadvertently.

She made her way down the dark, narrow corridor and pushed open Gondoline Oliphant's painting, emerging into the moonlit hallway. She almost immediately gave a start at the forlorn figure squatting in the corner only a few feet away. Cho hesitated before stepping closer, cautiously letting her eyes acclimate themselves to the relative darkness.

She took a step closer; it was Loony, she could see now, huddled in the corner and obviously fast asleep. Cho blinked. She hadn't expected her here so soon, having assumed she'd still be in the infirmary, at least until tomorrow. What was she to do?

This was most unexpected. She loathed being the one to have to wreck Orla's plan, but could she just leave Loony there like that? True, someone would eventually give Luna the real password anyway, but at least her housemates will have had a chance to relish their fun.

She decided the best course was to pretend she hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. This prank hadn't been of her doing, after all. Besides, it was completely harmless; it wasn't like there were dangerous beasts roaming the halls at night!

She turned to leave, stopping just before turning the corner to give Luna one last glance. Strange as it was, seeing her like this, her robes acting as a blanket and her folded-up scarf doubling as a makeshift pillow, was causing bizarre emotions to creep through her; a notable tightness gripped her throat.

Oh, get a hold of yourself, she thought. It's just Lying Loony Lovegood, after all.

Just then she noticed Loony was trembling slightly in her sleep. Cho swallowed hard. The castle floor was no place to spend a night, she had to admit. The temperature was quite cool even on warm days. Now, the mid-October nights were plunging the thermometer to somewhere precariously close to freezing.

She hesitated. She really couldn't leave her there...could she?

Just then the memory of her chatting happily with Harry the previous day came flooding back, hardening Cho's resolve. She turned on her heel and left to make her rounds of the castle.

She'd spent an uneventful quarter hour wandering the halls, encountering nothing more remarkable than the Fat Friar floating along, humming happily through the walls. At least, until she crossed paths with Mrs. Norris near the Astronomy Tower. Cho stopped in her tracks, grimacing as Filch's smelly old cat, while paying her no heed, sauntered by her before disappearing around the corner.

A realization struck her. What would happen if Mrs. Norris were to come across Luna sleeping in the halls, she wondered. No doubt Filch would report her and she'd incur a severe detention, itself of no consequence though it would undoubtedly cost Ravenclaw a fair number of house points. And given the fact Ravenclaw was running a close second to Gryffindor in the race for the House Cup this year, Cho would be aghast if a harmless little prank ended up costing her House such a prestigious award. Ravenclaw had never won i since she'd attended Hogwarts, and this year was to be her last chance.

It was now especially critical as Ravenclaw had edged out a rare and hard-fought Quidditch victory over their Gryffindor counterparts just that very afternoon; to suddenly throw away the fruits of that victory now was unthinkable.

Harry in particular had not played one of his better games that day. He'd seemed very distracted, casting many worried looks back at the castle throughout the match, one of which had proved to have fatal consequences, as the Snitch had flown right past him, quite unnoticed. Cho, on the other hand, had made no mistake. She wouldn't make one here, either. She turned around and made her way back to Ravenclaw tower.

She soon found Luna where she'd left her. She pursed her lips and knelt down, hesitantly clasping the younger girl's shoulder, shaking it gently.

"Hey, wake up," she said in a low voice, very mindful of Mrs. Norris' acute hearing.

To her relief Luna did not wake with a sudden yelp, but rather by stretching her arms up lazily and yawning as though rising from a usual long night's sleep. Her eyes focused on Cho's, the large silver orbs reflecting the bright moon shining in through the window above.

"Hello," she said sleepily, pushing herself up to a sitting position before proceeding to carefully fold up her Ravenclaw scarf.

"Um, what are you doing here?" asked Cho. "I thought you were still in the infirmary."

"I was," answered Luna serenely, slipping her arms back into the sleeves of her robes. "But Madame Pomfrey said I responded quite well to her remedies, you know, so she discharged me just a few hours ago. By the way, could you let me in? I think Orla Quirke gave me the wrong password when she dropped by this morning."

Cho blinked. A likely story, she thought.

"If you got out hours ago, why'd you wait so long before getting back?"

Luna looked up at her. "I didn't, actually," she said serenely. "I wanted to finish up some assignments before morning, you know, so I came by and waited for someone to let me in."

Cho found herself feeling strangely embarrassed. "Er...I see. But...didn't anyone come by that whole time?" she asked, even though knowing full well all of Ravenclaw must have been alerted to Orla's plan.

Luna smiled dreamily. "Yes, quite a few actually," she said, nodding. "But they all whispered the password, so I really couldn't hear. Anyway, could you please let me in? I really have to work on my assignments, they're due in the morning."

Cho swallowed hard. Talking to Loony like this, it was hard to feel much animosity towards the girl. In fact, she found herself feeling a bit sad for her. She was certain no one had even stopped to consider that this prank might have an impact on Luna's scholastic work. Or maybe they had, but just didn't care. But the girl had just been through a dangerous dance with Death, after all.

"Sure, Luna," said Cho softly, rising and moving to the painting of Gondoline Oliphant.

"Medula Oblongata," she said out loud for Luna's benefit. The old witch nodded coolly as the painting swung quietly open.

"Thank you," Luna intoned dreamily behind her as they crawled through the opening and emerged into the Ravenclaw Common Room. "I was told it was lamebrain, you know, but I'd gathered that wasn't it after my second try."

With that she smiled dreamily and started up the spiral staircase leading to the dormitories.

"Um...Luna, wait," said Cho, moving to the bottommost step. "Look, can I give you a bit of advice?"

Luna stared back at her with a blank expression and said nothing. Cho wondered if she'd understood the question. Deciding to apply the old adage that silence implies consent, Cho pressed on.

"Okay, look," she said. "I'm not defending what some people do, all right? Especially not after last night. But you know, Luna, you're kind of asking for it, really."

The younger girl continued to stare but said nothing.

Cho blinked. Was she not getting through to her? For that matter, why was she even trying?

"Like that thing with the lion hat," she continued. "If you want to wear that thing against Slytherin, or even Hufflepuff for that matter, fine. But Merlin's beard, why do you have to side against your own House like that? Can't you see how you're going to provoke people?"

Luna tilted her head slightly.

"But my friends are in Gryffindor," she said sagely. "I really couldn't root against them. And Harry - "

"Okay, fine," snapped Cho, the mention of Harry's name making her quickly drop that particular line of reasoning. "Well, what about those stories you keep inventing, about all those crazy creatures you come up with...you know people are going to see right through all that, don't you?"

Luna stared at her blankly once more. Her ability to feign obliviousness was very good, Cho noted.

"Through all what?" asked Luna.

"All through - " blurted Cho in exasperation. "Oh, come on, stop with the act! Why do you always try and draw so much attention to yourself? You know you're just going to make yourself an easy target! Or haven't you learned that by now?"

Luna's large silver eyes gazed back at her, unblinking. "I'm sorry, but they're quite real you know," she said, taking an unexpected step backwards in the conversation. "There are always new eyewitness accounts being published, and Daddy's hoping to organize an expedition next summer to - "

"Oh - " said Cho, her frustration growing exponentially by the moment. "Why do I even - WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

Luna gazed at her quietly, looking no more offended than if she were contentedly observing a goldfish in an aquarium. Cho found this non-reaction infinitely more infuriating than any potential verbal retort, as it made her feel a bit absurd, as though she were heatedly arguing with a wall.

She pressed on hotly. "You don't expect me to believe you actually swallow all that rubbish your father dishes out through that magazine of his, do you? It's a farce! Wake up, for - "

But she cut herself off at the sudden change in Luna's demeanour. For the briefest instant, Cho thought she saw a flash of emotion in the girl's large silver eyes.

But the expected retort never came. "Excuse me," said Luna coldly, "but I think I'll go work on my assignments now." She turned around and headed back up the stairs, her long dirty blonde hair flouncing sharply with each step.

Cho slapped the wall with the palm of her hand in frustration. Here she was, with fire in her heart, the object of her irritation having just removed itself from within range of her ire.

Cho took a deep breath and counted to ten as her Gran had taught her.

Why was she so angry, anyway? Cho pondered...she'd lost her temper so easily...

It was as though an inner rage had briefly consumed her for an instant and clouded her judgement. She'd even yelled at Luna. She wasn't predisposed to shouting, certainly; why had she done so now?

But then...why had Luna stuck to her ludicrous guns? There was no one around to try to impress or otherwise influence, after all. Didn't she ever drop the act, Cho wondered? She'd acted as though she hadn't done anything even remotely objectionable -

But regardless, Luna had seemed perfectly willing to talk, at least until Cho had blown up at her. She supposed she really couldn't blame her for leaving; Cho herself might have reacted much more harshly if someone had erupted at her in such a fashion.

She sighed and looked up the staircase, deciding to make one more attempt at getting through to the girl, for her own sake. Maybe no one had ever bothered to sit down with Luna for a real heart-to-heart, she realized. Though Luna would never be popular, maybe, just maybe, Cho could convince her to stop playing the eccentric nough to avoid the worst of her housemates' increasingly spiteful shenanigans.

She quietly walked up the staircase to the fifth floor girl's dormitory and gently cracked open the door, immediately spying Luna, standing in the centre of the room with her back to her, staring at a bare section of floor.

"Luna?" whispered Cho, mindful of the sleeping bunkmates.

The girl seemed to not have heard, drifting over to a small night stand and running her fingers delicately through some sort of shattered debris atop it. Cho suddenly realized. There were four beds in the room; a room which housed five students.

She came up quietly to stand next to Luna, who was staring down blankly at the smashed fragments atop her nightstand.

"They vanished your bed..."

"Hmmm? Oh, yes," said Luna, waking from her apparent trance and smiling strangely at Cho, though there didn't seem to be any remaining trace of bitterness. "Well, I have to work on my assignments tonight, so I probably won't have much time for bed until tomorrow anyway. And it's not like I haven't slept a bit already, after all."

Luna drifted over to her trunk, which mercifully had not been destroyed or otherwise made to vanish, Cho noted thankfully. She opened the lid and pulled out some parchment, a quill and a few books before straightened up, gazing for a moment at the brightly glowing moon shining through the small window above.

"Oh, I really was set on looking for some Grylliwegs tonight," she said softly before closing the trunk lid and turning to face Cho. "Daddy said if I ever find one he'll want me to write an article about it in The Quibbler!"

Cho blinked. There she was going off with those make-believe creatures again!

"Er...Grylliwegs?"

Luna nodded, her large silver eyes widening excitedly. "I've been getting close over the last few weeks, I think," she whispered earnestly. "I'm almost certain they live in the northwest part of the Forest, somewhere beyond the stream, I'd imagine."

"You can't be serious!" whispered Cho incredulously. "You mean you go off into the forest in the middle of the night?"

"That's right," said Luna matter-of-factly, turning and pointing up at the glowing white sphere in the sky. "The conditions are just perfect for a sighting tonight too, see? Well, maybe tomorrow, then..."

She turned back around and made for the staircase.

Cho gently took Luna by the arm as she passed by, the younger girl stopping and staring at her, looking mildly surprised.

"You're going to report this, aren't you?" said Cho, nodding to the gaping, empty space where a bed once stood. "This is getting a bit ridiculous - "

Luna shrugged slightly. "Oh...no, I don't think so," she said serenely. "I can always sleep somewhere else, after all. I don't really need much anyway. Well, I really have to get to my homework. Sleep tight!"

With that, the younger girl quietly slipped through the door and headed down to the Common Room. Cho watched her leave, biting her lip as conflicting emotions ran amok through her. Even if Luna was an attention-seeking sort, that was no excuse for the kind of tricks people were doing to her. These pranks were not meant in jest, they were aimed to hurt...

She walked over to the night stand and leaned close, examining the debris. She ran her fingers lightly through the shattered husks; upon closer inspection they appeared to have been acorns, now crushed almost beyond recognition, with bits of twine mixed in. Cho didn't understand; a simple Reparo spell could've undone this damage...why hadn't Luna bothered?

She let her hand drop limply to her side. Was this the sort of thing Luna went through every day? Given the girl's apparent lack of surprise at finding destroyed remnants of her belongings, it appeared to be the case, shocking as that seemed. And why on Earth didn't she want Flitwick to know about it?

Cho sighed softly as she gazed at the unmoving forms dozing contentedly in their warm, comfortable beds. This wasn't right. Cho began to wonder in earnest about everything that had transpired here over the last five years...

* * *

Cho woke up with a start. She'd been having a vivid dream; she'd been carried off by a large crimson dragon, only to have been dropped from a great height, jerking violently from her nightmare a fraction of a second before hitting the ground. She bolted up into a sitting position, breathing hard and glancing about the room nervously. Her bedsheets were twisted about and thrown aside, partly dragging on the stone floor.

Her heart was racing; the dream had seemed so vivid! But it had been a dream, after all, else she wouldn't be lying there wide awake and staring at her sleeping friends in the faint light of the early morning dawn.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at her bedside table. Her Gran's small antique clock revealed it was just past five.

She waited a few moments to let her breathing slow to a more manageable rate before throwing her feet over the side of the bed and donning her slippers. There wasn't much point in trying to get back to sleep now, she knew. There was less than an hour to go before she would normally get up at any rate.

She glanced over at Marietta, deep in sleep with one arm sprawled over the side of her bed. They'd hardly spoken since the Veritaserum disaster two days previously. Cho found herself gravely missing the habitual early morning banter.

Cho rose from her bed and slipped into her robes before heading downstairs. There was one good thing about rising so early, she conceded. At this hour there wouldn't likely be any lineup outside the showers, at least.

She stifled a yawn as she emerged into the Common Room, her eyes immediately falling upon Luna's unmoving form, curled up in one of the large divans near the fire, her Ravenclaw robes splayed out over her, the sleeves hanging down over the armrests. Her books were stacked neatly on the small table next to her.

Cho decided to leave her be; there was nothing in the rules that barred someone from sleeping in the Common Room, and it wasn't Luna's fault she no longer had a place to sleep, after all. She hoped that at least the Elves would notice the missing bed during their nightly cleaning; maybe they could replace it somehow?

As she passed the divan, Cho saw a long parchment laying atop Luna's books; she stopped and peered closer out of curiosity. How would such an oddball put her thoughts down on paper, exactly?

Just as she turned the paper around Cho was startled by a loud booming bark ring out in the room. She spun around in alarm, wondering if some large dog had somehow managed to slip past all the castle's wards and made its way straight into the Ravenclaw Common Room. To her surprise and relief, there was no sign of such a dog, or any animal, for that matter. Yet she was sure she hadn't imagined the sound -

"Hello," said a vague and sleepy voice behind her. She turned around to see Luna stretching her arms lazily in the air.

"Did you hear that too?" asked Cho, hoping Luna had been roused from her slumber by the same bark that had so startled her; at least that way she'd have some reassurance that she wasn't somehow going mad.

"Hmmm? Oh yes," answered Luna, flipping her robes onto the armrest of her chair and rising gracefully. She took her wand and tapped the parchmen lightly with its tip, a soft blue glow briefly enveloping the paper before dissipating.

"I'm sorry if it startled you, but I really couldn't afford to lose this," she said seriously. "I wouldn't have had a chance to do it over again before this afternoon if it went missing."

"Oh...well, that explains it," said Cho with relief. "Luna, are you sure you won't change your mind? About reporting your missing bed, I mean? I can talk to Professor Flitwick if you'd rather - "

Luna stared at her for a moment and smiled slightly. "No, that's all right, really," she said.

She gathered her books and quill from the table. "Well, I think I'll go have some porridge downstairs. Would you like to come? I'm sure Harry won't be down, especially so early."

Cho gasped. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Luna stared at her with those slightly unnerving, unblinking silver eyes. "Well, you haven't been to any DA lessons all year," she said serenely. "Ginny said you and Harry got into a rather bad row last year over Marietta."

Cho glared at her. "Oh, well," she said angrily, "I suppose Harry's going around telling everyone in Gryffindor what a sneak Marietta is and what a bad influence I am, then?"

"Actually, he hasn't," said Luna. "Harry told me he couldn't understand why you supported her. He really felt betrayed, you know. I think it did him some good to talk about it, though."

Cho felt a strong urge to scream rising precipitously inside her. "Oh, he can open up to you then, can he?" she snapped, her vision becoming slightly cloudy with tears. "So now he's Mister Sensitive, all of a sudden, is he?! Well, good for you!"

Cho turned on her heels and stormed back up the staircase to the top floor dormitory, all thoughts of showers and breakfasts now forgotten, throwing herself onto her still warm bed and burying her face in the pillows, their downy stuffing muffling her sobs.

A few moments later she felt a hand gently touch her shoulder.

"Leave me alone!" she weeped, burying her face deeper in the linens.

"Hey, what's wrong?" whispered Marietta, Cho feeling the side of her bed droop slightly. "Are you - oh Cho, I'm so sorry! It wasn't you I was upset with, really, it was that git Stephen Cornfoot! He was just so...so...oh, please don't cry - "

Cho felt Marietta hugging her awkwardly, one arm lightly draping itself across Cho's shoulders.

"I'm sorry," whispered Marietta painfully, "I'm so sorry...I shouldn't have taken it out on you - "

"It's not that," sobbed Cho. "It's...it's...":

"What?"

"...it's...oh, I don't even know anymore..." said Cho despairingly.

"I think I know what this is about," whispered Marietta slowly, stroking Cho's hair consolingly. "You still think about him, don't you?"

Cho felt a tightness in her chest. "Yes," she choked after several long moments of silence. "I...I really thought I was over all that..."

"It's going to take time," said Marietta softly. "It doesn't help any that you never got to say goodbye."

Cho swallowed hard. She was talking about Cedric -

But then, why shouldn't she? Cedric had been caring, he'd understood, he'd listened...

She buried her face into the pillows again, unable to bring herself to correct her friend. She let the encroaching wall of despair and grief wash over her without resistance...