Ravenclaw with Gryffindor in Still Life

Ravenclaw with Gryffindor in Still Life

All the first years were beside themselves when Colin Creevey was attacked. It was one thing for a cat to be frozen and to see something written on a wall. Some students even talked about it being a prank by one of the upperclassmen, somebody Filch had caught one too many times and they had wanted revenge. It was all well and good to joke about that because it kept them from thinking they were in danger, but when Colin Creevey from Gryffindor was attacked, all the first years became scared.

Or Luna supposed they all had. All her classmates who ever talked around her were scared. Some of the older students didn't seem worried, especially the Slytherin students, because they thought that this sort of thing could never happen to them. It was a first year who had been attacked, after all, and a Muggle-born first year, at that.

Luna Lovegood didn't think she was really afraid of what was happening. She hadn't really thought about it, but it didn't seem to bother her. Of course it was sad that the boy she had seen several times taking pictures would not be able to take pictures for a very long time. And it was sad that he would miss all the wonderful knowledge that they would acquire while he was frozen like that.

Her mind was so distracted by these thoughts she didn't notice where she was going until she turned a corner and opened a door to find herself in the infirmary. She looked around her, marvelling on how she had just been thinking about the boy alone, frozen in the hospital ward, and here she was in the hospital ward.

There was a smart ring of shoes on the floor, followed by a very crisp voice. "Are you ill?"

Luna looked up to find the medi-witch, Madam Pomfrey, looking severely down at her. "No, I am well," Luna said.

"Then I would thank you to leave and shut the door behind you so you don't let a chill in."

"Has anybody come to see the Gryffindor first year student, Colin Creevey?" Luna asked, unshaken by the nurse's abrupt dismissal.

"No," she replied, a little softer this time. "Nobody has been by this past week."

"That is disappointing," Luna stated.

"Are you a friend of his?" The nurse's voice was becoming softer. Luna thought that was rather nice of her.

"No, I have never spoken to him before, but I have seen him several times. He always has a camera with him."

The woman nodded, a solemn look in her eyes. "Yes, and it's lucky he did. He might have been worse off than Petrified."

"Worse off than Petrified?" Luna repeated, following Madam Pomfrey's eyes to a curtained off bed. "Do you mean that he would be dead?"

The nurse made a strange sort of noise and put her hand to her mouth, then straightened. "Yes. He would not have survived."

"Is his camera dead, then? It was very dear to Colin Creevey, you know."

The woman shook her head and cleared her throat. "No, it was destroyed."

"Completely?"

"Not completely, just what was inside."

Luna walked toward the curtains and touched them. "Then it is a hollow shell," she stated. "Like a tree that has been stuck by lightening, but leaves its trunk behind. May I have it?"

"What?" Madam Pomfrey asked sharply.

"May I have the dead camera shell?" the young Ravenclaw repeated. "If he wishes to have it back when he thaws, then I will gladly give it back, but it should not be discarded. It did a wonderful thing, giving its life to save its owner's."

"Yes, I suppose..." the medi-witch said in a queer voice. "No matter that it never had a life to give, it should not be forgotten for its sacrifice."

"Everything has a life," Luna murmured, moving the curtain aside.

Colin Creevey lay in bed, the small boy whom everybody teased because of his great exuberance and small size. His hair was mousy brown and dull, as if it had not been washed for some time. Luna supposed it hadn't, but it had been straightened, she was pleased to see that. His tiny hands hovered above his face, holding the air that the camera had once occupied, and his eyes were wide with surprise under them.

The medi-witch stepped quickly to Luna's side and took hold of her, as if trying to comfort her from the shock, but Luna didn't think that was very necessary. It was no shock to see him like this, because she knew that he had been frozen and had been holding a camera when he was. Why would she have expected otherwise?

"His eyes must be terribly dry," she mused aloud.

"He doesn't feel any discomfort," the witch replied.

Luna considered the wide-opened eyes and then reached for the pitcher of water and the washcloth on the table beside his bed. She dampened the cloth and laid it over his eyes. "Will his growth be disrupted?" she asked suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?" the healer asked.

"I presume that his petrifaction will have completely suspended all of his body's functions."

"Though I have not seen a case like this," Madam Pomfrey said, "I am certain that is so."

"He is already so small. I do not mind it, of course, but perhaps he does. He has missed quite a bit in classes already," she said.

"I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore will pardon him from exams," Madam Pomfrey said in a soothing voice.

"What a shame to miss the opportunity to learn." She tilted her head to her side and then sat down. "Colin Creevey, we have never met before now. I am Luna Lovegood. It must be tiresome staring at the ceiling with nothing to do, and being already so far behind everybody else. I do hope that you will not be held back. I will do my best to tell you all that happens so that that will not happen, though you will not have the opportunity to perform the magic. I am sure you were looking forward to magic very much, as your upbringing was non-magical."

"That is very kind of you, Miss Lovegood, but I am afraid it will do no good."

"But I should still like to, considering the possibility that he is able to learn the curriculum subliminally."

Madam Pomfrey let out a great sigh. "If it will make you feel better," she said and walked away.

Luna watched her return to a desk and begin writing on a half-full parchment. Then she turned to the Petrified boy. "I do hope that you will not mind me addressing you by your first name only, Colin. Of course when you have been thawed and if you do not like it, I will certainly change my form of address."

Colin stared up at the ceiling, between his suspended hands. Luna smiled. "We learned some interesting things in the past week," she began.

~*~

It had not yet snowed, but the students already felt the biting chill of the impending winter. Luna, who had spent most of her life down in Devon, was thankful that Madam Pomfrey kept the Hospital Ward warm. She would have come even if the room had been as cold as the corridors, as she had been doing so for the past five weeks.

The panic about the attack had died down and not many people talked about Colin anymore. It appeared that he was just novelty gossip, and as nothing new had happened, the novelty had worn off. But the tiny Gryffindor first year was always on Luna's mind. She filled her mind with enough knowledge for two, and spent a good amount of her time in the library, looking for books with pictures of exotic places she could hold over his head.

Tonight when she came, however, she held a card in her hand. She didn't feel particularly happy, as she usually did when she came down to the hospital ward. Professor Flitwick had passed around a sheet a week earlier, asking who would be staying, and Luna had declined to fill in her name. She would have enjoyed staying and keeping Colin company, but with her mother passed only two years, her father would be all alone in their house, hanging up the mistletoe (after denargling it) with nobody to kiss.

"I know that I have said that I will not be here for the holidays," she said in a soft voice as she stepped up to his side, "but I wanted to give you a Christmas card."

At first she considered propping it open on the table, but he was frozen looking up, not to the side. So at the end of her visit that day, she spread the card open and balanced it into his frozen hands.

The next day, as she gathered her most recent fascinating find, she overheard two third-year boys talking excitedly and pointing to a flyer. She didn't bother to ask what the excitement was about, as they would most likely not answer her (they never did), so she waited until they'd moved on and stepped up to the bulletin board to find out for herself.

Though they had only learned a very few things, and none of them any use in a duel, it would still be an interesting opportunity, she mused as she read the notice for a Duelling Club, and one she was sure that Colin would wish to attend. And so she returned to her room to stow the book and followed the stream of students to the Great Hall, hoping that Colin would understand her absence for one day.

It was quite a remarkable event, too. She lay in her bed that evening, looking out the window at the snow that had just begun to fall, thinking about all that had happened. It had started out not looking very promising at all, as Professor Lockhart was in charge. Her father said that Lockhart was an incubus, who blinded people to his incompetence by his powers to seduce. He was immune, because he was a heterosexual male, and she supposed that having become privy to the truth of the situation, she was immune now as well.

At least Professor Snape had been their supervisor, too. She always did learn things from him.

It was rather a disaster to begin with. Professor Lockhart was unsurprisingly blown to the wall, and then when people were paired to practice, it was something of a mess. But it was when Professors Snape and Lockhart had called Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy up to demonstrate how things should be done that it became unexpectedly interesting. For when Draco Malfoy had created a snake, Harry had spoke to it in Parseltongue. It was such a great surprise to everybody, except for Harry. And then very quickly, a red-headed boy had taken him away.

She knew that Colin Creevey had taken to Harry Potter and enjoyed taking pictures of him, so she wondered as she lay there, how Colin may have responded to this most recent of events. She would tell him about it tomorrow, and perhaps if Madam Pomfrey would allow her to, she would bring him a snowball to show him that the first snow had begun.

~*~

The blizzard had closed down only a few classes. Thankfully, Luna's classes for that day were still being held, though others in her year did not share her relief. As she sat in Professor Flitwick's lecture, however interesting the subject might have been, she worried. The fascinating book that she had found to show Colin had somehow gone missing, as well as two fresh rolls of parchment. It was not the first time something of hers had gone missing, but it was rather upsetting, as the book was from the library, and she had not checked it out for herself, besides.

Suddenly there was a great shouting from a nearby corridor, though the words carried loud and clear to the class's ears. "ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"

Her classmates all sprang to their feet, causing a great many interesting reactions from their wands. Professor Flitwick stepped onto the tallest stack of books and waved his tiny arms. "Children, children, settle down!" he squeaked. "You mustn't panic! A chaotic mind makes for chaotic magic, remember!"

It did no good, as the rest of the class screamed and ran aimlessly around the room. Luna sighed. It was rather inconvenient of them to lose their heads when it was in a crisis that one needed it most. But it was very lucky that Professor Flitwick was clever and found another way to calm them down.

When the last glow from the calming charm had faded off, the tiny professor cleared his throat. "Now, it is most likely another of Peeves' pranks, but I must go check anyways. Please stay close behind me and keep your wits about you." Then he led them out into the hallway.

When they turned the corner into the next corridor, it was to find a Hufflepuff boy lying on the ground and the Gryffindor ghost lying sideways above him, both of them unmistakably Petrified. Harry Potter stood over them, with Professor McGonagall and her class looking on. Luna's classmates' renewed panic began to break through Professor Flitwick's calming charm, but she found herself relieved.

As Professor Sinistra and Professor Flitwick carried the Hufflepuff boy to the Hospital Ward, Luna clasped her hands together and smiled. Colin Creevey would not be alone for the holidays after all.

~*~

During the three days following the Hufflepuff boy's admittance to the Hospital Ward, the room had been quite busy. It seemed that the boy was well-known and well-liked, as several people came to see him. Some of the girls cried and some of the boys said that they had told him to watch out for Potter. They all seemed genuinely upset.

It was not a reaction that Colin's attack had caused, that was certain. They had all just been worried that they would be next, but nobody had seemed to care that it was he himself who had been Petrified. She looked down at the small boy, his eyes wide and staring in surprise at the Christmas card she had balanced over his face. She may not have known him, but the more she sat to keep him company, the more of a shame she thought it was that he could not do the things he loved so much to do.

The next morning, she sat on her bed looking at the camera shell in her lap, trying to decide if she should leave it at the school or take it with her. It was her first instinct to keep the camera at the school, where Colin was, but so many of her things had gone missing. She did not want for his camera to disappear, too, so she set it gently on top of her remaining school texts, scrolls, and ink. After placing her clothing on top, she locked her trunk and left for the Entrance Hall.

She was one of the first on the train later that morning and was undisturbed throughout the entirety of the trip. Every person who passed by her compartment passed quickly on once they had seen who was occupying it. But she was perfectly fine with that. She wondered if it would have been the same for Colin Creevey. She had heard people say they found him annoying, even so far as to say that it was for that reason that he had been Petrified.

She was sure that if he had sat still long enough in a compartment, people would pass him by as well. But she had noticed that he never had sat still. He was always running around with a camera, excited about everything. It was a wonderful way to be, excited, to see magic as something magical as opposed to something commonplace.

When the Hogwarts Express pulled into Platform 9 ¾, her father was waiting for her. For a time, she sat in the compartment, listening to the bustling activity in the corridor of the train. When it finally had settled down to a low simmer, she slid her trunk from the corner of the compartment and departed.

The sun had set and the sky was dark by the time Luna and her father exited Kings Cross. A large purple double-decker Knight Bus was at the curb, a mother and her son just climbing aboard. The conductor peered around them and waved to her and Xenophilius. "Two more? Where you 'eadin', then?"

"Ottery St. Catchpole," Xenophilius replied, paying for fare and hot chocolate.

"Right," the man said, hopping down to grab hold of Luna's trunk. "Got one more is goin' down t' Devon. Secon' and firs' to front up top, then. Give yer bed a good prod when we're at your stop." And with a grunt, he'd shoved the trunk on board and deposited it at the cache of trunks at the bottom of the spiral stairs near the back.

When they settled down on their beds, Luna turned and placed her head at the foot, her feet hanging off beside the pillow. She and Xenophilius smiled at each other. "Has my brilliant Ravenclaw girl made many friends?"

"I have made one," she replied. "But he may not know it."

Her father frowned in concern. "How could he not know he is friends with such a special girl?"

"Well, it is because he is Petrified, you see."

"What has a person to be frightened of in you?" he asked, perplexed.

"Oh no, I mean that he is in suspended animation," Luna explained.

"Ah, well I suppose that would explain it, then," Xenophilius replied and the subject was discussed no further.

It was the Lovegoods' second Christmas without Luna's mother and, while not as somber as the year before, it was still rather quiet. They denargled and hung their traditional mistletoe and spent their evenings reading by the fire. And at night, Luna set the camera shell on the table beside her bed, gazing at it and thinking of her friend lying frozen in the Hospital Ward.

Finally the two short weeks of Christmas Holidays ended and she returned with the majority of the students to Hogwarts. As the rest of the students crowded toward the Great Hall for dinner, Luna walked on toward the Hospital Ward. She hoped that Colin hadn't been too lonely, lying there with only the frozen Hufflepuff boy and Madam Pomfrey. While Madam Pomfrey could very well talk to him, she most likely wouldn't, as she thought it silly. And while the other boy may have, he was regrettably frozen.

When she arrived, however, she saw that somebody was lying in a third bed. Madam Pomfrey looked up from her desk with a scowl, but upon seeing that it was only Luna, she gave her a rare upwards twitch of the mouth.

Luna walked toward her and asked, "Has another been Petrified?"

"No, but never you mind," the medi-witch said curtly. "Just get on with your visit."

Luna nodded and walked toward Colin's bed, slipping in through the part in the curtains. The card that she had left balanced in his outstretched hands had been removed and set on the table, open and facing him.

She sat beside him on the bed and smiled. "Hello. I have missed you. I do hope you were not terribly lonely. I have brought you a few things from home."

The small boy simply stared up between his hands.

"It is a shame that you missed Christmas," Luna continued. "And so I have brought you some decoration. It may be late, but the decoration they had here had not been denargled, and I did not want you to be affected by an infestation. But we denargle our own at home, and so I have brought you some."

She pulled from her pocket a small sprig of cheery mistletoe, red ribbon tied in a bow around its stem. Then she held it over his face so he could see. "Daddy cut it on a full moon with a silver knife," she explained. "That is how you are to harvest mistletoe, you know."

She fell silent, looking down at his face under the mistletoe, considering. It hadn't been her intention when she'd decided to bring the mistletoe that she would use it--she had simply wanted to brighten his room--but as she looked at his face under the tiny, cheery sprig, she realized that she would rather like to use the mistletoe.

She shifted off the bed, keeping the sprig hovering over his face, and leaned close to him. Then she touched her lips to his cheek. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but the feeling of his skin was quite curious: cool and smooth, like a figure of wax. She drew the mistletoe from over his face and backed away, looking down at him. His face was still unmoving, no flicker of change.

Very slowly, she set the mistletoe on the table beside him, next to the card, and sat on the side of the bed once more. "Do you really know when I am here, I wonder," she said softly. "Do you notice when I am gone? Do you ca--"

The sound of the door to the hallway interrupted her, and a cracking voice called out. "Hey Hermione, you awake?"

"Mr. Weasley!" snapped Madam Pomfrey. "Do keep your voice down. This is a hospital ward, not the Great Hall!"

"Sorry Madam Pomfrey," said another voice, also a boy. Luna stood and peeked through the curtains to see Harry Potter and a redheaded boy, who was carrying a plate of food.

"We just wanted to bring her someth--"

"If you two don't keep it down," said a girl's bossy voice, "people are going to come looking and then they'll see me. And I'd really rather they not!"

"Wot, who's gonna see you?" said the redhead. "There's only a couple frozen kids and Madam Pomfrey."

Luna frowned. It was a rather insensitive thing to say.

"Besides, lookin' like a cat's the furthest thing from what they've guessed so far," he continued. "They all think you got frozen too."

"Or got lost under a pile of books," Harry said.

"Like you couldn't find your way outta that," the other boy laughed.

Luna looked over to the occupied bed and saw a girl with very bushy brown hair, black fur on her face, and a cute pink kitty nose. She had her arms crossed and was scowling. "You had better not tell, Ron!"

"What?!" the boy said. "You thought I was gonna--"

"Keep your voice down, or I shall have to remove you," the medi-witch fumed.

Luna watched the boy's ears turn red as he mumbled something, carrying the plate of food over to the furry girl. Harry Potter shifted awkwardly and then followed the other boy.

The young Ravenclaw drew away from the curtain and turned toward Colin, who was lying as she had left him. "I suppose this means it will be more lively for you," she said, taking his hand. It was cool and unmoving, just as his face. "I am glad for that, while it lasts at least."

Then she looked toward where the voices were carrying on in hushed, cheery conversation. She wondered if, after Colin was reanimated, he and she would have conversations like that. She could hope that they would, and that he was retaining her visits in his memory. But if Madam Pomfrey was correct, he most likely wouldn't, and they would continue to be strangers as they had before the boy had been Petrified.

"I suppose I should eat dinner before I turn in," Luna said quietly to the small boy. She stood once again and moved to the curtain. Then she turned back and looked at Colin, feeling compelled to say something more in departure. But though goodnight and goodbye didn't seem enough, she wasn't sure what it was she was compelled to say. So instead, she smiled and said the same thing her father said every night before she went to sleep.

"May you have colourful dreams."

~*~

Over the next month, it was difficult to slip into the Hospital Ward without being noticed, as more than a few people hovered around the door. Harry Potter and the red-haired boy also visited every evening to give the girl her homework. However, because of that, she was able to visit Colin without the bossy cat girl noticing, as Madam Pomfrey had put a curtain around the girl's bed.

She supposed she was relieved when the girl was discharged from the hospital the first week of February, because she could visit with Colin and recap the day's lessons without worry of her words being garbled or drowned out by the chatty Gryffindor second-years. But as she left him every night to go to her dormitory, she felt bad that he was being left alone with a frozen Hufflepuff and the occasional student with a cold.

Madam Pomfrey was at least a little more cheery these days. According to Professor Sprout, the mandrakes were maturing splendidly, and Madam Pomfrey assured Luna that it wouldn't be long before they were able to make the potion to revive Colin and the Hufflepuff boy.

But as they moved into Easter Hols, and Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey shared a glass of sherry in celebration of the mandrakes' raucous party, Luna felt herself become peculiarly morose. She had felt so terrible for her friend, his inability to learn magic and take all the pictures he enjoyed taking, but she had grown quite fond of him. Once he was revived, she feared he wouldn't remember her. And the friend she had sat with for so many months would be gone.

Luna sat in the library, hovering over a new book she had found about the seven wizarding wonders of the world, but rather than feel the joy she had once felt about sharing such a discovery with Colin, she felt terrible. She knew she was being incredibly selfish, hoping for a little more time. She really did want for Colin to learn magic and to see his eyes light up with each new amazing thing he saw. She wanted to hear his excited high voice hurry quickly through his many stories everybody else found so annoying. She really did want him to be revived.

And even if he didn't recognize her, his recovery was the right thing to wish for.

Very slowly, she closed the book and removed her Transfiguration text from her bag, knowing that there was no need for her to feel conflicted. Even if she wanted more time, she knew that the time would eventually come for Colin to be revived. No matter how long she may have, she would always want more, unless she accepted that there would be an end. There would be a time in the future when she wouldn't sit by his side, no matter what.

She closed her Transfiguration text, too, and replaced it in her bag. Then she bowed her head, a sad calmness settling down on her. Her time at Colin's bedside would end. It was her task to make peace with that now. And she could do nothing more than believe that he would somehow know, even if only deep down, that she had been there by him all this time.

The next day, she walked serenely to the Hospital Ward with Colin's camera in her arms. Though in the past eight months, most of her things had gone missing, the camera had managed to stay unharmed in her trunk. It wasn't for a matter of safety that she was bringing it with her, but a matter of letting go.

When she arrived at the door, Madam Pomfrey hardly looked up from her desk and nodded to her, as had become their ritual. But this time, instead of going to Colin's bed, she stepped up to the medi-witch's desk.

It took a moment for Madam Pomfrey to realize that Luna was standing there, and when she did notice, she showed a very rare and brief look of surprise before returning to her usual stern visage. "Yes? What is it, Miss Lovegood?"

Luna looked down at the camera in her hands, trying to decide how she would leave the camera in the woman's care, but decided against it. Instead, she looked up and said in all sincerity, "Thank you for taking such good care of him."

After the medi-witch's gruff response, Luna made her way to the familiar curtains and opened them. There was Colin, as she had left him, as she had always left him, and as she always found him. She let the curtains fall closed behind her and stood at the edge of his private area. "A world cannot move forward if there is never change," she said, to herself and to Colin, and to the camera in her hand. "And a life cannot be lived when one is standing still. I sincerely hope that you are recovered."

And with that, she placed the camera on the table beside his bed.

She continued her visit as usual, sharing her knowledge and demonstrating the spells she had been taught. After showing him some of the pictures she'd found in the book, she set it aside and sat on his bed.

"Colin, I will continue to come here to see you, and to share with you what you are being denied by your regrettable position, but I will no longer expect that it will last forever. If you should remember me, and the times I have come here to visit, that would make me very happy, but I cannot expect it. If I do not expect it and you remember me, it will be a wonderful surprise. If you do not, that is regrettable, but it is just what it will be."

She looked at the camera by the flower she had picked the other day, and continued. "I must let go of my expectations, so that both our lives can be lived. But that doesn't mean I can't hope. So that is what I will do, hope."

Then she picked up the camera again. "I will return this to you properly when you are back with us."

~*~

It was the morning of the match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. The Great Hall was a roar of excitement as the students all ate and laughed and talked about plans to meet up. Luna rose from her seat after finishing a modest breakfast, and headed for the library, to escape the noise and to look for some good Quidditch picture books.

The library was quite spare of people when she arrived. A good deal of the students there were fifth or seventh years, who weighed the result of their exams more heavily than a day of Quidditch and fun. Most of them were Ravenclaws, though there were a few from other houses as well, including the bossy friend of Harry Potter, who was flipping hungrily through a book on magical beasts.

Luna nodded to Madam Pince and made her way toward the Sport and Recreation section. A good deal of the books were of rules and biographies of teams, none of them taken care of very well, she noted. She ran her fingers along the bottom of the spines until she came to a very large-sized book on Quidditch Weekly's most astonishing moments caught on camera.

An hour or more later, she closed the book, deciding this was the perfect thing to show Colin today. But she would do so after the match. She knew by watching him how fascinated he had been by the sport, and didn't want him to miss a single game, regardless of his current condition.

She rose from her seat and moved quietly past her intently studying peers. Madam Pince processed her loan of the book in a quiet, clear whisper, the words almost magically contained to the desk she worked at. Then Luna left and turned to head outside for the pitch.

As she walked, she continued to turn through the pages of the book and almost tripped over something in the hallway. Luckily, she had been moving slowly, her feet gliding ponderously out in front of her as she walked, and were interrupted in their progress by something very solid.

Or someone very solid, she corrected herself when she looked up from her book.

Stopped short of a corridor intersection lay two girls, one of them the bossy cat girl, and the other the Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater. It took her hardly a moment to realize that they were both Petrified in the same way that Colin was. Beside them was a small mirror. The amazing thing, Luna thought as she looked down at them, was that the mirror hadn't broken when it had fallen.

Luna closed the book and slipped it into her bag, then turned and made her way back to the library. The place was still quiet and intense with studying. She walked to Madam Pince's desk and said in her usual library voice, "I have found more Petrified students in the hallway."

Madam Pince stood quickly from her seat, causing a loud scraping noise when the chair moved back. Instinctively, the librarian shushed and all the heads in the rooms turned to look.

With a scowl from Madam Pince, all the students turned back to their work, though they kept stealing glances out of the corner of their eyes. "Are you sure?" the librarian hissed, her usual calm and measured quietness disrupted by Luna's news.

"Quite sure," she assured her. "I almost tripped. They are two corridors away."

"I must tell the Headmaster," she said, hurrying from around the desk.

"And I will go to Madam Pomfrey."

The usually stern woman shook her head. "No, I think you had better not leave the library. It's too dangerous."

"I would need to leave the library sometime," Luna pointed out.

"I think it best if you were accompanied by a prefect or teacher."

"But one of the girls is a prefect."

The librarian's eyes widened further, as if a prefect being attacked was somehow more upsetting. "Miss Lovegood, you will stay here and I will go inform the other teachers."

"But if you leave, everybody in the library is left unattended and vulnerable."

"And what if you get attacked? I would have allowed a student into a dangerous situation, and I will not have that. I'll send a ghost."

"Ghosts can be attacked, too," Luna reminded her.

"You're right, of course," the librarian mumbled, pursing her lips. She reclaimed her seat and brought out six pieces of parchment. The young Ravenclaw watched as the witch scribbled hurriedly, but quite precisely on them, rolling them each in turn, addressing them, and sealing them with a simple brown dot of wax. Then she snapped her fingers quietly and a small creature no taller than the girl's knee walked out from behind a cart of books.

The creature had wrinkled brown skin, large ears that looked like scrolls of vellum, a wisp of white hair poofing at the top of his head, and bulbous brown eyes behind a pair of spectacles that had been constructed of the bottom of ginger ale bottles and chicken wire. He was wearing a smock made entirely of worn leather book bindings. "Yes, Miss, what may Bibly do for Miss?"

"You are a well spoken house-elf," Luna noted.

"Miss is very kind," he replied, sweeping a bow.

"I do not tolerate sloppy speech," Madam Pince told her crisply. "Even from the help. Bibly, I need you to deliver these messages. They are marked. The message to the Headmaster is of most importance, then Madam Pomfrey's, then Professor McGonagall's, and you may use your prerogative for the last three heads of house."

"It shall be done, Miss," the house elf answered with another sweeping bow. Then, with a muffled pop, he was gone.

That done, Madam Pince turned to regard Luna. "Miss Lovegood, please take a seat until we have heard directions from the Headmaster."

~*~

Luna never got to see Colin that day. It was the Headmaster's decision that all students were to be accompanied by an adult anytime they weren't in their dormitories. And with so few teachers and so many students, there was never a chance for Luna to borrow one to visit the hospital ward.

There was never a time Luna was more thankful to be in Ravenclaw, as the studious House had been appointed a teacher to run students to and from the library each day. So though Luna was unable to visit her friend, she could still sit in the library and look at picture books and fill her head with all the knowledge she would have shared with Colin.

The weeks passed by in this manner, three weeks of uncertainty and fear. For not only were there the new regulations, but the morning after Luna's discovery, the Headmaster had not been at the Head Table and nobody had seen him since. Professor McGonagall said that exams would continue as usual, but refused to say where Headmaster Dumbledore had gone. There was a rumor that he had run from the school, frightened away by Slytherin's beast, or that the school governors had sacked him. There were other rumors too, most of them rather ridiculous.

Then, one morning Luna arrived with the other Ravenclaws to breakfast to find quite a ruckus. At first there was a great whisper through her Housemates about Headmaster Dumbledore having returned. Then other fevered whispers were threaded in that somebody had caught Slytherin's beast. But the announcement they made from the Head Table was, to Luna, much better news than either of these. Yet at the same time, much worse.

The mandrakes were ready to be stewed and made into potion to revive the Petrified.

It was silly for her to feel so sad about it, she thought as she watched the excited buzz around three of the four tables. She had no reason to be, as she hadn't been able to see him for three weeks. In fact, with Colin returned to normal, that would assure that she would see him again at meals. But whether she would be able to spend any time with him ever again, that was not certain.

It was this conflict, reborn by the news, with which she left for classes, considering for the first time pretending to be sick so that she could be with him one last time.

Though exams were three days away, Luna couldn't quite concentrate. Nobody seemed able. Their Transfiguration class was a bustle of excitement, and Professor McGonagall grew quite cross. By the end of class, almost nothing had been accomplished, and she let out a large sigh of exasperation as she called them all to follow her.

As their next class was Herbology, and Professor Sprout was busy and wasn't to be disturbed, Professor McGonagall told them they would be using their free period as a study session in the library and they would do well to use that time reading up on what they had failed to pay attention to this last class period. A few of the students giggled, but were immediately shut up by one stern look from their professor.

When they arrived at the library and Professor McGonagall had a very exasperated whispered conversation with Madam Pince, Luna took out her Transfiguration text as instructed and opened to the section they were studying. It still wasn't any good, and Madam Pince soon became cross as well.

It wasn't long they had been sitting in the library, all fidgeting and whispering, and frustrating the librarian, before a booming voice began echoing throughout the school corridors.

"All students to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately please."

"What do you think it means?" one girl whispered to a boy nearby.

"Did somebody else get frozen?"

"Do you think somebody's died this time?"

There was a loud scraping and all heads turned to see Madam Pince stand and turn a commanding face to them all. Luna thought it was rather a relief that the librarian seemed to be handling Professor McGonagall's instructions much better than the news she herself had delivered those weeks ago.

"Everybody gather your things," she said to the room of frightened students. Her voice, though still library quiet, carried to all their ears and there was a loud shuffling and scraping as they did as they were told. The scared whispering returned again, only to stop at the sharp clap from the librarian.

"You will remain calm and quiet!" she announced, her voice ringing around the room. "You will all walk in an orderly group to your dormitory and you are to remain there! Do not stray from your group."

"But there's only eight of us each house!" one of the students squeaked.

"We'll get attacked, too!"

"We'll die, too!"

"Nobody has died!" the librarian snapped. "And you will be fine if you remain together!"

"Those two girls stuck together, and they got frozen."

"One of 'em was a prefect, too."

"That is quite enough!" Madam Pince called over them. Then she snapped her fingers and the small, wrinkled brown creature appeared, sweeping a low bow.

"Bibly, fetch one other house elf. Then lead these students to their dormitories at once. See that they remain calm, and use whatever means necessary to protect them."

"Bibly will do as instructed," he replied and then disappeared with a pop.

In hardly a moment, the house elf reappeared and he and his companion elf called the students over. Luna thought it rather fitting that they be lead by the studious and well-spoken little creature.

The Ravenclaw common was already half full and bursting with nervous conversation when they arrived. As soon as they walked in, one of the prefects counted them and announced the number to the room.

"What's going on?" a boy asked.

"We're checking to see that all the Ravenclaws are here," the prefect answered.

"Do you think it was another Ravenclaw?"

"I can tell you who it wasn't," an older boy nearby said. "A Slytherin."

"It was probably a Gryffindor," a short girl with glasses commented. "They have suffered the majority of the victim count."

"The boy with the camera," the prefect nodded. "The girl with Penny, and their ghost."

"And if you'll notice, every attack was something to do with a Gryffindor."

"Excepting Filch and his cat."

"The two logical conclusions would be that either somebody has a grudge against the Gryffindors, or we're to expect two casualties each, the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs."

"The Hufflepuffs are likely to lose before us," somebody pointed out as another group came in and the prefect hurried off to do a head count. "Slytherin had more disdain for Hufflepuff than for Ravenclaw."

"Slytherin thought the students Hufflepuff took in weren't fit to be taught magic."

"All the same," the prefect asserted. "We can't afford to relax yet. We still have people missing. Until we have the proper total, I'm not going to relax."

"What good will not relaxing do?" Luna asked. "It won't change what has already happened. It just makes your stomach eat itself and knots to tie in your shoulder and neck muscles."

The prefect looked down at Luna for a brief moment and then called to the room in general, "Has anybody noticed anything peculiar in any of your classes? Have their been any absences of any person?"

All the Ravenclaws shook their heads. Luna decided she had had enough of standing and waiting with people who were panicked. She would do much better on her own in her dormitory. As expected, nobody noticed her leave.

Just before she closed the door, more students entered the common room and the prefect counted them out and announced the total to the room. Luna didn't process the number. Instead, she crossed to her bed and opened her trunk, which had lost a few more things since that morning. Carefully she drew out the camera shell and brought it to the bed with her. Then she took out her transfiguration text.

For a long time she sat with the camera beside her, studying as though she were studying next to Colin Creevey's bed. It had been so long since she had seen him, and she wondered in the back of her mind as she studied, if he knew it. She wondered if, when he was revived that evening, he would expect her to be there, even if he didn't know whom he was expecting.

Luna wished she were there to greet him, even if it was simply to return his brave camera. Instead, the first instance he was awakened, he would be surrounded by Madam Pomfrey and the other frozen students. It was hardly a warm welcome into a peculiar situation, and Luna was sure that it would be peculiar to Colin; to one moment be looking through his camera at the attacker, and the next to be lying in a bed nine months later.

Of course she hoped there were things between those moments that he would remember, such as her visits, the books she held over his head, the things she told him. It would be such a waste to think that everything for him had been suspended after all, and she had shared all this knowledge for nothing. It was of no use to him, and she had been of no use to him, then.

Luna slid her text aside and took the camera in her hands, examining the well-worn case. Then she picked it up and held it to her face, looking through the little window. She lay down on her bed, staring at the ceiling through the window, thinking about the small boy laying exactly like this in the hospital ward.

Yes, perhaps the hours and days and months she had spent sitting by his side and recounting the day, had been a waste to him, but as she looked through the window of his camera, she found she didn't regret any one of those moments beside him. Sitting next to him, she hadn't felt rejected or strange, not that it ever bothered her to feel that way. And not that she ever felt lonely, but coming almost every day to the hospital ward, she knew there was somebody who wouldn't stand up and walk away if she sat by them.

Her efforts hadn't been a waste at all because, even though that time hadn't been of use to him, it had been of use to her.

She closed her eyes, the camera still held to her face, and felt tired. Maybe when she woke up, Colin would be awake, too.

~*~

The slam of a trunk woke her up and she felt the camera pressing against her face. Luna opened her eyes, becoming aware of angry and frightened whispers, the rustle of clothes, and another slam of a trunk.

Luna set the camera on her pillow and sat up. When she drew apart the deep blue bed hangings, she saw that her dormmates were packing their things. Then she noticed the pile of books, parchment, quills, and ink on top of her own trunk.

"Have I slept through the rest of the year?" she asked.

"Professor Flitwick said we're going home tomorrow," one of the girls said, her voice tense with anger and fear. Then she burst out crying.

"The school is closing down," another girl explained. "Somebody was taken this time."

"Who?" Luna asked.

"Ginny Weasley," the third girl answered and the first collapsed in a wave of renewed tears.

Luna thought about the girl with red hair who always looked so nervous and scared. She and Ginny had been neighbours before Hogwarts, though she had only seen her then during Christmas wassail. She had always seemed more sassy back then. Her family was known as blood traitors to anybody who cared about that sort of thing.

"Have the frozen people been revived?" she asked.

"Don't you care at all?" the first girl shouted. "She's gone! They've taken her! Who cares about the ruddy frozen people? They're safe!"

Luna frowned. "You're being rather disruptive. And as we aren't leaving until tomorrow, I'm going to bed now."

She scooted back onto her bed and pulled the hangings closed, the sound of the girl's sobs muffled only a little through the thick curtains. As she lie back on her bed, scooping the camera in her arm and drawing it to her side, she heard one of the girls say, "I told you."

~*~

The feast was unexpected, and when the sun had gone down and the Ravenclaw Tower was finally quiet, almost everybody was in their pajamas. Professor Flitwick told them not to change out, as the feast would last all night long.

Luna clutched the camera between her pillow and her chest as she jostled in the midst of the crowd of excited Ravenclaws. Most of them were chattering about Penelope Clearwater. One of the second year girls was talking about the Hufflepuff boy. It seemed as though only she wondered after Colin. It wasn't surprising, but it was disappointing.

When they arrived, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had already arrived. The once-Petrified people were easy enough to find, as everybody else was in their bedclothes. The bossy cat girl was surrounded by several of her classmates. The Hufflepuff was likewise occupied. The Ravenclaws converged on Penelope Clearwater, who was hugging a rather stuffy looking red-headed boy with glasses.

Luna, however, veered for a small boy who was standing, looking rather stunned, off to the side. He was gazing around the room in astonishment. She walked up to him and stopped until he noticed she was there. When he did, he jumped, his eyes wide.

"Was it very strange?" she asked.

He blinked for a moment at her question and then said, "I don't know. I guess it was, sort of."

"Was there ever anybody there?"

"There?" He looked puzzled. "Where?"

"Between freezing and unfreezing," she explained.

"No," he said, sounding very confused.

"You don't know who I am," she said, more a statement than a question.

He just stared at her and then shook his head.

Luna smiled, knowing that it hadn't really been a waste, at least for her.

"Am I supposed to?" he squeaked.

"Maybe someday," she answered, and then pulled the camera out. "Here."

The small boy started in surprise and then took the camera from her. He turned it in his hands eagerly, and then gave out a disappointed sigh. When he looked up to thank the Ravenclaw, she had gone.

Looking down at his camera, Colin sighed again. He wished he'd been able to take a picture of her.