Nick Cleveland and the Coven of Lancre

Nick Cleveland and the Coven of Lancre, Chapter 09

by Technomad

A little while later, Luna Lovegood awoke from a doze to find her two cousins from Slytherin were in the room. "Hi, Marlie! Hi, Draco! It's good to see you again!" She gave the Slytherins a beaming smile.

"It's good to see you, too, Luna," Draco answered; he'd helped take Luna under his wing when her plight had first been brought to his attention. "You do look pretty good for someone who's been lost in the wilderness for months!"

"Oh, that was easy! Nicholas took care of me! He knows everything about how to stay alive in the woods, and made sure I always had plenty to eat!"

"And I bet he took care of you in other ways, too," Marlie teased.

Luna gave her cousin a puzzled look. "What do you mean, Marlie?"

"Look, you've just lived every straight girl's fantasy. Alone in the wilderness with a handsome guy who cares about you and would do anything at all for you...right now every girl in Hogwarts is wishing she were in your shoes!" Marlie gave her cousin a teasing smile. "I mean, you are a little young for that...but you look like you got through it just fine!" Draco looked from one girl to the other, as a blush spread across his face.

"Oh, you think Nicholas and I had sex?" Luna shook her head. "No. Never. Even when he saw me coming out from swimming without my clothes, he never laid a hand on me." She gave them both a beaming smile. "He was a perfect gentleman. I don't think Professor McGonagall could have complained of his behavior!"

"You've got to be kidding!" Marlie was gobsmacked. She'd been through a good few boyfriends, and if there was one thing she was sure of about teenaged guys, it was that they were all mad for sex. "No, you aren't, are you?" She shook her head. She and her cousin were not close, but she knew that Luna did not ever lie directly. If she said she and Nick hadn't had sex, they hadn't had sex. "What would you have done if he had wanted to? You say he saw you without your clothes on..."

"If he had wanted to, I'd have done it," Luna said, "but you know as well as I do that for Nicholas, there's only one woman in the world...and I am not her, am I?" She looked poignant for an instant. "I wish I were pretty, like you, Marlie, or like Melinda..."

"Don't say things like that, Luna," Draco broke in. "You're pretty like Luna, and that's all you'll ever need. And I'm glad to hear that Nick is a gentleman." Draco Malfoy was fiercely protective of the women in his family; people who even spoke unkindly of them had a tendency to end up having "an interview" with the blond Slytherin and his two tame goons. Even so, he did not relish the idea of tangling with Nick Cleveland. The Ravenclaw had a well-earned reputation for ingenious revenges.

As they turned to go, Marlie shook her head ruefully. "Count on you, Luna, to be different. You're the only girl I know who could come back from that sort of experience a virgin."

000

Nick's mother came in, to find him sitting up and reading. On the table beside his bed were dozens of "Get Well!" cards, mostly from other Ravenclaws, although all four Houses were represented. "Well. It looks like you're on the mend. When you're too ill to read, I know things are very bad indeed."

Nick closed his book to give his mother his full attention. "Yeah, I'm feeling better. I feel kind of bad, having had to put Madame Pomfrey and poor old Professor Snape through all that work just on my account."

"Never you mind that. That's their job." Grace Cleveland gave her son a look. "And what's all that about 'poor old Professor Snape,' dear?"

Nick sighed at his parent's obtuseness. "It's obvious, isn't it? 'Poor'...who ever heard of a teacher who made money, or had any? If he had money he wouldn't be within a thousand miles of here!" Grace quirked a smile. She had expressed displeasure at the low salaries she had earned while teaching...Meanwhile, her son was going on: "As for 'old,' look, Mum, he had a grandson or something like that who was in school with you! He was mixed up with the last Russian Tsar, and that happened in 1917!"

This was unexpected. "How do you come to that conclusion, love?"

Nick pulled out a book from his bookbag; as soon as he'd been returned, Marietta Edgecombe had brought it to the infirmary. Grace had been there when the familiar reinforced-leather bag bulging with books had arrived, and had heard Marietta's explanation that "If he wakes up and it's not where he can grab it, he'll be up to our Tower looking for it, and Madame Pomfrey will slaughter us for letting that happen!" She had suppressed a smile; that did sound like her son.

"See, Mum?" Nick had opened Daily Life at the Russian Court under the Last Tsar, and pointed to several photographs. "Take the beard off, and it's Professor Snape, sure as I'm born! I know it says he died, but there's lots of ways to fool Muggles, aren't there?"

By main force of willpower, Grace suppressed the urge to let out a whoop of laughter. "Very astute, Nick. You're looking a bit peaked, though. Why don't you take a nap?" Nick nodded and slipped under the covers, and soon his regular breathing told his mother that he was asleep. She leaned over him and kissed him gently; she had been terribly worried while he was gone, and she relished the chance to show him affection, even though it embarrassed him terribly when she did so while he was awake. Then she slipped out of the room, looking for somewhere that she could let out the laugh that was threatening to burst out at any second.

Just outside the room, she ran into someone she recognized. "Oh! Hullo, Narcissa! What brings you to Hogwarts?" She hadn't seen her old housemate in years, and was curious about what she was doing.

"You do know I have a son here, don't you, Grace? However, I came to peek in on your boy. Between us, he's got more charm than should strictly be legal." Narcissa gave her old mentor a conspiratorial smile. "When he first met me, he thought that I was my son Draco's sister!" She preened slightly. "He was a perfect gentleman...I'm told he's devoted to that little Chinese girlfriend of his...but it's always nice to know one still has 'it!'"

"My son is very clever, but not as clever as he thinks he is, dear. You won't believe the latest thing he came up with!" Narcissa Malfoy's eyes went wide with curiosity. "He thinks that Severus is Rasputin...you know, the Russian mystic from the court of the last Tsar of Russia?" Grace shook her head. "I must say, the pictures he found do look like our Sevvy, only with a big beard...but Nick has a tendency to think nobody else could ever be as clever or intelligent as he is."

"So good to see you, Grace," came a familiar voice. Grace and Narcissa turned to see that Severus Snape had come along. "I take it you're discussing that son of yours?"

Grace's eyes danced with amusement, and a little malice. "So we are---'Grigori Efimovich!'" Hearing Snape addressed with the given name and patronymic of the famous Russian mystic, Narcissa began to giggle, and Grace joined her.

Snape looked utterly martyred. "Oh, Merlin, he told you that insane theory of his? All right, it's very funny...it's extremely funny...stop laughing!" At this, the women laughed even harder. "Oooh, when Mr. Cleveland is on his feet, the trouble he is going to be in..."

"Don't feel bad, darling Sevvy," Grace patted his shoulder. "I know how to give him a lesson in humility he won't soon forget..." As she began whispering in his ear, Snape's eyes lit up and he began to grin a very nasty grin.

"And at least, Sevvy," Grace pointed out, "he didn't get his House mates to serenade you the way I heard he did to Draco Malfoy!" Narcissa looked rather conflicted; she had heard about Nick's idea for teaching her son to never, ever meddle with love potions again, but she thought that a rendition of Love Potion Number Nine in front of the whole school was a bit much-ish.* "Or would you like to hear them singing Ra Ra Rasputin to you?" At that thought, Snape turned slightly green.

When Nick awoke again, he found his pillow being plumped up by none other than Luna Lovegood. "Hi, Nicholas. It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back, little one. That was one fight I didn't win."

"I know. You wouldn't let that old witch take me. Even though you went down, you were fighting right up to the end."

Nick gave his friend a look. "Seems I've heard something...something about you charging in, grabbing my wand, and standing there over me, ready to defend me." He raised one eyebrow. "Is that true?"

"Oh, yes, Nicholas. I wouldn't let that old witch hurt you. You were down and couldn't fight; I saw smoke coming from your chest where that amulet of yours had overloaded."

Nick stared at her. "Let me see if I have this straight. You knew I'd lost that duel. You knew that old witch had blasted me down. And you ran in to square off with her...to protect me?"

Luna nodded. Nick reached out for her, and hugged her tightly. She stroked his hair, feeling his body shake with unaccustomed sobs. "Don't cry, Nicholas. Why are you crying? Didn't you know I love you?" She finally just held him until he was able to let her go.

END Chapter 09

*See "Nick Cleveland and the Philtre of Love."