A Robin Noticed My Condition

A Robin Noticed My Condition

Skipping was a wonderful thing. Luna Lovegood had been skipping with her skipping rope all day. She had skipped up and down the corridors until Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker, had yelled so hard that the little veins on his face had turned purple with his exertion. She had skipped around the Ravenclaw common room until her skipping rope had knocked a bottle of ink onto the floor and Padma Patil had ordered her outside. She had skipped round the courtyard, and up one walk and down another, smiling at the crack of the rope as it snapped against the cobblestones, until some boys from Syltherin began to pelt her with little stones and pebbles, and commanded that she skip elsewhere.

So Luna turned towards the lake with her rope and skipped across the grass towards it. The sun was shining brightly and she marvelled at all the pretty reflected lights dancing on the water. A gentle, warm wind was blowing and as it gusted through the trees and long grasses, it brought with it the fresh scent of turned earth and trees.

It was a purely summer smell, Luna thought distantly, that should make one feel entirely content and happy. But she did not feel happy today. From the moment she had woken up that morning, Luna had felt entirely, unquestionably, and inexplicably sad.

A robin was hopping about on a low branch, singing brightly. His little red breast puffed up with pride as he sang his summer song. Luna stopped to listen for a minute and when he had finished his song she smiled and applauded and told him what a pretty voice he had and that if she could sing as well as he, she would never stop singing at all. The robin lifted his head and looked at her curiously, then bobbed his head as if modestly accepting her compliment.

Luna then bade him farewell and skipped away. The robin's song had lifted her spirits, but there was still a heaviness in her chest that she could not fathom. Luna had considered a number of things -- perhaps she was under a Kelpie's curse, or maybe that fearful wailing she had heard from the Hospital Wing the previous night had actually been the cry of a Howling Squonk. Her father had warned her that those who heard the mournful cries were later overcome by a grief, for it signified that someone close to the hearer was about to die. But Luna did not feel that she was suffering from either of these.

At length she skipped away from the lake and into a sparsely wooded area, pierced by broad rays of golden sunshine, and came at last to a stone toadstool situated at the centre of a little clearing. She was hot and breathless now and felt she deserved a rest so she sat upon the toadstool's broad base. The clearing was covered in long, reaching branches of ivy which curled around the trees and over the toadstool. Luna was pondering on how long it would take for the ivy to curl up to her when the robin appeared again. He had followed her and he greeted her with a chirp from his tree branch.

"Hello, Robin," said Luna. "Is your afternoon well?"

The robin bobbed on his branch then lifted his head to sing a few sweet notes.

"You're showing off," stated Luna, vaguely. "But I don't mind at all. Nobody often feels the need to show off in front of me. It's quite nice." She picked up her skipping rope. "Now I will show off to you." And Luna began to skip again, round and round the toadstool, counting each skip until her cheeks turned red, but when she grew so tired that she thought she might have to stop, the robin began to sing for her and his song made her want to skip just for him, and keep skipping until her legs turned to jelly.

When at last they both grew too tired, they sat together for a time, enjoying the sun and the light wind through the trees. The robin had moved to a branch nearer the toadstool now, and was making a great show of grooming his feathers. Luna had to marvel at his brazen character. She remembered how her mother once told her that robins held a special kind of magic of their own which allowed them a marvellous understanding of all Muggles and magic folk.

Luna peered closer at the robin and wondered if he, being so full of knowledge, could explain her condition.

So she asked him, "Robin, my heart is sad, but my soul is happy. Can you tell me my condition?"

The robin flew from his swinging branch, circled the clearing once, then came to land on the toadstool beside her and sang a loud, sweet trill, his little red breast quivering. Luna reached two pale fingers out to touch the red feathers there. The colour reminded her of the two Weasley twins who lived near her, outside Ottery St. Catchpole. Luna had often seen the twins playing around the forests and in the fields close to her home. She had loved listening to their laughter. They had always appeared so carefully balanced in their actions - the more brazen twin always leading the way and his brother, alert to everything, watching out for him. Luna had always admired the second. His name was George, she thought wistfully, and his smile was always softer.

The robin hopped onto Luna's outstretched hand and watched her for a moment before tilting his head, as if to say "follow me", and promptly flew off.

Luna watched the spot where he had disappeared into the trees before picking up her skipping rope and following him down the path back to the lake.

A familiar burst of laughter erupted from a little ways up the path close to the banks and as Luna turned the corner she saw the Weasley twins playing by the water. She could tell them apart at once. George was skipping stones across the glittering surface of the lake while his more adventurous brother fought to reclaim his balance upon the branch of a tree. Luna stopped to watch them and thought how very like the robin they both were with their constant showing off, and thought them quite sweet because of it.

A gust of wind rushed along the water towards the bank, stronger than the last. It moved through the trees and shook its branches, and caused the twin amongst them to finally lose his balance and fall into the water with a great splash. George, looking terrified, wasted no time in wading into the deep water, but his brother emerged almost as quickly as he had fallen in, spluttering and laughing. Relief flitted across George's face before he dunked his twin's head under the water again.

Now there was a new symptom to Luna's condition. While the strange weight in her chest had not lifted, her head felt dizzy and light too. It wasn't a bad feeling, but it wasn't altogether good; a bit like the feeling she got in her stomach when she went zooming down a sharp incline on the back of a broomstick. The robin plopped himself on a branch beside her and began to sing his song again, but she could not take her eyes from the boy in the water.

"Ah," said Luna at length. "So that is my condition."

And as she skipped past the twins, Luna wondered if George would notice her. She really wanted him to see her skip.

oOo