Hermione's eyes widened and her nostrils flared. She practically flew across the room and draped the robe over Luna's shoulders. Harry pulled back enough for her to pull it on and smile at the two Gryffindors. "Thank you. It was quite cold."
"Luna, what happened? Are you okay? Did they hurt you? Did they touch you?" Hermione asked softly pulling the blonde into a hug. Luna gave her a quick hug back inwardly sighing that Hermione hadn't minded Luna holding onto her boyfriend's chest.
"I am fine, Hermione. As I told Harry, the wrackspurts took my clothes and Marcus Flint merely took advantage of the opportunity he was presented. Harry assisted in handling the situation," she nodded her head to the still frozen and passed out Flint. Hermione looked over, widened her eyes slightly and then twisted to Harry.
"Freezer," he said with a shrug slotting a rune stone back into his harness. "I heard her being chased but not who was chasing. It's a good nonlethal, but still extremely effective, stopping option. Luna, can you…has this happened before, Luna?"
She hesitated. How was she supposed to answer that? It was a direct question and there were few evasions available. She couldn't use a creature the way he had worded that. With a groan she realized she had hesitated too long. Like her earlier flinch, it was all the answer that Harry needed. He growled and Hermione's lips curled into a snarl as well. The older girl clutched Luna tighter. "Luna," Hermione said stroking her hair. "This is never going to happen again."
"You cannot promise that, Hermione."
"Yes, we can, Luna," Harry said folding into the hug from behind.
Luna wiggled out from both of them growing angry in spite of herself. "No, you cannot. I endured long before any of you came along. I endured my mother's death. I endured my father's insanity. I endured the taunts and the names and the threats and the disappointment and the abuse and the bullying and the hexes. I asked for help tonight because I am older now and Flint is not the type to stop. Thank you for your assistance but I will endure as I have and you cannot promise that this will not occur again. I spent the entirety of my first year learning how to deal with this and I can handle it on my own."
"Luna…" Harry waved her to the couch and down in the chair across from her. Hermione joined her on the couch. "Luna, do you remember the first time you sat down with us at breakfast?" She nodded. "I was like you for a long time. I have friends now though and I have people I can turn to for help and support. People I can lean on when it gets hard and things come crashing down. You have that now too, Luna. We're all here for you. You're not alone anymore and you don't have to deal with this on your own. I may not have a ton of political power just yet but I have enough friends that I can ask for some favors and make sure that people answer for what has happened."
"I don't need that, Harry." She sighed and let the mask slip. It was tiring to keep it up around them.
"Luna, please," Hermione said laying a hand on her leg. "We are your friends. Please let us help. What are the names of the…wrackspurts?"
Luna looked into Hermione's eyes. She let the last remnants of her mask slide and used her full piercing gaze to stare into the depths of Hermione. She knew what effect her look could have on people but the older girl didn't even flinch. Turning to Harry, Luna looking into him as well. Eventually sighing and nodding Luna gave a wry grin and snorted. "You aren't going to let this go are you?"
"They didn't let it go for me, Luna," Harry said giving her a small, sad smile.
"Very well. Marietta Edgecombe, Lisa Turpin, a girl I don't know who hangs out with them. But really there's no point. Nearly the entire House is aware of it. Only Su Li and Padma Patil don't know the extent. They spoke up once when they found my missing clothes and Marietta and the others have been careful around them. I think Cho Chang only believes it to be harmless stealing. So you see? Short of changing Houses, there is no point in doing anything. You cannot take on an entire House, Harry, Hermione."
"Watch me," Harry said, a slightly scary glint entering his eyes. Luna couldn't help but feel buoyed by that. He would never turn that gaze on her but her enemies…Luna grinned in response.
Hermione snorted. "You've been around us long enough, Luna. You should realize not to give Harry a challenge like that."
"Comm on, contact Neville, Daphne, Tracey and Susan," Harry said. "Sorry to wake you all, but we have a bit of a situation. I need everyone to meet outside the door to the Ravenclaw Common Room in five minutes. It really can't wait until then. Great, thanks guys." He tapped his earring and disconnected.
"I didn't know the stones could connect to more than one at once?" Hermione said cocking her head. Luna chuckled quietly. Of course that would be what the witch noticed.
Harry shrugged. "I try not to use them on conference too much for too long. The stones are small enough that a conference call taxes them a bit too much for me to be comfortable with it." Neville came down the stairs to the Common Room yawning and Harry stood up nodding at his friend. "Luna, wait here with Hermione okay? I'm going to go talk to the…wrackspurts about this."
"You don't seriously think you're leaving me out of this?" Hermione asked with raised eyebrows.
"I am not sitting on the sidelines if you are doling out justice like an avenging angel," Luna commented at the same time as Hermione. Both girls looked at each other, smiled and laughed. Hermione waved for Luna to go ahead. "Harry, I am fine. I am uninjured beyond a minor bruise on my shoulder and you have succeeded in ensuring I am calm. If you are going to confront them, I want to be there to watch."
"Confront who? Luna?" Neville narrowed his eyes at her. "I missed the action again didn't I?"
"Don't worry, Neville," Luna said with a smile. "The action is just about to get started. You merely missed the prologue. As did Hermione at that."
"Oh, good," Neville nodded looking a bit more awake. "I keep missing most of the fun stuff and Harry promised I could have first crack at Voldy this time."
"We're not going against Voldy, Nev. Just some schoolmates who have gone a bit too far." Harry said leading the way out the portrait hole. He stopped to grab Flint's wand and tucked it into his pocket stunning Flint with a stupefy for good measure.
Neville looked at the Flint-sculpture and shook his head. "I guess that was the prologue?"
"Yes," Luna replied nodding.
"I like that rune."
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