Luna pov
After that our lessons finally started.
---
The days didn't arrive in order.
They came to me sideways, like dreamfish swimming through clouds of breakfast. One day we were learning charms, the next we were transfiguring buttons into beetles, then back again. Time had lost its schedule. It was blinking.
Our first class was Herbology, with Professor Sprout and a collection of plants that looked like they might argue with you if overwatered.
I stood next to Levi. He wore gloves he didn't need and stared at the mandrake roots as if wondering whether they had thoughts.
"Don't scream," I told the mandrake sweetly. "Your voice is already too loud."
It screamed anyway.
Levi stared at it without flinching. He didn't plug his ears. He said it didn't bother him. Later, I caught him whispering to a puffing pod like it was a disappointed relative.
We didn't pass the assignment. My mandrake had shriveled dramatically. Levi's wouldn't come out of the pot at all.
"It has chosen not to be born today," he said.
---
In Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall had us turn matchsticks into needles.
Mine turned into a worm. It wiggled with purpose.
"Technically pointy," I said.
Levi's matchstick refused to do anything.
"Not trying," McGonagall said, frowning.
"I don't see the logic in charming wood into metal," Levi replied, not unkindly.
She pursed her lips. "That may be so, but this is Hogwarts. Not logicwarts."
Then he just lazily snapped his fingers and the matchstick transformed.
Professor McGonagall was impressed.
---
Some days we shared classes with Hufflepuff. Others, Levi was alone.
---
Levi's View – Defense Against the Dark Arts
Professor Lockhart shimmered into the classroom like a wet peacock. He was all teeth and lavender robes. He winked at Levi.
"I see a fan already," Lockhart cooed.
Levi stared at him with the same look he gave mandrakes.
"I'm not."
The lesson was on Cornish Pixies. Lockhart pulled out a cage with a horde of them inside. The creatures escaped within seconds, and the class screamed. Lockhart ducked under a desk and demanded "crowd control."
Levi raised his hand once, slowly and all of them fell down unconscious.
"Sir," he said, "they are not even a foot tall and incapable of truly advanced thought. What is the purpose of this exercise?"
Lockhart beamed. "Ah, questioning minds! You'll find my book Warding With Winks..."
Levi's aura pulsed. Just a flicker.
The chalk cracked. The torches dimmed.
Lockhart blinked, mid-gesture. "...Right then. Perhaps we'll take an early lunch!"
---
Luna's View – Astronomy
We spent a night on the tower roof staring at the stars.
I named them things they'd forgotten. One twinkled like it recognized itself. Levi drew a constellation in his notebook, except it wasn't a constellation. It was a rune I'd never seen.
"I liked that one," I said, pointing at a shooting star.
"It's already gone," he replied.
I smiled. "That doesn't mean it wasn't real."
---
In Potions, Professor Snape loomed like a rain cloud that hated its job.
I added the crushed beetle a bit too early. My cauldron turned fuchsia and began to hum.
"Miss Lovegood," Snape sneered. "Is your potion attempting to sing?"
I nodded. "It's feeling emotional."
He deducted five points. Levi muttered something about poison being more stable.
---
Levi's View
Levi sat in another DADA class, surrounded by Hufflepuffs who whispered about his eyes and the way he never blinked when Lockhart talked.
Lockhart was reading from Magical Me, a page about facing banshees with only his smile.
Levi's fingers twitched.
The shadows under his desk deepened slightly.
"...and that's how I silenced her wail with charm alone!" Lockhart preened.
Levi didn't raise his hand this time.
He didn't need to.
The windows fogged. The ink in Lockhart's quill crawled away from the page.
Later, the professor claimed it was just a draft.
---
That afternoon, Levi left class before anyone else. His steps were slow. The halls seemed colder. He ignored the shifting portraits, the staircases that tried to mislead.
He needed to find Luna.
He always found her.
But this time...
He turned the corner near the courtyard.
And stopped.
---
Luna's View
The garden was quiet. I liked to sit near the Whomping Willow's cousin the one that only hummed threateningly instead of hitting you.
I had just begun drawing a wrackspurt in my notebook when they came.
Three girls. Fourth years. Their uniforms ironed flat and souls ironed thinner.
"She's the weird one," one of them said. "With the dead flower necklaces."
"She talks to walls."
"She follows that pale boy around. Probably cursed."
I didn't mind. I'd heard worse. I imagined their words as moths fluttering into my ears, then turning into powder.
But then one of them grabbed my notebook.
"Let's see what the Loony's dreaming about today."
They laughed. One of them tore out a page.
I stood, very calmly. "Please don't."
"Why? You'll cry? Cast a spell with your imaginary friends?"
They shoved me backward. I hit the bench. The willow's cousin rattled softly.
I stayed still. I didn't cry. I let them think I would.
That always made them bored faster.
But they didn't stop.
"Say something," one girl snapped.
I said, "You're hurting, too. I see it. You dream in black and white."
She slapped the notebook into the dirt. Her hand trembled.
But before she could speak again...
The air shifted.
It folded in on itself like breath sucked into the lungs of something ancient.
The girls turned. And there he was.
---
Levi's View
He saw Luna on the ground, her notebook wet with dew and cruelty.
The girls froze. One of them held a torn page.
Luna looked up at him, calm as always.
But something in Levi's vision turned red.
The kind of red that bled from the eyes of old things beneath mountains. The red that made men forget their own names.
He didn't move.
He didn't speak.
But the shadows twitched around him.
The girls stepped back. One gasped like the air had turned to ice.
Levi's eyes glowed not bright, not loud. Just enough.
Enough for them to feel watched.
Enough for them to feel judged.
Enough for them to be terrified.
Luna blinked. "Oh. You're early."
"I smelled rot," he said softly.
He stepped closer.
The girls dropped the notebook and ran.
But Levi didn't chase them.
He just stood there, staring after them like a statue carved from fury.
And when he looked down at Luna mud on her skirt, hair wild, a bruise like a galaxy blooming on her elbow he smiled.
But not kindly.