Watch out for Nargles! (a Luna Lovegood fanfic)

8

At breakfast the next day it was quieter in the Great Hall than other mornings. Everyone was still half asleep and either drowned themselves in coffee or showeled cereals into their mouths. Me and Sara weren't different. We'd been up late yesterday and not gone to bed before half past twelve at night. The teachers had been gone by then, leaving the party and the students to themselves.

"How am I supposed to go to class like this?", Sara sighed. She had black rings under her eyes, poorly covered with makeup. "I'm so tired I could sleep the whole day!"

"You know there will be the Halloween party this evening right?", I answered, laughing. 

"Shit, yes. I need to take a nap in Herbology maybe. Wanna pretend to have a stomachache and bring me to the Madame Pomfrey?", she asked.

I hesitated. 

"Ok, let's do it. I see we all need sleep!", I agreed.

---

In class that day a lot of people were missing, having headaches or stomachaches or feeling dizzy. Laura, a girl in my class, actually fell asleep in McGonagalls Transfiguration Class and did just wake up when the teacher stood in front of her desk and had said her name thrice. 

Then came Herbology and it was our turn to miss class.

"Professor, I don't feel well", Sara said. "My stomach is quite unsettled, I might've eaten something wrong at breakfast."

The professor turned around to face us and shook her head. 

"Well, well. I know full well that is not the reason you want to leave now, but I'm not a tyrant. Please let Madame Pomfrey look at you and then go rest. Of you go!", she replied with a kind voice.

"Madame, could Elly join me? I don't know whether it would be a good idea for me to wander around the castle in this state", Sara objected.

Madame Sprout sighed.

"For today I'll let you two go, but don't make this a habit! I know", she turned to the whole class, "fully well, why you all are halfasleep, but you could have thought about that yesterday, so I don't want any further interruption in my class now!"

Sara and I disappeared fast, and almost ran to our rooms. Having arrived there, we started laughing and while laughing we fell on our beds and laughed and laughed and laughed what felt like two hours. Not all teachers were as nice as Professor Sprout, and I hated getting into trouble. Lucky for us, that Herbology was the last class before the break, so we didn't miss any other classes. Because we fell asleep and didn't wake up until lunch. 

--- 

After our nap I felt much better and could tackle the afternoon. We had Defence against the Dark Arts with Professor Moody. He was a strange guy. Our last professor, Lupin, had been very nice, but unfortunately he was a werewolf and some families didn't want him to teach anymore. With some, I mean the Malfoys and their lot. Moody had a magical eye and seemed to look right through us half of the time, and also he had showed us the Unforgivable Curses on spiders, which I personally thought of quite cruel. But I did learn something, and I guessed that was the main purpose.

Today we were supposed to cast countercurses at each other, in order to protect ourselves from jinxes and stuff. Due to my previous nap I managed quite well, in contrast to some of the others.

"Barrow, what are you doing?", Moody's stern voice cut through the dungeons, where the lessons were hold. 

A pale-looking boy from Ravenclaw held his wand in front of him and yelled:

"Expelliarmus!", over and over again. But instead of hitting his opponent, the charms kept flying back at him and disarming him. 

"You silly boy! You hold the wand on the wrong side! What's wrong with you all today? Just a little party shouldn't throw you over like this!", Moody thundered.

And he was right of course. The boy did hold the wand so that it pointed to himself. But noone was much better. And the party really shouldn't get to us so much. I sank a little more into my own skin, and tried to be invisible. Moody's magical eye caught mine and I knew he knew I didn't want to be here right now.

"Graves, why don't you show us a disarming charm? You seem to be not as tired and goofy as your classmates!", he bolted.

I faced Sara again, who threw a charm at me, and I stopped it with an:

"Expelliarmus"

Sara's wand did fly to my hand, but Moody wasn't content.

"A little louder the next time. Or your enemy won't even hear you said something. That wouldn't be of much good in a fight!"

"Yes, professor!", I said. Then the lesson was over and we were dismissed.