Sanity ~ A Luna Lovegood Fanfiction

Professor...

I clambered out from my quiet alcove underneath the grand staircase, heat blossoming in my cheeks despite the ceaseless chill blowing in from the open door of the draughty hall. I gently tucked the letter into an inside pocket of my robe and felt it warming against my chest. 

"Lovegood, are you intentionally taking up half of the corridor?" a sharp voice demanded, interrupting the bombardment of Neville related thoughts flowing through my mind that had forced me to stop in the middle of the hall and look up to the ceiling in search of answers.

"Sorry?" I excused myself. Following the voice, I found a tall spindly man with sturdy robes draped over his shoulders, suggesting he was some kind of authority figure. His flimsy frame was swamped in the thick layers so much so that he reminded me of a Bowtruckle.

The problem was, although he appeared to be a professor, I had no idea who he was.

"Are you all right? Is there something on the ceiling?" He stood some distance away. Almost as if he was shy of his power.

That's when the Bowtruckle resemblance became so overwhelming that it struck me with recognition for the gangling man. Yes! He was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.

"I'm perfect, thank you sir..." I had eventually succeeded in recognisimg him but his name evaded my lips.

"Now that I've got you, there's actually something I need to talk to you about. Come with me to my office."

He turned immediately and his robes swished around him. I glanced around at the the dwindling occupants of the hall, most of them were heading to dinner. But the professor was striding with vigour and I supposed I had to keep up.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" I asked as I caught up to him and tried my best to match his pace. For every step his lanky legs took, I needed two.

"I'll tell you in my office," he replied, keeping his eyes ahead. That was all he had to say until we rounded the DADA practical room and he lead me into his office. 

I remembered the messy stacks of paper and the green, murky tanks that stood in this room back when Professor Lupin occupied the post. Then there was the kitten saucers and pink frilly curtains that adorned the walls when Umbridge was in charge.

Professor Bowtruckle had decorated the room sparsely. The only objects in the room other than the desk and the two chairs we were sitting in, were some certificates hanging from the wall and a framed picture of a group of friends in Hogwarts attire.

"Miss Lovegood, I can't help but notice you have a sort of a... a vacancy, when it comes to my class-"

Ah, there it was; an engraving in the front of his desk. Professor A. Pepper.

"Now, I don't accept students who think they can just take a back seat. Defence Against the Dark Arts is a hands-on subject and I expect a lot of engagement."

His long fingers were clasped between themselves on the table top and a sheen had appeared between his two eyebrows. The energy rattling around in the sparsely inhabited room was nervous.

"I understand that you played a leading role in a student organisation called Dumbledore's Army. I would've thought-"

That reminded me of Harry. We were in dire circumstances back when Umbridge became tyrant of the school but Harry, typical Harry, took the responsibility of teaching us the necessary defensive magic skills that she refused to acknowledge. Then, of course, Neville, Ginny and I revived the movement last year in retaliation against the Carrows' capture of the school.  We organised like a proper army. We even had those secret coins. I think I still have that charmed galleon, maybe somewhere in my trunk... it would make a lovely necklace.