Beauty From Pain

Chapter Four

"Is nothing sacred to this woman?"

Hermione was pacing her office, chewing her thumbnail and trying to contain her ire. She needed to think, needed a plan, and she couldn't think properly if she allowed her anger to take over. Even if it was rather tempting.

"Are you really surprised she would violate Hermione's privacy?"

Luna's voice filtered in between Hermione's rampaging thoughts and brought her back into her office.

"She should know better," Hermione said calmly. She pushed her anger back into its cage and begged her logical mind to take over. "I've had to force her to leave me alone in the past, and I had thought she had learned her lesson."

Ginny arched an eyebrow at her and asked, "What did you do?"

A sly grin spread over Hermione's lips. "Oh, just a small amount of blackmail."

"A small amount?" Ginny sounded skeptical. "How much is a small amount?"

"I found out she's an unregistered beetle animagus."

Luna waved a hand in Hermione's direction and muttered, "I told you she buzzed a lot."

Ginny looked baffled and demanded, "You knew?"

"Of course not."

"But you said she buzzed?"

Luna shrugged delicately. "Her lies make her an insect."

Hermione nodded as though that made perfect sense while Ginny gave her a desperate look.

"Please, Luna, can you make sense just once in your life?"

"Of course not," Luna said sharply. "I have a reputation to uphold."

Rubbing her temples and grumbling under her breath, Ginny walked over to one of the couches and plopped down into the soft cushions. "I love you, Luna, but I swear to Merlin you're going to be the death of me."

Luna patted the top of Ginny's head and said in a sing-song voice, "Don't worry, darling, you'll enjoy every moment."

"Can we please focus on the situation at hand?" Hermione asked. "I would like to deal with Skeeter as swiftly as possible." She needed a distraction - from the article, from Theo ignoring her, from everything. Rita Skeeter was the perfect, temporary distraction.

Ginny leaned backward over the edge of the couch so she could look at Hermione, albeit upside down. "What did you have in mind?" She swatted at Luna's hand which was trying to play with her hair and glared. "We could report her and ruin her career?"

Luna shook her head and skipped over to the other couch across from Ginny. "No, I think that would be too kind for her."

The room fell silent as the other two women gazed at Luna in shock. She was always the gentle one of the group; slow to anger and the only calming hand able to keep Ginny's notorious temper in check. For Luna to voice such an aggressive opinion of someone was surprising and spoke volumes.

"Luna," Hermione asked hesitantly, "what do you think we should do?"

A slow, wicked grin spread over Luna's usually angelic features and caused a cold chill to run down Hermione's spine. "If she is willing to spend all of her energy and time trying to ruin your reputation, I believe we should return the favor in kind."

"Wonderfully vague," Ginny said sarcastically. "Mind simplifying it for us mere mortals?" She ducked swiftly to dodge a pillow thrown at her face and laughed.