𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐲 | 𝐝.𝐦.

forty

"Can I talk to you, Betty?"

The sun is guarded by ghostly grey clouds, light barely entering the darkened school with the storm that is brewing in the sky. Thunder crackles, causes a quaver that ruptures the silence of breakfast in the hall.

Luna is looking pallid beneath the candles that light the hall, floating over the students' heads. Her hair is unruly and cascading down her back, flaxen curls tangled near the ends as she approaches the Gryffindor table where Betty sits with Neville.

The boy raises a questioning expression to the girl. "Should I be here for this?" he asks, embarrassed.

Betty glances at Luna, perplexed by the blonde girl's concern and determination that bathes faintly in her features.

Luna replies kindly, "I'd like a moment alone with Betty, if that's fine with you?"

Neville nods, patently dismayed. "Of course," he says, "Shall I leave then?"

Luna shakes her head tenderly. "There's no need," she answers first, "Betty and I'll just talk outside the hall. Privacy needed, you see."

The boy scrunches his face. "Sounds like a girl's issue. Is it?"

"Yes."

Betty hops out of the bench briskly, shifting it a little and earning a glare from Lavender Brown who sits on the other end of the same bench, with her friend.

She takes a last bite of her omelette roughly. "I'll see you at the Dark Arts, Nev?"

They both refer to the lesson as the Dark Arts now, with the Carrow professor going entirely off track with the syllabus, and instead teaching them things that go against the purpose of the class.

"If you both will be taking that long," he emphasises, picking up a seedy watermelon from the embellished plate and eyeing the giant clock hung by the threshold of the doors.

"Save me a seat?" Betty requests.

Neville shakes his head quickly, probably swallowing down a tiny seed by accident. "I was actually hoping to sit with Henderson today, sorry."

"Oh, that's alright, then."

Betty follows Luna out of the hall, heaving her books in her hands after the pair waved the Gryffindor boy goodbye, leaving him to finish his platter of breakfast alone.

The minute hand of the clock moves silkily, reminding them of the classes they would have to rush off to in a matter of minutes.

Students have already begun filing out of the hall, anxious for their first class. For the seventh-years, that happens to be Defence Against the Dark Arts, a subject Betty does not enjoy currently, due to the malicious teacher they have.

She would have to be early to that class, she tells herself as she trails behind Luna. The Carrows had already neglected their unfortunate attention towards her, aiming their prejudice to an ill-omened Gryffindor in their year - she couldn't afford to bring their scrutiny back to her, especially with her involvement in the DA now.

"What girl problems, Luna?" she asks when the young girl halts in her tracks once they had turned down a small corner, void of people.

Luna shakes her head gently. "Oh, I don't have any girl problems," she denies quickly, "I only wanted to throw Neville off."

This ensues a skeptical knit of the other girl's brow. "Oh, may I know why, then?"

"I've been meaning to speak to you, out of Ginny and Neville's ears, since that day Malfoy came to the Room of Requirements," Luna finally admits, her voice a docile rhythm.