laconic • t.nott ✓

07 ➺ entire stock of honeydukes

「 ENTIRE STOCK OF HONEYDUKES 」

THE NEWS THAT THE QUIBBLER has now taken a stance for Harry Potter and begun to urge the public to support him spread like wildfire in the castle, despite the attempts of the Carrows to subdue the students who insisted on talking about the magazine very loudly and very clearly in the corridors, or even during classes. A Ravenclaw, Terry Boot was dragged off into the Carrows' office, from which he emerged hours later with blood spilling down his face because he had dared to tell a group of curious first years about what the Quibbler was publishing.

But Theo worried about Luna. However, when he voiced his fears to her one late afternoon, she merely shrugged him off.

"Oh, please, I get enough of that from Neville," she said airily to him, as though the prospect of the Carrows torturing her was a normal everyday conversation. "What can the Carrows do to me what they haven't already done? They can't kill me. I'm perfectly safe."

But Theo wasn't convinced. The Carrows could always be counted on to do something horrible, but upon Luna's insistence, he decided to drop the subject.

He saw Luna wave at someone behind him. He turned around and saw Neville, Ginny, and Seamus Finnigan walking by. Neville gave a small nod when his eyes met Theo's, Seamus didn't bother to look at him, but Ginny glared daggers at him before disappearing around the corner.

"Ginny still doesn't trust you," said Luna. "Neville's cool though. He says he trusts me to raise my wand if you decide to go against me."

Theo didn't know how to respond to that. He thought it was a bit hypocritical for the Gryffindors to accuse the Slytherins of being prejudiced while they were the ones who painted all Slytherins with the same brush and considered them all to be untrustworthy. But he didn't want to speak ill of her friends in front of her so he decided to change the subject. "Any new scars from the Carrows?"

Luna raised her arm and pulled back her left sleeve. A purple band of bruises was wrapped around her wrist. "They did this while questioning me about my father. I told them I cannot control what he publishes so they better learn to deal with it."

Theo looked at her in shock. He began to stammer. "They - what? And you - you said that they didn't do anything to you. Luna, are you trying to get yourself killed? You -"

"As I said," she said patiently. "They cannot do anything to me that they haven't already done before. I'm used to punishments like this. I just hope they don't come after my father. But I'm sure he's being cautious and if they do go after him, he'll be clever enough to flee and hide."

Theo opened and closed his mouth a few times, but Luna pressed a hand on his arm and said reassuringly, "Theo, I can't and I won't ask my father to stop publishing what he is in Quibbler. So don't even bother."

He pressed his lips, accepting her decision.

"Well, we should get back to our common rooms before the Carrows start patrolling."

He nodded and they parted ways, Luna heading upwards to climb the Ravenclaw tower, whilst Theo went in the opposite direction toward the dungeons.

Somehow, Theo couldn't be as calm as Luna was about the prospect of the Quibbler. It was quite suspicious that the Carrows haven't yet taken a step to properly punish Luna for what her father was doing. But then again, he tried to think rationally, the Carrows weren't being as vicious as they usually were during the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies classes either. The dementors seemed to affect them as much as they affected the innocent students. Perhaps it wasn't farfetched to expect those creatures to be gone before Christmas.