Chapter Twenty-Four: A Sudden Entrance
The girl leading the tormentors looked down at Luna, who was sitting stiffly on the floor, with pure contempt. She began to circle Luna slowly, her wand tracing idle patterns in the air as she continued to spit cruel, mocking words. The other two girls, Maya and her friend, huddled together, watching their ringleader with nervous excitement.
A few students in the crowd shifted uncomfortably, as if considering stepping in. One brave third-year even took half a step forward.
The ringleader's head snapped around, her gaze a venomous warning. The student faltered and retreated back into the anonymity of the group.
If Luna had softened then, if she had bowed her head or mumbled an apology, it might have ended. But she didn't. Her pale face was set in stubborn lines, her silvery eyes fixed on a point just past the bully's shoulder. Her voice, though quiet, was relentless.
"Give back the shoes. Give them back. Give them back…"
The three girls laughed, the sound sharp and ugly in the tense quiet of the common room. This was the reaction they lived for—this proof of their power over the outcast. Why should she resist? She was meant to be laughed at.
The leader, however, wasn't satisfied with laughter alone. Luna had attacked first, with magic. That gave her a perfect excuse to retaliate, and she intended to make it memorable. Her father worked for Minister Fudge himself. As long as she didn't go too far, any trouble could be smoothed over.
She raised her wand, a cruel smile playing on her lips as she considered which jinx would be most fitting. A faint gasp rippled through the crowd behind her. She smirked, thrilled by the audience's anticipation.
She was wrong.
The gasps weren't for her.
They were for the figure who had just burst through the crowd at the back of the common room.
Elian Thorne, having returned to his body with frantic speed, had acted on pure instinct. The Sling Ring on his fingers felt warm and alive. A single, slashing motion with his right hand tore a fiery, golden-red portal into the air before him. Without a second's hesitation, he'd plunged through it, the Levitation Cloak billowing from his shoulders like a scarlet wing.
He crashed through the ring of onlookers, students stumbling aside with shouts of surprise. So when the Ravenclaw girl raised her wand, poised to cast, the sudden commotion and cries from behind had nothing to do with her at all.
"Since you're the mad girl," the ringleader hissed, having settled on a spell, "let's make you look the part. Furnunculus—AHHH!"
Her incantation turned into a shriek.
THWACK!
A heavy wooden chair, summoned from across the room by a furious, wordless burst of telekinetic will, slammed into her side. The force was tremendous. The chair shattered into kindling, and the girl was hurled several feet through the air, landing in a groaning heap.
Stunned silence blanketed the common room. The two other girls stared, mouths agape, at their fallen friend.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Firm, deliberate footsteps broke the silence. All eyes turned to the boy in the strange red cloak walking calmly towards Luna. He held no wand, but there was no doubt he was responsible.
"How did he get in here?!"
"Merlin's beard—it's that first-year! The one who stood up to Umbridge!"
"The one who believes You-Know-Who is back!"
"He was with Lovegood on the train!"
Whispers erupted like wildfire. A Gryffindor, and a controversial one at that, had just violently invaded the Ravenclaw common room.
The two remaining bullies recovered from their shock and ran, wailing, to their leader's side. They were terrified—of the boy, and of the sheer, brutal force he'd wielded without a word or a wand movement.
Elian paid them no mind. He knelt in front of Luna, his expression softening from cold fury into deep concern. "You silly thing," he said, his voice gentle. "You should have told me about the shoes. You didn't have to face them alone." From within his cloak, he produced a new, simple pair of flats. "Here. Let's get these on."
Luna's gaze, which seemed to look through everything, finally focused on him. Her voice was small but firm. "They were from you. It was my first gift."
Elian's heart clenched. A pair of his old, borrowed shoes, cherished as a treasure. "Well," he said softly, helping her slide her feet into the new ones, "this is your second gift. And it won't be the last."
Seeing that the Jelly-Legs Jinx still had her immobilized, Elian carefully slid one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, lifting her easily. He turned, intending to carry her straight to Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing. The crowd parted before him like water.
He had taken only three steps when twin, shrill voices shrieked out from behind him.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Two bolts of light shot towards his unprotected back.
(End of Chapter)
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