Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Caught in the Dust ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: StarX

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Oh, and if you do review, please no flames, but I do want lots of constructive criticism. Enjoy! P.S. This story kind of got screwed up a little, so since its slightly AU, I said what the heck, Snape is still the potions master.

Chapter 1

A freezing cold wind seemed to spring out of nowhere in the dungeon, making the students shiver. The dampness that hung in the air only made it worse. Only one student didn't seem to notice, a girl with stringy blonde hair and protuberant eyes that were staring up at the dark, stone ceiling, which she had named The Abyss. It was a most appropriate name, for its dark, fathomless features looked as if it went on forever. People, other students and the teacher, that is, cast strange looks in her direction, but she didn't seem to notice. As she moved slightly to her left, her butterbeer cap necklace jingled slightly. Her name was Luna Lovegood, but she was more commonly known as Loony Luna.

The face of a greasy-haired Professor Severus Snape came into view, shocking the girl into reality. Greasy black hair lined his equally greasy looking face. Dark, cold eyes stared at her and an obvious look of disdain adorned his features, “Miss Lovegood, does potions bore you?”

Completely oblivious to the question, she asked, “Do you know how to make a Frizzweed Potion?”

Snape looked confused.

“A Frizzweed Potion,” Luna started, “is a potion that originated in Russia. Only a true potions master can make it. It uses Wolfs bane and Frizzweed to make a potion that allows the user to read minds.”

Snape snorted, “I have not heard of such a thing, Miss Lovegood.”

“Then you are obviously not a potions master,” she replied as if the man was stupid and did not know what it meant if he could not make a Frizzweed Potion. In her opinion, it was the most obvious thing in the world that he was no master if he could not make a Frizzweed Potion.

With a huff and an even more disdainful glare, Snape spun around and nearly stomped to his own desk. “Ten points from Ravenclaw.”

The Ravenclaws in the dank, dark room groaned and glared in her direction. In front of her sat a girl with long, flaming red hair. She turned and gave her an apologetic shrug and smile. Ginny Weasley was a girl whom she was starting to consider a friend, her first friend ever, in fact. Luna acknowledged the look with a nod before turning to the magazine before her, although her mind was still on The Abyss and all the wonder that surrounded it. The Quibbler was her father's magazine. It was his pride and joy after her. In it, her father wrote how much he missed her and loved her and how much he couldn't wait to see her, secretly, of course, in the articles.

It was a code they had made a long time ago, when they discovered he wasn't able to write letters very often. It let her know he hadn't forgotten about her on his adventures around the world, and managing a magazine. She believed his articles because of that, the fact that he was always there for her, even if he was thousands of miles away, even if he had to use a Schnorkal Hogpuff to get to her.

Snape dismissed the class a few minutes later and everyone gathered their things and headed to the Great Hall for lunch. A very unhealthy lunch, Luna noted when she first came to the school, full of meat and sugary snacks, with few fruits and vegetables and little milk products. Ginny was waiting for her at the heavy wooden doorway that was the entrance to the dungeon room. Sweet, pretty, little Ginny Weasley would wait for her; she was nice like that. Sometimes, Luna thought she should be a little less nice because being too nice was how you got stalkers. And stalkers were not good.

Smiling as they walked down through the dungeon corridor, Ginny broke the silence, “Snape is a major arse, isn't he?”

Luna nodded, completely serious, as she replied, “He's a bully that should be repressed.”

Ginny giggled slightly, although she tried to hide it behind a cough, as she heard footsteps behind her, no doubt Snape, and he would probably knock off points just for laughing, he was such a depressing man. “Repressed… I like that word. It sounds like we're going to be rebels trying to overthrow an evil tyrant bent on world domination. Now, wouldn't that be fun?”

“It'd be positively horrid, for the evil tyrant would probably try to exterminate the wonderful Snifflers.”

Ginny was able to tone her giggling down to a grin; slowly she was becoming used to Luna's odd sense of humor. “What are Snifflers?”

Happy to explain, Luna began, “Contrary to popular belief here in the wizarding world, Snifflers are not muggle drug users. They actually live in the shadows of happy people. In fact, we may have one in our own shadows, but we will more than likely never know because they are very shy and invisible most of the time. Only three people on Earth have ever seen one, and they were all over 80 years old, so they Snifflers had time to get to know them. You really should subscribe to The Quibbler, Ginny, it's very informative.”

Ginny nodded, “Maybe I will when I get some money, Luna. Maybe I will.” There was a slight pause, “Then, maybe we could carry a conversation without me having to question the creatures you talk about.”

Luna had to admit she was surprised; nearly everyone that she had mentioned subscribing to The Quibbler to had burst out laughing in her face. They entered the Great Hall, but she didn't go to her own house table (she was still being glared at because of her losing 10 house points), instead she followed Ginny and squeezed in-between the handsome Harry Potter and the shy Neville Longbottom. Both gave her a quick, questioning look before greeting her. Hermione slightly glared in her direction before turning to talk to Ginny. Luna didn't care; that was a normal reaction to her. Shrugging, she turned to the food that appeared in front of her.

The seductive call of the night drew Luna from her bed. It was one of those nights when nothing could get you to sleep. One of those nights when you just want to move, run, jump, scream, and sing, anything to get you to sleep. Luna needed to be exploring. Doing something to take her mind off the world around her normally wasn't hard, but tonight was different.

When she was in her first year, she had discovered that the castle had more secrets than most books or even the residents knew about. Exploring had always been fun, discovering the unknown. With those thought in mind, Luna set off down an empty corridor, quietly, like a thief or an assassin trying to get to her target. Just know, that target was a mystery. The staircases changed more times that she could count, or rather, more times than she would care to count, but, that was another thing about the castle that she had gotten used to. Carefully, she put a hand on the cold stonewall for guidance in this new world. For that was what Hogwarts was in the dark, at night, a whole knew world, both beautiful and scary.

Her hand gripped some sort of freezing metal knob protruding from the wall. Without realizing it, she pressed down and something mobbed. A slight breeze passed her and she moved to meet a rather large hole in the wall that she was positive had been pure stone only moments before. “Bloody Schnorkleburger,” she whispered rather louder than she should have, “I should have brought a lantern with me!”

Footsteps echoed off the walls. `Filch.' She thought and stepped slowly inside, letting her cautious side take over. Most of the time, she may seem carefree and out of it, but she was still a Ravenclaw, and that meant she was smarter than many other people. It also meant that she had a little more sense in her muddled brain than to just go crawling into a dark, mysterious hole in the dead of the night, in a magic castle, on top of that. Places like the Room of Requirement were perfect examples of reasons to go in. Just, in that case, the room hadn't been dangerous, but that didn't mean that there weren't any dangerous rooms in Hogwarts.

The Chamber of Secrets was a perfect example. That was one scary time at Hogwarts for a confused first year she had to admit. Poor Ginny had gone through that horrible ordeal nearly all alone, except at the end when Harry saved her. Thank the heavens for Harry the Hero, as she sometimes thought of him as. “Incedio,” she whispered. The end of her wand lit up and she saw that the little hole led into a little cobweb filled room, and an old and worn looking staircase. The footsteps drew closer and she saw light start to pour down the corridor. Combined with her curiosity, she overcame her better judgment and walked into the room, slightly hunched over to fit through the hole.

There was a soft thud behind her, and she knew that the wall had shut before she turned around and placed a hand on it, groping for an opening. Inside, she could still hear the footsteps and she judged that they stopped a little ways away from where she currently was. The urg to cry out was hard to suppress. What if she never got out of the wall? But, she was still curious and could see her father in her mind telling her not to pass up such a great opportunity, help would probably come later.

Before she knew it, she was climbing the stairs. When she reached the top, a door barricaded her path. It was just as old as the stairs, if not more so, and refused to budge when she tried to open it. But, before that, she had tried to use the Alohomora spell. It didn't work; the door had some sort of anti-spell in it. One she couldn't figure out, which was odd, because she had a knack for undoing an anti-spell spell.

When the door opened, a large cloud of dust rose, causing her to cough and gag, and her eyes to burn from the dirt that got in them. Once the cloud had resettled, and her coughing stopped, a room with worn yellow drapes hung from the walls, and black rugs nearly in shreds were strewn on the floor. A four-poster bed rested in a corner, as well as a long bookshelf that looked as though it were about to break. Near the long slit of a window that allowed a small amount of moonlight in was a low table with a chipped china set.

The Hufflepuff crest covered nearly an entire wall. `What a strange place,' she thought, absolutely delighted at finding this strange, old room, `A perfect place for Warbogles, they lobe these dusty areas!'

But, suddenly, her eyes became transfixed on the center of the room. At first she thought it was some sort of god-like statue, but, after studying it, she saw that it was a ghost. A teenage boy ghost that, if she was not mistaken, looked quite familiar. He stood, looking at her in shock, before turning on his heels and running through the opposite wall.

She called after him to stop, but he didn't. Instead she was left standing at the door, staring at the empty space he had taken up only moments before. Realizing that the ghost wasn't coming back, she turned and made her way carefully down the stairs after shutting the door. To her surprise, the hole in the wall opened nearly instantly after she stepped off the stairs. A wave of sleepiness overtook her and she headed toward the Ravenclaw common room. The hole opened automatically.

A/N: I tried to keep Luna as in character as possible while still showing her crazy side, not caring side, but adding in a sense of carefulness that isn't fully explored in the books, besides in the Department of Mysteries. Also, this story will be slow getting to the romance, I want to introduce the characters and all that fully, and maybe make them evolve a little before adding in anything to serious. I hope you enjoyed it, please review!