Narglebane

“What’s he doing here?”

“I’m not being a part of this with Draco bloody Malfoy!”

“Knew we shouldn’t have let that O’Leary kid in…”

In all the chaos of last night, Lorcan had entirely forgotten that he had agreed to allow Malfoy into the DA, but he certainly remembered now. He laughed scornfully, causing many heads to turn in his direction.

“I think you will find that, as I, Potter and Granger have all agreed to admit Malfoy into the DA, all your opinions on his presence here are irrelevant. Now, follow me,” he said in his haughtiest voice, walking about twenty feet down the corridor from the tapestry of the troll to where he knew the door to be.

I need somewhere to practice Defence, I need somewhere to practice Defence, I need somewhere to practice Defence.

After his third passby of the blank stretch of wall, a door suddenly emerged from the wall. Ignoring the gasps coming from the crowd behind him, Lorcan pushed the door open, entering into a room which was outfitted with everything they could possibly need. 

Once everyone was inside, he requested the room become inaccessible, and then requested that it provide some pouffes for them to sit on for the speeches which were going to be delivered.

Potter went first, saying nothing which Lorcan cared to pay attention to, followed by Granger, who was at least slightly more interesting. She told them that the paper they had signed was jinxed, so that no-one who had signed betrayed the group, before making a point of having Malfoy sign, which Lorcan thought was wholly unnecessary, but healthily paranoid.Finally, Granger’s speech came to an end, and Lorcan gave a curt nod to Potter before standing up to give his speech, which he had prepared and ran by their de-facto leader at breakfast. Potter had approved, on the condition that he not permanently injure Edgecombe, which Lorcan thought was rather generous. He had been expecting Potter to be far more uptight about the whole thing. 

“It has come to my attention that there has been some infighting in our group before our first official meeting,” Lorcan announced, glaring at the crowd and letting the silence spiral horribly so as to let them consider what he may be referring to before continuing.

“Last night, I was made aware of an attack by one of our number upon another member of the group. This is, bluntly, unacceptable. We are gathered here in the hope that we may one day resist the Dark Lord, should he come for us. A noble goal, and one which is entirely impossible if we are so petty and discordant that we cannot resist attacking our own.”

There was some murmuring at that, both at Lorcan referring to Voldemort as ‘the Dark Lord,’ and about who had attacked who.

“Miss Edgecombe, please stand,” Lorcan called out after the muttering had died down. Trembling, Edgecombe got to her feet, looking warily at Lorcan.

“Would you care to explain why you attacked Miss Lovegood last night, considering she is a member of the DA, a member of your house, and two years your junior? Your behaviour last night was fitting for a Death Eater, not a member of the resistance. Yet, I believe you are not alone in your behaviour, only in being caught,” he said, looking pointedly at the rest of Ravenclaw, most of whom had the decency to hang their heads in shame.

“Edgecombe, stay where you are. Everyone else, to the sides,” he barked, causing a sudden scrambling as people rushed to the sides of the room, leaving Edgecombe alone in the centre with Lorcan. “Perhaps what you are needing is a taste of your own medicine. Stand at the back of the room, and I will stand at the front. We shall duel, and you will be given the chance to defend yourself, which is more than you gave Miss Lovegood. Understood/”

Edgecombe nodded, looking absolutely petrified, and rushed to her position at the back of the room. There was some harsh laughter from the more thuggish students assembled in the room, and he could hear some bets being taken.

“Ten sickles on him using an unforgivable on her,” he heard Finnigan whisper to Thomas.

“Seven sickles on him putting her in the hospital wing,” one of the Weasley twins said to the other.

“You didn’t ask him to do this, did you?” he heard Ginny whisper to Luna. The blonde hummed, as though deciding her answer.

“No, but I think it’s a very good idea. It was rather nice of him to allow her a duel, rather than attacking her from behind, wasn’t it?” was her eventual reply, which made Lorcan smile internally.

“First, we bow,” he announced, dipping his head slightly in the absolute shallowest bow he could possibly manage. Edgecombe bowed so low he thought her nose might touch the floor, as though it would make him go easier on her.

“Then, on the count of three, we begin,” he continued. “One! Two! Three- Confractus! ” he hissed, barely getting out the end of the countdown before shooting off his hex.

Edgecombe managed a shield, but Lorcan had already gotten off another spell in the time it took her to conjure it, and she was sweating profusely. Confractus was Lorcan’s signature spell, the bone-breaking hex, and those who had been on the receiving end of it assured the rest of the school that it was the most painful thing they had ever endured.

“Lacerus! Protego! ” he cast nonverbally, blocking Edgecombe’s stunner with ease and causing her considerable panic as the unidentifiable red spell sped towards her.

“Eviscerus! Confringo! Confractus! ” he sent off in quick succession. She dodged the first two, which was all for the best, seeing as they both had potential to be lethal, but decidedly did not dodge the third.

CRUNCH!

The noise was sickening, and the whole room heard it. Edgecombe whimpered in pain before she collapsed to the ground, apparently fainting from the shock. Lorcan sneered at her body before turning to address the crowd.

“Anyone else who I discover to be bullying their fellow members will be subject to similar treatment as Miss Edgecombe. If you’re going to act like a Death Eater, you will be treated like a Death Eater. Understood?”

There was a murmur of assent, and the whole crowd nodded as one. Lorcan nodded curtly at them before addressing Potter.

“Now, with our disciplinary action out of the way, would you care to explain the lesson plan for today, Potter?”

That he did dutifully, quickly steering them away from the duel which had just taken place to talk about shield charms, which Lorcan thought was a good idea. Edgecombe’s shields had been appalling, and she was a sixth year. He hardly imagined the rest of the group was much better than her, seeing as Edgecombe was a Ravenclaw, so she was hardly a bad student.

Lorcan idly examined his fingernails, waiting for Potter to call him up for a demonstration. Most of the group seemed unable to tear their eyes away from Edgecombe’s lifeless form, but none of them tried to help her, which Lorcan thought was all well and good. She didn’t deserve anyone's help.

“Lorcan, come up here would you?”

Finally, he thought as he strolled over to face Potter, who was looking apprehensive.

“I’m going to cast a shield charm, and you’re going to show the group what spells it can effectively fight against.”

Lorcan gave a curt nod, allowing Potter to utter a quick Protego and sidestep out of the way before he began casting.

He started with simple jinxes, which had little effect on the shield. After that, he began using some more powerful hexes, including his famous Confractus, which caused the shield to waver slightly, but it did not break as Edgecombe’s had done.

“If you will notice, this shield is putting up far more resistance than Miss Edgecombe’s. That is because the strength of the shield is determined by your focus when casting the spell. If you are completely focused, your shield will be nearly impenetrable. However, there are certain spells which the shield charm is powerless to resist. For example,” he cleared his throat, motioning for those within the firing range to move.

“Crucio! ” he hissed. The crowd gasped as the red spell escaped Lorcan’s wand and broke the shield before hitting the wall, where it dissipated into nothing.

“Unforgivables cannot be blocked by a shield charm, and other powerful curses such as fiendfyre can overpower even the most fortified shields. This is why it is important to also learn how to dodge, and consider other forms of shielding such as transfiguration, which can produce a physical defence capable of blocking more powerful curses,” Lorcan concluded, nodding at Potter to continue.

Potter instructed the group to split off into pairs, and gave them the task of practising the shield charm on each other. Lorcan watched who was pairing up with who, and observed that people were carefully avoiding pairing up with Luna, with a group of three forming to keep her on her own.

He spotted Ginny and Michael Corner paired together, and decided he would split them up and pair Ginny with Luna, as he had seen that the girls were friends, so weren’t likely to start duelling.

“Corner, join Boot, Goldstein and Patil and split into two pairs. Weasley, you’re paired with Lovegood,” Lorcan barked, causing much groaning from the Ravenclaws. Luna, however, shot him a grateful smile, and Ginny didn’t look as displeased as he would have expected, having split her and her boyfriend apart. He wondered if there was something more to that, but quickly brushed it aside to break apart Finnigan and Malfoy, and what a pairing that was, who had immediately started duelling.

“Finnigan, practice with Potter. Malfoy, you can practise with me,” Lorcan decided, seeing that there was no way these two were going to get anything done other than trying to hex each other into oblivion. 

Finnigan muttered something about Slytherins but marched off to do as he was told regardless, while Malfoy smirked at him. Lorcan wanted to punch his smug face, but decided he would settle for making a mockery of Malfoy’s shields instead.

“I did that on purpose,” he announced, casting his shield as if it weren’t obvious. Lorcan rolled his eyes.

“Sagitta Bombard, ” Lorcan whispered. A flurry of arrows immediately began to fly out of Lorcan’s wand, going straight through Draco’s shield without any resistance because they were physical objects and not spells. The blonde was forced to jump out the way to avoid them, causing him to land on the floor in a rather undignified heap.

Lorcan laughed, or rather emitted a harsh bark, and dispelled the arrows before levitating Draco to his feet.

“I would suggest casting Protego Duo in case your opponent uses a physical attack,” Lorcan advised, loudly enough that the whole room could hear it. Judging by some of the shocked looks he received, a good portion of the group either didn’t know such a spell existed, or that a standard Protego didn’t protect against physical attacks.

What have I gotten myself into here? Lorcan thought, wondering how any of them had had any measure of success in Defence with such poor knowledge of the subject.

The meeting lasted an hour, and by the end everyone seemed to have forgotten that Edgecombe was still knocked out cold at the back of the room. People were laughing, and some were sweating due to their spellwork being more exuberant than was strictly necessary, but everyone seemed to have had a good time.

Potter gathered them up for some sort of congratulatory speech, which Lorcan thought was unnecessary seeing as there were still people in their ranks struggling with a second year spell, but he didn’t voice his opinion, as he was being nagged by Malfoy about spells that he wanted to learn.

“Just wait. I’ll teach them all eventually, but I’m not giving up my time outside of this group to teach you how to torture people you don’t like.”

Judging by Malfoy’s guilty expression, that was exactly why he wanted Lorcan to teach him more spells, and Lorcan’s lips curled up into a smile, satisfied that he had managed to pick the blonde apart like that. It normally happened the other way around.

The group decided that the next meeting would be on Friday, and Potter dismissed them, while requesting that Lorcan and Granger remained behind. Lorcan begrudgingly agreed, telling Malfoy to wait for him outside.

“What are we going to do about Marietta?” Potter asked once most of the group had left, although there were still a few stragglers, including Edgecombe’s friend, Chang.

“Take her down to Pomfrey, under your invisibility cloak so no-one sees her,” Lorcan began, holding up a hand as Potter opened his mouth to ask about how he knew about the cloak. “Malfoy told me about how he saw your head floating around in Hogsmeade in third year. He might not have put two and two together, but I did. Anyway, I can’t take her because she’ll know I did the bone-breaking hex on her. She’ll still know if you take her, but she won’t have any proof, so she won’t be able to do anything.”

Potter nodded, but it looked as though something was playing on his mind. Lorcan was about to ask what it was, but Granger beat him to the punch by asking another question.

“Why do you care that Marietta attacked Luna? Obviously it's horrible, and we would have done something if we’d found out, but… Are your housemates not worse? I’ve seen Malfoy attacking people like Marietta did, and I’ve never seen you do anything about it like you did today.”

Lorcan bristled angrily at her words, and Granger backed away from him, looking frightened, but he did not reach for his wand. Instead, he gritted his teeth and breathed in heavily, trying to calm himself down. She had a point, but it wasn’t the full picture, and he’d do himself no favours by blowing up on them instead of explaining.

“Yes, I’m sure you would have done something about it, just like the teachers have ‘done something’ about it. I’ve made mistakes, I’ll admit that. Let my friends get away with things I should’ve put a stop to, lashed out when I maybe shouldn’t have. Was it a shitty thing to do? Of course, but can you honestly say you haven’t done the same?” he asked, letting the question linger horribly as he knew neither Granger nor Potter could deny it without lying.

“Whatever I’ve done in the past, it never made me feel good. Watching Malfoy bully people who I was supposed to be friends with was never something I wanted, but I was too weak to go against it. Not anymore. I know what it’s like to be on the outside, to be attacked because people think you can’t fight back. Is it so hard to believe that I don’t want other people to go through that? Or am I too heartless for that, because I wear green robes?” He sneered, transfiguring his robes into Gryffindor colours as he spoke.

“Would you have asked me ‘why I care’ if I was wearing these? Somehow, I don’t think you would have,” he concluded, letting out a harsh bark of a laugh as he returned his robes to their original, Slytherin colours. 

Granger looked stricken, while Potter, interestingly, looked contemplative, as though he had never considered what Lorcan had said which, he supposed, was entirely possible. People never did seem to consider things from a Slytherin point of view.

He turned to leave, but was stopped in his tracks when he saw Luna, standing a few paces behind him as though she had been waiting for him to turn around. Her dreamy expression changed as she made eye contact with him, and a beaming smile replaced the absent smirk which usually occupied her face.

“It was very nice of you to come to my defence, Lorcan. Most people who find me don’t do anything, or they join in. That was a very well-worded speech also. I sense you have a gift for it,” she continued, as though she hadn’t just said something that made everyone in the room visibly cringe.

Lorcan shared a meaningful look with the other two occupants of the room before turning back to Luna, concern in his eyes.

“How often does that happen, Luna?” he asked, false innocence in his voice. Luna hummed, looking away from him and at the ceiling for a while. She seemed to be considering whether or not to answer, but eventually decided to do so, as her gaze wandered back down to meet Lorcan’s.

“About once a week or so,” she replied nonchalantly, curling a lock of her hair around her finger. Lorcan felt an odd tug in his heart which he couldn’t quite identify. He didn’t often feel pity, but he didn’t think that’s what the sensation was. No, it was more… an urge to protect. It was odd, an impulse he had never had before, but that was almost certainly what it was.

He just couldn’t stand the thought of Luna going through that. She was much too innocent, too good-hearted for that. It reminded him of how he was once treated, but it somehow made him feel even worse. He had justified the abuse he had suffered with the rationale that, as a child, he had nursed a mean streak, torturing animals and hurting his fellow students in primary school and such, Thus, he had deserved that which had befallen him, even if he knew in his heart of hearts that that logic was bogus.

With Luna, that argument was completely invalid. If she had a bad bone in her body, he hadn’t seen it, and the thought of people bullying her was absolutely maddening to him. Moreover, she was just so small. She might have been a fourth year, but Lorcan doubted he had even been that small when he first started Hogwarts.

He may have been tall, but she was easily a head and a half shorter than himself, maybe even two, and looked as though she weighed about a hundred pounds wet through. In short, she was an easy target, and Lorcan was determined to change that.

“That’s awful! Luna, can you tell us who’s bullying you? I know one of them was Edgecombe, but there’s more of them, isn’t there?”

Luna hummed in confirmation, but didn’t answer his first question, instead looking away from him.

“I find the Nargles become more persistent if you let them know that they’ve won,” she said cryptically. Potter and Granger looked at each other in confusion, but Lorcan just frowned, now having confirmation as to what a ‘Nargle’ was.

“Well, if that’s the case, why don’t you stick close to other people outside of lessons? I know it won’t stop what goes on in your common room, but it should at least keep you safe from things like what happened with Edgecombe last night,” he tried, a slight edge of desperation sinking into his voice. He didn’t want to stumble upon another scene like he had last night, but Luna seemed resistant to making any changes which may prevent that. 

“I don’t think that would work. Most people find my company rather intolerable,” she replied in that same matter-of-fact tone which wrenched at Lorcan’s heart. She didn’t deserve this, not one bit.

“What about Ginny? She’s your friend, right?” Lorcan tried again, searching for other options as he said it. Luna hummed again, although he couldn’t identify the tone of it this time.

“I don’t think Ginny would appreciate me tagging along with her and Michael, or following me around while I wander the castle as I usually do,” she replied, although her tone was beginning to sound evasive. Lorcan clucked his tongue, his patience wearing thin.

“Oh for God’s sake, Luna, I’ll stick by you if that’s what it takes! I just- sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you like that, but when I saw you in that corridor, I thought you were dead. I don’t want to see that happen again,” he said, his voice breaking slightly as he spoke.

Lorcan was a deeply private person, but in that moment he came very close to spilling a secret that he had clutched to his chest for a great many years, which would have betrayed his not entirely selfless reasoning for being so passionate about not allowing Luna to wander the corridors on her own anymore.

However, he bit his tongue. He would take that secret to the grave if he had his way, and now was no moment to default on that intention. Instead, he cleared his mind, bringing up his occlumency shields to push away his scattered thoughts and focus on what was in front of him which, at that moment, was Luna, staring at him with a very wide smile.

“That would be lovely! Thank you, Lorcan,” she said happily before turning on her heel and skipping off, leaving Lorcan, Granger and Potter on their own.

Lorcan sighed, thinking that he’d really like to have a chair to collapse in at that moment. Then, he remembered what room he was in and fell backwards onto an overstuffed armchair, massaging his temples. He was tired, and would have quite liked to just doze off in that chair, but he knew from the looks that Potter and Granger were giving him that that wasn’t going to happen.

“Lorcan are you… is she-” Potter began, before Granger clapped a hand over his mouth, muttering something about him being an ‘insensitive wart,’ which Lorcan seemed to remember her calling Weasley once. Still, he got what Potter was implying, and he reddened slightly at the insinuation.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Potter. I think you’ll find that I’m perfectly capable of being kind without an ulterior motive, thank you very much,” Lorcan snapped, rather more angrily than he had intended to. Before the atmosphere he had just created could stew, he got up and left Granger and Potter to discuss whatever they clearly were going to, seeing as they hadn’t followed him out of the room.

“Oh, hello Lorcan. Did you have an argument with Harry and Hermione? Your head is full of wrackspurts,” Luna said, her smile replaced with a small frown. Lorcan shook his head, looking confusedly between her and Malfoy, who had waited outside as he had suggested he should, and was looking like he sincerely regretted doing so.

“No, I’m fine. Have you been talking to Draco?” he asked, eager to switch the subject. Luna didn’t look convinced, but seemed to see that he didn’t want to talk about it, so she instead refocused her attention on the other Slytherin.

“Oh, yes. He’s my cousin, you know, although I’m not sure he believes me,” she replied. Lorcan could see that, as Draco raised an incredulous eyebrow at him, but he was inclined to believe Luna in this instance. He could definitely see the resemblance, particularly in the hair, although Luna’s was a much dirtier blonde than Draco’s.

“Really? How are you related?” he asked, genuinely intrigued, as he started walking, with no particular destination in mind. The two blondes followed him, although Draco looked more reluctant than Luna did.

“Mummy was Draco’s father’s sister, although she was disowned when she married daddy. I’m not sure why, considering daddy is a pureblood, but mummy always told me that her family were confusing,” she answered, not breaking the skip she had broken out into since they had started moving.

Draco sneered at her, and looked as though he was going to make a disparaging comment about Luna’s family, but stopped after a warning glare from Lorcan. He wasn’t bothered about any of that, but what he was bothered about was why Luna kept referring to her mother in the past tense. He could guess, of course, but he didn’t much like any of the possible reasons he could think of. He also thought that referring to one’s parents as ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ was rather juvenile, but he had never had any to do so with, so he refrained from judging.

“Is her mother dead?” Draco whispered in his ear. Well, Lorcan supposed it was meant to be a whisper. It really sounded like he was gossiping while failing miserably at keeping his voice quiet, and by the look on Luna’s face he could tell that she had heard. She was still smiling, but it had a sad edge to it now which he hadn’t seen before. He didn’t like it much.

“I don’t know, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did. That’s not for me to share,” Lorcan snarked, quickening his pace. Draco could bear a striking resemblance to Ron Weasley at times, mainly due to them both being ‘insensitive warts,’ as Granger had put it.

Luna shot him a grateful smile, which Lorcan returned, although he was more preoccupied with his annoyance with Malfoy. Everyone had known about the fate that had befallen Lorcan’s parents long before he had arrived at school, and it was one of the only things he could sympathise with Potter about.

It was really rather violating to have people ask you about parents who you never had the chance to get to know, and Lorcan wouldn’t wish it upon his worst- well, it was already a reality for Potter, so that point was moot. Still, he didn’t think it was pleasant, and he would rather save Luna from having to endure it. 

“Draco, I think you should go back to the common room. Theo told me he was struggling with his Potions essay, which I think was his way of asking ‘can you get Draco to write the essay for me?’”

Draco’s eyes lit up greedily at that. It was practically an admission that he was better than Lorcan at something, which didn’t come often. He quickly departed from their little group, and Lorcan thought he was going to be sorely disappointed when he found out that Theo had asked for no such help on his essay. It was slightly cruel, but nothing that Draco didn’t deserve, Lorcan thought.

“That was mean, Lorcan,” Luna chided him after Draco had left, but the sparkling in her eyes gave her away. She approved, and Lorcan just smirked at her.

“Mean? Yes. Deserved? Also yes. You would have thought he’d have learned some manners, growing up with his perfect pureblood parents and all,” he joked, causing Luna to giggle. It was discordant, but musical in a way. Lorcan rather liked it. He hadn’t heard her laugh before, and he decided that would have to become a more common occurrence.

He failed to notice that his own laughter was also exceedingly infrequent - that is, his genuine laugh, not the put-on bark he sometimes emitted when he was mildly amused.

Sometimes he forgot the scars he bore, but he always managed to pick them out in others. 

On occasion, he wished there was someone there to pick them out in him, but that thought never lasted long.