A Generation of Professors

Creation Meant For Communication

Luna 

It was with more trepidation that Hogwarts and its students walked into its first creative art class. 

There was certainly less enrollment in this elective class, but enough interest that Luna had at least ten students during each period. When she had first posited this idea to Minerva, Luna had been her normal, unassuming self as she set up the classroom given for her needs.

And as she continued to set up the studio and develop lessons and gather supplies, Luna was still happy. She spent her days painting the stone walls that made up her studio room, climbing up into the rafters and drawing, painting and marking up the wooden planks. Minerva had simply sighed when she’d first seen the walls and walked away. So Luna had kept going… not that she would have stopped had someone told her to ‘please no paint on the walls, Luna.’

She thought the castle rather liked the new colours and prettiness. The stone and dark corridors were much too dank and boring for a new and improved Hogwarts. The corridor leading to her new studio seemed to shine a bit brighter when the morning sun streamed in through the windows, and cast lively shadows and spotlights on the painted flowers that had begun to trail outside the doorway.

Ginny had liked to come in while Luna was setting up the classroom, either to fiddle with paintbrushes as she chatted, or to get her hands messy when Luna needed more paint mixed up. Luna hoped Ginny would come to visit her during class times— her friend wasn’t necessarily artistic, but she took quite the… enthusiastic approach to create something. 

The new art studio hadn’t needed much more time to set up, seeing as it was s studio space and would be left mostly empty most times. It would be part of the students' duties when arriving to class to get themselves ready according to what class or activity would be occurring on that day. Setting up easels or stations wouldn’t take long for each period and year.

So Luna had taken a lot of her time before the beginning of the school year by assisting Hagrid, and learning what duties the Groundskeeper had now that they were tasked with practically rebuilding the Forbidden Forest. 

With her mind being so taken in by the creatures and plants found in the Forest, Luna nearly forgot to be nervous to start teaching such an unexpected and unknown class to returning students. 

She remembered feeling those nervous butterflies when her first class of the first day began with a group of nine first years. Perhaps she should have told Minerva to start her off with slightly older students, rather than brand new students. Seeing Luna Lovegood in your very first class ever at Hogwarts might give these little ones the wrong idea.

Nevertheless, Luna waved them in with her usual smile, telling them to find a seat wherever they liked. There was a corner of the classroom Luna had set up to look almost like a real classroom— well, like the Divination classroom, but that was a real classroom. 

There was a blackboard there, surrounded by large, comfortable sitting cushions. There were couches she had saved from the old Hufflepuff common room, before Neville and Hannah had redone it. A couple armchairs from Ravenclaw tower, and a large carpet Harry had given her from Gryffindor— and Luna’s ‘classroom’ was complete. 

The first years looked at the comfy-looking corner with wide eyes and quickly fought over the ‘best’ seats. Luna calmly guided them to find their own spots, telling them that next class, they would begin with a ‘New Seat’ rule, until everyone had had a chance to try each one out. 

Once everyone was settled, Luna sat on her own stool set by the blackboard. It had been nearly thrown out from the Greenhouses, but Luna had saved it and painted over it. It now had delightful little renditions of vines and dirigible plums that climbed up the legs. 

“Good morning everyone,” Luna greeted, her voice sounding a bit breathy even to her ears. Was that what she sounded like to everyone else? Ginny telling her she sounded like she constantly drank Trelawney’s special tea made a bit more sense now.

“Good morning, Professor,” the first years all responded, as they were taught to do.

Luna gave them all kind smiles, “Lovely, well done all of you. However, like a few of your new professors may tell you, I am not technically a ‘professor’. You are welcome to still call me one, but I would prefer Miss Lovegood.”

When she received nods from them all, Luna went through the class to learn their names, obviously not knowing new students yet. 

“Excellent,” she folded her hands in her lap, ignoring the little Wrackspurt she heard zipping past her ear, “Welcome class, to your first Art and Creation Class. 

“It may seem odd at first since this is your first class today, but you will discover this class will be much different than your others. Firstly, the work done in this class is considered for marks and will be shown on your official transcripts. If you signed up for this class believing it to be easy,” Luna grins a bit, catching two boys to her left side-eyeing one another, “you may find yourself working a bit harder to ensure you are still passing this class.”

“Another thing to know is this class will be using both magical and muggle forms of art. I believe both are wonderful forms of relaxation and each has its merits when creating.”

A little hand popped up into the air, so Luna paused to nod at them, “Yes?”

“Um,” the little first year paused and stuttered a bit as they introduced themselves, “Uh— Stormborne, miss. I was wondering, in the signup for this class, it also mentioned a therapy class? But I didn’t see it in the class list…”

Luna’s heart thudded, “Yes, there were talks of it. Headmistress McGonagall wished to wait until the first week of classes was over to see how much interest there would be in such a thing. Basically, I’m hoping to run an after-class art session that is free for all students, whether they take my regular class or not. During this, I would run a sort of free-time art therapy, to allow any who wishes to spend time quietly. I find, when I am creating something, my mind doesn’t wander away as often as it usually does.”

Luna smiles again, and this time, the first years all smile back. Even though they hadn't been in attendance at Hogwarts last year didn’t mean they didn’t feel some of the repercussions of the damage done to the castle and its inhabitants. 

Stomrborne nodded determinedly, “Well, I’d leave my name down if you wanted us to make a petition for McGonagall. I like drawing.” 

Luna didn’t ask any questions. Asking someone why they wanted to join a class labelled as one for therapy wasn’t kind or necessary. She agreed and waved her wand at the blackboard, where a small scroll of parchment paper unrolled itself, much to the wide-eyed glee of the first years.

“Very well, I'll leave this up here, and if you wish to add your name you may.”

“Now,” Luna stands and draws closer to her blackboard, lifting the chalk and beginning to write out her instruction for the class. Most professors and her friends, she had been amused to find, preferred to use their wands to either charm the chalk or write using magic. Luna much preferred to hold the chalk in her hand and physically write. She and Hermione had that in common. 

“Our task today is simple: I’d like everyone here to find a partner and sit facing them around the classroom. You will be working at the same time, so make sure you are paying attention to your work as well as sitting still enough for your partner to work efficiently as well. This is meant to be an exercise in steadiness, relaxation and becoming more comfortable with drawing. 

“You may use any of the muggle or magical supplies: though pick something you will not need to continually dip into a pot, so I would suggest a muggle pen or inked marker. You will be drawing one another’s faces, to the best of your abilities.”

At the nervous looks from the students, Luna had to chuckle, “I promise that no one’s work is going to look anything like a person, so don’t focus on perfection. I’m not looking for a portrait to hang in the stairways.”

This made them relax a bit more, so Luna began partnering up the students. Since there was a odd number, Luna ended up partnering herself up with one of the boys who had been sitting near his friend before. He was a rather tall Ravenclaw boy, and looked forlornly after his Gryffindor friend when the other boy left with his own partner to get set up. 

“Don’t worry,” Luna whispered to him, gaining his attention as she leaned in a bit, “when we switch partners, I’ll get him back for you.”

The boy blushed but gave her a grin, and they settled down where he led her to a small section of carpeted floor. Luna set up a tempus charm to signal when the first fifteen minutes were up and called for the class to begin. 

What followed was a mostly quiet classroom, as her students attempted to focus on their work while also not moving their faces too much for their opposite partner. Luna could hear the scratching and gliding of pencils, markers and enchanted paintbrushes, and eventually, her own lips were struggling to stay still when she began to hear quiet giggles.

The timer went off, and Luna called for everyone to reveal their portraits to their partners. What happened next had her laughing aloud with the rest of her class, as everyone got their first look at what was meant to be a picture of themselves. 

With everyone laughing now, Luna set up the new partners and had them do it all over again. This time with a new stipulation, that she was only giving them ten minutes and they were now told they could not look away from their partner's face.

A confused Hufflepuff girl shot her hand up as she sat down across from her new partner, an equally tiny Gryffindor girl, “But miss, how will we know what we’re drawing?”

Luna grinned, “Well, you’ll need to work a bit slower and draw with your eyes.”

That gained more confusion, so Luna gave them a small example. She propped her pad of paper up on an easel and drew her new partner while keeping her eyes completely on the young girl. 

The rest of the class watched as Luna moved her wrist and hand whenever her eyes drifted to a new spot on the girl’s face until eventually there was a wonky and misformed-looking portraiture left behind. 

Luna stepped back with a flourish, presenting her drawing like it was an impeccable piece of art. A few of the boys in the back gave her a round of sarcastic applause, to which she bowed.

“Easy, yes? Now, let’s see your attempts.”

After that timer went off, patterns were showing one another their drawing immediately and falling over in laughter at the even worse attempt at a portrait. With enough time for one more round, Luna allowed them to look at their drawings again and gave them the full fifteen minutes once more. 

And like she had planned, the entire class took more time but were not as tense as they had been for the first round, and ended up each making something at least as passable as the person they were drawing. 

“Very well done, everyone!” Luna congratulated, believing it was always best to congratulate another’s art, whether or not it was fine or particularly odd. “You’ve all done wonderfully today! Please find one of the empty files from the table in the center of the room to slide your works into for the time being. I’d like to look over them all before our next class together. And leave your names on the fronts!”

The first years were all gone in the next five minutes, calling out cheery goodbyes to Miss Lovegood as they left a slightly disarrayed pile of artwork behind for her. 

Luna sighed happily into the quiet, finding the disorganization and subtle mess left behind truly wonderful. She barely bothered to clean up, as her next class wouldn’t be until after lunch. And she purposefully left the little smear of red paint someone had left in one corner of the floor. It just left one less space for her to paint later. 

And her smile was quite happy and wide when she counted nine neat little signatures on the parchment attached to the board.

-~-~-~-

Luna did the same for each of her classes that week. And when her two seventh/eighth years came in— Dean Thomas and Padma Patil— Luna adjusted the lesson so the three of them had their own mirrors, and drew their own faces. Of course, Dean and Padma were already quite competent artists but found the exercise very relaxing and the three enjoyed chatting while they drew. 

Luna quite adored the versions of themselves the three of them ended up with. Dean had used an entire rainbow of pastels for himself, each eye, ear and lip a different colour. Padma had used charcoal and erased the pieces of her face to create a negative of her portrait. Luna had enjoyed dipping her fingers straight into the paint pots, creating a bigger mess than most of her other classes had managed. 

First thing next week when her first years came back in for their second class, the nine students walked into each year’s attempt at a portrait drawing clipped up on the wide stone wall unadorned with a painting from Miss Lovegood or windowed. It made for a lovely, cohesive art piece, showing all the misformed faces of Hogwarts Art and Creation Classes. 

-~-~-~-

A month into school, and Luna proudly thrust an entire roll of parchment worth of student signatures, who wished for Miss Lovegood to open her classroom for therapeutic use.

Minerva glanced up from whatever she was currently signing, saw the parchment and twisted her lips up into a smile.

“Very well, Luna. You’ve proven your point.”

Luna smiled dreamily and thanked the Headmistress.

“Are you thinking of weekends for this new club?”

But Luna shook her head, “No, I find a timetable can be quite restrictive, Minerva. I would love to be able to keep my classroom as open to students as any other professor might make themselves available. I was thinking perhaps every night except for Tuesday would suit me perfectly.”

Minerva quirked a brow, “You’re willing to use all your personal time for students who wish to come into your classroom? That’s quite time-consuming, Luna.”

Luna merely shrugs, “Over time I’m hoping to collect a few trustworthy students who could act as supervision as well. If we can have prefects in fifth year, I can find students who I trust from any year to take care of my space.”

And she was right. Luna asked Dean and Padma to help during the first therapy club that next week on Sunday night. The materials she left out for free use were mostly muggle, and mostly materials a muggle parent might buy for their younger children. 

There were tables of glitter and glue, paint and canvas. Pots of premixed and unmixed colours, little shells Luna had picked up by the Black Lake, and harmless twigs and leaves she’d scooped up from the Forest. 

Her entire first and second-year classes showed up that first night, excitedly using as much and as many of the things Luna had out for them to play with. A couple of the third and fourth year showed up, and no one from the sixth. 

But Luna had faith that would change. After all, students had to manage their other classes as well, and she never assumed the classroom would be filled every evening. 

So with the help and guidance of Dean, Padma and Miss Lovegood, the little artists who came to the very first evening of Art Therapy Club enjoyed creating rather funny looking paintings with little to no purpose behind them other than to enjoy the process.

The next night was the same, only with fewer students. It still made Luna glad, since she got to then spend more time with individual students and got to ask how they were doing in their other classes. There were a shy few younger students who told the kind Miss Lovegood that they miiiight be procrastinating  Transfiguration homework to come here. So Luna allowed them to finish their project and then kindly told them to bugger off to do their other work.

It seemed to set a precedent for the rest of the students who continually used Miss Lovegood’s art studio as a place to relax and refresh: Miss Lovegood would always come around and talk with you, see how you were doing, what you were doing. And if she found out you had other homework to do, she wouldn’t let you stay more than an hour. 

And it worked wonderfully. More and more students came in, and Luna began to see many of her students bring in their friends who weren’t taking the regular weekly classes. Many were a bit shy and unsure, so whenever she found a newcomer, Luna would either set that portrait project to them or allow them to simply mash together anything they would like. And after that, she would see that newcomer become a regular very soon. 

-~-~-~-

Luna Lovegood wasn’t such a jarring sight anymore. Since day one, amongst all the nice robes her fellow professors and friends had adopted as their teaching style, Luna had never changed. 

She regularly kept up a rotation of muggle and magical attire, ranging from eclectic to just a bit odd, but always in bright sunny colours and more often than not, with some sort of stain somewhere.

As the students became more used to her, they also became more used to the rather amusing sight of the other professor occasionally poking or prodding at Miss Lovegood’s outfits. 

For example, the first time Professor Potter had sat down next to Miss Lovegood, the students who were watching were a bit dumbfounded when Potter just reached over casually and pulled out a paintbrush from amongst the curly blonde hair. Miss Lovegood had laughed in that lovely tinkling sound of hers and taken the brush to tuck into her pockets.

Miss Weasley was most often picking at spots of paint on Miss Lovegood’s skin. Many of the Weasleys (Ron, Fred and George) would laugh if they passed Miss Lovegood and call her closer to then pick anything from brushes, pencils, clay or paper from her hair or skirt. One time, George Weasley found a Bowtruckle attempting to make quite the nest in her hair. 

Miss Lovegood began using the large fluffy muggle devices she called ‘scrunchies’ to pull back her hair when in her Art and Creation Class, or when assisting Hagrid in Care of Magical Creatures. It worked better, but the other professors still managed to pull things from the ponytail or bun from time to time. 

It was very humanizing, to see one’s teacher acting so casually and freely, and Hogwarts grew to care a great deal for the ever-lovely Miss Lovegood.

-~-~-~-

More sixth, seventh and eighth year students began to come as well. Luna wasn’t sure if it was just curiosity or the fact that more times than not many younger students would come to Luna in the corridors or the Great Hall (and sometimes running at her through the fields when they spotted her coming out of the Forbidden Forest) to show her their most recent work of art. And sometimes, Luna had already seen them because she’d been the one supervising the art studio on that night, but sometimes they were brand new. 

But every time, any student who would bring a piece of art to show to Miss Lovegood would leave with a happy, proud look on their faces and heaps of compliments and soft critiquing from their art teacher.

When more of the older students began coming more regularly, Luna began to stock up the more intricate and complicated materials to use. Years three, two and one were also told these certain materials and products were not to be used unless during regular Art and Creation Class where Miss Lovegood could properly teach how to use them.

With the older students, things were more intuitive or easily explained in a few minutes. Oil paints were complicated and smelled terrible, but Luna found many a small canvas—beautiful skylines, fields and plant life— left behind the morning after a Therapy Club. Charcoals were more common, and oftentimes left behind ghostly handprints and entire booklets of quick to intricate sketches. Small clay sculptures were not as common, as the younger years were also allowed access to the clay, but Luna allowed the older grades to fire their sculptures (safely and only when a teacher was around to ensure the Incendio did not get out of hand).

By Christmas, Luna’s art studio held quite the collection of finished (and half-finished) art from nearly every student in Hogwarts. Harry had to help her come up with a filing system of sorts to keep everyone’s art in order without mixing them up with someone else’s. There was now a rather boring-looking ‘filing cabinet’ (Harry had tried to explain the use of muggle filing cabinets, but Luna was too bored to remember what they were about) in the corner Luna kept her own small desk. 

Her desk was mostly where she did her own paintings, but it was also where she had to mark her student’s homework, so it made sense for the filing cabinet to go there. (It would also look lovely there once her paintbrushes got a hold of it). Harry was so kind as to have Hermione cast an Extension Charm on the filing cabinet, so when it opened, Luna simply had to accio a students ‘file’ to retrieve or leave a new piece of art. 

With the influx of students coming to spend time just creating for pleasure rather than grades, Luna also found there was a lot of overnight art being done by sleepless students. Not one to chastise someone for using art as a means to clear one's mind on rough nights, Luna did have to come up with something to make up for the heavier use of art supplies. 

So for a couple of weeks, Luna taught her students how to make paint. Muggle paint and magical paint used many similar things, seeing as natural pigments were used in some potions as well. Which is how Luna roped George and Fred into collecting a few things for her when they took their own classes outside for foraging classes. 

She also took some of her more trustworthy students and showed them how to enchant inks and alcohol-based muggle markers to last longer and how to properly store them. After a couple weeks of work, the art studio became a bit more self-sufficient and could easily handle a few late-night creators. 

Luna was delighted to find that her class was not lost in the shuffle when it came to visiting Professors or guest speakers. Bill once wandered in, wondering if Luna had an extra hair tie for him before he made his way down to Potions to help the twins. It was then a highly amused George who had to come up and find Bill, who was now very late for Potions, to find his eldest brother fingers deep in paint and making a group of little second years laugh at his truly terrible painting. (And they all laughed when he then left with a fluffy, bright green scrunchie in his hair.)

Ginny did in fact like to come and join Luna’s classes— nearly as often as she visited Harry’s. Most of the time, Ginny stuck to clay or play dough, finding she enjoyed kneading or pushing her hands to work rather than being delicate or careful when holding a pencil or brush. 

Harry came in once or twice when he didn’t have class. At first, it was to visit with Luna and watch the students paint, but eventually, Luna talked him into colouring in pre-drawn pictures Luna had made up while they talked. Many of her students enjoyed just colouring with the little stubs of wax called crayons, and it seemed this relaxing and mindless action was quite calming to the new Deputy Headmaster. 

Somehow Luna managed to talk Hermione into coming by one afternoon, fitting her in between her many duties. And Hermione was much like Harry, in that she had hoped to just sit and chat with Luna, and watch the students draw. But then Luna decided to show her class typography with these beautiful muggle quills and fountain pens, and Hermione stayed for nearly two hours slowly tracing and writing out in beautiful fonts. 

Fred and George… were as naturally chaotic with paint as they were with Charms and Potions. Luna tried to make sure they didn’t come by every time she planned to paint with her second or first years. It didn’t usually end up being a very productive class if they did.

One time Luna was quite amused to see Flitwick wander by casually, only to have the Charms professor pop in later and create a rather fetching feathered hat on a random Wednesday night. 

-~-~-~-

“Miss Lovegood?”

Luna popped her head up from her current work, wincing when her neck twinged from looking down for so long. 

Stretching her fingers out to make them move normally once again, Luna reached up and stuck her paintbrush (whoops… that still had paint on it…) into the bun at the top of her head. She thought she’d been alone— the studio had been strangely empty when she’d come in before bed— and decided to get more work done on her own current project.

“Yes, Mr. Crombie?”

The usually animated Nathan Crombie stood in front of her workbench, looking a bit less cheerful and a lot more melancholy. He shuffled on his feet while Luna waited patiently. She wasn’t normally the teacher students went to when they had a problem to solve. Most times that was Harry or Neville, and most times it was because Luna sent them that way. Those two had always been good listeners when Luna had needed an ear.

But Mr. Crombie had decided to seek out Luna, and she wasn’t going to undermine that decision by suggesting he go elsewhere. 

“Mr. Crombie, did you want to colour with me a moment? I find my fingers still want to move, regardless of how long they’ve been holding a brush.”

Luna smiled serenely, and it seemed to relax the young boy. Luna set aside her painting— a small watercolour of the Forest’s edge for Hagrid— and pulled the stack of pre-drawn outlines and the tin of crayons. 

Allowing Nathan to pick first, Luna commended his choice, “I quite like the hippogriff one myself, but I think I’ll choose the Niffler today,” and set to colouring. 

It took nearly ten minutes of silent colouring before Nathan was relaxed enough to actually mention why he’d come to the studio.

“Miss Lovegood, how do you stay so…” Nathan struggled to come up with the right word, so Luna smiled in that way of hers and offered one up for him.

“Odd?”

Nathan looked stricken and hurried to say, “No! No, no that’s not what I was— I meant, you’re always so calming and nice. The other day Kane knocked over that entire table of fresh paint and you just laughed! I was here last year, you know. I saw you before you disappeared and then when you came back… and I never saw you stop smiling.”

Luna pauses her colouring for once but doesn’t look away from the half-coloured Niffler. Perhaps a small stripe of purple would make it look…

She shook her head. And put down her crayon before looking up into Nathan Crombie’s eyes. The fifth year Hufflepuff looked a bit shocked and a tad uncomfortable to see his favourite teacher’s eyes misty. 

Luna whispered, “I did stop smiling. Sometimes. When there was no one else around for me to stay happy for. I was locked in a cage for a lot of that year, did you know that? But there were others there too, and I stayed the way I am for them. They told me they liked it that I never stopped smiling either— they said it made them want to keep smiling, or at least stay positive so that I could too.”

Her next breath comes out in a stutter, “But Nathan, I did stop smiling. When I tried to sleep, or I was holding someone’s hand… if they blinked, just for a moment, I would stop smiling. Just to give myself a moment to realize it was ok not to. Staying positive and happy is one thing, but only doing it for the sake of your friends is an entirely different one.”

Nathan stared at her, seeming to be waiting for something. And Luna wasn’t sure what, but he looked like he needed her to keep going. To say it, whatever it was.

So she tried, “Art has always made me happy. My mother taught me to draw when I was very little, and I just kept doing it because it was something for people to see me do, and understand me. I’ve always been odd, Mr. Crombie. Just ask my friends. And when the war started and those people were losing hope, I didn’t want to lose mine. Even if it felt like the easier thing to do. Staying positive, in a tragic sort of way, helped me keep going.”

“In other cases, it made things worse. When I stopped smiling then, it felt like I would never start up again. My art wasn’t there for me while I was on the run because there were more important things. The only way I could help people and for them to see me was by smiling. Because somehow, a smile from me seemed to help others just as much as my art helped me.”

Luna takes a breath. She’d never actually said this out loud before. It was oddly cathartic. 

Nathan was still frowning, but he didn’t seem as troubled as before. If Luna had to guess, she would say he looked a bit seen as well. 

“My… my sister’s like that. Like you,” he whispers. Luna picks up her crayon again, adding that purple stripe she’d thought of before. 

“Like me?” She asks, once more in that breathy voice Ginny likes to poke fun at her from time to time. 

Nathan nods, “She… she smiled all the time too.”

Luna nods, again smiling at her student, though this one (like many of her smiles nowadays) was real, “Is she odd like me as well?”

Nathan swallowed thickly, making his own purple stripe on his page, colouring in the entire feather, “S-she was… a bit, I suppose.”

“Ah,” Luna says quietly, recognizing the past tense. She had no idea if his sister had been at Hogwarts when Luna herself had been, but she couldn’t recall another Crombie at the school.

When Nathan stayed quiet this time, Luna decided to be a bit brave and laid her hand over the top of the half-coloured hippogriff to get Nathan’s attention.

He looked up again, and his eyes were wet as well now, “How do you stay so happy, Miss Lovegood?”

Luna smiled, teeth, tongue and all— it felt sunny and happy, and for once, it was free of that usual ‘up-in-the-clouds’ dreaminess Luna Lovegood was known for.

She allows this sad student to see the real her, the newly bold and self-sufficient Luna Lovegood that could teach an entire class in one moment and go traipsing through the Forbidden Forest in the next. The Luna that had more friends than she had fingers. The Luna that had fought for her friends and family, and for the school she now called home. 

Luna lets this student— who is also grieving and trying to find himself again in the same way Luna and so many others have had to, who is looking to Luna for guidance and with a little ray of hope in his eyes— she lets him see her.

And Luna says in that dreamy way of hers, “I smile, Mr. Crombie. I smile for me.”