"I think I've got your name right—Luna, Luna Lovegood, yeah?"
Kasenhis stood in the middle of the corridor, addressing the little girl wearing a lion hat, one shoe on, and the other stuck up in the chandelier overhead.
"That's me," Luna replied, turning her head calmly.
Kasenhis nodded, raised his hand, and used the Pickup glyp to pluck the shoe from the chandelier as if it had been plucked out of thin air.
"Here." He handed it back to Luna, who gratefully slipped it back on.
"Someone bullied you, huh? I mean, your shoe didn't just sprout wings and fly up there on its own," he said.
"Maybe it was a form of bullying," Luna said softly. "But I forgive them."
"Mm… why?" Kasenhis asked.
"I think they're just pitiful. Too many Nargles buzzing around their heads, always going bzzz-bzzz. Anyone would have a hard time keeping a good mood like that. And really, they didn't do anything too terrible. Maybe they just wanted to help me practice my Levitation Charm."
"That's not even in the Levitation Charm's job description—that's more like Summoning Charm territory," Kasenhis muttered.
"Maybe… you've got more Nargles and Wrackspurts buzzing around your head than all of them combined."
"Um.. Yeah, adults always have lots of worries," Kasenhis said with a helpless sigh.
"Why aren't you curious?" Luna asked.
"Curious about what?" Kasenhis sat down on the edge of a hallway golem pedestal as he replied.
"Why aren't you curious about what Nargles are? Everyone else always asks what they are. Even though they can't see them, they're always so eager to ask."
"Are Nargles something only you can see?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Then maybe it's because we're alike. I can also see things that others can't." As he spoke, Kasenhis took off the monocle from his eye socket and handed it to her.
Luna carefully pinched it between her fingers and studied it with curiosity. "What does 'MC' mean?"
"Who knows? Maybe it's just part of my... natural talent," Kasenhis replied.
"Well, that's a pretty unusual gift, Professor."
"Yeah. To be honest, most people probably haven't even heard of it."
"Mhm…" Luna nodded softly, not saying anything more. Instead, she began to hum a quiet little tune.
"Do you want me to walk you to Professor Flitwick?" Kasenhis asked.
Luna shook her head. "Thank you for your concern, but there's really no need. They can't hurt me—neither my body nor my heart. It's just a prank, that's all."
Kasenhis fell silent.
He suddenly remembered something from last year—on his birthday, Professor Flitwick had once mentioned that Luna Lovegood was "strong—almost too strong." At the time, Kasenhis had just assumed it was said in the usual, casual sense.
But now... now he understood what kind of "strong" Flitwick had meant.
This wasn't ordinary strength. This was something transcendent.
Actually, calling it strength didn't feel right anymore. The word strong didn't do justice to Luna. She needed a word far more peculiar, far more Luna, to be properly described.
All in all, the Luna before him might've been the most Luna Luna Kasenhis had ever encountered in his two and a half years at Hogwarts.
Pardon his strange phrasing—but he genuinely didn't know what else to call her.
"Professor, may I go now?" Luna asked, blinking those wide eyes as she stared straight at him.
"I was never stopping you. Please, go ahead," Kasenhis said, stepping aside.
With that, Luna hopped off—literally bouncing her way back toward the Ravenclaw Tower.
And Kasenhis? He headed back to his office.
The first thing Kasenhis did after returning to his office was pull out a sheet of parchment and write a letter to Penelope Clearwater, the Ravenclaw prefect, asking her to come by when she had a moment.
Luna's shoe had been hanging from the chandelier—and not just any chandelier, but one of those perfectly circular, ornate types. Using a simple Levitation Charm or tossing it up there with physical force? Absolute nonsense.
Whoever managed to get the shoe up there had used either a precisely controlled Summoning and Flight Charm combo—or something even more refined, involving meticulous magical control.
Whichever it was, the caster had clearly shown greater magical proficiency than Luna.
Kasenhis had been following Dumbledore's advice not to make decisions on behalf of others, but this situation wasn't about making a decision for Luna—it was about his own.
If students of the same year and skill level squabbled—even ganged up on each other—he could turn a blind eye now and then.
But this?
This was a case of someone clearly stronger bullying someone clearly weaker.
And that, he would absolutely not tolerate.
Not long after, Penelope arrived at his office.
Even though his note had said "come when you're free," she had clearly dropped everything—including Percy Weasley, whom she was rumored to be dating—and hurried right over.
"Professor…" she began, then paused, blinking in surprise at the colossal machine behind his desk. "Is that… alchemy too?"
Kasenhis nodded. "Be thankful it's not in your NEWT curriculum. Anyway—about Luna Lovegood. You know her? First-year, Ravenclaw."
Penelope instinctively glanced up at the ceiling before quickly recalling, "Ah, right. A somewhat odd little witch… she's, um, not very into making friends? Well, maybe it's not that she doesn't want to—it's just that she always says strange things, and some students get scared of her."
"Is there anyone in Ravenclaw who bullies her?" Kasenhis asked. "Or maybe… students who enjoy pulling low-effort pranks?"
"Mm… there are two," Penelope admitted. "They're either roommates or sisters—we usually just call them the Gray Sisters. The stuff they pull… honestly, pretty tasteless. But I don't think they're mean-spirited. They're just… not very bright. Always messing around without thinking about how it makes others feel."
"Earlier today, on my way back to my office, I ran into Luna. One of her shoes had been hung from the chandelier," Kasenhis said. "Ask the Gray Sisters later if it was them. If they don't own up, then check with Luna."
"Professor, why not just ask Luna directly?" Penelope asked.
"In cases like this, it's better not to," Kasenhis replied. "There's no point in forcing someone to relive a bad memory just to get an answer. Of course, if it's necessary, then yes, we ask. But I'll leave that to you. If it comes to that, go straight to Professor Flitwick."
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