Author: Thalia Kendall
Category: General, Drama
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling. Characters and situations are used without permission, no infringement is intended.
Summary: Kevin Entwhistle, popular 6th year student and Quidditch player, takes notice for a brief moment of someone whose eccentricities had never exactly warranted his attention before.
Author's Note: Dedicated to w00bies Kimmie and Mandy, the inspiration for Kevin Entwhistle and Lisa Turpin, respectively, and lovely people both. Yes, more obscure shippiness from me. You know you like it! ::wink::
Being all poor college student-ish, I can't afford to own either Kevin or Lisa. The food costs alone would drive me to selling my plasma to pay for it all, and my plasma is too contaminated with excess amounts of caffeine to fetch lots of money.
* * *
Kevin had never really noticed her, aside from that odd girl in the corner with blonde hair and odd habits. Her father was apparently in journalism of some sort, and she seemed harmless enough.
She wasn't in his circle of friends; Lisa and Su and Terry were less odd, and they didn't stare blankly into space (oh, he was sure she wasn't staring blankly, but he wasn't about to ask). She didn't seem to HAVE any circle of friends, though.
It was after Quidditch practice, and Kevin had just returned to the Common Room when he saw the cluster of 5th year Ravenclaws, Larisa Tobin and Diana Young and Brenna Patterson, tittering about something or another. Not quite an unusual occurrence, and it seemed more frequent these days. He was well on his way towards the stairs and the showers to wash off the mud (anyone who believed that Cho would be an innocent, gentle pushover of a Quidditch captain was delusional) when he heard a vague, almost dreamy voice saying "I need it back, please."
Kevin frowned a bit, somewhat troubled. Yes, a common enough occurrence. She was rather easy to tease, he supposed, and she never seemed to care overmuch about it. It was status quo, and she would get her things back sometime. They weren't CRUEL to her... were they? She certainly would tell someone if they...
But Kevin cleared his throat, and his face showed none of his reflections as he stared down at the younger girls. "A word, you three?"
Luna seemed to know that she wasn't included in that group, and stayed put, her face still serene and vaguely dreamy. The other three, all of them giggling slightly and Larisa batting her eyelashes in that concerted, rather silly girlish way, asked him what was the matter.
He wasn't sure what prompted "Why don't you lot stop picking on Luna? Don't you have anything better to do?" to flood out of his mouth.
From the looks of their faces, apparently they didn't. Kevin crossed his arms in an almost-stern manner and told them to give back whatever it was they took, and Diana sulkily handed Luna back her wand, the three disappearing up the stairs to the girls' dormitories.
Kevin went off to take his shower, not quite sure whether or not the odd one out had smiled at him right before he'd ascended the staircase. He put the incident out of his mind, though, as more pressing matters such as the upcoming game against Slytherin soaked in.
* * *
He really didn't think much of Luna, who oddly blended into the background, like an portrait that was only intriguing if you looked at it closely, until that Hogsmeade weekend almost at the end of the year when he was coming out of Honeydukes with Lisa, both of them teasing Su merrily about her "correspondence" with a certain former Slytherin. And there was Luna Lovegood, actually LAUGHING (he was sure he'd never heard it before, it was almost disconcerting now), and right next to her was Blaise Zabini of Slytherin, smirking about something or another.
For a moment, Kevin paused, glancing away from his friends towards the dark Slytherin boy with his eccentric housemate. Why was Zabini following HER? What was his purpose?
Feeling vaguely like he should step in, Kevin broke away for a moment from his friends, and took one step towards the odd couple, like dark and silver, and then Brenna Patterson passed by, and Blaise had his wand out in a flash.
One Accio later and Luna's radish earrings, like two tightly closed rosebuds, flew out of the other Ravenclaw's pocket and into Zabini's outstretched hand. Blaise gave Diana a distinctly unpleasant sneer, before he handed the earrings to Luna with an uncharacteristic grace and gentleness.
When Kevin turned back to his friends, he was smiling. And this time, he saw for sure that Luna was doing the same.