Dancing by the Lake at Midnight
Midnight had fallen silent at the Hogwarts Academy. The wall lamps in the castle corridors glowed with a dim, yellow light, a thin layer of mist floated on the surface of the Black Lake, and even the wind in the Forbidden Forest seemed to have subsided.
After dealing with a bunch of trivial matters in Slytherin, Su Yu strolled alone along the stone path by the lake to clear her mind, the hem of her clothes gently fluttering in the cool night breeze.
Turning past the giant beech trees on the lakeshore, a slender, light-gold figure suddenly came into view.
It's Luna Lovegood.
Unlike the other students, she didn't return to Ravenclaw Tower on time. Her bare feet shone on the cool, damp cobblestones, her long silver hair loosely draped over her shoulders, and the carrot earrings still dangled from her ears. She held a tattered copy of "The Quibbler" in her arms, her gaze vacant as she watched the seaweed floating on the lake and murmured to herself, as if chatting with an unseen shapeshifter in the water.
Hearing footsteps, Luna slowly turned around. Her misty, light-colored eyes showed no surprise, but instead curved into a gentle smile. Her voice was as soft as the mist rising from a lake. "Su Yu, House-elf woven from moonlight hide by the lake at night. Are you here to keep them company too?"
Su Yu stopped in his tracks, looking at her as if she were completely undisturbed by the darkness and forever detached from worldly affairs, and his heart inexplicably calmed down.
"I just couldn't sleep. I didn't expect to run into you here. Why aren't you going back to the tower?"
"The tower is too noisy, full of everyone's thoughts about Quidditch and exams. It will drown out the whispers of the nocturnal creatures." Luna tiptoed on her bare toes, her skirt swaying gently with the movement. She didn't expose Su Yu's clumsy lie. Just as the two of them understood each other, their laughter gently caressed the lake.
"I just heard the wind humming a beautiful tune, but unfortunately, no one is here to move along with it."
As soon as the words were spoken, a gentle evening breeze rustled through the treetops, and an unknown night bird chirped softly in the woods. The sound of the wind intertwined to create a soothing and ethereal melody, free from any noise, naturally becoming a silent dance.
Luna looked up at Su Yu, her eyes shimmering with moonlight. Without a trace of shyness or restraint, she extended a straightforward and sincere invitation. "Want to dance with me? The moonlight will be our stage, the lake our accompaniment. We don't need to follow those rigid rules of the ball."
Su Yu walked slowly to her, bent down slightly, and gently took her slender, cool hand in his.
Luna's fingertips carried the faint scent of ink from the pages of a book, their touch soft to the touch. She knew nothing of formal waltz steps, her movements free and unrestrained, sometimes lightly touching her toes, even placing her small feet directly on Su Yu's leather shoes, yet unexpectedly blending in with the ethereal and tranquil atmosphere of the lakeside late at night.
She doesn't deliberately follow the dance steps. Sometimes she spins gently, her long silver hair swinging in a light silver arc, her carrot earrings swaying gently in the air; sometimes she lets go of Su Yu's hand, takes two steps back, opens her arms, and chases the evening breeze that sweeps across the lake, her light-colored eyes filled with pure joy; occasionally she stumbles half a step, but she just smiles slightly with her eyes curved, without the slightest embarrassment.
Su Yu followed her casual rhythm, slowing down her movements to accommodate her light and ethereal pace.
There were no glamorous gowns, no noisy music, only the hazy moonlight at midnight, the surging waves, and the gentle breeze through the forest.
Luna would occasionally turn her head to share with Su Yu the strange sights she had seen—silver-scaled water sprites swimming beneath the lake's surface, dream butterflies perched on treetops, and tiny creatures with transparent wings hidden in the mist. Her words were fragmented and whimsical, yet not at all noisy.
As she spun, Luna's faint scent of dandelion and ink lingered around Su Yu. Her soft laughter, like raindrops falling on a lake, dispelled the somberness of being alone in the dead of night.
After jumping for an unknown amount of time, the sound of the wind in the forest gradually subsided. Luna, slightly out of breath, stopped spinning, leaned against Su Yu's side, and gazed at the calm, still Black Lake, her eyes gentle and serene.
"This is the best dance I've ever danced. It seems you've danced it many times at the Christmas Ball, you're so skilled." Luna gently shook their clasped hands, her light-colored eyes looking at Su Yu. "Next time we can't sleep, can we come here again to dance with the wind?"
Looking at her untainted and eternally pure appearance, Su Yu nodded gently. The evening breeze carried the moonlight onto their shoulders, and only a quiet and gentle warmth remained on the lakeside in the deep night.
Su Yu didn't ask Luna why she wasn't going to the Christmas Ball, and Luna didn't ask him if he was dressed so formally tonight specifically to see her. The two of them understood each other perfectly, and that was enough.
Kurama played in the Ravenclaw Common Room until the start of the new semester before returning, leaving Su Yu to do his homework alone with a bitter face.
"Hmph! Let me do that to you again next time! Now you know how good I am, right?"
The first day of the new semester, today was another Care of Magical Creatures with the Gryffindor Academy, but Professor Hagrid was nowhere to be seen this time.
"The bell rang for class five minutes ago, didn't you guys hear it? Why are you only arriving now?"
An old witch with gray hair stood in the snow, berating Harry and Ron for being late.
"Um, who are you? Where's Hagrid?" Ron glared at her rudely.
"You can call me Professor Grubbly-Plank," the old witch said decisively. "While Professor Hagrid is away, I will be teaching you the Care of Magical Creatures. Understand? Now get back to your classes immediately."
"And what about Professor Hagrid? Where did he go?" Harry, completely oblivious to the problem, asked loudly.
"Is he ill?" Professor Grubbly-Plank clearly didn't want to answer further questions about that. "Everyone's here, please follow me."
Harry didn't give up. He caught up with Professor Grubbly-Plank and asked her, "What happened to Hagrid?!"
"Is this any of your business?" Professor Grubbly-Plank had never seen such a meddlesome student.
"I'm going to do something about it!" Harry demanded excitedly. "What happened to Hagrid?!"
(Don't say I wrote this to make people stupid or to slander Harry; that's exactly what happened in the original Harry books.)
Professor Grubbly-Plank simply ignored Harry's words and led the students past the stables to a large tree at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where a Unicorn was tethered.
Many of the girls present were seeing Fantastic Beasts Unicorn for the first time, and they couldn't help but widen their eyes and exclaim in admiration. Only the girls from Slytherin were tired of riding them, so what was the big deal? As for the Unicorn, when it saw the Slytherin students approaching, it seemed to remember something terrifying and frantically darted around under the tree.
"Boys, move back a bit! It doesn't like men!" Professor Grubbly-Plank quickly spoke up, thinking the Unicorn was so afraid of men because it didn't like them getting close.