The (Second) Decapitation of Nearly Headless Nick

By: Emmylou

Disclaimer: Ah, the beloved world painted in a rather inexperienced manner in the following is not of my creation, but that of a fine lady by the name of JK Rowling.

Summary: Nick is turned down for the Headless Hunt (again) and finds a sympathetic ear in the form of third year Luna Lovegood. However when she hatches a scheme to decapitate him properly, is Nick ready to fix his little problem permanently?

A/N: Ah to John Cleese and Eric Idle, who will forever be the very embodiment of Nick and The Fat Friar in my mind. For those of you wanting to know about Fireworks…this is just a short little ditty to tide you over. I'm still typing it up.

ooo

Nick told himself that it was entirely his own fault. Every year he wrote off to the Headless Hunt, and every year he was turned down. He would mope about it for a while, find some suitable student to sympathise with him, and then curse the hunt until next year came around.

Last year's Deathday Party had been one of the more disastrous occasions.

He glanced over the letter. They wrote the same one every year with the same gleeful tone.

Still, he just needed to happen upon a fine Gryffindor student, make a few hints, and he'd be quickly reassured that he was a fine and intimidating spectre and all would be right with the world until next Halloween.

Sadly though, with this damned Sirius Black on the loose, the students seemed to be travelling in wary eyed packs. He did so dislike taking them on in groups.

Ah-ha! There was one, pink cheeked and alone. A Ravenclaw, but they usually got on admirably with Gryffindor. And young enough to possibly find him honestly frightening if he played his cards right too!

"Good evening," he droned in a deep, sombre voice.

The girl was sitting on the steps in the Entrance Hall, reading a magazine of some sort. She looked particularly little in the cavernous space.

"Good evening Sir Nicholas," she replied absently.

The conversation faltered a bit at this point. Nick had found women a troublesome enough breed when he was alive. Now that he was deceased he found that he couldn't seem to think of a single thing to say to a twelve year old girl.

He drew himself up to his full height none-the-less and spoke in a ringing important voice. "Are you fully aware that you are wearing a necklace made of what appears to be Christmas Baubles?"

Curses! Perhaps he should have planned what he was going to say ahead of time. A comment about the weather perhaps, or the upcoming Halloween Feast…

"Yes," said the girl. "It's never too early for Christmas."

"Oh," said Nick. "Well, Miss…Miss…er, I'm afraid I do not know your name."

"It's Luna," said the girl. "Luna Lovegood. I'm reading this article, but if you'd like to talk, feel free."

Nick found himself slumping onto the steps next to her. He hadn't needed to sit down since he'd died, but it was a nice habit to have these days. He found himself telling her the whole story.

"…so you see…I wish I could just cut it completely off sometimes." He made a vague gesture to his neck area.

Luna closed her magazine and looked up at him with the intense criticism only someone under the age of thirteen can have.

"I can see how it might be a bit of a drawback," she said delicately.

"Exactly!" said Nick. He nodded vehemently and felt the head in question wobble treacherously.

"And you can't take it off, you say?" said Luna. "One good tug…wouldn't that do it?"

"I say!" said Nick, horrified. "There has to be a certain amount of style. One can't just go tugging it off like plucking a daisy!"

Luna stood and looked critically at his neck area. "Scissors or shears perhaps?"

"They pass right through," said Nick sadly.

The girl shoved her magazine into her bag and adjusted her necklace, clearly deep in thought. "So what you need, ideally, is a pair of ghostly scissors."

"An axe," said Nick, appalled. "Scissors – this isn't an arts and crafts project. And you can't turn objects into ghosts!"

"Why not?" asked Luna.

"Well…"

Everyone knew, didn't they? That's how it all worked. If random things started becoming ghosts there'd be all sorts of broken quills and rubbish floating about the place! Perhaps she'd suggest ghostly pudding next…Spectre Spotted Dicks…

He tried to explain, but she just looked at him with that infuriatingly blank expression that said she didn't believe a word of it.

"It all seems very obvious to me," she said.

Unfortunately, at that moment the bell rang and she was forced to scuttle off to class, no doubt with that beastly Binns.

"Me at the Astronomy Tower at lunch and I'll tell you all about it," she called out to him as she trotted away up the steps.

ooo

The morning passed as drolly as it usually did. Peeves taunted Filch and the Fat Friar repeated some jokes from a fourth year that seemed highly unsuitable being repeated by someone of a religious persuasion.

Eventually he drifted up to the top of the tower where Luna stood peering over the edge.

"I say," said Nick, "be careful. If I slipped over the edge it would be a mere inconvenience. If you did it you would most certainly put a crimp in your social life. We already have one hysterical teenage ghost about this castle."

"Oh I'm not hysterical," said Luna. "I always mess up jokes. And I shan't be teenaged for a few months yet."

She stepped away from the edge and began rooting through her bag. In the end she had to kneel down and remove all sorts of assorted items to tug three large objects she had jammed in free. After tipping a loofah, an alarm clock, a bottle of shampoo, a Muggle battery of some sort, and a handful of Knuts out onto the stone flags, she finally managed to yank three axes out and hold them out to him.

"I found them in a store-cupboard," she explained breathlessly. "You see…if we find an axe that won't fall apart no matter how we try and break it, then clearly it doesn't want to die…isn't that the whole point of being a ghost? So all we have to do is snap the axe then, and we'll have the essence of an axe (I don't think the ghostly axe will be powerful enough for me to see, but you ghosts certainly will) and then you can use the axe as you see fit. I don't think the image will last that long though, so you'll have to be quick."

She looked critically at his neck again. "They do seem large axes for such a small job," she said.

Nick was flabbergasted at this bizarre reasoning as it was. "I will thank you not to pass comment," he said, affronted.

Luna paid him no heed, flipped her blonde hair back, and marched to the edge. "Look out below!" she yelled. Then she chucked the three axes over the side.

Nick dived forward. "Are you quite deranged!" he shouted. "I can't let you throw axes off buildings! I don't need some daft ghostly axe – McGonagall will remove it for me – not to mention several other parts!"

"Ooh look," said Luna, quite unconcerned. "Two hit the ground, but that one got caught in the vines. It looks like we have a survivor."

She pointed her wand and floated it gently back up to them. Nick was lost for words.

"I'll take this and try a few more tests. I'll give you a thumbs-up at dinner if all goes well…then you meet me back here tonight and we'll test our little theory."

"Your little theory," said Nick as she walked off, baubles jangling. He wondered what on earth had possessed him to talk to this small insane girl, but grudgingly allowed her to go back to lessons.

"I should tell someone," he said to himself. "An unhinged twelve-year-old is going around with an axe in her bag. And it's school property as well!"

Still, by dinner there was no notice of axe related injuries, and Luna was sitting at the Ravenclaw table alone but perfectly unharmed. He was unsurprised to see no friends gathered around her. Instead the people she sat near either ignored her or whispered, occasionally pointing in her direction. She seemed remarkably unconcerned about the matter.

Still…a lady all on her own is always an unpleasant sight and so he floated her way to enquire after her experiment and to try and offer a few friendly words.

"Ah, Miss. Lovegood," he declared in his usual jovial manner. "I see your baubles are still…Christmassy."

A few girls in the vicinity giggled. Luna thanked him politely and they were silent for a moment as students talked and clattered around them.

Luna turned suddenly and gave a very obvious double thumbs-up. The girls chortled again.

ooo

One more chapter on the way. I'd love to know that you think.