Nobody ever looked twice at Luna, unless of course they were turning back to ridicule her. One day half-way through her second year, a third year Slytherin stopped her in a empty corridor. Within moments her radish earrings had been torn from her ears and her beloved butterbeer cork necklace was broken and scattered on the ground. As the Slytherin boy walked away laughing Luna sank to the floor, tears pooling in her blue eyes as she slowly began collecting the pieces of her necklace. As the tears began to fall another set of hands joined hers, collecting the corks that were out of her reach. When she stood she was greeted by a handful of corks and a pair of worried blue eyes beneath a shock of red hair.
"Are you okay?" asked the boy, his brow furrowing with concern.
"Yes," whispered Luna as she hurriedly tipped the corks into her pocket.
"Are these yours too?" whispered the boy, holding up a blood-soaked pair of radish earrings.
Luna simply nodded as he reached out and pushed her hair behind her ears, revealing her torn earlobes. With an almost inaudible sigh he pulled out his wand and conjured a dish of yellow liquid and several pieces of cloth.
"Who did this?" he asked softly as he dipped a piece of cloth into the cloudy liquid.
"A Slytherin boy," whispered Luna, wincing slightly as he pressed the cloth to her ear.
After a few moments the boy discarded the cloth and gently ran his fingers through Luna's hair, letting it fall over her torn ears to save her from embarrassment.
"There," he whispered, smiling faintly at the girl in front of him.
"Thank you," whispered Luna, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
"I'm Fred, by the way," he murmured as he pressed her earrings into her hand. "Fred Weasley."