Well, it was time for me to finally write this down because I've been shipping Luna and Neville for quite a while now and I am very fond of them. They are probably the most adorable couple I could imagine from the books. It's a real pity they aren't canon. Oh, well, more to write for me:) I hope you like this first chapter. Some of the lines here are taken directly from Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, Chapter Seven-The Slug Club, but most of them are changed, for obvious reasons.

Anyways, tell me what you think :)

Chapter One: Moonbeam

'Good morning, my little moonbeam!' Xenophilius Lovegood boomed happily as he climbed up the stairs to his daughter's bedroom while levitating a large trey full of tea, biscuits and marmalade.

'Welcome, papa, to moonbeam's humble abode,' Luna spoke ceremoniously as she took the trey from mid-air and placed it on one of her small decorative tables.

She did a curtsey and kissed her father's cheek loudly.

He laughed and took her up into his arms and swung her around the room, her feet barely touching the ground.

'Today's the day, my darling! My first crops of Honey-Spurks have hatched and they are ready to be sung to!'

'Oh, really, papa? We'll finally get to sing?' Luna asked surprised.

'Absolutely! My fresh new material is awaiting your judgement, of course,' he said, putting her down.

Luna flashed a brilliant smile.

'I am sure my judgement is no better than a Honey-Spurk's.'

Xenophilius waved his hand in a humble fashion and looked about the room startled.

'Did I interrupt a morning ritual?'

'Not at all, papa. I was just making some chains for my friends.'

Even Xenophilius, in his infinite tolerance, found this bit of news slightly unsettling.

'Chains, moonbeam?'

She pointed up towards the ceiling where her father saw her familiar hand-painted pictures of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom.

'Yes, I can see your friends up there,' he said, nodding his head.

'Well, I am making these golden chains to place around the pictures.'

'Afraid the Nargles will snatch them away? I don't believe they would, dear, they're not of value to those pesky fiends.'

'Oh, no, Nargles wouldn't take them, they would rather take my jewellery first. I am just using the chains to spell the word 'friends',' she said, smiling pleased.

Xenophilius' grin softened a little as a flicker of sadness crossed his otherwise clear blue eyes.

'Oh, of course, you do that darling, I'm sure it will be a fine improvement.'

He thought everything his daughter accomplished was an improvement. She had turned her room into a real spectacle of delight.

'I thought so myself,' she said, following his gaze. 'You know, decorating is my safety plan.'

'Safety plan?' he asked, puzzled.

'If I don't become friends with all the Magical Creatures, that is. I might fall back into decorating.'

Xenophilius smiled proudly. He knew what 'friends with' meant in this context. She was going to be a fine researcher someday, just like himself and her mother.

'Well, I don't think you'll be needing it, since you're already so well acquainted with most Magical Creatures,' he replied genially.

'Yes, but decorating might help me pay for my green houses and laboratories,' she said pensively, drawing up imaginary sums in her head.

'Only decorating?' he asked raising a brow.

'I might do some home cleaning, as an added bonus. Make sure the houses are not infested with creatures that got stuck there.'

'That could raise your profit,' he agreed.

'Well,' he spoke after a pause, 'I'm off to put on my gardening equipment. I'll meet you downstairs. Make sure you eat your breakfast, you'll need your strong voice!'

Luna nodded absently. She was still thinking about her imaginary future job.

Xenophilius stopped suddenly before climbing down the stairs.

'That's odd. I have a strange feeling.'

'Check your nostrils for Wheezes,' she recommended, placing her fingers over hers.

'No, no, that's not it. I just keep feeling we forgot to do something,' he said.

'It's barely half past seven, papa. The day has just started,' she said, waving her hand.

'But I'm sure we were supposed to... Hang on, what day is it?'

Luna frowned.

'If the Honey-Spurks are about to hatch, it means it must be the end of August.'

Her father took out her breast-watch and looked at the stars' position on the sky.

'Good heavens, it's the first of September!' he hollered in a panic.

'First? It can't be first, I would have known,' she said, scratching her head confused.

'Oh, Morgan le Fay be damned! We're going to be so late again!'

'We are?' she asked.

Out of the blue, she fell on the bed roaring with laughter.

'Oh, of course, it's the first!' she exclaimed through bouts of laughter. 'I remember Hermione's letter, warning me not to forget about Wednesday.'

'I knew we'd forgotten something! No matter now, moonbeam, we need to be as fast as lightning. I'll scrounge up some old supplies I have around the house and you get to packing your things.'

'Right away, papa, but first, let me escort you out of moonbeam's residence,' she said politely, curtsying one more time as her father climbed down the stairs hastily.

Luna straightened her back and skipped towards the trey on the table, popping a biscuit in her mouth as she poured herself some tea.

'I suppose the chains will have to wait,' she said, surveying her room critically.

She needed to repaint the walls too.

No time for dawdling however. She emptied her cup of tea and placed a thumb on the inside of her lip.

She started whistling loudly.

The air suddenly felt charged. The energy seemed to be floating all around her.

She opened her mouth wide and started swallowing as much air as possible as she skipped about the room, stopping at her cabinets and drawings to pull out her clothes and books.

As soon as she was done with one corner, she took a deep breath, opened her mouth again and began swallowing the air from the other corner, while putting her belongings on the bed.

Ten minutes later, her father came up again, holding some tattered notebooks, a pack of dogeared textbooks, a bunch of blunt quills and several half-empty inkpots.

He smiled when he saw his daughter running about with her mouth open.

'You need to stop stealing the air's energy, moonbeam, it's not fair for everyone else,' he mentioned.

'I'm the only occupant of the room so I suppose the energy in here belongs to me,' she explained rationally.

'Well yes, but then the energy needs to be replaced from other rooms which are not yours,' he corrected her.

'Oh, just this once, daddy,' she said sweetly, dropping the recent decorum she'd been applying all morning.

'Well, this is all I could find,' he said, placing the heap gently into her open trunk.

'These textbooks are from last year,' she said, flipping through them nonchalantly, 'but everything else is of perfect usage.'

'What are you going to do about textbooks, darling?'

'I will probably borrow some from my fellow colleagues, or from Madam Pince,' she said giddily.

'Madam Pince?'

'The school librarian always saves some for me, for some reason. She's very sweet,' she said, stuffing her trunk with her belongings.

'Which reminds me, I should probably return these to her,' she said, pointing at the textbooks.

Xenophilius felt slightly more relieved to know at least half of what they should have done days ago seemed to be under control.

'You'll be needing the Quibbler's special Memory Telescope and I should probably pack your toolset too, just in case you have to run some experiments incognito. Oh, the Handless Gloves! Those will come in handy too!'

He rushed downstairs again.

'Daddy, will we be flying to the train station again?' she asked from above.

'You bet, moonbeam!' he yelled from below.


Xenophilius managed to land his broomstick gracefully enough on platform nine and three-quarters without causing Luna and her luggage to fall backwards. Luna's hair however was flying in all different directions and would need extensive combing to get back into shape.

This was the third year in a row when Xenophilius had come by broomstick and no one was taken by surprise anymore, especially since he always seemed to land at the very end of the platform and he and his daughter would always have to run towards the train, broomstick under his arm and luggage under hers, making them a rather silly, but completely forgettable sight for almost everyone.

This year would be very special though. They wouldn't go unnoticed anymore, because Luna Lovegood now had friends.

'Remember, moonbeam, a bite doesn't mean the creature doesn't like you, it might mean hello in a different language. Also, safety always comes first so don't walk alone too often because the Wrackspurts are just waiting for an opportunity like that.'

'Yes, daddy, I'll keep everything you say in mind,' she said, taking mental notes.

'Study hard, but only if you feel it is in any way relevant to what you already know to be right. Be tolerant of any new piece of information until it is proven useless and don't discredit what you have not yet seen with your eyes,' he continued.

'And Luna, darling,' he added, his tone faltering, 'please tell your friends to be more careful. I am very proud of you and everything you've accomplished this past year but I don't want to hear you went out of Hogwarts unannounced again. I want to know you'll be in one piece next time I see you.'

'I'll probably be in several pieces anyway, which is not a bad thing,' she replied hugging him. 'But I will be careful.'

They exchanged more goodbyes before her father kissed her loudly on the forehead and turned around quickly to find his broomstick, which he had dropped momentarily.

For a couple of seconds, Luna looked around in a daze. There were so many parents and children walking back and forth around her that it made her wonder how she would find her way on the train.

She was instantly gratified when she saw a bushy-haired girl with sparkling brown eyes running towards her.

'Luna! It's so good to see you!' Hermione exclaimed, pulling her into an awkward hug. 'Harry, Ron and I have already found a compartment, would you care to join us?'

'I'd like nothing better actually, except maybe some cinnamon tarts,' she said sweetly.

'Hold on, I'll call Ron to help you with the trunks,' she said and she skipped into the train once more.

Luna shook her head and tried struggling with the trunks on her own. Before she had had friends, she had managed all by herself, so she was fairly certain she could do it this time too, despite the fact that it would be a relief to have someone help her for a change.

As she tried pushing her trunks onto the train, she surveyed the platform quietly.

There were many people she knew by sight. Plenty of her Ravenclaw mates too. She recognized three girls from her year. She waved at them cheerfully. They didn't make any gesture, but their eyes fell on her with a special sort of curiosity she had not seen before. She saw Hannah Abbot and Zacharias Smith talking to her left, but they seemed to be engrossed in their conversation so they would probably feel offended if she interrupted. She heard Zacharias mention the Ministry three times, but she tried to ignore the thought that somehow people knew about it in detail. They couldn't, they hadn't been there. They must have been curious about it, but their interest couldn't have amounted to much. However, Lisa Turpin seemed to be telling her otherwise. She gave her a piercing look as she walked by, almost as if she had wanted to ask her a question.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Michael Corner approaching to board the train as well. She felt confident she could say hi to him, at least. He had been in the D.A., after all and he had been Ginny's boyfriend to boot.

'Hello, Michael, sunny day isn't it?' she asked him boldly as he walked by.

He stopped surprised and looked down at her.

'Oh... hi Lovegood. Yes, it's sunny indeed. Good day for a train ride,' he said and nodded his head politely as he climbed up.

He was soon gone. She wondered why he hadn't stayed to chat more. She could have really used his help with the trunks.

At length she had managed to pull them both inside and was now resting against the doors happily.

Hermione and Ron would be very proud to see she had done it without them. But what if they felt offended for not taking their help?

She wondered if she should push her trunks out again. It would be the sensible thing to do, wouldn't it?

Just when she was about to turn around, she heard a great noise behind her.

Someone had almost tripped over her trunks.

'Oh, I hope that didn't break a bone,' she said, wincing.

When she bent down to see who it was she almost yelped with joy.

Neville Longbottom straightened himself embarrassed and smiled weakly at Luna.

'Neville! The second friend today!' she exclaimed.

He seemed confused.

'I met Hermione earlier,' she explained.

'Oh, right. I think I saw her too walking around here somewhere. She and Ron looked busy. Oh, sorry, hi Luna,' he said clumsily, shaking her hand a bit harder than intended.

'Hi, Neville,' she replied. 'Hermione and Ron are probably looking for me. They said they'd help with my trunks.'

'Well, I think they were heading towards the Prefects compartment,' he said awkwardly.

'The Prefects compartment?' she echoed. 'They were made Prefects?'

'Apparently.'

'Oh, you weren't made Prefect then?' she asked.

Neville laughed uneasily. 'What made you think I would ever be?'

Luna turned very serious.

'Well, don't they give this position to very responsible students?'

Neville thought she was being ironic and laughed again.

'Good one, Luna.'

She frowned confused. 'Good what?'

Neville scratched his head. 'I'm betting they can't come and help you anymore. Would you mind if...I helped you instead?'

'Nobody minds help, Neville,' she answered, smiling gratefully, 'and I will help you help me.'

She grabbed one of the trunks while he took the other and they started walking towards the end of the train.

Neville stopped in front of one of the compartments.

'Do you feel a presence?' she asked warily from behind him.

'No, silly, this is Harry's,' he said, chuckling.

A grinning, green-eyed Harry Potter opened the doors suddenly and welcomed them in.

'Luna! I'm so glad Neville found you! Come inside the both of you!'

Neville helped Luna put her trunks up and they both sat down in the seats opposite Harry's.

'How have you been, Luna?' Harry asked.

'Very well, thank you,' she said, extracting her current Quibbler from her small feathery purse. It had a free pair of Spectrespecs inside. She already had three pairs at home but a fourth one wouldn't hurt.

'I hope you've been better this summer, Harry,' she said, not noticing the ill-chosen words.

'Oh, it's been...an improvement. The Burrow helped considerably,' he replied, knowing not to take Luna's words too literally.

'Yes, Ginny and her family are the loveliest people in the neighbourhood.'

'In the neighbourhood?' Neville asked surprised.

'Yes, they're my neighbours. I live not fifty rabbit jumps away,' she replied serenely.

'Huh, well, I had no idea. Did you know, Harry?'

'No...though Ginny must have told me at one point, I must have forgotten. Why didn't you come and visit, Luna?' he asked, just as surprised as Neville.

'Well, I came by for tea last year to see Ginny and I broke two of Mrs. Weasley's favourite saucers. I thought she would need some time to mourn them and that I'd better wait before I visited again.'

'So...you waited an entire year?' Neville asked confused.

'I only waited...' she began counting, 'last August, this year's June, July and August...only four months actually, which is the polite period of time for such things.'

Harry shook his head both amused and perplexed, but Neville seemed to need more explanations.

'Ginny wouldn't have minded and I'm sure Mrs. Weasley had already forgotten all about it...' Neville argued.

'I would have probably not been able to visit either way because of the wards. There was no point lifting them just for me,' she reasoned.

'But you were part of the D.A.!' Neville insisted.

Harry stared at Neville, eyebrow raised. He seemed really affected by this for some reason.

When he noticed Harry's look, Neville quickly looked down.

'Did you happen to see the Daily Prophet?' Harry asked, trying to fill the pause in conversation. 'Our little adventure at the Ministry was all over it, you must've noticed.'

'Oh, yeah, I did actually,' Neville said quickly, happy for the change of subject, 'I thought Gran would be angry about all the publicity, but she was really pleased! Says I'm starting to live up to my dad at long last. She bought me a new wand.'

He took out his wand from his pocket. 'Look!'

'Cherry and unicorn hair. We think it was one of the last Ollivander sold, he vanished next day...' Neville trailed off sadly.

'I heard about that. He was such a wise old soul, I hope he is all right,' Luna said quietly.

'Me too. Kindest wand maker I'd ever met. Granted, I haven't met many...' Neville said.

'But if you had, he would have been the kindest,' Luna saved him.

'Right. Of course,' Neville said, nodding his head.

Out of the blue, his old toad Trevor jumped out of its cage placed on top of his trunk.

'Oy, come back here, Trevor!' Neville shouted hopelessly. His toad was always mercilessly seeking its freedom.

'I'll find him, Neville,' Luna said, putting her Spectrespecs on.

Harry couldn't help giggling at the sight of a bespectacled Luna. She looked like a mad owl.

She started searching the room with her new device.

'I can only see Wrackspurts but I can catch their sudden movements which should lead to Trevor,' she said, bending down to search the floor.

Neville bumped into both her and Harry several times before he identified the toad stuck between two seats on the girl's left.

They both jumped for it at the same time.

'I got it!' Luna shouted as she held it out triumphantly. The poor thing had stopped squirming completely as Luna caressed its back softly. She didn't know that Trevor was actually staring wildly at her glasses.

Neville took it from her palm gently and placed it back in the cage.

'Thanks, Luna.'

'I suppose this proves the Spectrespecs are in mint condition,' she said.

'I don't know, you'd have to try them in the dark too,' Neville joked, but this sudden idea illuminated Luna's entire face.

'Of course, you are right,' she said, nodding her head seriously.

Harry smiled warmly at them.

'I definitely missed this,' he said, gesturing between them.

'Are we still doing D.A. meetings this year, Harry?' Luna asked suddenly.

'No point now we've got rid of Umbridge, is there?'

Neville looked very disappointed.

'I liked the D.A.! I learned loads with you!'

'I enjoyed the meetings too,' Luna chimed in, 'it was like having friends.'

Harry did not know how to react to her reply as he felt the usual odd mixture of sympathy and revolt whenever Luna said things that showed how little she thought of herself.

But Neville seemed to know what she meant.

'I know, everybody seemed to know everyone even though they'd just met! And we had loads of fun,' he quipped.

Luna smiled in acknowledgement.

Harry sighed. Two oddballs usually understood each other better.

The compartment door suddenly slid open and Luna's Spectrespecs fell down her nose.

She noticed a flock of Fourth-Year girls standing in front of them, giggling nervously. She decided she didn't know them and didn't want to.

'You ask him!'

'No, you!'

'I'll do it!' one of the girls said, detaching herself from the group. She seemed to be the leader, Luna surmised. She had long black hair and a very pointed chin. Her eyes were also abnormally large.

Luna wondered what she'd look like through the Spectrespecs.

She put them back on. Now her eyes were violet and her head was smaller. An improvement, Luna told herself.

'Hi, Harry, I'm Romilda, Romilda Vane,' she almost barked out. 'Why don't you join us in our compartment? You don't have to sit with them.'

She said this pointing at Neville, who was flipping through Luna's Quibbler which had fallen out of her lap and Luna herself who was measuring her through her psychedelic glasses.

'They're friends of mine,' Harry spoke coldly.

'Oh,' Romilda said drawing back. She seemed surprised. 'Oh, okay.'

'Sorry, is that V-a-i-n or V-a-n-e?' Luna suddenly asked out of curiosity.

'Excuse me?' Romilda asked, getting slightly red.

'It's just they're both pronounced the same way. I was only wondering if your name is symbolic of you.'

Romilda thought Luna was trying to be smart. Having no witty comeback in mind, she walked out angrily and shut the door behind her loudly.

'Ha, ha, brilliant, Luna!' Neville said, doubling up.

'Yeah, nice going,' Harry agreed, chuckling.

Luna seemed unfazed.

'Mere curiosity,' she mumbled.

'I hope we don't see her too soon,' Harry said, looking back at the closed door.

'She has a point, though,' Luna said. 'People expect you to have cooler friends than us.'

'You are cool,' Harry said firmly. 'None of them was at the Ministry. They didn't fight with me.'

'That's a very nice thing to say,' beamed Luna. She moved closer to Neville so she could look at the Quibbler over his shoulder.

'We didn't face him, though,' Neville argued, his voice somehow smaller, 'you did. You should hear my Gran talk about you. "That Harry Potter's got more backbone than the whole Ministry of Magic put together!" She'd give anything to have you as a grandson, she's said so a couple of times...'

'If she really had, she would have adopted Harry years ago,' Luna intervened.

Neville looked at her strangely.

'Are you saying my Gran should have adopted Harry?'

'No, just that she talks in hyperboles,' she said.

'Hyper-what?'

'Wild exaggerations used to accentuate the speaker's meaning. They're sort of a nice way to stretch the imagination, but not exactly necessary in casual speech. Nor are they truthful.'

'So then, my Gran talks wildly?'

'I'd have to meet her to confirm.'

Neville shook his head blushing, but Harry laughed out loud.

Luna felt happy to see Harry was enjoying their company though she couldn't for her life understand why he was so amused.

'I got my OWLs a few weeks ago,' Neville said, changing the subject. 'They sure came as a surprise. I thought I'd failed almost everything.'

'Now you are talking in hyperboles. You probably got an O in Herbology to begin with,' Luna quipped.

'Well, guess there's no point in hiding that...' Neville trailed off, embarrassed.

As he began enumerating his grades, Luna noticed a gradual shift in Harry's mood. He became pensive and melancholy.

'You all right, Harry? You look funny,' Neville said.

'Sorry, I...' he began.

'Wrackspurts again,' Luna said gravely, 'I knew these little things wouldn't relent. First Trevor, now Harry.'

'Okay, what are those exactly?' Harry asked, deciding he might as well know for future conversations.

'They're invisible, as you might have noticed. They float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy but usually they just fly around wreaking havoc.'

Neville scoffed.

'They can't get my brain any fuzzier than it is.'

'Oh, you'd be surprised,' she said smiling.

She waved her hands around the air, warding off the invisible fiends.

'I would give them some powdered sugar if I had any on me, they respond to it very positively, oh well,' she said, sitting back down and taking the Quibbler from Neville's lap.

He didn't mind as he had finished reading an article about the real origins of gnomes and wasn't quite ready for more.

They all settled in a pleasant silence as the train hurdled past wide expanses of empty fields and deserted valleys. The weather had changed from sunny to bristling, but the sky seemed to be clearing up.

During one of Harry and Neville's Quidditch conversations the compartment doors flew open and Ron and Hermione walked in looking positively alarmed.

'Luna! We're so sorry about leaving you there, it was all a big misunderstanding, I hope you received help, we were called for duty, you see and...' Hermione began in a fast torrent that would allow no interruption.

Luna waved her hand lazily.

'There's nothing to apologize for. As you can see I made it and I didn't lose any spirit on it,' she said happily.

Hermione didn't really understand what she meant by losing spirit, but she let it go.

'Hi, Neville, Luna, glad to see you here,' Ron said quickly, sitting down, 'Merlin, I hope the lunch trolley hurries up, I am starving.'

Luna looked around pleased. Only one friend was missing to make it complete; her beloved best friend, Ginny Weasley.

She hoped she would be here soon enough. But everyone else was here. It felt like home.