Christmas Cookies
Ginny Weasley was bored. The Burrow had seemed so quiet for the past four months, with all her brothers either at school or working abroad, and she had never felt so lonely. Ginny wandered over to the window of her tiny bedroom and looked out on the orchard where she and her brothers played Quidditch. Or rather, her brothers would play Quidditch and refuse to let her join in. She sighed, wondering why, despite their constant teasing, she missed them all so much.
A snowflake drifted past the window and the young redhead lazily watched its progress as it twirled down to the ground below. It hadn't snowed properly yet down in Devon, though the air had been icy cold and patches of ice littered the ground. She wondered if it was snowing at Hogwarts. Come to think of it, Ginny didn't really know where Hogwarts was, only that it was very far north, so presumably pretty cold. She fantasised for a moment about a huge glittering castle, blanketed in white snow. Only eight months now, Ginny.
"Ginny, dear!" Molly called from the kitchen and Ginny snapped out of her reverie and scuttled downstairs. Mrs Weasley was a little stressed with making the arrangements for their upcoming trip to Romania, to visit her brother, Charlie, and Ginny knew now was not the time to keep her mother waiting.
She found Mrs Weasley bustling about the cramped kitchen, casting spells to make the towering stacks of laundry fold themselves into neat piles.
"Now, Ginny, I need you to walk to the Lovegoods' and deliver their Christmas card and gift", Molly said, thrusting an envelope and a package of home-baked Christmas cookies into her daughter's arms. Ginny was a little surprised.
"Can't we just send them with Errol?" she asked incredulously. Despite her constant protests that she could look after herself, Mrs Weasley rarely allowed her ten year old daughter out of the house without one of her parents or brothers to watch out for her. And as far as Ginny knew they had never personally delivered the Lovegoods' Christmas parcel. It was sent each year, more out of neighbourly duty than any real friendship between her parents and the rather bizarre Xenophilius Lovegood.
"No we can't just send them with Errol, Ginny, dear. That would be rude. We need to show a little kindness to poor Mr Lovegood; it hasn't been much more than a year since his wife passed away, poor woman. And his daughter will be off to Hogwarts next year, the same as you, so perhaps it would be a good idea for the two of you to get to know each other a little better."
Ah... so that's the real reason, thought Ginny with a sigh. She knew her mother worried that she spent too much time with her older brothers and not enough with girls her own age. Knowing better than to argue, Ginny carried the package into the hall and wrapped up warm, before bracing herself against the cold and heading out, determined to make her visit as short as possible. After all, Mr Lovegood's daughter Luna was... well... weird.
Ginny trudged along the footpath that circled the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, until she came to the Lovegoods' odd little tower of a house. Ginny approached apprehensively and knocked on the door. She had never been inside before; her parents seemed on amicable terms with Mr Lovegood, but he seemed to keep to himself mostly, especially since his wife's death, and Ginny had heard her parents make some rather derogatory remarks about the magazine of which he was the editor. She had never read The Quibbler herself, but from what she had heard, it was the kind of magazine one could expect from the sort of man who owned the slightly scary front garden Ginny now found herself in, which, although it was mid-December, overflowed with bizarre, brightly-coloured plants.
Just as Ginny was about to leave, thinking the Lovegoods must be out, the door creaked open to reveal a wide-eyed girl of around her own age with long, straggly, blonde hair and an expression of calm, yet excited, curiosity.
"Er... hi... ", Ginny began awkwardly.
"You're Ginny Weasley", the girl said matter-of-factly. "I'm Luna Lovegood. Do come in." She then wandered off dreamily into the brightly coloured, circular kitchen without a backwards glance. Ginny gawped at her for a moment, standing on the doorstep, before realising she was supposed to follow.
Luna turned around and seemed to look surprised that the redhead was still there, which unnerved Ginny even further. It was then she realised what an odd combination of clothing the blonde was wearing. Her simple white cotton summer dress was wholly inappropriate to the weather outside, though if the girl was cold she did not show it, but would have looked very pretty, were it not for the chain of paperclips entwined around her waist and garish, pink beetles hanging from her ears.
Luna stared at Ginny with a pleasant smile on her face, looking as though she was about to say something. She didn't, however, and after a few seconds Ginny blushed awkwardly and began to mutter.
"Um... well my mum wanted me to give you this card and she baked some Christmas cookies for you and your dad so um..." she stretched out the parcel and Luna stared at it for several, awkward seconds before taking it and smiling.
"That was very kind of your mother. It must be so nice to have a mother who bakes things. My mother wasn't very good at baking. I don't have a mother anymore, though."
Ginny hadn't thought their conversation could get any more uncomfortable, but it just had. She felt she should console Luna, but somehow it didn't seem necessary. The girl didn't sound upset or bitter, but merely as if she was stating mundane facts.
"You must miss your brothers", Luna continued, before Ginny could figure out what she was supposed to say, as if this new topic followed on completely logically from the previous one. "I see them all the time walking into the village. They're very loud, aren't they? But I haven't seen any of them for a while."
"No, they're all at Hogwarts now", Ginny replied, latching on to this far more easily discussed topic of conversation. "Except for the eldest two. But we're going to visit my second eldest brother, Charlie, in a couple of days. He lives in Romania and tames dragons". Usually when Ginny told people this they looked surprised and excited at this glamorous and dangerous career, but Luna's expression remained one of impassive curiosity.
"You should warn him to watch out for Kashipee Ludderbugs" she stated dreamily.
"Pardon?" Ginny replied incredulously. She'd never heard of Kadibee... whatever Luna had just said.
"Kashipee Ludderbugs are tiny insects that live on dragon hide. They were created by the Romanian Ministry ten years ago, to attack all the people who wanted to vote against the Romanian Minister for Magic, and they make their brains go fuzzy, so that they support whatever the minister wants and develop cravings for chocolate cake".
This had to be the most ridiculous thing Ginny had ever heard, but Luna sounded so serious that she wasn't sure it would be right to laugh.
"I'll bear that in mind", was all Ginny could think to reply. She tried to steer the conversation back to something normal; "so where's your dad?"
"He's out meeting a witch with some very interesting information on sightings of nargles. He wants to write a piece on them for the Christmas edition of the Quibbler, so that people are on their guard, what with there being so much mistletoe around this time of year."
Ginny had a feeling that if she asked, she might get a similar answer to the one about Kashipee Ludderbugs, so she just let Luna dreamily slip into her next totally unrelated topic.
"You're starting at Hogwarts next year too."
"Yes, I am", Ginny replied, before realising it wasn't a question.
"That's nice", Luna continued. "I like you Ginny. You're not unkind. A lot of people are unkind to me because I'm different from them", she stated in an even, dreamy tone.
Ginny suddenly felt very guilty for waiting this long before actually speaking to Luna. Whilst she didn't sound particularly upset, Ginny could tell Luna did not deserve such treatment from others. Despite the bizarre nature of their conversation, Luna had been friendly and welcoming in her odd little way and what was so wrong with being different?
"I should get back home", Ginny said. "My mum's probably thought of a million more things for me to do whilst I've been gone. Maybe I'll come and visit again when we get back from Romania."
"That would be very nice" said Luna, her face breaking into a wide smile, the first real emotion she had shown throughout their whole conversation. "Goodbye, Ginny. Thank you for the cookies."
"No problem", Ginny replied, returning the smile. "Bye, Luna. It was nice to meet you". As Ginny walked back through the Lovegoods' bright, and now much less scary, front garden, she reflected that she wasn't just saying that to be polite; it was true. Ginny suddenly felt much less lonely.