a/n: written for the Halloween Drabble challenge (100-450 words) by Cheeky Slytherin Lass over at HPFC. It took me a long time. A long time. But then inspiration struck yesterday and I had to scribble something down.

prompts: cloak, darkness, autumn

disclaimer: yeah, you should know by now. I don't own Harry Potter or profit from this in anyway.

But Mariella just smiled and she skipped down the road

because she knew all the secrets in her world.

- Kate Nash, Mariella

Luna loves autumn.

The leaves tumble down from the trees and float delicately to the ground like butterflies (her mum always said that if Luna could find wings she'd take off) in shades of orange, burgundy, yellow, red, gold, and the bare brown branches protrude as the few leaves that hang from them cling on to the last shreds of summer.

She skips under the Whomping Willow and the sodden leaves form a mush under her feet. The weather's a bit nippy now: it's nearly November, after all, and she tugs her patched cloak a little tighter around her shoulders, stumbling on a root in the process. Her blonde hair flies around her face.

Luna rights herself and carries on up to the castle, settling at the Ravenclaw table and tucks into the Hallowe'en feast merrily with her housemates.

(Housemates, not friends; she doesn't have many friends, really, because all the girls look at her and think she's strange and the boys aren't really into girls that age.)

Then, when the tummies are full and the plates are cleared, the stage is set.

A wave of excitement sweeps over them and the goblet burns as bright in the darkness of the Great Hall and there's a collective intake of breath and -

"Viktor Krum!" and -

"Fleur Delacour!" and -

"Cedric Diggory!"

Applause crashes through the room and Luna thinks she's the only one noticing but it almost seems as if - no, it can't be -

She pushes her Spectrespecs up on her head and looks again at the goblet. It seems to be sparking and then everyone's glancing furtively at it and -

"Harry Potter!"

Happy Hallowe'en to you all. I hope you enjoy yourselves; I'll be crying over James/Lily.

(The line "she didn't have many friends, yeah, the girls, they all looked at her and they thought she was quite strange; and the boys, they're not really into girls that age" is also from Mariella and I just adapted it. Plagiarism is wrong, kiddies.)

Reviews are like coconut and lime cake. It's good. I promise.