A/N: My Entry To The Favourite Character Competition.
Dean was usually one of the first down to breakfast. After having grown up in a big house with lots of younger brothers and sisters, he hadn't ever really had the pleasure to sleep in very late and coming to Hogwarts hadn't changed that in the slightest. So as he walked through the huge doors into the Great Hall, Dean was a little surprised to find the tables empty of all life. The Slytherin table was empty. The Ravenclaw table was empty. The Hufflepuff table was empty. Hell, even the staff table was empty.
In the 5 years that Dean had been at Hogwarts, even when taking into consideration how early he awoke, the staff table had never been empty. There was even a school- wide conspiracy that the Professors at the staff table were not, in fact, Professors, but were just a series of complicated charms to give the illusion that the teachers hadn't in fact stayed in bed for an extra hour. To be honest, since arriving at Hogwarts, Dean had been pleasantly shocked by exactly what existed beyond the realms of the muggle world. Complicated charms were not an entirely implausible explanation.
One thing that Dean could not explain, however, was the presence of a young girl at the Gryffindor table sat in Seamus' usual seat. Right next to mine, he thought. Dean vaguely remembered the girl in a distant kind of way. She was small and blonde and, judging from the crest of an eagle on her robes, a Ravenclaw to boot. Dean slowly made his way towards the blonde girl and took his seat next to her. As he looked at the girl, he noticed several things about her. First was her radish earrings. They looked old and worn, as did the butterbeer cap she had tied around her neck. Her vacant expression clicked somewhere in his minds though, for Dean realized that this was Luna Lovegood. Hogwart's resident psycho, or so he had heard.
Feeling slightly nervous, (a Ravenclaw's intelligence was slightly intimidating), he grabbed the plate that materialized in front of him and began to load up his plate. Just as Dean had taken his first bite into his daily scrambled eggs, Luna spoke.
"It's quite unusual for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack to be awake quiet this early," she commented.
When Dean had finished choking on his food, he shot Luna a bewildered glance. "What?"
"The Crumple-Horned Snorkack hibernate during the Winter to evade the Umgubular Slashkilter. But this year, the Crumple-Horned Snorkack are awake, which means that the Umgubular Slashkilter could still capture them and eat their young. It's quite upsetting really…" Luna trailed off thoughtfully as her eyebrows furrowed.
Dean was still lost. "What's a Crumpy-Horned Snorlack?" He asked.
"A Crumple-Horned Snorkack," Luna corrected, "Is a creature indigenous to Sweden. The Snorkack is so rare that only a few lucky witches and wizards have ever seen them. I wish I could see one. Daddy is setting up a trip to Sweden, just for the two of us to search for them! It's going to be awfully exciting and when we do manage to capture one, Hermione will have to admit that she was wrong."
Dean was quickly becoming more and more confused. "Hermione's wrong about what?" A voice questioned. Dean turned around in his seat to find Ginny Weasley stood behind him. Her red hair was tied back which, Dean noticed, made her look older. More sophisticated.
"The existence of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack." Luna's tone held an exasperated edge, as if this was a subject that she and Hermione had argued over on several occasions.
"Ohhhhhh. Right. And Dean asked you what a Crumple-Horned Snorkack is?" Luna nodded emphatically. "Well, why don't you run to your dormitory quickly to grab the October edition of The Quibbler?" Ginny suggested.
Once again, Luna furrowed her eyebrows in thought.
"That's the one where your dad did the exposé on Snorkack hunting and the whereabouts of the once over-populated burrows of them. Isn't it?" Once again, Luna nodded.
"Well, if you go and grab it, then we can tell Dean all about them and their existence in the forests." Apparently, Luna needed no more convincing, for without uttering a word, she stood from her seat at the Gryffindor table and hurried towards the Great Hall. Dean watched on in shock for a few moments before turning back to Ginny, who had taken the seat Luna vacated.
"Well," Dean cleared his throat. "She's a bit…" He trailed off unsurely.
"Unusual." Ginny stated, in a voice that held no room for argument as Dean was about to. Weird, had been the first objective to come to mind. Delusional and strange had shortly followed.
Dean picked up his fork again, that he had dropped somewhere in his and Luna's 'conversation'.
"Right… Unusual," he repeated obediently.