"It was just an experiment gone wrong. Your mother loved you so much and she wouldn't want you grieving like this."
Luna was sitting on her bed, with her knees drawn to her chin. Her blonde hair was messy and her eyes were shut. If it were not for the constant heaving of her body, one would think that she was asleep.
The windows to her room were covered so that no light would be let into the room. The first thing her mother did every morning was draw the curtains in Luna's room to wake her up. Today, there would be no light. To Luna, the sunshine reminded her too much of her mother.
Suddenly, she heard something outside her window. Being a rather curious nine year old girl, Luna decided to get up and look at what was causing the rumpus. Pushing back the curtains that shaded the window, Luna switched the latch on the window and pushed it open.
She was surprised to find that a small hare was nipping at the sunflower bed below her window. The unfamiliar breeze of springtime washed over her tearstained face. For a moment, she did not know what to do.
Finally deciding to act on instinct, she moved the blooming sunflowers and picked up the hare. It had piercing silver eyes, just like Luna.
Just like my mother…
Luna's mother had died a week before. She was a witch who enjoyed to cast experimental spells, most of which she had made up on her own. On one particular morning, she decided to try out a new spell that she had thought up the night before. The results were disastrous.
Luna missed her, of course. But something about the hare that she found in the sunflower bed had made her feel better.
Still handling the small creature, she walked across her room with it.
"I think I'll name you Mirabella. That was my mother's name. She was quite an extraordinary witch you know…"
And for the first time in Luna Lovegood's life, she felt like she had an actual friend.