AN: A drabble about when Ginny first meets Luna. Been in my head for months now and has suddenly decided to formulate itself into words that I can publish. Read and review, please!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series, or anything related to it. That right belongs to J.K. Rowling.
After being told to leave by her brother and his friends, Ginny Weasley lugged her trunk down the narrow hallway. She was almost to the end of the train when she found a compartment not already full. Inside was a girl about her age with blonde hair and rather large earrings.
Ginny was peering in the compartment's window, trying to figure out what the earrings were meant to be, when the girl suddenly looked up from the magazine she was reading. Their eyes met, Ginny's startled brown ones and the other girl's grey ones. Ginny pushed open the sliding door after a moment's hesitation.
"Hi. I'm Ginny. What's yours? Your name, I mean," she said in a rush.
"Hello, Ginny. I'm Luna. Do you want to sit down? You look a little lost," Luna said. She nodded her head as she talked, making her earrings bobble around under her ears.
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but notice your earrings. They look like…" At this Ginny trailed off, unsure what to say. Ginny sat down and attempted to haul her trunk up on the seat next to her, but after several failed tries she just left it on the floor.
Luna smiled. "They're Dirigible Plums. They enhance the ability to accept the extraordinary. I think when I wear them, others might believe in the extraordinary, too."
"Extraordinary? Like what? Beedle the Bard stories?" Ginny asked, confused.
"No. Well, yes, in a way. More like things that happen, or exist, and people just dismiss them as coincidence or something of the like. My father and I think that there are many creatures out there that just haven't been discovered yet. We went searching for Crumple- Horned Snorkacks this past summer," Luna said. Ginny wasn't quite sure what to say in response, and a silence fell over the compartment.
Luna was the first one to speak again. "So what house are you in? I don't remember seeing you at my House table or in my classes."
"I'm in Gryffindor. Same as all my brothers," Ginny said proudly. "I'm only in my second year, though."
"Gryffindor. House of the brave. I'm in my second year, too, but in Ravenclaw. I guess that explains why we haven't really met. Gryffindors and Raveclaws don't have many classes together," said Luna.
"I think we had a free period together last year, but that's it," recalled Ginny.
At this their conversation stopped and they went about their own business. Luna resumed reading her magazine, which Ginny could see was called "The Quibbler", and Ginny herself pulled out Quidditch Through the Ages, which she had gotten over the summer with her own pocket money. The two of them sat in relative silence for the rest of the train ride to Hogwarts, only speaking when the food trolley came around and when they changed into their robes.
As the train arrived in Hogsmeade station, they got up with their belongings and worked their way down the hallway to the nearest door. After departing the train, they dropped their trunks off in the piles that had begun to form on the platform. Ginny and Luna, along with all the other Hogwarts students, then walked up the pathway to the carriages that would take them to the castle. They boarded the next carriage in line and sat next to each other amidst the fourth years that were also sitting with them.
Luna and Ginny walked into the castle together, not exactly meaning to but doing so anyway. When they parted to sit at their respective House tables, neither realized how much they would end up meaning to the other.