Luna sat starring at Muriel's black cat. Its yellow prying eyes returned the glare, and they watched each other in silence. When Luna tired of glaring, she spoke,
"You have very pretty eyes, you know" She told the cat. He sat there, unmoving listening to her dreamlike voice "My mother once had a cat, she had pretty eyes too. She died though. My mother tried to clone it, and it ended up with half its immune system and didn't last very long after that. My mother had pretty eyes too. They were a lot like mine actually. My mother always believed pets could talk too, you see. She spent a long time trying to teach my cat Japanese. Of course, she didn't get very far. Can you talk Japanese?"
She waited for the cat's response, but it only blinked.
"Luna?" A voice called from the doorway. Luna placed her hand on the back bone of the cat and started stroking.
"Yes Ginny?" she replied
"Auntie Muriel wants to know where you placed the kitchen knife after you used it last night." Ginny drummed her fingers on the wooden door frame, listening for an answer but none came.
"Luna?" She repeated. Luna finally looked up and stared at Ginny for a moment before continuing stroking the black fur ball.
"I placed it in my sock draw, the nargles where getting restless."
"OK, can I go get it?" Ginny asked
"Yes, but you must place it back when you're finished"
"Right" She nodded and Luna heard her as she ran up the staircase. She stood up slowly and waved to the cat before heading for the lounge. Muriel's house was nothing special. Luna very much preferred living with Bill and Fleur and having Mr. Ollivander as company. Muriel was always questioning or scrutinising Luna for the things she did. She also watched Luna a lot, especially when she wanted to do things alone like read to the fish she found in the pond beside the house or look for Wrackspurt in the gnomes that ran around the garden.
In the lounge she found Fred and George, huddled in a tight debate over whose hair grew faster and Dean Thomas was sitting sulkily in the corner with his eyes wandering over the pages of the Daily Prophet.
She strolled over to him and read the headline over his shoulder.
"Hello, Dean" She said, making him jump slightly
"Morning, Luna" he replied solemnly
"Any news about Harry?" she asked him and he shook his head
"Just another poster for his arrest"
"Oh, OK" she smiled and sat down next to the coffee table and started feeling the leaves on Muriel's evergreen bug repellent plant.
In the corner Fred and George had resulted into using their wands as a torch to see how far they could look into George's brain, not very far according to Fred's groans.
"Fred," Luna piped in "Surely you could just place an angeloid spell on the hole; my father did when he accidently cut off his toe."
"I like it" George said "I always know what way the wind is blowing, now."
"And people can tell us apart now. Dean, who's Fred and who's George?" Fred said
Dean hesitated before averting his eyes to the side of George's head before labelling them correctly and returning to the Prophet.
"See" they said in unison
"Or it could just be those hideous jumpers you both are wearing" Muriel said, coming through the door and waving her wand at the pillows on the sofa so that they re-arranged themselves. Luna then noticed the "F" and "D" that decorated the red and green jumpers. They both looked down as if to remind themselves what they were wearing and started accusing each other of stealing their clothes and Luna listened to their arguments, her head flicking from one to the other. That's when they heard a scream.
"It's Harry," said as she ran into the room with the radio held to her ear "They've only gone and broken into Gringotts!"