Muggle Studies Assignment 2: Muggle AU

Jigsaw Puzzle Challenge - Action, Emotion, Character, Genre used

The A-Maze-Ing Race - bright

Friends

He had always been one of those people that had somehow always found himself surrounded by people, who had always been quick to join his ever growing circle of friends. If he were ever to be asked how he managed to make so many friends, he would have been hard pressed to give a good answer as he had never been the person to ask other people for friendship. It had always been the other way around, and he was not entirely sure why.

He only behaved as his parents had always taught him was the right way to be a good person: kind, helpful, and friendly. All through high school, that was all he ever endeavoured to be, and that was what he was. It didn't mean that he slacked off from his school work in an effort to be kind, but he was happy doing everything he was doing. Being who he was, was natural by now and he didn't even have to think about helping the person who had tripped on the corridor pick up their belongings..

The idea of not having any friends or not having anyone like someone else, seemed preposterous to him, despite his friends often telling him of people who simply did not fit in. Their school wasn't too big, but it was big enough that there were often people he had never seen before passing him in the corridors or staircases.

There was one friendless girl, or so his friends told him, that always wandered around the school. He had never personally seen the girl, a blonde they told him with stormy grey eyes and an almost permanently surprised expression.

He didn't know what had caused him to run late that morning, but the Chemistry teacher hated tardiness and he knew this but he had somehow managed to be late. Scrambling down the staircase, he crashed into someone. Both their belongings flew into the air, mixing up into a heap that looked almost impossible to sort through.

Looking up, he was about to apologize but was stopped short at the amused expression on the other person's face. She didn't seem to be bothered that it looked like she would never find half her notes in time for class. She wouldn't have even looked like she had even noticed that she had collided with someone had she not been staring at him in that odd way that made him feel almost like a science experiment, a rat in a very large maze.

"I'm sorry," he apologized anyway, "I should have been looking where I was going. I'm Cedric Diggory, and you are?"

She looked faintly surprised at his apology, and stared at him for a moment longer before replying, "I'm Luna."

His mind whirled for a moment before realizing that he was currently looking at the little friendless girl his friends had always told him about. Despite everything they had told him, her appearance was still quite unexpected. He also noticed how she didn't offer her surname, even though her father ran a fairly large newspaper company that was the Daily Prophet's biggest newspaper competitor, like most people were prone of doing.

"Loony?" It slipped out before he even registered the thought in his brain.

He watched her tense, as if expecting harsh words to follow, and realized exactly why she had no friends. If this was how she expected to be treated by everyone, Even he wouldn't even consider making friends when people treated him like they did her.

"I'm sorry. I've just heard a fair amount about you..." he trailed of as he realized that his words had managed to make the girl look like she was shrinking into herself. He hated when people made others react like that, and to think that it was him this time...

Lesson forgotten, he rushed over to the girl's side. "Oh no, I don't mean it like that. I just, I've only ever heard of you, and I've been wanting to meet you, and become your friend if I could."

Uncertain grey eyes peeked up beneath blonde hair, "You do?"

He nodded. "Yes, I believe everyone deserves a friend including, no especially, you. If no one else wants to be your friend, I do, if you would like to have me as a friend."

He hadn't considered the possibility of her not wanting to be his friend, but he now realized that it was something that could happen. She could very well blame him for the actions of his friends. He hoped she didn't though. He really would like to be friends with this strange girl.

Her head tilted to the side, exposing her earrings which looked suspiciously like radishes, while she gazed at him. It didn't feel as if she was really looking at him, but more in him. It was a truly odd feeling of being completely exposed to a stranger that her searching eyes managed to replicate so easily. It was almost like an x-ray of his soul.

It was a long few minutes before she nodded, "I think I'd like that."

Her bright smile was one he doubted anyone in the school had ever seen before. She ignored the notes that were still scattered like very large snowflakes and skipped along the corridor in the same direction to the one she had already been coming from.

For once, from everything he had heard, he thought she looked happy.