Luna Lovegood centered oneshot (all creature facts were found via Fantastic Beasts and where to Find them)
"Who is she?" a girl asked her friend.
"Who?" her friend replied.
"That one there, near the forbidden forest who seems to be feeding a fuzz ball."
"Oh, her," The second girl said "her" as if she were speaking of a rotten egg. "That's Luna, Luna Lovegood. More like Loony if you ask me. Her father writes for that ridiculous magazine. Quibbler I think it is? Well anyway I hear she rather fancies spending her afternoons looking for…creatures I guess you would call them. I call them monsters that should not be meddled with. She's just not…not…normal."
Luna considered her life perfectly normal. She spent her days at school learning and her free time learning even more. However, this learning was about the wondrous creatures of the magical world. Sure not everyone knows that a Niffler is as affectionate as it is destructive, or that what Muggles call hedgehogs are really Knarls, but that was not "abnormal". Luna was sure that other people had other interests that she knew close to nothing about. For example, Neville knows what plant could cure dragon pox, and Ron knows enough about Quidditch to fill up a Hungarian Horntail. Ever since she could remember, Luna and her father had gone exploring for certain creatures every holiday she had off from school. This was her life, and what could be better?
Yes, Luna was aware that those who do not know her called her "Loony Lovegood". She was not stupid. But she wondered why people jumped to the conclusion that she was insane the moment they met her. Was she an idiot for not realizing it?
"You are only as normal as you believe yourself to be, Luna. We wizards and witches do not consider it normal for someone such as a squib to exist. However, a squib will think it is normal for their inability to produce a spell. It is the only thing they have ever known. Some people are against a house elf's need to obey their master. They might even call it abnormal for a creature to be forced into such labor. The elf will reply that it is normal for their kind to see to their master's every whim. It is what they have been trained to do for hundreds of years. Luna, darling, there is no such thing as 'Loony' when you see the world through the eyes of someone who has been considered as such."
These words of wisdom had come from none else, than Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna's father. One of the greatest wizards of all time. Was it abnormal to think so highly of your own father as well? Pondering now over family normality, Luna wondered if not having a mother was normal. Harry Potter does not have a mother. Then again, even after hearing her father's speech, she did not consider it normal for Harry to grow up in a household with people who do not really love him. It was not normal for her, but she guessed that it was normal for him.
Luna sighed and returned to feeding her Puffskein. She had never gone a day of her life without thinking about magical creatures. Therefore, she concluded, it was normal. It was also normal for people to judge her. It was yet another thing she had grown up with.
The end of her father's quote went like this;
"Everyone shares something normal in common. They live. That is the beauty of life. Life can be defined as anything. It is up to the person who lives to define it."
I would like to dedicate this story to my seventh grade English teacher, who taught me that "normality" is an opinion, not a characteristic.