Chapter One – Luna and the Floo Fae.

If you were to wonder through the Hogwarts grounds, not the rolling open hills so incessantly frequented by Hogwarts students but the shadowy areas, the space behind the wamping willow, now battered and gnarled, or the fringes of the forbidden forest, you would find her. Luna.

At that moment she was crouched within the ruins of an old barn that had kept thestrals back before Hagrid had trained them, the students rarely went there because the place had the eerie quality of creatures who were seen only by death's witnesses. But Luna did not mind. She was not, at that moment, looking for the crumple horned snorcack. She was squatting low, hands outstretched, with pixies dancing on her fingers. These were not the pesky Cornish pixies Lockhart had freed in her first year, this were a far more noble race. These were the indigenous pixies who hid among the relics of the wizarding world, who were sometimes found fossilised by muggles and would create stirrings of controversy with muggle historians.

They were finer, daintier with hoary grey wings like cobwebs and spindly limbs. They relished the warmth of Luna's fingers, latent so long among the chilly ruins. But if Luna moved too quickly they would dissipate into dry dust and fly away on the breeze. Xenopheleus had told her:

"fine friends makes the Floo Faeries, but don't antagonise them Luna, ever. They make powerful foes."

Neville Longbottom had been looking for the Monday flower, for Herbological reasons, but unfortunately it was irreconcilably a Sunday, so his chances were slim, that didn't stop him. His search brought him to the stable were Luna was crouched and from a crumbling archway he peered in. in the Sunday dusk, light filtered in through the cracks in the rafters and amongst a confetti of dust mots she crouched in the light peering at her own hands like they were the eighth wonder. It took Neville a minute to see the pixies. One was nestled into her tumbling blonde hair, leaving dust in her tresses as it made itself at home. She was covered in pixie dust, her green jumper, already bedraggled, was now covered in the stuff, and her satchel... Neville looked closer and saw that with her free hand Luna was gently scooping up the dust the pixies left behind and putting it in her satchel.

At exactly the wrong moment Neville leaned against a creaking wooden hinge and alerted Luna of his presence. The pixies flew up into the rafters with a shower of yet more dust. Luna swiftly got to her feet, her wide eyes wider in surprise and a little fear.

"who's there?" her sing song voice chimed with alarm and suspicion.

Neville stepped reluctantly out from the doorway

"Neville."

she pressed a finger to her lips and quite to Neville's surprise she took his hand and crouched with him once more.

Lifting her face to the rafters she said "it's okay, it's just Neville, the least alarming of surprises..."

Just Neville. Always just Neville

"what are you doing?" he hesitantly inquired, it seemed the most suitable question.

"what are you doing?" she deflected.

"looking for the Monday flower."

"but it's Sunday."

"I know."

"you looked anyway?"

"I couldn't just... not look..."

"floo powder."

"what?"

now Neville was confused(er)

"have you ever wondered where floo powder comes from?"

"I guess I haven't..."

"when I was six I trod on a pixie accidentally and it turned my whole left foot to stone up to my knee cap."

it occurred to Neville that this conversation was very hard to follow

"but you're left leg is normal now."

"yes it is. Luckily my father knew an affective counter charm"

"...you were talking about floo powder?" said Neville quizzically in an attempt to steer the conversation back on track.

"yes, well, the Floo Pixies, they produce floo power, but nowadays what with the high demand they are often battery farmed. It's brutal and inhumane, so as well as regular petitioning my family always humanely collects their own floo powder, but don't tell anyone because professor Umbridge has banned it..."

this was the most Neville had ever heard Luna say, it occurred to her that apart from her erratic subject changes nothing she had said rendered her befitting of the name "Loony Lovegood"

"stay very still for a minute." she was whispering now.

Her blue eyes were trained on his right shoulder and as he cast his eyes down to his jacket he saw a delicate little figure perched their, already shedding floo powder. Ancient grey eyes stared back at him and he felt the weight of the ages on his shoulders, manifested in a creature the six inches tall.

She was staring at him, but he was not uncomfortable with her prominent blue eyes trained on him.

"they like you, you're gentle."

"how did you know where to find them?"

"I guess I know where to look, you can find friends in the flora and fauna if not in Hogwarts itself"

Neville cast his eyes down, there was a solemn beauty in that, he thought, and felt a pang of anguished guilt for any time the bashful Griffyndors had laughed about Loony Lovegood's wild habits.

Luna gave a sudden squeak of surprise as a Floo pixie boldly pulled a tiny fist full of hair towards Neville. In her crouched position Luna lost her balance and fell forward onto her knees so he was closer to her than he'd ever been.

He felt like he should be self conscious but this was such a private, magical moment he didn't dare.

It was queer, he thought that in a school so teaming with magic, he was still awed by nothing more than a few stolen seconds with a strange girl and her fae friends.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING! 3 PLESAE DO REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK AND STUFF, IT STARTS PRETTY FLUFFY I KNOW BUT THE ACTION WILL ESCALATE AS UMBRIDGE STICKS HER NOSE IN ETC. SORRY IT'S A LITTLE LONG AND ALL :)