Step into the shadow of the Forbidden Forest, and the temperature will automatically drop twenty degrees.
At night, there are at least seven werewolves in the Forest.
You-Know-Who himself is hiding out in the Dark Forest.
Tales of cousins and friends of older brothers whispered up and down the tables in the Great Hall. Hushed tones and wide eyes adding touches of fear to the stories. Seventh years with suppressed grins terrifying all of the first years.
Well, not all of them. The whispers never quite reached Luna Lovegood at the end of the Ravenclaw table. Looney Luna with her radish earrings and crazy father. Lovegood with the dead mother and invisible animals.
That was okay though. She wasn't as stupid or as crazy or as ignorant as they thought; she knew about all of the whispers, about her and the Forest and the rest of the mundane gossip. Gossip that cut and was meant to hurt others. Why were they like that? The other students? What was the point in hurting one another?
That was the question she asked herself as she laid on her back, barefoot in the meadow. The whereabouts of her shoes currently unknown. Stolen again by people wanting to hurt Looney Lovegood. That was all right though. She didn't need her shoes to lie on the grass and watch the sky darken through the opening in the canopy.
How many nights had she stayed out in the Forbidden Forest? Laid on a bed of moss and talked to her mother all night? Counted the stars and hoped that things would change for the better. They would, wouldn't they?
The stars began to peek out as the sun finished its descent for the day. There was her mother, three stars left of the North Star. She smiled softly as she laid back. Just another night in the Forest.