It started on the train. Hermione and Ron were searching the compartments for Harry when they ran into Neville. He had an odd, dreamy sort of look about him.
"Have you two seen Luna yet?" he asked with a smile. The two friends shared a look before shaking their heads. "You really ought to," he told them earnestly, "She's just, well… she's… and her hair! Her skin is just so…. Her eyes, I think the eyes are the best part. She's just…" The incoherent babbling trailed off as Neville's eyes unfocused and his mouth drifted into a peculiar grin.
Ron and Hermione both took an unconscious step backwards and stood staring at their strangely behaving friend. After a few moments Ron nudged Hermione and mouthed 'you-know-who?' Hermione shook her head and mouthed back 'why would he bother?' The awkward moment stretched out as the two friends tried to decide what to do: Neville was blocking the passage. It was Hermione who finally broke the silence.
"So, Neville, have you seen Harry?" she asked brightly.
"He's in that compartment," the boy murmured dreamily, "With her!"
"Right," Hermione's polite little smile was beginning to get brittle, "If you'll just get out of the way we'll go get settled."
Neville showed no indication of having heard her. He had resumed staring into negative space. He had even begun to sway and hum a little tune. A tune that Hermione knew she had heard before but couldn't quite place.
Fed up with his unresponsiveness, Ron physically moved the other boy to the side of the hallway leaving enough room for himself and Hermione to edge past him to the compartment he had indicated in his brief period of lucidity.
"Hey, Harry!" Ron called out when he saw his friend, "Did you see Neville? He's acting totally…" He stopped, both speaking and walking when he saw the other occupant of the compartment. He didn't
even react when Hermione ran into the back of him. Of course she too failed to react as she had caught a glimpse of that occupant herself.
It was Luna Lovegood. She was beautiful. Her skin was as pale as virgin snow and her features were as delicate as a butterfly's wing. Her lips were as soft and as red as the most vibrant rose. Her eyes were like twin oceans lit only by moonlight. Her hair flowed like a river from the crown of her head down to her waist. It was black, like a night both bereft of moon and stars. She had a gentle, almost elven look about her. It was breathtaking.
"Ron! Hermione!" she chirped, with a voice like violets over harp strings, "It's so wonderful to see you!"
"Luna," Hermione replied, feeling rather dowdy, "You look… different."
"Yes! I was just getting ready to explain it to Harry!" her voice was very soothing and worked to reassure Hermione that she really wasn't that plain, "If you both sit down I can tell the story to all three of you at once!"
Hermione and Ron finished entering the compartment and settled themselves in before turning their full attention to Luna. It wasn't hard. She was so beautiful that it really was an honor to be able to look at her.
"You see!" she began her voice flowing like a creek over copper chimes, "When I went home for the summer my father sat me down and we had a long talk! It was then that I learned that many things I had always taken for granted as truth, were in fact, not true!" It was at this point, that she looked so sad and so beautiful that all three friends leaned forward, so as to comfort her, but she gracefully waved them off and took a strengthening breath. So great was her worry for this beautiful young woman, Hermione forgot to make any smug comments about how many things Luna believed in were untrue. "It seems," continued Luna, "That my parents are not who I thought they were! True, my mother was a brilliant and beautiful research witch who died far too young, but my father is something else! He is not an average wizard! He is, in fact, Davros!"
"What?" Hermione exclaimed, feeling terrible for interrupting her beautiful friend.
"It is true!" Luna exclaimed beautifically, "He had been unable to give my mother a child so he had taken part of my mother and part of himself and using his superior technology fused with magic he created me! I am half dalek!"
Hermione heaved a great sigh. She felt terrible for having to break such awful news to such a beautiful and kind person, but surely it would be far crueler to let such a wonderful girl to go on believing in untrue things? "Luna," she said, unable to look at her friend. She did not want to see those magnificent orbs fill with tears. "Daleks aren't real."
"Oh but they are!" came Luna's voice, strong and harmonious, like a flock of birds in the center of an orchestra, "Daddy was investigating a strange device! At first it seemed no more special than any other talking box, but then he managed to activate it! It was some kind of muggle memory restoring device! It spoke to him! It reminded him that he was Davros! And so he told me about it and about my heritage!"
"Oh, Luna," Hermione was clearly distressed that her wonderful friend was so deep in denial, "What your father found was an ordinary television. He probably turned it on when they were airing Doctor Who. Daleks aren't real. They're characters on a muggle television program."
"Why didn't your dad know he was Davros?" asked Harry, both out of curiosity and a desire to stop Hermione from upsetting this magnificent creature further.
"THEY had wiped his mind!" Luna cried with a breathtaking, heartclenching wail, "They took his memory!"
"Who?" asked a suitably intrigued Hermione.
"The TIME LORDS!" Shrieked Luna, her nightdark hair blown back from her face by the power of her fury, "Time Lords Just Like YOU!" Before Hermione could finish her impotent protests Luna had drawn her wand and aiming straight for Hermione spoke the single most dangerous word in the English language: "EXTERMINATE"