Ginny was revelling in the feeling of the wind rushing through her hair as she swooped around the field on her brother's broomstick. She had managed to sneak it out of the shed last night before bedtime, and was determined to get as much time as possible on it before mum called them down for breakfast and chores.
She had thrown leaves in to the air and was trying to catch them before they touched the ground - good practice for becoming a Seeker - when she was startled by a voice from the other side of the hedge.
"Are you catching many Speckled Flitaways? My mum says they're excellent for potions work. And she is very good at potions, she's working on a cure for werewolves at the moment. Do you think that werewolves are as bad as everyone says they are?"
Ginny landed the broom on the grass - not one of her better landings, but at least she didn't end up flat on her face this time - and peered over the hedge.
Sitting on the grass on the other side was a girl of about her age, with long blonde hair and a necklace of daisies that she was adding to from the pile of flowers on the ground in front of her. Ginny had seen her from a distance occasionally during the summer, but had never spoken to her. This would be a perfect opportunity to make a friend who was a girl and most importantly, not one of her brothers!
###
Ginny sat in the carriage on the Hogwarts Express, waiting for Ron to wander in with his friends, muttering how unfair it was that he had to look after his baby sister. Ginny hadn't expected him to be happy when mum had told him firmly to look after his sister on the train, as she didn't trust Fred and George to remember about her, and Percy would be too busy doing important prefect duties, but she had expected that she would have seen him by now. The train had left the station a good ten minutes ago, and there was no sight of him at all.
Ginny looked up eagerly when the door opened. Instead of seeing the familiar red hair of one of her brothers, it was the long blonde hair of her neighbour. At least today she was dressed in relatively normal looking outfit, and her accessories were a butterbeer cork necklace, and some type of dried vegetable was hanging from her ears.
"Are you by yourself, Ginny?" Luna asked, peering round the carriage. "I can't see anything else in here with you, but I don't have the right spectacles on to see everything today."
"Ron is supposed to be looking out for me, but I haven't seen him since the station, so he's probably forgotten about it now he's with Harry. They went out and rescued him in dad's car, and mum was rather angry when they got down to breakfast the next morning. Not with Harry though, she was thrilled to see him again."
"Like you were too, I suppose." Luna gave the impression that she lived in a world of her own all the time, but she was remarkably perceptive all the same.
"I guess so," Ginny admitted. "I did run away upstairs the first morning though, and I don't think I said more than one word to him the whole time either. Not that I really could talk with Ron scowling every time I looked in Harry's direction. Honestly, he's a right idiot at times."
Luna smiled vaguely at Ginny's complaint, as it was someone she had heard at least once a week since they had met. "Do you think we should look for them? You don't think they've missed the train or something like that, do you?"
###
The Sorting Ceremony was nothing like what she imagined it to be. She learned very early not to believe half the things that Fred and George told her, and they had spent the summer holidays telling her terrible stories about people who failed the sorting and were sent home in disgrace. She was quite relieved to find out that all they had to do was sit on a stool at the front of the Great Hall and put a hat on their head.
"Luna Lovegood!" Professor McGonagall called.
Ginny squeezed Luna's hand. "Good luck! I hope you're sorted into Gryffindor!"
"Oh no, I will be joining Ravenclaw. But you will do very well in Gryffindor, you have the right type of bravery for them." She stood up and started to walk towards the stool. Then she stopped and looked back to Ginny. "Just remember that I will still be your friend, even though we are going to be in different houses."
###
Luna had been right, they had still been friends, even though they were in different houses. Ginny's first year had been terrible because of the Voldemort possession, culminating in Harry having to rescue her from the Chamber of Secrets. Luna's had been equally but differently terrible as her housemates had decided very early on in the year that she was too strange to belong to Ravenclaw and teased her and hid her belongings in an effort to get her to change houses. Luna took this as she did most everything else - with patience and good temper and notes around the school asking for her shoes back please.
###
"Ginny, do you really think that Michael Corner is the best person to be dating? He's not very complimentary of Harry Potter, he laughs at him in the common room after we've had our meetings." Luna shook her head seriously, wisps of her hair getting caught round the frames of her spectacles. "I don't like him very much at all, he's not like that nice Padma Patil at all. Did you know that she found my shoes the other day and brought them back to the common room? She even took points off one of the girls when she caught her taking my quills." She smiled widely at Ginny. "it's ever so nice to have friends, you know. I like it."
Ginny was conscious of a slight shameful feeling. She had been neglecting Luna this year, finding her outlandish behaviours to be a bit embarrassing. She was happy that Luna believed in what Harry was saying, and that she would speak her mind about that, no matter who was around. But there were other parts of her personality and behaviours that were downright embarrassing. Like the giant lion hat that roared Luna had appeared in one morning before the Quidditch match. Ron hadn't minded the fuss Luna made over him that day, but he was her idiot brother, after all.
"Yes, friends are great, we need to have more of them, I think."
"Oh no, I have just the right amount, I think. Any more and I would forget why I am friends in the first place, what makes them special to me." Luna counted on her long fingers. "There is you. You are the first, so you are always going to be the most important. There's Harry, Ron and Hermione. They count as one, because they are always together. I'm not sure if I am their friend though, but they are mine, I think. There is also Padma, because she is nice to me when she doesn't have to be, and she's not at all like her sister is either. Which is very odd, considering that they are twins. They are very different to your brothers, you sometimes can't tell where one ends and the other begins. I wonder if they feel that they are the same persons in different bodies. I should ask George that one day." She trailed off considering, a faraway look in her eyes.
"No! I think I won't ask him that. It might upset him, and I am trying to remember that not everyone is interested in the same things that I am."
Luna stood suddenly, stretching her arms above her head and twirling a few times. "I have to go now, it's time to feed the Thestrals, and Hagrid won't give the baby enough meat if I'm not there to remind him. I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow afternoon."
###
Dear Ginny,
Thanks very much for the owl last week, I liked hearing about what you have been doing with training for Quidditch, and how the joke shop has been doing. I'm not really surprised that Ron isn't going on with the Aurors, he was always far too sensible to be chasing death eaters and other bad people around the countryside. Harry is much more suited to that, I think. He sounds like he is enjoying what he is doing too, I read about his latest arrest in the Daily Prophet the other day. It was the most interesting part of the paper, I do miss the Quibbler's stories when I read the paper. I suppose that you don't read the papers at all do you. No time for that with your busy life!
I heard from Neville the other day as well. I'm not sure if he's written to you recently, but he's been seeing Hannah Abbott, the girl from Hufflepuff who was in the year above us. And he thinks he's discovered another use for dragon blood, based on the notes my mother made that I gave him last year. He promised to credit her as well if it turns out to be true. It will be a lovely thing to remember her by, I think.
Work is going well, I have been so close to capturing the Crumple-Horned Snorkack on a few occasions that the trip has been absolutely wonderful, despite the weather at times. I think I was very lucky to have been invited on this expedition, they don't usually allow first year students on field trips, but they made a special exception for me once they found out who I was. I think all the work that daddy did, supporting the university and the program maybe helped there.
We are going to be searching along the coast for the rest of the summer, if you send the owls to the main owl office, they will know exactly where we are and can forward anything on to us.
Love, Luna
PS. Thank you for the invitation to the wedding, I would love to come if it fits in with the expedition schedule. If it does, may I bring someone I met this summer? His name is Rolf.
###
Dear Luna & Rolf,
We are just thrilled to hear that the boys have arrived safely! Why do you have to be in such an inaccessible place when you had the babies, so I can't visit you at the drop of a hat? Of course, I could ask Hermione for a special Portkey to be set up, but you know what she's like about rule and regulations! You would think that after all these years hanging about with Harry that she would be a little bit less uptight about it all, but in some ways she's worse than when we were back at school.
What other gossip can I tell you that you won't have heard about yet? I'm not sure if I told you that I've given up the professional Quidditch, and I'm now writing for the Daily Prophet, in their sports pages. Ron is very jealous about it, getting to meet his heroes all the time. You would have thought that he would remember that the Quidditch players aren't all that amazing, seeing as I was one of them for years. And he met plenty of my team mates over the years and some of them are nothing to write home about!
Hannah finally got sick of having to travel each night from the Leaky Cauldron to Hogwarts, so they bought the pub in Hogsmede, and she's going to be managing that while Neville is teaching. She'll soon turn that place about, just look at the changes she made at the Leaky! You'd never believe it was the same place now.
Professor McGonagall announced her retirement from being Head Mistress at the end of this year, but she will still be teaching Advanced Transformation to the senior students. Which is good, as I did want the boys to have been taught by at least one of our Professors, and they'd never be able to take Divination seriously if they had to be taught by Professor Trewlaney after listening to their Aunt Hermione make fun of her their entire lives. I have to admit, I can't really take her seriously either, and I know that she does have the True Seer sight in flashes. It's just the rest of the fluffiness gets in the way.
I hope that you will be coming back to Ottery soon, I want to see the twins before they get too big! And mum has been missing the little kids this last few years, and i know she's not your mother, but she's always thought of you like an extra daughter, and she'll probably dote on your twins more than her blood grand kids to make up for it!
Much hugs to you and the babes, and also to Rolf if he's wanting one.
Ginny.