Hadley McKinnon sat on the bank of Northbury stream. There wasn't much a six-year-old orphan could do around here. Especially when nobody liked you.
Currently, she was writing in a small, black, leather-covered journal, which, according to the owners of the orphanage, had been her mother's.
'deer jernal,
today a noo gerl caim too the orfanaj. i had a dreem last nite. i wuz wocking in a foorist and i saw a big monstur thair. i woke up reely scaird.
-Hadley'
She scooted a little further down the stream to put some distance between her and some vile orphan boys, Andrew and Deacon. Her hand stopped writing for a moment when she heard shouting up the hill. She rolled her eyes.
Boys, she thought. She sucked on the end of her pen for a moment as she decided on what to write. In the end she drew a picture captioned 'mie dreem abowt da monstur'.
Suddenly, her journal was snatched out of her hand by certain sneaky eight-year-old that goes by the name of Andrew.
"What's this supposed to be?" Deacon asked, looking at her monster. "A pillow?"
"HEY!" she yelled. "Give that back!"
"If you want it," Andrew sneered. "Come and get it."
Laughing horridly, he tossed it into the stream. Hadley tried desperately to catch it, but she slipped and fell in too!
The stream was to deep for a small six-year-old. The freezing water pierced her skin as she pulled herself back up onto the bank.
By the time she crawled her way out of the water, Andrew and Deacon fled from the stream. Hadley quickly found her journal, and plopped down on the grass. She found, to her great surprise and immense confusion, that she dried within seconds. Unfortunately, her lovely journal was ruined. But she kept it anyway. She went up to the orphanage and wrapped in a towel. Hadley hid it in one of her drawers.
The rest of the day dragged on and on, and Hadley soon found herself lying in her bed. She fell into a dreamless sleep.
Early the next morning, Hadley was shaken awake by Madame DeGraaf, an orphanage helper.
"Wake up, Hadley," she said smiling. "There is a family downstairs waiting for you."
Hadley gasped. Did this mean what she thought it did? That someone was here to adopt her? After four years in this little slice of hell, an actual family? She sprung out of bed.
Excitedly, she dressed as fast as possible. She ran into the girls' bathroom and brushed her teeth and her hair. Hadley fixed a pink and white bow that matched her dress into her curly blonde hair.
She rushed downstairs, and saw a very strange looking man. He had white hair the texture of candy floss, and he was wearing deep blue robes with a satin sash. His eyes were slightly crossed as he looked at Hadley kindly. He had a small girl that looked about Hadley's age with him. She had straggly, dirty blonde hair, which made Hadley's messy curls seem very sleek and smooth, silver-gray eyes, and had strange, orange, radish-looking things for earrings.
"Hello dear,'' the man smiled. "I am Xenophilius Lovegood, and this is my daughter, Luna." Luna Lovegood stuck out her hand.
"How do you do?" she asked.
"Very well, thank you," Hadley answered.
"I have something important to tell you," Luna declared.
"Okay," Hadley said.
Luna yanked Hadley by her arm straight out of the door, down the stone-lined path, across the grass, and underneath a large willow tree.
"You're a witch," said Luna.
"A witch?"
"Mmhuh."
"I don't believe you."
Luna's smile widened.
"Have you ever done anything impossible? When you're angry or scared?"
Hadley thought back to yesterday morning. She nodded.
"See," Luna said. "But before you enter our world, you must know something."
"What?"
"How your parents died."
Hadley took a breath.
"Okay."
"Just after we were born, an evil wizard tried to take over the world." Hadley looked into her eyes. She noticed that she apparently disliked blinking. "His name was," she gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "He-Who-Must-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He killed so ma great witches and wizards, like your parents. But on Halloween, 1981, he went to the Potter house and killed Lily and James Potter. He tried to kill their son, Harry, but he couldn't. Then he disappeared."
"Wow," was all Hadley could say.
"Well, now that you know, we'd best be going," Luna said, hopping up. "Mummy would love to meet you."
