"You're being illogical, emotional and rash, which is a new for you," said Hermione, raising an eyebrow.

"I couldn't care less, Hermione," said Harry. "Hm... I wonder if a basilisk's stare can kill a dementor... worst comes to worst, I'll have Sally eat them," he said, shrugging.

"Sally?" asked Ron, clearly shocked.

"I didn't tell you? The basilisk is named Salazar. It seems to me he had a bit of an ego problem. Anyway, Salazar is a mouthful, and it makes my tongue hurt to speak it in parseltongue, so, Sally," he said, as if it solved everything.

As the Golden Trio of Gryffindor headed to their compartment, after a round of making sure nobody had been hurt by the dementors that wandered into the train, they came upon a most peculiar image. A witch wearing butterbeer caps as a necklace and a pair of plastic radishes as earrings. The Hogwarts uniform, painted in Ravenclaw's colors, was perhaps the only thing normal about her. Well, her hair could be called normal, even if it was close to Malfoy's blond color.

Her wide, innocent-looking eyes scanned them...

… but Harry didn't see that, because he was looking at her feet. At her completely bare feet. That could not possibly be healthy.

"Oh, hey, Loony," said Ron, as if she was the most normal thing in the world.

"Hi Ronald," the witch replied, as if being addressed as such was the most normal thing ever. "Hi, Harry Potter, my name is Luna Lovegood. You must be Hermione Granger. I have to warn you that your hair seems like a prime nest for Nargles, and you should watch out for that," she said, walking past them without waiting for acknowledgment.

"Luna, where are your shoes? And socks, for that matter," Harry said, a frown on his face as he spoke. He was not a pessimist, but this was weird and he dearly hoped it wasn't what he suspected.

"Oh, the Nerfherders have a habit of stealing them when I'm changing. They usually come back with only a few bit marks later," she said, matter of factly, turning around and offering Harry a smile.

"Luna, could you show me the Nerfherders? I'd like to have a word with them," Harry said, his voice as calm as possible.

"I haven't been able to see them lately, so I don't know where they've nested on this train, but you should be able to recognize them if you see them. They're big and they have squinty eyes, and they make a lot of noise when they think they are alone in the room," she explained, looking around as if hoping to see them pass by, a whimsical tone and smile on her face.

"Luna, do you wanna share a compartment with us?" asked Harry, smiling kindly at her.

"That would be delightful!" she said, her whimsical tone becoming very obviously happy as she spoke. "Thank you very much for the offer, Harry Potter! I think the others in the compartment will thank you, too."

Harry ground his teeth as he forced a smile at Luna, who skipped merrily towards her compartment.

"Harry, mate, are you alright?" Ron finally asked.

"Yes. But I have a feeling that I might be feeding Sally sooner than I thought," said Harry, his tone a low growl.

"You're not acting like yourself," pointed out Hermione, "first you blow up at Lupin and now you get angry for no reason when a girl is telling you crazy stories about nonexistant animals," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Are you so blind, Hermione?" asked Harry, blinking, "her shoes, and socks for that matter, were clearly stolen by somebody else. Do you think she'd walk barefoot, looking for them, if that weren't the case? And from how she spoke and the way she acted, I doubt this is an isolated occurrence. Something smells rotten in the house of knowledge, and heads might roll this year."

"You're probably exaggerating. I doubt Professor Flitwick would allow rampant bullying right under his nose," Hermione said, sighing.

"It's Loony. She's like a magnet for bullying. I think the only person I know who's nice to her is Ginny," Ron said, a frown on his face. Seeing as the other two were confused, Ron sighed. "She lives close to my home. She and Ginny are childhood friends. They used to do everything together, but one day, Luna stopped coming by so often and then she was Loony and she's been like that ever since," finished the redhead.

Harry closed his eyes and meditated for a few seconds.

"Well, at least we'll do our best to give her a few more friends," Hermione said, firmly. "I know how being lonely feels."

Harry hummed, silently, as he saw Luna pushing her trunk as she approached them. Together, they went to their compartment. Ginny joined shortly afterwards, after changing.

"This will probably be an interesting year..." Harry muttered.