Chapter 3
Luna shook her head, attempting to banish the horrid thoughts of her holidays. As if she had fallen in a pensive, the thoughts began to drown her, despite her protests.
Ginny had invited her to stay at the burrow, which she happily accepted. The two were chasing each other on brooms in the meadow away from muggle eyes. Luna was making snowballs for Ginny to catch.
"Yes!" She cried triumphantly as she proudly held the white orb aloft.
"Go, Weasley!" Luna shouted, smiling at her friend's antics. Ginny flew over, letting the snowball fall to the ground below.
"This time, can you throw a little one? Snitch size?" Ginny asked eagerly. She desperately wanted to be on the team, so she wanted to practice for every position. There weren't any spots open though.
"Sure." Luna crafted a small, beautiful orb. As idea struck her, she carefully added wings. She blew on it, and off it flew.
"Wow." Ginny breathed, watching it in awe.
"Go catch it!" Luna yelled, laughing. Ginny stopped admiring the orb and took off after it. Luna giggled, sending an icy breeze here and there to change the snitch's course just before Ginny could grab it.
"Cut that out!" She hollered good-naturedly. Still, Ginny wasn't quite fast enough on her old broom to catch the ice snitch, which seemed to be melting.
"Luna, use that breeze to give me a boost please." Ginny kicked her legs as if she were on a horse.
"Hang on." Luna called. She gave a gentle icy gust, pushing the broom a bit closer to the snitch.
"Faster, Luna." Ginny cried, the orb agonizingly close now.
"I'll try." Luna concentrated, making the breeze just a bit stronger. The snitch remained elusive.
"It's almost gone! Faster, Luna, faster!" Ginny yelled, worried about not catching the prize.
Luna, in her attempt to please her friend, heaved a blast with all her might. It pushed Ginny off the broom and flung her onto the now snow covered ground. Luna screamed her friend's name as she flew down to help.
Scrambling from the broom, she examined Ginny for injuries. The snow had cushioned her fall, but Luna saw a few places that will later sport nasty bruises. Ginny was shivering and turning blue. Luna quickly pulled out her wand and made a small fire in the thicket, not caring if the Ministry considered it illegal. Then she cast a temperature raising spell over Ginny, hoping to prevent her from freezing to death.
Ginny stopped shivering and her skin took on a healthy glow. Then before her eyes Luna watched as a white streak appeared in the girl's red hair. A sign that the girl had suffered at the hands of powerful magic. A reminder of how Luna had hurt her.
"Obliviate." Luna whispered, trying not to let the tears slip down her cheeks. She put a memory charm on her best friend. Then Luna cast a replacement memory charm.
She gave Ginny the idea that after she had caught the snitch, they had gone into the muggle town to explore. Luna had used some muggle money to let Ginny go into the hair parlor and get the white streak.
When Ginny woke up, Luna helped her towards the house. Soon, a ministry owl arrived, summoning Luna to a hearing the next day. Arthur offered to take her, but she declined, saying her dad would probably want to be there.
She left soon after, with the excuse that she was meeting her dad for dinner.
The ministry gave her a firm warning about using unauthorized magic. They had threatened to break her wand, but she adopted her airy persona and they had deemed her innocent enough. Ginny sent her frequent letters for the rest of the summer, but Luna never replied.
She read each one, telling her about this boy she had met, asking how Luna was, even a few that were just lists of riddles, in the hope that Luna would reply if only to keep herself occupied. Soon, the letters grew desperate, asking why Luna wasn't answering and what she had done wrong. Luna saved the letters in her trunk until they stopped coming.
When the two girls had reached platform 9 ¾, Ginny had broken away from the mob of red hair surrounding her and started towards her friend. Luna had quickly ducked onto the train, hiding from sight. Ginny was soon lost in the crowd.
Ginny looked about frantically, wondering where her friend had disappeared to. She attempted to heave her trunk onto the train, with little success.
"Here, let me help." Said an all too familiar voice.
"Oh, hi Harry." Ginny said casually, as if he hadn't been at her house almost every summer since he'd met Ron.
"I can get it, but thanks." Ginny added, giving the trunk a firm tug and watching as Harry raised an eyebrow when it didn't budge.
"I see." Ginny felt her face start to flush scarlet and grudgingly offered the boy her trunk. He lifted it easily, the lean muscles in his arms standing out against his muggle clothes.
He pulled her trunk along the train until they reached an empty compartment. Storing it, he turned back to Ginny.
"This alright?" He smiled shyly, noticing all the looks the first years were giving him.
"Yeah, thanks." Ginny mumbled. With an awkward wave, he left her alone. Her thoughts were free to turn to the empty seat beside her.