In response she ignores her petty classmates to instead focus her skills to the task of building a magic-resistant electronics (her phone still refuses to work and Artemis is impatient). They laugh at her shyness. She doesn't correct them.
There is, however, one person who won't leave her alone. The first joint Ravenclaw-Gryffindor Transfiguration class finds Luna seated next to the redheaded girl from the train. By now the stories of Luna "Loony" Lovegood have flown around the school. But the young girl gives her the same sincere smile from the train.
Luna is unaccustomed to a relationship not based in business or mutual loneliness. She pulls out her issues of Psychology and even adds a subscription to one of those trashy teen magazines. Neither of them helps her unravel the Weasley Girl's motives. So she researches the girl herself then, and quickly uncovers the past.
She's compensating. Luna realized. She made me her charity case to hide her own insecurities. Then she shoves down the instant annoyance that is born of overexposure to Artemis. I'm sure she doesn't realize it. Perhaps she finds a kindred spirit in me. She connects to outcasts. Or maybe she requires someone to mother.
So Luna does a very un-Artemis-like thing and lets their friendship persist. Her friend can hardly compare to Luna's intellect (and fails to notice when her ramblings change from actual science to fantasy) but she had an instinctual empathetic ability to connect with people and draw out their hidden secrets and wounds.
