Half an hour of attempting to explain why a pencil and notebook was far more practical than the quill and roll of parchment that Luna pulled out, and the door to the compartment slammed open, and a girl with fiery red hair practically leapt in. Closing the door rapidly behind her, she put a finger to her lips. Not long after, some voices went by,
"Ronald, you can't tell Ginevra who to be friends with. She's capable of moving on her own,"
"Percy they were a bunch of Slytherins, I'm sure of it."
"Well she's off elsewhere now, honestly, do not pull me away from my prefect duties to debate who our sister sits with, and two of them were the Patil twins. One is in your house for Merlin's sake. Go find Harry and Hermione."
The voices faded back the way they came, and the girl let out a sigh.
"Hi, do you mind if I sit here?"
"Why would I mind?" came Luna's confused response, "We've known each other since we were little. Of course you can sit."
"Er, Luna, I was actually more asking your… friend?"
Marvin glanced at Luna and shrugged,
"Sure, those were your brothers then?"
The redhead put her shrunken trunk up on the rack and enlarged it with a muttered finite spell.
"Yes, well, two of them at least. There's four others. I used to stay at Luna's for a few weeks each summer, mum said it was to have some girl time. But I'm pretty sure she wasn't quite sure what to do with a girl child, at times."
Luna went back to reading her magazine, pulling out a pair of red-tinted glasses and flipping the entire thing upside down. The compartment lapsed into silence.
"Well it's awful rude you haven't properly introduced yourselves yet, isn't it?" Luna finally said. Fixing them both with a pointed look, the severity of which was highly diminished by the odd glasses and upside down magazine.
"Oh, um, Ginny Weasley. I guess you're a muggle-born, right?" she asked, glancing at the spiral bound notebook on Marvin's lap.
"No, er, I guess I'm not. Marvi – Marvolo Str-," Luna raised a questioning eyebrow, "Lestrange. Sorry, I keep forgetting my name changed. Still getting used to it," he said sheepishly.
Ginny recoiled slightly.
"Don't be like that, Ginevra, I rather like him, and he talks to me."
"I haven't even known for a few months yet," Marvolo offered.
"I suppose if Luna likes you… you can't be too awful," she said cautiously, "and Luna, don't call me Ginevra."
"Benefit of doubt then? Feel free to call me Marvin, it's what I went by before." Marvolo asked, holding out a hand.
"I suppose so, and I go by Ginny" Ginny said, accepting the handshake with a small smile.
"Also, I'm calling you Ginevra in front of Marvolo to help him remember his name."
Ginny and Marvin stared at Luna. But she had gone back to her magazine, and oblivious to the air of confusion in the compartment.
"So what are you writing in that notes-book with?"
And Marvin was once again engaged in a conversation attempting to explain the concept of a pencil and spiral notebook, neither of which appeared to exist amongst wizards. He figured he knew why Luna said to change the binding of his notes now, it apparently attracted attention at an astounding rate. He decided that was going to be one of his first projects to research when he got to school. Perhaps there was a way to make a pencil look like a quill too, he didn't think he could tolerate having to constantly dip a quill in ink just to write notes down.
A while later, there was a knock on the compartment door, and Ginny slid it open,
"We're nearing the school now, so change – ah, never-mind. You're all already changed into your robes. First years?" Nods of acknowledgement followed, "Well I'm Eric Murley, 5th year Hufflepuff prefect," he introduced proudly, "you'll be taking the boats to the castle, so go to the left when you get off at the station. You'll see Hagrid, the groundskeeper. He's impossible to miss. Good luck with the Sorting!" A cheerful wave and the prefect was off.
"I suppose we'd best put away our things." Ginny twisted her hair up into a bun, sticking her wand through it. Luna had part of her hair, which was still disproportionately long, pulled back and had also stuck her wand through it, along with the quill she'd been showing Marvin earlier. Marvin put away his notes and pencil, and hesitated a minute with his wand. Ginny noted his hesitance.
"There's a pocket on the inside of your robes. It goes there. Girls robes don't have it, so Luna and I make do since we don't have holsters for our wands, and school robes don't have sleeves that tight enough to hold it. I'm surprised the Malfoys didn't have you get one."
"I didn't go shopping with them," Marvin muttered, "Professor Snape took me."
"You'll learn," Luna piped in, "My da made sure I had a solid knowledge of proper society, even though he never makes me follow it. I can help you find books so you know these things, else you'll get made fun of."
"When did you have time to do that?" Ginny asked, giving a sideways look towards Luna, "Well where do you think I went every time da was out of town after ma passed away? My ma was close friends with the Greengrass's, she and Mrs. Greengrass went to school together. I went there more than you came to my house. It was amusing every time Mrs. Greengrass looked horrified at my appearance. Personally, I like yellow, and radish-pink goes perfectly well with it. Her hair used to turn that color every time she made me change clothing for dinner," Luna giggled, "It's too bad they weren't friends with your parents, you could have come too," she sighed wistfully, "imagine her face if you wore orange, it would be priceless."
"I got quite enough speeches about manners at Aunt Muriel's, thanks," said Ginny dryly, making a face, "the first time I wore trousers over there she nearly had a heart attack, not a speech I'm willing to sit through again, no matter what hand-me-downs I wear at home."
Marvin watched the girls with growing apprehension. It appeared that Draco's lessons hadn't even covered basics of the wizarding world, probably because Draco had been raised in it. He considered asking what exactly the problem was with wearing trousers, but thought better of it after a moment. He could probably find it in a book somewhere, Luna already knew he was clueless enough, and he didn't think Ginny needed knowledge of how little he knew. He also wondered if Luna's apparent spacey-ness was at least partially an act, because she, thus far, always seemed to know more than one would think.