The Dementors glided through the air in a way that unsettled even Gryffindors. For a Hufflepuff standing on his own, to call it worrisome was an understatement. Ron craned his neck see the carriages rolling up to castle, leading to perhaps his most important decision of the day: which would he get on.

On one hand, his calculations had made the fifth carriage the best option for reaching there with no harm done to either him or Scabbers, who securely tucked in his coat pocket. On the other, avoiding tricksters was something a quick tea leaf reading had told him: either that or to not use toothpaste as a shampoo. As the second interpretation sounded unlikely, Ron thought it in his best interest to avoid Ravenclaws and Slytherins since those would be the best candidates for the first reading.

He looked around for any friendly Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors, only to see that most had formed their own cliques. I never was that good at reading tea leaves without eating a proper biscuit with it anyways. Ron hurried to the fifth carriage and breathed a sigh of relief that Scabbers was still with him. Keeping his familiar out of sight proved the best means of avoiding Ginny's dog Clarence, but whenever Hermione let Crookshanks loose, it seemed to home in on where Scabbers was kept no matter where Ron placed him.

Ron slumped further into his seat, finally feeling relaxed enough to let his rat out. The creature let out a comfortable yawn, clearly glad to be outside the suffocating environment. "Sorry about that, Scabs," Ron whispered. His solitude was rudely interrupted by a Ravenclaw barging in.

"Ah, this one's empty," she said and tripped on the way in, but if that embarrassed her, there was no indication on her face.

"I'm here," Ron said to the girl, whose vapid expression finally made him recognise her: Luna Lovegood.

"Well, by that I mean no one who matters," she clarified.

Ron groaned as he also remembered the time Ginny told her horror story of sharing the Hogwarts express with her. Then a more pressing concern came to mind: "You're a second year. How did you manage to get here?"

"Filch runs away when I try to talk to him about the Rotfang Conspiracy. I think he might be one from the inner circle."

And I thought that Hermione was mental. "So I could report you for this," he mentioned mainly out of hope to change the topic.

"But you're not going to." Luna smiled almost wistfully.

"Why do you figure that?"

"You wouldn't betray a friend," she said. He eyed her appearance, eccentric as it was. Her mannerisms were hardly less peculiar, but his options were narrow enough regardless.

"I'd assume that you wouldn't do that either then, it's good to be friends with you, Luna," Ron said and offered a handshake.

Her dreamy eyes brightened. "I think we'll get along famously then. Could you tell me what your name is though?" Their talking on the way there was best described as asymmetric, alternating between topics such as Quidditch and Heliopaths. How they managed make each segue without it sounding jarring was beyond Ron and probably beyond Luna too. They stepped of the carriage with Ron somewhat concerned about being caught with Luna, in part because he was basically helping a major breach of rules, but mainly since if Draco caught them together, Ron would never live it down.

Blending into crowds was simple enough; walking at a faster pace than usual was a dead giveaway. At the same time he wanted to avoid people catching sight of Luna's colourful attire. To that end, they headed towards people that would not look out of place wearing those colours: Gryffindors. "Hey, mate," Terry said to him as they approached the group. "Who's your girlfriend?"

Ron's mind went into full throttle to think of an elaborate lie. Then again, at least partial truth had a way of working better than most falsehoods: "She never told me."

"Quite the womaniser I see," said Terry with a laugh. Ron joined in, albeit more nervously. They were now in Hogsmeade proper, where Ron looked around to see where to go. His brothers had told him enough to allow him to know the most popular venues. The Three Broomsticks and Honeydukes were both sadly out of the question as was the Spintwitches Sporting Needs.

"Why don't we head over there?" Luna asked, her hand directed at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. Ron shuddered at the sheer amount of pink that went into the decor and shook his head. Instead he ducked into a barely occupied store. The open strings of a violin being plucked alerted him as the door swung open. Everywhere were instruments and sheet music. Ron was at a loss for what to look at; instruments tended to have peculiar spellwork to aid their functions such as the self-tuning pegs of cellos and ukuleles, the latter apparently sounding out of tune in any situation for Muggles according to his dad.

Luna raced past him to dig into the music while Ron examined the double reed instruments. Why people bothered with the ones that came with only one reed when these were around was beyond Ron, but music had never been his forte. He took a bassoon and tried to make a sound. All that came out was a rude squawk. Perhaps there was an argument for just one reed. "You should try this ocarina," Luna said to him.

The so-called ocarina looked more like a clamshell than an instrument, something Ron was game to try. His lips were cautious about contacting the mouthpiece given the previous experience, but the pure sound it created sounded wonderful in comparison. Clearly reeds were never meant to be combined with instruments. Ron drew out a handful of sickles, all of his Hogsmeade savings, to purchase it, and the two left for the next destination.

On the way Ron removed the ocarina from his pocket to try again and this time blew much harder. The sound was undeniably shrill, evidenced by Scabbers squeaking as he scurried out of the shirt pocket. Ron dashed after him without a moment of hesitation; his pet was clearly quick, but Ron was gaining on him until the rat skittered into an alley. Although Ron turned as well, an icy patch made him slip. His fall sent him sprawling in pain when a helpful hand got him back on his feet. "Thanks," he said to Luna, and they both raced towards Scabbers.

They nearly burst out when the sound of spellfire stopped them in their tracks. There outside was Sirius Black duelling another wizard. Ron's hand went for his wand.