Chapter Three – November 1995
'Hi Luna. Is that meant to be a Lion?'
It was late on Friday night. The Ravenclaw common room had all but emptied in anticipation of tomorrow's Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Luna looked up from her isolated seat in the corner by one of the arched windows, the passion project in front of her was nearly complete, and Cho Chang had wandered over curiously on her way up to bed to determine what the girl was making.
'Hi,' Luna said brightly, 'yes, it's my Gryffindor Lion Hat. Do you like it?'
'It's rather inappropriate, don't you think?' Cho asked curiously, raising an eyebrow. 'You're in Ravenclaw, remember?'
'Yes, but I'm supporting Gryffindor tomorrow,' Luna said slowly, trying to explain, 'aren't you?'
Cho sighed. 'Of course,' she said shrugging, 'when the other choice is Slytherin, it's no contest. But we're only supposed to clap politely, not be the loudest one there.'
Luna looked back down at her hat. 'Harry Potter is my friend,' she said, which on its own and out of context would have been weird, but she followed it up by saying, 'he's playing Quidditch tomorrow and I fully intend to support him by being the loudest one there.'
She looked up at Cho who now had a small smile on her face. 'That's sweet,' she said kindly.
'You like Harry, don't you?' Luna asked bluntly, forgetting to put her filter on again.
'We're friends,' Cho said nodding, surveying the younger blonde.
'I've seen you staring at him in our DA meetings,' Luna said boldly, fiddling with the side of her Lion Hat.
Cho raised her eyebrow and laughed nervously. 'Luna,' she said in amusement, 'what are you saying?'
Luna continued to look down at her hat. 'I've seen him staring at you too' she said coolly, 'he likes you.'
'Luna, I really don't think—'
'What's that?' Luna asked curiously, pointing to the front of Cho's robes, to which a sky-blue badge emblazoned with a double gold T was pinned.
Cho blinked and looked down. 'It's a Tutshill Tornados badge,' she said, and when Luna raised her eyebrows, said, 'they play in the British Quidditch League.'
'Oh, yes,' Luna said blankly, 'I thought I recognised that symbol. That's the team that's cheating—'
'They aren't cheating,' Cho said defensively, gawping at her.
'They are,' Luna assured her, 'the Manager has been linked to reports of blackmail, illegal broom-tampering, and torture—'
'If you're talking about what was published in The Quibbler,' Cho said, crossing her arms, 'I've already told you, none of that is true, and your father should think about retracting the story.'
'My dad wouldn't have published it if he didn't think it was true,' Luna said seriously, 'he believes there is solid evidence—'
'Good night, Luna,' Cho said, and before Luna could open her mouth again, Cho had turned on her heel and disappeared up to her dormitory.
2nd November 1995
Dearest Diary,
Weasley is our King!
Sorry, I've had that song stuck in my head for about twenty-four hours now and it won't go away. You've got to give it to the Slytherins, sometimes they can think up the catchiest of songs. I still find myself mumbling the "Loony Luna" one that they made up for me in my first year here. I never thanked them for that, now that I think about it, I probably should.
They could use cheering up right about now the Slytherins. They lost the Quidditch match yesterday, thanks to Harry Potter! He's really a great flyer. He stole the Golden Snitch from right under Malfoy's nose! It's no wonder they've banned him from playing again, it's pretty unfair for a Hogwarts student to be that good when the rest are so average.
I'm pleased to report my Gryffindor Lion Hat was a huge success!
People were making comments about it all day, even when they didn't know I could hear them. And imagine my surprise when Professor Dumbledore went passed and he complimented that it suited my eyes!
I had already thought about it, but the Headmaster made up my mind, I'm going to build an Eagle for when Ravenclaw play their first match!
In fact, I'm going to go order the materials now.
Yours,
Luna Lovegood
Rubeus Hagrid's return to Hogwarts in early November was a mixed bag of reactions from students. Some were actually happy to see him. There were others asking where he'd been since the start of term and questioning the decision of letting him take over from Professor Grubbly-Plank, who had thus far done an excellent job.
Luna, on the other hand, didn't even notice the half-giant's reappearance at the staff table at breakfast on Monday. It was a great surprise to her when she wandered down the slopes for Care of Magical Creatures, expecting to continue their work on Unicorns, when she found Hagrid there instead.
'Hi Hagrid!' Luna said brightly, being one of the first students to arrive.
'Hello Luna,' Hagrid said happily, the smile beneath his beard went unnoticed. 'Had a good summer?'
'Yes, thanks,' Luna said, as she looked around randomly. 'Where's Professor Grubbly-Plank?'
Luna didn't dislike Hagrid, but she believed that he was a poor teacher, and that his lessons were often dangerous. In the short two months that Professor Grubbly-Plank had been teaching them, it had been nothing but the opposite, and along with her fellow Ravenclaws, Luna had started to enjoy the class again.
Hagrid blinked at her. 'Gone,' he said firmly. 'I'm back now. So, I'll be teachin' from now on.'
'Oh, that's a shame, she was a good teacher,' Luna said bluntly, not seeing the expression on Hagrid's face as she looked down and spotted a bunch of crates at their feet. 'Are those Nifflers?'
In the crates were a number of creatures with long snouts similar to that of a platypus. They all had coats of black, fluffy fur and their front paws were flat, like spades, and a couple of them stood up in their crates to stare at Luna curiously.
'Yup,' he said once he'd recovered from her words. He bounced on his toes as other students began to turn up. 'I hope yer up for a bit o' fun today.'
'Are they South American Nifflers?' Luna asked curiously, looking up at Hagrid. 'They're meant to be really rare.'
Hagrid gawped at Luna and shook his head. 'No,' Hagrid said, blinking. 'Nifflers are only found in Britain.'
'That's not true,' Luna said, defying her teacher. 'British Nifflers have black fur, but look, these Nifflers have charcoal fur, and are clearly from South America.'
Hagrid ignored her as the rest of the class finally showed up. Ravenclaw shared Care of Magical Creatures with Hufflepuff, so because there was never any drama between the two houses, the students got on well with each other and their work. They were all tasked with picking a Niffler and the one that found the most gold coins Hagrid had buried in his pumpkin patch got a prize.
Luna had already picked one up and it was sniffing her dirty-blonde hair affectionately. She giggled and scratch behind the creature's ear until it was time to release them into the earth and hunt for the gold. Her Niffler wasn't very good at it, by the time Hagrid announced that all the gold had been found, Luna only had a small handful.
One of the Hufflepuff boys had the most gold and Hagrid just gave him some Honeydukes chocolate, which turned out to be the prize, and far less exciting than everyone was hoping for.
The bell for the end of class rang, and Luna had to say farewell to the little creature that she had fallen for in a matter of minutes. As the rest of the class dispersed and headed up to the castle for lunch, Luna, who didn't feel very hungry, took a walk around the lake instead.
She eventually found a nice and smooth rock that she could use as a seat. With a lot of thoughts suddenly on her mind, she sat down, pulled out her diary and began to write.
3rd November 1995
Dearest Diary,
Hagrid returned to Hogwarts as our Care of Magical Creatures today, and for his first class, he had us learning about Nifflers. I fell in love with mine immediately, it was so adorable and affectionate, even if it didn't collect the most coins. I want one now, and I will call it Jacob, just because I like the name for some reason.
I don't know where Hagrid has been for the first two months of school term, but he has clearly returned with crates full of South American Nifflers, who are incredibly rare and cost quite a lot of Galleons. I think the Ministry would be very interested to know where he got them from.
In other news, I was finally successful in performing the Impediment Jinx last week! The DA is really helping me, and at the same time, frightening me. I have no idea how Harry Potter knows all these spells and jinxes that I don't and he's only a year ahead of me.
Harry's a really great teacher too. Patient, especially with Neville Longbottom, who I adore greatly and with whom I now always have as partner during the meetings. He, like me, is improving so much, that all I want to do at the end of every lesson is to hug him!
And I keep telling him, he needs to stop going back for seconds every dinner time, but that's his decision.
I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but I'm not going to be writing to you again for a few weeks. I need to concentrate on my homework, the DA meetings and I still have Christmas shopping to do!
Forever Yours,
Luna Lovegood
P.S. Weasley is our King
