Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine.

Gilderoy Lockhart beamed around at the Ravenclaw first years as they took their seats. All of the girls in particular shifted excitedly in their seats, eager to find out what awaited them in their first DADA lesson of the year...all of them, that is, except Luna, who was staring out of the window and muttering to herself about the Voglans she'd spotted in the common room the previous evening.

"Me," the blond wizard said, showing off those dazzling white teeth. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. But I don't talk about that; I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

Luna put up her hand.

"Yes, Miss...er...?"

"Lovegood, sir. And actually, there is one creature you can kill simply by smiling, and that's a Melanchoffer. They're similar to Dementors, you know, except they're much smaller and look like rats." The class burst out laughing.

Lockhart raised both hands for quiet. "Miss Lovegood," he said with a light chuckle, "I'm quite certain I'd have mentioned it in my books if I'd met a Melanchoffer, which I haven't. Now if we could get on with the lesson..." Looking around, he added, "I see all of you have bought my books. Why don't I start us off with a little quiz, just to check how well you've read them?"

And with that he passed out a test paper to each student; Luna looked down at hers and frowned. The questions were all about Lockhart and his personal information, his favorite things, his desires, you name it. Where were the questions that really mattered, like how to repel Wrackspurts and the best spells to ward off Umgubular Slashkilters?

"You have thirty minutes," announced Lockhart. "Start...now!" Most of the class immediately got to work; Luna, however, simply wrote her name at the top and then laid her quill down on the desk before staring out of the window again.

A Half hour later...

"Well," Lockhart said, shaking his head as he looked over the test papers, "this is most disgraceful. I really expected better of you all as Ravenclaws. It appears not one of you remembered my birthday is January 26. And what's this? Miss Lovegood, you didn't fill out a single answer!"

"That's right, sir," said Luna serenely. "Frankly, your personal information, while interesting to learn, isn't exactly going to help us in this class."

"Oh?"

"You're supposed to teach us how to defend ourselves against the dark arts, hence the name of the lesson. So wouldn't it have made more sense to give us a quiz on Dark magic and the Dark creatures you faced?"

Lockhart was silent for a moment before beaming at Luna. "Ah, an overachiever, I see! Well, there will be plenty of time for that later; for now, let us just focus on learning more about my accomplishments.

"Now, if you all will open Gadding with Ghouls to Chapter One..." As the lesson continued, Luna made a mental note to keep a close eye on Lockhart and write to her father about everything she'd learned about him.

As the next day was Saturday, it was the perfect opportunity for Luna to explore the castle a bit and even talk to some of the portraits in the corridors.

That morning, Luna had nearly finished getting dressed for the day and was about to put on her favorite pair of bright blue Converse sneakers when she received a shock - they were missing! Strange, she thought. I know I put them right there.

She then looked around for another pair; she looked under her bed and in her trunk. No shoes. The blonde witch looked everywhere on the floor, thinking maybe one of her dormmates had kicked her shoes away accidentally. No luck. Even her carpet slippers were missing! At that point one word came to Luna's mind: Nargles.

A minute later Imelda woke up and watched Luna searching the dormitory, a nasty grin on her face. "Aw, what's the matter, Loony? Somebody steal your shoes?"

"Yes, and I think Nargles are behind it," replied Luna, earning a snigger from Imelda. Well, if Luna couldn't find her shoes, then she would just have to go barefoot today. But that was okay; it wasn't like she'd never done it before. And as for the Nargles...Luna hated to think just how many there would be at Christmastime.

Luna spent most of the morning exploring the castle; at one point she found a secret stairway that led from the second floor to the fifth floor. After lunch, she had a brief conversation with a portrait of a rather grumpy-looking wizard on the fourth floor; she discovered that despite his demeanor, he was rather soft-hearted.

The young Ravenclaw was just on her way outside to visit the giant squid in the Black Lake when she heard voices coming from a nearby corridor. "...who knew he'd make it into Pride of Portree?" a boy was saying.

"Their standards must be really low," another boy said. As the group came into view, Luna thought she recognized one of the boys. Could it be? Yes, it was! It was Cedric!

"Hello, Cedric!" Luna called out. Cedric turned to her, a slightly surprised look on his face.

"Luna?"

"Yes, it's me! It's been a long time since I heard from you. How have you been getting on?"

"Ced, is this weirdo bothering you?" asked a dark-skinned boy.

"We could hex her if you want," added a boy with shoulder-length auburn hair.

"That's not necessary," Cedric told them. "Could you guys just leave us alone for a bit?" As the rest of the fourth-year boys moved back up the corridor, Luna stared at Cedric. The dark-haired wizard had grown about a foot since Luna had last seen him, and he'd started to develop a bit of muscle. "Er...how's it going, Luna?" He then looked down at Luna's feet. "And why are you barefoot?"

"I couldn't find any of my shoes this morning; I think Nargles stole them. Are you free tomorrow? You and I could look for Cloud Fairies, or perhaps we could go to the forest and visit the Thestrals."

An uncomfortable look came over Cedric's face as Luna spoke. He sighed as he replied, "Look, I really enjoyed doing stuff with you when we were little, but those days are over. It's time we moved on to other things."

It took a moment for Cedric's words to sink in. Luna felt as though a bucket of ice-cold water had been dumped into her stomach. No! she thought. This can't be happening!

"Cedric," she said in a small voice, "I..."

"I'd love to hang out with you again, really," Cedric told her, "but my friends would never let me hear the end of it if they saw me looking for imaginary creatures." At this, Luna's eyes began to well up with tears. "Luna, are you all right? Luna?"

But Luna did not reply; instead, she ran down the corridor as Cedric went to rejoin his friends. She could not believe the things Cedric had told her. She might not have been able to make friends with her fellow Ravenclaws, but she'd thought Cedric, at least, would be there for her. Wasn't that what Hufflepuff House was about, being loyal to your friends? On top of that, he'd said Cloud Fairies were imaginary!

The young witch wiped her eyes as she walked up to the Ravenclaw doorknocker. "What is so fragile that it breaks once its name is spoken?" it asked.

"S-silence," sniffled Luna.

"No need to cry, dear, you answered correctly," the knocker said before swinging open.

Once she had reached the girls' dormitory, Luna collapsed on her bed and sobbed into her pillow. All she wanted was one friend who liked her for who she was and who was not too embarrassed to spend time with her! Was that too much to ask?

"Oh, look, girls!" came a snide voice from the doorway. "Loony's crying! What's the matter, Loony? Couldn't find your Crinkly Snorgies?"

Luna quickly wiped away her tears and looked up at Imelda. After taking a deep, shuddering breath to calm herself, she said, "They're actually called Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. And they don't live anywhere near the Hogwarts grounds." Her dormmates laughed hysterically.

When she'd managed to pull herself together, Luna quickly wrote a letter to her father explaining how her first week had gone; she hoped he wouldn't be upset by what had happened between her and Cedric. After she'd sent her letter off with one of the school owls, she joined the crowd of students heading down to dinner, but rather than go into the Great Hall with them, she made her way outside toward the forest, figuring some fresh air and a visit to the Thestrals would help her feel better. Besides, she wasn't very hungry.

The young Ravenclaw felt a smile forming on her face as she walked through the forest and listened to the sounds of wildlife. Despite the chill of the evening, the grass felt good on her bare toes. Soon she came to a clearing where three Thestrals were nibbling on a piece of raw meat.

"Hello," said Luna dreamily. The Thestrals looked up at her with their blank white eyes. "I'm sorry to interrupt your meal, but I just wanted someone to talk to." A moment of silence passed before she went on, "I don't really have any friends up at the school, you know. They all think I'm a bit odd. Say, you haven't come across any Umgubular Slashkilters here in the forest, have you?" The skeletal horse-like creatures simply continued to stare at her.

"Hmmm, I'll take that as a 'no.' I imagine you don't get many visitors except for Hagrid, considering most people can't see you and those who can see you think you're scary. But I can tell you don't want to hurt anyone."

Two of the Thestrals went back to their dinner, but the largest Thestral cantered toward Luna and lowered its head, inviting her to pet it, which she did. It then crouched down with its head still bowed, which Luna took as an invitation to ride it. She'd never ridden a Thestral before, but really, how bad could it be?

Luna proceeded to carefully climb on the beast's back, holding on tightly to its neck, and without warning, it launched itself into the air. This is wonderful! thought Luna as the Thestral flew in great circles over the treetops; the evening breeze felt great on her face and she could see the sun setting over the horizon, painting the sky a lovely shade of orange-red. If only her mother could see her now!

Too soon, the Thestral landed back down on the ground with its fellows, and Luna slid off its back. "That was quite nice," she said with a smile. "I need to get back to school now, but I'll come visit you again soon." She gave each of the Thestrals a gentle pat on the head before skipping back to the castle.

5 September, 1992

Dear Mummy,

I have good news and bad news. I finally saw Cedric again, but unfortunately, he's moved on to his own circle of friends. It seems we won't have much chance to hang out together like I thought we would. And Ginny seems rather preoccupied in the few times I've seen her; I don't know what it is exactly. It could be Wrackspurts - or worse.

It appears Professor Lockhart really is egocentric. Yesterday he started off the class with a quiz, and the questions were all about him. He did promise to teach us more about how to defend ourselves against Dark creatures later in the year, though. Maybe I can persuade him to teach us about Wrackspurts and how to get rid of them.

The Thestrals here are quite gentle. Tonight, I realized I enjoy being with them even more than I like being with other people. And guess what, Mummy - I actually flew on one for the first time! It was amazing! I do wish you could be there to see it. I think I'll pay the giant squid a visit tomorrow.

Take care, and say hello to Gran and Granddad for me.

Love,

Luna

A/N: Wow. Cedric no longer wants to pal around with Luna - that's got to hurt. But that's what happens when your friend's reputation at Hogwarts is the polar opposite of yours and when the both of you are three years apart and in different Houses. I imagine there was a part of Cedric that wished he could spend more time with Luna without the threat of being treated like an outcast himself.