Fourteen-year-old Luna Lovegood was wearing spectrespecs while she doodled a unicorn in Quirrell's class. Her nails were painted gold glitter. She kept stroking her wand at her hip. She was humming "Jingle Bells" without awareness, though it was early September. She could smell her breath of coffee mingled with marshmallows and mint. On the back burner of her mind, she was recalling the glimmering, thrilling joy of being the one who induced her niece's first two steps the day before Luna left for Hogwarts.

Her Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Hagrid, mostly loved strange or dangerous creatures. Luna had a love of all things equine—horses, unicorns, pegasi, thestrals, centaurs. As long as it had hooves, her spectrespec-covered blue eyes would become star-shaped at the sight of it.

She even had a fantasy that someday she might fall in love with a centaur. They were ten times prouder than humans and far more intelligent. Better a centaur than one of those Slytherin blokes Crabbe and Goyle, who thought dribbling mustard down the front of their robes was uproariously hilarious.

Quirrell was stuttering something about the "imp-p-portance of defending oneself against p-p-predators". Some of the kids were snickering and making fun of him. Not that he noticed. He seemed a bit gawky, with the new, purple turban wrapped around the back of his head. Luna wondered if he had nargles hidden underneath. Better nargles than a wrackspurt.

Luna wished more than anything she had a Crumple-Horned Snorkack on the back of her head. She'd never smother it with a turban. It'd be lovely to visit Sweden and have one agree to share her body.

Quirrell claimed he'd gotten his turban from an African prince for disposing of a zombie. Nobody believed him. It was the popular opinion that he'd met some vampires in the Black Forest in Albania and had been severely bitten. Then asked a hag for help but had said something offensive, which induced her to leave a ghastly mark. Word on the street was he'd purchased the turban himself to conceal said mark.

Luna could swear she saw the turban breathe. It was for this reason that she believed the turban hid a few nargles.

A bit of parchment landed on her desk. Luna stopped doodling and brought her body back, which caused the necklace she wore to jangle.

Her necklace cord was deep purple. Hanging from it were about fifteen old-fashioned keys of various styles. One had miniature dragon fangs dripping with saliva from the interior of the eye. A light grey one had a wolf eye that blinked filling out the eyehole. Another was orange and striped black. This one purred unceasingly but growled nastily if someone clutched it too tightly or threw it.

A chugging fourth one blew out steam and occasionally released a strong, sharp whistle. A brown and white one with a tiny, constantly wagging tail let out a deep sniff whenever a stench drizzled the room it currently occupied, and the key filled the air with some excited barks whenever someone threw a tennis ball. It also growled when anyone threatened Luna. A sixth one was lilac-colored and smelled like mouthwash. Luna liked to stick this one over her tongue after eating.

She had a teal one with feathered wings and cherry-colored key teeth that liked to sing in a bird whistle throughout the day. Only when the mood was carefree. She had a shimmering gold one that rearranged its teeth whenever it spotted a new lock. Supposedly, it could open any lock, though Luna had yet to confirm this. She had one that reflected whatever she held it up to. It kept the reflection's image like a washable painting for two days.

Though most of these keys were useless except as intriguing artifacts, Luna loved them.

Her favorite was a pure white one (with fur) that had a tiny horn over the eye, hooves on the bottom of the teeth, and whinnied when it came within a three-mile radius of another equine.

Luna still hoped to obtain a Crumple-Horned Snorkack key.

She glanced from the parchment to Quirrell, who was still droning on about "p-p-precious p-p-platforms which enable a wizard to p-p-protect himself against p-p-predators…" He wasn't glancing her way.

She dropped her eyes to the pinkish-purple ink.

**Hey, Luna! You left this morning before I could tell you. Last night, I I saw a unicorn mare and her foal enter the Forbidden Forest. Thought you'd like to know. I couldn't sleep, so I sat in front of our window.

—Isobel MacDougal**

Luna's lips rounded. She became so excited that she smushed some of the Doxy wings on her bracelet.

There was a nest of Doxies atop Luna's house at home. Doxies shed their wings every three months. Luna had made the wings lying around her house into a bracelet, thinking they looked cool.

She turned back to Isobel and mouthed, "Thank you!" As always, Isobel wore dark purple lipstick and matching nail polish. Her dark brown hair spread sweetly over her shoulders. She gave Luna half a smile in return.

Isobel had taken Luna's shoes and Pegasi mane glitter last year. She had returned it when Harry Potter asked if she'd seen it. Luna wasn't sure she liked Isobel, but it was nice of her to tell Luna about the unicorns.

Luna worried about the dangerous beasts she'd have to sidestep to meet the unicorns. The she realized she had just the thing!

A snarfblat whistle topper. It was designed to repel dangerous beasts.

Luna knew some beasts would as soon eat her head as let her pass peacefully. It wasn't called the Forbidden Forest because it was a carnival. Her snarfblat whistle topper would be a great help.

She was glad that dilated-eyed witch had sold it to her. Never mind how nervous and hasty the skinny woman had been. Luna needed it now. Though she hadn't dreamed she'd ever set foot in the Forbidden Forest without Hagrid's persuasion. Until now.