Luna Lovegood, who loved art with a passion, wanted to be a tattoo artist when she finished Hogwarts.

She hoped to mostly do ungulates. Horses, dolphins, deer, thestrals.

Unicorns were her most favorite of them all.

Lately, she had also taken to drawing Ronald Weasley. It always began with his long nose and sometimes ended with his tail. She liked to make him a centaur or merman.

And sometimes, he was riding astride a unicorn.

She'd been thinking lately on what she'd like to name the unicorn foal. Walking along Hogwarts' corridors while drawing Ron as a merman, she tripped on Mrs. Norris in her winged speedkers (as the house-elf wasn't going to give her pink and neon green shoes back anytime soon).

Luna fell so hard she banged her chin on the hard floor and felt blood pooling. One of her hands smashed on the floor and twisted her elbow—the other wound up under her. Clutching a colored pencil she'd stabbed herself with. Where she tripped, her ankle became hooked on Mrs. Norris.

Mrs. Norris jumped out from under her, and Fred Weasley encouraged, "You gave her a kick from me! Thanks!" The sixth year offered his hand. Luna took it with the hand attached to the uninjured arm, smiling graciously. Her other arm hung awkwardly. Fred helped her to her feet.

Looking up at Fred, Luna wondered what it must be like to have so many brothers. Fred even had a if reading her thoughts, Argus Filch came into the Great Hall, tugging George by the ear. "Kill the spare!" he snarled ferociously.

Peeves dropped a gong on Filch's head. "Meant to do that!" he triumphed as Filch sank to his knees and toppled over.

Mrs. Norris turned her disapproving lamplike stare upon Peeves, who yanked on her tail.

Fred picked up the picture Luna had drawn. His lips pressed together in surprise. Handing it to her, he suggested, "Next time, draw him with a terrified expression and a half-teddy bear, half giant spider writhing in his arms."

Luna could not stand on her right ankle without collapsing. She grimaced as George helped her stand. How nice it must be to have big brothers..

Except she'd witnessed Fred and Geprge being less than kind toward Ron and their big brother Percy (who had graduated at the end of last terrm). She decided maybe a big brother wasn't great when he was related to you.

She also recalled when Percy had forced Ginny to suck down a dose of Pepperup Potion when she was pale. Luna had witnessed it in the hall and thought Percy too forceful. Ginny hadn't seemed sick, but she'd been too bewildered to fend Percy off.

Peeves blew himself backwards out of the Great Hall by blowing raspberries with his tongue out.

As Fred and George escorted Luna to the hospital wing, she mused, "If you had a pet—or an animal friend—what would you call him?" Blood oozed down her robes from her chin.

One of her feet was swelling in her Speedker so much that her shoe became uncomfortably tight. Her natural magic eased her shoe off and made it float at chest level behind the trio.

"What kind of animal friend?" George wondered, rubbing his ear where Filch had been yanking it.

"A pure white Crumple-Horned Snorkack," Luna answered with buoyancy.

Fred and George exchanged a glance. "Pure white, you say?" Fred mused. "Pygmy Puff might be a good one. But can we borrow this animal friend so we can pelt it at Quirrel's turban? We've run out of snowballs."

"I'd call it Patronus," George stated.

Luna's eyes widened. She wiggled excitedly from the middle. "That's a good one, George! But no, Fred. You may not let this animal anywhere near Professor Quirrel. It's only September. Snow will arrive soon enough."

They arrived at the hospital wing. When Madame Pomfrey gave Luna a bed, her speedker rested on the nightstand table next to it. It whickered gently then lifted the front sole in a wide yawn then fell into gentle snoring.

Madame Pomfrey rushed off because she had a student with a very nasty case of illness that appeared as burns and bites. "Dragon pox," she swore under her breath. "Contagious!"

"Why do you draw Ron?" George asked Luna. "There are plenty students with better personalities."

Fred grinned and licked his teeth thoughtfully. "If she likes them hot-tempered, she should be drawing a professor."

"Snape?"

"No, Professor Brutus! Yes, Snape."

George lifted his neck pompously in wonderful imitation of Percy. "I think our family will do. After all, we've got that cousin in St. Brutus' Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys."

Fred's brow wrinkled in concentration. "Barney?"

"Barnaby."

"Oh, right. Wasn't he—"

"Ella and Thomas' kid, yeah."

Pulling out of their twin conversation, Fred informed Luna gaily, "We don't approve of your subject, but the artist is impeccable." He gave a half-bow. "You got his long nose right."

Smiling tightly, George confessed, "You didn't make him handsomer…or prettier…than he naturally is."

Madame Pomfrey returned. Fred saluted Luna and stated, "We're off to play Gobstones with Lee Jordan. He got this new, solid gold set. See you around, Loony."

Even had he said it meanly, Luna wouldn't mind. Getting worked up over intentional ly hurtful nicknames wasn't a Luna thing. But he uttered it in a friendly manner.

Fred and George left Luna to Madame Pomfrey.

Madame Pomfrey checked Luna's elbow and ankle. She smeared a gob of lavender ointment with a clean aroma on her dripping chin to stop the bleeding.. Then she tapped her wand against Luna's ankle. Purple sparks shot out and turned to bubbles pressing against her flesh then tugging themselves below her skin.

Her ankle slowly thinned to normal.

"Thank you," Luna expressed appreciatively, drawing Madame Pomfrey's gaze up to the inside of her mouth.

"One of your teeth is broken off."

Luna shook her head. Madame Pomfrey grabbed her finger and tugged it up to the broken tooth, rubbing Luna's finger against it. "Hold on." She reached in a cabinet and removed a tiny bottle with teal liquid. She handed it to Luna. "Drink up."

Luna drank from the tiny bottle in one gulp then grabbed her neck. It felt like the liquid was blocking her airways. She tried to squeeze the liquid down faster but only managed to bruise the sides of her neck.

Finally the liquid made it to her chest then shot straight to her tooth as if the medicine was fireworks plunging into the sky.

Luna lifted her finger and rubbed the mended tooth.

"Now for the elbow…" Madame Pomfrey mused more to herself than Luna. She waved her wand and shot a white-hot stream at the elbow. Then handed Luna a vial of sputtering eggplant-colored potion. "Drink this."

Holding her nose to block the stinky feet scent, Luna guzzled the liquid before asking while making a nauseated face, "What was that?"

Madame Pomfrey handed her a slice of cherry pie to diminish the taste. Luna stuffed it in her mouth and promptly began chewing. "A preventative. Dragon pox is dreadful."

Luna decided to head out for a walk when Madame Pomfrey shooed her and her snoring Speedker out the hospital wing

She carried her speedker in her arm, half barefoot. On her way, she noticed a fellow Ravenclaw standing in the middle of a hallway.

Cho's aunt was giving Cho a glowing orange kitten. "Isn't he cute? I got him from the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley. The witch selling said he glows like the sun during the day and turns black at night. His eyes mimic the moon at night, so they should glow most nights. Even if only a fraction…"

Hermione Granger's cat had obviously gotten a whiff of the new kitten. Crookshanks weaved between Cho's aunt's legs, pausing every few seconds to stare politely but hopefully at the bundle in Cho's arms, asking, "May I sniff him?" Cho brought the kitten down. While smelling him, Crookshanks swished his tail happily.

"I'm going to call him Mike," declared Cho.

Luna ventured out of earshot.

When she got outside, she noticed Ron, Harry, and several other boys practicing on broomsticks (not for Quidditch practice). Seamus and Dean were two of them.

Her shoe abruptly halted its snoring and cheeped anxiously. Luna let it fly down and settle on her foot. Then she found a fence to sit on so she could watch the boys. Propping her elbows on her thighs and chin in her hands, she watched.

A big nose sniffed inside her ear. Swiveling her peripheral vision, Luna spied Fluffy just before a head dripped drool on her ear.

Appearing out of thin air, Professor McGonagall petted Fluffy's wither. "He's been a lot more even-tempered since Hagrid added mushrooms to his diet," she conversed good-naturedly before sitting on the fence beside Luna so she could adjust her square-rimmed glasses. "What brings you out here, Miss Lovegood?"

Dreamily, Luna answered, "Watching boys on broomsticks."

"Perchance a long-nosed, red-haired boy?"

With bewildered blue eyes, Luna asked, "How did you know?"

Gluing her eyes upon the man currently occupying her dreams, Professor McGonagall replied, "I know that look."

"Oh. I'm too obvious, aren't I?"

Watching Hagrid out of the corner of her eye, Professor McGonagall murmured, "No more obvious than any of us are." She tittered.

Rising feline-like to her feet, Professor McGonagall said sternly, "It was nice to see you, Miss Lovegood, but I have preparations to make for our guests." She strode off, neck held high.

Luna busied herself with drawing Ron as a centaur and leaves falling around him. One leaf covered his long nose. Another lay flat in his flaming red hair.

The whole time she worked, she watched him fly on his broomstick. A crooked smile added mischievousness to her face, but her eyes were spacey. Her eyes were not in this world.