On Sunday morning before Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived, Luna had crept into the Dungeons to ask Snape if she could borrow a Potion ingredient. (She'd been flipping through her Potions book after visiting Patronus and saw a fun potion that could temporarily enable animals to glide through trees. She had all the ingredients except heart of a willow tree.)

As she made her way through the castle's dungeon, she saw a couple of older boys who'd fought with real swords. One had a bloody gash in his side. The other had most of his nose lopped off. Their fight had only just ended. They tossed their swords to the floor with a clatter and patted each other on the back. "Sorry I got your nose, but at least you can walk…" "Hey, my hip is fine, but that does look painful. I'm sure Madam Pomfrey can fix you right up."

A band of Red Caps came running out of the corners of the walls. With various weapons, they briefly bludgeoned both boys.

By the time Luna finished blinking, the nasty, goblinlike creatures were running back to their hidey-holes with several whoops and whistles. She would have helped the boys, but now there was nothing left for them to do but limp to the hospital wing.

When Luna neared Professor Snape's office, she saw Professor Quirrel running out of it, slamming the door behind him.

He started to barrel on by her when he caught glimpse of her robes. Plucking something tiny off the midnight blue garment, he held his finger close to his eyes with a horrid squint.

Breathing rapidly, he demanded, "Where did you obtain such fine unicorn hair?"

"It's a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, sir."

Shaking his head vigorously, Professor Quirrel dissented, "It most certainly is not, young lady."

She stared silently at him for a few seconds. The wheels of her head spun. "Do you need help with your Cheering Charms? You seem extremely gloomy."

He snorted then coughed up phlegm. "I'll not be distracted so easily," he warned, pushing on her nose with a cold finger.

Luna flinched and pulled back. "You have bad energy. It muds up my aura."

Professor Quirrel ignored her warning. He stuck his face in hers, gluing his nose to hers. Luna could tell by the taste of his breath he hadn't brushed his teeth in the last week. "You tell me where that unicorn is, or I'll—I'll take two hundred points from Ravenclaw." Grinning maniacally, he plainly thought he'd stumped her.

"It's rigged." Professor Quirrel's nose made a sucking noise when Luna placed her hands on his cheeks and tore her nose off his. Dancing away, she mused, "Only Gryffindor and Slytherin have a chance to win."

Professor Quirrel threw his head back and roared. Luna was saved by Professor Snape, who softly simmered, "Quirrel, calm yourself, or I shall inform the headmaster your emotions make you a dastardly candidate for a professor."

The turbaned man clasped his hands to his chest. "Me? What about you, biased t—" he stopped when Professor Snape narrowed his black eyes to slits, "t-toad," finished Professor Quirrel weakly.

"Did your stutter squirrel off?" Professor Snape proposed silkily. His posture reminded Luna of a cat about to pounce on a mouse.

Professor Quirrel opened and shut his mouth. "Sh-she h-has…unicorn h…" he scuttled away.

"What is the meaning of your intrusion?"

Luna explained her thoughtwave, leaving out which animal she meant to give the potion to.

"I see you're not enlightening me which critter you mean to feed this to. You'd better have no intention of taking one of your fellow Ravenclaws' cats for a dip in the forest," but he handed her a vial with heart of a willow tree. "Now, out of my sight."

Luna sped back to her dormitory to create the potion before the other schools' representatives arrived.

Humming to herself, she gathered the ingredients. Spine of a chameleon, bark of an oak, skeleton of a rat, boomslang, and seaweed from a belligerent swamp soon surrounded the heart of a willow tree vial.

She had used the latest edition of the Quibbler as a bookmark. Prying the book open to the correct page, she tossed her Quibbler aside, sat with her legs folded, and began reading the instructions.

Tearing open a packet of Bertie Bott's Instant Potion Foundation, she dumped the contents in her cauldron. The instructions called for her to lay the bark of an oak and seaweed from a belligerent swamp down in the potion formula while chopping the chameleon spine into seven equal pieces with a paring knife, so she got to work completing those steps.

Tossing the chopped spine in the cauldron, she held the book in her left hand with her thumb, pinky, and middle fingers clutching the open pages. Her other two fingers were nestled against the cover. Her hair was sticking up slightly with a paint blotch from a birthday card she'd made for Professor Flitwick.

Tongue between her lips, she read she had to mash the final three ingredients in a separate bowl for five minutes.

Then she mashed the mold into the rest of the potion and finally stirred counter clockwise seven times and clockwise three. At first stir, it felt like there was a giant blob in the center, but by the final stir, it had all molded.

She let the potion sit for two hours, going off to watch Ron's Quidditch practice.

Ron ducked when a Bludger sailed his way. It soared into a goalpost. Fred snorted. Lifting his hands off his broom to cup his mouth, he roared, "You call that goalkeeping?"

"Yes, but I don't call it keeping the Bludgers out."

Shaking his head, Fred declared, "You're barking, Ron."

"Me? I'm not the one who lost a three-headed dog I named Fluffy and never mentioned it again." Folding his arms across his chest, "If you think I've got issues, take it up with Hagrid, but I personally think you're nitpicking."

"He didn't lose him," George corrected, whacking a Bludger aiming for his nose. "Fluffy ran away. He didn't like guarding that trapdoor, so now he's free…hopefully not terrorizing Muggles, or the Ministry will put him down."

"Shh!" Ron hissed. "Not in front of Hermione!" He stopped Katie from scoring and beckoned to a girl doing homework in the sidelines, frowning briefly up at them.

"What's she doing out here?" wondered Fred.

"Said the Common Room is too smelly after that Dungbomb fight you guys had with Ginny last night," Ron reported. "She's only sitting there because it's the best place for fresh air." Ron caught the Quaffle again. Harry dove but missed the Snitch.

The practice ended thirty minutes before Luna had to check on her potion. When she arrived in her dormitory, she saw Isobel sniffing around the potion, preparing to dump it out.

With a far-off smile, Luna asked, "What are you doing?"

Isobel jumped backward, knocking into Cho's kitten, Mike. Glowing like the sun, he reached his claws out and made to untie her laces. She wrenched her ankle away. "N-nothing." Wiping her palms on her robes, Isobel stated, "I'm going to wait for our guests." She flounced off.

Luna peered into her cauldron. It was a sparkly lilac. Which the book stated meant the potion had been successful. Separating the potion into several bottles, she slid them into her drawer. Selecting rose pink robes, she changed out of her midnight blue garment. Jamming her feet in her winged speedkers, she grabbed her Spectrespecs. Around her neck hung a chain with a charm shaped like a Crumple-Horned-Snorkack.

Among but not part of the crowd, Luna waited with the other students for the representatives from the other schools. She pulled out her Quibbler and flipped through the pages, choosing an article about the leprechauns that had bamboozled the Ministry out of half their wealth then ended up half asleep in a pile of their own vomit when Ministry officials caught them.

She was entertaining herself with a different article—this one on a mysterious sighting of a flying rabbit/dragon with a tail of a lion—when Dean Thomas shouted, "Look!"

In the sky, a tiny figure grew in size the closer it got to land. The closer it got, the more obvious it was that it was a pale blue house-sized carriage being carried by six winged palominos the size of elephants.

The students filed out of the three stories high carriage. Golden flecks of sunlight sprinkled in their hair. A cat that appeared to have a starfish on her face came trotting out, sniffing the air then looking for a place to do her business. She came close enough that Luna realized what she took for a starfish was a tan marking. The cat was mostly white with splotches of black, so the starfish shape stood out.

After she finished her business, she did backflips trying to catch a damselfly until her boy scooped her up and carried her back to the carriage.

The final occupant to emerge had to duck out the door. The profile belonged to a woman as large as Hagrid.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!" Dumbledore raised his arms affably. "Students, this is Madame Maxime!"

After everyone got over the excitement of the new students, they waited for Durmstrang. No one had any idea how they were arriving, not even Hermione, who was a know-it-all. It was strange she hadn't read the answer in Hogwarts: a History, but she looked as unsure as everyone else.

It had been two hundred years since the last Triwizard Tournament. There probably wasn't a book that explained Beauxbatons or Durmstrang's method of transportation, and even if there were, the current headmasters might have selected a different one next to the past headmasters.

Luna longed to visit Beauxbatons one day and see how freshly beautiful it was…and warm next to Hogwarts, as she gathered by the Beauxbatons students' thin robes.

She was sure there were interesting artifacts there too…but probably more near Durmstrang. Luna lapsed into a daydream. Digging in the snow to uncover something exciting. Pulling up a freshly weaned Crumple-Horned Snorkack…

From the depths of Hogwarts' lake, ripples appeared. Small at first, they broadened until they admitted a large black ship, which sprang up.

When the occupants disembarked the ship, Luna was surprised to see one carrying a large fishbowl containing a pat kappa. There were air holes in the lid, and the lid was screwed on tightly, but Luna couldn't imagine why someone would have a pet that enjoyed strangling humans.

Hagrid may have been a joke teacher among the Ravenclaws, but this was taking it to another level. The skrewts were as bad as Hagrid got, though Luna had never comprehended why Hagrid opined they were "interestin'".

"KRUM!" screamed something in Luna's ear. It felt like her eardrum had backfired. She tried to hold her head in her hands and conjure a mental picture of Patronus, but she couldn't get the echo of KRUM to subside from her head.

"Durmstrang," Dumbledore enlightened any Beauxbatons or Hogwarts students who had no idea what was going on. "This is Professor Karkaroff." The two headmasters shook hands then Madame Maxime and Karkaroff shook hands.

Dumbledore told his charges, "If you are a sixth or seventh year, you should see these students in your classes." Peering at them over his spectacles with a pale blue eye, he commanded, "Mingle," then strode back to the castle.