To Luna's slight disappointment, nobody at the Ravenclaw table came up to her to ask why she was limping or why she had left Potions early.
Luna reached for the ladle and gave herself several juicy, abundant helpings of chicken stew.
Yes, that was disappointing indeed.
She dug in.
She was not a pessimist by nature. If nobody worried about her, she'd take care of herself. As she ate, every so often, she reached into her pocket to feel the Skill-Stealer. Her mind travelled back to the day dad had given it to her.
They had been sitting on the riverbank in the summer, dipping their bare feet in the water. Luna was chattering away about her usual routine at school.
"First part of the day is filled with classes. My favorite class used to be Transfiguration but I'm starting several new ones this year, so I don't know which I'll like best. Then, dinner. After dinner, I generally do homework alone in the library, then walk over the grounds and compose songs and speeches in my head."
"What do you mean 'speeches'?" Xenophilius was looking at Luna very fondly.
"Oh things I would say, if people listened. But nobody really does listen."
"Is that so?"
"Sometimes, I go to my dormitory to sketch a picture with colored pencils. Or I sit in the common room but it gets crowded there and people are always asking me if I can change my seat. They say apologetically, 'Seeing as how you're alone and we're with someone, would you please move?'"
Xenophilius frowned. "Why alone? Didn't you make any friends last year?"
Luna didn't know how to explain. The very phrase "making friends" had begun to sound incongruous to her. If only you could make friends like you could make a Disappearing Draught in Potions class, just by following directions...she'd do very well at that, she was sure. She was decent at Potions, perhaps, because Professor Snape didn't scare her, like he did so many other students.
"It just didn't happen. Friends."
He frowned. "But I don't understand. You're not shy. You're friendly and talkative. You're intelligent too. You shouldn't have trouble finding things to discuss with other girls."
"I'm more thinkative, than talkative really," Luna said. "Oh, is 'thinkative" a word?"
"It should be," her father agreed. For a moment, he looked distracted. "I ought to write a column, 'Words That Should Be Used If they Aren't.'" He came back to the subject at hand. "But that shouldn't be a problem. Ravenclaws are supposed to be thinkers.'"
"I think they like knowing more than thinking. They like to tell me whenever I'm wrong. Like with the wrackspurts."
"Wrackspurts do exist and don't you let yourself be swayed."
This was a sensitive point with him, so Luna just nodded.
He reached into a box that he had brought with him and took out a glass cone-shaped object. "Now, I'd hoped you could show this to some friends of yours but, at any rate, you will be able to enjoy it yourself. This is called a Skill Stealer."
Luna's eyes grew big. Dad enjoyed finding quaint little decorations and jewelry for her but this was the first magical object (other than her wand) that she had ever gotten. "Does it...steal things?"
"We were warned that it would at the secondhand shop where we bought it. Your mum and I got it for a bit of fun, convinced that it would take away our ability to dance the waltz or something. But it didn't. So we tried testing it in different situations and realized that what it did was steal demonstrations of skill. Like a particularly good bit of household magic or a person singing or playing an excellent game of Quidditch. It captures the things it witnesses. And later, you can ask to see them again and you get a shadowy moving image that you can watch inside this round part on top." A look of fleeting sorrow passed over his face. "I should have used it to steal a moment of your mum working at something. While I could. But I never thought I'd lose her so soon."
Luna swallowed, then firmly turned her mind away from her mum. "So what if I wanted to steal you fishing on the riverbank. Could I?"
"I'm not that good of a fisherman. The skill-stealer might just turn up its nose at that. Or its...whatever it has. But just wait, Luna. Soon enough, you'll witness something interesting enough to make it worth stealing."
Luna came back to the present moment with a start.
Dinner was over. Her foot was still throbbing and she suddenly remembered how much homework she had. With a sigh, she headed to the library, where she spent some time doing work for Potions and Divination. Finally, around 7:50, she headed up to the second floor, just as Hermione had asked her to.
Hermione was standing by the DADA office. Her teeth had been filed back down to a relatively normal size. Luna supposed they'd been improved as well but she had no way of knowing for sure.
Hermione looked irritated. She was holding a flyer that advertised the Triwizard Tournament as the "highlight of every student's school experience".
"This," she said. "I'm so tired of this. Everyone's so excited. I can understand why, I suppose. But I just wanted a normal school year. Now, of course, my two best friends are fighting and a much older boy from Bulgaria keeps trying to get my attention. And I'm only fourteen!"
A sudden metallic bang came from the DADA office.
Hermione hurried Luna along the corridor. "It's become a strange room since Moody came," she muttered. "Lupin's curiosities and Lockheart's photos on the walls never creeped me out like this."
When they were seated in the spare classroom, Hermione pulled out a package full of small rock cakes. "Well," she said. "Tell me about the Trying Trio. And then we can talk about Daphne Greengrass."
Luna reached for a rock cake thoughtfully. She appreciated Hermione's brisk manner but she could not be rushed.
"It all began with Andromeda the portrait," she began. " Within the first few weeks of school, I decided that I wanted to copy a portrait and hers was the best. So I went and asked her for her permission."
"Wait," said Hermione. "Can you just copy a Hogwarts portrait just like that? Is that allowed?"
Luna shrugged. "I decided that as long as the portrait allowed me to do it, it would be all right. Now, Andromeda's regular place was in the corridor leading to the Slytherin entrance because that's the house the original Andromeda was in. So I moved the portrait to an empty classroom where I could work in peace."
"That can't possibly be permitted, moving portraits around."
Luna crossed her arms. "Can we move on or are we going to be stuck on this point all night?"
Hermione looked taken aback. "Go on, of course."
"October 20th was the day it all started. My painting session with Andromeda ended at half past 7 that day. I had Defense Against the Dark Arts at 8 AM. That left me 30 minutes to climb up to the 7th floor, grab my books, jog down to the Great Hall for a quick coffee and head back up to Defense on the 3rd floor. I also had to stop by the Charms classroom on the way, so I got into Moody's class at exactly 8.
Then, I had a break from 9:15 to 10 (when I have Herbology), so I was wandering along, daydreaming, until Deena Tillson from Intro to Ancient Runes stopped me in the halls. She's a Hufflepuff, but they mix all the houses up in Intro to Runes because it's an elective."
"I know they do," said Hermione. "You needn't mention things I already know."
Luna simply waited for a moment.
"You know," said Hermione. "Maybe I ought to not say anything until you're done."
So Luna proceeded.
" "Why weren't you at breakfast this morning, Lovegood?" said Deena.
"I had a few things to do," I said.
"What exactly is your schedule on Mondays?"
Her manner was so confident that before I knew it, I was listing my classes.
"Well," Leanne said. "It's a shame I didn't get to grab you at breakfast, but it's too late now. Next week, you'll know."
"Know what?"
"I'll need you every Monday morning at exactly eight."
"For what?"
"Listen, you dolt." Deena spoke slowly. "Our Runes class is in the afternoon and we don't intersect at all before that, since you've got that many classes. So I'll need to see your weekend homework. Every Monday during breakfast. Because Professor Babbling usually gives the biggest translation assignments over the weekend."
"Well, I suppose…" I said.
Deena gave me a forced smile. "Today, you'll just have to skip Choir at 10. That's when I have my break. Right now, I've stepped out of class for the loo but I'll see you in the library at 10." She turned as if to go.
"What?" I giggled at absurdity of the request. "I'm not skipping Choir."
Deena's eyes narrowed. She held her wand tightly at her side. "You'll have to. I can't afford to miss any assignments."
"Well then...you'll need to find someone with more free time to do your work for you."
In the next instant, I felt, rather than saw, an ice-cold stream of water squirt me in the eye.
"I repeat, Lovegood. You will meet me in the library today at 10 or deal with some nasty consequences." "
Hermione's eyes were big. "What did you do?"
"I went on to Choir just like I had planned," said Luna. "If you knew what effort it took me to get Flitwick to sign me up for Choir in the first place...you'd know it was that important to me. But Deena told her friends at lunch. She always sits at the edge of the Hufflepuff table so she can talk to Vicky in Gryffindor. And Lisa from Ravenclaw always comes over and sits besides Vicky. Anyway, that's when things started happening. That night, I came into my room and all my things had been flipped."
"What do you mean 'flipped'?"
"How do I explain?" Luna frowned. "When you look into a mirror, things that were on the right, are now on the left, and the left are on the right, yes?"
"Kind of," said Hermione. "But my mind knows that it's what I'll see in advance, so the image in the mirror doesn't feel flipped unless I stop to think about it."
"Well, every one of my belongings had been flipped but individually, so that each item was still in its place. My bedside clock was going backwards. My shoes pointed in instead of out. My Snorkack poster on the wall looked all strange and skewed. The letters on my textbooks were mirrored. By the next morning, all my things had returned to normal. It was really kind of clever, I thought at the time. Except they started pranking me with different things each time and I never knew what to expect. I've had my belongings multiplied, divided in two, made half-transparent but not quite, everything you can think of. And whenever Deena passed me in the Great Hall, smirking, I knew it was them. I've begun thinking of them as The Trying Trio."
"How do you know all three of them did it? Maybe it was Deena alone?"
Luna shook her head. "Oh, no, she couldn't even answer the riddle to get into our common room. But Lisa Turpin is in Ravenclaw, so she's already in. She might have done it. She might have snuck Deena in and let her do the rest. And there's also Vicky Frobisher."
"I know, Vicky," Hermione said, startled. "We're in the same Charms class. You're right, Vicky could have cast those spells, as she's fairly competent witch."
" I guess I should take it all like a good sport, but I don't like that they are touching my things," Luna said simply. And when Hermione looked sympathetic, she added, "I have some belongings I don't want anybody to know about. And some that are special."
Hermione was thinking hard. "What about your dorm mates? You couldn't ask them to help protect your things? They're in that room all the time anyway."
"Those girls?" said Luna. "They just laugh every time something happens. So I laugh along and blame it all on the nargles."
Hermione flinched. "I really don't know what I would do in your place. Probably ask my friends to hold onto anything especially important."
"Yes," Luna said. "But you see, I haven't got those kinds of friends. I just have Andromeda the portrait and my pet Dibs." She thought for a moment. "And dad back home."
Hermione glanced at her wristwatch. "Well. I understand about the Trying Trio now but we haven't even started talking about Daphne. Come to think of it, it might have not been Daphne who hexed your shoe after all. It might have been the Trio. So you shouldn't tell on Daphne unless you're sure. Anyway, we have a little time left. Go on."
Suddenly, Hermione's attention was attracted by some noise outside. "Something's going on," she said. "Wait here."
She stepped out and Luna could hear her speaking to Filch in sticky sweet tones.
When she came back, she looked annoyed but resigned. "I have to go back to the dormitory. Haven't a choice. He's suspicious just because I'm here. Comes of being friends with the Weasleys. But we'll talk again. Let me think on what you've told me so far tonight."