As usual - anything you recognise, I do not own.

19th August 1992

It was a warm summer morning and Luna had been down by the lake behind the Lovegood homestead; she had always been fascinated with the nature by the water, ever since her mother started teaching her about it many years ago. She had been eagerly awaiting her father's return from an interview with a wizard in a nearby town; he had promised her that they would go to Diagon Alley today and finally get her school though she had been to Diagon Alley many times before (she loved finding books in Flourish Blotts), this time would be different – she would finally get her very own wand and perhaps start learning before she arrived at Hogwarts.

It was nearly noon by the time Xenophilius Lovegood had apparated to their front door and Luna was reading the previous months' edition of "The Quibbler" in the lounge room when her father came in to see her.
"Luna, darling, are you ready to leave?" Xenophilius asked, as he put down his paperwork that he would undoubtedly bury himself in until the early hours of the next mornig. Ever since his wife had died, Xenophilius had thrown every effort that wasn't spent on raising Luna into "The Quibbler."
Luna nodded eagerly, she had been ready for what felt like hours, it would be a nice morning out with just her father. "Yes Daddy, are we apparating?"
"If you don't mind darling, we must get some more Floo Powder while we are out."
Luna put the magazine down and grabbed her Hogwarts letter from the kitchen was walking so fast that she almost tripped over a loose floorboard. "I'm ready when you are daddy." She looped her arm with her fathers and held on tightly. In seconds, she had felt a strong tug from somewhere behind her navel and felt her head spinning; while she always enjoyed the rush of excitement magic gave her, she did not necessarily enjoy the nausea she felt after apparating with her father.

When they had finally stopped spinning, they had arrived in the back room of The Leaky Cauldron. Luna let go of her father and they walked through the pub, saying hello to Tom, the barkeeper and out the back door into the small, walled courtyard and stopped in front of a wall of bricks; Xenophilius tapped the bricks in an order and the bricks started to wiggle and move to form a huge archway.

Finally. They were in Diagon Alley.

As they walked down the cobble-stoned streets of the wizarding streets, Xenophilius hugged his daughter. "Well, we won't need to visit the bank, I don't think. I withdrew some money earlier this week for today."
Luna smiled and pulled out her letter. "That's ok daddy, I can visit the goblins another time. Where shall we go first?"
Xenophilius smiled and plucked the letter from his daughter's hand. "Perhaps we should start with your new school wear."

They walked into Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and saw a woman and a girl who was presumably her daughter (for they both had the same flaming red hair) trying on robes in the second-hand section of the woman behind the counter looked up as the bell over the door tinkled.
"Hullo dear, Hogwarts?" The witch asked kindly.
"Yes please ma'am." Luna witch gestured towards a stool so she could start taking Luna's measurements; Xenophilius wandered over to the plump witch in the second-hand corner and began talking to her.
The other girl in the shop looked at Luna and when Luna met her eye, she looked away, did not bother Luna, however she couldn't help noticing that whenever she wasn't looking at her father, she could feel a pair of eyes watching her.

After Luna had got her school uniforms, scales, glass phials, telescope, cauldron and potions ingredients (Xenophilius had magicked her equipment home), Xenophilius decided that they should get her wand and she could decide what kind of pet she would like; they had intentionally left the bookshop until last as Luna loved finding new books to read.

They walked into a shabby, narrow shop which had peeling gold letters over the door that said "Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C."; Luna had looked forward to this all week – her very own wand! Inside the shop was an elderly man standing at the counter in the middle of the shop looking directly at them.
"Good afternoon Xenophilius, how are you?" the man greeted.
Xenophilius smiled. "Rather giddy, I must say, Garrick. I believe that I may have become victim to a Fuzzwumple earlier today."
The man smiled kindly and Luna could tell that the man did not believe her father, but he was too polite to say so. "Ahh this must be your daughter then, Xenophilius?Why, she looks just like a young Pandora…"
Xenophilius nodded sadly, just like he did whenever anyone mentioned his late wife. He was doing a lot better these days though."My little Luna certainly looks like her mother."
Luna held out her hand."It's nice to meet you, sir."
The man shook her hand, Luna wondered if this man had friends… "Nice to meet you too Miss Lovegood, I am Mr Ollivander. How about we get you your wand?"

Luna did as she was asked, holding out her wand arm and letting Mr Ollivander measure her went out towards the back of the shop and came back with two long boxes in his hands.
"I will try you first with these. The first one is Mahogany, eleven inches and dragon heartstring core." He held out the first box for Luna to take the wand; she waved the wand, but it did nothing. Mr Ollivander took the wand back and gave her another to try.
"Maybe this one… It's a little unusual.. Ebony, twelve and a half inches with Thestral tail hair as its core." He said, shifting slightly.
Luna took the wand and felt an immense warmth spread from her fingertips to her whole body; it was a wonderful feeling. Golden sparks showered from the end of her wand and her father clapped proudly.
"Well done Miss Lovegood, the wand has chosen you – a very unusual wand hair, however. Thestral tail hair is a very uncommon wand core and it is even less common for a wand with said core to choose a witch or done indeed…" Mr Ollivander trailed off as he placed her new wand back into the box and retrieved some wand polishing equipment for her. He explained the proper way to clean the wand and how often it should be done before handing her the small fabric bag he had placed it all into. Luna's father paid for the wand and went off to their next stop: the Magical Menagerie.
Thirty minutes later, they walked out of the pet store, Luna carrying her new albino owl she had aptly named: Ghost.
"Thank you so much daddy, her eyes are beautiful, aren't they? I can't wait to let her out to stretch her wings!" Luna smiled happily.
Xenophilius smiled. "How about I send her and your wand bag home? I daresay there will be a number of books that aren't on your school list that you would like?"
Luna giggled. "I would love to look if I can!"
Xenophilius magicked her shopping to their home before they wandered off to Flourish Blotts, her father telling her about the interview he had earlier that morning and a conversation he had with a fan.

"…And that lovely woman down the road, Mrs Myra, told me that she couldn't wait to get her hand on the next edition of The Quibbler! She said she was hoping to get our recipe for Plimpy Soup, what do you say darling, shall we share it?"
"Oh yes daddy, we must share it - it is a delightful soup." Luna replied had arrived at the bookshop and Luna pulled out her letter again, preparing to hand it to the wizard at the counter.
"Hullo!" The wizard said happily."Hogwarts?"
Luna nodded, handing her booklist to the man. "May I pick them up at the end, please, sir? I was hoping to look around."
The wizard nodded and she waltzed off happily to the bookshelves nearby, humming a tune to herself, her father walked off in the opposite direction; the wizard at the counter stared after them and shook his head. He was used to many different people coming through, but these two just gave off the weirdest, yet kindest, feeling.

Later that night after dinner, while Xenophilius was back in his study working on The Quibbler, Luna decided to pack all of her robes and equipment into her new school trunk; she had packed in all of her school books except "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1" by Miranda Goshawk and her new favourite book, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by Newt Scamander.
Luna went and kissed her father goodnight and got herself comfortable in bed to stay up reading her new couldn't wait to start at Hogwarts!

Please RR, I'm trying really hard to focus on stories when I can... Apologies for the formatting, I repel technology and can't work out how to change it :(

If there are any spelling or grammar errors, I do apologise - I had to go through and remove coding throughout the story and for some reason it deleted random words here and there or removed spacing...