Disclaimer: See Prologue.

A/N: I love the response I'm getting to this story. I am sorry that there isn't a lot of detail, you know, like a detail description of the room or people's faces or the like. I see my stories playing like a movie inside my head and I have to get it out as fast as I can. Sometimes, however, the film stops, which results in my chapters being a bit short. The chapters I am on right now, however, are short because I want to devote a whole chapter to each of the eight and create a separate experience for each. I'll try harder in the future to make longer chapters, but those probably will take me longer to write. So you can choose. Short and frequent, or long and pending. Now, on to the hat of names. This chapter will be on… Luna! On that note, I've just realized that I have made a mistake about Luna. She clearly states in Order of the Phoenix that her mother was a witch. But, considering this story is AU, I hope you'll let my slight mistake slide. I wouldn't have made it, except for the fact that I haven't reread OotP because that has to be one of my least favorite of the books for obvious reasons. Now, on to the story.

The Chosen Eight

Chapter Seven

The Choosing - Lady Slytherin

When Luna opened her eyes to a room that was absolutely foreign to her, anyone who saw her would have witnessed one of her true displays of emotion, this one being, naturally, shock. Luckily for her, the only one to witness such a thing was a man who had been dead for quite some time.

Salazar Slytherin was a tall, imposing man, lithely built with an outwardly cynical attitude that was offset by the genuine ardor in his deep gray eyes. His hair was a dark brown that made one think of rich chocolate. Luna stared at him in apparent confusion before coming to her senses and putting her mask firmly in place.

"Who are you?" she asked vaguely, looking around the room in a listless manner. The walls were gray stone, the floor black marble with silver lines running through it. It was decorated in beautiful emerald green and silver trappings. It was unlike anything she had ever seen.

Salazar smirked at her. "You don't have to hide your feelings from me, girl. You couldn't if you tried. I have a talent for reading people, a talent that you yourself are very familiar with. One of the reasons I've picked you as my Heir. I am, of course, Salazar Slytherin."

She stared at him with her icy blue eyes. She could tell that he was being truthful and that he was someone that she could trust. However, she could also see that he was allowing her to observe this. All that she had always been told about the Hogwarts Founder came back to her. Could she really trust this man?

"I can see you are distrustful of me. That's good. A healthy dose of skepticism never hurt anyone, but it has kept been known to keep them safe. I realize that there are some…unsavory stories about me in your time. Most of them are true, but they have not happened to me yet, and they never will. I am not the actual Salazar Slytherin, if I were, I'd be six feet under and probably only bones right now. I am a very advanced memory of Salazar Slytherin as he was at this point in time. I have not experienced the things he had when he decided to do the things he did. Do you understand me?"

"I think so," Luna replied, paying apt attention to the man before her.

"Good," he replied in a no-nonsense tone. "Now, get dressed, we have work to do."

"Work?"

"We have got to get you ready. And you've got a long way to go."

OoooOoooOoooO

Luna woke up in a new state of mind. When she had lay down, she was a girl who constantly hid her true self from the rest of the world. She was mocked and ridiculed, but it was okay, because they weren't mocking who she really was. They could make fun of her mask all they wanted, it wouldn't hurt her any. Now, however, she realized that it did hurt her. By not allowing people to actually see her, she was missing out on people caring about her true self. After a year with Salazar Slytherin, she was now a young woman, ready to face the world as herself, and do whatever she had to in order to satisfy her purpose. It wasn't going to be easy, and there was a definite possibility that she could get hurt, but it was, as she had realized, worth it.

Tbc…

Hope ya'll like Luna and Salazar! BTW, I need suggestions for the names of Slytherin's and Ravenclaw's residences.