Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2011 is good to you :)

Luna Lovegood lay in her bed on Christmas Day, hearing the various clatters that were never absent from her busy house. Well, it wasn't busy per se, given that there were only two occupants at the most, but the house just held a certain air of madness. They hadn't always lived in the round, tower-like house. For the first few years of Luna's life, they'd lived in a small cottage just down the road but her father hadn't been able to cope with so little space, claiming to have no room to do his extensive research and printing was nearly impossible. Her mother had been finding it hard too, for the same reason. She wasn't quite as odd as her husband but she had liked to experiment, it had been those experiments which had been the eventual cause of her death. They had moved a few months later, after much discussion, to a house which Xenophilius had constructed out of rocks he had found nearby. The circular house had been perfect for their needs, suiting the family and Luna, who liked her room being the highest in the house. But still, her mother experimented.

'If only she hadn't opened that door...' was a constant thought in the young woman's mind. She had only been nine years old at the time, too young to understand some would say. But she had understood perfectly, and wished she hadn't.

Her mother was bent over a small cauldron, peering at it with a frown of annoyance upon her beautiful features. Her curls of brown hair, usually flowing loose over her shoulders, were bound up in a simple bun at the nape of her neck and her eyes were protected by glasses which Luna knew to be magically reinforced.

The potion within the small cauldron was bubbling furiously and giving off an odour that Luna could not decide to be lovely or disgusting, because it managed to smell like melting chocolate but the stench also managed to take on the form of burning Flobberworm. It was odd and confusing. Luna wondered if that was why her mother was frowning as she poked her wand at the large flames beneath the cauldron. Seemingly satisfied with the reduction in their size, her mother picked up a vial containing an amount of luminous blue liquid which bubbled randomly. Luna edged closer.

Given that she was only nine and naturally tiny, her mother didn't notice her as the table edges were at the same level as Luna's protuberant silver eyes. Her curly hair, where she took after her mother in style but not colour, was spilling over her shoulders and down her back, catching the light against her sweet little green dungarees. The little girl was trying her hardest not to be spotted by her mother, as she was not supposed to be in her mother's workroom. But she was just so curious as to why her mother had to keep the things in this room such a big secret. Surely she could see her mother at work just once?

"Luna! What on earth are you doing in here?" Luna jumped, startled at the sound of her mother's voice and realised that while she had been lost in her thoughts, she had moved closer until only the table the cauldron rested on was separating her from her mother, who didn't seem very angry that she had broken the only major rule and come into her room. She watched with wide eyes as her mother used her wand to remove the stopper from the vial of bubbling blue stuff.

"Luna, sweetheart, I know you're curious but you really shouldn't be in here. Your father and I only set these rules for your safety, we don't want anything bad to happen to you." Her mother looked up from her cauldron as she spoke, not watching the vial in her hand. Luna was though and she saw the liquid turn to a menacing shade of red just as her mother tipped it into the potion.

Thinking back to it, Luna realised she never had known precisely what happened in the next few moments of pandemonium. There had been a very bright flash of blue light and she had been thrown backwards by the force of the explosion that blasted from the small cauldron. The first thing she had seen on opening her eyes were those of her mother, looking not at her, but through her with a strange blankness. She remembered crawling towards her mother and shaking her, calling her but she hadn't responded. Then her father was there and he was so upset and horrified and his arms had been around her, pulling her away from her mother's body as he wept great tears into her hair. It was then Luna realised that by going into the room and distracting her mother, she had been the one to kill her.

"Luna? Luna!" And now her father was calling her, just like he had all those years ago when she'd gone into hysterics and sobbed until she couldn't breathe. "Luna! Calm down."

She was tangled in her sheets, thrashing around like a fish out of water. Her father was bent over her, trying to call her away from the nightmare memory that had taken over her in her laziness, her return to the world of sleep, her body's refusal to wake up when her mind had started going through that old nightmare that had woken her, screaming, so many times. Her roommates had told everyone she was crazy after she'd had one the first night at Hogwarts. Since then, she'd always been the weird, crazy one with few true friends. She wasn't terribly bullied though, because Ginny stuck up for her and nobody dared to get on the wrong side of Ginny, especially while Fred and George were still at school.

Fred and George... thinking about them made Luna feel sick and she sat up, threw her sheets off and ran to her bathroom, ignoring her father's worried enquiries to her health. He worried that she'd caught his illness as she downed a glass of cold water and leaned her forehead against the frosted window which faced the hills behind the Burrow where Charlie was.

"I'm fine, Dad. Just a queasy feeling, probably excitement. You know how I get on Christmas. Go back to bed, I'll bring breakfast to you in half an hour or so." She heard her father leave and padded back into her room, curling up in the chair in front of her desk. She took the picture of her mother and herself from her bedside table and gazed at it sadly.

"Oh Mum, I wish you were still here," she murmured softly. "You'd know what to do." After a few minutes, she put the picture back and dressed herself in a woollen dress, soft grey tights and furry black boots which kept her feet very cosy against the iciness of the stone floors. Still thinking over the Fred and George situation, she headed down to the kitchen and filled the kettle.

She couldn't believe it was Fred and George who stood in the way of her happiness with Charlie. They had always behaved like annoying, funny elder brothers around her. Teasing her gently, playing tricks on her and Ginny when they had tea parties, always laughing and joking with her. She'd have more expected Charlie himself to stop their happiness than the twins. It was such a shock to her and she sat down heavily, suddenly realising that maybe the teasing hadn't been as gentle as she thought, the tricks had not just been out of boredom, the jokes perhaps had been at her expense.

As the tears threatened to roll, Luna stood sharply and began pulling things out of the fridge, setting them on counters to prepare, pouring various things straight into pans and bustling around in an attempt to find the spatulas that always seemed to elude her on Christmas morning when she needed them most.

Several minutes later a calm Luna was stood at the stove, stirring a pot full of porridge. Once she'd taken that away from the heat and poured it into two bowls, dribbling one with Gurdyroot syrup and sprinkling sugar onto the other bowl. She wasn't quite sure what her father found so pleasurable about the syrup, with its odd consistency, like tar, and the bitter taste. She could just stand the tea, with lots of sugar, but she put her foot down when it came to the syrup on her porridge. Humming softly, she was glad to realise the cooking had calmed her as she flipped one of the eggs onto a piece of plain toast and then stopped to spread some more of the horrible syrup onto the other piece of toast, placing the second egg on the plate beside it.

Once she placed the sausages and bacon on both plates, she took two mugs and filled one with that barely drinkable tea that her father so adored. She poured herself some normal tea and took the tray containing her father's breakfast up to him in his room.

"Thank you dear, I hope you'll be alright cooking the meal today? Are you sure you wish me to remain in bed?"

"Yes father, you're ill and need to recover. Nobody should be ill on Christmas and you will only make it worse by attempting to exert your energy." She sat the tray on his knees and watched with satisfaction as he leant back against the pillows without protest,

"Alright dear, but if you need help with anything don't be afraid to come and ask." She left him stirring more syrup into his porridge with a gleeful expression on his sallow face. He looked slightly better than yesterday, she realised with relief as she made her way back to the kitchen, decided to eat there rather than risking the rickety staircase to her room, and then the ladder to the roof where she usually ate her breakfast. It was too cold, she reasoned, and she had a full tray of food which she was likely to spill. She decided against it and picked at her breakfast in the kitchen, happy to relax in the warmth that was coming from the large fireplace her mother had insisted on installing all those years ago. Her father refused to use it but Luna was happy to, knowing her mother wouldn't have wanted them to freeze to death.

Suddenly the fire blazed emerald green, making Luna jump in shock and her eyes widened. She hadn't known their fireplace was connected to the Floo Network. Frowning, she made a mental reminder to ask her father about that later but clearly she had no time to now as Molly Weasley's head appeared in the fireplace and blinked its eyes several times before settling on Luna with a maternal expression.

"Hello Luna dear, I'm sorry I never replied to your note yesterday, about not being able to attend lunch. Skitchel left before I had time to reply and Errol was already away delivering presents. Obviously I couldn't use Hermes, Percy took everything he owned when he left." Molly Weasley stopped talking for a few moments, lost in her thoughts. Her eyes refocused on Luna a few minutes and she seemed to awaken with a jolt, as if she'd forgotten she'd stuck her head in the fireplace to talk to Luna.

"Yes, so I couldn't remember if you were attached to the Floo Network so I decided just to try anyway, and well it clearly worked. Anyway, I'm babbling. I just wanted to say, I hope your father feels better soon and you can feel free to come down, if you change your mind. My family say I always cook enough to feed an entire army with leftovers. Not that they complain, they always seem to eat the majority of it..." Luna interrupted her quickly, sensing she was about to go off on one of her famed rants about food and how it shouldn't be wasted.

"That's a very kind offer of you, Mrs Weasley, but I'm inclined to stay here until I think my father can cope by himself. He is very weak after all. I hope you have a lovely Christmas, send my regards to everyone." Luna smiled and stood up.

"Of course dear, and how many times have I told you now to call me Molly? Enjoy your Christmas too dear, I'm sure everyone will send you wishes of a good day when I give them your message." The flames flickered for a few moments, turned pure yellow as Molly Weasley's head disappeared and then settled down to their gentle dancing orange.

Luna sighed, moving away from the flames to collect her dishes and wash them up. She wasn't as sure as Mrs Weasley about everyone returning her regards and that thought saddened her greatly.

"Luna?" Luna snapped out of her reverie as her father called to her and she ran up the stairs to make sure he was okay. He was still propped up against his pillows but the tray in front of him was now empty and he had his nose buried in a new book. There was a pile of wrapping paper at the end of his bed and Luna felt her heart sink slightly. They always opened presents together.

"You called?" Luna's eyes were still focused on the pile of wrapping paper and Xenophilius sighed.

"I'm sorry dear, it's just that I knew I was being given this book on Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and where they have been sighted recently and I just had to find it, but all my presents were book-shaped and I didn't find it until I reached the very last parcel." Her father looked up from his book with an expression of childish glee. She looked to the foot of his bed again and saw that not one of his other presents was a book. Of course, she should have known that, given that at least three of his presents came from her.

"It's alright, shall I take your tray?"

"Oh yes please, dear." He had already turned his attention back to the book and was absorbed in it. Sighing, Luna leaned forward and scooped up the empty tray and made her way back downstairs, cleaned up and then climbed all the way up to her room. She lifted her small sack of presents and climbed to the roof, sitting with her back to the wall in an attempt to shield herself from the harsh wind. It was still freezing though and she was thrilled to discover that her first present was a thick jumper from Mrs Weasley and her family, along with some mince pies. Her second gift was from her father, as was her third, fourth and fifth. She had a few presents from her few school friends, a necklace from her remaining grandparent and a last package from Ginny Weasley.

She opened it cautiously, half expecting one of Fred and George's mean products to spring out and punch her in the face, or similar, but it was just a mirror with a note attached to it, written in Ginny's spiky lettering.

Dear Luna,

This may just look like your average mirror, but it isn't. It's part of a pair, this is a communication mirror. Typically used by Aurors on a mission, you just have to speak the name of the person who possesses the other mirror and they should appear in it. Mad-Eye gave these to me, so I think he's noticed something, even though he sees more of Percy than he does of me, you or Charlie. Still, he's intuitive and hinted that they might make a good Christmas present so I'm giving this to you, and Charlie's received the other. Use it wisely and be careful not to break it.

Love,

Ginny x

Luna smiled and then looked around in a panic, realising she hadn't sent Ginny's present with the package to the Weasleys that her father had put together. She hauled it into her arms and was wrapped in her cloak and out the door before she realised she had promised herself she wouldn't go there while the twins were there, and everyone else. On her way, she realised another thing. She was done hiding.