Author's Note: This is actually both the part I've had the most fun writing yet also the one I've worried about the most, given my point of view and the take I have taken on Luna. Making that take work has both been fun, and nerve wreaking. Hopefully you all will enjoy this the third of what will now be a five part story.

Ravenclaw

Luna Lovegood was an enigma to her house mates, and she liked it that way. She also was the number one in her year in almost every class she took. It was simply amazing to see the way that Colin could turn around the most sabotaged potion around. She'd been fighting for number one in charms with Ginny since they were seven, and Luna's mother had taught them both some easy charms and hexes to get revenge on Fred and George.

Which reminded her, the charm on Fred's top hat should be about to be triggered. There was no way that the Weasley twins wouldn't end up at the Burrow tonight, and Mrs. Weasley was cooking stew with carrots in. Luna had made certain of that. It was a shame that she wouldn't see the result personally, but some people refused to stop calling her all those bunny phrases. Luna could handle people stealing her shoes, books (those she had memorized already), pens, and ink. The latter two didn't get stolen anymore. That charm that didn't allow anyone other than her to use them correctly was way too useful. Calling her a bunny, that was too far.

Of course, as the heir to the owner of Lovegood Publications, she was required to be observant. Some day she'd become the publisher of such scholarly journals such as Magizoology Monthly, Ravenclaw's Record, Transfiguration Tomes, Charming Circular, Practical Potion Periodical, Ward Warrant, and most especially, Critical Hit. She'd processed the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor's subscription almost every year. In the case of her first Defense professor, he'd already had them, as had her second, though a few subscriptions had lapsed a couple times only to be suddenly covered by an anonymous estate for Professor Lupin. She'd been worried about the status of Professor Moody's subscriptions. Somehow he came up as having subscriptions already, yet she never was able to determine under what alias or even what post owl delivered much less when it was delivered.

As for the immediate prior Defense Professor, the toad, a nick name that Luna highly approved of, had been constantly binning her subscriptions of the Big Five Defense Journals. It didn't work, because Madam Pince had already charmed the bins in most every class room and professor's offices to return books and journals to their proper places. Luna had been quite amused at the growing pile throughout the year. She wouldn't admit that she'd suggested to her father that Ward Warrant use a lovely painting of a grim that just loved growling at Umbridge's cat plates. Unlocking the cover to allow the grim to run through the cat plates during class had been one of Luna's great pleasures. The fact that it had allowed the grim to end up in the landscape painting above her bed was icing on the cake.

Firing one of Luna's favorite professors had made Luna make sure that the grim that Treelawney had predicted would appear often in her life. She had just gotten the animation charm for the cute grim down a week before the beginning of term. With any luck the tranfiguration would end on the kitten sculpture that an anonymous fan had given her any day now.

In any case, Luna needed to make sure she knew the reaction of her house mates to their new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. She wasn't really worried about the two prefects in the year above her, or Michael Corner. That boy's reasons for choosing his dates, not to mention his bad kissing, were enough reasons to consider his opinion worthless. So her first bit of attention was on Marcus Belby. His attention seemed to be on the empty plate, not the Boy-Who-Lived. "Hopefully the curse won't hit this year." was the line she heard from her radish radio enhancing earrings.

Eddie Carmichael seemed to think that his Defense NEWTs were more likely to be outstandings now, something that was shared by most, save for Maddy Brocklehurst and Marietta Edgecombe. The latter should have known better, and the former never learned. Lisa Turpin seemed to be evaluating Harry's robes, something that Luna had expected from Padma's twin, not a Ravenclaw who'd earned ten Outstanding OWLs (and had professed that she was going to shove that fact down Eddie "Nine OWLs" Carmichael's throat. Luna was considering offering assistance.)

Isobel MacDougal was frowning. MacDougal was nearly always frowning, so much that Luna had taken to classifying her frowning. This one was number fifteen, which Luna believed was an expression of disbelief. MacDougal had a hard time believing things in the best of times. She'd been thrown for a loop by the Headmaster's lecture on the uses of Dragon's blood.

Mandy Brocklehurst was actually seated next to Luna, something that Luna was actually quite happy with. Brocklehurst was a constant notetaker. She took notes on everything, and somehow seemed to hear and document everything. A quick glance using a setting on her glasses revealed that Luna had somehow missed. Luna didn't know all of Brocklehurst's personal version of shorthand, but what she did seemed to indicate that her classmates thought that Harry would do wonders for the practical part of Defense, something that pretty much all of them felt was needed given the Toad, but didn't expect much on the theory side.

Luna figured that they were right, but she had no problem with that. Luna had a new appreciation for the practical part of Defense since she'd joined Harry on his mission to the Department of Mysteries. Her renewed friendship with Ginny helped as well. When Ginny had heard about the bullying, a term that Luna had studiously avoided applying to her fellow Ravenclaws, being unable and unwilling to strike back, she'd made sure that Luna had visited Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to help out and get some good advice.

Ginny was sure that no one would expect Luna to have access to Fred and George's bags of pranks, much less be getting the employee discount. Luna had carefully crafted her image of an airy girl who believed in the unbelievable, and somehow managed to get every single one of her house mates to totally discount her. Joining Harry had made some of that image in the need of re-enforcement, but she figured that Ginny was right, and thanks to Harry, Ginny, Fred, and George, she no longer was avoiding labeling her house-mates as bullies.

Luna shifted her attention to the newly sorted. Ginny had told her that she needed to work with the first years this year, especially since somehow both her and Ginny had managed to get prefect badges. She had sought out advice on how she could be a good prefect. Granger had given her a lot of rules based results, and an admonishment not to let herself be bullied. Ron had been in bit of a shock that both she and Ginny had the badges, but he'd said he had gotten his best advice from Percy of all of his brothers.

"To thine own self be true," the third Weasley brother had said. Luna had spent a long time thinking about that an what it meant to her, and the way she acted at Hogwarts. She was going to have to let a bit of what she'd always hidden. She squared her shoulders, dessert, including her favorite plum pudding, would have to be forgone tonight. Fortunately she knew about tickling the pear to get to the kitchen. Plus Noddy was quite willing to drop a piece or two on an end table near here when he noticed that she was a bit peckish.

Luna quietly got up and headed down to the first years, finding a slot among the large first year class of Ravenclaws. "Good Evening minuets. I am Luna Lovegood, and I will be your prefect this year. As the fifth-year prefect, it is my responsibility guide you this year. As there is just one of me, and sixteen of you, every moment I can be available is important."

"I thought there was supposed to be a boy and a girl prefect?"

Luna turned towards the voice, noting the boy's curly brown hair, and the way his robes were fastened. "Normally, Grover. However, an imbalance in my year's sex distribution occurred, resulting in only girls being sorted with me. Hufflepuff was nearly all boys, but managed a single girl." She noticed that the smallest of her new minuets, was nervously twisting her rather short deep red hair. "Diedre?"

"Aren't you one of the Six?" Diedre asked, her accent coming close to changing the number to something that Luna was sure that the young girl didn't intend to.

"There are six girls in my year in Ravenclaw, yes," Luna said, knowing that wasn't actually what the girl was asking, and effecting her usual airy tone, just for a moment before dropping it to continue in a more serious one. "But I am also one of the six students who were involved in the battle against the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries. We went there together because we are Harry's friends."

"But he's a Professor?" another girl, Fiona, said.

"Last year he was just Harry, fifth-year Gryffindor," Luna said, raising her hand, briefly, as she realized that these first-years hadn't yet had reason to see through the Boy-Who-Lived hype. "He credits his mother for his survival as a toddler. Do not think he is the hero from the books. Read the disclaimer before those books. You will find that he is quite different than those books, and it would be wise to clear your preconceptions before your first class with Professor Potter.

"In a few minutes, the Headmaster will be sending us to the dorm. Hogwarts can be a bit confusing, with walls pretending to be doors, windows pretending to be walls, and doors pretending to be windows, and the like. Not to mention the moving staircases. Fortunately we do not have to go far to Ravenclaw tower. Please let the upper years clear the hall, and then join me. I will be taking you on the most reliable route between the tower and the Great Hall."

There was a tap on a wine glass that echoed through the Hall. Luna knew that meant that dismissal was about to happen, perhaps with a few announcements.