That Sunday was a lazy one; all Simon, Luna, and Piggy had to do was a bit of homework that wasn't due for a long while – at least, Simon's and Luna's wasn't due for a long while. She had no idea about Piggy's. Honestly, she didn't care about Piggy's much. Piggy was just with them so that he had friends.

But before she worked on her homework, she needed to read the letter from Daddy she'd gotten that morning. So, while Simon searched for the books they needed to research their essays, Luna opened up the letter.

Dear Luna,

I have done research on the Greyback family, and, in addition to Fenrir being a werewolf, they are also quite musically inclined! Try and get your Greyback to sing to you sometime, or perhaps get him to play Quidditch – he'll want to sing and you will hear!

Or maybe that's the Merridews…

I am sorry it took so long to respond; after all, school has been going on for almost a month! However, in addition to the Greybacks, I've been researching nargles. When you come home for Christmas I fully expect to have a plethora of Nargle-hunting gear to use. It will be fantastic father/daughter bonding time.

It's good to hear that you're making new friends. Simon sounds like a lovely boy. I hope you make dozens of friends that you can invite over for your birthday celebration in June. But don't try for more than seven Gryffindors; they tend to get a bit crazy.

Signed,

Your favorite father

Luna smiled at the letter and decided to write back after she'd gotten at least a start on her essay. Nargle-hunting would be fun. Perhaps she could bring Simon home with her so he could go nargle-hunting with them. That would be nice.

Speaking of Simon, he was taking a long time. Luna decided that she probably should check out what was going on; after all, what if a large book had fallen from one of the higher shelves and had knocked Simon unconscious? That wouldn't be good. Luna knew that, if you left someone unconscious too long, bad things started to happen to their mind. She suspected that the Wrackspurts had something to do with it.

But a large book hadn't fallen and knocked Simon unconscious. No, it was worse. Simon was trapped by a group of mean-looking Slytherins. He looked scared. Luna would probably be scared, too, if Slytherins of that size were trapping her against the bookshelf.

Luna didn't know what to do.

It would be smartest to go get a teacher, but who knew what would happen in the time it took her to? Maybe… maybe she could go ask Piggy to. Yes, she'd do that, and then she'd figure out what else to do.

Luna slipped away, unseen by any of the Slytherins and back to Piggy. "Go get a teacher!" she hissed. "Hurry!"

She didn't let Piggy have any time to ask questions, and he ran. It would have been a rather comical scene, had Luna not been so worried for Simon.

Now she needed to do something to help Simon. She didn't know what she could do – after all, she was only a first year.

What about Wingardium Leviosa?

Luna peeked around the corner. The Slytherins seemed to be just trying to scare Simon, but Luna didn't want them to do anything bad. She didn't want them to hurt Simon. That wouldn't be nice.

Wait a minute – there was Roger Greyback and his friend.

Maybe she could convince them to convince the other Slytherins to stop being mean to Simon. Luna slipped around the other Slytherins basically unnoticed – she did accidentally run into one of the two gigantic ones, but he took no notice of her. She wondered if his nervous system was working properly.

"Can you tell them to stop, please?" Luna asked Roger's friend, because he seemed like a nice person. And also she'd heard that he had a brother in Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuffs were nice people, generally. Roger's friend looked at her.

"You look familiar… you're in our year, aren't you?" he asked. Luna nodded, and he smiled suddenly. "I'm Maurice Macmillan, and this is Roger. He doesn't like people knowing his last name because then they don't like him."

"Shut up, Maurice," Roger muttered, crossing his arms. Luna looked at him curiously, then remembered that she should probably introduce herself.

"I'm Luna Lovegood," she said. Maurice grinned again.

"Alliterative names unite!" he said. Luna smiled. She kind of liked this boy. He was nicer that she'd expect a Slytherin to be. "But, um, is he a friend of yours? That little Ravenclaw, I mean."

"Yes, that's Simon," Luna said. Maurice nodded, then walked over to the redheaded Slytherin. Luna watched as he whispered something in the only-slightly-taller Slytherin's ear, and then the redhead turned to the blond. The blond sneered.

"He's just a filthy little mudblood anyway," the blond said, dropping the book that he'd probably taken from Simon and stalking away. The rest of the Slytherins – except Maurice and Roger for some weird reason – left with him. Maurice skipped – Luna hadn't seen anyone but herself skip around Hogwarts – back to them.

"There you go!" he said cheerfully. "Wow, I'm hungry."

"Then go eat something," Roger muttered. Though Maurice was very nice, Luna couldn't help but be intrigued by Roger. And he was related to a werewolf.

"I've got an amazing idea! Come here, random Luna's friend!"

Simon approached them, biting his lip. "Hi," he said, swallowing. "My name's Simon."

"I'm Maurice, this is Roger, and Luna's your friend so of course you know her," Maurice said. "I was thinking we could have a picnic! Like, grab some food from the Great Hall – lunch's going on right now, that's where Jack and the others went – and then go sit somewhere on the grounds?"

Luna blinked. Maurice was a very odd person. Roger apparently thought the same, because he began to mutter under his breath again. It was something about how 'Maurice was an idiot and Jack was going to think that they liked mudbloods and then he'd tell Draco and then they'd have to be antisocial like Harold.'

Luna wondered who Harold was.

Eventually Maurice's winning ways won out and the four set off for the Great Hall. Simon and Maurice went to go get some food, leaving Luna and Roger in an awkward silence. Luna glanced at him every few seconds, studying him. Hedidn't look like a werewolf. Maybe he wasn't actually related to Fenrir Greyback. Maybe she should ask him.

"Are you related to Fenrir Greyback?"

He jumped. "Yes," he said, offering no further explanation. Luna was going to ask him more questions, but just then Maurice and Simon returned, bearing food and a random Slytherin boy that she'd never seen before in her life.

"This is Harold!" Maurice said. "We stole him from the table because he was looking too miserable."

Harold did look quite miserable.

Maurice led them across the grounds, babbling and teasing all of them. He seemed to have no inhibitions at all. Luna liked that about him. She wondered how he'd ended up in Slytherin, where everyone was either like Roger and Harold – antisocial and evil-looking – or Jack Merridew and Draco Malfoy – mean and pure-blood supremacist.

She ended up sitting between Roger and Simon on the grass. "Can you pass me a sandwich?" she asked Roger. Roger, who looked like he'd been daydreaming, jumped and handed her the sandwich at the top of the pile. Their fingers brushed and he jerked his hand away. She could see the faint red of a blush under his darkish skin.

She hoped she would see more of Roger.

And this is kind of where Luna and Roger start to interact a little. :) Hooray!