Chapter 1
Luna woke up to a shriek in the room. She sat up and pulled apart the curtains to find the girl who occupied the bed next to hers jumping up and down on her bed and pointing at something scuttling across the floor.
"Someone get it! Kill it before it gets away!" she screamed at whomever willing to listen.
Luna got up and knelt down next to the small, black spider. She laid her palm down and coaxed the spider to crawl on. She lightly fingered it playfully and turned to smile at everyone. "It's just a spider. That's all." She opened the window and lightly placed it on the outside wall. Run, she thought. Luna watched the spider scurry away before closing the window.
"Gross! You actually touched it." The girl grimaced at Luna. "Go wash your hands before you come any closer," she demanded.
Not wanting to cause more people to be woken up by the girl's shrill voice, Luna obeyed and exited the chamber. Entering the lavatory, she stood in front of her reflection and stared at the girl in the mirror. She didn't think herself ugly. Bland perhaps, but not terribly awful. She sighed and leaned forward to gaze into her mother's blue eyes. Pushing aside a rather painful memory, Luna began to prepare herself for the day ahead.
Coming out of the bathroom, Luna saw her group of roommates huddled next to Matilda Gum's bed stifling their giggles. Luna smiled a soft morning greeting at them and went to her bedside table to put on her Butterbeer caps necklace and her Dirigible Plum earrings. Luna tried to ignore the girls' stare and bent to fetch her books from her trunk. Rummaging through, she found her special edition of The Quibbler No. 100 missing. She turned her protuberant eyes on the girls and their group quickly disbanded, trying hard to keep a straight face. "Could you have seen—"
"No!" Matilda, the girl afraid of spiders, cut her off. "Honestly, you don't think we would take YOUR things?" She threw her head back to laugh jeeringly.
"I wasn't going to say so. I just wanted to ask if you had seen it." Luna appeared unaffected by Matilda's curtness.
"Well, no. Satisfied?" She glared down at Luna, who was almost a head shorter.
Luna nodded yes and tucked her wand behind her ear for safekeeping. Leaving her roommates to their own speculation of why she didn't press further, she exited the room for the Great Hall.
Entering the noisy hall, she couldn't help but stop to smell the sweet scent of syrup swimming in the air. Luna looked up to find the sky still stained gray from last night's storm. Sighing, she sat down at the end of the Ravenclaw table to enjoy her breakfast. Not even three minutes into her eggs, Ginny Weasley, a pretty redheaded Gryffindor, approached her.
"Good morning, Luna! How were your first weeks of school?" Ginny sat down across from Luna, smiling widely.
"It's been alright. I have been starting to lose a few things though." Luna's misty eyes lowered back down to her eggs.
"You ought to tell the Headmaster of all this stealing and hiding. Some justice should be done!" Ginny's nostrils flared in her anger, then she recalled, "Which reminds me that I was asked to give you this." She slid a small, folded note across the table to Luna. "I'll see you in Potions!" With that said, she got up and headed back to her Gryffindor table.
Luna looked down at the thin, slanting writing on the scroll Ginny had passed her. Opening it with curiosity, Luna read the note quickly. Her eyes grew even wider.
Why would the Headmaster want to see me?
Finishing her breakfast, Luna hurried to the seventh-floor corridor where the gargoyle stood against the wall. She looked down at the note again, checking for the password. "Acid pops!" The gargoyle leaped aside, revealing a moving spiral staircase. She stepped on and watched as she was being brought closer to the door with the brass knocker. Before she could even reach it, the door opened.
"Ah, yes, Luna!" The Headmaster looked down at the dirty blonde-haired girl, smiling pleasantly. "I'm sorry but you'll have to excuse me." His expression appeared rather excited, his electric blue eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles. "There's been a slight argument between… Well, I shouldn't bore you with such matters." He held the door open. "In the meantime, make yourself at home. This shouldn't take long." He ushered her in and then turned to leave but stopped. "I must say I'm glad Harry brought this to my attention."
"About the argument?" Luna's eyes fogged over with confusion.
"No, about the management of your," The Headmaster scratched the side of his face with his long finger, searching for the right word, "effects." He looked down through his spectacles at her, mirth dancing in his eyes. "I've always thought if it's yours, no one can take it from you." He winked before he let the door shut between them.
For some reason, Luna felt that the Headmaster meant more than just what he said. She sat down in front of his desk and couldn't help but admire the magnificent beauty of the phoenix, Fawkes, standing on the golden perch beside the door.
Harry must have told the Headmaster about her having to put up a notice to recollect her things, thought Luna. She smiled at the act of kindness. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, rumoured to be the Chosen One, destined to kill He Who Must Not Be Named, and who probably has more on his mind than everyone combined in this school actually took the time out to mention the indecency acted upon her to the Headmaster. Her smile widened.
Unable to sit still any longer, Luna got up and wandered around the room, gazing at all the shiny trinkets cluttering the tables and the pictures of past Headmasters and Headmistresses snoozing on the wall. Then she came across a black cabinet near the front of the room. Odd choice of colour, Luna thought. She gazed about the room. All upholstery was either a startlingly bright colour or lustrously golden. She couldn't seem to understand why this particular cabinet was a dull, muted black. Curiosity taking over her, she opened the cabinet.
She was blinded at first, not expecting the soft glow radiating from a shallow basin from within. The contents of the basin mesmerized Luna. It was a bright, whitish silver substance that moved continuously. She couldn't tell though whether the substance was liquid or gas. Intrigued, she bent over to take a closer look. With a yelp, Luna felt herself being thrown head first into the silvery substance. She tried to grab the closest thing her hand could reach but the cold, metal surface she grasped slipped from her small hands and soon she found her feet smacking forcefully onto a very familiar set of marble staircases.