Luna Lovegood

Morning

Luna's first class began rather unusually, as despite the fact that it had been more than fifteen minutes since the class began, Professor Lockhart was still absent. This was a rather unusual situation, as he was normally the first to appear, greeting everyone with a charming smile on his face. This didn't seem to bother the students too much though, as most of them were simply chatting among themselves and having a good time, taking advantage of the opportunity.

Michael was as always sitting next to her with a huge smile on his face, as always eager to learn from professor Lockhart. His absence didn't seem to upset him, instead making him even more excited for some reason. She thought about asking him, but she had her own problems to worry about.

Namely, she had trouble guessing the number of nargles that could fit in a jar at once. Despite what one might think, giving the correct answer was surprisingly difficult, as many variables had to be taken into account before answering, such as the size of the jar, the current weather and the age of the nargles in question. Her current guess hovered around a hundred, although she knew that further research was needed to find out the real answer.

About thirty minutes passed before Lockhart appeared in the classroom. Luna was in the middle of calculations when the classroom door opened loudly, revealing Professor Lockhart standing at the entrance. He looked completely different from his usual appearance, with his normally impeccable clothes in a state of disarray and his hair disheveled, looking at everyone with unfocused eyes.

"Gilderoyy Lockhart appeareeed" Lockhart announced with little slur, wobbly walking toward his desk, doing his best to stay on his feet. As he passed Luna, the girl smelled an intense odour of alcohol coming from the man, indicating that he was under the influence of a booze fairy. It took Lockhart a moment to reach the desk, with him nearly tripping twice, but he finally reached it, taking a seat at his chair and looking at the students with an unexpected accusation in his eyes "You probably want to leearn soome spells, don't youu? Always about the spells, never aboout what's really impoortant"

Students started looking among each other, not really sure how to react to Lockhart's unexpected state. Most of the stares were concerned, though when Luna looked at Michael, she saw he was watching Lockhart with barely contained glee.

"Youuu probably think I'm a bad teaacher, don't yoou? That I'm soome sort of frauud?" Lockhart squinted his eyes, leaning over his desk to look at the class "I can seee it in youur eyes. That daamned pity"

He then turned his eyes to Michael, glazed eyes meeting joyful ones.

"It's aaall your fauult Brown" Lockhart accused Michael ,though there wasn't much heat in his voice. He looked like he was about to lose consciousness at any moment, visibly struggling to stay awake "Youu are the one who staaarted it. You madee everyone chaant I'm a fraud…I think. Thaaat day I…I don't …"

Professor Lockhart fell asleep without finishing his sentence, his head gently resting on his desk. As he began to snore, oblivious to his surroundings, the classroom began to buzz with activity, students whispering to each other at a rapid pace, stealing glances at the sleeping professor. Confused, Luna turned to the only person who would be able to explain the situation to her.

"I don't really know what happened," Luna admitted, looking at Michael with a questioning gaze, hoping he would be able to explain to her what had just happened. She had seen people behaving similarly to Lockhart when she visited the Diagon Alley with her dad in the past. According to her dad, they were haunted by booze fairies, dangerous spirits responsible for making people disoriented after drinking alcohol. But Professor Lockhart was a DADA teacher, so he wouldn't let booze fairies influence him. So why was he acting so strangely? "Do you think something has happened to Professor Lockhart?"

"Don't worry, nothing is wrong with Professor Lockhart," Michael assured Luna, looking at Lockhart with a big smile, admiration evident on his face, "He is just giving us the performance of a lifetime."

Afternoon

After her morning classes were over, Luna headed to the Great Hall for dinner. While she would eat with Michael once in a while, enjoying outdoor meals with her friend, most of the time she ate her meals in the Great Hall, using the time spent there to read her dad's letters and new issues of the quibbler.

She was doing just that, eating some dumplings and reading about her dad's latest discovery in the field of biology, when an unfamiliar older Gryffindor sat down next to her. She was about to ask what he was doing, when the Gryffindor boy spoke.

"Hail Slytherin '' He whispered quietly, his voice strangely tense. While she was sure he was talking to her, the boy wasn't looking at Luna, instead staring straight ahead, pretending to admire the Great hall's wall. He looked visibly nervous, with his posture rigid and his eyes wide open.

"Hail Slytherin?" Luna asked, not quite understanding the situation she found herself in. Why Slytherin? Wasn't the boy Gryffindor?

"Ah, so I was right. You are a little young so I wasn't sure. It seems we are the first ones to come. Shouldn't more people be present by now?" The boy asked, looking at Luna for confirmation. Noticing her lack of response, mostly caused by her growing confusion, he took out some paper and began to read it "According to the Master's letter, I was supposed to come to the Great Hall at one o'clock, sit on the edge of the Ravenclaw table and say 'Hail Slytherin' to the people sitting there. It's one o'clock, so…"

At that moment another older student, this time Ravenclaw, sat next to the Gryffindor boy, her behaviour quite similar to the boy's.

"Hail Slytherin" Whispered the girl, waiting for their answer with visible anticipation. Luna and the boy looked at each other.

"Hail Slytherin" They replied simultaneously. Luna still wasn't sure what was going on, but she decided it would be more interesting to stay and find out.

In the end, almost ten other people showed up at the Ravenclaw table to join them, all giving the same password. While it was quite confusing to Luna, as only one of the students actually belonged to Slytherin, she decided to let it go. It probably wasn't that important anyway.

Luna spent the next hour chatting with the rest of the group. While she mostly just listened to the other members talk about things like equality and justice, once in a while she would speak up, using the arguments she had heard from Michael during their lecture. She didn't know if what she was saying made any sense, but it made the others even more passionate about bringing change to the school, so she was quite pleased.

During the conversation, she was even able to learn a little about the group, although contrary to her expectations, this was the first time they had all met. Apparently, all the members had previously been recruited by some master, who ordered them to gather in a great hall and start working together. None of them knew the master's identity, as the master had been communicating with them through various letters, never once revealing themselves. Luna, as a self-proclaimed mystery fan, appreciated the secrecy surrounding the group's leader, making it clear that she had made the right decision by staying.

They even invited her to their next meeting. To be honest, Luna still wasn't sure who all these people were, but she had a good time, so she would definitely attend.

Evening

In Luna's opinion, few things were better than watching the night sky.

She was currently sitting on one of the Hogwarts benches for this very reason, gazing in silent awe at the stars above her. Although it was quite chilly, as befits a December evening, she prepared herself by putting on thick winter clothes, making the activity quite comfortable for her.

She was however feeling quite sorry for the people watching her for the last hour.

She didn't exactly know why, but for some reason Harry Potter and his friends were watching her from afar, hiding behind the wall of the outer corridor. So far they had not approached her, keeping their distance, although from their conversation, quite easily audible from her bench, they planned to do so in the near future, with the apparent goal of obtaining some of her hair.

As far as Luna knew, her hair had no special properties, so she had no idea why they were so interested in it. Still, it must have been something quite important if they were willing to endure freezing temperatures just to acquire it. In truth, Luna didn't know why they hadn't simply asked her to give them some of her hair. Harry's female friend had already attended Luna's lecture, so Luna was pretty sure she was a good person. She also doubted that Harry Potter, of all people, would use her hair for anything bad. He probably just needed it for one of his amazing adventures.

Luna was about to approach the group herself, not wanting any of them to catch cold, when one of them, a brown-haired girl in a Gryffindor robe, emerged from behind the wall. She walked toward Luna with a determined look, trying and failing to look casual. When she reached her, she coughed loudly into her hand, most likely trying to get Luna's attention.

"Hello, you're Luna Lovegood, right? From the lecture? I'm Hermione Granger. It's so good that I managed to find you. You see, I was walking through the west wing when I saw..." At that moment Hermione's voice wavered, as if she was having trouble saying something. A grimace momentarily appeared on her face, but almost immediately disappeared, replaced by the previous smile" ...a glubber, eating some berries. Would you like to..."

"You don't have to trick me into giving you my hair, you know?" stated Luna. Hermione looked at her with wide eyes, shocked by her words. She tried to say something in response, but her lips moved without making a sound. Not wanting to stress the girl even more, Luna reached for her hair and pulled, plucking out a few hairs. She then gently placed them in Hermione's open palm and closed it, making sure they wouldn't accidentally fall out, "I'm sorry I made you stay outside for so long. Please come inside and get warm."

Not even waiting for a response from the still stunned girl, Luna left the courtyard to head to the west wing, hoping to find the glubber Hermione had mentioned before the curfew.