September

The station was unlike anywhere she had been before. Unlike Ginny, who had been dragged to London to see the train off every year since she was born, she had never even been to a station before. What reason had she to do so?

"Alright dandelion," her father said, just before they went though the barrier, "now you just have to run through the barrier."

She shook her head fiercely. This was something else she did not have in common with Ginny. More than anything else in the world, she did not want to go to Hogwarts. At home, she had everything she needed. She had her father, she had her room full of all her wonderful clothes, the plants that were always pleased to see her, and nobody to tell her that she was weird or wrong. At Hogwarts, she would have problems, and these were problems she thought she had left far behind her. Ron, who was Ginny's brother, had never liked her and he had made this clear many times before.

When they had played together as children (as they had been forced to do so due to proximity), he had thought she was strange, very strange, and he had clearly retained these sentiments towards her, even though she knew for a fact that he did not remember why. Although she remembered it very clearly, magic had taken care of everyone else.

"Come on," her father said, of course knowing what her fixed facial expression meant. "It will be fine. Ginny will be going as well and maybe you will be able to make other friends as well. You will be just like everyone else in the beginning. They won't really know any more than you do."

"But Daddy," she said in a last ditched attempt to persuade him. "The other children didn't like me then, and they have no reason to like me now."

"Children aren't all the same. I thought I wouldn't make any friends either…"

"You have no friends now," she said bluntly, and rather rudely as well.

"No, I don't," he said honestly, "but that doesn't mean that I didn't have any friends at Hogwarts. I was very happy there."

"But…"

"It's time to go. You need to be absolutely sure in," he looked at his pocket watch that dinged every seven minutes and had done so since she had been a child, "five minutes. Five minutes or they will assume you've changed your mind."

She looked around at the station, at all the interesting muggle things and the muggles going about their day. There were so many things that she didn't know about the world, and of course magical school probably wasn't going to teach her very much about muggles, she expected that it would probably educate her in other ways.

She took a deep breath and took a hold of the handles of her trolley. She could always come home again if she ended up not liking it. Her dad always looked out for what was best for her, and she knew for certain that that would not change just because she was going away to school. She started to run – just as Ginny had told her she should – and closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the magic warp as she went through the barrier. Then she was on the other side, breathless and anxious. All her worries melted away when she saw the Hogwarts Express, which was exactly as everyone who she had ever met had described it. Optimistic and slightly nonsensical. They were magical, so why did they need to spend hours all travelling from London when they could achieve the same effect far more quickly and cheaply using magical means? She supposed it was mainly emblematic, and represented a journey far bigger than any of them were aware of.

One other thing that she had never done before was go on a train. It had always been a fairly silly idea to her - taking the train somewhere that was perfectly placed on a layline. Apparating or portkeying a few hundred children there shouldn't have been much trouble. Now however, seeing the scarlet steam engine ready to go, and half of the students still milling around saying their farewells to friends and family, she could get the appeal, just a little bit.

Her dad took the trolley for her, and once the humungous trunk had been installed on the luggage rack, he turned to her to say goodbye.

"Now," he said thickly, "you be good for the teachers and make sure you eat your purples. I don't want you to come back underfed."

"Of course, Daddy," she said, and he took her into a hug. They stood there for a moment, and she tried her best to just take it all in. The moment that she got on that train, she would be 'away' and she wouldn't be able to see her dad every day. What followed would be change, more change, probable nargles, and of course, bullying. She could already see it. The looks that the other students were giving her were anything but friendly. Perhaps it was the clothes, the hair or the earrings? There was not really any way to tell, but she could already guess.

"Goodbye, dandelion," he said, pinning a small badge of the same flower onto her coat. "You take care of yourself and I'll see you at Christmas, if you want to come back, that is."

"I expect I will," she said, already certain that there would be little that would make her want to stay.

She clambered onto the train, and gave him a bright wave and tried not to dwell on her dad standing out there on the platform, with tears in his eyes. She found an empty car, and sat down. Other first years walked past, as demonstrated by their still black ties, but they took one look at her clothes, her hair and moved on to look for another carriage. This was no problem, she had packed her bag anticipating being alone on the journey. She had magazines and books and of course, her writing. She opened at a new page in her diary and started to write it all down before she forgot.

Dear Diary,

The day started well. Daddy woke me up for breakfast at the break of dawn, and we gathered plums for breakfast for old times sake. I can tell that he's upset that I will be going away as well. I wonder what it would be like if I stayed. Even just for a while. I was up early enough to finish my packing with no rush. I hope I will have everything I need. I suppose Daddy would be happy to send me anything if I forget.

We apparated to King's Cross, and had to wait for a while as we arrived so early. We went to a muggle coffee shop, and I was allowed to choose my own drink. I chose a hot chocolate and it arrived with chocolate sprinkles on the top. Muggles really are very clever with food.

I'm on the train now, and nobody seems to want to sit with me...

There was a knock on the door of the compartment, and Ginny's freckled face appeared through the door.

"Room for two more?" she asked.

Another girl - ginger like Ginny - appeared from behind her.

"Hello!" she said brightly, while averting her eyes. "I'm Adelaide!"

"This is my friend Luna," Ginny explained to Adelaide, "we used to spend lots of time together when we were younger. I can't remember why we don't anymore, but maybe when we start classes we will be able to sit together if we have anything together."

"I'd like that," Luna said. She was honestly happy when anyone wanted to sit by her at all, but someone nice like Ginny would be great to sit with. She had always been very kind to her.

"You can call me Addie, by the way," Addie said. "Nobody really calls me Adelaide, only Adrian does. Teachers don't seem to want to add on a syllable."

Addie placed a cat carrier on one of the empty chairs, and Luna was delighted to see that a nice tabby kitten with comically large ears was preparing to have a nice lie down. Cats were good, she concluded.

"I suppose they have enough names to remember already," Ginny reasoned. "If any of them tried to call me Ginevra, I think I'd cry."

"Oh, it's a wonderful name," Luna said. "My name is only Luna."

"Yes, it is, isn't it," Ginny said. "I had it in my head for a second there that it was short for something, but the only name I have for you is Luna."

"Just as my dad intended," Luna said, smiling. "I don't think that any other name would really suit me."

They sat for several hours, chatting idly about whatever they wanted, and snacking, until there was another knock at the car door, and Addie looked fearful for a moment. Presumably there were people who she didn't like the idea of sitting with. Luna understood completely. She was glad that Ron Weasley hadn't tried to sit with her. He wouldn't do it out of good intentions, but he would certainly do it in an attempt to try and invade her personal space.

"Oh, Cho," Addie said, as the door opened to reveal a girl who seemed to be slightly older than Addie.

"Ginny, Luna, this is my friend Cho. We met just after Christmas and met up over the summer."

Luna waved awkwardly. The fact that this was someone that Addie liked was perhaps even more of a problem than it being someone that any of them disliked. Cho could very well be here to ask Addie to sit with her, and Luna didn't want to lose her new…acquaintance?

"Oh, it's very nice to meet you," Ginny said brightly, although Luna could see something of what she herself felt in her expression. "Addie talks about you all the time."

"No I don't," Addie said. Ginny gave her a look. "Alright maybe I do," Addie admitted. "I think it's fair enough to be excited about having a friend. I have never really had any before."

"Did you just get on?" Luna asked, noticing Cho's flushed face. "You look like you've just been running."

"New scheme for Scottish students," Cho said brightly. "Saves us from taking the journey twice over. It's a quick change though so we all had to sprint."

"Did you really have to travel down to London and back up to the highlands for two years?" Ginny asked, aghast.

"It's the way it's always been. I came to ask if you wanted to sit with me as I have a big compartment all to myself," Cho started, "but seeing that you already have company, could I join the three of you? I have snacks," she said, holding out some Bertie Botts and something called 'Cadbury' for them to see. "I tried to find the others," she continued, turning to Addie, "but Neville has been pressured into sitting with you know who, because apparently she can't find the other two, and Adrian's dad upset him and he wants to be alone right now."

"Oh," Addie turned to see what she and Ginny thought. Ginny nodded immediately, and Luna found herself joining in, "of course. Come on in. We have plenty of room."

Cho came in and sat herself down in the free seat beside Luna, and between them, they seemed to have decided that the carriage was full. It may have been designed for six, but they had all spread quite a lot of their stuff around, and had made themselves comfortable.

"What's this?" Addie asked, looking at the selection of Quibblers that Luna had spread on the seat when she had got on the train.

"My dad is the publisher of The Quibbler, which is magical Britain's fifteenth largest magazine after the magic aided orienteering society's quarterly circulated pamphlet. You can have a look if you like."

"Oh could I? That would be great!" Addie said.

For a few fairly stressful minutes, as Addie flicked through the magazine, Luna wondered what she thought. Most people didn't look past the first few pages which she always thought had the most interesting stories, but that most people considered to be 'conspiracy theories' and 'dangerously toying with the line between truth and lies'. She tried to alleviate the stress by opening another edition and having a look at an especially fascinating article about the impact of the red squirrels on the Cairngorms National Park concentration of dangerous residual dark energy. By scattering acorns and other seeds across the National Park and forgetting about them, they were not only aiding in the increase of trees which provided additional habitats for creatures both magical and mundane and increasing biodiversity, but also providing additional objects to absorb and redistribute dark energy. She thought it was rather clever that an automatic function of red squirrels could very well save the magical world.

"Oh," Addie finally said, after a few minutes of reading, "an article on house elves. Harry and I met one over the summer and I didn't know about them before. I can't quite believe nobody mentioned them to me last year."

"Oh yes," Luna said, feeling relieved that Addie seemed to be so interested in house elves, "Daddy did an interview with his friend Dally, who is a freed elf about what would be needed to create a truly fair system for house elves. Daddy originally didn't want to do the interview as he didn't think that it would really change anything, but Dally brought up so many things that he hadn't anticipated that they would, and for the first time ever there has been almost as much accepting mail as hate mail. It is really rather exciting."

"My mum says that it's not really polite to talk about elf rights," Cho said. "Whenever someone brings it up to her, she becomes all uncomfortable. She reckons that it is like asking someone their salary."

"Why wouldn't you want to ask someone their salary?" Luna asked. She had never understood why that was an unacceptable question.

"I don't know," Cho said, clearly as confused on that subject as she was, "there are all sorts of things like that."

"Uncle Vernon always says it's so that women and 'those other people' don't get ideas about asking for better pay."

"Do you like your uncle particularly?" asked Luna. Thinking that if Addie was complimentary about him, she would have to end a fledgling friendship for the first time in her life.

Ginny snorted, "He isn't her favourite person in the world."

"Not really," Addie agreed.

"Then I am perfectly willing to say that he sounds like an ignoramus."

"You might be right," Addie admitted. "Now, back to house elves. Could you recommend any useful books on them? I keep hearing about new things in the magical world and no matter how many books I look through house-elves are hardly ever mentioned."

"Of course," Luna said. "There's a bibliography at the back that would be a good place to start, but if you need anything else, you can just ask me. I had to help my dad with some research so I know of some others."

"Great, thank you," Addie said with a smile.

Luna beamed at her.

The rest of the journey flew by. Addie, Ginny and Cho were both coming friendlier by the minute and had all sorts of interesting things to talk about. Apparently, Addie and Ginny had spent quite a lot of the summer together as Addie and her 'eejit brother' (Cho's words) had been rescued from their relatives by flying car and had arrived at the Burrow in the dead of night.

"I didn't know they did those," Luna said. "I have heard about flying bicycles or as you might call them 'flycycles' but cars are new to me."

"Wait, flying bicycles?" Addie asked. "I thought those were only things in films."

"Oh they are," Ginny said, giving Luna a look. Clearly Ginny didn't want her to alienate Addie either. Clearly Luna wasn't being normal enough.

"I suppose maybe it was just ET," Luna said quickly. "My cousin visited and told me about it."

That night, when she was lying in her bed in her dormitory, looking around at the beds of the girls she was sure would become her good friends in no time, she remembered her diary and got it out to finish writing.

…but now they do. Ginny came with her new friend Addie, whose friend Cho also joined us later, and we sat together for the rest of the journey. I think that I will try to spend some time with them while I'm here. They will probably come to hate me, as everyone eventually does, but I will endeavour to be normal around them. That might keep them liking me for longer.

In other news, I got sorted into Ravenclaw and it's just as Mummy used to describe it. Everyone certainly seems to be very…intelligent, and I suppose I am too, but maybe not quite so much in the same way that they all are. Ginny went to Gryffindor, so I don't suppose I will have anything with her other than astronomy, but maybe I will have a chance to talk to her there.

It's been a good day. I don't know what I was worrying about. Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day.