Of Snorkacks and First Years

Luna walked with her Dad through the barrier and onto the platform. "I'm here! Oh, Dad, I can't wait!"

Madison Lovegood laughed. "I know, honey. You've told me for the past year... plus, you wore your new necklace."

Luna beamed; she'd made a necklace out of some butterbeer caps, and was excited to see what the others would think. She was sure she'd look great. She was also wearing a blue robe with smiley faces on them, though for some reason, her Dad had seemed rather hesitant to let her buy it. Perhaps he was afraid of spending too much money.

"Well, Daddy, I'm going to go make some friends," Luna said, watching kids start to go. "I love you!"

She gave her Dad a huge hug, barely noticing a boy with blonde hair and green robes snickering as he passed by.

"I wish your Mum could see you," Madison said, suddenly looking serious.

Luna sighed; she wasn't too keen on talking about her Mum, it brought back memories she did not like. "Well, you always say she's watching."

Madison nodded. "And she is, but I... well, anyway, sweetie, you should go, we got here a little late. Please be careful, and have fun!"

"I will!" Luna promised, kissing his cheek. She grabbed her trunk, and got on the train.

She could hear a few girls talking, and poked her head into their compartment. "Hello."

The talking stopped, and the girls looked at her.

"Is this compartment full?" Luna asked. "I don't know anyone."

There was a pause; a girl with short black hair and large dark brown eyes opened her mouth and began to say "sure," but a brunette next to her nudged her.

"We're waiting for the rest, remember, Parvati?" the brunette hissed.

The girl blinked. "But we're all- Oh yeah," she said quickly. "I remember. Sorry, er, whatever your name is."

Luna thought it was odd that the girl hadn't known her friends were sitting with her, but she was more disappointed that it looked like she couldn't sit there. "Oh, it's okay. And my name's Luna."

For some reason, the brunette started to cough; a girl with blonde hair said, "Oh, I'm Lisa."

"And I'm Parvati," Parvati said, seeming to also be amused about something. "And this is my twin sister, Padma."

The girl sitting next to Lisa looked up from her book, and smiled. "Hi."

Lavender, meanwhile, was staring at Luna's robes. "Where did you get those robes?"

Luna thought this was an odd question. "The same place you did, Madame Malkin's."

For some reason, Lavender nodded very slowly. "Er. I see."

"Do you not like them?" Luna asked, suddenly feeling defensive. She wasn't sure how anyone could not like them, but maybe Lavendar was just snobby.

Lavender coughed again. "Well, it's not that we don't like - "

"Of course we like them!" Lisa interrupted quickly, giving Lavender a look.

Luna sighed; for some reason, she had a feeling they were just saying that to be nice, and she didn't like that feeling. "Thanks. I'm going to find a compartment that isn't full, so I'll see you at Hogwarts."

She marched away, wondering what had gone wrong. Maybe you weren't supposed to wear smiley robes at Hogwarts? But at least she'd been nice, unlike stupid Lavender.

Luna opened the door to another compartment, and saw a girl sitting alone. The first thing she noticed was that the girl had red hair, like her Dad. "Hi, can I sit here, or is this compartment full too?"

The girl looked at her. "Oh, hello! No, though my brother and his friends might come in, but they won't mind."

Luna smiled, and sat down. "Thanks. I tried another compartment, but they said it was full, and one of the girls wasn't very nice."

The girl rolled her eyes. "You didn't need them anyway."

"I guess, but I don't understand why people can't be nice," Luna said. "I just wanted to meet new people. But it wasn't all their faults anyway, they were waiting for someone."

The girl looked skeptical, but shrugged. "Well... I'm Ginny."

Luna smiled. "I'm Luna." She looked at her watch. "Odd, the train's about to leave."

"It is?" Ginny asked, her eyebrows raised. "Weird... but I thought Ron might sit with me... I guess not."

She sighed, and sat back.

"Did he say he'd sit with you?" Luna asked.

"Well," Ginny began, "he said that he'd wait for me, at the very least, but I figured he couldn't find me... however, how hard is it now?"

Luna shrugged. "Maybe he forgot something, and went back for it?"

Ginny shook her head. "No, he's just a prat sometimes."

"I'm glad I don't have any brothers, then," Luna began, "if that's what they do."

"Oh, they usually aren't so bad," Ginny said. "Actually, they can come in handy at times, just not always the most sensitive people."

"They? Do you have many?" Luna asked.

Ginny grinned. "Six."

Luna's eyes widened. "Wow."

"Yeah," Ginny said, laughing. "Are you an only child?"

"Yeah," Luna said. "Mum and Dad wanted more kids, but... well, it wasn't to be."

Luna looked out the window, trying to rid of those thoughts. She thought instead of her summer... she and her Dad had trekked Siberia, hoping to find the Yeti. Unfortunately, they had been unsuccessful, but her Dad said that it might have been hibernating, that perhaps it hibernated in the summer, instead of the winter, for some reason or another. They had had so much fun.

"So, er, did you have a good summer?" Ginny asked, after a pregnant pause.

"Yeah, Dad and I looked for the Yeti," Luna replied. "But we didn't see any. Or Snorkacks."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "Snork whats?"

Luna thought it was peculiar that Ginny had never heard of them. "Crumpled Horned Snorkacks. Everyone's heard of them."

"Oh, those," Ginny said.

"Actually, they are a fictional creature," A voice said bossily.

Luna looked to see a curly-haired girl standing in the doorway, looking at Luna.

"They most certainly are not," Luna retorted.

"Ginny," The girl said, ignoring Luna, "have you seen Ron or Harry?"

Ginny stared. "No... I thought you were with them. I hope they didn't miss the train..."

"Harry Potter?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, he's my brother's best friend," Ginny replied.

"Oh, then he's probably flying here!" Luna said.

When both girls stared, Luna wondered if they hadn't ever read the Quibbler. "Didn't you know he can fly without a broom?"

The girl sighed very deeply. "I'm going to go look for them. Don't worry, Ginny," She added, "I'm sure they just got into a fight with Malfoy or something."

Ginny nodded, and then looked at Luna as the girl left. "Don't mind Hermione, Luna, she doesn't mean to do it."

Luna shrugged. "She didn't laugh at me like the other girl, she simply doesn't understand."

"Well... I guess," Ginny said. She brushed her hair behind her ear. "Gosh, those two better just be fighting Malfoy."

"Try not to think about it," Luna advised. "That always helps me."

Ginny smiled. "Thanks, Luna. I'll try."

Luna spotted a book near Ginny. "Hey, what's that?"

"Hmm?" Ginny looked at the book. "Oh, my, erm, my diary."

"It looks old," Luna commented, looking at the brown pages.

Ginny seemed to be slightly uncomfortable. "I guess it kind of does."

"Does it talk?" Luna asked suddenly.

Ginny looked rather taken aback. "Wh-what?"

"Does it talk?" Luna repeated. "I've heard of diaries that do, you know."

"You have?" Ginny asked, her face relaxing. Something about her expression made Luna think that somehow, her comment had given her some relief.

Luna nodded. "Yeah, but it's a job hiding them from Muggles, they wonder why there's a voice coming from the diaries, so they don't sell them anymore."

"Oh," Ginny said, looking discontented yet again. "Well, this diary doesn't talk out loud or anything."

Luna nodded, and looked at her fingers. For some reason, she wasn't sure Ginny was being all that honest, but it wasn't like Lavendar - she wasn't teasing her, she just wasn't sharing her thoughts. But then, maybe that wasn't so bad; after all, Luna knew that knowing too much could do harm to someone.

"Are you nervous?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah," Luna said, laughing nervously. "I hope I get Sorted into a good House."

"Me too," Ginny said. "All my family's in Gryffindor, so I'd want to be there - though I suppose Ravenclaw's not too bad, and neither is Hufflepuff, I suppose."

"My parents were in Ravenclaw," Luna said.

"Neat," Ginny said. "I think all my relatives have been in Gryffindor, though I don't know for sure, Dad won't talk about anyone beyond great aunt or first cousin, for some reason."

Luna frowned. "That's odd." She couldn't imagine not wanting to talk about her family... well, she didn't often mention her Mother's death, but otherwise, she was quite proud of them. "Do you know anyone here?"

"Not besides my brothers and their friends," Ginny said. "I know of a few people, though."

Luna thought Ginny was lucky to know that many people. "I don't know anyone... well, I suppose I know you." The thought was nice.

"Yeah..." Ginny said thoughtfully.

"Well, how about this," Luna began. "If one of us gets lost or anything, we can help the other."

"Sure!" Ginny agreed, looking surprised, but not in a bad way.

Luna smiled, and Ginny smiled back. She was pleased.

Luna just knew that Hogwarts would be excellent. She already had a friend.