Luna Lovegood and the Half-Blood Prince

October 31, 1993

It had been a quiet day in the Hogwarts castle, since most of the older students had spent the day in Hogsmeade. Luna had spent the day making jewelry out of odd bits and pieces of things she'd collected. Now the day was drawing to a close and it was time for the Halloween Feast.

Luna sat in the Great Hall, enjoying the excellent food. Luna especially enjoyed the pumpkin pie and the giant jack-o-lantern decorations. She sat staring up at them and imagining what they would say if they could talk. During dessert the castle ghosts performed some stunts and skits. Luna was particularly impressed with the Grey Lady's poetry reading, and covered her eyes when the Gryffindor ghost performed a re-enactment of the moment of his death.

All too soon it was over, and Luna joined a line of Ravenclaws who were heading back toward Ravenclaw Tower. Everyone was chattering about the feast, and those who were third years and older were still reminiscing about the fun they'd had in the village of Hogsmeade that day. Luna listened as they talked about it.

"I overheard Madam Rosmerta talking to Professor Sinistra about someone called the Half-Blood Prince," said one of the seventh year girls to her friend.

Luna tried to hear more, but at that moment a first year boy behind her loudly complained about how his heart was pounding and the blood was rushing through his veins because he had run up the stairs so fast. Luna pushed ahead after the older girls, eager to hear more. She thought she heard the one girl mention something about a small boat on a spooky underground lake. Because of the crowd, however, she was unable to get close enough to them to hear more until they reached the portrait of the Old Professor, who was the guardian of the Ravenclaw Tower's entrance.

"Substantial Scroll." One of the girls gave the password, and Luna followed them into the Ravenclaw common room. The room was round and the walls were almost entirely covered with tall bookshelves. The only exceptions were the tall windows and the huge stone fireplace, over which hung a portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw.

Luna chose a book showing creative ways to carve jack-o-lanterns, and settled into a chair to read it. She had only had a chance to browse through the first few pages when she heard Professor Flitwick's voice asking everyone to be quiet. Though Flitwick was the head of Ravenclaw, he rarely appeared in the common room, so everyone immediately became quiet to hear what he had to say.

"This is an emergency!" he squeaked, a frightened look on his face. "Professor Dumbledore has asked that all students go to the Great Hall immediately."

Luna returned to the Great Hall with the rest of the Ravenclaws. When they got there, the Gryffindors were all already there, sitting at their table, and the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs were also filing in, looking as confused as the Ravenclaws. Professor Dumbledore said something about searching the school and that the students would need to sleep in the Great Hall.

Luna just had time to wish she'd brought a book with her before Professor Dumbledore moved the tables against the walls and conjured up wonderfully comfortable sleeping bags the color of ripe plums, for them to sleep in. As he and the other teachers left, the students started chattering, asking what had happened. The Gryffindors knew the answer -- apparently Sirius Black had been in the castle, and had attempted to enter the Gryffindor common room.

Luna looked around for the seventh year Ravenclaw girls she'd been eavesdropping on before, hoping to find out more about the Half-Blood Prince. They were in the middle of the room, chattering away as they lay in their sleeping bags. There was an empty bag close by, so Luna curled up in it to listen to what the girls were talking about. She was disappointed to find that they were speculating wildly about how Sirius Black had gotten in. This seemed to be the topic on everyone's minds.

Luna lay awake, listening to the other students' theories about how Black had entered the castle. One of the Ravenclaw girls was sure that Black was a vampire, and had changed into a bat and flown in a window. Luna laughed to herself -- just because one vampire in history had happened to also have been an Animagus, people, even witches and wizards who should know better, persisted in believing that all vampires could turn into bats. It was almost as stupid as believing that adult werewolves grew from baby wolf cubs. A boy on the other side of the hall loudly told anyone who would listen that Black could turn himself into a flying pumpkin, which was why he'd picked tonight for his attack.

Luna knew that Black was supposed to be searching for Harry Potter, but she thought that was unlikely. Sirius Black was really the rock star named Stubby Boardman, and he was probably miles from here, trying to resurrect what was left of his music career. Whoever had attempted to enter the Gryffindor common room was probably just playing a Halloween practical joke.

Luna wondered who this Half-Blood Prince was. Maybe he was the person who had tried to break into the Gryffindor tower. It seemed she might never find out.