Luna Lovegood

In the morning, she dances. She dances because she feels like dancing. Dancing awakens her, is good exercise and she wants to. She does most of the things she wants to because she simply can't find a reason not to.

They often tell her they didn't like her dancing. Especially when she hums as well, they definitely don't like that Then, they often wonder if she had hears them at all because she doesn't give them any reply and she certainly doesn't stop dancing.

She never tells them that she doesn't like their dancing, but she does. She dislikes their dancing in their balls with their restricted movements and sense of rhythm. Music limits her and Luna likes is freedom.

She dresses into her uniform. She has heard the other girls give out about their uniform calling it boring, unflattering and colourless. Luna doesn't understand. It is black and black was a colour - how could it be colourless? There is also that little intricate Hogwarts design on the front, giving away which house you are from. Luna likes her uniform.

She likes adding things to her uniform too. Her necklace of butterbeer corks; her mother had always loved butterbeer corks. Her daisy ring is put on her pinkie. Her wand behind her ear; kept there for safe keeping. She looks in the mirror, sees her wide protuberant eyes, her pale risen eyebrows, her straggly waist length blonde hair and her expression of complete surprise. She is satisfied but she can see the others' reflections, laughing and giggling at her.

She doesn't blink much, but she blinks now.

She sets down to the Grand Hall. Her belly rumbles slightly. The morning is the only time she is ever really hungry. Her father sometimes nags at her to eat more but she finds herself not interested except for in the morning. She finds a hot bagel and bites in, savouring the taste. She looks at everyone and no one; she doesn't know what anyone is doing nor does she care.

When she's finished her bagel, she stands up and slowly takes out her time table. It is pretty; she likes it very much. She decorated it and the flowers and butterflies move on the page as she looks at it. Charms first, she sees.

She likes Charms. She thinks Professor Flitwick is a nice gentleman. He likes her too; he gives her good marks in all her homework assignments and tests and she works very hard.

Her partner does not work hard at all. Luna tries to help him in every day in this class but he never listens, except to snigger. Luna doesn't mind but she wishes that he would try a little harder. This year is his OWL year. It is hers as well but she does not worry.

Next is Potions. She enjoys Potions because Ginny is in Potions. Ginny has become her partner in the last year. Luna likes Ginny very much.

Everyone likes Ginny. She is very nice and friendly. She is very pretty too. Not what most people think is pretty; she doesn't have big blue eyes, blonde hair and a skinny little body (which, ironically, Luna does but they don't seem to think she's pretty either) but Luna thinks Ginny's long red hair is like something a princess would have in the fairy tales she used to read. Ginny's big, brown eyes are so expressive too; Luna likes to see friendliness in them, it makes her feel nice.

Professor Snape does not like Ginny though. Nor does he like Luna. She realises that her textbook is missing. She wonders where it is and hopes that whoever has taken it, is taking good care of it. The book did not pick to become Luna's, after all. She puts up her hand to apologise to Professor Snape but he has already noticed and is striding over, a triumphant, satisfied look upon his face.

When Ginny asks her where her book is after Professor Snape's long speech on intolerance, Luna doesn't tell her. She doesn't lie; she just shrugs her shoulders a little. She doesn't like to see anything but friendliness in Ginny's eyes.

It is lunch time again soon and Luna sits at her table and attempts to eat another bagel. She knows she shouldn't waste food. She only eats half of it and puts the other half into her bag. She wings it over her shoulder and leaves early. She walks up stairs, minding her step, and comes to the owlery, as she does everyday. She takes out her bagel and, instead of giving it to just one, she slips half of it into the end of the universal cage and steps away. She doesn't want to leave any of the owls out so she waits and watches as the owls crowd around it, then she puts the other half on the other side of the cage and watches dreamily as the owls on the outer ring of the former circle hop over to that one instead.

Now, satisfied that every owl has had a fair chance, she leaves.

She meets Hermione Granger in the hall. Hermione doesn't really like her, Luna can tell. Hermione thinks she's silly and a little strange. Luna thinks Hermione a little too uptight and strange herself. But Hermione stops and says a polite greeting and asks Luna how she is and Luna knows that she likes Hermione. Hermione is a nice person, they are just different.

A lot of people don't say hello to Luna, even if they've known her for years. Luna doesn't care, but she likes the few people that do just that little bit more.

Next she has Transfiguration. She is with the Slytherins in this class. They jeer at her as she walks in. She smiles over at them. She thinks they are interesting. She wonders how they keep warm down in those dungeons every night because none of them seem to ever get a cold. She likes that they like snakes; many people didn't like snakes for no properly justified reason. Luna likes snakes and she's glad some other people do too.

She has Divination next. She tries to keep an open mind, even when her tea leaves simply look like tea leaves. But she can see the doubt in other people's faces, these are the same people who think the Quibbler is full of rubbish, and so she puts a lot of effort into the subject, which makes the teacher like her.

The teachers always smile and say hello to her. She looks forward to seeing the teachers every day. The only teachers who are unfriendly to her are Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape and, of course, she does not mind because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. She wouldn't like them so much if they acted fake towards her.

Ronald doesn't like Divination a lot, she thinks with a smile. He'd uttered something very funny bout his tea leaves with may have seemed vulgar out of someone else's mouth but not his. He had a charming quality about him. He had made her laugh. She never seemed to see him and, when he did, he normally didn't see her. She wishes now that she could see him again. She'd like to laugh again, just as hardly as before.

Her school day is complete then and so she is happy. The sun isn't shining; it is Britain after all. Yet she is eager to go outside. But first she must do all her homework. She goes to the library. She knows she will not have time later, but her mind is on the outside. She does not want to do homework but she will always do it. Luna does not know what she wants to be yet but she wants to be something great. To be great, she will have to be knowledgeable.

Ever since her visit to the Ministry, she's been thinking about, maybe, a career as an Unspeakable. Luna can keep secrets very well and she is, even to herself, mysterious. She thinks she'd be good at discovering and examining new and strange things, without the doubt of most hovering over her head and blackening her vision.

After a long but not unpleasant haul of homework, she goes for her stroll. It is misty and raining lightly and she knows her hair will be wild when she looks into the mirror that night. The grass is wetting her shoes and making her toes tingle. She laughs to herself in anticipation for a minute, although she's not quite sure why, then she continues on.

Harry is there, on his own, sitting by the dark lake, staring out at something he can only see. She ponders for a second as to whether she should go over or not. It wouldn't be polite to interrupt him, but would it really be polite to leave him alone, after everything?

"Hello Harry," she says, after sitting there for a long time. Her voice sounds vague, even to her own ears.

"Oh." He blinks. "Luna...Hi."

He smiles.

It is not a real smile. Sometimes she watches Harry and she has seen that he hasn't smiled a real smile in a long time. This year has been hard to him so far, and last year was not easy for him either. She wonders if he thinks about his Godfather a lot; she certainly does a lot of thinking about her mum.

It is not a real smile, but it is a very nice one all the same. Luna thinks Harry is very pretty. He has not changed out of his uniform and Luna thinks he makes it very colourful. He does not care for his hair, just as she does not care for hers. She likes his glasses almost as much as she likes her butterbeer cork necklace.

"It's raining," she tells him. "Are you wet?"

She asks this because his face is very wet. Wetter than it should be.

He seems a bit disorientated. "Er... yeah."

He wipes his face with his sleeve.

She waves her wand at him and she dries him, except for his face. He stares at her a little, as if questioning her as to why she didn't bother dry his face.

"Er..." Apparently, he couldn't form that question. "Aren't you... er... going to dry yourself?"

She smiles at him a little. "It's okay to be wet, you know. It's okay for your face to be wet."

He blinks at her. He thinks she's a little crazy. She doesn't really disagree, but feels the need to explain. "It is okay, you know," she says thoughtfully," to cry. You've lost someone important and precious to you."

The look, the look that says he thinks she's crazy, fades a little but doesn't entirely go away. She isn't sure why she wants it to.

She moves a little closer to him and takes out her crumbled Quibbler from her pocket. Luna starts to read. She should read inside, the pages are getting soft in the drizzle, but she doesn't. She doesn't want to be alone just yet. She hopes he doesn't mind her presence. She doesn't think he does.

He moves a little closer to her too, and starts to read the Quibbler with her. She waits but, when he doesn't make a negative comment about the Quibbler, she is glad. She is glad that he has moved a little closer. She isn't quite sure why.

Eventually, he stands up. He is soaked. It was a little foolish for them to sit here in the rain, she thinks, and yet she is not unhappy. She stands up with him.

"We should head back," he says.

She nods, silent for a moment. They walk back to the castle and part in the Entrance Hall. He is heading back to Ginny and Hermione and Ron. She is heading back to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

She wishes him goodbye then walks back slowly. When she arrives, she sits in front of the fire suddenly feeling the cold and wet. Her nose is a little sensitive. She opens up the Quibbler and reads the last couple of pages. She finishes that then makes herself a hot chocolate. She puts in the marshmallows first, then lots of chocolate then boiling water. She has enlarged her mug, to make everything fit. She puts a large amount of sugar in too. She will have to brush her teeth straight after, she tells herself, and yet she never does straight away. She likes the warmth she feels afterwards too much.

Sniffing the chocolate and ignoring all the other Ravenclaws, she takes out her flashing quill and paper and starts to write to her father her daily letter. She tells him she knows he is very busy, but would he mind writing back to her this time? She gives him her comments about today's Quibbler and tells him about Ginny's hair, her hot chocolate and how rainy it is around the castle and how grey the lake looks these days. She doesn't tell him many things but her letter is still very, very long.

She has to sneak up the owlery again. It's after hours. She tries to be insignificant about it but some of them have seen her. She wonders if they will tell the teachers she is out of bed again or just Peeves.

When she gets up, she realises she didn't bring any food for them. She'd missed dinner and she hadn't noticed. She smiles in at them and is about to apologise when she sees Draco Malfoy standing there. She turns to him, says "Hello," then turns back to the owls and says, "I'm sorry, I will bring up more tomorrow, I promise."

He smirks but says nothing. She believes he has tired of teasing her every night. She doesn't mind either way. Once she made him laugh, by asking him did he have a pet snake and what was his name. She doesn't believe any one who can laugh (not snigger, but laugh) is that bad. He has said some mean things to her before though.

He ties his daily letter to his own owl as she ties hers to a school owl. They fly off together, shadows against the moon. She watches them while he walks away.

"Goodnight," she says but he doesn't reply. He never does.

She wonders for a little while whether he has ever noticed that their fathers never reply even though they both send letters every night. She has noticed. He gets sweets from his mother and she is the only one that has noticed that he always is disappointed. She, on the other hand, wouldn't mind if she was sent sweets by her mother.

She smiles up at the moon, says goodnight to it and the owls, then returns back to her Common Room. She is undetected by teachers or Mr. Filch and tries to believe that they didn't tell on her. She notices that her flashing quill she'd left on the couch is gone. The Common Room is empty now. She likes it when it is empty. She puts out the fire and cleans for a little why; she doesn't know why the House Elves should have to clean up after them.

She is satisfied when she goes to bed. That's why she never knows why. Why, when she lights her candle (she doesn't like the dark) and lies down on her bed, she cries. She cries only for a minute but crying is an expression of sadness and she doesn't think she's sad. She's much happier than she was last year, isn't she? She knows Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry better now, doesn't she? She didn't cry last year and yet know she does, every night.

She stops crying quickly but she doesn't stop thinking. Sometimes she thinks about her mum. Sometimes she thinks what her dad does that makes him so busy, as to not write back. Sometimes she wonders why people don't like her. Sometimes she thinks about Draco and wonders if he sometimes cries. Sometimes she thinks about Ginny's hair and smiles. Sometimes she thinks about Harry and the fact that she would be seeing him again tomorrow, same place and the same time, as always. He waits for her, he'd told her that once. He'd never mentioned it again though.

Sometimes she wonders if she is sad.

And sometimes she wonders if she is happy.