A/N: It's been a long time since I've written any Harry Potter stuff…Oh well. I know this next part doesn't relate to this fanfic, but for those In the Minds of the Next Generation fans, here's a note: I am considering deleting it, and replacing it with a Harry Potter fanfiction about Hugo and his first year, trying to get rid of the Slytherin stereotype and a few other problems he's found at Hogwarts.
Disclaimer: I could never have invented Luna Lovegood, so I guess not, as she's in the books, isn't she? And in a moment of seriousness, I am not any of the Beatles and am in no way associated with them and all that stuff.
A Day in the Life
"Is that all you're going to do this whole time, Loony? Just stand in the middle of Hogsmeade and do nothing, looking for Croissant Snorlicks or whatever you called that barmy stuff?"
Another voice rang, probably in person accompanying the speaker of the other voice. "Ha! Nutter!"
The first voice shouted, "Pillock!" and chuckled, but not the friendly kind; the kind of scornful laugh that Luna was used to.
Luna shook her head; it was, after all, her first time at Hogsmeade, having not gone the first time. Shouldn't she have the chance to take it all in at first? But she turned around and smiled at the two who had insulted her; fellow Ravenclaw third years.
"I hope you enjoy your second visit at Hogsmeade, too!" she said brightly, and the two third years walked away, baffled. Luna just barely heard one mutter, "Nutter," in the kind of whisper that was meant for everyone to hear, and the other shout, "Hope you find your Croissant Snorlicks, Loony!"
Luna frowned; didn't they know Crumple-horned Snorkacks preferred the mountains of Switzerland and Bavaria? They were notoriously shy, and would never venture into a place like Hogsmeade where there was so much noise. But she shrugged, rather resigned to her schoolmates always being misinformed about the wonderful creatures. It was Wrackspurts who preferred places where there were crowds of people; that way they could invade minds more easily.
Once again Luna shrugged, and started to walk around Hogsmeade. She peeked in the window of Honeyduke's, which she noticed was filled to the brim with Hogwarts students, but sighed and walked away when she noticed they had no Radish Relishes, and no Sun Sweets either!
"They don't know what they're missing," she murmured, not altogether sure if she was referring to the owners of Honeyduke's, or to the countless witches and wizards that flocked there.
As she strolled through Hogsmeade, she felt rather disappointed; there were no very good shops, none of top quality. In one she even spotted a Wrackspurt hovering around a shop employee's head, and in another there were bunches of mistletoe at the threshold, as Christmas decorations, probably – but didn't they know that mistletoe was absolutely infested with Nargles?
Luna fiddled with her radish earrings, contemplating going back to Hogwarts. However, she almost instantly tossed that idea. "I haven't even seen all of Hogsmeade yet!" she said. "I would miss out on something. Besides, Hogwarts has been feeling queer – I think there might be an invasion of Nargles there, especially since there's a lot of mistletoe over there."
That settled it, and Luna continued walking through the streets of Hogsmeade, taking her time to enjoy the new sights and sounds. Her protuberant, large, misty eyes grew larger and larger as she spotted wonderful things and observations of interest – for example, she was pretty sure she saw a Cumulanis, cloudy dog-like creatures that only appeared to those of a certain spirit when they were feeling a specific feeling. She had gotten so excited that her wand almost fell out of its perch behind her ear. Wait till she told Daddy! She'd have to write to him about it as soon as she got back to Hogwarts.
As Luna strolled near the end of a street, thoughtfully curling some of her dirty blonde hair around her finger, she heard some odd music coming from the store at the end of the street, unfamiliar music that she'd never heard on the wireless before. Walking at leisurely pace toward the shop, the third year got close enough to make out the lyrics:
Nothing's gonna change my world, nothing's gonna change my world…
"Nothing's gonna change my world…" Luna repeated dreamily. That sounded nice, she thought.
In any event, it sounded better than that romantic stuff Celestine Warbeck had been spewing out on the wireless, so she decided to go in and take a look around the shop; it seemed much more interesting than any other in Hogsmeade.
Before stepping in, Luna looked up at the top of the shop to see its name. In an letter style that Luna had never seen before, the words proclaimed "Bealson's Muggle Music!" and had painted music notes around it. The windows had posters of what, going by the shop's name, Luna assumed to be Muggle bands. They had odd names, like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and others. The door had been painted saying "Beatles Week". Luna had never heard of Beatles Week before, and she was taking Muggle Studies!
The lyrics "nothing's gonna change my world" were gone, replaced by some very nice music, with very different sounds; it sounded very peaceful and much better than The Weird Sisters or anything else Luna had ever heard on the wireless. Now very intrigued, with a wide smile on her face Luna walked in, the radish earrings dangling from her ears shaking as she moved.
A young man who looked like he'd only just got out of school strode out from behind the desk near the back of the room. "Hello, hello!" he said cheerfully. Holding out an arm, he took Luna's hand and pumped it up and down energetically, smiling. Luna smiled dreamily and let her hand be shaken by the wizard. She noticed that the song must have changed, as the music wasn't the same and the phrase "I me mine" kept on repeating itself in the song, unlike the lyrics before.
"My name's Paul Bealson," said the young man as he finished shaking Luna's hand. "My father's the owner of the shop."
Luna thought that the I Me Mine song was good. She could hear there were other lyrics than "I me mine", and as she put them together, she realized it seemed to be talking about egotistical people, selfish people, those who only cared about themselves. Luna had met many of those types, and thought it brave that the singer had sung about it. She suppressed a few giggles as she realized those same people he was talking about might have enjoyed the song.
"I'm Luna Lovegood," Luna replied, closing her eyes for a moment as she let only the wonderful music be heard. "I've never seen a shop that sells muggle music before. It's original."
The young man, Paul Bealson, laughed. "Yes, it is. There's quite a story explaining it. I'm not sure if you want to hear my droning on about the reasons my dad opened the shop, though."
"No, I'd like to," Luna said, eyes wide with sincerity. "This is the most interesting place I've been to in Hogsmeade – everything else is normal and boring, but this is different and unusual."
Paul grinned. "There aren't many people like you. Most would go right back to Honeyduke's and The Three Broomsticks and all those well known shops as soon as they saw the word 'muggle' emblazoned across the top of our shop, between 'Bealson's' and 'Music'."
Luna felt this Paul Bealson was a very rare type of wizard – he was open minded, like her and Daddy. Not many were. "Yes, there aren't many like me," Luna agreed. "I would like to hear how this all came about now, though."
Paul chuckled. "Of course! I almost forgot."
Luna heard the last of the I Me Mine song dying down, with another one coming on – it had a lot of muttering at the beginning, and then random phrases, such as "like the FBI". Luna wondered what an "FBI" was.
"Well," Paul began, "My mum and dad, they were in the same year at Hogwarts. My dad's pureblood and mum was muggleborn. This was in the sixties. Once, during the summer before their seventh year, my mum invited him to her house for a few days, two weeks or so. While there, my mum played him her records and albums of muggle bands she liked. One of them, I think it had the most albums and records at that time, my dad liked hugely – rather became a nut about it, obsessed. They were this group called The Beatles. At the time, I think their newest album was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, or Magical Mystery Tour. I can never remember which."
Luna nodded, gazing at him with her wide silvery eyes. Magical Mystery Tour…that sounded lovely, Luna thought. She'd like to go on a magical mystery tour.
"They were hugely popular everywhere, in Britain and America, too. They'd even gone over to Hong Kong, in China! It was called Beatlemania, and my dad was very much part of it, even more than my mum who'd been a fan of theirs."
Luna's eyes widened as Paul said the words "Hong Kong". That was where Wrackspurts had originated! A small, involuntary shiver went up her spine.
"So, ever since then, he's been a complete fan. He even named me after one of them! I'm Paul, and one of the members was named Paul McCartney. But I don't care. And I loved their music also, from their first album to their last. My dad and I got all the special albums, all the records, we got Beatles calendars from muggle shops and even bought the movies about them – our house became an odd combination of muggle and magic after that until my dad made all our muggle Beatles stuff work on magic instead of electricity and such.
"A few months ago, my dad started thinking about starting a shop in Hogsmeade for muggle music – he figured just The Beatles was too small a subject, though he decided that to be the main music we sold. Just a couple weeks ago a shop closed and there was an opening, and my dad had to take it; it was now or never."
Paul took a deep breath. "So," he said smiling, as he stretched his arms out and held them in the air, "this came into being, and here it is now."
Wizards listening to – loving – muggle music! Luna had never heard of such a thing before. She wondered why she'd never thought of foraging into the area of muggle music, tolerating the songs on the wireless instead.
The songs playing had faded into the background while Paul had been talking to Luna.
"The song playing right now is Let It Be, from The Beatles' last album, named after that song, incidentally," Paul informed her.
"Were all the other songs playing from them as well?" Luna asked, knowing the answer as soon as she asked it.
Paul grinned. "What do you think?"
A dreamy, mellow smile flashed on Luna's face as she let only the song Let It Be be heard in her ears, and only the insides of her eyelids be seen as she closed her eyes.
Luna spent the rest of her day at Hogsmeade at Bealson's, listening to all the Beatles songs and to a few other bands too, some from the sixties like The Beatles and a few modern ones, too, though she found those not as much to her liking as the ones from the sixties. Her misty eyes gleamed with laughter when she realized that just like in the wizarding world, she was different in the muggle one too for liking what Paul said was called "Oldies" music better than any of the modern sounds.
"Well, I am Loony Lovegood, after all," Luna said, a serene, patient expression on her face. The song currently playing was one from the album Magical Mystery Tour, something which Luna still thought would be fun, to go on a magical mystery tour.
"This one's called Strawberry Fields Forever," Paul told Luna as she pored over the cover of the Magical Mystery Tour album. "John Lennon wrote it."
"It's lovely," Luna said, as images of peaceful strawberry fields going on and on forever floated around in her head. "It's as good as the one that was first playing."
Paul nodded. "Yes, Across the Universe is also by John Lennon. He was rather known later on for his psychedelic music.
Psychedelic. Luna knew that was certainly a muggle word, as she'd never heard it before. Just like she did every time she heard a new word, she closed her eyes and imagined it, what the word was.
Psychedelic, Luna saw in her mind, was a very pretty word, full of bright colors and happiness – it seemed magical, she thought, almost more magical than magic.
It seemed astonishing, Luna realized as the day went on and she listened to more and more Beatles songs, that almost no other wizards or witches had discovered this music. But perhaps Dumbledore had – he was always a one for muggles and music, and he must have put the two together at one point or another.
As psychedelic made beautiful pictures in her mind, Luna sung along to Strawberry Fields Forever, delighting in the nonsense lyrics.
Living is easy with eyes closed,
Misunderstanding all you see,
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out,
It doesn't matter much to me…
Luna reflected that that sounded a lot like her, those last two lines – and of course, the first two about the countless people in the world who didn't believe in Crumple-horned Snorkacks and all those wonderful animals. They had to be blind not to believe in them.
Let me take you down,
'Cos I'm going to,
Strawberry fields, nothing is real,
And nothing to get hung about,
Strawberry fields forever…
"Strawberry fields forever…" Luna repeated dreamily, twirling a lock of hair.
------
By the time Luna got back to Hogwarts, as the Hogsmeade visit was over – she'd almost forgotten she had to go back to the castle – the outcast third year was a complete Beatles fan. In her point of view, even their most psychedelic songs, even the ones that Paul said to most didn't make sense, made sense to her. Luna supposed that was natural – those who knew that Wrackspurts were real were very open minded, her daddy had once said.
Luna had also returned to Hogwarts with every one of the Beatles albums from 1963 to 1970, plus the records which included songs not on albums – like The Ballad of John and Yoko, Hey Jude, Paperback Writer, and others.
Luna whispered the names of the albums as she walked over to the Ravenclaw common room. "Rubber Soul," she murmured. "Abbey Road. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band…"
The first song of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which the album had been named after, suddenly started playing in her head, and she sung along with it – perhaps some of the other Ravenclaws would be interested, and then she could spread the music around! And even if they didn't like it, it would still be good for them – when leaving Bealson's and passing the shop decorated with mistletoe, she hadn't felt any Nargle disturbance. Perhaps some quality about Beatles songs scared them off! Daddy would be so proud when she told him about this strange intolerance of theirs…
Running up to her dormitory, Luna found all her fellow third year girls in there, chatting about their second visit at Hogsmeade. Silvery eyes gazing at them, Luna suddenly came up with an idea – here was where she could start! She had bought the albums and records that worked on magic, meaning they needed a spell to make them start playing instead of any odd muggle equipment. If her fellow third years liked The Beatles, they would possibly start telling others about it, and then more and more Hogwarts students would discover the magic of The Beatles. Luna could imagine it so clearly that it seemed like it already was real.
Which album should she start with? Luna laid them all out in chronological order on her bed and studied each one carefully. After coming down to only three: Rubber Soul, Magical Mystery Tour, and Abbey Road, she decided on Magical Mystery Tour.
After putting away her other albums, Luna took her wand out from behind her ear, and lightly touching it with Magical Mystery Tour, murmured the spell Paul had given to her to activate it (Clamantus) and instantly the first song of Magical Mystery Tour, the song the album was named for, started playing. Luna smiled as the first lyrics of the song were heard.
Roll up – roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up – roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up!
That's an invitation,
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!
Roll up!
To make a reservation…
The girls' previously content faces turned confused and annoyed. "What in blazes are you playing, Loony?" one asked, hands on hips. That was Marianne Jenson.
Luna smiled a wide smile that stretched across her face and seemed like it could go up to her ears if it wanted. "It's The Beatles," she told them happily. "They're my favorite band."
Another girl, Haley Torgan, frowned, tilting her head as if trying to listen to Magical Mystery Tour better. She was the music expert in their dormitory (and in their year, too) Luna had been anxious to see if she recognized it in any way. "I've never heard this before," Haley said, frowning again and nose wrinkling.
"Oh, that's because they're a muggle band and from the sixties, too," Luna told her, eyes wide with seriousness. Then she added, "Oh, Magical Mystery Tour is done. Now The Fool On The Hill is coming up – I like that one."
None of the girls said anything; they were speechless. Though later they'd reflect that they shouldn't have been surprised – it was Loony Lovegood, after all – but at the moment they froze, mouths open wide and gaping at Luna. Luna just smiled serenely. "They also keep away Wrackspurts, which is good," she informed them.
After a long period of silence, in which Luna closed her eyes and leaned against her pillow, listening in ease to The Fool On The Hill, the Ravenclaw third years finally regained speech and Marianne spluttered, "What? M – muggle music?! From the sixties?!"
Luna didn't bat an eye. "Yes," she replied. "What's wrong?" she inquired, leaning over to look closer at Marianne. "Palitac on your shoulder? They make you very prone to short bursts of anger, you know. Very common during the winter months."
Haley rolled her eyes and Marianne groaned in annoyance and her hands formed into fists – Haley uncurled them.
"You're a complete nutter, Loony Lovegood! Listening to muggle bands from the sixties, thinking they chase off Spuwacks, or whatever the blazes you call them…" It seemed Marianne couldn't find any words to express her anger and finally said simply, in one of the best examples of articulateness ever heard, "Bloody hell!"
The other girls shook their heads and muttered about how more loony Loony got every day.
Though deep down, Luna felt crushed, and simply couldn't understand how her fellow third years couldn't see the complete magic, the complete psychedelic originality of The Beatles, on the outside Luna smiled, and remembering the title of one song in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, said, "Here's your answer for how I do it, Marianne: it's just a day in the life of 'Loony' Lovegood."
So saying, Luna walked out of the dormitory and started singing her favorite part of Across the Universe: "Nothing's gonna change my world, nothing's gonna change my world…"
Even the girls in Luna's dormitory had to admit that fit her very well.
Nothing certainly was going to change in her world, would it? Or at least, not in a regular day in the life of Luna Lovegood.
A/N: This fanfic just came into being when I was listening to Across the Universe and heard the "nothing's gonna change my world" part. I had been wanting to right something about Luna for some time, and realized that absolutely fit her. Remembering some other songs from The Beatles, I thought Luna would have liked them, so here this is.
Constructive criticism appreciated.