Hi, I know I should really be working on Harry Returns and I am, I promise, but this had been floating round my head and I just had to write it down!

Disclaimer - However much I love Luna she will never be my own creation. Or anything else in this story for that matter.

Without further ado, read on! (And please review.)

Whatever people said about Luna, she wasn't stupid. She knew quite a lot, she was, after all, in Ravenclaw. Therefore, she had good brains and knew about things that others didn't, like Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. She also knew quite a bit about her current position in life.

She knew that as a third-year, who didn't have a close friends - or friends at all for that matter - wasn't likely to get some anytime soon. Those people who'd made groups of best friends in first year were still friends with those people, not her. She told herself that didn't matter, she'd still advise them about Wrackspurts and Nargles (which were clearly affecting their minds) and carry on on her way.

She knew that when she went into the common room and sat in her favourite chair next to the window that occassionally people would through looks at her, sometimes in disgust or amusement or confusion. Then when she'd say something perfectly sensible they would look at each other smirking. A younger student would ask who she was and an older would say, 'That's LOONEY Lovegood, she's perfectly ABnormal!', then the younger would go back to their friends and point at her for the rest of the evening. She'd ignore them and carry on with her homework.

She knew that when she went up to her dormitory and all the other girls would stop talking it wouldn't be because they thought it was the boys (everyone knew boys couldn't get up to the girl's dormitories), it would be because they were talking about HER. But she'd smile serenely and move on to the bathroom, was and go back to bed. The girls would now be talking about the boys in other houses. When she rolled over and pretended to fall asleep they'd glance at each other then go back to talking about her. She'd block it out and dream about home and her Daddy.

She knew that when it came to the Yule Ball all the other girls would be asked to go, she wouldn't be. The other girls were pretty and confident and didn't say 'odd' things. She desperately wanted to go and see the hall and eat the food and dance all night, but she wouldn't because she was Looney Lovegood. The weirdo. The freak. She thought it couldn't be THAT special because some boys were looking grumpy about it and when boys get grumpy nothing's good (she'd learned this from the girls in her dormitory) and instead she'd imagine the perfect evening and think about that all evening.

She knew that when people gave her a wide berth at meal times it was because she mainly sat staring into the sky, twirling her fork in her pumpkin juice and humming a song. She said to herself it was because they were to narrow-minded to be like her.

She knew when they teased her it wasn't sensible to ask if they'd seen any unknown creatures recently, they'd just look at each other in wonderment. Then take her clothes. She would then stand there, not making any attempt to stand-up for herself, just remembering what her Mummy ahd told her a few months before she died. Luna had come in crying from a walk in the village, some Muggle girls had told her her Butterbeer Cork necklace was stupid and pushed her over. Her mother said that it isn't what others think of you that matters, it was what you thought of yourself that made all the difference. She never went anywhere without her necklace after that.

She knew that, when it came to her, at Hogwarts - no-one cared. She didn't know she was wrong.

It happened one chilly, May, Wednesday evening. It hadn't been a particularly wonderful day - she'd had double Potions and, althought her work was good, Snape didn't like her. But no-one had teased her. Yet.

She was idly ambling along the Charms corridor after finishing her dinner and two boys came round a corner. They were Hufflepuff's and she didn't know their names, it could've been any Tom, Dick or Charlie. The saw her and grinned at each other, they pulled their wands out and she stopped walking. She didn't bring out her wand, they'd just laugh, instead she stared at them with her protuberunt eyes interested in who would make the first move. One of them spoke,

"So, Looney what have you been up to?" She blinked at him confused as to what he meant, what had she been doing? Surely they could tell she had been eating dinner by the gravy spilt on her jumper?

"Yeah, seen anything... interesting?" The second boy spoke this time, he looked back over to the other one who laughed.

"Seen any Nargles? I hear there's going to be loads of Flibbertees and Gibberts in the last task, why don't you ask Potter if you can take his place?" She frowned at him, he was speaking as though Harry Potter wasn't good enought to be in the Triwizard Tournament. She liked Harry Potter, he may never of noticed her but he'd never teased her and he was considered nice by the girls in her dormitory. But an awful date (Padma Patil's twin went with him to the Yule Ball).

"If you did you could get hurt-" The second boy remarked.

"You could DIE." The first boy continued.

"YOU could get cursed." Said a voice from behind her and before she could turn to see who it was two jets of electric blue light shot past, one after the other, and hit the boys directly on their noses. There was a rumble and their nostrils shook. Then, quite suddenly, giant greeny-grey bats flew out of each nostril, attached by a thin thread, and attacked the boy's faces. The squealed in shock and ran off.

"Gits." The voice came again, it was a girl's voice, sweet but not sickly, oozing with power and attitude in an amicable kind of way. Luna liked the voice. She turned around to see if it wasn't disembodied. The voice came out of a mouth, that came from a face that came from a person. She was in Gryffindor, by the looks of her robes, medium height, skinny and very pretty. Her face was delicate but had a tough sort of edge that the Ravenclaw girl's lacked. Her nose was covered in freckles and they continued sporadically up to her forehead, her eyes were a warm, chocolately brown and were sparkling. Her hair was nearly waist length - but not quite, thought still a decent way past the elbows. Her hair was a vivid, flaming red. By the way she expertly twirled her wand and tucked it into her robes she looked like she'd dueled before - and come out of it very well. She was confident and outgoing and Luna recognised her from the few classes she had with her, she was very popular and quite clever too.

"Are you alright? It's Luna isn't it?" She extended a hand and Luna stared at it surprised, no-one had offered her a hand before and she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Fortunately, Ginny decided for her, she grasped Luna's hand that was hanging by her waist and shook it firmly.

"I'm Ginny, Ginny Weasley. Yes, I know you're Luna, those boys - do you know who they are?" Luna was genuinely bewildered to see the authentic care shining in her eyes. Luna shook her head.

"Have they done that to you before? Teased you, I mean?" Luna shook her head again, she had never had those PARTICULAR boys before tease her.

"But it's still a regular thing, isn't it? I've seen others doing it before and I hexed them afterwards, but that's not the point. You need to tell someone, Luna."

"Why? I'm alright and it'll blow over eventually, that's what my mum always said."

"Really, it'll blow over?" She laughed, "I beg to differ, it's been three years and you're not wearing any shoes today."

"I couldn't find them."

"Couldn't find them or someone STOLE them?" Luna said nothing but stared at Ginny instead, she found if she was uncomfortable with a situation staring at someone broke their confidence and made them uncomfortable. But not Ginny, she carried on, "Well, if you won't tell anyone, at least have a friend around with you, if it's you alone you're not as much of a threat to them."

Before Luna could say she didn't have anyone of that calibre to speak of, there was a shout from down the corridor. Ginny's friends were standing by a cross-roads and yelling at her to hurry up.

"Just coming!" She yelled back over her shoulder before facing Luna again, "See you later, okay?"

"Ginny?"

"Yeah?"

"You're hair looks like it's on fire. I like it."

"Thanks..." She smiled and it made Luna happy to see someone smile because of her, "Bye!"

Luna nodded, "Thank-you, Ginny." She watched as Ginny ran off back to her friends before making her own way back to the common room. When she got there it became apparent just how fast news spread around Hogwarts, those already back in Ravenclaw tower were already discussing the hexing of the Hufflepuff boys and stared at Luna with careless abandon. Someone whispered, "Looney has a friend? Well, blow me down. Who'd have thought it!"

When she went to bed that night she pretended to be asleep again, just to listen to the other girl's gossip. They seemed, if Luna was correct, to be jealous.

"Ginny Weasley!"

"No, it couldn't be Ginny. She's way too cool to like, actually LIKE, Looney."

"I wouldn't care about being teased if I got a friend like GINNY out of it!"

For once Luna didn't care about being talked about behind her back, because someone stuck up for her. She didn't care that she had no friends, because she did now. She didn't care that no-one sat with her at mealtimes, because someone did now. She didn't care that people called her Looney, because someone shouted - or hexed - them now.

She had a friend.

She had Ginny Weasley.