Moonlight's embrace: A Harry Potter love story

Chapter 1

Luna grabs her suitcase and hands it to a man on the train before boarding it herself. She looks at each compartment, peering to see who was inside. Then she saw him. He was sitting with Ginny, Harry, Hermione, and Ron. She opens the compartment door and took a seat next to Neville.

"How was your summer, Neville?" She asks shyly.

"It was great. How 'bout yours, Luna?" He gives her a small smile. 

"It was good," Luna replies.

"What about you three?" She asks, addressing the others, who seemed to be curious as to why I only asked Neville. 

"Well, nothing is great with staying at the Dursley's place," Harry said dryly. "But they mostly pretend I didn't exist as usual so I stayed up in my room."

"Summer isn't exactly relaxing now...not with so many death eater attacks written in the daily prophet," Ron muttered. Hermione nodded in silent agreement, her eyes drifting out the window. Luna rummaged through her bag until she found her spectrespecs and her Quibbler magazine. She flips the Quibbler upside down and began to read.

"Get back here, Trevor!" Neville dives underneath his seat to get his toad, Trevor. Luna was just about to help them when they heard a voice at the door. 

"Hello, Harry," Everyone looked up to see a bold-looking girl with large dark eyes, a prominent chin, and long black hair pushing open the door. 

"I'm Romilda Vane. Why don't you sit with us instead of them?" She points over at Neville, who was halfway under the seat.

"They're friends of mine," Harry said, his voice cold.

"Oh," Romilda said, looking shocked. She closed the door without another word.

"I suppose people think you should have cooler friends than us,"Luna said serenely.

"No one else fought with me at the Ministry, so that makes you cool," Harry replied. Luna beamed. 

"What's a Crumpled Horn Snorkacks?" Neville asked, reading over her shoulders. 

"It's a really rare magical creature," Luna explains. "Wizards haven't found them yet, but I suspect they are out there somewhere. Probably hiding from the wackspurts that those explorers have."

"But they don't exist!" Hermione pointed out. "Haven't you read Fantastic beasts and where to find them ? Newt Scamander has never found one of those Crumpled Horn Snorkacks."

"He doesn't need to find them to prove they exist. Maybe I will find one someday and prove their existence," Luna said. Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but instead she opened a book and began flipping through the pages silently. 

The next day, the first class she had was herbology with Neville and Ginny. She met the two of them near the Great Hall and we walked to class together.

"What herb is this?" She asks Neville, knowing that he was very skilled in herbology. 

"Those are puffapods. They bloom if you touch them," Neville tells me. 

"And this is one is gillyweed. I remember giving this to Harry to use when he competed in the Triwizard tournament. It allows the user to have gills...oh gosh I was so worried it wouldn't turn out well...I was only fourteen and not as skilled as Professor Sprout," He stopped suddenly as he realized he was rambling and that the Slytherins were snickering at him.

"Ignore them. I know you're very smart in herbology and you should continue being yourself," She tells him, giving him a smile. His ears turned scarlet and he quickly went back to work as Professor Sprout came around to check on them. Once in a while, she'd ask Neville about a certain type of plant and what they did. After class, Ginny and I walked to our next class.

"I never expected you to be so interested in herbology. You were asking so many questions." Ginny nudged Luna with her elbow. 

"He's a really smart kid. I want to know more about him. And my other friends of course, " She added quickly as Ginny raised her eyebrows at her. She was not used to her friend talking like that. Luna's tone seemed to have changed the instant she spoke about Neville. 

"We spent a lot of time together last year, so I learned to understand you more as well. You're very different from anyone I met, but you're my friend."Luna smiled and they entered the potions class together. They were immediately silent as they entered knowing how much Snape did not like them,  but then blinked in surprise as they saw Professor Slughorn greeting them instead of Professor Snape.

"Oh I completely forgot! Professor Snape is teaching Defense Against the dark arts this year. I have him for my last class, thank goodness." Ginny breathed a sigh of relief as they filed in next to the other students. Luna was aware of a few Slytherin and Hufflepuff students snickering at her from the back, prompting Ginny to shoot them a fierce glare. Their task today was to brew a Draught of Living Death.

"Don't worry, Ginny. I never pay any attention to them and they eventually give up." Luna assured her.

"Draco doesn't seem to have given up," Ginny grumbled.

"Don't let him bother you. He's not very fond of Harry or any of us, is he?" Luna shifted her potions book closer to her before adding more ingredients into her brew.

"He hates everyone," Ginny said simply. "Except for the Slytherins, course. He favors them wholeheartedly. At least I have him at the end of the day"

"Ignoring the negative things in life is the best life to live," Luna told her.

"I'm off to Quidditch Practice. I'll see you at Hogsmeades during break!" Luna watched the silky ginger hair hair bounce up and down on her friend's back as she ran off down the hallway. Luna tucked her book bag further up her shoulders and walked to charms class.