The classes were far more interesting than Luna had imagined.

On only the first day, nearly eight pages of their notebooks were filled up with notes. Luna felt quite guilty because Luka had lent her his extra parchment and quill, but he insisted that it was no problem, and she didn’t really have any other option.

There were many teachers whom Luna was unfamiliar with. For Potions, Snape and Slughorn seemed to have been replaced with a very young, blond woman named Lucia Bates, who was also the head of Slytherin. The strangest thing was, the first impression Luna had of her was that Professor Bates was very fond of Luka. Luna thought it was peculiar because Slytherins usually despised and looked down on students from other Houses, and it felt extremely unusual to see the head of Slytherin favour a Hufflepuff. Luna, however, was not so lucky.

During the first class of the day, Professor Bates had sniffed disapprovingly at her Muggle attire, completely ignored all of her questions, and called her a Mudblood. Luka was oddly infuriated when the rude word slipped out of the professor’s lips.

“Let’s see how well the Mudblood does in class, then,” muttered Bates.

Though Luna was not the least offended at being called a Mudblood, her blood boiled when she heard what she said, and she couldn’t wait to prove just how well she could do. However, the opportunity did not present itself just yet, and all they did during the entire class period was take notes on the potions they would study over the term.

She found it hard to call Bates “Professor” because she did not act like a professor at all. All she did was tell them to copy what was written on a blackboard and pass out invitations to her start-of-term private party. (Luna did not get one.) Even the way she spoke was very… unprofessional. Luna wondered how in the world she managed to become a Hogwarts teacher, let alone the Head of Slytherin.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was a little more pleasurable. Professor Lovegood was indeed Luna Lovegood, who was taking a break from magizoology to stand in for the usual Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, who was away for a few years to sort out some unknown personal problems. In just that one class, Luna had earned twenty-five points for Hufflepuff by answering questions about Blibbering Humdingers, Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, Nargles, Wrackspurts, and Gulping Plimpies. She was brought out of the misery of Potions by the fact that her favourite character in her favourite book series had smiled at her.

When they entered the Divination tower for their third-period class, Luna finally understood why Harry Potter had fainted in that room. Normally, she was completely all right with the smell of perfume. But the scent in that room was hundred times thicker and stronger than any other perfumes she’d encountered before, and it felt like it was filling her nostrils and scrambling up her brain every time she breathed in. Luka looked rather sickly as well. With a silent, mutual nod of agreement, they found a round table at the back of the room that was next to a small window, which they cracked open and happily breathed in the fresh air.

As it was an elective class with a questionable reputation, very few Hufflepuffs in their year had chosen to take it. The result was a mixed class, with the third year students from all four Houses. Though the group of Hufflepuff girls crowding around Luka had decreased, the Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, and Slytherins started gathering around that table as well. So many people knelt down near him, towered over his sitting figure, or rested their elbows on the table and stared at him that it was a wonder he wasn’t claustrophobic yet. Thankfully, Professor Trelawney came to his rescue when she noticed the crowd of students around that one table, and she promptly shooed everyone away, insisting to have only two people per crystal ball in order to “allow the Inner Eye more space to relay the warnings from the future”.

Luna was about to follow the disgruntled wave of girls and leave the table when a hand closed around her wrist. She turned and found Luka pointing to his copy of Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky.

“Oh — right. Sorry, I forgot,” she said, sitting down sheepishly.

Luka sighed and shook his head.

Their first assignment in Divination was to attempt to “see” what they would learn that year inside of the crystal ball. So, they spend half of the class period with their heads on their table, squinting at the foggy interiors of the glass ball.

“I think I see something,” said Luna dully.

“Really?” said Luka, turning to her and raising an eyebrow.

“Yep,” she said miserably, still staring at the crystal ball. “I… am definitely going to fail this class.”

Luka stared at her, then burst out laughing.

After they were finally released from the stifling-hot classroom, the Hufflepuff third years enjoyed a free period. Luna took the time to explore Hogwarts, accompanied by Luka, who said he had nothing to do, and followed by his vast friend group.

They had a delicious lunch of bangers and mash and tried to stay awake during Professor Binns’s first droning lecture. Luka was kind enough to offer to share his history textbook with her, but she insisted that it was not necessary — to which he responded with:

“Mobiliarbus,” he said, pointing his wand at her chair. The wooden chair lifted a few inches off the ground and hovered over to settle beside his desk — with Luna still sitting on it. She’d barely stopped herself from yelping in shock, and she immediately pummeled Luka, who was grinning with satisfaction, with her sleeves.

As excited as she was to see magic being performed, she was infuriated, and she shot Luka a mental warning: You better be careful after I buy my own wand, she thought with annoyance.

Luna was introduced to Professor Longbottom in Herbology, who was surprisingly more capable than the Harry Potter books had described. He was very serious about Herbology and extremely skilled in it as well, so it was no surprise that he was the Herbology professor.

“Where in the world do your books go?” Luna asked as she watched the volume of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi disappear from Luka’s hands.

“My schoolbag, of course,” he said.

“Schoolbag?”

Luka untied the pouch that hung from his belt and gave it to her.

“Woah!” Luna’s entire head had disappeared inside the black leather pouch. “This is amazing! You have one of these?” The interior of the pouch was ten times larger than what it looked like on the outside, and she could see Luka’s different school supplies sorted in different compartments of the pouch. The pouch must have been enchanted with the Extension Charm, as the interior was completely enlarged and it was feather-light, despite being filled with heavy textbooks.

“Pfft!” Luka said, failing to hold in his laughter. “You look so stupid!”

Luna emerged from the pouch, her hair in a mess, and she glared at him while throwing the pouch back at him, who laughed even harder.

The next day, they attended Arithmancy class, which was taught by Professor Vector. It was a mixed class as well, but not a lot of chaos erupted in that class, as everyone was too busy copying down numerical theorems and solving equations. Although maths was one of Luna’s least favourite subjects, she was pretty good at it. She could easily solve the equations presented in class, and since Arithmancy class involved little to no magic, it was the easiest for her to do, as she was currently without a wand.

After a nice free period spent in the Hufflepuff common room reading Luka’s textbooks (which she may or may not have stolen from his school bag), they went to Charms class. Professor Flitwick had retired many years ago, and the current Charms teacher was a woman named Katherine Bennett. The Head of Ravenclaw was a middle-aged woman with jet black hair and blue eyes, and she reminded Luna of Professor McGonagall. In the first class, they reviewed half of the spells they’d learnt the previous year. As the room filled with yells of, “Impedimenta!”, “Wingardium Leviosa!”, “Incendio!”, “Expelliarmus!”, and many other incantations, Luna could do nothing but watch as objects were levitated around the room, fires burst from wand tips, and wands flew out of people’s hands as their friends disarmed them.

Luna grew anxious as a thought came to her mind. The Sorting Hat did say that she was a witch, but why hadn’t her magic surfaced yet? At home, she’d tried so many times to do magic, whether it was yelling incantations while pointing her finger at things, or brewing mock potions (which were promptly thrown away by Mr and Mrs Yue), but nothing seemed to work. Of course, she had blamed it on her lack of a wand, but now that she was seeing others performing magic, she began to doubt how magical she actually was.

She watched as Luka flicked his wand and levitated ten books at the same time, making them move in an organised circle seven feet above his desk. He created flames as long as three tables with a mere mutter and made his quill grow to the height of a person within a second, shrinking it back down afterwards. And, he made it all look effortless. No wonder he’s the top of our year, thought Luna, stunned. She wasn’t the only one who was impressed with his magic. Every time he performed a spell, his admirers would cheer, hoot, or gasp exaggeratedly, forgetting about trying the charms for themselves.

“Can I…” Luna said, then stopped.

Luka turned to her. “What is it?”

“Er…”

He tilted his head. “What? Stop mumbling.”

“Can I… er… see your wand?” Luna said.

“Oh…” He hesitated.

“Nevermind — I didn’t say anything,” she said hurriedly. Of course, he wouldn’t let her use his wand. No sensible wizard would —

“No, it’s all right. Here.” He put his wand into her hands, and she looked at him with surprise. “It’s just… no one other than me has been able to use my wand at all — it’s almost like a normal stick if anyone else tries waving it around.”

“What is it made out of?” Luna asked, admiring the beautiful wandwork.

“Acacia; Unicorn hair; thirteen and three-quarters inches,” said Luka, watching her.

The wand was warm where he had held it, and it was quite long — probably because Luka was quite tall. But was she imagining the warmth in her fingertips as she grasped it?

“Can I try it out?” Luna asked hesitantly.

She thought he would refuse, but he surprised her by saying, “Sure.”

“Thanks.” She smiled. Then, she looked at the acacia wand and gulped. If it turned out horribly or didn’t work at all, everyone would probably mock her about it for the rest of her life. Did she really want to do this? But, as she already had the wand in her hands, she had to try doing magic with it. Swallowing her anxiety, she looked around and decided on the spell she was going to try out, pointing Luka’s wand at a bookshelf on the opposite wall. “Accio,” she muttered, focusing on one of the books as how she had before, with her finger-wand, in the Muggle world.

To her, and everyone else’s great shock, the book flew out of its spot on the shelf and flew straight at Luna’s face. Her eyes widened with shock, and she realised too late that she wouldn’t be able to dodge it.

“Impedimenta!” she said, the first thing that came to mind spilling out of her mouth. The acacia wand was pointed at the book. The rocketing object slowed for half a moment, two inches from her face, then blasted away with the force of a slingshot, landing on the opposite side of the room. She flinched, feeling bad for the poor book.

Her heart pounding, she slowly handed Luka his wand back. She then realised that the entire class had gone silent.

“What is your name?” the Charms teacher asked, her voice ringing as she walked toward her.

“Er… Yue. Luna Yue…” she replied nervously. Did she accidentally cast a Silencing Spell on the entire class? No, there was no way she would ever be able to do such powerful magic. Did she do something wrong, then?

“Was that a Summoning Charm?” Professor Bennett said, approaching Luna. “And… an Impediment Jinx?” There was a look of disbelief on her face.

“Y-yes…? I think so…?” Luna said quietly.

“Can you do it again?” The professor crossed her arms.

Luna had serious doubts about whether or not she would be able to do those spells again. “I… er… It — it wasn’t my wand…”

“What?”

“She used my wand, Professor,” Luka said, holding out his wand.

Professor Bennett blinked. “You… used someone else’s… wand?” She started walking away, looking dazed. “A third year… performed the Summoning Charm… beginning of the year… and the Impediment Jinx… a third year… perfectly… with another’s wand?!” She collapsed onto her chair and stayed there with her hand over her eyes for the rest of the class period.

“...Is she all right?” asked Luna after putting the book back on the shelf in dead silence.

“I think so?” said Luka. “Anyway, how in the world did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“The Summoning Charm and the Impediment Jinx,” he said. “Those are O.W.L. standard spells!”

“Oh.” Luna blinked.

“And you did them flawlessly as well,” he added, his eyebrows raised. “Did you practice a lot before?”

“Er… no,” she said. “That was the first time I’ve ever held a wand.”

Luka stared at her. “You’re joking.” He blinked. “You’re not? — And it was my wand as well. My wand never works for anyone else — even the professors. How did you — ?”

“I — I don’t know…” she said.

After that shocking Charms class, Luna could hear mutters throughout the hallway as she and the other Hufflepuffs headed to the castle grounds for Care of Magical Creatures.

“Who, the one in the Muggle clothes?”

“Yes — the Mistake.”

“I heard she wasn’t accepted until this year.”

“Did you know? She just did an Impediment Jinx in Charms!”

“What — a third year?”

“How did she do that? We haven’t even learnt it yet.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“The Mistake did that?”

“Look how she keeps sticking around Luka.”

“She looks so arrogant.”

“Perhaps she cast a spell on Luka to make him like her.”

“No way — he would never like a nobody like her.”

“She must be a Muggle-born. Just look at her clothes.”

“What? Professor Bates did that!”

“She deserves it. I heard that Luka let her borrow his owl. He never lets anyone touch his owl!”

“And, he’s sharing his textbooks with her. He barely knows her!”

Luna bit her tongue to stop herself from yelling at the gossipers and shouting the truth into their faces. Instead, she took a deep breath and pretended not to hear them.

“Lune, don’t listen to them,” said Luka, noticing her stony face. “I know you’re not nearly evil enough to put me under an enchantment — or smart enough, for that matter.” Luna whacked him with her sleeve, and he grinned.

“Don’t call me that,” she said, glaring at him.

“Why not? You said I could.” He smirked.

Right — she did. Luna sighed. “Fine.”

For Care of Magical Creatures, they went to the edge of the forest by Hagrid’s hut. To her delight, Luna had found out that Hagrid was still the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and she couldn’t wait to meet him. Just like the books had described, he was twice as tall and twice as big as any person she’d ever seen. During the first class, all they did was an introduction of the magical creatures they would be studying, and they flipped through their textbooks. Luna was surprised to see that Hagrid had assigned the Monster Book of Monsters and that the knowledge to use the book had not been passed around yet. Every student had their volume bound in a certain way, but the feral books still jerked and wriggled as best they could. Luka’s book was the only one that wasn’t moving.

“Did you manage to calm it?” she asked.

“Oh — er, no. I’ve put a Freezing Charm on it, but I bound it in this just in case.” He held up the book, which was tied up by a black belt similar to the one he was currently wearing.

“How long does the charm last?” said Luna.

“Well, it hasn’t worn out yet.”

Luna’s eyebrows shot up, impressed. She hadn’t thought that it was possible to cast a Freezing Charm that lasted for weeks, yet he had done it.

“Unfreeze it,” she said, holding out the book.

“What?” Luka gave her a quizzical look. “It’ll bite you,” he warned.

“Unfreeze it.”

“All right, then.” He pulled his wand out of his pocket. “Finite Incantatem,” he said, tapping the book. It immediately started lurching around, aiming for Luna’s fingers, and Luka gave her an “I told you so” look.

But what he didn’t expect was for her to stroke the textbook’s furry spine and it to stop moving and fall open, almost like an ordinary book.

All the students lay on the sunlit, grassy clearing as Hagrid introduced them to the different creatures listed in the textbook, but Luna found it hard to hear him over the chattering of the group of girls surrounding Luka yet again. It was impossible to not find it annoying, but Luna prevented herself from saying or doing anything.

After lunch, a free period, and a tremendous amount of note-taking in Transfiguration (which was taught by the easy-going yet smart Head of Hufflepuff, Nicolas Brooks), the Hufflepuffs retreated to their peaceful common room to work on the homework their teachers had assigned them. Just like in Charms, Luna found out that there was a lot more to magic and Transfiguration than just what she’d read in the Harry Potter series. Magic had a surprising amount of technique, understanding, and theories that you had to study before being able to successfully cast a spell. Learning that, she assumed that what had happened earlier in Charms had been a complete accident.

Luna had to use the toilet, so she went to the nearest girls’ restroom. While washing her hands, a group of girls came in, talking loudly to each other. Luna recognized Maia, who she’d sat next to at the start-of-term banquet, in that crowd. Luka had unintended admirers who were older and younger than him, of all ages. This group seemed to be made up of the older girls. When they spotted her at the sinks, however, they all fell silent.

“Well, look who it is,” said a fifth year Gryffindor, walking to the front. “The Mistake.”

Luna rinsed off her hands and turned to face them. “Who are you?”

“She doesn’t even know who we are.” The girl raised her eyebrows and sneered. “How arrogant.”

“Well, I’ve only been at Hogwarts for two days, if you haven’t noticed,” said Luna.

“Ha!” She laughed a high, mocking laugh. “We know what you’re doing.”

Luna found it odd that she had no idea what they were talking about.

“It’s obvious that Luka hates you, so why do you keep hanging around him?” said the sixteenth-year-old. Although most of the girls in that group were older and taller than she was, Luna stood her ground and sent their glares right back at them. “You’ve got something you’re holding against him, don’t you? That’s why he’s putting up with you. Or maybe he pities you. It could be both.” Her mouth curled into a scowl. “Stay away from him from now on, or else you will regret ever coming here, you useless Mudblood. You’re nothing but a mistake, and you will never fit in at Hogwarts.”

Luna spotted a movement out of the corner of her eye, but it was too late. One of the fifth year’s friends had secretly taken her wand out and pointed it at her, and before she could jump away, the girl shouted, “Locomotor Wibbly!” in the loudest and most dramatic voice you could imagine.

A bright orange flash — and Luna’s legs collapsed under her, making her fall to the ground. The other girls burst into crazed laughter as she tried to stand back up. Her face burned, but she was a bit too distracted by the sensation of being under a hex to feel very embarrassed.

The first girl walked up to her and bent down, looking at her with a smug expression. “Silencio,” she said, pointing her wand at her. “Now, stay away from Luka!”

Luna had been stuck outside of the Hufflepuff common room for nearly an hour. Having half-crawled the entire way back to the wooden barrels concealing the entrance, she sat nearby as she waited for another Hufflepuff to find her sitting in the shadows, leaning against the wall.

The Jelly-Legs Jinx, unfortunately, still hadn’t worn out, as the girl who’d cast it had nearly screamed the incantation, but it wasn’t working as Luna had imagined it when she read about it. Instead of her legs turning completely soft and collapsing, she just couldn’t feel or move her legs. It felt more like she was paralyzed from the thighs down, really.

Still waiting to meet a fellow Hufflepuff in the corridor, she pondered why those girls — who she’d never even talked to before — were out for her blood. They were probably jealous that Luka was helping her so much, but their fears were quite unfounded. There was no chance of Luka ever liking someone like her. If only they knew that it was Professor McGonagall’s orders for him to keep escorting her around. Her mind slowly started drifting to all the hexes she wanted to cast on them in return when someone finally came out of the common room door.

“Finally,” said Luna, attempting to get onto her feet and failing, toppling over due to the fact that she couldn’t feel her kneecaps.

“Lune? What are you — What happened to you?”

“Oh. It’s you,” she said. Luka walked over to her as she assembled her senseless legs back into a sitting position. “I was just waiting for someone to open the barrel door.”

“What…” he muttered, looking at her collapsed legs. “Maia said you didn’t want to be bothered — Er, I mean, I was finishing up my homework… But what happened to you?”

“Jelly-Legs Jinx,” said Luna. He looked sceptical, so Luna added, “But I don’t think it was done properly.”

“So what happened?” asked Luka, crossing his arms and leaning his shoulder on the wall.

“First,” she said, “can I ask you a question?”

“...Sure?” he said.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

There was a pause and a moment of silence.

“...What?” he said.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Luna repeated.

Luka said nothing for a while, looking away. He glanced at her and found her still staring at him.

“I…” he said, his grey eyes searching her face. “I don’t know… I just —”

“Felt bad for me?” said Luna.

“No,” he said immediately. He stared at her, thinking, then looked away. “You’re just… different from anyone else I’ve ever met.”

“What, because I’m a Muggle-born, and I came to Hogwarts late?”

“No,” he said again. “Actually…” He hesitated. “...I’m a Muggle-born too.”

Luna blinked. That was not what she expected to hear, but it explained a lot about him.

“Please don’t tell anyone,” he said. His usual nonchalant yet playful expression was replaced by a troubled, uncertain look that Luna had never seen on him before.

“Of course, I won’t,” she said. “But you’ve still got to answer my question.”

“I just did, though.” Luka frowned a bit.

Luna raised her eyebrows.

“Oh, all right,” he sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s just that… I don’t know a lot of people like you… who don’t expect anything from me other than what I want to give… I just feel like I’m putting up a front with everyone… else.” He said most of that really quietly, but Luna caught it. “I — I don’t know, I can’t explain it.”

Luna blinked, not knowing what to say.

He turned to her and gave her a half-smile. “I just think… you get me.” He sat down as well, his long legs stretched out in front of him. “Isn’t that what friends are supposed to be like? Real friends, I mean.” He looked down at his feet. “At least, I think. I’ve… never really had any real friends before,” he mumbled quietly.

Luna finally understood how lonely he must have been, even though he was constantly surrounded by admirers. She slowly put her hand on his shoulder, unsure what to do.

Luka shook his head and seemed to rid his expression of the emotions from a moment ago. He turned to her.

“So are you going to tell me what happened?” he said, his usual air of confidence reappearing.

Luna looked at her motionless legs. “Oh — right. Well…”

She recalled everything that had happened in the girls’ toilet and watched as Luka’s expression went from confused to horrified.

“Then, that fifth year’s friend sneak attacked me and screamed the Jelly-Legs Curse — actually, I’m surprised you didn’t hear it from the common room — and the first girl put a Silencing Charm on me. Afterwards, they told me to stay away from you — again — and finally left,” she said simply.

“Hold on, a Silencing Charm?” he said.

“Yes. I broke it in about five seconds.”

“...Pfft!” Luka’s expression turned into a laugh, and Luna smiled with satisfaction.

“But,” he said after a bit, “they did all that… to make you stay away from me? Why?”

Luna shrugged. “Can you un-curse me now?” she said, gesturing to her legs.

“Oh! Right — sorry,” He grinned sheepishly. He pulled out his wand, then paused. “Er…”

“What?” asked Luna.

“I don’t know the countercurse for the Jelly-Legs Jinx…” he said.

“Oh… me neither… Maybe try Finite Incantatem?” she suggested. He looked doubtful. “The curse isn’t even done properly, and you can probably break it with that counterspell.”

“All right… I’ll try.” He pointed his wand at her legs. “Finite Incantatem.”

The feeling suddenly surged into her legs, and she abruptly stood up.

“It worked!”

A few days later, Luna had gotten more glares and heard more whispers and rumours about her than she’d ever been the target of in her entire life. One night, she’d gone to bed late after reading a book she borrowed from Luka and found that someone had cursed her mattress to toss her onto the ground as soon as she laid down and her blanket to become freezing cold when she touched it. What’s more, they had even conjured a cloud above her bed and enchanted it to start raining on her the moment she went under it.

After being thrown out of her bed twice, just to make sure, she left her dormitory and went to the common room, pondering what to do. The sky from the common room was pitch black and filled with luminous stars. Back in the Muggle cities, Luna could hardly see even one star in the polluted sky. Even the nature in the wizarding world seemed a hundred times brighter than in the dull, Muggle world. After discovering the magical world to be more amazing than she’d thought after reading the books, she couldn’t imagine life without magic, without Hogwarts. But at the moment, she had to do something about her cursed bed.

She slowly went into the boys’ dormitory and opened the door of the third year boys’ room a little. It was probably already past midnight, and everyone was surely asleep. As much as she didn’t want to wake Luka, she couldn’t possibly sleep on a bed that didn’t even let her get onto it.

“Luka?” she whispered. The room was very dark, but a window — or rather, an enchanted window with the same spell as the ceiling of the common room — let in a stream of silvery moonlight. All the curtains around the five beds were closed shut, and Luna could hear the sounds of breathing coming from some of them. “Luka…?” she whispered again. Regretting her decision and changing her mind, she started retreating out of the room, but a sudden sound that came from the bed near the left made her freeze. It had an owl cage next to it.

Her eyes had adjusted to the dim light, and she watched as Luka quietly pulled the hangings of his bed open and blinked at her, rubbing his eyes.

“Lune? What are you doing in the boys’ dormitories?” he whispered.

“I — er — Can I borrow your wand?” she whispered.

“That’s what you woke me for in the middle of the night?”

“But — someone cursed my bed,” she said.

“What?!”

A loud snore came from the bed beside Luka’s.

“Er…” He stood up quietly, and they went out of the room.

After shutting the door to the common room softly behind them, he turned to Luna.

“Someone did what?” he said. He was in his pyjamas, and his hair was ruffled and messy, but somehow, he still looked extremely good-looking.

“Someone cursed my bed,” she said. “It tosses me out, my blanket turns ice-cold, and someone put a cloud over it that pours a gallon of water over me every time I’m under it.”

Luka laughed, then stopped, seeing her serious expression. “You’re not joking,” he said, his eyes wide. “Who would do something like that?”

“Probably the same girls who jinxed me that other time,” Luna muttered under her breath. “Sorry for waking you up…”

“It’s all right.” He grinned at her. “You’ll just have to pay me back later.”

She rolled her eyes. “How about a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans?”

“That’ll do, but let’s share.” He started walking to the door to the girls’ dormitories.

“Er — I don’t think you can —”

As he tried to open the door, the handle suddenly surged red hot and forced him to let go.

“Ack!” Luka shook his hand. “Why won’t it let me through? Wait — why can you go into the boys’ dormitories, then?”

“I think I read somewhere that the people who built Hogwarts thought… girls were more trustworthy than boys,” Luna said, holding in her laughter.

Luka frowned. “Seriously? What did they think we’d do, steal your perfume?”

“I don’t even wear perfume,” said Luna. “Anyhow, you see why I asked to borrow your wand?”

He yawned. “Fine, fine. Here.” He handed her his wand. “I’m going back to sleep. Just put it on my nightstand when you’re done.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said, and he was back in the boys’ dormitories before she could say anything else.

She went into the room she shared with her five roommates and fingered the wand nervously. Although all of the spells she’d tried so far in class had worked, she was still anxious about it. What would she do if it didn’t work? Perhaps she could sleep in the common room and make up an excuse? However, despite her anxious thoughts, after quickly muttering the spells, “Finite Incantatem” and “Meteolojinx Recanto”, the curses and the cloud promptly disappeared. It was extremely surprising how well Luka’s wand worked for her, despite how he said it had always refused to make even a single spark for anyone other than himself. She used the Syphoning Charm to clean up the water spilt by the cloud and quietly headed back to the boys’ dormitories to return the wand.

She expected that he’d probably fallen back asleep already, as he had looked quite tired.

“Thank you,” she said softly, almost as if saying it to no one, and she placed the wand quietly onto the wooden nightstand beside Luka’s bed.

“...No problem.”