Chapter Text
The first time Ginny met Luna, she stared. She was wearing radish earrings and humming quietly to herself, a lovely tune that sounded vaguely familiar from the radio, seemingly oblivious to the world. She had even managed to bend her Hogwarts uniform to her own will, turning it into something more colorful and vibrant, though Ginny couldn't pinpoint how. It was just the girl's effect, she supposed, making a mental note to ask her what song that was when she got the chance.
The girl had obviously noticed her staring; even at eleven, she had never been washed of anything she had done and felt no need to conceal herself. (It was only later that she realized it was what adults called being polite, unable to understand that being forthcoming was polite in and of itself. Ginny, realizing this, simply shrugged it off. It wasn’t as if the people she truly cared about expected her to be polite, anyway.)
The girl was obviously ignoring her with he practiced ease of someone who was used to being the odd one out of a group, and Ginny, suddenly guilty, made to approach her across the throng of students surrounding her, determined to make friends with her. Before she could do anything except take a step forward, she heard the commotion of McGonagall approaching, the hushed whispers of the first years rising to an excited murmur as they realized that the moment has come for them to be sorted as last.
Ginny couldn’t do anything except follow Professor McGonagall, belatedly realizing that she didn’t even get the chance to ask the odd and eccentric girl what the song she was humming was.
***
However, thoughts of the odd little Ravenclaw - Luna Lovegood, Ginny had found out during the Sorting Ceremony - were swept away through the sheer hectic and simply chaotic nature of her first few weeks at Hogwarts.
It was simply an endless repeat of classes - charms, she thought with some surprise, she liked the most, having always anticipating that defence against the dark arts would be her favorite - exploring the castle with her newfound friends, enough so that she almost didn't have the time to finish the letters she had wrote to her parents and brothers and the diary she had found in her books that day at Diagon Alley.
All the letters were her exclaiming with joy over the possibilities of Hogwarts - what her favourite subjects were, what the food was like (it's so bloody good mom - but not as good as yours, of course!!) enough so that she had filled parchments and parchments of it, her hand almost cramping with her excitement.
(Little did she know that the Weasley parents had heard it all before; they had all heard it from their other six children, after all. But that didn't stop them from writing back as eagerly as they had written back to Bill in his first year, all those years ago, their hearts filled with affection for their little girl.)
(And as for Tom Marvolo Riddle.
Well.
He couldn't contain his glee as the witch poured thought after thought into him, unwittingly selling her soul away to a shadow of a man who squashed his charismatic nature in the search of glory and salvation.)
***
The next time Ginny met Luna, it was purely by accident.
She was walking along the corridors of Hogwarts towards the common room when she heard a noise inside one of the empty classrooms. Curiosity piqued, she went to inspect it.
And was met with the site of two older girls - Ravenclaw, Ginny could recognize them by their robes - with Luna, a manic grin on their faces as they held all Luna's belongings out of her reach.
It didn't take a Ravenclaw to figure out what was going on.
Ginny had her wand out in an instant. “Gryffindors,” Luna would say with much amusement later. Though Ginny was much too infuriated with what she witnessed to think of later.
They were all waiting for her reaction, looking at the girl who still had a dreamy look in her face as if she had no care in the world.
“What are you waiting for, dyke?” one of the girls snapped, finally losing her patience. Ginny was shocked to discover that was Amelia Travers, who had been nice to her this morning, even. “Not even defending yourself? Should have known, Loony.” She sneered, the look ugly on her face.
Ginny couldn’t take it any longer. She emerged, wand in hand.
“Leave her alone,” she said, surprised that her voice wasn’t trembling. The only thing she could feel was the righteous indignation that came from defending someone who didn’t deserve what was coming for them, unbeknownst to her, the same voice she would use when standing up to Snape’s rule, five years later.
“What are you going to do about it, first year? Snipe at me? Tell your mother?” one of the other Ravenclaws snarked, the rest of the group laughing along with him.
Ginny’s anger got the better of her.
The bat-bogey hex had always been a specialty of her, after all.
When the students had finally left the classroom with bats coming out their noses and screams of revenge coming out their mouth, all Ginny could do was grin sheepishly at the girl who was left with her, looking at Ginny with some surprise, almost as if she had never had anyone defending her before.
They were left staring at each other, neither of them knowing what to say, Luna’s eyes lacking the dreamy quality, for once looking sincere, the gratitude shining through her eyes.
Ginny cleared her throat. “So, what was the song you were singing during the Sorting ceremony, anyway?” she ploughed on.
Luna, pleasantly surprised, told her.
It was love – well, friendship – at first – second - sight.
(It wasn’t until much later, when summoned to McGonagall’s office along with Luna, did she realize that she got in trouble.
Both of them only got detention for a week and Ginny, through her rushed but justified explanation of her defense of her actions, could swear she saw a twinkle of approval in her eyes.)
(It was only later that she realized that her and Luna undoubtedly resembled three other trouble makers from the year above, that both Luna and Hermione had been saved through the kind heartedness of those willing to do anything to save others.
Ginny flushed, hearing that she resembled Harry Potter from one of her brothers not abating her unreasonable crush on him in the least.)
(She couldn’t wait to tell Tom about this.)