This is for the Hurdles in the 2012 Hogwarts Games hosted at HPFC by Fire the Canon. We were challenged to write 100-1000 words on anything we don't normally write, so I've chosen to do Luna Lovegood, whom I normally steer well clear of writing because she's such an amazing character but so hard to write, and I'm scared of messing her up! Please review and let me know your thoughts as to whether I 'got' her or not :) Disclaimer: naturally, anything you recognise belongs to JK Rowling; I am merely playing in her wonderful universe.

Hermione gave a final sniff, wiped her eyes, and unlocked the cubical door. Her face would undoubtedly be a mess, but she was sure there were some spells which might reduce the red, puffy look of her eyes. She didn't care overmuch for her appearance, generally, but she didn't want Ron – or her – to see what effect his mean impressions had had on her. No, she'd fix her face, then stop hiding in the bathroom and—

"Luna?"

A girl with long, dirty-blonde was bent almost double over the sink opposite Hermione's cubical. At first, she thought that maybe she was ill, or that perhaps she'd dropped an earring and was trying to summon it back. But then she realised that, instead of looking down the plughole, Luna was looking up, into the taps.

"Oh, hello," Luna said rather vaguely, looking up at Hermione's reflection in the mirror, before turning back to the taps.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, forgetting, for a moment, her anger and bitterness towards Ron.

"I'm trying to tempt the One-Eared Callithumps out," said Luna, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"The One-Eared—Luna, are those apricots? You can't stuff them up the taps!" Hermione cried.

"I've checked, it's not technically against the rules," Luna said, pushing another apricot up the spout of the tap marked 'cold'. "And I take them out when I'm done..."

"I suppose One-Eared Calliwhatsits like apricots, do they?" asked Hermione.

"They do," Luna replied, sounding delighted by Hermione's knowledge. "And their favourite habitat is plumbing, so I'm trying to lure one out."

"Right," said Hermione, deciding she was not in the mood to argue with Luna about the existence of the strange creatures she was obsessed with.

"What were you doing in here, anyway? I thought you were Moaning Myrtle for a while," said Luna, removing an apricot from the tap. "Does this look like it's been nibbled, to you?"

"Erm," said Hermione, studying the dried apricot. "Not really..."

"No, I didn't think so," agreed Luna. "Were you crying because Ronald Weasley's going out with Lavender Brown?"

Hermoine gaped, then recovered herself. "Of course not!" she snapped. "I would never...I'm not...it isn't..." she spluttered.

"Oh," said Luna, looking mildly surprised. "It's just that I've noticed girls only tend to cry over boys, and you only know two boys, Harry and Ron, and Harry's too busy saving the world to make girls cry, so I thought it might be Ron who upset you..."

To her horror, Hermione felt her lower lip tremble at the mention of his name. "It's just...lots of people make fun of me because I'm...well, because I'm clever. And I try to ignore it as much as I can, but when it's your best friend doing it..."

"It's not very nice," Luna said, nodding seriously. "Lots of people make fun of me, too. I don't think it's because I'm clever, though."

"Oh, you are clever!" protested Hermione, but Luna remained unmoved by this.

"No," she said serenely. "Lots of people think I'm stupid because they don't believe in the same creatures that I do."

Hermione's anger at Ron was replaced with mild annoyance at Luna. The girl persisted in believing in these nonsensical creatures, and still seemed surprised when everyone thought she was a bit loopy! On the other hand, she hadn't been mean to Hermione when she'd been crying, so perhaps now was not the best time to bring this up. Instead of arguing, she settled for a non-committal "Mmm."

"Of course, you would think that a lot of people would believe in the existence of Wrackspurts, because their effects are so obvious in daily life," continued Luna. Hermione gave a slightly more sceptical murmur in response to this, but Luna ignored it. "Yes, you see, Wrackspurts often get hold of the brains of teenage boys and force them to believe that they're not in love with people who are good for them, and instead make them fall for people who encourage them to do bad things, like make fun of people. It's a well documented phenomenon."

"Of course," said Hermione stiffly. "Wrackspurts," she added, before becoming overwhelmed by everything, and bursting into tears again. Luna drifted over to her side, placing an arm around her shoulders.

"Don't worry," she said, "Wrackspurt infestations pass quickly enough. And I can always loan you some books on how to get rid of them permenantly."

"That would be very useful, thank you, Luna," sniffed Hermione.

Many years later, eight year old Hugo Weasley returned from an afternoon at the Lovegood-Scamanders with a question for his mother. "Mummy, are all the animals that Auntie Luna and Uncle Rolf talk about real? Because some of them seem a bit silly," he said, his scepticism showing through despite his young age. His father gave a cough which sounded very much like a laugh, and buried his face in the day's Prophet, but his mother faced her son in all seriousness.

"Luna and Rolf have done a lot of important research in their field," she said. "Until their discovery five years ago, it was believed that the Three Armed Strackpot had gone extinct. However, it is true that some of the creatures they talk about—like the Crumple-Horned Snorkak—aren't real."

"I thought so," Hugo nodded. "Things like Blibbering Humdingers and Wrackspurts can't be real!"

"No sweetie, Wrackspurts are real," Hermione said earnestly, causing Ron to peer out from being the paper and Hugo's eyes to widen in astonishment. "Just give it a few years, dear, and you'll see for yourself..."

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