"Oh, no not really. It was bound to happen eventually. Her goal as mistress of the house is to support the family emotionally. She seems to think we'd be a good match. The fact that the Potter name is so well regarded probably doesn't hurt either." Daphne said, before a mischievous smirk formed on her face. "Do you think we'd be a good match Harry? Do you want me to be Mrs. Potter someday?" She asked in a overly sweet voice, leaning deep into Harry's personal space.
Harry could only flush red again and make a small squeaking noise at the attention.
"Give him some space Daphne! He'll faint again." Hermione said, starting to interpose herself between Daphne and Harry.
"But it's so cute when he gets all red and flustered. Padma, you know I'm right." Daphne said, looking to the Ravenclaw who hadn't said anything in the encounter.
"He is rather cute when he blushes…" Padma said, before grabbing Harry's arm and pulling it close to her, interweaving their fingers. "Maybe I should be Mrs. Potter then, huh Harry?" She asked, putting on the same sweet voice.
Harry was pretty overwhelmed at the moment, but was saved when a new voice entered the conversation. "Excuse me, can I sit here? Most of the other compartments are full already." the voice said, and Harry looked to the owner. She was a short girl with long nearly white blonde hair, and her eyes were a pale silvery color.
"Yes, you're more than welcome to." Harry called out, struggling to regain any sense of his composure. Daphne had moved back into her seat at the intruder, and while Padma hadn't taken her hand out of his, she did move slightly further away from Harry. "Is this your first year?" Harry asked, noticing the girl's robes lacked any of the defining colors of the four houses.
"Yes actually, me and my best friend are starting this year. It's all very exciting." The girl said, before a small gasp left her lips. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself, I'm Luna Lovegood."
"Hi Luna, I'm Padma Patil, that's Daphne Greengrass, Susan Bones, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter." Padma said, taking her other hand and pointing in turn to everyone.
"Oh, Harry Potter. It's nice to meet the person I used to play all the time." Luna said, shooting him a smile that seemed light and pleasant.
"Care to elaborate on that?" Harry asked, pretty confused. He was excited that Luna didn't seem taken in by his apparent celebrity.
"Oh, my friend I was talking about earlier, Ginny Weasley. She always wanted to play act like she was getting rescued from some monster by Harry Potter. It was always the two of us, and while I wanted to play the monster, she always made me to be Harry, then she'd be the girl being rescued. It was fun, if a bit repetitive. That's all she wanted to do."
"I'm honestly a bit unsure how to feel about that. It's a bit strange having someone play act like they're me." Harry said, rubbing the back of his head.
"I imagine it would be. You can pretend to be Luna Lovegood if you like. Then we'd be even. I don't think I've done anything quite as exciting though. I usually just pretend to be other things. Like birds." Luna said, her voice going dreamy for a moment.
"Shouldn't I just cut out the middleman and pretend to be a bird then?" Harry asked jokingly.
"You could, I suppose, but then you wouldn't get to be me, and that's a travesty." Luna said, her tone going serious, before a smile popped on her face and she started laughing. Her laugh was infectious, and soon Harry found himself laughing alongside her.
"So, you know Ginny? Why aren't you sitting with her if she's your friend? Probably be nicer than some strangers." Harry asked, looking to her. Having no 'childhood' friends of his own, he couldn't really understand what their dynamic would be, or why they might not want to be with each other now.
"Her compartment is full of her brothers, she has quite a few of them, and currently four of them go to the school. With them is another friend of theirs, a Lee Jordan I think? So they've got their full six." Luna said, counting them on her fingers. "How do you know Ginny? You're not one of Ron's friends are you?" Luna looked worried at that, Ron was abrasive sure, but had he been bullying her?
"No, I'm friends with Charlie. Well, he's dating my sister. So whatever that makes us." Harry said, once more scratching the back of his head.
"Oh, I didn't know you had a sister." Luna said.
"Adopted, but yeah. Her family adopted me before summer break." Harry said. He needed to get more comfortable talking about the topic, and Luna had been incredibly friendly so far.
"That's nice, I never had any siblings." Luna said, before kicking her feet back and forth.
"We're pretty split down the middle here in regards to that. Hermione and Susan are also only children, while Padma and I both have sisters." Daphne said, joining in the conversation.
"Yeah, I have a twin sister. So if you see me walking around in Gryffindor robes, it's not actually me, but Parvati." Padma said, smiling at herself for her little joke.
"Ooh, do you two have like a psychic link? I was reading a muggle paper that said twins could do that." Luna asked, her eyes going wide. Who'd have thought someone was more excited about meeting a twin than one of the nation's biggest celebrities? Harry was happy that Luna seemed to be exactly the kind of person he wanted to be around.
"Ugh… nothing like that. You know the Weasley twins right? Haven't you asked them? I imagine they'd have told you the same thing." Padma asked, looking to Luna.
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