Harry was strolling through the castle halls when he bumped into an old friend with messy blonde hair, strange earrings with even stranger meanings behind them, and wildly odd mismatching socks. Luna grinned fondly at Harry and her glazed over eyes grew warmer at his sight.

"Hiya Harry! What are you doing up so early?" She tilted her head to her left as if to exaggerate her confusion more than her tone in her voice had already done.

"Ron's snoring was getting to me, what about you? Hey, what happened to your shoes?" He had finally noticed the fact the girls shoes, although similar, were different with one being laced and the other being Velcro.

"Oh that? Some of the girls in my dorm thought it would be funny to send me on a hunt for one of both of my pairs, I don't mind. It was worse yesterday, I had to patch my spare robe when one of them must of attacked it with scissors or something and they stole one of my mothers broaches." She shrugged nonchalantly as if everything she said was completely normal and something everyone would go through on a daily basis.

The only time she looked genuinely hurt was when she mentioned her mother, her eyes darkening from sadness for a split second. Harry remembered her once mentioning her mother had passed away when she was younger, he could understand why she wanted one of the few things she had of her parent back.

"Luna, you need to tell one of the professors about them, maybe you can get a different dorm room-" Harry tried to help her but was waved off by her pale hand that held multiple strange rings, that would undoubtedly have even stranger stories.

"It's fine, I really don't mind anymore. Now I better go find my shoes before they attract anymore Wrackspurts, they're such a pain to ward off." She wandered through the empty halls, occasionally checking the classrooms nearby, while Harry felt nothing but sympathy for his wacky friend.

~-~-~-~-~-~

Nico groaned, he was supposed to have Herbology first that day but after his most recent argument with his step-mother Persephone there was no possibility of even standing near the plants without killing an entire greenhouse.

You may of already guessed, Dumbledore was hundreds of miles ahead of everyone in Hogwarts and had already given Professor Sprout notice that a certain Mr Di Angelo would not be attending her lessons at all. He had made the excuse of his step-mother cursing him out of spite, something that mad Nico chuckle when he heard, meaning he couldn't go near pants without damage to nature.. It was nice to know someone else agreed that his step-mum was a bit on the crazy side.

When Will told Hermione, once she asked him out of concern, that Nico had been cursed by a family member she was shocked. Even in the short time she had known the shy and mysterious teenager she saw him in a positive light and struggled to understand why someone would do something that could ruin his life.

Eventually brushed that off and focused on the lesson at hand but the idea of how little she knew of Nico's past hung around at the back of her mind.

The lesson went smoothly (at Hogwarts standards at least), the only accident was when Ron and Hermione began to argue about Crookshanks teasing Scabbers and he spilled part of the packet of seeds onto the ground, flowers immediately sprouting from where they fell.

~-~-~-~-~-~

Nico rejoined everyone in Muggle Studies, arriving ahead of the rest of the class and was already seated when Will walked into the room before the other students. He grinned over at his boyfriend and slid into the chair next to Nico, intertwining their hands under the table while Hazel joined a table with Hermione behind them.

Harry and Ron weren't in the same class, instead, on the other side of the castle, leaving Hermione to make polite conversation with Hazel. She had only known for around two days and it was just as awkward as you might expect.

Despite that, they contently chatted about lessons, what life was life alongside 'muggles'. Hazel had to be careful not to let her old-fashioned memories slip out, quite difficult seeing as her childhood had almost entirely been spent in the past.

Nico would tune into their conversation time to time by complete accident, chuckling at some parts, but the majority of his laughter came from the absurdness of what the wizards thought normal humans did in their lives. Their teacher had supposedly lived among muggles for a few months, but it was clear she didn't have a complete grasp on their world. It was hard not to burst out in giggles but both Nico and Will resisted, not wanting to hurt the teacher's feelings

Looking around the room to be distracted by anything else that the lies the adult was teaching, his eyes found a blonde girl with a 'unique' sense of fashion sitting at the back of the class, fiddling with what he guessed was her wand. A few wisps of navy smoke emitted from the end, forming a raven before fading away into nothingness.

Her mouth twitched when the bird appeared, almost breaking her blank expression into a smile, and continued to ignore Professor Burbage who was trying her best. Will felt entranced by her silvery-blue-grey eyes that held something unusual. She held similar traits of a child of Athena yet seemed more peculiar with a hint of the madness often related to Iris the Goddess of Rainbows.

He quickly averted his gaze after realizing it may be taken the wrong way if she caught him and it wouldn't help the low-profile Will was supposed to be keeping.

Nico was suspicious of what Will had been staring at but brushed it off, knowing he wouldn't leave him or be able to hate anyone there already. Will was too kind to hold grudges unless it was someone who stole his bow and arrows. 

Connor Stoll was living proof of that.

A/N

[PUBLISHED 09/08/2019]

Hallo! I'm back from the first part of my away-from-home holiday and, even though it hurts to physically move my arms (sun burns and exercise), I remembered to update. I honestly thought the journey back would of been longer than six hours, but oh well.

What do you lot think of the story so far? What do you predict will happen next?

I'm thinking about using my new drawing tablet to digitise some of the art in this book, comment below if you'd like to see that. A quick reminder that all of the art, unless I say otherwise, in this book is my own.

I'll be seeing you next Friday (also thanks for the 340+ reads!!!)