I've Believed Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Luna had first seen the thestrals two years ago, during her introductory flying lesson.

She had been standing on the field below the castle, in a neat line of Ravenclaw first years alongside a neat line of school brooms, while Madam Hooch lectured on proper technique. While the other students had listened with the strict attention that Hogwarts teachers automatically expected of Ravenclaw House, Luna had stared off at the forest beyond.

Where strange dark creatures had wheeled and dipped above the trees.

She had watched them for the whole lesson, save when Madam Hooch brought her back with, “Miss Lovegood, would you please pay attention!” in increasingly impatient tones. Luna had tried, but not very hard. She had already known how to manage a broom well enough, but she hadn’t quite known what she was seeing above the forest.

So that evening, she had gone to find out.

She had known that, technically, she was breaking a rule. The Forbidden Forest was, as the name would suggest, forbidden. But Luna had seen little sense in that rule. And while Luna was good at a great many things, obeying rules she didn’t see sense in just for the sake of obeying them wasn’t really on the list. So she had gone off without another thought on the matter.

The thestrals hadn’t been difficult to find, and Luna had known precisely what they were once she saw them up close. She’d never had the opportunity to lay eyes on them before, but the herd at Hogwarts was difficult to miss. Well, for those who could see.

She had started going to that part of the forest regularly during her first year, taking a bag of treats, a book, her journal, or some other project. Thestrals were shy, and had kept their distance from this strange little interloper at first. But by Halloween, the more confident ones came right up for treats and pettings. By the time she went home for Christmas, she was allowed to freely approach the babies, without warning stamps and flapping wings from the mothers.

When spring came, she had flown for the first time, on the back of a thestral she had taken to calling Pluto.

Not very far. Just to the end of the lake and back. She never flew very far away, or very close to the castle. All things considered, Luna thought, it would be best not to be caught. No one in Ravenclaw House ever asked where she disappeared to, and of course, Luna never mentioned.

Sometimes, sitting in her dormitory tower, Luna smiled when she saw a thestral fly by outside the window. And when her roommates made jokes about Loony Lovegood smiling at nothing again, she just felt a little sad for them for all the things they couldn’t see.

The Lovegood kitchen is full of the smells of butter and spices and baking fruit. The large table in the middle of the room is covered with bowls and measuring cups, small drifts of flour and spatters of egg. The front door out to the garden is propped open to let in the breezes that blow about the top of the high hill where the Lovegood’s tower-shaped house is situated.

On the opposite side of the kitchen is the door out to the add-on extension where a dozen or more baking sheets of scones are cooling on the pantry counters. This door is tightly shut. Luna had had to close it off to discourage the garden gnomes from trying to sneak through and steal nibbles.

Luna herself is squatting patiently in front of the oven door, mittened hands resting on her knees, waiting for the latest batch to turn the proper shade of golden brown. Lemon-ginger scones this time. Upstairs she can hear Dad alternately muttering and humming as he sorts items into piles for packing. It’s no easy feat, packing up to be gone for a week, especially while camping. All morning has been spent calling up and down the circular staircase in the middle of the house:

“Dad, don’t forget your quills.”

“Luna, dear, I’m packing you an extra jumper. The evenings will be cold.”

“I think I last saw your galoshes out by the garden gate, Dad.”

“Luna, are you wanting to take your paints?”

“Dad, do you think gingerbread scones for Mackie and Gwennie, or cinnamon?”

“Gingerbread, and the Cooks will be arriving three days after us and said they’ll bring extra sausages and cheese.”

Tomorrow morning, they’ll be catching an early port key to the site of the Quidditch World Cup. The match is still a week away, but Dad had wanted some time to explore the moors around the stadium. And besides, traveling by port key will get more expensive the closer the World Cup gets. The Lovegoods will be the first to arrive and set up camp, and a handful of Dad’s friends will be joining them over the course of the week.

And when they arrive, there will be scones waiting.

Luna finally judges the scones to be done, carefully maneuvers them out of the oven, and heads for the pantry door. She does sums in her head, figuring in her and Dad, Mr. and Mrs. Cook and their twins, Auntie George, Mr. Spring, and Archie, and the number of days each will be there and how many they are likely to eat.

Archie could probably go through two batches all on his own, she thinks, balancing the hot baking sheet in one hand and trying to grip the door knob through her oven mitt. Until, with a bit of an impatient sigh, she retrieves her wand from behind her ear and waves it at the catch.

Perhaps a batch of raspberry, she decides, as the door opens. And a batch of Irish Soda, in honor of the home team. And it wouldn’t go amiss to have another batch or two of plain cream scones, since Auntie George had signed up to bring jam and marmalade.

Luna is so deep in her plans that it takes her a moment to realize that she has not, in fact, walked into the pantry.

“Oh,” she says, blinking around at this strange place.

“Well. My goodness.”

The Ravenclaw common room is in one of the castle's towers and is wide and circular. You have to climb a tight spiral staircase to get there. It has graceful arched windows, and the walls are hung with blue and bronze silks. The domed ceiling is painted with stars, which are echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. Tables, chairs, and bookcases cover the expanse of the floor, and a white-marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw sits next to the door that leads to the dormitories above.

Unlike the other common rooms in the school, a logical riddle given by a bronze eagle-shaped knocker must be answered to enter.