The rear carriages of the Hogwarts Express belonged to the new students who had yet to be sorted. For many of them, this was their first time away from their parents' care,
boarding a train alone with their luggage, and at last facing the first unavoidable social occasion of their seven years at boarding school-some took to it like ducks to water, some sat on pins and needles, and others chose to spend the journey carefully reading a newspaper upside down.
A girl with blonde hair did just that. Her eyebrows were very pale and her hair was untidy. The gold that darkened under the light was not a sunny, cheerful gold, but more like soil mixed with yellow gemstones, giving it a somewhat grubby look. Still, it suited her pale silver-white eyes and pallid skin rather well-if you ignored the distraction of her strange jewelry,
and looked closely, you would discover that she was actually quite a pretty girl.
Had she sat quietly with her eyes closed, she might have attracted quite a few boys' furtive attention. But her rather peculiar behavior now could hold even a preoccupied girl's attention-Ginny Weasley finally could not resist drawing her eyes away from the scenery outside the window. She turned and took the initiative to break the long silence in the compartment.
"Hello, your name's Luna Lovegood, isn't it? Why don't you put your wand in your bag instead of deliberately hanging it over your left ear? And your necklace looks a lot like the corks from Butterbeer bottles-I can even smell Butterbeer."
Ginny Weasley sniffed, confirming that the girl beside her gave off a sweet fragrance. It was not unpleasant, but it would probably attract little insects with a sweet tooth,
"And you're holding your newspaper upside down, but you seem