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wasn't quite sure what to make of her newly found company, Luna Lovegood. When she walked down into the entrance hall, she spotted the two heads of blond hair belonging to both Luna and Olly instantly. With a wave, she headed over to them, and as soon as she did so, she began the Luna Lovegood experience.

"Hello," Saffron greeted them pleasantly, standing tightly beside them near the noticeboard. The entrance hall was quickly becoming full of students from all years and houses, all of whom were eagerly anticipating the chance to learn how to duel. Many people were seeing it as an opportunity to learn more defensive magic in case they have to face the monster in the Chamber of Secrets. Saffron, on the other hand, didn't see it in that way, she saw it as a chance to laugh at Lockhart getting his ass handed to him by anybody who might potentially duel him.

Olly waved at her when she made her way over and smiled when she stood beside them. "I've been looking forward to this all day. Luna, this is my friend Saffron, Saffron this is my other friend Luna,"

"Nice to meet you," said Saffron warmly offering her hand to the girl, who shook it albeit hesitantly.

"Your Rowan's sister," Luna stated matter-of-factly. Her hair was quite simply wild, Lavender wouldn't approve in the slightest. She wore a fuzzy green coat and had the strangest pair of earrings that Saffron had ever seen before. So strange, that she couldn't quite tell what the green things coming out of her ears were.

Saffron nodded with a small smile. "Yeah, you two are in the same year, right?"

"Yes," nodded Luna. "He's quite nice, you know. But he is quite shy, he asked me not to tell anybody that he bought one of my asphodel necklaces," Luna opened her mouth realising that she hadn't done as he requested. It was in an 'o' shape and she blinked upon coming to the realisation. "Sadly, I just told someone,"

Olly let out a laugh and sent a grin in Saffron's direction. "Shall we head inside? I don't want to miss a second of what Lockhart ends up doing, it's going to be too much fun,"

Saffron and Luna followed their mutual friend into the hall and that was when Saffron asked Olly the question that had been lingering on her mind.

"Where's Padma, Terry or Lisa?" She furrowed her brow but not in relation to the question, but rather at the large stage that had replaced the benches in the Great Hall. It stood right in the centre. Lines of students stood by it and Saffron made a conscious decision to not go near the crowds as she hated being in crowded situations.

"They didn't want to come with us because of me,"

It wasn't Olly who answered. It was Luna. The girl casually answered the question in such a sad way that Saffron was left feeling nonplussed. She had heard that the girl was dotty but what was wrong with that? Why wouldn't they go with one of their best friends just because he was with a girl who wouldn't usually fit into their group? It baffled her and she felt very sorry for Luna feeling such a way about it.

"No," Olly started with a firmness in his voice. "That's not it at all, Luna, I just wanted it to be the three of us, I thought it would be nice for the two of you to meet without any of them here. I mean, she's wearing your necklace, after all, Luna,"

Luna narrowed her eyes and looked at Saffron's neck, clearly trying to see if it was on her. When Saffron lifted up her hand to show her the necklace turned bracelet, Luna's eyes lit up in surprise.

"Why have you done that?"

Saffron shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really wear necklaces, and I guess I thought I'd make it would look nice as a bracelet. Or, well, it was my friend Hermione's idea,"

"Hermione Granger?" Luna questioned.

Saffron nodded. "Do you know her?"

"Unfortunately yes," replied Luna with honesty, making Saffron and Olly's eyes widened and mouths agape with shock. Luna seemed to be a level of honesty that Saffron had never been witness to before. She figured it must feel refreshing but that perhaps it was the reason why Luna felt like certain people didn't want to be around her. "I sat with her on the way to school at the start of the year, she kept telling me everything in my father's magazine wasn't tr---"

Luna's voice broke off when Professor Lockhart walked onto the stage, wearing plum robes. To most of the halls surprise, Professor Snape followed him, in black, predictably.

Lockhart asked for silence and called everybody closer to the stage. "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions - for full details, see my published works.

"Our entire booklist," Olly mumbled to Saffron, who grinned.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," smiled Lockhart brightly, "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry - you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"Watch Snape destroy him," Saffron whispered to Olly with a satisfied smile. Then she realised what she was saying. Was she actually rooting for Snape? The look on Snape's face was full of cruel and sick anticipation. To Saffron, it looked terrifying and couldn't believe Lockhart looked so calm on the stage. He was on the way to immense pain, there was no doubt about that to the majority of people in the hall.

The men went to the proceedings that came with a duel, facing each other and bowing. Lockhart raised his wand but addressed the crowd. "As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position. On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course. One - two - three--"

With long swings over their heads, each man pointed his wand at the other. It was no surprise that Snape was much quicker than Lockhart, and with a cry of "Expelliarmus", a flash of scarlet light knocked Lockhart off his feet effortlessly. He went crashing into the nearby wall and lay on his side, with no wand as it had been ejected from his hand with the spell.

The reactions in the hall contrasted each other completely. Most remained silent, others cheered in triumph, whilst others groaned in despair, worried for Lockhart's wellbeing.

Saffron was one of the people who leaned on the happy side. She let out a giggle and when she caught Olly's eyes, she was reduced to a prolonged fit of laughter. The smile on his face screamed delight at what had just taken place. It was like their one reward for having to endure months worth of worthless Defence Against the Dark Arts classes.

"It's what he deserves," commented Saffron, folding her arms as Professor Lockhart struggled to get back on his feet. "What do you think about him, Luna?"

"He's a fraud," Luna confided in Saffron. Saffron's interests were piqued as Luna explained her reasoning as to why he was so. "Daddy wrote an article about it, it should be in next months edition, everything in his books was done by other people, they've been paying him to pretend that it was him so that they could sell books,"

"Really?" Olly asked her, he too seemed to be new to this piece of information.

Luna nodded with intent. "It's in the Quibbler next month, I'll get you a copy if you like,"

"That would be great, I could do with reading about how much of a joke Lockhart is," remarked Olly, grinning at Luna. "Might distract me from having to watch him be one every day,"

Saffron laughed at both Olly's sentence and the sight of Lockhart stumbling back over to the centre of the stage.

"Well, there you have it!" he stammered. "That was a Disarming Charm - as you see, I've lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown -"

Saffron couldn't help the yelp of laughter she let out when she heard Lavender's name being called. That and the cheer from Lavender at the other side of the room created a pause in Lockhart's talking for a moment. Suddenly, tonnes of eyes were looking in her direction and Saffron clasped her hand over her mouth, reddening inordinately.

"Well, that was embarrassing," she muttered to Olly and Luna as Lockhart continued on his speel and the attention was off of her.

"Don't be embarrassed," said Luna calmly. "It just wastes time and energy,"

Saffron nodded. That wasn't a bad way of looking it at it. It would probably serve her better to infuse aspects of Luna's attitude into her own. The girl just didn't seem to care and Saffron admired that in someone. She admired it in Luna, in spite of only meeting her minutes ago. But even though she had had so little time to get to know her, she already liked her. She was different, as Olly said, but a good kind of different. The different one wanted in a school where people tried so hard to not be so.