The Apple Trees

...

Penelope, having no life, skipped over to the patch of apple trees and grabbed the lowest branch of the nearest tree and proceeded to attempt to climb the thing.

Cedric walked to the apple tree and looked up at it, wishing there was some way to grow pineapples at Hogwarts. He picked an apple and, after cleaning it on his robes, took a bite out of it.

Luna skips over and sees Cedric eating apples. Well, she thinks it's Cedric because she's seen him playing during the Quidditch games. She smiles and walks over to say hi. Caradoc was a Puff and he was nice, so Cedric would be too. Maybe. "Hello there. You're Cedric, right?"

Cedric turned, surprised that someone recognized him. "Yeah, that's me." He tells her. She's a very pretty blonde girl and, from the colours of her robe, a Ravenclaw. "I'm sorry, you are..?" He inquired.

Luna smiles sweetly. "I'm Luna Lovegood. A Ravenclaw- obviously. Mind if I sit down?" she asks as she flops down next to him before letting him answer.

"Uhm, sure." Cedric said, but it was too late. She was already on the ground beside him. "Lovegood, that sounds familar. Do I know you from somewhere?"

"Um. Well, my dad is the editor of the Quibbler so you might recognize the name from there," she suggests. "I don't think we've met before though. I only knew your name from seeing you at Quidditch games. You're a really good seeker, you know."

Cedric smiled, "The Quibbler. That's probably where I've seen it" He looked at her curiously, wondering if she was as nutty as her father was. He laughed when she mentioned his seeking skills. "Thank you, I'm team captian this year too. I don't think we're quite ready to win the Quidditch Cup, but we're getting there."

Luna smiled. "Well, I heard Viktor Krum is here this year, so you better watch out if he makes the team for Gryffindor. Apparently he's a big deal," she says with a shrug. Luna doesn't really follow major Quidditch teams.

Yeah, because Luna isn't biased at all. "Yeah, he is. We're pretty much best friends, so I was pretty excited when I found out." He smiled to himself at the memory, "He's the seeker on a major team. Almost won the World Cup last year."

Luna sighs. Stupid Viktor. He wasn't so good looking, was he? Luna's still a bit sore about Hermione going on and on about how wonderful Krum was. Poor girl. "He just sounds perfect," she says rolling her eyes. "I don't really follow the major teams so I wouldn't know. That's nice that you're friends with him though, I suppose."

Cedric looked at her, surprised, "You don't like him?" This was news to him, as far as he knew everyone like the wonderful Krum. "Why it that? If you don't mind my asking."

"Oh. Um." Luna bit her lip nervously. She didn't exactly want to tell Cedric about her crush on Hermione. Only Rose knew about that, and she liked it that way. "Well, I don't really know him. I'm sure he's really nice," she says with a somewhat convincing smile.

Cedric nodded, although this really didn't explain anything, "So what do you do if you don't follow Quidditch?" He asked. He had been sure that everyone liked Quidditch.

Luna shrugged. "I like the Quidditch at school. That's always fun. I really like studying about magical creatures though. You know, Snorkacks, Nargles, Wrackspurts. Stuff like that."

Cedric nodded, though he had never heard of any of those things before. "Are those like, NEWT level Care of Magical Creatures material or something? I don't remember studying those."

"Oh. Er- We actually don't study them in school. They're mention in the Quibbler quite a bit though," she says nodding. "Some people don't think they exist of course which is why we don't get to learn about them in class."

"Oh." Cedric said. The Quibbler, of course. "So how do you know they exist, then?" He asked, genuinely curious. "And why don't other people believe it?"

Luna blushed slightly, figuring that Cedric would end up thinking she's loony. Just like the others did. "Well, I haven't actually seen any of them, but if you read the Quibbler you'll find that there's quite a lot of evidence."

Cedric noticed her blush but thought nothing of it, "I'll have to read it sometime, then. If there's evidence. To tell you the truth, I've never really thought much of the Quibbler. I can give it a shot, though." He told her with a wink.

Luna's face lit up. Did he really just say he'd considering reading the Quibbler? "I could give you a copy if you'd like. I have plenty," she said, sounding much more chipper now that she realized Cedric wasn't so bad, and he's pretty good looking too.

"That would be awesome, thanks. I should get going actually, just owl it to me I guess." He smiled at her, then got up and, with a wave, walked back to the castle.

Luna smiles and waves goodbye to Cedric, making a mental note to send him his copy of the Quibbler later as she skips off to her dorm.

Harry strolled over to the orchard.