Luna
Ginny had been ecstatic when she had convinced her mum to cut her hair shorter. She had wanted it shorter since the end of her first year and finally she had gotten her mum to agree.
She had sat still and patient in their tiny kitchen whilst her mum cut away at her long hair, only for it to end less than five minutes in. Her mum had smiled brightly and shoved a mirror in her hand.
It was cut to shoulder length.
She had thrown up a fit and insisted her mum cut it more, she practically begged, but Molly Weasley isn't an easy person to convince.
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She put up with the length for the rest of the summer, but as soon as she was away from the watchful eyes of her mum she took things into her own hands.
She had never cut anyone's hair before, let alone her own, but she was determined. Admittedly she may have gotten a bit ahead of herself. She cut as much off as she could reach. It was a poor job, but it was finally the length that she wanted. If she squinted her eyes in the mirror then she almost looked like Fred or George.
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That morning when she went down for breakfast, it felt like everyone stared and whispered. She heard giggles and guffawing from the Slytherin table where Pansy and Millicent sat. She gritted her teeth and stomped over to the Gryffindor table. Ron was looking at her like she was an alien.
"Mum is gonna kill you when she finds out." His eyes were bugging out of his head whilst he stared at her.
Fred and George leaned over conspirationally.
"Whilst we hate to agree with Ronnikins-"
"Mum is gonna go crazy when she finds out."
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It was a week later when the whole great hall found out just how crazy Molly Weasley would get. When Errol the owl flew down with a red envelope, all the Weasleys tried their best to duck under the table in hopes to somehow avoid what was coming. The howler landed in front of Ginny and the brief silence felt like a death sentence before Charlie Potter leaned over and gently whispered that she had to open it.
As dignified as she could manage, she carefully cut the letter open with her butter knife. The howler came to life and out boomed the voice of her furious Mum.
"GINERVA MOLLY WEASLEY, HOW DARE YOU MAUL YOUR BEAUTIFUL HAIR AFTER I TOLD YOU NOT TO. JUST BECAUSE YOU AREN'T UNDER MY ROOF DOESN'T MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE TO FOLLOW MY RULES. ENCLOSED IS A HAIR GROWTH POTION. HAVE A LOVELY FIRST DAY SWEETHEART. "
As the howler burnt up into nothing, it left behind a small vial of potion on the table.
She looked over at her brothers to find that Ron had all but buried himself in his cloak and hid under the bench.
The twins leaned forwards.
"We swear it wasn't us who told her Ginny-"
"We'd never sell you out like that-"
"We wouldn't want to get on your bad side."
"I didn't mean to!" Ron sounded terrified. "She forced it out of me! I swear." Maybe his terror had something to do with the thunderous expression that Ginny was giving him.
Furious, Ginny snatched the potion and stormed out of the great hall. Few noticed that Luna Lovegood silently slipped out after her.
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She was sat outside by the lake staring at the hair growth potion when Luna found her.
"Your head is full of wrackspurts."
"I'm not surprised." Ginny knew enough about Luna to know that 'wrackspurts' were negative.
Luna sat down beside her and reached out to run her fingers through her hair.
"I like your hair."
"You do?" She turned to her, their faces close together.
Luna smiled at her. "It makes you happy."
Ginny huffed out a laugh. "I thought you said my head's full of wrackspurts?"
"Not because of your hair. Because of people's reaction to it." She said it like it was the simplest thing. That was something that Ginny really loved about Luna. How clearly she felt and saw things.
She looked back down at the potion in her hands. "Maybe mum's right. She always says how lucky I am to have the hair I do. She says it's really pretty."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Ginny?"
She felt that painful tug that she always did when someone said her name as she turned to face Luna again. "Yeah?"
Luna was looking up at her head as she spoke. "You don't like that."
"What?"
She met her eyes again. "You don't like your name."
Ginny hadn't realised that anyone had noticed. "Yeah." She gave a shrug and looked away again. Luna's eyes were so intense. "It's my name. Nothin' I can do about it."
But Luna wasn't done yet. "Why not just change it?"
"What?" Ginny turned to face her so quickly she might have gotten whiplash.
She blinked slowly at Ginny, her version of showing confusion. "You don't like it, so change it?"
After a few seconds Ginny turned to face the lake again. She felt Luna drop her head to rest on her shoulder.
She stared at the potion in her hand and then smashed it against the ground. Luna silently vanished the remains.