Luna Lovegood walked through the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Luna wondered what happened to Platform Nine and One-Half. Numbers like "three quarters" only appear when you divide an integer in half twice in a row.

Luna looked around for someone who might know the answer and spied a unicorn. She wore clothes, walked on two feet and had curly brown hair. None of that fooled Luna. The unicorn radiated peace and her fingernails were made out of alicorn.

"What happened to Platform Nine and One-Half?" Luna asked the unicorn.

"There is no Platform Nine and One-Half," the unicorn replied.

"How do you know?" Luna asked.

"It would have been in Hogwarts: A History," the unicorn replied, "nor is there mention of a Platform Nine and One-Half in Modern Magical History, Important Modern Magical Discoveries, or any other book in the Hogwarts library. There is only a Platform Nine and Three Quarters."

"What about Platform Nine and Seven Eighths?" Luna asked.

"There is no Platform Nine and Seven Eights either." The unicorn turned around and walked away before Luna could ask "How do you know?"

If Platform Nine and Three Quarters does not appear in Muggle libraries then Platform Nine and One-Half is unlikely to appear in wizard libraries, except for double-witches' libraries. The Hogwarts library is not a double-witch library.

"How are you?" a Weasley-headed first-year girl asked Luna.

"I'm trying to find Platform Nine and One-Half. The unicorn told me it doesn't exist. If it does exist then it must be hidden by powerful magics. How are you?" said Luna.

"What unicorn?" the first-year girl asked.

"That one, right there," Luna said, pointing.

The girl invented an excuse to end the conversation.

Luna didn't know how to make friends. She had a vague idea that as a first-year, the Hogwarts Express was a one-time opportunity to do so. She wore a necklace she had painted herself which nobody else seemed to notice. She had brought kettle of home-brewed Comed-Tea, but it had got her jeered out of a compartment.

Nobody was interested in the troll she had smelled at Platform Nine and Three Quarters or her discovery of a lich in the second year or that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened or any of Dark Lord Harry Potter's various plots. The other first-years seemed unfocused and confused.

Confused….

Wrackspurts are invisible creatures that float into your...

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