Chapter 3

Luna stood patient and proud and the pier. She'd heard the ship was the grandest ship in the world, today she would have it proven to her.

She was an upper class girl, or so she believed she was. She was making the crossing to settle down in a new life in the America's - opportunity knocks, as she was told, in the new land. Although she was wealthy and secure in the status she craved the adventure of the crossing. The boarding was at nine thirty and she didn't want to miss it, in fact she was so excited she showed up an hour early.

She was dressed in Edwardian style clothing. The dress was Navy blue with yellow rose trimmed patterns running along each side starting from her shoulders and ending in a V shape just above her navel. There was a frill pattern running along the neck line. She also wore a matching bonnet and gloves, the boots, however, were high heeled and black as midnight.

Luna checked her pocket watch. Nine twenty – five she said to herself. Soon they are going to let people onto the ship. The white star line had a prescient for punctuality, they were gonna let people board at nine thirty and not a moment sooner. This made no difference to her, she had her ticket and was gonna board come hell or high water she wouldn't let anyone take it.

She strolled over to the inspection queue, she figured she may as well get it over with. They made sure everything was top notch, as such they felt it was their duty to inspect each and every person for diseases, virus's, lice, and anything else they deemed fit to not let people board. Of course you could secretly slip the inspector a few shillings and be done with it then and there. Luna, however, would never do such a thing, she was aristocracy, she did not need to demean herself to get aboard a vessel she had every right to be on.

The stack whistle blew. She looked down at her ticket: 15-A, it read in big bold letters, her stateroom would be on the boat deck. The second the whistle blew, however, the crowds started to form. Once she thought the entry plank into the ship would collapse with so many people one it, luckily it was steady enough, but after that little fiasco the white star line began regulating on how to board

the ship. Today was going to be the start of a very long day for her.

Luna stepped into the inspection queue, it was easy now that everyone went crazy trying to board. She was checked head to toe, she could swear though that he went slow and lingered in the wrong places on purpose. Pushing it out of her mind though she stepped out when it was over and calmly walked toward the boarding plank. For a seventeen year old this was a pretty big undertaking, considering she wasn't married.

"Luna!" a voice called out. "There you are."

She knew the voice all to well, it was her confidant, her friend, her fiance Theodore Nott. He was one of the richest men in England. His parents had died when he was very young and he inherited a fortune, they had met through a mutual friend. Theodore had agreed to escort her to America where, then, they would wed. His best man – Dean Thomas – was the mutual friend and right now that's who had yet to show up.

"I can take care of myself Theodore," she cooed.

"I know you can dear."

A short but stocky man bounced up to him. "Sir?" he said with indignation.

"Ah yes, I want you to take our luggage to staterooms fifteen-A and fifteen-B. Dean should be arriving anytime."

"As you wish sir." The short stocky man sauntered off to unpack the luggages.

"So what do you think," Theodore said pointing to the ship. "isn't she the grandest ship you've ever seen."

"the Carpathia is bigger." she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Doesn't anything impress you Luna?"

The stack whistle blew for the second time and Dean still hadn't shown up yet. They both knew he could be a little late, he always was, but today wasn't a day for that.

"Where the hell is he?"

"You know a lady should never swear." A voice sounded behind her. She turned around and there before her was Dean her best friend. She was happy to have his friendship but honestly sometimes she couldn't understand why they were friends, they had not the same interests yet they were able to share anything at anytime about whatever was on their minds.

"DEAN!" she exclaimed and gave him a quick hug then punched him in the arm. "Where the hell were you?"

"I was in the pub having a quick game of cards and I lost track of time."

"We were getting worried you wouldn't show."

"I wouldn't miss this for the world." Both Theodore and Dean were University students and took the time off from their school to make the trip over. Dean had a choice to make. He could either stay in America after it was over and transfer to its American branch or he could sail back to England.

"Who's this chap," Luna said noticing for the first time a gentleman was beside Dean. He had on common clothing, a little tattered In places and patched in others.

"Neville, Neville Longbottom ma'am," The guy said taking her hand and bowing down to kiss it. Neville was tall, he had a semi pale complexion and dark black hair. He was also aware that no one knew who he was; not Dean, certainly not Luna. Theodore he could care less about but he figured he'd play along till he could figure out what was going on. He also surmised that whoever he was in the crazy world he was poor, judging by the clothing he wore. Theodore upturned his nose immediately although Luna didn't notice.

"Are you Dean's servant?" Theodore inquired to the guy. Neville was the only one who noticed the hint of disgust in Theodore's voice.

"No," Dean interjected before Nevile could speak, "I met this chap while playing that game of cards." He smacked Neville on the back. "This lucky man won a ticket aboard Titanic."

"Did he now?" Theodore said not masking his disgust. "Well mister Longbottom, I would say see you round but I dare say we'll never be near the third class cabins."

Neville smiled but made no comeback, he knew it would be pointless having an argument with someone who had no idea what Hogwarts was or even who he himself was. Bowing he thanked them for the introductions and turned to board the ship. Luna could swear she saw him wink at her before he left.

She lightly hit Theodore in the chest. "What was that for?" she asked.

"He's lower class love, they are beneath us."

"Hun, sometimes you can be insufferable," she laughed. "You're aristocracy, the least you can be is polite."

"Touche."

"Shall we board," Dean spoke up.

Dean knew Theodore could be a little uptight when it came to status after all his family name was very well known.

The whistle blew for the third time, by now it was ten o' clock. They knew this because according to protocol the whistle had to blow every fifteen minutes from boarding start time to shove off. They had till eleven thirty to board and shove off time was noon. Things have started to calm down and an orderly fashion was being maintained, this gave Theodore's chauffeur ample time to get their luggage on board.

Dean wasn't nearly as uptight as Theodore was. His family was once as poor as Neville's so he had no problem addressing the lower class with the same station as himself; however, aristocracy had rules and he had to abide by them, every now and then, though, he bent them slightly like he had today. The short stocky chauffeur returned, "Luggage all checked in sir." He dug in his jacket pocket and offered the contents to Theodore. "Your stateroom keys."

"Thank you Nile," He said before the chauffeur turned to leave. Nile bowed. "And Nile," the chauffeur turned back around. "Make arrangements for my things to be shipped to America when I call." The chauffeur disappeared into the crowd.

Neville sighed as he looked at his ticket, he figured he might as well make the best of the situation, but first he had to figure out how to board the ship. When he first realized he was in this world the first thing he noticed was that he had no wand so he had to make do. He needed money and that's when he spotted Dean, Dean had asked him to play cards because they needed a forth, Neville hesitated at first but he was hungry so he figured why not, it couldn't have gotten any worse.