Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone
Author's Note: One last post tonight! Hope you think it's a good one!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!
Chapter Seven: The Hogwarts Express
Luna was surprised to find that her last month with the Frys was hardly as bad as she thought it might be
After a few days of silence her aunt began to talk about the beginning of term as if she herself were starting. Luna learned quite a bit about her mother in those days, from the stories that Aunt Beatrice told her (which were themselves secondhand accounts of stories that she had heard long ago.) Uncle Henry had far less to say, though Luna was worried to see that he had become sicker again. She spent much of her time when she wasn't getting her things in order by his bedside.
Kevin of course remained hidden in his room, though this was nothing surprising or new.
Many times while she sat with her uncle she would bring her new owl (whom she had named Hermes) and her books, which she read out loud to him while Hermes preened his feathers. Every day when her aunt got back from work she would a day off of the calendar that she had tacked on the wall, smile and Luna and say, "Well, another day closer are we?" before sitting down with her dinner.
There was a big to-do on the night before September 1st. Aunt Beatrice packed Luna's trunks herself, pressing her robes neatly and packing a small lunch for her. She had already come across the small pouch of money in Luna's things and had said nothing. If she had, Luna thought she might have offered the entire sum of it to the Frys and gone back to Gringott's later for whatever she needed.
As the evening grew to a close Uncle Henry came out of the bedroom and motioned for Luna to sit with him on the couch.
It took him a moment to catch his breath. Luna stared at the floor until he finally spoke.
"I just want you to know that I think you're a wonderful girl," he said. "And I…I'm sure you'll be wonderful at whatever it is you decide to do. Just promise me you'll be safe Luna?"
Throwing her arms around his neck, she kissed him soundly on the cheek. Then it was time for bed, and although she lay down under the covers certain that there was no way she was ever getting to sleep that night she soon found herself slipping away into darkness.
The next thing she knew it was morning. Hermes fluttered in just as the sun was peeking over the horizon and for the first time since she'd brought him home she shut him up in his cage, drawing the curtain closed over him. Just as she started pulling on her clothes there was a sharp knocking on the bedroom door.
"I'm just getting dressed!" she called out.
She heard footsteps moving away. Once she'd finished up she opened the door and saw Aunt Beatrice standing there, wearing a pair of faded jeans and old jumper. "Your uncle is asleep," she said. "Better not wake him."
Luna nodded. She picked up her trunk and took Hermes with the other hand, making her way out of the flat. When she glanced back she noticed that light illuminated the small crack underneath her aunt and uncle's bedroom door, and right before she closed the door she thought she saw movement beyond.
Aunt Beatrice tried nervously to speak to her as they took the train to King's Cross. But she suddenly seemed at a loss for words. They arrived at a quarter to ten, and loading all of Luna's things onto a cart they made their slow trek through the station. Luna found herself scanning the crowd for anybody else who looked as if they were going somewhere strange and special, but everybody she saw looked like business people or families going on or coming back from holiday.
They came to a stop as they passed platform nine. "There you are," said Aunt Beatrice. "It's right between nine and ten…all you have to do is push on through, the wall shouldn't stop you."
"Aren't you coming with me?" she asked in surprise. Her aunt had been so enthusiastic about Hogwarts Luna thought it a wonder she wasn't trying to go in her place.
"I-oh, you don't need me," said Aunt Beatrice. "You go on."
The suggestion seemed to have made her aunt nervous. Wondering what exactly was going on in her aunt's head she turned around and faced the brick wall. It looked as solid as any brick wall could look. She hesitated for a moment and then, realizing that she ought to at least try it, she pushed off and launched herself at, and then through, it.
New sounds and scents suddenly surrounded her. Opening her eyes, she found herself facing a sign that said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Behind here there was now an archway of wrought-iron with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it.
A scarlet engine was churning out clouds of steam that lifted and then settled about the teeming crowd of people that filled the space between her and the train. She made her way into it, walking as slowly as she could to take in everything that she could see. Cats wove through the people, unconcerned about the proceedings going on above their heads. A menagerie of owls hooted at one another over the din, as carts scraped into one another and people shouted greetings.
Early as it was not many people had boarded the train and Luna found herself a seat in the second compartment, which was completely empty. She pulled the cart right up to the door, lifting Hermes up and into his place first before trying to pull her large trunk up and through the door.
It slipped from her fingers and slammed back down into the ground. She sighed in annoyance, and right as she reached down to try again somebody else had reached in to take the handle from her.
"Need help?" he asked.
She looked up into a pair of bright green eyes. "Yes, thank you," she said standing back up.
"Oy, Ron! Get over here!"
A tall, red-haired boy parted from the crowd and came to join his friend, both of who couldn't have been much older than she was. The two of them hefted her things up into the compartment and got them stowed away. When they were finished the first boy gave her his hand.
"My name is Harry Potter. Are you a first year?"
"I am. My name is Luna Lovegood."
To his credit, Harry hardly blinked when he heard her name, but Ron immediately turned his gaze to her forehead and stared for a moment at the crescent mark there. She felt her color rise as Harry nudged his friend hard in the ribs and excused the both of them.
She sat down near the window, watching the boys as they ran up to a tall, beautiful woman with dark auburn hair. "Mrs. Potter, you'll never guess who we just met!" said Ron excitedly.
"Why, if it isn't Merlin himself I'll be damned!" mock-shouted the man standing beside her (who must have been Harry's father, as he and his son looked incredibly similar.)
"Dad, don't be an idiot," said Harry. "It was that girl we saw passing through here—you know, the one I helped get on the train."
"What about her?" asked the woman. She reached out to grab the shoulders of a young girl as she ran at her from the middle of the crowd.
"It's Luna Lovegood!" said Ron. "And it's just like the rumors say! She's got a moon-shaped scar right on her forehead."
The Potters suddenly looked very serious. "Harry? Is this true?"
He nodded. Mrs. Potter looked back at the train. Luna ducked down so she wouldn't see her. "Poor little girl," said Mrs. Potter. "I wonder how she's doing."
The rest of their conversation was lost to her. At about that time the door to the cabin opened and a boy with white-blonde hair and a somewhat pointed face walked in. He looked around for a moment before asking, "Did you see a girl with curly black hair come through here?"
Luna shook her head no, and he said "good" and took a seat nearby. He had already changed into his robes, and catching sight of a blue and bronze coat of arms she asked him which house he was in.
"Ravenclaw," he said, now turning his attention to her more fully. She saw that he almost immediately looked up at the scar on her forehead, but to his benefit he didn't say anything about it.
"Is it a good house?" she asked.
"I like it," he said. "I'd much rather be a Ravenclaw than a Slytherin. I suppose my cousin will probably be sorted into Slytherin tonight though—she's one of the worst little brats I've ever known."
"Who's your cousin?"
"The girl with the curly black hair." He glanced back at her scar. "My name is Draco Malfoy by the way. And you're Luna Lovegood." He said it as a statement.
"I am," she said. Glancing outside again she saw that Harry and his friend were getting ready to board the train. She caught a glimpse of what had to have been the redheaded boy's family—it was massive, and to all appearances most male. A plump woman was leaning over a small girl.
"Now brush your hair out of your eyes, Ginny, and don't listen to anything your older brothers tell you. Except for Percy of course."
"Mum, I'll be all right!" she said in exasperation. Her mother fussed for a moment longer, and then one by one the entire group trooped out of sight and, Luna supposed, onto the train.
"Do you know them?" asked Draco.
Luna turned around suddenly, somewhat embarrassed that she'd been caught looking. "No, I don't really know anybody from this world," she confessed. "But the one named Ron helped me. He and his friend Harry.'
Draco raised his eyebrow. "So you've met Harry Potter, then? He's a bit famous around school."
"Why?" asked Luna. She wondered if perhaps he had some sort of weird history like she did.
"Quidditch. First first-year in a century to make his house team. Gryffindor went undefeated last year."
"Hmm," she said. She looked back out the window but the entire group had disappeared. "He seemed pretty nice," she said.
"He's not a bad guy. His parents are war heroes, too." Draco sat up then, leaning in toward her. "You know, I always thought you'd be some sort of brat like my cousin. Do you really not know anybody in our world?"
Luna shook her head, and before she knew it had begun confessing to him everything that had happened in the past few months—even the way her muggle uncle had tried to protect her by keeping her letters a secret.
When she had finished Draco looked astonished. After a moment he said, "You might think it's strange but in a way I wish I could have grown up that way. People knowing all your history and everything…and then they think they know you." He looked troubled.
"But isn't it more difficult if you've never been around magic before?" said Luna. "You must know lots of things already. I'm going to feel completely stupid."
"Don't let it get you down. Lots of people come in knowing nothing and end up top of their class."
They were mere moments away from eleven o'clock. Their compartment was still empty, and several times Luna noticed people poke their heads in and leave immediately. After this had happened more times than she could count, Luna decided to ask Draco about it.
"Is there some problem with me?"
"Not with you," he said. "People don't exactly like me."
"You don't seem too terrible," said Luna.
Draco looked up at her, and for the first time something like a smile came over his face. "You're not exactly a troll yourself," he said. "It's because my father is in prison. He was a pretty big supporter of You-Know-Who. People think I'm like him, I guess. Funny thing is, you and me are something like cousins, and I don't see anybody accusing the Girl-Who-Lived of being like them."
"Cousins? Really?"
"Sort of. My father is a Malfoy and so was your mother, before she got married. I think they may have been first cousins. But almost everybody is related somehow," said Draco, "so people don't usually think it's that big a deal."
But to Luna it was a big deal. Apart from her aunt, uncle, and cousin she'd never met another blood relative. To find out that the boy who had just randomly sit across from her on the train was a…what, a third cousin? It suddenly made her presence in the magical world seem far more real.
The train was now sweeping past open fields, far from London. At half past twelve a woman who was several inches shorter than Luna came along with a car piled high with sweets. "Would you like anything, dear?" she asked.
Luna looked the cart over, surprised to find that none of the sweets she was used to were present. Seeing the way she looked at everything, Draco handed the woman a galleon and picked out an armful of candies, which he divided evenly between the two of them.
"Next time you pay," he said as he peeled open the wrapper of a chocolate frog.
"Of course," she said as she bit into a long strand of licorice that changed flavors from strawberry, to melon, and then to orange as she chewed on it.
They found a variety of things to converse about, and passed most of their journey comparing their worlds—Luna described math, and science, and geography, while Draco told her all about curses and magical creatures that she'd always wished were real.
"I drew a picture of a dragon, after I thought I saw one in the vault at Gringott's," she said. "It moves and everything. The man in the art store said that all pictures and paintings do."
Draco nodded. "You draw? Can I see?"
Luna fished around in her bag, pulling out the large leather-bound sketchpad and handing it to him. Fairies darted around bright green bushes and princesses waved from medieval towers. He stopped when he came to the bright green dragon, it's jaws snapping wildly and it's tail thrashing across the page.
"This is good—" he began, when the door to their cabin flew open and a young girl ran in. Luna recognized her as Ron's younger sister, Ginny.
"Have my brothers been through here?" she asked. "The twins?"
"Nobody's been in here," said Draco.
"Those idiots took my magazines. Said they were going to liberate all the pictures of Willis Young," she said in irritation. "Willis Young!" From the way she said this Luna assumed that this person was pretty important.
"I'll tell you if I see them," said Draco. Ginny paused and looked down at them.
"You're Malfoy, aren't you?" she said.
"Guilty as charged," he said.
"Hmph." She glanced down at the sketchbook. "So you draw? I didn't know wizards like you were artists."
"I'm not. She is." Ginny looked across the way and started when she saw Luna sitting there. She waved and the girl tentatively crossed the room, taking the sketchbook from Draco.
"These aren't bad," she said. "You really did them?"
"Yes," said Luna. "You really think they're good?"
"Pretty good," said Ginny. "I would have thought that you'd be more talented with…you know, other things." She handed it to Luna, unable to take her eyes off of her forehead.
She was about to say something else when she heard a boy shouting at her from further down the train. She apologized and took off after him.
Evening was coming. Draco suggested to Luna that she go ahead and change into her robes, so she excused herself and slipped on her uniform. She glanced at herself in mirror, surprised at how different she suddenly looked with the addition of her flowing black robes and hat.
They spoke little as the train made the last leg of the journey to Hogwarts. When it finally came to a complete stop Draco shook her hand, stated that he hoped to see her again soon, and went his way as the first years were separated from the rest of the school.
Hagrid was standing at the end of the platform, a lantern in hand to combat the murky fog that had settled down over them. "Firs' years over here, all firs years …come on then!"
He waved at Luna when he spotted her in the crowd. She waved back, following him as she fell in line with the others. She felt her skin crawled when she realized she was standing next to Eris, who somehow looked even haughtier and more imposing in her uniform. The girl smiled when she saw Luna and whispered to her.
"You didn't tell me who you were when we met," she said.
"You didn't introduce yourself either," said Luna. She tried her best to move away from the girl, but she caught Luna's arm and tucked in underneath her arm, smiling viciously.
"I think we could be great friends, Luna. If you'll just let me."
A response was on the tip of her tongue when they rounded the bend in the road and everybody gasped at their first sight of Hogwarts.
A black lake glimmered mysteriously under the fog, and beyond it a castle stood atop a high mountain, just barely visible. It looked as if it were the sort of place that one could get lost in for hours—even days, if they weren't careful, with its many turrets and towers.
"No more'n four to a boat," said Hagrid. Eris pulled Luna into a boat beside her, and they were immediately followed by two young boys who Luna thought looked unpleasant.
"These are friends of mine," said Eris. "Strode and Burke."
They boys grunted at her. Luna didn't like the look of them and said nothing, turning her attention back to the lake and ducking her head as they passed under a curtain of ivy that led them right up to the shore that faced the lake. As they bumped up against the shore Eris's grip on Luna was loosened. Jumping out of the boat she rejoined the crowd, standing on the other side of the girl she had met on the train so she couldn't be grabbed again.
"Everybody there all righ'?" said Hagrid. He led them up the stone path that led to the large wooden entrance and, with his heavy hand, knocked three times at the castle door.
