Written on the Forehead

The morning that the children were due on the Hogwarts express, it was raining the hardest it had in weeks and Luna woke late. She'd been with the Weasleys for just over three weeks, and it was a bad habit she'd developed. She could see herself having trouble in the coming weeks, missing classes-then she decided not to think about it.

Climbing out of the bed that got more comfortable every night, she stretched her arms as wide as they'd go, and felt the muscles tighten refreshingly. Thinking about falling into her bed again and melting comfortably into her warm sheets, she glanced guiltily at Ginny's remade bed and Hermione's cot folded up neatly. Then she started.

She looked quickly at her trunk, which had been Molly's in her school days, and in which only half of Luna's things were piled. She plucked a pair of jeans out of the mess and pulled it on as she rushed out the door. Reaching the bottom of the stairs she ran directly into Mrs Weasley.

"There you are!" Mrs Weasley said, lips pursed and hands on hips. Luna's eyes flew even wider than usual, staring up at her foster mother with complete innocence and Mrs Weasley could feel her face softening. "Upstairs you go! Get your trunk!"

Luna shot a look at the kitchen door behind Mrs Weasley. "Mad-Eye?" she could hear George saying. "Isn't he that nutter-"

"Upstairs!" Mrs Weasley insisted in a shriller voice. "I know you're not finished packing. Bring your trunk down to the hallway and then you cana eat."

Luna's stomach growled. "Yes, m'am," she replied gloomily, turning on her heel and walking up the stairs. Mrs Weasley smiled. She'd begun to think of Luna as the most well-behaved of all the children she considered her own.

By the time Luna had tipped her trunk at the top stair and watched it fall to the bottom of the stairs, the house was empty but for a man in the middle of the entryway. He turned back and saw Luna. He groaned. "Paul!" he shouted out the open door. "We have another!" then he grumbled to himself, "Kids coming out of the fucking walls- PAUL!"

Mrs Weasley flew out of the kitchen and accosted Luna, cramming a piece of buttered toast into her hand and pulling her out the door. "Time to go, dear, time to go."

Luna let herself be pulled by the hand and gulped down the toast with little to no chewing. Her stomach grumbled uncomfortably as she did, but she was soon distracted by a thump on the head. The threshold of the car was short, and Luna knitted her eyebrows. "What's going on?" she asked, finding herself sitting beside Fred, who ruffled her hair.

"We're off to King's Cross," Mrs Weasley said, grinning like a madwoman. She finally had all the children packed in the taxis and fed. Soon they'd be gone for a whole semester... She felt her grin fade quickly. Overcome with the same emotion she'd felt every parting since Bill's first year-not quite yearning, not quite loneliness, not quite sadness-she put her arm around the closest child, Luna,.

Luna couldn't remember her last hug. Her father was more likely to pat her on the head. She was interested by how cushiony Mrs Weasley was. And warm. She breathed deep, and she could smell gingerbread. Luna felt herself leaning into the embrace, imperceptibly at first, then gently. Mrs Weasley pulled her in closer, amid the chatter from Fred, George and Charlie. Luna felt a strangely familiar pressure on the top of her head, and realized that Mrs Weasley had kissed her.

She stiffened. Her mind raced and she breathed in. Instead of the warm scent of gingerbread she smelled hair on fire: she smelled her own mother. She felt her own mother pressing a kiss into her hair, and she felt a sickening lurch in her chest. She had the inescapable feeling that she was betraying her mother.

The rest of the ride was easy. Still leaning into Mrs Weasley, she fell asleep. Mrs Weasley, for her part, felt like she was making up for the years she hadn't been in Luna's life. Already she felt a bond, she felt that this child was hers, much as she felt with Harry. Harry, however, was Harry Potter, which was an irrefutable and frustrating fact. As much as Mrs Weasley longed to keep him with her always, and wished that he was just an orphan friend of Ron's, well. He had a destiny. He was famous, untouchable, detached, different. Maybe it had been the years of neglect at the hands of his aunt and uncle, maybe it was the romanticization of his martyr parents, but Molly believed that there was nothing she could do to make him feel like he had a mother.

Luna she could take care of. She could love her, and Luna would let her love her. She could feel that Luna needed it.

"Come, love, time to get up," Mrs Weasley said, nudging her as they arrived.

"Oi," Fred barked in the tiny car, "How come we don't get that treatment?" George thumped him soundly on the back and Fred yelped.

"Come on, my little trouble-makers, time to go away,"Mrs Weasley said, climbing out of the car. Soon they found themselves rain-soaked in Platform 9 3/4, wheeling their trunks into the train.

"Here's a compartment!" Harry shouted, and Hermione and Ron followed him.

"Ginny!" a third-year shrieked. "How was your summer?" Ginny laughed and took her trunk in that direction, leaving Luna alone. She opened the door to the first empty compartment she saw, and shut the door to the noise outside, settling into another lonely ride. She smiled mutely out the window, and then had a thought. She stood and looked out, seeing all the Weasleys gathered outside, hugging and saying their goodbyes. They laughed at a shared joke. The sight of their merriment made her glad and she smiled too. In that way, she imagined, they were laughing together.

She settled again into her seat.