HARRY POTTER DOESN'T BELONG TO ME

20: the werewolf & the train

Luna couldn't imagine how painful it was when they arrived at King's Cross and knowing that she couldn't board the Hogwarts Express—but that was what Ginny was doing at the moment. She stood next to Luna, but she had her back straighter and her chin pointed up as though she dared for others to ask her why she was even here when she wasn't considered a witch anymore.

She had decided to go to Platform Nine and Three Quarters with Luna instead of with her family, which was going in Ministry cars—another thing that had to do with the Minister of Magic that Luna didn't care about. She never cared for Cornelius Fudge, but then again she never cared for The Ministry of Magic. She knew that there were other things that were happening within those walls that they would never reveal to the public but were dangerous and unpredictable.

Arriving at the platform with Ginny was easy enough, the both of them waited on the sidelines for others to arrive. They noted that Neville Longbottom was standing by his grandmother, "Gran," and she had a tight lipped look on her face but she still had a soft look of love behind the mask. In her hat with a stuffed vulture, big red handbag, and dark green long dress she looked every inch of the witch she was—a pureblood Augusta Longbottom.

"Oh, there's Neville!" Ginny pointed out and Luna nodded her head, the both of them about to move towards where the boy was only for him to turn his head and notice her—he waved his hand excitedly. He motioned them over and reaching them Luna looked up at the tall old woman that was studying them with pursed lips.

"Gran, this is Luna Lovegood and you know, Ginny, she's Ron's sister." Neville had a look of fear on his face, despite the fact that he was talking about two purebloods—but Gran finally smoothed out her features a little.

"Augusta Longbottom, the both of you…you are friends with Harry Potter?" She stood there, quietly, as she almost tapped her fingers against her sides but Luna nodded her head and stepped forward.

"Oh, yes! Harry accepted my friendship, and he is friends with Ginny. I know that he is a good friend to Neville too." Luna didn't blink this whole time, her voice soft and Gran turned her head towards Neville, thinking for a second, before she smiled and straightened up.

"Yes, well then, I am happy that what I've heard is true, you are Harry's friend, Neville. If he has to be friends with another pureblooded family as old as his, well I'm glad that it is us, Longbottoms." Augusta smirked at the image of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy not having that kind of friendship with Harry Potter. This was something that would make them more annoyed.

Ginny and Luna weren't insulted that she didn't mention the Weasleys being friends with Harry Potter but that was a given knowledge. One could not see Harry Potter not being friends with Ron Weasley, and the Weasleys were blood traitors for the purebloods so it made sense that they did something else that the others didn't manage to do immediately—say that they were the first pureblood family that had become friends with Harry Potter, though they couldn't care less about blood status.

"Thank you," Neville mouthed to her as he held Trevor in his hands, while Gran was asking Ginny how she was and that she felt sorry for what had happened to her, which was the truth—Luna had detected that the woman was sorry for what had happened to Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys.

Turning her head, Luna found Harry and the others appear. Mrs. Weasley looked both shocked but pleased at the fact that once in her life she managed to get to Platform Nine and Three Quarters without being late. Even Mr. Weasley had a look of surprise but then he smiled to himself.

"Ginny! There you are!" Ron made his way towards Ginny and Luna, his eyes trailing towards Neville—where he smiled. "Hey, Neville, what's up? This must be Gran."

Ginny kind of grimaced at the thought of the old woman telling him not to call her Gran but she sighed and responded, "Please refrain from calling me, Gran. I am not your grandmother, Mr. Weasley. I am pleased to see though that you are dressed properly for once, for what I hear about you and your brothers you always have your shirts unbuttoned and not tucked in."

Ron blushed some, before Luna turned her head again—seeing that Hermione and Harry were saying goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Of course Molly Weasley would not let him go without hugging him and telling him that if anything happened he should Owl her or go up to Professor Dumbledore so that he could borrow his fireplace.

Luna waited patiently for the two to head over to them, their eyes moving from the red haired parents of seven children and towards the odd blonde haired girl that was peering at them with unblinking eyes. Hermione frowned again, as though she thought that there still was something off about Luna Lovegood and that she didn't really know what it was that made Harry want to be friends with the quirky pureblood.

"Hi, Luna, it's nice to see you." Harry gave her a gentle smile and she responded, "I am pleased that it is nice to see me. I'm not used to having people be used to seeing me, they rather me be out of their sight."

"Just tell them to bugger off. Usually works for me," Ron supplied, before he turned his head towards the train. "Anyway, we should probably get on the train. I'll write to you soon, Ginny."

Now this surprised both girls, they never thought that Ron would go out of his way to actually want to write to his sister. Luna though smiled at the thought of Ron actually writing to Ginny and she turned to her best friend. She hugged her tightly for a moment before she pulled away, "I'll write to you too, Ginny. Amite will be happy to be our messenger. I know that she won't like staying in the Owlery."

It was true, Amite didn't like staying indoors that much. That's why Luna left her window open for the long eared owl. It was a good thing that it was summer though; it was starting to have a light chill. She knew that before long she couldn't do something like that—mainly because the girls in her year didn't like her that much and they wouldn't like to have her keep the dorm window open in the dead of winter.

After saying goodbye to Augusta Longbottom, the five students climbed up into the train and began to make their way down the aisle so that they could see which compartment they wanted. Of course most of them were already full or the ones that they wanted to stay in were suddenly taken by upper years that looked at them and sneered at them—telling them to get their own compartments.

Luna knew it was because of the fact that she was with The Golden Trio and either the upper years didn't like Luna or they didn't like The Golden Trio. It would have saddened Luna if she was someone else but she knew that there would be those who wouldn't care about them.

They finally found a compartment and shuffled in, intending to put their suitcases up on the rack only to pause when they saw a man curled up on the bench with gray streaked hair and tired features. He wore ratty clothes and held a suitcase near him, it was old and worn out too. In fact the man looked as though he never had sleep and Luna craned her head to the side when she looked at him—she could tell that he was younger than people thought he was.

She could also feel this strange aura around him and turned to the others, "he has a strange aura. I can't put my finger on it but it's different." Luna saw that the others were standing there with caution and she could tell that they were wondering if he was alive, "oh he's alive. He's breathing, he's very exhausted though. He must have insomnia, or something along those lines. He might be narcoleptic for all we know."

They slowly sat down and Luna didn't notice who she sat down next to until she noted in the corner of her eye that it was Harry. She could feel warmth blossom in her chest at the fact that he decided that he wanted to sit next to her—Neville was squeezed in next to him and both Hermione and Ron were sitting next to the curled up man, even though it was a tight squeeze, the man had long legs.

Sitting in Hermione's lap was her new cat, Crookshanks; it was an orange haired Half-Kneazle cat that also had a smashed in quality like face that made the cat not cute at all. Yet Hermione thought that he was adorable and that he was perfect for her—he also happened to have come from Magical Menagerie, a shop in Diagon Alley, she had been looking for an owl and found Crookshanks instead.

Sitting on Ron's shoulder was the trembling rat named Scabbers. Luna didn't care for Scabbers, there was something off about the rat and every time she looked at him long it almost seemed as though he was nervous and that he didn't want anyone to look at him too long, he even was missing a toe.

Ron began to tell Hermione to keep Crookshanks away from Scabbers, but Luna turned her attention away from the two third years and towards the sight of the older man lying curled up on the bench. She remembered who he was when she looked at him a second longer, his scarred features making her sad.

"Daddy told me that there was going to be a new Defense against the Dark Arts professor, I think his name is Professor Lupin. He seems really sad though." Luna turned her head towards where Harry was sitting next to her—his eyes studying the man before he let his eyes wander down to Luna's face.

"What makes you think that, Luna?"

"Oh, I can tell people's auras. If they are feeling a strong emotion I usually can see a color around them that lets me know what they're feeling. I see two colors though; right now they are gray and black." Luna let her features soften in sadness at the sight before her, only Professor Snape had been the other person that she had met that had this depressed aura around him.

"Wh—"

They heard the compartment door open and turned their heads, seeing that Draco Malfoy was standing in the doorway and that he had that conceited haughty look on his face, his silver eyes flickering over to Luna automatically, since she was sitting next to Harry.

"You sure know how to pick friends, don't you, Potter? Loony Lovegood, really, you know that you could do so much better—"

"Don't call her Loony, Malfoy. I—"

Everyone stopped when they heard screeching and were greeted with the sight of Crookshanks trying to climb over to Ron and get Scabbers—which was trying to scurry away, only for Crookshanks to jump on Professor Lupin, which in return made him groan and everyone to pause.

This gave Scabbers enough time to get into Ron's suitcase on the rack and leave Crookshanks hissing at it. "Professor Lupin seems to be waking, Draco. I think it would be best for you to leave."

Draco Malfoy glared at Luna, as though to tell her to not call him Draco—again, before he motioned for his goons to leave the compartment so that they could leave before Professor Lupin could get them caught in the act.

When the compartment door closed, Professor Lupin moved up and picked up the cat before he looked at the cat with curiosity. "A half-Kneazle, huh, that's interesting. What's his name?"

"Oh, his name is Crookshanks. Isn't he cute?" Hermione brought her hand up and ran her fingers through his fur when Professor Lupin gave him back, which in return made the cat purr at her—delighted that he was getting love from Hermione.

"Hello, Professor Lupin." Luna watched as the man turned his head towards her, his deep eyes catching hers as he studied her. He had long scars on his face and light hair that was even lighter due to the premature graying that he was having, he was still handsome in Luna's opinion.

"I'm Luna Lovegood; my daddy is the editor of The Quibbler. The boy sitting next to me is Harry Potter, though he prefers to be called just Harry." Luna turned her head towards Harry, who was staring at the scarred man before he nodded his head, "yeah…just Harry."

"I knew your parents, Harry. I was best friends with your father, James. You look just like him," Professor Lupin told him, making Harry perk up at the thought of getting to know more about his dad and mother.

Luna smiled at him, seeing that the boy's aura was beginning to turn lighter and so did Professor Lupin's though he still had the dark hues clinging on—no matter what. She had a feeling that they would always stay with him.

"You were best friends with my dad? What was he like?" Harry eagerly sat upright and even Ron and Hermione perked up, Neville was quiet all the while but he too was interested in seeing someone that was friends with Harry's dad.

"Yes, he made my years at Hogwarts interesting and fun. He was a troublemaker though. I remember one time—"

This time when everyone was stopped in a middle of a conversation there wasn't a Malfoy that was standing haughtily in the doorway and telling Harry that he shouldn't be friends with Loony, which was kind of surprising to be honest. It seemed as though he had pushed Hermione and Ron away and he was more interested in having Luna be the one that should not be friends with Harry.

Luna knew why Draco didn't want her to be friends with Harry, but she wasn't going to let that get in her way. She knew that she deserved to have friends and she longed to be friends with the emerald eyed thirteen year old boy with round glasses and a scar that brought nothing more than turmoil in his life.

No, this time, the train stopped and the lights flickered off—the windows were beginning to have frost appear and conversations began to stir around them, asking why they were suddenly stopping because there was still a while before they would arrive at Hogwarts.

As mist stirred outside, everyone knew that whatever it was that was out there was about to board the Hogwarts Express.