Disclaimer: No, you all know that I do NOT own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. Err, JK Rowling.
Summary: I really haven't decided yet... but it's quite interesting so far.
Luke Thynne is the new boy at school, the secrets of his parents' running his new life at Hogwarts. Perhaps healing the scars of his parents' untimely death is actually causing more.
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Luke Thynne sat in the backseat of a muggle vehicle scowling. On his lap a silver Egyptian Mau sat, delicately licking a paw. She paused for a moment, and looked up at Luke, her light-green eyes blinking. Luke sighed and began to pet her.
Everything had gone wrong so far. Death had visited the Thynne family and it killed Luke, but not in the literal sense like his parents. Orphaned and angry at Voldemort (had it not been his parents who supplied eager supporters?), Luke nervously tapped on the side-panel of the car, glaring out at the city streets. In the trunk of the car was not a dead body, but his heavy trunk of belongings. At the moment his guardian was his insane grandmother, the only relative that he had found in the month passed. She lived far away from all civilization and it was another three hours until he reached her home. But good thing he was only staying for a week before leaving for a whole new school. Government officials at the ministry had decided a new school would heal the "scars" of his parents untimely death. There really weren't any scars, Luke was just surprised they had died so early. He knew one way or another his parents would have been killed by either Voldemort or the ministry, they were just unlucky. At the moment he was scowling because he was headed to a place he would loathe for the next two years until he could finally leave to live on his own. He was also scowling because he would be going to a school that didn't master in the Dark Arts and that has that blasted Dumbledore as headmaster.
Of course he assumed it wouldn't be overly too bad. New school, new people, new home, new life... it almost seemed too good, in a way... great. Luke loved having the attention set on him and he wouldn't mind it having on him in any way. At the moment all he cared was that he was getting away from all of his old troubles and into some fun. Who knew what types of things he would get into at Hogwarts? But the subject matter on his mind fell quickly as his head fell forward to his chest, and he fell asleep, one hand resting on the side-panel of the car and the other on his cat, her eyes delicately closed.
Two hours later Luke was disappointed to see that he wasn't woken up to get into the little cottage, but for a minor emergency. Apparently the car had broken down and Luke had to wait for a taxi as the driver fiddled with the engine. He dragged the suitcase out of the trunk with one arm and in the other he carried Kanika, who growled unhappily at being moved.
Apparently they were going through an unusually large neighborhood with neat, trim lawns and small flowerbeds in the front of each yard. It was dark outside, a moonless night, but that was made up with the fact that every twenty or so feet a streetlamp stood, casting a soft glow upon the silent street. Only a few lights were on, one of which was at the house they were in front of. Luke peered over a hedge to see a very narrow woman peering her head out the window at him. He smirked as he waved at her, and she popped her head back inside of her house. He laughed slightly as he scratched Kanika's head, who growled and scratched at him before rolling off of his lap and trotting away to hide. Luke watched her go, knowing that she'd come back, Kanika was trained to not go too far. Luke looked back at the house, noticing that the remaining light had been turned off. From the window on the second floor a bird flew away.
Luke did a double-take. Was it an owl that just flew out of the window? He followed the bird as it flew up into the sky. It was an owl, a beautiful snowy owl, and from Luke's vantage point, he could tell that it was carrying a fairly large package. He looked back up at the window to see a face lit up by the streetlamps disappear into the darkness of the room and the window clutter shut.
Luke shrugged. He really shouldn't have been surprised, witches and wizards were always in unusual places. He, too, was in an unusual place. He turned to face the taxi which had just pulled up. Too bad his Grandmother hated the Knight Bus, otherwise he would have already been at her house.
"Did anyone ever tell you that you look nothing at all like your parents?"
Luke stared up at his grandmother, shaking his head. She was a thin, elderly woman, nearing her late seventies. He could clearly tell which side of the family she was from. She looked like his mother used to, except for her hair was short and curly and white, instead of the bright red his mother's hair was. His grandmother had mystic blue eyes, a straight nose (although he did notice a slight crack in it), thin lips, and a small chin. She represented what his mother could have become later in life.
"I'm dead serious, dear, how did you get black hair? I know your father had light brown... or perhaps blonde, I don't remember... or do I?" Luke watched her rest a wrinkled hand on her chin and ponder. "Oh well... I suppose I don't know. What color hair was your father's?"
Luke moved his breakfast around on his plate with his fork, staring at the eggs as the yokes broke and thick yellow liquid poured over the thin white egg. "Dirty blonde."
"And you ended up with black. I know when your brother was born his hair was red, like your mother's. It devastated me when my first grandson died when he was only five." She took a sip of her orange juice. "I felt so horrible, especially when your sister died when she was less than two months old... her hair was blonde, wasn't it?" Luke nodded, once again playing with his food. "I was so proud when your mother finally could keep a child alive." For the first time that morning she noticed he was disinterested in the conversation. "Hmm, perhaps we should go to Diagon Alley today?"
Luke shrugged. He was happy that his grandmother had moved away from the topic, otherwise he might have lost it and told everything about the connections with Voldemort his parents had. He finally took a bite of his over-easy eggs. "Well, we might as well get over with the trip."
"Well, I'll go get the floo powder."
Luke sighed. Now he remembered why he hated traveling with his grandmother. Floo powder. He loathed floo powder. He got up and set his half-eaten breakfast in the sink and stared out the window. His grandmother's house was by-far the nicest place in the neighborhood. He stared at a family of complete red-heads across the way whose house had to be at least five or six storeys. It looked like they were tossing gnomes out of their garden. He sighed again, but was interrupted when his grandmother placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Luke, we'll have to go with the Weasleys to Diagon Alley, Mr. Weasley told me they were going there this afternoon."
Luke groaned. The Weasleys! Didn't the father work in the Muggle Artifact Department in the Ministry? Hopefully he wouldn't be going to the same school as any of the blasted children. "But... Grandmother..."
"No buts, I ran out of floo powder, and they're OFFERING to let us use theirs. So why not spend the day there?"
Luke sighed and began to put on his shoes. Now he knew why his father was always referring to this woman as a lunatic. She knew nothing of anything! Going someplace with muggle-lovers or not using magic to do normal things? She was certainly old-fashioned. She never wanted to get caught doing anything magical, and neither did Luke, but not even using it to do the dishes or the laundry? Ridiculous. He brushed off the new pair of jeans his Grandmother had bought him (to be more muggle-like, she had said) and then slumped as he followed her out the door.
Apparently only the father of the Weasley family was a flaming imbecile, as far as Luke could tell. He ranted on and on about his job and new plans the house was going through. Supposedly they had won some money, and the Weasleys were putting it to good use to help renovate the house. It needed it, too, from what Luke could tell, the top storey had to be at least three feet further to the right than the bottom one and one Weasley child mentioned a ghoul living somewhere in there also. But most of what any of the Weasleys said was lost to mind because he didn't care. He already knew he wasn't going to be hanging around Ron or Ginny, the only two of the Weasleys that even went to Hogwarts, the twins had dropped out and the other three had graduated. Too bad he couldn't change the fact that they were neighbors.
He did notice who was walking around in Diagon Alley. Old friends of his father's and their sons and daughters, some of which he knew he would get to know in school, as an enemy, mainly. No one on the side of Voldemort got along, and even though Luke didn't agree with Voldemort, he resembled his personality, but perhaps a little less cruel and violent. And because his parents were huge supporters, people would assume that he was also. Rumors would spread and the whole school would know, making supporters his "friends" and the rest of them his enemies. He had been through it before.
Because this year the Weasleys had to clothe and supply only two children, they bought new robes. New dress robes, new regular robes, and Ginny even bought a cat. Figuring it didn't matter whether or not books were new, they still bought them used, but the gently used ones. Ron met up with a few of his friends, which Luke completely ignored, even though his ears perked up when he heard the last name Potter. The other girl, he could tell by the look on her parents' faces, was muggle-born. Luke did introduce himself, but neither of the two teenagers were interested in him, so he wandered off from the group to do something else.
He had already bought his robes, a new quill and ink set, new books, a collar for Kanika, more potions supplies, and some other knick-knacks. Overall it wasn't as much as he would have bought for his other school, and he could easily carry it all dangling from one hand. He sighed as his stomach grumbled and he looked around. There was an ice-cream shop... or perhaps he could go to the candy store around the corner. He felt so out of place, wearing jeans in a Wizarding place. He ducked into the ice-cream shop and set his bags down as he dug for money in his pocket.
"One small vanilla cone." He said, his voice slightly muffled as he dug for the money in his pocket. When he finally found the knuts he paid for the cone and picked up his bags, walking out of the shop while licking off some of the vanilla.
He glanced around, noticing that Ron and his two friends had wandered off themselves. He felt a large raindrop land on his arm and glared up at the sky. In a mere three minutes, the sky had become a dark gray and drops began to litter the cobblestone pathway. Someone bumped into him and his cone slipped out of his hand and onto the ground. "Bloody asshole, you should watch where you're going!" He yelled after the person, who was slowly disappearing in the crowd.
As the drops began to come down faster and heavier, he ducked underneath the awning of the ice-cream shop. He sighed, he certainly had messed up.
When he had finally found the Weasleys and his Grandmother, he was soaked. Someone had shoved him out from the group of people under the awning, and that had just lead to more disasters. He tripped and landed in a puddle, barely saving his packages, and after five minutes of being out there, it began to hail. The Weasleys and his Grandmother, though, were completely dry. They had taken refuge in a book store, and because they were with the original group, they didn't have to worry about finding anyone, like Luke had. Now his curly black hair was plastered on his forehead and his jeans were soaked, making it difficult to walk without being uncomfortable.
Lucky for him, none of his packages became ruined. His robes were slightly damp, but otherwise nothing bad had happened. Because everything required had been purchased and Luke was soaked to the bone, they decided to go home. Ron waved goodbye to Harry and Hermione, who both went their opposite directions, and then Luke and his Grandmother both flooed back to home.
Because of the incident at Diagon Alley, Luke had the excuse to stay in bed all day for the next three days, feigning illness, like when he had drunk a whole bottle of his Father's fire whiskey.
His Grandmother, being a simple woman, didn't notice that Luke didn't have a fever or the shakes. Instead, she made him soup and brought him old books from her library to read. Luke rather enjoyed staying in bed reading, even when the weather had become nice again, and other children in the neighborhood were playing outside. Besides, he already knew that he would try out for the Quidditch team once he had gotten to Hogwarts. He desired to be a great Quidditch player, and because his old school didn't have a team, he wanted to be placed badly.
So Luke stayed inside, playing the sick and injured grandson, liking the feel of manipulating a relative. Kanika looked good in her new collar, and glowered at him from the end of the bed. Luke had found the collar in an old shop, it was an antique, silver with green emeralds placed in equal intervals around it. The color of Kanika's fur and her eyes, a perfect match. Luke, bored with the old muggle novel, set it down and stared at the ceiling. It was another two days until they left for Hogwarts and sitting inside had become boring. He could hex his Grandmother... or he could go rummage through her stuff... But there was always the chance that she would invite that blasted Weasley over or make him go help them rid their garden (again) of gnomes.
He rolled over on the bed and stared out the window. The only books left in the house that he hadn't read were all muggle novels. Muggle novels full of unrealistic romance or adventure. Novels that Luke never touched. And his boredom... well, it forced him to think of things he could do. He sat up and began to stroke Kanika. She growled and snapped at his hand. He couldn't help it, outside the house had to be better than staying inside.
So, for the last two days before leaving for Hogwarts, Luke spent his time exploring the vast countryside around his Grandmother's house. He avoided the Weasleys at all costs and even managed to get on the roof of the house using the drainpipe. He even found a way to crawl into the attic from on the roof, the one place that his Grandmother had told him never to enter.
Surprisingly enough he found nothing that interested him. Mostly old clothes and artifacts. One afternoon he spent his whole time up there searching for some old book of dark arts that his Grandmother might have hidden up there. But there was nothing. Sure, some old photographs and letters, but nothing else. Luke wished that he had more days to explore before he left for Hogwarts, but that morning came too soon.
"You'll be going with the Weasleys. I'm sure Ronald will introduce you to some of his good friends." Luke scowled as his Grandmother brushed some of the dust off of his jacket. "Now, I don't want you to forget anything. Are you sure you've packed all you need?" Luke nodded as she began to try straighten his curly hair. "Okay, now you head over there. I heard that Mr. Weasley rented a Ministry car. I've heard they're really roomy."
Good, Luke thought, that way I don't have to sit too close to one of those imbeciles. Finally he pushed his Grandmother's hands away. "I'll be fine." He grabbed the handle to his trunk and dragged it out the door. Kanika, also bored with Luke's Grandmother's antics, trotted after him, her tail held high, showing her rear to the old woman.
The whole way there, Luke stared out the window, Kanika on his lap. Ron and Ginny babbled to each other and their parents, but Luke wasn't interested in their talk. He supposed it would have ended up better if he had talked to one of them, because when they got to the station and onto the train, Ron and Ginny both ignored him. Ron went off with Potter and the bushy-haired girl into a compartment full of other people, and Ginny walked off with this odd girl who read a magazine upside-down. Luke was alone in the hall, Kanika by his heels when a boy walked up and offered him to stay in his compartment. By the boy's look, Luke could tell he was a Malfoy. Luke shrugged, and followed him into the compartment.
"Who's that?" Luke glared at the overweight boy, obviously a Goyle. Luke knew that both Goyles and Crabbes were loyal friends to the Malfoys, but he didn't need to know that, because as soon as Goyle asked, Malfoy glared, and the pudgy boy averted his eyes. There were four other people in the compartment, Crabbe and Goyle, of course, and then a Parkinson, and a Zabini. Malfoy looked towards Luke and immediately everyone else's eyes peered at him also.
Without such a stutter, Luke met their gazes. "Luke Thynne."
Once he had said his name, Malfoy sat down and indicated that Luke should sit next to Zabini. He pointed out everyone, "Next to you is Blaise Zabini, then Pansy Parkinson, that's Gregory Goyle, and Vincent Crabbe." He faced Luke and smirked. "And I'm Draco Malfoy. What brings a Thynne to Hogwarts?"
Damn, Luke hated that smirk. Did all Malfoys smirk like they knew everything? "What is a Malfoy doing at Hogwarts?" He retorted, ignoring the question.
"Unlike you, Thynne, my father attended Hogwarts. From what I heard, your father didn't." Malfoy sneered, his smirk growing.
"Since you're so smart, Malfoy, you should brush up on some more of your subjects. Have you heard a lot of my mother?" Luke looked quite smug. "She did attend Hogwarts. Unfortunately for your father, he never met her, because your father graduated before she did."
"Not like it matters anymore, does it? My father's already outlived your mother's lifespan, now hasn't he?"
"And? At least my mother didn't stay Voldemort's ferret for too long, did she?" Luke grinned smugly. He knew he had hit a soft subject when he mentioned ferret. He had overheard the Weasley boy mentioning the time when Draco was transfigured into one. Yes, he had touched a soft spot.
Draco's eyes grew wide. "You bloody imbecile! I--"
"No no... I'll just excuse myself, your ferretness." Luke flashed a smirk at Draco before stepping out into the hall, Kanika in his arms.
Ferret 3136: I suppose it's not all that good... I've been writing it for awhile. Chappie's kind of long, but I tried to split it in a nice place without making it too short. Like, no like? Tell me!
