My Little Snitch Ch3

Harry began throwing things into his trunk. Tomorrow he would be going to King's Cross station and boarding the train to Hogwarts. Snitch hopped into his truck just as he tossed an old sock into it, which landed directly on her head. She gave a little snort.

"Oh, come on. It doesn't smell that bad."

She mewed in response. He fished her out of the trunk and placed her on his shoulder. She rubbed her head affectionately on the side of Harry's face.

While she was still rather tiny, she was a great deal bigger than she was last week.

Aunt Petunia stocked up on the most expensive Fancy Feast available so as to please the "monster."

Harry made sure to make room for Snitch's food cans and boxes. He also packed her makeshift toys, with included an empty toilet paper role and a bottle cork attached to a colorful piece of yarn that Luna had sent, which happened to be Snitch's favorite.

The Dursleys seemed especially pleased that Harry and "the beast" were leaving. In fact, the next morning Vernon was knocking on his bedroom door at sunrise asking him as politely as his pride could muster to come down to breakfast.

"I suppose they plan on getting rid of us early."

Harry had decided to give up on trying not to talk to Snitch. He had always talked to Hedwig before, so why not Snitch? Besides, they were hisonly friends present at the moment, and he couldn't very well have spent the whole summer in silence.

He headed down for breakfast with Snitch on his shoulder. She was relaxed for the most part, but lightly clung to his shirt when he accidentally bound down the stairs in his excitement.

"So boy, we'll be leaving in an hour. Be ready."

Harry gawked at him in shock.

"An hour! It's not even seven o'clock! The train leaves at eleven! What am I to do until then?"

"That's no business of mine! Have you're freak friends entertain you!"

His uncle's yelling started Snitch so that she hissed at him and jumped off of Harry's shoulder… then onto the table in front of Vernon. He let out a loud yelp and fell back in his chair, effectively breaking the allegedly durable wood.

Harry grabbed Snitch, as well as some toast, and headed back up the stairs to his room. He didn't want to stick around and hear his Uncle's outrageous complaining about the "freaks and blasted creatures" that he had to put up with.

When they arrived some time later at the train station, the Dursleys drove off as soon as Harry collected his things from the trunk. They had evidently been aware that member's of the Order (or other hired magic folk) had been following them there. There were "muggles" on every street corner, dressed in the most outrageous costumes Harry had ever seen. Men wearing skirts and women wearing lifejackets were the norm that day. Harry entertained himself with the thought of it becoming a fashion statement around London as he pushed the trolley closer to the platform.

Snitch was surprisingly having a rather easy time with all the moving about. Hermione had warned him in a follow-up letter that kittens shouldn't be moved from their home environment until they become adjusted.

Fortunately, it seemed that Snitch thought of the Dursley's place as no more of a home than Harry did. She appeared to have made Harry's shoulder her mobile home, which worked out perfectly for the ever-traveling pair.

Harry reached platform nine and three quarters. He had noticed that people did not look at him nearly as much as they had when he was carting around an owl rather than a kitten. Hedwig had gone off flying after being freed from the Dursley's. Harry let her loose because he knew she hate's car rides. He decided to visit her in the owlery later.

"Don't be afraid," Harry said to reassure Snitch, who had dug her little claws into his shoulder. He tried not to run through the platform as he had in earlier years, for it seemed to startle the kitten on his shoulder.

The Hogwarts Express hadn't even arrived at the station yet, so he sat down on a bench near the platform's opening. The trolley carting his things was placed against the wall to his right.

He set Snitch down on his lap and got the toy that Luna had made her out of his trunk.

She rolled onto her back and batted her paw at the soft cork, while Harry bounced the string up and down to give her a challenge. Their game went on for a few moments until an airy, happyvoice startled him.

"Hello Harry Potter! Greetings Snitch! I'm very pleased that she likes the cork-a-bob I made her."

"Er… cork-a-bob?"

"Why of coarse. It's a cork that bobs on a string silly."

"Oh."

Harry stared at Luna a bit dumbfounded. He really hadn't expected to see her here, especially not this early.

Luna sat down next to him and watched as he… well… bobbed the cork-a-bob.

"Why are you here so early? The train won't come for another two hours."

"I like watching the conductor stop the train. I also like getting my favorite compartment, the fourteenth on the left. It has the best view."

All right, now Harry was really confused. All the compartments on the same side of a train have the same view at one point… didn't they? He decided not to look at her like she was nutters, as was his initial instinct. Instead, he just nodded dumbly and continued playing with Snitch. He decided as an afterthought that Luna Lovegood just sees things differently, and maybe the fourteenth compartment on the left did have a better view than the others

He glanced at her a few times. He couldn't stop himself from laughing out loud a bit. Luna's eyes had been following the path of the bobbing cork just as Snitch's were. Somehow the up and down movement of her protruding blue eyes was far more adorable than Snitch's little gold kitten ones.

Harry glanced at her once again to see that her eyes were no longer following the cork, but were instead directed on him.

Instead of blushing and turning away as he would expect she would, her eyes just widened a bit, and were still focused intently on him.

He willed himself not to blush, but failed. He was used to being gawked at, but Luna's stare seemed to affect him differently. She did have a tendency to see things that others couldn't… and he wondered what she was seeing in him.

They had fallen into a silence that Harry considered awkward, but Luna seemed quite comfortable with. She continued to stare at him, with wide eyes that were neither judging nor accusatory. She seemed fascinated with him, as she was with everything else in the world.

Harry had always known that he was shunned for being abnormal, but Luna Lovegood praised abnormality.

He decided to voice his musings.

"You don't care that I'm "The Boy-Who-Lived" do you?"

If possible, Luna's eyes widened further.

"Oh course I care! I certainly wouldn't want you to have died!"

"No, I mean… you don't care that I'm famous… and different."

"Yes, I surely do."

"I didn't think you would."

"Well, I care about all of you."

Harry felt silly. He had worded his questions wrong, but then again he was never good at speaking with girls. 'Wait… I care about all of you? Oh, why does she have a way of making everyone else but her seem odd?'

Harry smiled at Luna, realizing that it was okay to feel odd around her. She smiled back at him, three times as big.

"Meow"

Harry had totally forgotten about Snitch in his contemplation of oddity. Snitch hopped off of his lap to explore Luna's. Snitch sniffed her shirt, then turned around on her rainbow-patterned skirt and curled up to take a nap.

Luna stroked Snitch's back, and smiled softly as she purred in response.

"She's quite soft, and gold. You named her well."

"Uh, thanks."

"Though Snitch sounds a bit boyish to me. Perhaps… Snitchy, no, Snitchella, no, Snitchina… no I suppose not. All right, Snitch is a fine name."

Harry smiled at her in amusement. She hadn't been talking to him… she was talking to Snitch. 'So maybe I'm not so nutty… or she's just nuttier.'

Just then, the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station. The whistle startled Snitch so that she jumped onto Harry's shoulder once more and hid her face in his hair. He pet her comfortingly.

A man from off the train took both Harry and Luna's trolleys.

Luna took Harry's hand in hers and pulled him toward the train. She paused for a moment to stare unblinkingly at the train's wheels coming to a halt. She not only tilted her head, but her whole body as well to get a closer took. When the train fully stopped, she straitened up quickly and bolted through the train's open door with Harry in tow.

"Come on, we mustn't get caught in the rush. You'll see, the fourteenth compartment on the left is just right."

'Even Snitch is looking at her oddly, which is exactly how Luna should be looked at,' Harry mused.

They entered the compartment, and Luna stared out the window intently.

Sure enough, a large number of students rushed in through the platform. They made hasty goodbyes to their families then boarded the train in a scurry to get the best compartments.

Snitch once again hopped off of Harry's shoulder and jumped across the compartment to where Luna sat. She curled up on her lap once again.

'Lucky kitten... hold on…where'd that thought come from?'