Seeing the Past, Present, and Future
Arriving at Hogwarts
"Where's my broom?"
"What about my books?"
"How can you be missing a book? Your trunks packed full!"
"I'm only missing one book for your information."
"So? Leave it!"
"Well, the one time we needed it in our second year we didn't have it, did we? I refuse to make that mistake again."
"Oh, your lovely book of history about our school. Well, me being the non-existent optimist I am, would like to think that nothing bad is going to happen this year, much less that great bloody serpent rising up from the dead."
The small girl who had arrived a month ago made an imperceptible sound of fear and her eyes went wide. "But nothing bad is going to happen," Hermione hurried to state. "I might need it for an essay or something, though."
Ron rolled his eyes. "I'll help you look for your book," the red-haired boy spoke, influencing the fact it was singular, "If you'll help me look for my broom. And my Prefect's badge," he added, upon seeing his pockets were empty.
"Fine. Say, where's Harry?" Hermione's voice faded as both she and Ron exited the entry room.
Harry poked his head into said entry room and quietly snuck in. He was tired from packing his trunk in such a rush, and still hadn't eaten breakfast, something he was now attempting to do while sitting upon the aforementioned trunk.
Harry was slightly startled when the small girl beside him spoke a greeting; he hadn't noticed her, quietly sitting upon her own trunk. "Mmphgh," he replied, his mouth full of the toast he was attempting to scarf down. "Hello," he rearticulated. An uncomfortable silence filled the small room with the exception of the sound of Harry eating his toast. "Erm--how are you?" the older boy asked wishing to be rid of the, what he considered, awkward silence.
The girl looked up from the floor, at Harry, and blinked, very slowly, several times. She turned her head back down to its original position before replying. "I'm fine."
"Mmm," Harry spoke, feeling he should give a reply. "That's good," he added rather stupidly. "Are you looking forward to school?"
The girl bit her lip, a small action Harry didn't notice, and nodded.
"That's good," he repeated for the second time in several moments. "I'm sure you'll do well."
The young girl nodded in acknowledgment that Harry had spoken, with her eyes still focused on a spot on the floor. Whether or not she had really heard what Harry had said could be debated.
"Harry, there you are, mate," Ron spoke, striding towards the Boy-Who-Lived with Hermione next to him. Trailing behind them were Ginny and Mrs. Weasley
"Harry, you're already packed! That's wonderful. Ron and Ginny," Mrs. Weasley gave them the severe look of a mother, "seemed to have managed to misplace almost all of their belongings."
"Sorry, Mum."
"Yeah, sorry, Mum."
"I'm not mad, dears, just annoyed. I don't want to be late. At least Arthur was able to get us a Ministry car."
"That's good," Harry said, standing up.
"I think Fred and George might be meeting us at the station to see us off. I know Lupin is," Mrs. Weasley said, touching Lupin's "niece" lightly on the shoulder.
The small group left Grimmauld Place; a single ministry car was parked about a block down. All six of them fit in easily, with the car magically expanding. The young girl was very startled by this and for most of the ride she clung to Hermione.
They reached the King's Cross much more quickly than they had by foot the previous year, and Harry was struck by a pang of sadness in remembering how Sirius had accompanied them in dog form the year before, as well. He looked up and saw that the young girl, supposedly Lupin's niece, was no longer walking besides Hermione, but rather next to him, and giving him a rather sympathetic look. She seemed to think about patting him on the shoulder, but hesitated, and instead gave him a small smile before quickening her pace and walking besides Hermione once more.
"So are you looking forward to school this year?" Mrs. Weasley asked, slowing her pace so she would be walking besides Harry.
"I guess," he replied rather non-committally, his thoughts still mainly on Sirius.
Mrs. Weasley seemed to understand that his thoughts were elsewhere, for she didn't say anything else.
"Lupin!" the young girl spoke happily, immediately rushing to his side.
"Hello," he replied, smiling down at her fondly. "I see you all arrived safe and sound," Lupin said to the rest of the group.
"I don't suppose you have any news on Fred and George?" asked Mrs. Weasley.
"Oh, they called to say they couldn't come. Some business matter of one type or another."
"That's too bad. Of course, Arthur couldn't come either. So, who wants to go first?" Mrs. Weasley spoke, changing topics upon arriving at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
"We can go first," Ron said, gesturing towards Hermione and himself. They set off at a run and, quite suddenly, had totally disappeared.
Harry smiled slightly at the puzzled look on the to-be first year's face. "Ginny and I can go next," Harry offered. "You'll need to explain about the barrier," he said, gesturing towards Lupin's very confused niece.
"Shall we run?" Harry asked Ginny, with a slight smile.
"My thoughts exactly," she replied with a smile of her own.
I've never noticed before, Harry thought, Ginny has a rather nice smile.
They both passed through the barrier and came in view of their friends.
"Let's wait for your mom and Lupin to come through before we try to find a compartment," Hermione said, approaching Harry and Ginny with Ron trailing behind.
"That's a good idea," Harry replied.
They stood near the entry-way for several moments before Lupin and his niece appeared. It seemed they had walked through it, as opposed to running, and the young girl still seemed very startled, as she kept looking behind her with wide eyes. A moment later, Mrs. Weasley had also arrived.
"Let's go find a compartment and set our trunks down," Ron spoke.
"Sounds good. We'll be back in a moment, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione replied.
"I want to try and sit with Luna," Ginny said as they started walking towards the train, trunks in tow.
"You know, I think I'd like to too," Harry replied, recalling the comfort she had given him after Sirius's death.
"Alright," Ron spoke, slightly surprised. "Let's try to find her, then."
Those words were actually extremely easy to live up to, as the first compartment they entered contained the girl they had been talking about.
"Hello, Luna," Ginny said brightly. "Mind if we join you?"
"Go ahead," the blonde-haired girl replied, lifting up her eyes for a brief moment before returning them to The Quibbler.
They put away their trunks before Hermione spoke. "We should go back out to see your mother, Ron."
"Yeah, we did tell her we would, didn't we," said Ginny.
"Alright, but when's the train--" Ron's asking of when the train would depart was cut short by the train's piercing whistle.
"Guess it's leaving now," Harry said to Ron with a smile.
Ginny stuck her head out the open window and waved to her mother. The rest of the compartment followed suit, with the exception of Luna, whose father had already left.
"Are you entering your first year?" Luna asked of the young girl who had silently followed the rest of the group, not knowing anyone else on the train.
She mutely nodded, looking at her feet, which were currently swinging back and forth. (She was too short for them to reach the floor.)
"I find I love every year at Hogwarts," Ginny spoke brightly.
"We're--we're going to Hogwarts?" the young girl asked with wide eyes.
Harry noticed the youngest girl's glancing at the door, and, for a moment, he was strongly reminded of the way Pettigrew had kept looking at the door so many years ago, when he had been confronted by Sirius and Lupin.
"Of course we're going to Hogwarts!" replied Ginny, practically bouncing in her seat with positive energy. "It's only the best wizard school in England!"
The girl made a leap towards the compartment door but Harry, expecting something along those lines to happen, grabbed her around the wrists.
"Let me go!" she sobbed.
Harry, realizing he probably looked rather strange grabbing a supposedly eleven year old girl for no apparent reason, decided he ought to say something to make the situation a little less awkward. "Are you alright?" he asked, figuring that was a good start.
The girl made another attempt to escape the compartment, but, upon failing, she broke into large sobs.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, concern evident on her face.
"Just let me go. Let me go," she repeated plaintively.
Harry, feeling that he ought to comply, let go of her wrists gently. Even if she had wished to escape, that wouldn't have been possible, as Hermione, Ginny, and Ron unintentionally blocked her path.
The young girl raised a shaking finger to Hermione and said, "They'd kill you, too, if you weren't already dead."
Hermione, hurt by this cryptic, yet obviously hostile message, backed away slightly.
"Don't worry," Ginny said, attempting to comfort the younger girl, "Everything will be okay. Hogwarts is really safe."
The young girl seemed to calm down very slightly, as she crawled to her seat and didn't make any further attempt to escape. Instead, she curled up and cried softly.
The compartment looked at each other uncomfortably for the duration of her sobs. Finally, they faded away and Ginny checked on the girl, seeing that she had fallen asleep.
"What did she mean?" Hermione asked the silent compartment, obviously rattled by what the young girl had said to her.
"Don't worry about it, Hermione," Ron spoke. "She was probably just trying to hurt you, or scare you, without any real thought to her words."
"Yeah, after all, they don't even have any meaning," Ginny added.
Hermione nodded, seemingly comforted by their kind words.
The next hour passed in relative peace, talking about the upcoming school year, who they thought the Defense Against the Dark Art teacher might be, and playing exploding snap. At around twelve o'clock the food trolley arrived, and Harry bought "lunch" for the entire compartment.
"Is she awake?" Hermione asked, gesturing towards the sleeping girl.
"I don't think so," Ron replied, ripping open a Pumpkin Pasty. "Aren't you mad at her?"
he added.
She sighed in response. "No, not really. I suppose you guys were right. She was really agitated for some reason and she took it out on me. I'm not really mad at her," Hermione repeated again. "I'm going to try and wake her up," the bushy-haired girl added after a moment.
She shook the younger girl gently, and the latter slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
Odd, Harry thought, I could have sworn her eyes were open a mere moment before. But he put it out of his mind with ease and instead focused his energy on avoiding any dangerous jelly beans from his bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
Time passed much too quickly on the Hogwarts express, for they were soon at the school itself, clad in their black wizard robes.
"Good luck at the sorting ceremony!" Hermione whispered to their first-year friend, as she gave her a gentle push towards the other first years.
Feeling, for the first time, utterly alone, she made her slow steps towards the lake, following the noisy mass of young students.
"Four to a boat, no more!" she heard a rough voice call. It seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't pin it to a particular person. The boats quickly filled, every person wishing to sit with their friends, and soon there were no empty boats which she could sneak on without being noticed. She cautiously approached a boat with three chatting girls and intended to ask if she could join, but the words got stuck in her throat. Instead she simply took a seat, upon seeing she was the only one left standing without a boat. The boats immediately started moving forward without, it seemed, any source of energy. She peeked over the edge of the boat and left the three girls to chat among themselves as she stared at the inky water.
The boats quickly arrived in an underground dock, and she had to restrain her impulse to flee. Instead, she reminded herself of Ginny's words and what Lupin had told her earlier.
The group of first years was brought through several rooms before arriving at one last room, where they stopped. Her thoughts were much too busy to have noticed the rooms before hand, or to notice the elderly woman who was speaking to them. Despite all of the nervousness and her rapidly beating heart, fearful of betrayal, she couldn't help but be slightly excited. If this is real, I'm going to do the best I can, Daddy!
The young girl's thoughts were interrupted as she felt herself being shuffled into a single file line. Slowly, the first years, with her among them, made their solemn procession into the Great Hall to be sorted.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or the world he lives in.
A/N: Sorry for such a long time between updates; I had a bit of Writer's Block, which I'm hopefully over now. The next update will probably come once my Winter Break has started, in about 2 weeks. And thank you to Kuramakicksass for beta-reading this chapter. (She asks that you check out her story, "The All-American Rebel.") For mere curiosity's sake, could you tell me which house you think the main character will be sorted into?
Review Responses:
Chantal J: Thank you, and don't worry about it; I'm just happy you're reading my works. :o)