Chapter 2 – Onwards:

Neville was tired. His stressful morning had finally caught up with him. It had taken him a great deal of effort, but he'd managed to avoid any major accidents in dragging his carriage onto the train. All he wanted to find now was a nice seat to collapse into, but it was as though the fates were against him - his search for an empty seat proved fruitless. All of the compartments so far were full. And to add to all of this, handling Trevor was beginning to be a chore.

As he reached the final carriage of the train, struggling to pull his trunk along behind him, his face fell at the sight that met him. It seemed that the first-years-to-be had somehow laid claim to the entire train. Thus far, he hadn't been able to look around without seeing at least two loud, squeaky children at any one time. He was hoping for respite, at least, towards the end of the train, but alas.

As he reached the last compartment, he noted it was quiet, and so most probably void of the new first years. He nearly sighed with relief. He peered through the small crack between the door and doorway, and could see empty seats. In fact, the entire compartment seemed empty.

Phew, he thought. At least I won't have to stand throughout the journey.

He put down the trunk with a grateful sigh, shifted Trevor around to a more secure position, and opened the door only to find a girl with long, straggly waist-length blonde hair already sitting there, looking quite absorbed in her magazine. He froze with fingers still on the handle.

He would not spend the whole train trip alone in a carriage with a girl. If one of the Slytherins came along he wouldn't hear the end of it. Turning back into the corridor, his attention was suddenly caught by the girl's wand . . . a wand that stuck out from behind her ear. He frowned in puzzlement. Who on earth kept their wand tucked in behind their ear?

Almost against his will, his eyes drifted downward to rest on the necklace she wore, made of . . . butterbeer corks? He blinked in confusion. Then he noted that the magazine she was reading was upside down.

He turned resolutely away from the carriage, now not only dodging the Slytherin taunts, but also avoiding that girl. She seemed a little unbalanced . . .

'Where are the others?' He muttered under his breath, thinking of walking back down towards the front of the train.

He closed the door firmly, turned away, and only just after managing to catch his breath, reluctantly lifted his heavy trunk again with a great deal of effort, to suddenly find Harry and Ginny in front of him, obviously looking for an unoccupied compartment. Apparently he wasn't the only one without a seat.

'Hi, Harry,' he panted, dropping the heavy trunk to the floor again. 'Hi, Ginny... Every where's full . . . I can't find a seat . . .'

He really was exhausted.

'What are you talking about?' said Ginny as she pushed past Neville to peer into the compartment that he'd just abandoned. 'There's room in this one,' she continued. 'There's only Loony Lovegood in here –'

Neville muttered a quickly thought up an excuse, a blush already creeping up his face. 'She was reading her magazine, and she looked like she didn't want to be disturbed...'

To his great relief, Ginny laughed. 'Don't be silly,' she said, 'she's all right.'

And with that, Ginny slid the door open, and pulled her trunk inside, Harry following behind.

With a resolute sigh, Neville trudged heavily into the compartment after them.

'Hi, Luna,' Ginny greeted the girl, 'is it okay if we take these seats?'

Neville quickly avoided the girl's gaze as she looked away from the magazine. However, he did not look quickly away enough to completely avoid her protuberant silvery eyes.

'Thanks,' he heard Ginny reply.

At Harry's signal, Neville moved over to the three trunks. Together, the two boys managed to stow away the heavy cases, with Neville only nearly dropping his trunk once.

Harry slid into the seat opposite Luna, and Neville found his seat next to Harry's.

Neville cleared his throat awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

Again, to his immense relief, Ginny spoke. 'Had a good summer, Luna?'

'Yes,' replied Luna dreamily, staring unerringly at Harry. 'Yes, it was quite

enjoyable, you know. You're Harry Potter,' she added.

'I know I am,' said Harry, a note of surprise in his voice.

Neville chuckled quietly to himself. Of course! With Harry next to him, he'd escape her attention. He'd had enough of being scruitinised closely for the day. His Grandma was an exhausting woman sometimes. Great, but exhausting.

However, to his alarm, his unbidden chuckling had cause Luna's eyes to move purposefully to his corner of the compartment. He swallowed nervously.

'And I don't know who you are.' She stated.

'I'm nobody,' replied Neville, hurriedly, instinctively lowering his head.

'No you're not,' came Ginny's sharp reply. 'Neville Longbottom – Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw.'

There was a slight pause in which Neville was unsure as to whether he should say anything more. He was about to ask Luna about her family when she interrupted him.

'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure,' she said, in a singsong voice.

Neville blinked, and turned to look at Harry. What in the name of Merlin . . .?

When he glanced back at Luna, she was already buried in her magazine once again. He found that he'd had his hands clenched beneath the table, and worked his fingers to relax them again.

Ginny began asking him about his holiday. 'So, Neville . . . did you go anywhere this break?'

As he replied, he resolutely placed his hands, motionless, on his knees, determined not to fidget. 'No,' he replied. 'My Grandma went to Australia, though. She left for two weeks to see some distant relatives of mine. She needed to clear up some issues about the family inheritance, and things like that. So I was home alone for a little while.' He smiled happily as Ginny nodded. It was oddly relaxing to be without his grandmother, but after a few days, he found himself missing her company. He grinned wryly, 'After a week or so, at my Grandma's bidding, my great uncle Algie came to stay.'

At the mention of his uncle, he suddenly recalled the gift he'd received over the holidays, 'Guess what I got for my birthday?' he asked.

Harry turned from gazing out the window mindlessly, and focused vaguely upon Neville.

'Another Remembrall?' He guessed distractedly.

'No,' replied Neville and he after a quick thought, he added 'I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago. . . . no, look at this. . . .'

With a little bit of difficulty, Neville shifted his grip on Trevor again, and used his free hand to search around in his schoolbag for his precious plant.

After a moment or two, he finally found it. He pulled it out of his bag, and said proudly, 'Mimbulus mimbletonia!'

Neville quickly checked the body of the plant, to be sure that it had survived being tossed around in his bag. It was pulsing healthily for which he was thankful.

'It's really, really rare,' said Neville happily. 'I don't know it there's one in the

greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout. My Great

Uncle Algie got it for me in Assyria. I'm going to see if I can breed from it.'

Neville noticed Harry's lack of enthusiasm. 'Does it – er – do anything?' he asked.

'Loads of stuff!' said Neville proudly. 'It's got an amazing defensive mechanism - here, hold Trevor for me. . . .'

He placed Trevor into Harry's lap and dug out a spare quill he'd thrown into his backpack in the morning.

He expertly examined the surface of the plant, looking for a tougher spot where he could prod it without causing too much damage to it. He rotated the plant twice through, slowly, searching carefully, before choosing a particularly open area.

He hesitated, then, with a great deal of care and concentration, poked it sharply with the tip of the quill.

He flinched back in surprise, aghast, as copious amounts of the mimbeltonia's thick, green sap squirted out in every direction. He nearly dropped his precious plant in surprise as his face and chest was drenched in the stinking stuff.

It took him a moment to recognise the sap's distinct smell.

Fertiliser.

Lovely.

He blinked and shook his head dazedly, fighting to get the liquid out of his eyes. He watched through blurred vision, the disastrous scene before him. Harry spat out a mouthful of the sap, launching Neville into nervous apology.

'S – sorry,' he gasped, still horrified at what his plant had done. 'I haven't tried that before. . . . Didn't realize it would be quite so . . . Don't worry, though, Stinksap's not poisonous.' Perhaps he should have tried it at home before carelessly experimenting with it before his friends.

Neville heard the compartment door behind him slide open.

'Oh . . . hello, Harry,' said a nervous voice. It was a girl. 'Um . . . bad time?'

'Oh . . . hi,' said Harry flatly.

Neville could have sank into the ground.

'Um . . .' said the girl. 'Well . . . just thought I'd say hello . . . bye then.'

That really wasn't a good idea, he thought, mortified.

Neville watched in alarm as Harry slumped back in his seat and let out a low groan. Stinksap wasn't poisonous... was it?

Before Neville could ask Harry if he was all right, Ginny leaned forward.

'Never mind,' she said in a pacifying voice. 'Look, we can easily get rid of all this.' She pulled out her wand, and cleared the mess away.

'Sorry,' said Neville again, in a small voice.

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After the passing of the Stinksap incident which she had found slightly amusing, Luna seemingly engrossed herself in examining the kumquat curse featured in the Quibbler. However, while examining the spell-runes, her thoughts were fixed on the three Gryffindor students that sat with her. Politely, they did not exclude her from their conversations, offering to share their food that they'd bought off the trolley which she gladly accepted. But at the same time, they did not wholly invite her to join in. However, their conduct was in no way rude or aggressive toward her in anyway, and that was a welcome change.

They were comfortable company, she thought.

She sat silently and contentedly in the corner seat she had claimed as her own and continued peering at the list of runes, storing them away in her memory.

Suddenly, the compartment door was flung open, and a boy with flaming red hair, clutching a cage containing a minute, madly twittering minute owl, flung himself into the seat between Harry and Neville announcing loudly, 'I'm starving!'

Luna lowered her magazine slightly and peered closely at his face. What was his name? She sorted through her vague memories, trying to drudge up any details she could remember about him.

His hair was the same shade as Ginny's. So he'd most probably be a Weasley as well. He was obviously a griffindor student . . . but who was he? Her mind churned furiously, flying through previous conversations, ones she'd either taken an active part in or simply overheard- it was difficult to tell them apart now.

She watched him closely as he set his owl cage down next to Harry's, and hurriedly grabbed a chocolate frog off the pile on the table, unwrapped it hungrily and bit off its head with a disgustingly large amount of pleasure evident on his visage.

And then suddenly, unbidden, she remembered. His name was Ronald Weasley, Padma Patil's Yule ball date last year. She recalled quite clearly the weeks after the ball where the fifth year girls had gone on long and irritating rants about their either wonderfully charming boyfriends, or their absolutely disastrous dates. According to the fifth years, he was reputedly self centered, inconsiderate, boring, very hot-tempered, and definitely ill-mannered. Luna thought vaguely that these permanent labels were rather unfair, regardless as to how badly he treated his date for just one night.

Luna kept her eyes on him, as he reached for another frog, having devoured the rest of the last one in one swallow.

Despite the possibly unfair labels, there was no denying one thing; he'd been tagged, by most of the students in Hogwarts, as Harry Potter's best friend, and at this moment, that last accusation looked completely true. He was chatting animatedly with Harry, even though most people would have choked on the amount of chocolate he had in his mouth.

Impulsively, Luna decided to find out whether or not the former accusations were true. She lowered the quibbler a little more to get a better look at him.

'You went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil,' she said, watching closely for his reaction.

He swallowed his mouthful of frog.

'Yeah, I know I did,' he replied, a mildly surprised look on his face.

'She didn't enjoy it very much,' Luna informed him, thinking closely back to the conversations she'd overheard. Padma definitely did not enjoy it very much. In fact, she recalled Padma calling him several rude names, Dunghead being among one of the nicer ones. Spurred on by the blank look on his face, Luna felt like she had to explain. 'She doesn't think you treated her very well, because you wouldn't dance with her.' She paused slightly, searching for a reaction. Not even a faint flicker of annoyance or anger passed across his face. He still looked slightly confused. To help him out, she added, 'I don't think I'd have minded. I don't like dancing very much.' Perhaps he merely did not enjoy dancing, in any case, this would have provided him with a good excuse for treating Padma so poorly.

She paused a moment longer, waiting for a reaction. When no response was issued, she shrugged inwardly, and returned to her magazine.

He didn't seem too self-centered or inconsiderate. Perhaps he was merely slow and so did not know how to treat a girl properly on a date. She added mentally that he had to work on his eating etiquette. The mess he was leaving behind while devouring those chocolate frogs was unsightly.

Luna's thoughts on Ronald were gradually being interrupted, her ears beginning to attune themselves to the conversation going on around her. She nearly started when she heard an unfamiliar female voice. Apparently someone else had entered the compartment alongside Ronald.

'For heaven's sake, Ron –,' said the voice, in exasperation. Luna tried to place a name to it. She knew that there were the three of them- Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and . . . the other girl.

What was her name? Luna thought in vexation. That was twice, today.

Meanwhile, Ronald was saying something, a cheerful note in his voice. 'I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing.' He made his voice turn to a low grunt. 'I . . . must . . . not . . . look . . . like . . . a . . . baboon's . . . backside. . . .'

The words floated through Luna's mind slowly, her thoughts already occupied at trying to identify the other female in the compartment. Caught off guard, she let out a shriek of laughter.

Baboon's backside! She repeated inwardly, followed by yet another peal of laughter. She hadn't laughed this hard for weeks! Baboon's backside! she repeated once again, Ronald's voice echoing clearly through her mind. She could feel her ribs beginning to strain under her persistent laughter, and her eyes felt a hot as tears sprung up. She felt her hands release the magazine, and vaguely heard it fall to the ground. But she couldn't stop laughing.

'That was funny!' She managed to gasp out.

She clutched at her ribs that were beginning to protest furiously, and bent over to relieve the strain they were under, but even that could not dull her laughter.

"Are you taking the mickey?" she heard Ronald's voice.

"Baboon's . . . backside!" she choked, still holding her ribs tightly, still unable to control her laughter.

But Merlin, he was funny.

She tried to slow her breathing gradually, her arms still wrapped tightly around her ribs.

She peered at Ronald, reevaluating him. He definitely was not boring. If the fifth years were wrong about this, they were most probably wrong about all of the other things too. She thought happily to herself that if someone could make her laugh like that all the time, she'd be so cheery that even all the world's dementors together could not take all of her happiness away from her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Harry. 'Can I have a look at this?' He asked her eagerly.

She nodded in assent, and quickly resumed her thinking. Perhaps he wasn't as bad as the other girls had made him out to be. Padma was probably just annoyed that the night hadn't gone as well as she would've liked, and also, most likely enjoyed the extra attention she was receiving from her sympathetic classmates. Ronald certainly seemed alright. He had yet to have made any nasty comments about her, which was much more than could be said about most of the other Ravenclaw boys. Perhaps he wasn't that bad after all.

His ability to make people laugh could certainly outweigh his overly enthusiastic eating habits.

She was still peering at him when he said to Harry, 'Anything good in there?'

The unknown female voice cut in. 'Of course not,' it replied scathingly. 'The Quibbler's rubbish, everyone knows that.'

Luna turned her head sharply. Of course. Hermione Granger.

The fifth years often whined about her, too. They claimed she was an insufferable know it all, never turning down a moment in class to prove how much smarter she was than the rest of them. The complained about the snide looks she'd shoot over at the Ravenclaw students when the teachers picked her before them to volunteer her correct answer.

Luna did not begrudge her for her knowledge, or for her participation in class. In fact, she doubted that Hermione would, in fact, gloat about her knowledge. She did, however, feel affronted at her sudden attack on her father's work.

'Excuse me,' retorted Luna, 'my father's the editor.'

A long silence followed.

'I – oh,' began Hermione, at least having the decency to look embarrassed. 'Well . . . it's got some interesting. . . I mean, it's quite . . .' it seemed she was struggling to come up with a suitable response.

Irritated, Luna cut her off. 'I'll have it back, thank you,' and she reached towards Harry, pulling the magazine from his hands, turned it upside down, and resumed her reading of the kumquat runes.

She vaguely heard the compartment door open, but she ignored it resolutely.

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Neville shifted around in his seat uncomfortably. Luna, cheerful and relaxed was unnerving enough. In her current state, Neville found himself even more unsettled than before.

I hope she doesn't start crying or yelling, he thought fervently as the compartment door slid open.

He turned his attention towards the door to see Malfoy, standing between Crabbe and Goyle, smirking nastily at Harry. His nervousness quickly turned to annoyance.

Can't he for once look as though he meant to do something decent, Neville thought furiously.

'What?' he heard Harry say, aggressively.

Neville felt the same. He would have said something too, but couldn't bring himself to be hostile, unprovoked. He'd never had that sort of temperament, but was gradually beginning to agree with his grandmother that he should learn to be more assertive.

Malfoy certainly deserved it, and Neville had disliked him for what he so willingly represented since the first time he saw him. His family - his parents - had fought and suffered so much, acting against the very ideals that Malfoy and his father believed in.

'Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention,' drawled Malfoy easily, in response. 'You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments.'

Neville was getting angry. Losing house points because Malfoy snitched on his friends was one thing, but Malfoy, of all people, a prefect, threatening to punish Harry because of manners?

If he does, I'll… I'll do something and he'll regret it. Neville thought viciously. The unfairness of the situation grated on his nerves. He opened his mouth to say something, but Harry got in first.

'Yeah, but you, unlike me, are a git, so get out and leave us alone,' He stated.

That showed him! Neville thought as he laughed along with Ginny, Hermione and Ron, even though his insides squirmed guiltily. Why hadn't he been able to speak up? He certainly had the right to.

Neville watched Malfoy's lip curl, and could see that his pride had been stung.

He has nothing to be proud of. Neville snorted quietly to himself. But I'll bet ten galleons that he says something vindictive now.

Right on cue, it seemed, Malfoy spat viciously, his eyes narrowing. 'Tell me, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Potter?'

'Shut up, Malfoy,' replied Hermione, at once, sharply.

Malfoy's snide sneer returned. 'I seem to have touched a nerve.' He said, seemingly satisfied. 'Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be dogging your footsteps in case you step out of line.'

Suddenly, Hermione stood up. 'Get out!' she said, threateningly, pointing at the door.

Malfoy sniggered, gave Harry one last look then motioned for his sidekicks to follow him as he left.

A moment of silence passed, then, 'Chuck us another Frog,' demanded Ron. And Neville was forced to watch a hungry Ron devour the poor thing down in one large, noisy gulp.

After finishing off all the food, things settled down, including the weather. With the dreary overcast sky looming above, drowsiness began to creep in, as deliberately as forced ice in a frost crystal. As the train progressed further north, Neville could feel the air getting cooler, and the long trip ahead made for boring contemplation.

Neville tried to liven things up by offering to introduce all the unique things about his mimbeltonia, but even Luna shouted a vehement 'No!' alongside the rest of them.

At last, Hermione's voice cut through the silence. 'We'd better change,' she said.

And with great difficulty, all of them opened their trunks and shifted around uncomfortably in the cramped compartment, struggling to pull on their robes. It seemed Luna had the foresight to change before the journey started.

And as they straightened their robes, the train finally began to slow down.

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Luna prepared to step off the train, her pack safely hefted onto her back. She glanced quickly at Neville, who put his toad securely in a pocket of his robes. Her eyes shifted to Harry who was struggling with two owl cages, Ronald having gone off with Hermione to supervise, leaving Harry with Pigwideon.

'I'll carry that owl, if you like,' she offered, reaching out for Ronald's owl.

'Oh – er – thanks,' Harry replied, handing the cage to her carefully, as he shifted Hedwig's cage to a more secure position under his arm.

As they stepped off the train, the first wave of cool air stung their faces refreshingly, and Luna examined the small owl closely. The creature began twittering and rocketing around his cage even more energetically than before.

Luna took a deep breath. The smell of the air was sweet and fresh and clean, vaguely reminiscent of the air she enjoyed earlier today in the morning at her home. A sudden image of her father struggling with her trunk formed unbidden before her.

She smiled.

A clear female voice cut suddenly through her thoughts. 'First-years line up over here, please! All first-years to me!' It was Professor Grubbly-Plank.

Luna wondered vaguely where Hagrid had gone. She felt no real remorse for his absence; she would have heard something about him from Harry and his friends if he were seriously ill or injured. So she assumed he must have been on a holiday, or something. At least, she thought hopefully, she could now look forward to not having to fear for the loss of any of her limbs during her Care of Magical Creatures classes.

Hopefully he'd be away for a while.

She let the crowd of students carry her naturally towards the waiting carriages.

She smiled to herself, thoughtfully. The carriages were a great mystery as far as she was concerned. Since her first year at Hogwarts, her fellow peers had always marveled at the horselessness of the school carriages. She didn't tell anyone this, but she knew that the carriages were indeed, not horseless! She'd been able to see the creatures that drew the carriages since she first came to Hogwarts.

She cocked her head to the side and examined them carefully. They were vaguely ghastly looking, black, with visible skeletal frame below their thin coats that would most probably scare most of her fellow peers senseless. But Luna could feel that they had no aggressive intent towards any of the students who tended to ignore their existence anyway. Her eyes perused up their necks and onto their head. They had no eyes, or so it seemed, they had hollow sockets, another unfortunate thing, but what Luna liked about them best was their wings. They could fly.

A shrill screech from Ronald's owl brought her back to the present. She turned around swiftly to face the crowd of students, slowly pushing their way to the carriages. She scanned the top of the crowd, looking for Ronalds's characteristic red hair. She strained her slightly to see, narrowing her eyes; it was dark, and the cool air was beginning to make her eyes water.

And then she spotted him, standing a few meters away, with Harry Potter on one side and Hermione Granger on the other. She took a deep breath, resolutely began to force her way against the crowd.

'Here you are,' she said, as she found them. She held out the owl's cage for Ronald to take back. She felt she should say something, out of politeness, so then added 'He's a sweet little owl, isn't he?'

'Er . . . yeah . . . he's all right,' replied Ronald gruffly. 'Well, come on then, let's get in

. . . what were you saying, Harry?'

Harry Potter was staring hard at the creatures in front of the carriage as they walked towards a carriage. 'I was saying, what are those horse things?'

'What horse things?' Ronald said, puzzled. Luna decided to watch how this played out. Harry Potter could see them too?

'The horse things pulling the carriages!' quipped Harry impatiently. She could see how frustrated he was getting. They were, after all, only about three feet from the nearest one. Ronald, however, gave Harry a perplexed, worried look. Luna smiled grimly.

Harry Potter could see them! So she wasn't insane after all. Unless of course, Harry, too, was insane.

'What are you talking about?' Ron demanded.

'I'm talking about – look!' Harry placed his hands on Ronald's shoulders and led him to stand directly next to the fearsome thing. Ronald stared blankly at it and then looked at Harry worriedly.

'What am I supposed to be looking at?'

'At the – there, between the shafts! Harnessed to the coach! It's right there in –,' But as Ronald continued to look bemused, Luna saw Harry's thoughts churning. 'Can't . . . can't you see them?'

Her grim smile got wider.

'See what?'

'Can't you see what's pulling the carriages?'

Ronald looked at Harry apprehensively. 'Are you feeling all right, Harry?' Luna could appreciate his concern.

'I . . . yeah . . .' Harry trailed off, looking utterly bewildered.

'Shall we get in, then?' said Ronald, shooting an uncertain look at Harry.

'Yeah,' replied Harry quickly. 'Yeah, go on . . .'

Ron boarded the carriage leaving Harry and Luna standing outside, staring at the creatures. Luna decided to speak.

'It's all right,' she told him slowly. 'You're not going mad or anything. I can see them, too.'

'Can you?' Harry quickly broke his gaze with the creature and turned to face Luna, a note of desperation and urgency in his voice she had not heard before. She smiles reassuringly

'Oh, yes,' she added bracingly, 'I've been able to see them ever since my first day here.

They've always pulled the carriages. Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am.'

Hoping to have placed his mind at ease, she turned toward the carriage, and hoisted herself up and away from the chill night air.

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A/N: Thanks for the reviews! And to Ciladis: thanks for pointing out our errors. If only we could just figure out how to edit these things... lol.

Same deal, here. ) Any mistakes, anything OOC, drop us a line, and let us know!

Please R & R

- Fiery & Sorrow