When Luna's vision cleared, she was sitting on a bed in a room that looked awfully similar to the rooms the Leakey Cauldron rented out. A few moments passed while she waited for the fuzziness clear from her mind. When it did, she looked around. The room was rather bare except for a trunk against one wall, a dresser against another wall, and the bed she was sitting on against the final wall that didn't have a door. Once her mind had processed her surroundings visually, she became aware of a tapping against the window on the wall with the dresser.
Clearly the Snorkak sent her here. So, curious about what information the Snorkak had sent her, she crossed the room and opened the window, inviting a rather annoyed looking owl into the room. It landed on her bed, gave a sharp hoot, and stuck its leg out. She untied the letter and looked around for something to offer the lovely creature. Not spying anything, she transfigured some dust into a bowl and used her wand to fill it with water. The owl gave her a suspicious look before hopping over to the bowl to drink.
In the meantime, Luna unfolded her letter and began reading it. To her surprise, it was letter from Armando Dippet, offering condolences on the recent loss of her family as well as a place at Hogwarts during the upcoming school year, since she was not yet of age but had no other family who could continue the homeschooling her parents had wanted for her. Also, her name was now Luna Erickson. She recognized the surname as having belonged to the family that had first successfully bred a Heliopath. They were supposed to have died out sometime at the beginning the twentieth century. Apparently, Luna was now the last surviving member. She wondered if the Snorkak had made her truly related to the Ericksons, or if it had simply used the lack of any surviving Ericson's as a convenient way of ensuring that there would be no one to contest her story. Even if no one remembered the last surviving Ericksons having a daughter, Luna knew well how easy it was to keep family secrets in the wizarding world and could just claim that her parents were paranoid due to the recent wars and didn't want anyone to know about her.
Luna grinned and looked at the trunk across the room. She could guess what might be in it. A poor young woman headed off to Hogwarts all on her own would need supplies, of course. Sure enough, when she opened it, she found several pairs of robes, gloves, hats, and underthings. Underneath these were an assortment of ink bottles, quills, parchment, and other small odds and ends she might want at some point. At the bottom were all the course books listed on the second page of her letter. She was pleased to see that a few text books not on the course list and a few novels that she could read just for pleasure were included among the books.
On further inspection of the odds and ends, Luna was pleased to find a pouch of money, with a little note taped to the side that read, "This pouch has a limited number of refills associated with it. Use it wisely and it should have no problems lasting till your graduation. –Snorkus 13"
She checked the pouch to see quite a few galleons, sickles, and knuts. Given that she already had all her school supplies, all she would need to pay for until September first was the room and food. It was entirely possible, as well, that the room was already paid for, in which case she only had to pay for food. Returning to the trunk, she came across a leather bound sketchbook that made her eyes light up with joy. Luna had taken to drawing and painting after her mother died as a way to deal with the pain. In addition to the portraits of her first Hogwarts friends that she had painted on her ceiling the summer after her fourth year, Luna had filled her sketchbook with a number of black and white portraits of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville. The book also contained many sketches of her father, and sketches from what she could recall of her mother. She would have been sad to lose this item.
Everything else in the trunk held little personal value, though it was all quite practical. There was only one thing missing, she eventually realized, upon going through the last item. Luna did not have a calendar, and neither did she know what date it was. She would have to know what the date was in order to know when to get to school, and a calendar would have been quite nice. Ever the practical optimist, however, Luna decided that this was an excellent opportunity to go meet a few people at the bar of the Leakey Cauldron, maybe get some news about the current state of things, and find out the date all at once.
The Hogwarts owl had flown away, so Luna vanished the transfigured water bowl, stuffed her wand behind her ear, and headed out to carry out her plan.
In the bar, she found a stack of newspapers in the same place there were kept in the future. She grabbed one from the pile and headed over to the bar. "I'd like a bowl of soup, please," she said to the bartender, spreading her newspaper out on the table and sitting down. The man nodded and moved off, leaving Luna to her reading.
The date on the paper was August 1st, 1943. If she remembered her history correctly, that meant Tom Riddle would soon be entering his sixth year at Hogwarts. Given how poorly Luna's own sixth year had gone, she had no problems with the idea of repeating it, which is what the letter from Professor Dippet had implied she would do. This would put them in the same year, and hopefully give them plenty of opportunity for interaction. It was nice that all the years got blended together after OWLs. That would save her some trouble.
"Ten sickles," the barman said, interrupting her thoughts to plunk a bowl of soup down in front of her. She smiled at him and handed over the money.
"What do you think of the latest news?" she asked, giving the man her full attention. He didn't seem to appreciate the question. Instead of answering, he frowned at her and moved away to deal with another custom. She blinked, shrugged and tasted her soup. It was quite good.
Several minutes later, her bowl was empty, and she had read through several articles about the movements of Grindelwald's men, what the British Ministry was doing to stop Grindelwald, what the British Ministry wasn't doing but probably should be doing to stop Grindelwald, and one rather charming but small article about a new lizard the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had picked up recently, that could walk on water breath sparks. She wished the quibbler existed. They would have done a whole exposé on the article.
As she was flipping through an article about Grindelwald's use of muggles in the current war, someone slid into the seat beside her.
"I'll have the soup of the day, please," a smooth voice called to the barman. The man actually smiled at Luna's new bar neighbor.
"Sure thing, Tom," he said. "I'll have that right up for you."
Luna turned her head at the name; the sight that met her stole her breath away.
This had to be Tom Riddle. The first thing Luna noticed about him was darkness. He wore dark robes, even though Luna knew he must be currently living at the orphanage. His shoes, pants, and shirt were all dark, as was his hair. What really struck her, though, were his eyes. He had eyes like the sky at night: vast, unthinkably deep, and full of strange, mysterious currents thick as stars, taunting her with their concurrent visibility and distance. He hid himself behind a mask made of everything he wished he was. It was lovely and frightening at the same time.
"You here to pick up your school supplies then, Tom?" The barman interrupted her musings as he dropped a bowl of soup down in front of the future dark lord and struck up a conversation.
Tom smiled back, and the sight sent a shiver up Luna's spine. "I am. I am taking quite a few classes this year, so I have a lot of things to pick up." The honest tinge of happiness in his otherwise falsely pleasant voice surprised Luna. She had forgotten for a moment that he could feel pleasure, in the face of his overwhelming darkness. But of course, he would be excited to return to the only place he was currently allowed to practice magic.
"Got a lot of OWLs then, did you?" The barman asked. At Tom's sleekly humble affirmative, the man grinned. "Knew you would, o'course." Tom ducked his head with a pleased smile, and Luna watched as derision flashed through his eyes. "Well, Tom, I should get back to me other customers, but give me a holler if you need anything," the barman said, before leaving to a couple down the bar who were calling for him.
Tom watched him walk away for several long moments, before suddenly turning his full attention onto Luna. Her breath was snatched away by the intensity in his eyes; she wanted to cry for how lonely he looked. This boy had spent a lot of time on building walls to keep others out. When he spoke, however, his voice was pleasant enough. "Is there a reason you have been eavesdropping on my conversation?" he asked, smiling.
"I find you quite intriguing," Luna replied honestly in her high, misty voice. Tom seemed taken aback.
"Oh?" he said, arching one dark eyebrow. "And why is that, may I ask?" Though his tone was dismissive, Luna caught the spark of interest in his eyes.
"Well," she said, matching his dark gaze with her own wide blue eyes, "your words have so many layers it's difficult to follow them all, and underneath everything you seem very sad."
Tom reared back from her. For a moment, his face twisted in anger and fear, but then it smoothed back into a mask of mild amusement. "I don't know what you mean, but you would do well to mind your own business in the future," he said. His voice was nearly as pleasant as before, but there was a new sharpness to his words that he could not entirely disguise. He grabbed his bowl and slid from his stool, but Luna spoke as he turned to leave, causing him to pause.
"I'm sorry," she said, meaning it. "I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. Sometimes I say things that perhaps I should not."
He turned back to her, and the darkness had crept closer to the surface. His gaze swept over her before he spoke, voice hinting at anger. "We can at least agree on that," he said finally. With those words, he turned and stalked away to a small table by a wall. After a few more minutes, he rose from his table and swept out the door, presumably to buy his school things in Diagon Alley.
That meeting had not gone very well, but they would have plenty of time to interact in Hogwarts. In the meantime, Luna went back to her reading of the newspaper for a few minutes, before a new person sat down in the seat next to her that had previously been occupied by Tom Riddle. The new occupant was a young woman, a few years older than Luna and likely just out of Hogwarts. She looked oddly familiar, but Luna could not quite place her name.
The woman, like Tom, noticed Luna watching her. Unlike Tom, however, there were no hidden edges to her words when she spoke. "Hello," she said, holding out a friendly hand, "I don't believe I've met you before, though you can't be much younger than I. My name is Emmeline Vance. Are you a Hogwarts student?"
Luna did recognize the name! Emmeline Vance had been a very influential and brilliant witch before she was murdered by Voldemort in the future. She had also had a subscription to the Quibbler. Smiling, Luna accepted the handshake. "My name is Luna Erickson," she said, letting a bit of sorrow creep into her words. "I will be attending Hogwarts this year, but I will be a new student. My parents homeschooled me until they died in an accident last month." Recalling her own mother's death, Luna dropped her eyes and allowed pain to color her voice.
Emmeline grimaced in sympathy. "I'm sorry to hear about that," she said with genuine conviction that made Luna smile. "I hadn't realized the Erickson's had a daughter, but I suppose with the political climate we've had these past years, there've been a few families who've wanted to keep their kin close. But perhaps we can talk about happier things." She smiled at Luna. "So, you'll be starting Hogwarts soon. What year are you going into?"
"Sixth year," Luna answered. "I already took my OWLs at the Ministry, before my parents' accident," she added on.
Emmeline nodded in approval. "That's good. Sixth year's an interesting year. It'll be difficult, but you also get to take only the classes you're actually interested in. As for everything else, you'll love the school. I was Head Girl there my last year, two years ago now. So long as you stay on the right side of the rules, you can have a lot of fun."
And Emmeline was off, describing all the drama and fun that she and her friends had gotten up to during their Hogwarts years ("It may be a small school, but there'll still be plenty of boys to choose from if you want to be accompanied on a Hogsmeade weekend"), waxing poetic about the food (and, with a conspiratorial wink, letting Luna in on the secret of where to find the Kitchens, where the House Elves were always happy to part with a bit of food for a late night snack or a party), describing the Houses ("Though no doubt your parents have already told you about the houses and given you plenty of biases, you should know that Ravenclaw is by far the most fun"), and reminiscing fondly on her favorite classes and professors ("Old Sluggy's a good professor, though he certainly lives up to his Slytherin roots, but Dumbledore is brilliant all around, for all that he was once a Gryffindor").
It was nearly two hours later when the girls finished their conversation. Emmeline had dominated most of the talk, which Luna hadn't minded at all. She had gained a lot of useful information about the time period and about the Hogwarts of this time, as well as a new friend. Emmeline, it turned out, was working for the Ministry as an Obliviator at the moment, though she was not entirely happy with her current career and wanted to move up to a different, more interesting job.
"Anyways," Emmeline finally said, "I should be off soon; I have some things to buy in the Alley, and I only meant to pop in here for a moment. Still, it's been a pleasure talking with you, Luna Erickson. I hope you feel free to send me an owl if you ever need anything or want to chat again." She smiled brightly at Luna, who returned the gesture with a grin.
"Oh I shall remember," Luna replied earnestly. "I do so love making new friends. My childhood was rather lonely."
Emmeline nodded in sympathetic understanding. "I imagine it would have been, not going to Hogwarts," she said. "Still, you've got at least one friend now, and I'm sure you'll meet plenty of other lovely people at Hogwarts. I know I still miss my days there."
With that, the two girls said goodbye, and Emmeline left the Leakey Cauldron for Diagon Alley. Luna watched her go, pleased with her new friend. She would have to add a portrait of Emmeline to the sketchbook in her trunk.
Luna hummed to herself as she returned to her room. Tom had not been a success yet, but making a new friend had put her in a good mood regardless. When she reached her room, she pulled out the sketchbook from her trunk, flipped it open to a blank page, and spent the rest of the afternoon sprawled out on her bed, committing Emmeline's young face to paper and singing a made-up tune.