The next morning dawned in soft gray light. Weak sunlight filtered through the clouds that still drifted across the sky. Flickering beams of golden light fell through the window, creating little corridors of dancing dust motes through the air. There might even have been Drushies in the dust motes. On any other day, Luna would have spent the morning trying to catch one of the tiny, sentient bugs that lived in dusty rooms and loved dancing in sunlight.
As it was, that morning Luna woke slowly and hardly looked at the sunlight. She wished she could stay in bed and enjoy the morning just a little bit longer. She was not as well rested as she would have liked, but perhaps there would be time to nap on the train. At the very least, she would spend that night in a nice bed at Hogwarts, where she always slept well. She tried not to think too hard about what it would be like to share the castle with Tom Riddle. Now that September had arrived, she could admit that her encounter with the young Voldemort had frightened her.
After pulling herself out of bed, Luna drifted around the room, checking to ensure that she had everything. She cleaned up a few stray drawings that had become scattered across the minimal furniture, placing them with Emmeline's letter in her sketchbook. Perhaps the next time Emmeline sent her a letter (and the thought that there probably would be a 'next time' filled her with a warm glow), she would take the chance to do a sketch of Rowan. The sweet little tawny owl would make a lovely addition to her book. She then gathered everything into her trunk, giving the room one last look before departing.
Downstairs in the common area, Luna plunked her trunk down next to a stool at the bar. "May I have some porridge, please," she said, catching the bartender's attention. After a month of eating his food, Luna had slowly won over the gruff old wizard. His smile still wasn't as bright as the one he'd given Tom, but Luna was pleased with it all the same.
"You headin' to Hogwarts today?" he asked, dropping a steaming bowl of porridge with milk and honey in front of her.
"Oh yes," she said as she dug into the delicious porridge. "I am very excited."
"I'm sure you'll have a great time there," he said, leaning against the counter. Luna smiled at him but did not reply, as her mouth was full of porridge. "Anyway," he continued, "it's been a pleasure having you stay here, Miss Ericson. I wish ya luck with the upcoming year. This last meal of yours is on the house."
Luna blinked at him. "Oh," she said, softly. "Thank you very much."
The bartender, never a man of many words, simply smiled at her before walking away to refill another customer's coffee. Luna was going to miss him.
She took the muggle subway to King's Cross. Dragging a trunk through muggle London required quite a bit of deft maneuvering, but she managed well enough. There were a few run over toes and bumped elbows she had to apologize for, but once on the subway she was able to relax just a bit. The bright orange and purple skirt and puffapod earrings she had chosen to wear that day drew a few odd looks, but she simply smiled at anyone who's eye she managed to catch.
At King's Cross, she was early enough to find a lonely compartment at the back of the train, where she could sit and watch the station fill up with returning students and their families. When Tom arrived, she almost missed him.
He immediately found several other tall, pale boys, greeting them with toothy grins and laughter.
She ducked away from the window when Tom looked at the train, eyes flashing dark for the briefest moment.
A few minutes later, there was a soft knock at the door, and two girls poked their heads in. "Is this space free?" the shorter, mousy looking girl asked, pointing at the bench across from Luna.
"Oh yes, I'm the only one here right now," Luna said, smiling at the two girls as they entered.
"Thanks," the mousy girl said, holding out her hand. "I'm Guinevere Flint, though everyone calls me Gwen, and this is my friend, Alicia Prewett." She indicated her companion, a tall willowy redhead with dull brown eyes. She furrowed her brows before tacking on, "You don't look familiar?"
Luna shook hands with Gwen and studied both girls with wide blue eyes. "I'm new here," she said, glancing briefly down and forcing her mouth into a frown. "My parents always homeschooled me, but they both passed away recently. I'm only a sixth year, so I've decided to continue my education at Hogwarts. The Headmaster was very kind to let me join your school so late."
Gwen gave Luna a sympathetic look and squeezed her hand gently before letting go. "I'm so sorry to hear that," she said.
Alicia, however, was staring out the window when she finally spoke, her voice soft and stumbling. "My sister Dorothy was training to be an – an Auror," she said. "She was supposed to be somewhere safe, last month. I guess Grindlewald didn't get the memo." She gave a choked back laugh that was more a sob, and Luna felt just a little bit ashamed of herself for her own lie of a story. She would never see her parents again (if she did, they would be different people, a different Luna's mother and father), and her mother really was dead. Still, she'd had years to deal with her mother's death, and her father had still been alive and well when she left for the past. The girl across from her had just lost a sister.
"I've still got my parents, but I thought maybe you'd like to know you're not alone in losing family," Alicia finished, finally looking at Luna. Luna caught her wet brown eyes with her own blue ones, and tried to convey her sympathy.
"Thank you," she said, "for telling me your story. It does help, I think, not to be alone."
Alicia gave Luna a watery grin that Luna returned. It was unpleasant, when she realized that even if she managed to save Tom and prevent the war that had claimed so many lives in her own time, she could not save Grindlewald's victims from this time. She would do her best to prevent the tragedies that had befallen her old friends, but the new friends she made here had their own tragedies for which she could do nothing.
There was a moment of silence while Alicia and Luna contemplated their separate grief. Gwen had a comforting arm around Alicia's shoulders but did not speak.
Into this moment of silence stepped Tom Riddle.
Gwen blushed and sat up straighter when Tom entered, and Alicia rolled her eyes at her friend. Luna merely tilted her head at him.
"Hello, Tom," she said. She wondered if he had sought her out, or if he knew her companions.
Tom answered her unspoken question when he ignored the other two girls to nod at Luna. A bright, false smile graced his features above his immaculate Hogwarts uniform. His eyes flickered briefly to the large, empty pink puffapod pods at her ears, but his voice was perfectly genial.
"Luna, wasn't it?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe to the compartment. "You didn't mention that you were going to be joining Hogwarts when we met, but I heard a rumor of a new student and though I would come and say hello." He finally glanced at Alicia and Gwen, still smiling. Gwen giggled at his glance, and Alicia offered a polite smile of her own. "I see you're already making friends," he said when he turned back to Luna.
"Oh yes, I hope so," she said, looking at the two other girls. They hadn't mentioned friendship yet, but they seemed like lovely people.
"Of course we'd like to be friends with you," Gwen said, smiling at Tom as much as at Luna. Tom smiled back at her.
"Well then, I will leave you girls to talk. As a Prefect, I should be doing rounds anyway." With that, Tom left.
Once he was gone and the door was shut again, Gwen turned to Luna with a large, false smile.
"So, how do you know Tom?" Gwen leaned forward in her seat, brown eyes wide with excitement as she questioned Luna.
"We met at the Leakey Cauldron last month," Luna said, tilting her head in curiosity. "He'll be in the same year as us, won't he?"
Gwen nodded and sighed. "He's so handsome." She giggled again. "My little brother's in Slytherin, and says that Tom Riddle is the smartest student in the whole House. I believe it, too." Alicia smiled at her friend.
"Gwen's had a crush on him since fourth year."
Gwen pouted at Alicia. "See if I tell you anymore secrets," she said, glaring, but Luna could hear laughter underneath her words.
"Oh?" Alicia replied, also close to laughter, "Was that supposed to be a secret? I figured you wanted everyone to know, with how obvious you are."
Gwen pouted for a few more seconds, before a smile overwhelmed the false glare. "Come on, Alicia, even you have to admit he's good looking," she said.
Alicia's mouth tightened and she shot Gwen a look. "Sure," she said, sounding entirely unconvinced. "If you say so." Luna could feel undercurrents to Alicia's words, but she could not figure out what they were. Alicia had a lot more layers that her small brunette friend, and she didn't wear them in her eyes as blatantly as Tom Riddle. Luna did hope they would become friends.
"Anyway," Alicia continued, before Gwen could spend any further time rhapsodizing about Tom Riddle, "How much do you know about Hogwarts? I assume your parents attended the school? Or were they homeschooled like you?"
"Yes, my parents went to Hogwarts," Luna said, thinking her father and mother from home. "They were both in Ravenclaw." Luna didn't know if the Ericsons had been in Ravenclaw, but it was the house her real parents had been in, like their daughter.
"That's brilliant!" Gwen said. "We're in Ravenclaw. It's the best house!"
Luna smiled. "I do hope I end up in Ravenclaw." There was certainly a bit of Gryffindor in her from the DA, and her plans in the past were likely ambitious enough for any Slytherin. She perhaps would not make a good Hufflepuff, as she had left her friends and family in the future to go on this quest and thus her loyalty might be questionable, but then again Hufflepuff had always believed in taking all students. Regardless, Luna hoped that in her heart she was still a Ravenclaw. The House of blue and bronze had not always treated her well, but it had still been home.
She tuned back in to Gwen talking, noting that the small girl had apparently forgotten all about Tom in her excitement for her house. "If you do get into Ravenclaw, we can show you around and help you get settled in," Gwen was saying. "Ravenclaw's a great house!"
"That would be very kind of you," Luna said. Gwen grinned.
"So what's your favorite subject?" Gwen asked. "If you're going to be in the smartest House, you must have a favorite subject!"
"Oh!" Luna said, warming up to the conversation, "I love Care of Magical Creatures. Someday I'd like to discover and write about unusual creatures for a magazine." She thought sadly of the years between her and the founding of the Quibbler, but at least fantastic creatures existed in any time period. She was about to launch into an explanation of Crumple Horned Snorkacks and her secondary desire to expose the Ministry's use of Heliopaths (as well as those brain things that had attacked Ronald at the Ministry in her fourth year, though she still wasn't sure what those were called) to keep detractors in line, but Gwen had started talking again.
"I'm sure you and Alicia will get on well enough, then," Gwen said, poking her friend. "I never took Care of Magical Creatures, but Alicia did."
Indeed, the redhead had perked up at the name of Luna's favorite class. "Third through fifth year has been all pretty standard stuff like crups, knarls, and flobberworms," Alicia told Luna, "but Professor Kettleburn promises the NEWT classes are much more exciting."
Luna thought back on the Skrewts that Hagrid had introduced them to in her third year. "Exciting can be nice," she said. "Though sometimes it an also be rather overwhelming. I hope Professor Kettleburn is a good teacher."
"He's great," Alicia told her, smiling softly.
"Not as great as Professor Dumbledore who teaches Transfiguration, though," Gwen cut in, unable to refrain from speaking for more than a few minutes at a time. Luna did mind switching topics, as Transfiguration was another class she had enjoyed. It would be fascinating to learn the subject from Albus Dumbledore himself.
"What classes are you taking this year?" Gwen asked.
Luna thought back on her previous year's classes, when she had been forced to learn about Muggles and Dark Arts from the Carrows, and then been kidnapped halfway through the year and lost the ability to take any classes. This year, the Snorkack had chosen her schedule, but it was one she would have chosen for herself so she was pleased with it.
"I will be taking Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Herbology, Astronomy, and of course Care of Magical Creatures," Luna said, listing all the classes in which she had excelled enough to take the NEWT levels.
Gwen grinned. "We'll get you in Ravenclaw yet," she said. "I'll be in all of your classes except Care of Magical Creatures, and I'm also taking Ancient Runes and Potions." She leaned in close to Luna as though about to impart a secret and added in a loud whisper, "Alicia's a slacker. She's only taking Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Potions."
Alicia frowned at Gwen. "I am not a slacker." Luna noted the genuine hurt in Alicia's voice, but Gwen either did not notice or chose to ignore it.
"You're only taking five classes!" she exclaimed, smirking at her friend. "I'd expect that sort of schedule from a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff, maybe, but we're Ravenclaws! You could have at least taken Potions with me."
Alicia crossed her arms over her chest in discomfort. "I couldn't and you know it," she said, throwing a nervous glance at Luna. "Professor Slughorn only takes people with E's or O's into his NEWT level potions class," she said to Luna, nearly whispering. Luna couldn't understand why Alicia should be ashamed of not getting high enough marks to stay in Potions.
"I received a P in Potions," she said. "It was a terribly dull class. Were you hoping for a career that requires Potions?"
"You got a P on an OWL?" Gwen exclaimed, cutting off any answer Alicia might have made. "Maybe you're not cut out for Ravenclaw after all. Even Alicia didn't actually fail any of her classes, though getting an A in Arithmancy and Potions was almost bad enough."
"Do you really have to tell everyone my scores?" Alicia asked, leaning her head against the window and closing her eyes in exasperation.
Gwen was saved from answering by the arrival of the Trolley Lady. It was a different woman from the one who sold sweets in Luna's original time, though they looked similar enough to be, perhaps, related.
Luna bought seven chocolate frogs and a box of every flavor beans. "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," she recited softly to herself. When Alicia looked at her, she offered the other girl a chocolate frog. Gwen, who was distracted buying candy from the Trolley, did not hear Luna's words. "Rowena Ravenclaw valued all kinds of knowledge," she said to Alicia, "not just knowledge of all things." Alicia looked confused by the pronouncement, but took the frog.
She sat back and slowly ate the frog as Gwen returned with her own candy. "I never get cauldron cakes or chocolate frogs," she said, dumping the candy next to her on the bench. "Mother thinks they're dreadfully tacky and bad for my complexion." Gwen apparently didn't share her mother's opinion, as she tore into the candy with rather a large amount of glee.
Even while eating candy, Gwen Flint managed to be more talkative than Hermione Granger on the topic of House Elves. The rest of the train ride passed with Gwen telling Luna tales of Hogwarts, of her family (mostly Slytherins, though there were plenty of Ravenclaws like her to liven up family gatherings), and of anything else that caught her mind. Alicia spoke little though Luna often noted the taller girl watching her. For her part, Luna was content to listen to her new friend talk, while drifting off in her own thoughts of Crumple Horned Snorkacks and Tom Riddle.
She was almost surprised when the train finally stopped, and she looked out the widow to see the Hogsmeade station lit by moonlight.
Hogwarts was so close, and with it Tom Riddle. Tomorrow, she determined as she stepped off the train with Gwen and Alicia, she would speak to Tom again. He frightened her, but she had a job to do. She would befriend Tom Riddle and prove to him that the world could be a good place, one worth saving instead of destroying.
If he could not be convinced to turn away from the darkness that already hung so closely around him, then. Well. Luna did not want to think about then unless she had to.