Food for Thought (2/?)
As the Hogwarts Express approached the station in Hogsmeade, Harry was formulating his plan of action. He knew that in order to have peace of mind and maybe less glares from Ginny, he would have to talk to her as soon as possible. He decided that if could be would talk to her right before or right after the Sorting. Thoughts of the Great Hall had Harry momentarily paralyzed with sorrow. So many dying and dead had lain in that hall. That hall represented so much for Harry now. It had been where he had been sorted, where so he had seen Dumbledore for the first time. Dumbledore, who was now gone, dead like all the rest. The Great Hall was where he had defeated Voldemort. He was not sure if was going to be able to step into the room without seeing all the devastation, without seeing it as it was that final day. But he was going to have to try. He was also going to have to sit three times a day for the next school year.
Harry looked around him and realized that he was not the only one who was going to have relive all those troublesome memories. Every one of his friends was going to have memories that would make it close to impossible to step into the Great Hall at all. He was going to have to be the brave one. They were all going to have to be brave.
Harry wondered how he been thinking of something so simple as talking to Ginny about breaking up, when he and everyone he knew was going to have to deal with the war and the memories that one more year at Hogwarts would cause to be in the forefront of everyone’s minds. Hogwarts was going to reopen a lot of wounds that were not yet healed. And in some cases, he looked at Ron and Ginny sitting next to each other, salt some wounds that had not even begun to heal.
These thoughts put everything into better perspective and he knew that he could do it. He could tell Ginny that they were not going to get back together. He was going to tell her that he was gay. He was going to encourage her to give Neville a chance. Neville who had always looked at her in that way that would melt your heart. Neville was the one who had stood with her in the rebellion against Voldemort’s minions at Hogwarts last year. Neville had been at her side, had let her stand by his side, they had fought together. And Neville still looked at her with such love and admiration in his stare that Harry wondered at the fact that no one else had notices before. Harry must have noticed that look more than once; at least once before now.
Yes, Harry would talk to Ginny and hope that after he confessed everything he had to, he and Ginny could still be friends. She would always be like a sister to him.
Alright, so that was settled. Now all he had to do was get though the Sorting and the feast the followed without breaking down.
~*~*~*~*~
Draco decided that because he did not have any of his friends left to him at Hogwarts he was going to try to make new friends. Friends that would help him get close to Potter. Earlier when he had been looking for a compartment of his own he had spotted Potter and his friends. Now he considered which one of those close to Potter would be the easiest to befriend.
‘Ron Weasley was out of the question,’ Draco thought with a sneer. ‘There was no way that peon would ever do as a friend of a Malfoy. Granger was out too, she was too smart for her own good; she would almost immediately figure out what Draco was up to and somehow put a stop to it or something. The Weaslette was a big resounding NO.’ And we all know why. ‘Longbottom he could work with, but with past mistrust it would take a long time. He wanted to spend his time chasing Potter and then once he got Potter, he wanted that time being spent on more interesting activities.’ Draco spent a minute or two contemplating such activities. Then he snapped out of it.
“I am going to have to keep such thoughts to a minimum if I am going to accomplish this.” Draco realized that he had spoken out loud and was glad that he was alone.
‘Okay, to that leaves Lovegood. She seems friendly enough. I am sure that I could get her to be my friend. And she might prove to be full of information; after all, she is a Ravenclaw. There must be a reason the she was sorted into that particular house.’
As the train slows and comes to a stop, Draco stands and grabs his belongings. He makes his way the nearest exit and spots Potter and his posse. He notices that Lovegood and Potter are the last two from the group to exit the train. A plan starts to form in his head as he watches Lovegood struggle with her trunk and bulging handbag, a weird looking bad, green, it would seem. It shines. As Draco gets closer he sees that its a snake skin bag. The pattern on the bag is strangely and creepily familiar. ‘No, it could not possibly be…’ Draco gapes in horrified astonishment. ‘There is no way that Lovegood would make a handbag of the Dark Lord’s familiar.’ As Draco thinks that he remembers that this is Loony Lovegood that he was looking at and of course she would make a handbag out of the most terrifying snake in all of world.
Draco shudders and almost rethinks his plan, but decided that he needs an in, and this is the perfect opportunity. Draco rushes forward. He watches as Granger, Weasley, the Weaslette and Longbottom board a carriage. There is only room enough for four people in those contraptions. For that he is grateful. As Potter and Lovegood are about to board the penultimate carriage with two other students that Draco does not recognize he slams straight into Lovegood. Her handbag goes flying from her shoulder, her trunk falls from her hand and spills open, and then the handbag lands a few feet away and miraculously nothing spills forth from it.
Draco looks up at Potter with a horrified look on his face, then back at Lovegood. He manages to hide a smirk as he notices that Potter goes from surprise to angry as he sees Draco. But Draco does not spare him another look.
“I must apologize for my clumsiness. I was not looking; or rather I was trying not to look.” Draco addresses Lovegood. “Let me help you.” Draco noticed that the carriage that Potter and Lovegood were going to climb into departed at that moment and the next one approached.
He begins to help Lovegood stuff her things back into her trunk. Just was he was finishing and closing the trunk, securing the lock, Draco notices a pair of trainers are now by his side. Slowly he looks up.
Potter was even better looking than Draco remembered. He had grown to an impressive high; he must not have noticed when he was tucked into him on that broom months ago. The plain white collared shirt that he wore did not to justice to the wide set of his shoulders, of to those arms that could probably break Draco’s. His gaze reached Potter’s eyes and he looked away. Unfortunately he looked right at Potter’s crotch and that suffused all of his body with a blush and made him unconsciously lick his lips. He cleared his throat and quickly stood.
“Potter.” He tried to keep the past sneer out of his voice. He also tried to keep his lust and desire out of it for he did not want to scare Potter away this early in the game. Even so, the one word, the two syllables came out as a sort of husk.
“Malfoy.” It was the same; it was just like old times. Yet Draco did not feel the same things he used to feel when Potter and he had a confrontation. This one was different. There was so much in just this, these two words that was not there before. Draco did not want to fight. And from what he could read in Potter’s stare neither did he. They just kept staring. Draco felt like he was going to drawn in a sea of green. Even as he though this, he knew how clichéd that was, but that did not stop the feeling from being there.
“What did you mean; you were trying not to see?”
Draco looked towards the direction the question was coming from. “Sorry, what?”
“You said that you were trying not to look. What did you mean by that?” Lovegood was looking at him with curious eyes. Lovegood was looking at him. Right, he had a plan.
“I merely meant that I did not want to have to see the creatures that pull the carriages. The thestrals; they terrify me.” Draco knew he had to be as honest as possible in order not to draw suspicion from Potter or Lovegood.
“That is most unfortunate. They are truly very gentle creatures. They will not harm you.” Lovegood turned away from Draco and Potter and walked over to where her purse had landed, near a thestral’s leg.
Draco gulped and looked away. “I am not afraid that they will harm me. It goes much deeper than that.”
“Ah, I see. Well, you have to learn to face those fears. Look, Draco, they are such beautiful creatures. They will not harm you. They will not herald your death, or anyone else’s.” Lovegood was now standing next to the creature’s head. She slowly brought her hand up and began to stroke it’s mane. “Come, Draco. Come and see how gentle it really is.”
Draco was mesmerized by her voice and horrified by her movements. He could not look away, but he could not do as she asked. His legs would not carry him forward.
“Approach, stroke his mane as I do now.” Lovegood reached out her hand.
“I cannot.”
“Of course you can. There is nothing stopping you. See, he is not harming me. I am not falling to your feet, dead. Come.” Draco began to shake his head. “Would you do it for a copy of the Quibbler?” Draco smiled and shook his head. “Would you do it if I promised to be your friend? What if I said I would help you? Would you do it then?” Draco wanted that. He was sure he did. He took a few steps forward. When he was but a foot away, he reached out and took her still outstretched hand. Lovegood gave his hand a squeeze, smiled at him then brought their clasped hand to the mane of the thestral. It was softer than it looked, and very long. Lovegood took her hand from his and he began to gently stroke it. It was inky black and oh so soft. And for a moment he imagined that it was Harry’s hair that he was stroking.
After another moment, his hand fell away and he looked up. Lovegood gave him a knowing smile, and then she turned away and walked back to her trunk. “We should be hurry or we will miss the Sorting. All the other students are already there. Harry, help me with my trunk.”
Draco snapped out of whatever spell had just been in and stepped back towards his trunk. He helped Potter load Luna’s trunk, and then they both loaded his. The three of them stepped into the last carriage and they were off.
Well, even though it had not gone exactly as he planned, he was now friends with Lovegood.
“Oh and Draco, you can call me Luna.” Lovegood, no, Luna, seemed to read his thoughts. He gave her a small smile and looked over at Potter. He was giving him a thoughtful look. At least it was not one of suspicion.
TBC
Harry looked around him and realized that he was not the only one who was going to have relive all those troublesome memories. Every one of his friends was going to have memories that would make it close to impossible to step into the Great Hall at all. He was going to have to be the brave one. They were all going to have to be brave.
Harry wondered how he been thinking of something so simple as talking to Ginny about breaking up, when he and everyone he knew was going to have to deal with the war and the memories that one more year at Hogwarts would cause to be in the forefront of everyone’s minds. Hogwarts was going to reopen a lot of wounds that were not yet healed. And in some cases, he looked at Ron and Ginny sitting next to each other, salt some wounds that had not even begun to heal.
These thoughts put everything into better perspective and he knew that he could do it. He could tell Ginny that they were not going to get back together. He was going to tell her that he was gay. He was going to encourage her to give Neville a chance. Neville who had always looked at her in that way that would melt your heart. Neville was the one who had stood with her in the rebellion against Voldemort’s minions at Hogwarts last year. Neville had been at her side, had let her stand by his side, they had fought together. And Neville still looked at her with such love and admiration in his stare that Harry wondered at the fact that no one else had notices before. Harry must have noticed that look more than once; at least once before now.
Yes, Harry would talk to Ginny and hope that after he confessed everything he had to, he and Ginny could still be friends. She would always be like a sister to him.
Alright, so that was settled. Now all he had to do was get though the Sorting and the feast the followed without breaking down.
~*~*~*~*~
Draco decided that because he did not have any of his friends left to him at Hogwarts he was going to try to make new friends. Friends that would help him get close to Potter. Earlier when he had been looking for a compartment of his own he had spotted Potter and his friends. Now he considered which one of those close to Potter would be the easiest to befriend.
‘Ron Weasley was out of the question,’ Draco thought with a sneer. ‘There was no way that peon would ever do as a friend of a Malfoy. Granger was out too, she was too smart for her own good; she would almost immediately figure out what Draco was up to and somehow put a stop to it or something. The Weaslette was a big resounding NO.’ And we all know why. ‘Longbottom he could work with, but with past mistrust it would take a long time. He wanted to spend his time chasing Potter and then once he got Potter, he wanted that time being spent on more interesting activities.’ Draco spent a minute or two contemplating such activities. Then he snapped out of it.
“I am going to have to keep such thoughts to a minimum if I am going to accomplish this.” Draco realized that he had spoken out loud and was glad that he was alone.
‘Okay, to that leaves Lovegood. She seems friendly enough. I am sure that I could get her to be my friend. And she might prove to be full of information; after all, she is a Ravenclaw. There must be a reason the she was sorted into that particular house.’
As the train slows and comes to a stop, Draco stands and grabs his belongings. He makes his way the nearest exit and spots Potter and his posse. He notices that Lovegood and Potter are the last two from the group to exit the train. A plan starts to form in his head as he watches Lovegood struggle with her trunk and bulging handbag, a weird looking bad, green, it would seem. It shines. As Draco gets closer he sees that its a snake skin bag. The pattern on the bag is strangely and creepily familiar. ‘No, it could not possibly be…’ Draco gapes in horrified astonishment. ‘There is no way that Lovegood would make a handbag of the Dark Lord’s familiar.’ As Draco thinks that he remembers that this is Loony Lovegood that he was looking at and of course she would make a handbag out of the most terrifying snake in all of world.
Draco shudders and almost rethinks his plan, but decided that he needs an in, and this is the perfect opportunity. Draco rushes forward. He watches as Granger, Weasley, the Weaslette and Longbottom board a carriage. There is only room enough for four people in those contraptions. For that he is grateful. As Potter and Lovegood are about to board the penultimate carriage with two other students that Draco does not recognize he slams straight into Lovegood. Her handbag goes flying from her shoulder, her trunk falls from her hand and spills open, and then the handbag lands a few feet away and miraculously nothing spills forth from it.
Draco looks up at Potter with a horrified look on his face, then back at Lovegood. He manages to hide a smirk as he notices that Potter goes from surprise to angry as he sees Draco. But Draco does not spare him another look.
“I must apologize for my clumsiness. I was not looking; or rather I was trying not to look.” Draco addresses Lovegood. “Let me help you.” Draco noticed that the carriage that Potter and Lovegood were going to climb into departed at that moment and the next one approached.
He begins to help Lovegood stuff her things back into her trunk. Just was he was finishing and closing the trunk, securing the lock, Draco notices a pair of trainers are now by his side. Slowly he looks up.
Potter was even better looking than Draco remembered. He had grown to an impressive high; he must not have noticed when he was tucked into him on that broom months ago. The plain white collared shirt that he wore did not to justice to the wide set of his shoulders, of to those arms that could probably break Draco’s. His gaze reached Potter’s eyes and he looked away. Unfortunately he looked right at Potter’s crotch and that suffused all of his body with a blush and made him unconsciously lick his lips. He cleared his throat and quickly stood.
“Potter.” He tried to keep the past sneer out of his voice. He also tried to keep his lust and desire out of it for he did not want to scare Potter away this early in the game. Even so, the one word, the two syllables came out as a sort of husk.
“Malfoy.” It was the same; it was just like old times. Yet Draco did not feel the same things he used to feel when Potter and he had a confrontation. This one was different. There was so much in just this, these two words that was not there before. Draco did not want to fight. And from what he could read in Potter’s stare neither did he. They just kept staring. Draco felt like he was going to drawn in a sea of green. Even as he though this, he knew how clichéd that was, but that did not stop the feeling from being there.
“What did you mean; you were trying not to see?”
Draco looked towards the direction the question was coming from. “Sorry, what?”
“You said that you were trying not to look. What did you mean by that?” Lovegood was looking at him with curious eyes. Lovegood was looking at him. Right, he had a plan.
“I merely meant that I did not want to have to see the creatures that pull the carriages. The thestrals; they terrify me.” Draco knew he had to be as honest as possible in order not to draw suspicion from Potter or Lovegood.
“That is most unfortunate. They are truly very gentle creatures. They will not harm you.” Lovegood turned away from Draco and Potter and walked over to where her purse had landed, near a thestral’s leg.
Draco gulped and looked away. “I am not afraid that they will harm me. It goes much deeper than that.”
“Ah, I see. Well, you have to learn to face those fears. Look, Draco, they are such beautiful creatures. They will not harm you. They will not herald your death, or anyone else’s.” Lovegood was now standing next to the creature’s head. She slowly brought her hand up and began to stroke it’s mane. “Come, Draco. Come and see how gentle it really is.”
Draco was mesmerized by her voice and horrified by her movements. He could not look away, but he could not do as she asked. His legs would not carry him forward.
“Approach, stroke his mane as I do now.” Lovegood reached out her hand.
“I cannot.”
“Of course you can. There is nothing stopping you. See, he is not harming me. I am not falling to your feet, dead. Come.” Draco began to shake his head. “Would you do it for a copy of the Quibbler?” Draco smiled and shook his head. “Would you do it if I promised to be your friend? What if I said I would help you? Would you do it then?” Draco wanted that. He was sure he did. He took a few steps forward. When he was but a foot away, he reached out and took her still outstretched hand. Lovegood gave his hand a squeeze, smiled at him then brought their clasped hand to the mane of the thestral. It was softer than it looked, and very long. Lovegood took her hand from his and he began to gently stroke it. It was inky black and oh so soft. And for a moment he imagined that it was Harry’s hair that he was stroking.
After another moment, his hand fell away and he looked up. Lovegood gave him a knowing smile, and then she turned away and walked back to her trunk. “We should be hurry or we will miss the Sorting. All the other students are already there. Harry, help me with my trunk.”
Draco snapped out of whatever spell had just been in and stepped back towards his trunk. He helped Potter load Luna’s trunk, and then they both loaded his. The three of them stepped into the last carriage and they were off.
Well, even though it had not gone exactly as he planned, he was now friends with Lovegood.
“Oh and Draco, you can call me Luna.” Lovegood, no, Luna, seemed to read his thoughts. He gave her a small smile and looked over at Potter. He was giving him a thoughtful look. At least it was not one of suspicion.
TBC