(no subject)
Luna isn’t entirely sure how she wound up here.
And by ‘here’ she means sharing a train carriage with five Gryffindors.
Not that she minds, of course. Though she calculates that there is now something like a 90% chance of a duel breaking out in her carriage between London and Hogwarts. Duels just seem to go hand-in-hand with Gryffindors.
Especially these Gryffindors.
The only one she really knows is Ginny, who is in her year. Then there’s a fifth year boy whom she did not know, but does now - Neville Longbottom. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger she knows by reputation, along with (of course) Harry Potter.
Luna has thought about Harry Potter so much, off and on, this summer that it’s a little bit strange to suddenly be sitting across a train carriage from him. She’s never really had the opportunity to study him up close before, and though she has little basis for comparison, Luna believes that the summer has worn on him a bit. He seems…..not so much out of sorts, but as if his sorts have been jumbled and all turned sideways.
She wouldn’t be surprised if the nargles are working on him too, attracted by all the confusion. They’re like that.
It’s an instructive trip, that train ride to Hogwarts. Luna learns a great deal.
She learns that Neville Longbottom is a bit clumsy, but seems to have a healthy degree of intellectual curiosity (poking a Mimbulus Mimbletonia plant with a quill). She learns that Stinksap has a surprisingly piney aftertaste. She learns that Ron Weasley is funny, and that ‘baboon’s backside’ may be the most amusing combination of words she’s ever heard. She learns that Hermione Granger is quite narrow-minded, and Luna doesn’t think she likes her much (which feels odd, given that the older version she met in Milliways had been quite friendly). She learns, she’s fairly certain, that Harry Potter likes Cho Chang, and Cho just might return the feeling.
That should prove to be interesting.
There is not, in fact, a duel during the trip, even though Draco Malfoy does turn up to try to provoke one. Luna is almost a little disappointed. She’s never been in a duel before. And while it’s probably not a comfortable or agreeable experience, it would certainly be exciting.
But while insults are flung, none of the Gryffindors go for their wands, at least not overtly. And to Luna, that itself is worth note.
By the time they arrive at Hogwarts, Luna feels almost as if she has completed an introductory class in the course of a single train ride. A class in Harry Potter and his friends. She knows so much now that she did not know when she first boarded the train.
Harry Potter, it seems, is learning some new things too.
Luna walks quietly up beside him when she sees him staring at the thestral harnessed to the coach that is waiting to take them the rest of the way up to the castle.
If there had ever been any doubt as to what Harry had seen at the end of last year, this would lay it to rest.
“It’s all right,” she tells him, once the others have boarded the coach. “You’re not going mad or anything. I can see them too.”
The, “Can you?” she receives in response sounds as if he can’t quite decide if her commiseration is reassuring or not.
“Oh yes,” she says. “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.”
Neither one of them says anything else about it on the drive up to the castle, and when they arrive, Luna leaves the Gryffindors behind to take her place at the Ravenclaw table.
The last time she sat at this table, it was to hear her headmaster say that Voldemort had returned.
And she finds that the feeling that had taken root on that day has grown enough to throw its shade over the entire Great Hall, even before the Sorting Hat begins its song.
Hogwarts has changed.
And Luna knows that when the world around you begins to change, more often than not, you have to learn to change along with it in order to live in it.
And by ‘here’ she means sharing a train carriage with five Gryffindors.
Not that she minds, of course. Though she calculates that there is now something like a 90% chance of a duel breaking out in her carriage between London and Hogwarts. Duels just seem to go hand-in-hand with Gryffindors.
Especially these Gryffindors.
The only one she really knows is Ginny, who is in her year. Then there’s a fifth year boy whom she did not know, but does now - Neville Longbottom. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger she knows by reputation, along with (of course) Harry Potter.
Luna has thought about Harry Potter so much, off and on, this summer that it’s a little bit strange to suddenly be sitting across a train carriage from him. She’s never really had the opportunity to study him up close before, and though she has little basis for comparison, Luna believes that the summer has worn on him a bit. He seems…..not so much out of sorts, but as if his sorts have been jumbled and all turned sideways.
She wouldn’t be surprised if the nargles are working on him too, attracted by all the confusion. They’re like that.
It’s an instructive trip, that train ride to Hogwarts. Luna learns a great deal.
She learns that Neville Longbottom is a bit clumsy, but seems to have a healthy degree of intellectual curiosity (poking a Mimbulus Mimbletonia plant with a quill). She learns that Stinksap has a surprisingly piney aftertaste. She learns that Ron Weasley is funny, and that ‘baboon’s backside’ may be the most amusing combination of words she’s ever heard. She learns that Hermione Granger is quite narrow-minded, and Luna doesn’t think she likes her much (which feels odd, given that the older version she met in Milliways had been quite friendly). She learns, she’s fairly certain, that Harry Potter likes Cho Chang, and Cho just might return the feeling.
That should prove to be interesting.
There is not, in fact, a duel during the trip, even though Draco Malfoy does turn up to try to provoke one. Luna is almost a little disappointed. She’s never been in a duel before. And while it’s probably not a comfortable or agreeable experience, it would certainly be exciting.
But while insults are flung, none of the Gryffindors go for their wands, at least not overtly. And to Luna, that itself is worth note.
By the time they arrive at Hogwarts, Luna feels almost as if she has completed an introductory class in the course of a single train ride. A class in Harry Potter and his friends. She knows so much now that she did not know when she first boarded the train.
Harry Potter, it seems, is learning some new things too.
Luna walks quietly up beside him when she sees him staring at the thestral harnessed to the coach that is waiting to take them the rest of the way up to the castle.
If there had ever been any doubt as to what Harry had seen at the end of last year, this would lay it to rest.
“It’s all right,” she tells him, once the others have boarded the coach. “You’re not going mad or anything. I can see them too.”
The, “Can you?” she receives in response sounds as if he can’t quite decide if her commiseration is reassuring or not.
“Oh yes,” she says. “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.”
Neither one of them says anything else about it on the drive up to the castle, and when they arrive, Luna leaves the Gryffindors behind to take her place at the Ravenclaw table.
The last time she sat at this table, it was to hear her headmaster say that Voldemort had returned.
And she finds that the feeling that had taken root on that day has grown enough to throw its shade over the entire Great Hall, even before the Sorting Hat begins its song.
Hogwarts has changed.
And Luna knows that when the world around you begins to change, more often than not, you have to learn to change along with it in order to live in it.