Hogsmeade Weekend -- October 5th
Luna likes the Hog’s Head.
Hogwarts students tend to gravitate toward the Three Broomsticks on Hogsmeade weekends. Understandable, of course. It’s bright and cozy and cheery, and Madame Rosmerta runs a tidy establishment. Luna likes it herself on occasion.
But the other side of the coin is that, with all the students stopping in, it can be quite loud. And crowded. It can be difficult to find a seat, especially when you don’t have friends to save a place for you. (And while Luna doesn’t tend to dwell on the fact that she doesn’t have a knot of friends to squash in around a table and share a butterbeer with, it’s not always nice to be so practically reminded of the fact.)
The Hog’s Head might not be bright. Or cozy. Or cheery. God knows, it isn’t clean, and Mr. Aberforth looks perpetually grouchy. But it’s much calmer. And there are so many interesting things to see there. Not all of them pleasant, mind you. But interesting.
But nothing is as strange as what happened today.
Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley arrived first, all of them looking slightly jumpy. That would have been odd enough.
But then others followed. The rest of the Weasleys. Neville Longbottom. The Patil twins. Anthony Goldstein, Cho Chang, Terry Boot, Michael Corner…. Over two dozen Hogwarts students, all told, before the trickle finally stopped. Most curious.
No one seemed to mind, or even really notice, when Luna drifted over to join them.
What Hermione Granger and, after some prodding, Harry Potter had to say was definitely intriguing. Frightening. Disturbing. And, in Luna’s estimation, made sound sense. They weren’t being taught Defense Against the Dark Arts well at all, and if there were ever a time when they needed to know that branch of magic, it was now.
It wouldn’t be easy. But it would be right.
Luna didn’t have to give it a second thought.
She’s in.
Hogwarts students tend to gravitate toward the Three Broomsticks on Hogsmeade weekends. Understandable, of course. It’s bright and cozy and cheery, and Madame Rosmerta runs a tidy establishment. Luna likes it herself on occasion.
But the other side of the coin is that, with all the students stopping in, it can be quite loud. And crowded. It can be difficult to find a seat, especially when you don’t have friends to save a place for you. (And while Luna doesn’t tend to dwell on the fact that she doesn’t have a knot of friends to squash in around a table and share a butterbeer with, it’s not always nice to be so practically reminded of the fact.)
The Hog’s Head might not be bright. Or cozy. Or cheery. God knows, it isn’t clean, and Mr. Aberforth looks perpetually grouchy. But it’s much calmer. And there are so many interesting things to see there. Not all of them pleasant, mind you. But interesting.
But nothing is as strange as what happened today.
Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley arrived first, all of them looking slightly jumpy. That would have been odd enough.
But then others followed. The rest of the Weasleys. Neville Longbottom. The Patil twins. Anthony Goldstein, Cho Chang, Terry Boot, Michael Corner…. Over two dozen Hogwarts students, all told, before the trickle finally stopped. Most curious.
No one seemed to mind, or even really notice, when Luna drifted over to join them.
What Hermione Granger and, after some prodding, Harry Potter had to say was definitely intriguing. Frightening. Disturbing. And, in Luna’s estimation, made sound sense. They weren’t being taught Defense Against the Dark Arts well at all, and if there were ever a time when they needed to know that branch of magic, it was now.
It wouldn’t be easy. But it would be right.
Luna didn’t have to give it a second thought.
She’s in.