Raised By Wolfstar: Slytherin Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

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Chapter Ten: Luna Lovegood

Harry had a troubled night’s sleep. His mom and dad wove in and out of his dreams, never speaking; Mrs Weasley sobbed over Kreacher’s dead body watched by Theodore and Canini, whose faces were missing, and yet again Harry found himself walking down a corridor ending in a locked door. He awoke abruptly with his scar prickling to find Theodore shaking him and Ron getting dressed in the background.

'Wake up, we're going to be late, Kreacher stole all the alarms!'

There was a lot of commotion in the house. From what he heard as he dressed at top speed, Harry gathered that Fred and George had bewitched their trunks to fly downstairs to save the bother of carrying them, with the result that they had hurtled straight into Ginny and knocked her down two flights of stairs into the hall; Mrs Black and Mrs Weasley were both screaming at the top of their voices.

'—COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS—'

'—FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS—'

Remus came rushing up the stairs, Theodore's toad in his hand. 'Are you all packed, I don't want anything left behind. Also where is Theodore, I managed to find Phileas.'

'Nearly, and Theodore's in the kitchen I think—Ginny all right?' Harry asked, shoving on his glasses.

'She's all good, Mrs Weasley healed her up,' said Remus slightly out of breath. 'But unless Sturgis Podmore shows up soon Mad-Eye isn't going to let you leave as we'll be a guard short.'

'Guard?' said Harry. 'We have to go to King’s Cross with a guard?'

'The guards are for you, as well as your siblings, I begged with Dumbledore but he said it's still to risky for me and Sirius to be out so we can't be the ones who escort you.'

'Why?' said Harry irritably. 'I thought Voldemort was supposed to be lying low, or are you telling me he’s going to jump out from behind a dustbin to try and do me in?'

‘I agree that its a little overkill, but now that we know Death Eaters like Lucius will be about, Mad-Eye and Dumbeldore don't want to take any chances. Here, take Phileas to Theo, I have to make sure your sister has her supply of potions packed.'

'WILL YOU LOT GET DOWN HERE NOW, PLEASE!' Mrs Weasley bellowed and Harry seized Hedwig, stuffed her unceremoniously into her cage, and set off downstairs, dragging his trunk and broomcase, Canini and Remus not far behind.

Mrs Black’s portrait was howling with rage but nobody was bothering to close the curtains over her; all the noise in the hall was bound to rouse her again anyway.

'Harry, Theo, Cani, you’re to come with me and Tonks,' shouted Mrs Weasley over the repeated screeches of 'MUDBLOODS! SCUM! CREATURES OF DIRT!'

'Leave your trunks, broomcase, and owl, Alastor’s going to deal with the luggage...Oh, for heaven’s sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said no!'

A bearlike black dog had appeared at Harry’s side as Harry clambered over the various trunks cluttering the hall to get to Mrs Weasley.

'Oh honestly...' said Mrs Weasley despairingly, 'well, on your own head be it!'

She wrenched open the front door and stepped out into the weak September sunlight. Remus quickly pulled Harry, Canini, and Theodore into a hug before pushing them and the dog out the door. The door slammed behind them and Mrs Black’s screeches were cut off instantly.

'Where’s Tonks?' Harry said, looking around as they went down the stone steps of number twelve, which vanished the moment they reached the pavement.

'She’s waiting for us just up here,' said Mrs Weasley stiffly, averting her eyes from the lolloping black dog beside Harry.

An old woman greeted them on the corner. She had tightly curled gray hair and wore a purple hat shaped like a porkpie.

'Wotcher, Harry,' she said, winking. 'Better hurry up, hadn’t we, Molly?' she added, checking her watch.

'I know, I know,' moaned Mrs Weasley, lengthening her stride, 'but Mad-Eye wanted to wait for Sturgis...If only Arthur could have got us cars from the Ministry again...but Fudge wouldn’t let him borrow so much as an empty ink bottle these days...How Muggles can stand traveling without magic...'

But the great black dog gave a joyful bark and gamboled around them, snapping at pigeons, and chasing its own tail. Harry couldn’t help laughing. Sirius had been trapped inside for a very long time. Mrs Weasley pursed her lips in an almost Aunt Petunia-ish way.

It took them twenty minutes to reach King’s Cross by foot and nothing more eventful happened during that time than Sirius scaring a couple of cats for Harry and his siblings entertainment. Once inside the station they lingered casually beside the barrier between platforms nine and ten until the coast was clear, then each of them leaned against it in turn and fell easily through onto platform nine and three quarters, where the Hogwarts Express stood belching sooty steam over a platform packed with departing students and their families. Harry inhaled the familiar smell and felt his spirits soar...He was really going back...

'I hope the others make it in time,' said Mrs Weasley anxiously, staring behind her at the wrought-iron arch spanning the platform, through which new arrivals would come.

'Cute dog, Harry!' called a girl with long blonde hair.

'Thanks, Daphne,' said Harry, grinning, as Sirius wagged his tail frantically.

'Oh good,' said Mrs Weasley, sounding relieved, 'here’s Alastor with the luggage, look...'

A porter’s cap pulled low over his mismatched eyes, Moody came limping through the archway pushing a cart full of their trunks.

'All okay,' he muttered to Mrs Weasley and Tonks. 'Don’t think we were followed...'

Seconds later, Mr Weasley emerged onto the platform with Ron and Ginny. They had almost unloaded Moody’s luggage cart when Fred and George, turned up with Bill.

'No trouble?' growled Moody.

'All good,' said Bill.

'I’ll still be reporting Sturgis to Dumbledore,' said Moody. 'That’s the second time he’s not turned up in a week. Getting as unreliable as Mundungus.'

'I want you all to be safe, but also remember to have as much fun as possible,' said Tonks to all the kids, she gave Canini a hug, and then faced Harry directly. 'I know things haven't been how you'd like them to be, but you are a symbol of hope, and hope is something a lot of people need right now Harry, so try your best to keep hope alive, ok?'

'I will try,' said Harry, 'thank you Tonks.'

'Yeah, keep your head down and your eyes peeled,' said Moody, shaking Harry’s hand. 'And don’t forget, all of you—careful what you put in writing. If in doubt, don’t put it in a letter at all.'

'We’ll see you soon, I expect,' said Tonks.

A warning whistle sounded; the students still on the platform started hurrying onto the train.

'Quick, quick,' said Mrs Weasley distractedly, hugging them at random and catching Harry twice. 'Write...Be good...If you’ve forgotten anything we’ll send it on...Onto the train, now, hurry...'

For one brief moment, the great black dog reared onto its hind legs and placed its front paws on Harry's, than Canini and Theodore's shoulders, then Mrs Weasley shoved them away toward the train door hissing, 'For heaven’s sake act more like a dog, Sirius!'

'See you!' Harry called out of the open window as the train began to move, while Theodore, Canini, and the Weasleys waved beside him. The figures of Tonks, Bill, Moody, and Mr and Mrs Weasley shrank rapidly but the black dog was bounding alongside the window, wagging its tail; blurred people on the platform were laughing to see it chasing the train, and then they turned the corner, and Sirius was gone.

'I hope Sirius' risk was worth it,' said Canini in a worried voice.

'Not a single bad thing happened, Cani,' said Theodore. 'And I think he really needed to stretch his legs.'

'Well,' said Fred, clapping his hands together, 'can’t stand around chatting all day, we’ve got business to discuss with Lee. See you later,' and he and George disappeared down the corridor to the right.

The train was gathering still more speed, so that the houses outside the window flashed past and they swayed where they stood. Ron, Ginny, and Canini went to go find their Gryffindor and Hufflepuff friends, leaving just Harry and Theodore.

'Shall we go and find our friends, then?' Harry asked Theodore.

'Yes, let go find them.'

It wasn't long before they found the right compartment, the only problem was it was already full with Allison, Tracey, Terence, and—'

'Colin!' said Theodore in relief. His boyfriend immediately jumped up from his seat and gave Theodore a big hug.

'What happened!' Colin Creevey asked, 'Allison wrote me twenty days ago saying you were ok, but I was worried sick.'

The two sat down with the others in the compartment, but there was no way a sixth person could comfortably sit with them.

'Harry?' said Tracey, 'are you joining us?'

'The compartment is full, I'll go see if my sister's has room.'

'You don't have to,' said Terence while holding Tracey's hand, 'I could go hang out with Adrian Pucey.'

But Harry didn't want to split up his friends who hadn't seen each other in months, 'Its ok, I'll see you guys when we arrive.'

'Ok,' said Allison quietly.

So Harry picked up his broomcase and Hedwig’s cage in one hand and the handle of his trunk in the other. He struggled off down the corridor, peering through the glass-paneled doors into the compartments they passed, which were already full. Harry could not help noticing that a lot of people stared back at him with great interest and that several of them nudged their neighbors and pointed him out. After he had met this behavior in five consecutive carriages he remembered that the Daily Prophet had been telling its readers all summer what a lying show-off he was. He wondered bleakly whether the people now staring and whispering believed the stories.

In front of the very last carriage he met Neville Longbottom, Harry’s fellow fifth-year and an old friend, his round face shining with the effort of pulling his trunk along and maintaining a one-handed grip on his struggling toad, Trevor.

'Hi, Harry,' he panted. 'Everywhere’s full...I can’t find a seat...'

Harry looked into the compartment next to them, Ginny was in the carriage along with a friend of Ginny's Harry had only met a couple times.

'This one has room for both of us,' said Harry, a bit confused.

Neville mumbled something about not wanting to disturb anyone.

'They won't mind,' said Harry. 'Come on.'

He slid the door open and pulled his trunk inside it. Neville followed.

'Hi, Ginny,' said Harry. 'Is it ok if we join you guys?'

Ginny nodded, then her friend beside the window looked up. She had straggly, waist-length, dirty-blond hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. Harry barely knew her and was embarrassed to admit he had forgotten her name since they had last met at the World Cup. The girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of butterbeer caps, or that she was reading a magazine upside down. Her eyes ranged over Neville and came to rest on Harry. She nodded.

'Thanks,' said Harry, 'everywhere is full.'

Harry and Neville stowed their trunks and Hedwig’s cage in the luggage rack and sat down. The girl watched them over her upside-down magazine, which was called The Quibbler. She did not seem to need to blink as much as normal humans. She stared a bit at Harry, who had taken the seat opposite her, and now felt a bit uncomfortable.

'Had a good summer, Luna?' Ginny asked. Harry now remembered, her name was Luna Lovegood.

'Yes,' said Luna dreamily, without taking her eyes off Harry. 'Yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know. It's been a while Harry Potter,' she added.

'Yes, its been a busy year,' said Harry.

Neville chuckled. Luna turned her pale eyes upon him instead. 'And I don’t know who you are.'

'I’m nobody,' said Neville hurriedly.

'No you’re not,' said Ginny sharply. 'Neville Longbottom—Luna Lovegood. Luna’s in my year, but in Ravenclaw.'

'Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure,' said Luna in a singsong voice.

She raised her upside-down magazine high enough to hide her face and fell silent. Harry and Neville looked at each other with their eyebrows raised. Ginny suppressed a giggle.

The train rattled onward, speeding them out into open country. It was an odd, unsettled sort of day; one moment the carriage was full of sunlight and the next they were passing beneath ominously gray clouds.

'Guess what I got for my birthday?' said Neville.

'Another Remembrall?' said Harry, remembering the marblelike device Neville’s grandmother had sent him in an effort to improve his abysmal memory.

'No,' said Neville, 'I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago...No, look at this...'

He dug the hand that was not keeping a firm grip on Trevor into his schoolbag and after a little bit of rummaging pulled out what appeared to be a small gray cactus in a pot, except that it was covered with what looked like boils rather than spines.

'Mimbulus mimbletonia,' he said proudly.

Harry stared at the thing. It was pulsating slightly, giving it the rather sinister look of some diseased internal organ.

'It’s really, really rare,' said Neville, beaming. 'I don’t know if there’s one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can’t wait to show it to Professor Sprout. My great-uncle Algie got it for me in Assyria. I’m going to see if I can breed from it.'

Harry knew that Neville’s favorite subject was Herbology, but for the life of him he could not see what he would want with this stunted little plant.

'Does it—er—do anything?' he asked.

'Loads of stuff!' said Neville proudly. 'It’s got an amazing defensive mechanism—hold Trevor for me...'

He dumped the toad into Harry’s lap and took a quill from his schoolbag. Luna Lovegood’s popping eyes appeared over the top of her upside-down magazine again, watching what Neville was doing. Neville held the Mimbulus mimbletonia up to his eyes, his tongue between his teeth, chose his spot, and gave the plant a sharp prod with the tip of his quill.

Liquid squirted from every boil on the plant, thick, stinking, dark-green jets of it; they hit the ceiling, the windows, and spattered Luna Lovegood’s magazine. Ginny, who had flung her arms up in front of her face just in time, merely looked as though she was wearing a slimy green hat, but Harry, whose hands had been busy preventing the escape of Trevor, received a face full. It smelled like rancid manure.

Neville, whose face and torso were also drenched, shook his head to get the worst out of his eyes.

'S-sorry,' he gasped. 'I haven’t tried that before...Didn’t realize it would be quite so...Don’t worry, though, Stinksap’s not poisonous,' he added nervously, as Harry spat a mouthful onto the floor.

At that precise moment the door of their compartment slid open.

'Oh...hello, Harry,' said a nervous voice. 'Um...bad time?' Harry wiped the lenses of his glasses with his Trevor-free hand. A very pretty girl with long, shiny black hair was standing in the doorway smiling at him: Cho Chang, the Seeker on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

'Oh...hi,' said Harry blankly.

'Um...' said Cho. 'Well...just thought I’d say hello...’bye then.'

She closed the door again, rather pink in the face, and departed. Harry slumped back in his seat and groaned. He would have liked Cho to discover him sitting with a group of very cool people laughing their heads off at a joke he had just told; he would not have chosen to be sitting with Neville and Luna, clutching a toad and dripping in Stinksap.

'Never mind,' said Ginny bracingly. 'Look, we can get rid of all this easily.' She pulled out her wand. 'Scourgify!'

The Stinksap vanished.

'Sorry,' said Neville again, in a small voice.

An hour had past and after the food trolley had gone by Harry was joined by Terence. Harry, Ginny, and Neville had finished their Pumpkin Pasties and were busy swapping Chocolate Frog cards when the compartment door slid open and he walked in, and managed to squeeze in next to Harry.

‘Hey Harry, been looking for you. How have you been?’ Terence asked.

‘I’m ok, I honestly have been quiet bored most of the summer. I’m just glad to be heading back to Hogwarts,’ Harry responded. ‘What about you, how was your summer?’

‘Also a bit boring with most of my friends not visiting or responding to my letters,’ he said with an eyebrow cocked. ‘But it was ok, I’ve been practicing as much as possible and working on strategies for this years Quidditch matches. I just wish Warrington would stop writing me asking to join, he can try out like anyone else.’

That reminded Harry of something, ‘Terence, do you know who our new Prefects are? Did Tracey become one?’

‘So this year every house gained two Prefects. Sadly Tracey didn’t get the spot for some reason, instead the Prefects are Draco Malfoy and—‘

‘Let me guess, Pansy Parkinson?’

‘Yeah,’ said Terence rubbing his neck, ‘I’m not sure what Dumbledore was thinking. Anyway Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott are Hufflepuff’s...’

‘Who are Ravenclaws?’ asked Harry?’

‘Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil,’ answered Terence. ‘Oh, and Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are Gryffindor’s Prefects.’

‘Ron Weasley went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil,’ said a vague voice.

Everyone turned to look at Luna Lovegood, who was gazing unblinkingly at Terence over the top of The Quibbler. Ginny cleared her throat.

‘I believe he did, yes,’ she said to Luna, who turned to face her.

‘She didn’t enjoy it very much,’ Luna said in an informing tone. ‘She doesn’t think he treated her very well, because he wouldn’t dance with her. I don’t think I’d have minded,’ she added thoughtfully, ‘I don’t like dancing very much.’

She retreated behind The Quibbler again. Ginny stared at the cover, looking like she was either going to laugh or get mad, she had stuffed her knuckles in her mouth to stop herself from responding.

Terence, picking up on the uneasy tension, decided to lighten the mood, ‘Well imagine if Goyle somehow got the position, he wouldn’t know what to do as he hates talking and hates thinking for himself even more.’

Terence hunched over and scrunched up his face so he almost looked constipated, and tried his best British accent, ‘I only do what Pansy and Blaise do, I’m an overgrown lemming.’

Everyone laughed, but nobody laughed harder than Luna Lovegood. She let out a scream of mirth that caused Hedwig to wake up and flap her wings indignantly and hoot a couple times. She laughed so hard that her magazine slipped out of her grasp, slid down her legs, and onto the floor.

‘That was funny!’

Her prominent eyes swam with tears as she gasped for breath, staring at Terence. Utterly nonplussed, he looked around at the others, who were now laughing at the expression on Terence’s face and at the ludicrously prolonged laughter of Luna Lovegood, who was rocking backward and forward, clutching her sides.

‘I...I didn’t think I was that funny,’ said a confused Terence.

‘Overgrown...lemming!’ she choked, holding her ribs.

Everyone else was watching Luna laughing, but Harry, glancing at

the magazine on the floor, noticed something that made him dive for it. Upside down it had been hard to tell what the picture on the front was, but Harry now realized it was a fairly bad cartoon of Cornelius Fudge; Harry only recognized him because of the lime-green bowler hat. One of Fudge’s hands was clenched around a bag of gold; the other hand was throttling a goblin. The cartoon was captioned: “How Far Will Fudge Go to Gain Gringotts?”

Beneath this were listed the titles of other articles inside the magazine.

“CORRUPTION IN THE QUIDDITCH LEAGUE: How the Tornados Are Taking Control”

“SECRETS OF THE ANCIENT RUNES REVEALED REMUS LUPIN: werewolf or half-merman?”

‘Can I have a look at this?’ Harry asked Luna eagerly. She nodded, still gazing at Terence, breathless with laughter.

Harry opened the magazine and scanned the index. He found the page and turned excitedly to the article.

This too was illustrated by a rather bad cartoon; in fact, Harry would not have known it was supposed to be Remus if it hadn’t been captioned. Remus was standing on the beach, looking at the ocean. The headline on the article read:

“REMUS LUPIN - Bearer of monstrous curse, or hiding watery heritage?“

Harry had to read this sentence several times before he was convinced that he had not misunderstood it. This was ridiculous, as much as Harry wished the public didn’t know, Remus was officially documented as a werewolf over a year ago, afterwards he wrote a book about his experience as a werewolf, and if anyone somehow didn’t know about the book they’d just had to check the werewolf registry list.

“For over eleven years Remus Lupin was listed as a possible werewolf and in summer of 1994 was documented to have lycanthropy. That June, Remus was caught transforming from his werewolf form to human form in front of a student that happened to have a camera on her, but despite the photos being released to the Daily Prophet, none but the photo of the werewolf were released.

WAS THAT REALLY HIM?

Another creature known to be effected by the light of a full moon are merpeople, they have a strong compulsion to go to the surface of the water and bask in the moonlight. Merpeople also can not survive above land for long. Remus’ father, former employee of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures Lyall Lupin had claimed his wife had been a muggle, but combined with his profession and the fact Hope Lupin rarely was ever seen, it is this writers believe that Lyall Lupin actually married a mermaid.

No known half-merpeople have existed, but merpeople being humanoid would likely mean it is possible for them to breed with a wizard. A half-merperson would likely get sick if away from water for to long, which Remus has often been described as looking sickly, and would try to live as close to a body of water as possible, which both Hogwarts and his home in Cotswolds are near lakes.

So that full moon in June, while some random werewolf was lurking about the forest, Remus was likely swimming far away from where the young student took her photo, framing Remus and getting him fired from his job. If Remus ever wants to enter the Wizarding world again he should confess his true parentage right away.”

Harry finished reading and stared at the page in disbelief. Perhaps it was a joke, he thought, perhaps the magazine often printed spoof items. He flicked back a few pages and found the piece on Fudge.

“Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, denied that he had any plans to take over the running of the Wizarding Bank, Gringotts, when he was elected Minister of Magic five years ago. Fudge has always insisted that he wants nothing more than to ‘cooperate peacefully’ with the guardians of our gold.

BUT DOES HE?

Sources close to the Minister have recently disclosed that Fudge’s dearest ambition is to seize control of the goblin gold supplies and that he will not hesitate to use force if need be.

‘It wouldn’t be the first time, either,’ said a Ministry insider. ‘Cornelius ‘Goblin-Crusher’ Fudge, that’s what his friends call him, if you could hear him when he thinks no one’s listening, oh, he’s always talking about the goblins he’s had done in; he’s had them drowned, he’s had them dropped off buildings, he’s had them poisoned, he’s had them cooked in pies...”

Harry did not read any further. Fudge might have many faults but Harry found it extremely hard to imagine him ordering goblins to be cooked in pies. He flicked through the rest of the magazine. Pausing every few pages he read an accusation that the Tutshill Tornados were winning the Quidditch League by a combination of blackmail, illegal broom-tampering, and torture; an interview with a wizard who claimed to have flown to the moon on a Cleansweep Six and brought back a bag of moon frogs to prove it; and an article on ancient runes, which at least explained why Luna had been reading The Quibbler upside down. According to the magazine, if you turned the runes on their heads they revealed a spell to make your enemy’s ears turn into kumquats. In fact, compared to the rest of the articles in The Quibbler, the suggestion that Remus was secretly part merman was quite sensible.

‘Any interesting stories?’ asked Terence as Harry closed the magazine.

‘I doubt it,’ said Neville, ‘my gran says it’s filled with lies and balderdash.’

‘Excuse me,’ said Luna; her voice had suddenly lost its dreamy quality. ‘My father’s the editor.’

Neville turned redder than Ginny’s hair, ‘Oh...um...like I said, that’s what my gran thinks, not me. There’s probably some good stuff in there...’

‘I’ll have it back, thank you,’ said Luna coldly, and leaning forward she snatched it out of Harry’s hands. Rifling through it to page fifty-seven, she turned it resolutely upside down again and disappeared behind it, just as the compartment door opened for the third time.

Harry looked around; he had expected this, but that did not make the sight of Pansy Parkinson smirking at him from between her cronies, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle any more enjoyable.

‘What?’ he said aggressively, before Pansy could open her mouth.

‘Potter, that’s no way to speak to your new Prefect. I might just have to give you detention for your attitude,’ basked Pansy, who looked as though someone put makeup on a pig. She noticed Terence sitting with him. ‘You must be realizing Higgs that you’re half-blood girlfriend is not as worthy as me, perhaps you should dump her and be with a pure witch with power.’

Terence was furious and looked like he was about to attack Pansy, so Harry quickly intervened.

‘Lovely chat we’re having, Pansy,’ said Harry, ‘but you, unlike us, are a git, so get out and leave us alone.’

Terence, Ginny, and Neville laughed. Pansy’s lip curled.

‘Well Potter, you are one to talk, you were considered less worthy than a useless weasel whose only worth is his wealth.’

Harry stood up, ‘Shut up Parkinson!’

‘Have I upset the mighty Harry Potter?’ said Pansy, smirking. ‘Well, you and your friends better be careful this year, because if any of you put a toe out of line you’ll all be given a weeks worth of detentions.’

‘Out Pansy, now!’ said Ginny, now also standing.

Sniggering, Pansy gave Harry a last malicious look and departed, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle lumbering in her wake. Terence slammed the compartment door behind them and turned to look at Harry, who was starting to calm down.

‘I have to head back now,’ said Terence, ‘I’ll see you when the train stops.’

‘Ok, I’ll see you then.’

For the next little while their carriage was all quiet, which gave Harry time to think. He had thought Sirius coming with him to the station was a bit of a laugh, but suddenly it seemed reckless, if not downright dangerous...Mrs Weasley was likely right...Sirius should not have come. What if Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been dropped off by their death eater father’s, and had noticed the black dog and followed Sirius when he left. Or noticed Tonks, and Moody and now knew they are working for Dumbledore?

The weather remained undecided as they traveled farther and farther north. Rain spattered the windows in a halfhearted way, then the sun put in a feeble appearance before clouds drifted over it once more. When darkness fell and lamps came on inside the carriages, Luna rolled up The Quibbler, put it carefully away in her bag, and took to staring at everyone in the compartment instead.

Harry was sitting with his forehead pressed against the train window, trying to get a first distant glimpse of Hogwarts, but it was a moonless night and the rain-streaked window was grimy.

‘We should get our uniforms on soon,’ said Ginny at last. All four of them pulled on their school robes.

At last the train began to slow down and they heard the usual racket up and down it as everybody scrambled to get their luggage and pets assembled, ready for departure. Ginny and Neville ended up going to join their fellow Gryffindors, but Luna stayed behind with Harry.

‘I’ll carry that owl, if you like,’ said Luna to Harry, reaching out for Hedwig, Harry had his hands full with his trunk and broomcase.

‘Oh—er—thanks,’ said Harry, handing her the cage and hoisting his broomcase more securely under his arm.

They shuffled out of the compartment feeling the first sting of the night air on their faces as they joined the crowd in the corridor. Slowly they moved toward the doors. Harry could smell the pine trees that lined the path down to the lake. He stepped down onto the platform and looked around, listening for the familiar call of ‘Firs’ years over here...firs’ years...’

But it did not come. Instead a quite different voice, a brisk female one, was calling, ‘First years line up over here, please! All first years to me!’

A lantern came swinging toward Harry and by its light he saw the prominent chin and severe haircut of Professor Grubbly-Plank, the witch who had taken over Hagrid’s Care of Magical Creatures lessons for a while the previous year.

‘Where’s Hagrid?’ he said out loud.

‘Not sure,’ said Luna quietly. ‘But we’re blocking this exit.’

‘Oh yeah...’

Jostled by the crowd, Harry squinted through the darkness for a glimpse of Hagrid; he had to be here, Harry had been relying on it—seeing Hagrid again had been one of the things to which he had been looking forward most. But there was no sign of him at all.

He can’t have left, Harry told himself as he shuffled slowly through a narrow doorway onto the road outside with the rest of the crowd. He’s just got a cold or something...

He looked around for his friends, wanting to know what they thought about the reappearance of Professor Grubbly-Plank, but he couldn’t see Allison, Theodore, Tracey, or even Terence, so he allowed himself to be shunted forward onto the dark rain-washed road outside Hogsmeade station.

Here stood the hundred or so horseless stagecoaches that always took the students above first year up to the castle. Harry glanced quickly at them, turned away to keep a lookout for his friends, then did a double take.

The coaches were no longer horseless. There were creatures standing between the carriage shafts; if he had had to give them a name, he supposed he would have called them horses, though there was something reptilian about them, too. They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither—vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister. Harry could not understand why the coaches were being pulled by these horrible horses when they were quite capable of moving along by themselves.

‘There you are, Harry,’ said Tracey’s voice right behind him.

Harry, turning quickly, eager to consult Tracey about Hagrid. ‘Where d’you reckon—‘

‘—Hagrid is? I’m not sure,’ said Tracey, sounding worried. ‘I’m sure he’s okay though, wherever he is...’

A short distance away, Pansy Parkinson, followed by her gang of cronies including Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini, was pushing some timid-looking second years out of the way so that they could get a coach to themselves. Seconds later Allison and Theodore emerged from the crowd.

‘Malfoy’s being a jerk to first year back there, looks like Hermione is dealing with it, but I hope this power doesn’t go to his head,’ said Theodore.

‘Where are Colin and Terence?’ asked Harry.

‘Colin went to sit with other fourth years,’ explained Allison, ‘while Terence got pulled away by Graham Montague who said he needed to speak with him.’

‘So now that we found you, we should get a carriage together,’ said Theodore heading toward the nearest unoccupied coach. Harry remained behind with Allison and Tracey as he still needed Hedwig.

‘What are those things, d’you reckon?’ he asked the girls, nodding at the horrible horses as the other students surged past them.

‘Sorry?’ said Allison. ‘What things do you mean?’

‘Those horse—‘

Luna appeared holding Hedwig’s cage in her arms; his owl was pruning her feathers.

‘Here you are,’ she said. ‘She’s a sweet owl, isn’t she?’

‘Er...yes...thank you Luna,’ said Harry as he kept staring at the horse like creatures.

‘Harry, are you coming? What are you looking at?’ asked Tracey.

‘I’m looking at what I was asking you guys about, what are those horse things?’ Harry said, as he, Allison, Tracey, and Luna made for the carriage in which Theodore was already sitting.

‘What horse things?’

‘The horse things pulling the carriages!” said Harry impatiently; they were, after all, about three feet from the nearest one; it was watching them with empty white eyes. Theodore was now looking at Harry curiously.

‘Horses pulling the carriage?’ asked Allison?

‘I’m talking about—look!’

Harry grabbed the two girl’s arms and wheeled them about so that they were face-to-face with the winged horse. They both stared straight at it for a second, then looked back at Harry.

‘I’m confused Harry,’ said Allison, ‘what is it you want us to see.’

‘I think you breathed in to much mold this month,’ said Tracey.

‘At the—there, between the shafts! Harnessed to the coach! It’s right there in front—‘

Harry felt utterly bewildered. The horse was there in front of them,

gleaming solidly in the dim light issuing from the station windows behind them, vapor rising from its nostrils in the chilly night air. Yet unless the girls were faking—and it was a very feeble joke if they was—Allison and Tracey could not see it at all.

‘You aren’t crazy, Harry,’ called out Theodore. ‘Now all of you get in the carriage.

Could Theodore see them, or was he just trying to get them to move along. Tracey was looking at Harry as though worried about him.

‘Yeah,’ said Harry. ‘Yeah, I’m coming...’

‘It’s all right,’ said a dreamy voice from beside Harry as Allison and Tracey vanished into the coach’s dark interior. ‘You’re not going mad or anything. I can see them too.’

‘Can you?’ said Harry desperately, turning to Luna. He could see the bat-winged horses reflected in her wide, silvery eyes.

‘Oh yes,’ said Luna, ‘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.’

Smiling faintly, she climbed into the musty interior of the carriage after Tracey. Not altogether reassured, Harry followed her.