A Fateful Encounter
September first rolled around across Britain, and Hermione was going over her packing list for the uptenth time, making absolutely sure that she had packed everything and nothing was amiss. Finally after she had been waiting an eternity, at least Hermione felt that way, they had loaded everything into the car and were on their way to catch the train. The first half of the way had gone smoothly but somewhere along the way they just had to get stuck in traffic, making Hermione fidget in the back seat, she kept losing her focus on the book propped open in her lap.
Her mum and dad both assured her that they would make it on time, they had decided to leave earlier than planned because Hermione was getting herself worked up as she was waiting. She wasn't that eager to not see her parents until Christmas, but she was so excited about all of the new things they would be learning.
It was half past 10 when they made it to King’s Cross, giving Hermione half an hour to board the train. Hugging both of her parents goodbye, she quickly made her way through the barrier.
___
Neville had spent the entire morning looking all around Longbottom manor. He shouldn’t be surprised that Trevor had gone missing again, he really did that a lot. Perhaps he should ask Hermione for help with spells that could help him locate the toad more easily during his next escape attempt.
He had ended up leaving the packing to one of the house elves as he searched high and low. Eventually locating his toad in a dark corner in the greenhouse. “There you are, Trevor,” he said as he caught the toad and stuffed him into one of his pockets, hurrying back towards the manor where his gran was waiting for him. He tried not to study her face too closely as they made their way towards the fireplace to use the floo, he knew she wasn’t happy with the delay Trevor the toad had been causing and Neville was very aware it would be considered his fault.
___
In and around Ottery St Catchpole, several wizarding families were getting ready as well.
The Weasley family, busy as always this time of year, were trying to herd all of their children through the floo network to ensure they all got on the train. Arthur was there as well, but he would only be helping keeping the family together until they made it to the train, after that he had to get back to work at the ministry.
Molly, having taken the lead, were herding the older boys through, making sure that they would all meet up on the platform before they boarded the train or went to catch up with their friends. Percy was elected to go first, both deemed the most responsible by Molly and as the oldest going to Hogwarts, to make sure that he could catch the twins before they had the chance to run off.
Percy, of course, was taking his role seriously and left as he got clearance from his mother.
George and Fred were snickering, having put their heads together by the kitchen counter. As Molly called for them and waved them towards the floo, the boys straightened up and acted innocent. Molly was of course making sure they had no banned items on their persons or in their trunks, more than likely assuming that the twins had ben planning something, she let them through as well when she was satisfied with her search.
Ron was just rolling his eyes at the twins, scowling at the idea of any upcoming homework and Ginny’s constant whining about Harry. It was always Harry this, Harry that. He wasn’t even there and he was the big hero anyway!
Ron went through the floo as well, followed by Arthur and Molly went with Ginny last, but of course not before the girl had remembered something she’d forgotten. “My diary! Mum, I forgot to pack my diary.”
“Well hurry up and get it then,” Molly ushered, “everyone is already waiting on the other side of the floo. The train will be leaving soon.”
“I know mum,” Ginny assured her as she ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs to grab her diary. Darting back into the kitchen about a minute later, she stuffed the black book into her trunk.
When Molly had accounted for everyone on the other side of the train, Percy left in a hurry, muttering something about prefects and prefect duties and such things.
The twins disappeared as quickly as they could, having spotted Lee in the thinning sea of people on the platform.
Ron sauntered off to the train, hoping to find Dean and Seamus somewhere on the train. With how long it always took them, those two should already be here.
Ginny boarded the train just as Fred poked his head out of a compartment, Fred and George laughing at something Lee had said. “Ginny! Wanna see something cool?” Fred asked, wiggling his eyebrows, a wide smile plastered on his face.
“No thanks,” she said as she walked away from their compartment to look for somewhere else to sit. Maybe she’d find Luna somewhere. Admittedly they weren’t the best of friends these days but she didn’t know a whole lot of people in their year and she doubted anyone would want to sit with Luna.
____
Luna Lovegood was humming happily as she had reached the platform around 10, travelling through the floo with her dad in tow.
“Of course I will tell you all about the creatures I find at Hogwarts, daddy,” she told him happily as they were walking across the platform. “I expect there will be a lot, with all of the rooms that are not being used.” She walked a little closer to him, lowering her voice on the last part, making it appear as if she was sharing a secret, then she grinned and skipped off to the train, turning around to wave madly at Mr. Lovegood.
Xenophilius smiled as he caught up to his daughter, “now Luna, you must have a good year.” He told her.
Luna just nodded sagely, her eyes scanning the people on the platform before she looked back at her dad with a wide smile. “Of course daddy. Don’t worry.” She had been telling him not to worry a lot, one time she had told him that she would be meeting someone special and that was why he shouldn’t worry. She just didn’t quite know if she would meet him today on the train or if it would be later in the castle. But she was sure today would be a good day.
____
Hadrian had gotten to the platform relatively early, but that had not been without another temper tantrum from a certain Godfather. Honestly, he was such a manchild.
He rubbed his face with a sigh as he managed to slip through the floo while Moony was holding Padfoot back from following him straight through, effectively cutting Sirius off mid rant. The mutt should be wearing a straight jacket until the train leaves. You would think the man thought Hadrian was headed off to war and it could potentially kill him. He sighed again, he supposed it was a war in some sense. But he wasn't a toddler anymore, he could take care of himself, Sirius hadn't seemed to really come to terms with that fact yet.
The platform was rather busy he noted, while he didn’t pay much attention to the individual people around him, he just wanted to sit somewhere and find a little peace of mind for just five minutes. He wasn’t sure it was going to help, as he could almost hear his dad laughing at the tantrum Padfoot had been throwing.
He opened the door to a compartment and was a little surprised to find someone already sitting there. Bright blonde hair, wearing strange glasses, a cork necklace and radish earrings. He didn’t spot any house colours on the robe she was wearing. Their eyes met when she looked up from the magazine she had been reading and pushed her glasses up on her forehead.
“Hello,” she said, her voice soft. “It would seem fate is early. Nice to meet you properly, in person this time, heir Grim.”
Hadrian took a step inside and slid the compartment door closed behind him and took a seat. “So it would seem, Miss Lovegood,” he replied. Pandora Lovegood’s daughter, that much was clear to him. He had seen her a little over two years ago, but they had not interacted at the time. At least not directly. “It is nice to meet you properly, too,” he replied. “I apologise, we were on a bit of a tight schedule last time.”
“Call me Luna,” she said, completely ignoring his apology, a flicker of fierce determination entering her eyes. “Can I call you Harry or should I call you Hadrian?” She asked.
Hadrian just sighed, “I should have known you’d figure it out.”
“Mommy warned you, didn’t she?” She asked with a giggle.
“She did,” Hadrian agreed as he leaned back in his seat. “She wouldn’t tell me how both she and you seem to know much more than you should, but then again, we’re all privy to our secrets.”
Luna just nodded and smiled knowingly. “I won’t tell anyone, you know, I want to help.”
“You want to help?” Hadrian asked, the answer was another nod. “With what, exactly?”
“We should talk more later,” she said as she pulled her glasses back down from her forehead just in time for the door to slide open, revealing Hermione, who froze momentarily in the door as she spotted Luna.
Hadrian just gestured to the seat next to him, “come sit, Hermione.” As she took a seat, he introduced Luna to Hermione, “Hermione, this is Luna Lovegood, Luna, this is Hermione Granger,” he said.
Luna looked up from her magazine again and smiled, “hello Hermione, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Uhm, Hi,” Hermione said before she turned to look at Hadrian. “Have you seen Neville around?” She asked.
Hadrian just shook his head. “I haven’t, perhaps he’s not here yet. Who knows, Trevor might have tried to escape again and delayed them.”
Hermione frowned a bit but had to admit it was possible, “so he will be here soon?”
Hadrian tilted his head, “yes? I’d assume so. What’s the rush, Hermione?” He asked.
“Rush? There’s no rush,” Hermione insisted as she looked out of the window at the platform.
Nevill was late, but not as late as the Weasley family. When he sat down in the seat next to Luna he sighed, “Trevor made a run for it,” he muttered, “Gran wasn’t happy about it.”
Luna patted his shoulder in an attempt to console him, “it’s alright,” she told him. “I’m sure it’s not about you. He might be looking for a girlfriend, you know.”
“You think so?” Neville asked as he looked at Luna, and the girl just nodded and hummed. “Oh, okay.” He seemed to accept that willingly enough and the topics turned lighter. Briefly about homework and quite a while of Hermione telling Luna about what she could expect and what they had learned in their first year. Hermione had almost groaned when Luna asked if she should be expecting to see a cerberus this year or if they thought something else equally interesting had been locked up. She had also offhandedly pointed out that Neville probably should keep his toad close, just in case, or at least keep him away from fertilized eggs.
After that, Luna told them all about the Quibbler, the magazine she was holding and all about the creatures her and her dad had been looking for over the summer, though unfortunately they hadn’t found very many, but they had found a few and she took great care in listing them all.
Luna ended up enjoying the time she spent with the older Gryffindors on the train and she was almost sad when she was herded along with the other first years to the boats. Even if the Gryffindors had agreed to meet up again later, they had all been nice to her, even when she spoke of creatures that most other people would scoff at and ridicule her for. It was nice, she could get used to it.
___
Hadrian, Hermione and Neville had taken a seat in the wobbly wagon with the overly excited thestral again. As they were by themselves and on their way to the castle, Hermione voiced what was on her mind. “A lot of those creatures Luna spoke of... Do they really exist?”
Hadrian shrugged as he looked at Hermione, “does it matter?” He asked her, "I think there are plenty of things and creatures we don't know about."
Neville shrugged, “not to me, I doubt I’ll be able to remember all of them anyway.” Hermione sighed, “I suppose it doesn’t. I’m just worried she’ll get picked on for making them up,” she said, "not that I'm saying she is, but people would think so," she quickly amended. "It does seems important to her and her dad and it wouldn’t be fair to take that away from them either.”
Hadrian smiled, “she’s our friend now, if anything happens we’ll be there to help, yeah?” He asked.
Neville smiled a bit, he did like that their group had grown in numbers. Hermione nodded, “we will.” She knew what it was like to get bullied and to not have everyone, if she could keep someone else from experiencing that, she wanted to do the best she could. She was a Gryffindor, leaving friends to fight their own battles alone when you could help didn't sound very couragous.
____
Luna sat down in one of the boats along with Ginny and two other girls and soon they were on their way across the lake. Looking into the deep darkness below them, she couldn’t help but wonder how many wonderful creatures had made the black lake their home, mentally going over a list of candidates. Perhaps she could figure that out. There were a lot of creatures living in water all across the world after all, perhaps there were more than just mermaids, the giant squid and your regular grindylows. The lake was big after all.
She was so focused on the water that she almost missed out on the view of the castle. She looked up when the three others in her boat let out gasps of surprise and awe. Hogwarts really was beautiful, just like daddy had told her it would be.
The fleet of boats made it to shore, they were taken inside and soon they were herded into the Great Hall for their sorting.
Luna did find herself quite mesmerised by the ceiling, what wonderful magic the founders must have used. She took in the rest of the room, the 4 house tables, the professors and the magnificence of the room itself. She was tuning out the sorting as she was more focused on the room, blinking as she regained focus when her name was called.
She wasn’t surprised at all when the hat proclaimed her a Ravenclaw after little deliberation, she knew it fit her well. She waved to her Gryffindor friends with a big smile on her face before she disappeared into a sea of blue welcoming her. Being welcomed was a nice feeling, even if she was sure it wouldn’t be long lasting, things rarely were. She sat down next to a boy who had been sorted before her and soon her other side was occupied by a girl being sorted after her, she hadn’t caught either of their names, she was currently taking in the people sitting around her, as well as the table they were sitting at. The same for all of the house tables, golden plates and goblets were placed in front of each of the students and she assumed the empty space in the middle of the table would be where the food would appear. That reminded her that her daddy had mentioned the house elves, she really needed to go say hi to them.
After what felt like another hour, not that Luna was keeping track or anything, she looked up at the headmaster as he rose to speak to the Great Hall at large.
____
Albus Dumbledore rose from his seat and welcomed all of the students to Hogwarts as usual. New students and returning students before he proceeded to introduce the students to the two new teachers that would be joining the staff this year.
Gilderoy Lockhart who would be taking over the DADA classes and Andromeda Tonks, who would be in charge as the head of Slytherin house, as well as Potions professor. He pointedly ignored the groans and complaints that hovered around the Slytherin house table and ploughed on, letting the room at large know that there would be a few announcements after the meal and he returned to his seat as the tables nearly overflowed with the food prepared for the welcoming feast.
Andromeda was seated with the other heads of houses and was currently deep in conversation with Pomona, Albus could hear them talking about potion ingredients and which greenhouses they were growing in, and the conversation ebbed away as the two heads of houses turned their attention to their food.
Gilderoy Lockhart was having a harder time finding a conversation partner, instead he chose to speak to the whole table, talking about some grand feast he had participated in that was much more lavish than this one, and Albus could tell no one was lending him an ear, not that it seemed to deter the man at all.
After the feast, Albus once again stood to address the students, letting them know that the Forbidden Forest was, as usual, forbidden. The usual reminders of trick and joke items, no use of magic in the corridors, so on and so forth. After dismissing the students with the Prefects leading the first years and the other students filing out after that, the Great Hall was soon empty.
The heads of houses left before the rest of the teachers. Andromeda would be crossing the first big hurdle back in her common room and Albus could only wish her good luck.
___
Andromeda entered the common room, not really surprised to find the majority of the students waiting for her there.
“As you all know, Severus Snape is no longer the head of house after leaving his teaching position, both of these tasks will be falling to me.” She looked around at the faces of her cute little students, noticing that many of them were scowling, she noted who they were in the back of her head and continued. “Things will be different, and I’m sure you’ve come to that conclusion without me needing to tell you. I will cut to the chase to save all of our time. I will not be tolerating bullying. Everyone here is smart, cunning and ambitious, use it to raise yourselves without putting others down. Duels and challenges to settle disputes etc. is allowed if it can’t be settled otherwise.” She paused and looked around again. “Any questions?”
A few hands rose from between the students. “Yes,” she pointed out one of them.
“What about the Gryffindors? Will you let them walk all over us?” One of the upper years asked.
“I will not. Every instance of spells fired, hurtful words spoken between you or any of the other houses, whether these words are aimed at you or you are aiming them at students from the other houses, will be investigated fairly and punishment will be fair.”
She heard a few grumbles but dismissed them before she continued to speak. “Personally I think it is important to remember this; When you enter the real world, you will be working with witches and wizards from all houses. Halfbloods, pure bloods, sometimes even muggle-raised. Don’t let petty school rivalries ruin your chances at landing the job you want. Outside this castle it matters little whether you’re a Slytherin or say, a Ravenclaw. Be cunning, and I’ll help you reach your goals to the best of my abilities.”
While Andromeda spoke to the snakes, the other houses had soon settled into their beds for the night. The first day of school awaited them when they opened their eyes.