Harry Potter And The Breeding Darkness

Chapter 15

The meeting didn't last too much longer. Patricia Stimpson finished up by telling them what they'd be expected to do after the Feast with the first years, and for their first rounds of the school that night, and then told them what time to show up for the first prefect meeting at school the following evening. Finally, they were all dismissed to start their shifts for patrolling the train.

It was nearly two hours before Harry and Hermione's patrol shift was finished and they were able to return to the compartment they had started out in hours prior. Harry slid the door open to find a disgruntled looking Ron sitting with his arms folded across his chest, sitting across from Ginny and a blond-haired girl that Harry only vaguely recognized, but did not know.

"Finally back, are you?" Ron spat sharply. Harry paused and gave Ron a hard look and raised a single eyebrow at him, daringly. Ron's eyes widened slightly for a moment before he ducked his head, slightly cowed. Harry had to swallow a smirk as he finished entering the compartment and sat down on the bench beside the blond girl while Hermione came in and sat beside Ron.

"Hey, Harry, Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed. "Um, this is Luna Lovegood. Luna, this is Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

Harry turned to the blond girl and gave her a welcoming smile. She had very wide, pale-blue eyes that seemed to give her the constant appearance of being surprised. Her hair was dish-water blond and long, falling to just below her shoulders. At first, it appeared as if she were wearing a pair of earrings, made to look like radishes, but Harry quickly realized that she was wearing actual radishes as earrings. To add to the curiousness of her appearance, he next realized that she had what looked like a cork on a piece of twine around her neck.

"It's nice to meet you," Harry said, offering her his hand. She took it, gave it a quick shake and smiled back dreamily.

"Nice to meet you as well."

Hermione, who was sitting a bit too far away to reasonably offer a handshake, simply nodded and said hello.

"Luna is in my year," Ginny explained. "She's in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes with me."

"Oh, I'll be in there with you lot this year," Harry said. "I just switched electives. I was taking Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, but I realized I'd get more benefit out of the others. McGonagall let me switch, but I have to go down a year so I'm not too far behind."

"That's interesting. Does it mean you are no longer taking Care of Magical Creatures?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, I didn't want to overload myself too much. Three electives just seemed a bit much for me right now."

"That's really too bad. I'm quite fond of Care." Luna said, still speaking in a rather airy, dreamy voice.

"So you're taking three electives then?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes." Luna said, nodding her head.

"Luna is a Ravenclaw," Ginny pointed out, as if that explained everything.

"Oh, are you? You know, part of me has always been surprised that Hermione didn't end up sorted into Ravenclaw." Harry said.

Hermione's head shot up and her eyes widened a bit. "Why would you say that?" she asked frowning slightly.

Harry just blinked at her, raised a single eyebrow and giving her an obvious look.

"What?" Hermione persisted.

Harry grinned and chuckled, shaking his head. "Nothing. Never mind. So, Luna, how do you like Ravenclaw? I've come to realize I never really socialized with many people from the other houses."