Dance of Fates

chapter 5

On the other side of the platform, a pureblood family was saying their goodbyes too. The mother was hugging her little daughter, smoothing out her worries, while the father was consulting his eldest daughter.

But the daughter was distracted, looking for something or someone in the large crowd until her father snapped at her so she had to look at him. 

"Make sure to take your potions regularly and try to study harder, don't practice too much in magic."

"Do not worry, father, I bought a muggle...advice, I think it’s called—this summer to remind me of my potions, it's really helpful. Now I have to go and find a seat, have a good day, till Christmas," she said, bowing her head to both lord and lady Greengrass.

She found a seat with Tracey Davis and Cornelia Deval and joined them. Tracey scolded her for her short letters and tried to get out of her any information about where she had been this summer. Daphne told her she had spent it in her grandmother’s cottage, hanging out with a handsome muggle who kept her busy—Tracey would buy it...well, technically, it was the truth so she didn't lie or anything. She looked out the window at the blurred landscape…

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"See you!" Harry called out of the open window as the train began to move, while Ron, Hermione, and Ginny waved beside him. The figures of Tonks, Lupin, Moody, and Mr and Mrs Weasley shrank rapidly in the distance but the black dog was bounding alongside the window, wagging its tail. Blurred people on the platform were laughing at its chasing the train like that, and then they turned a corner, and Sirius was gone. 

"He shouldn’t have come with us," said Hermione in a worried voice. 

Harry ignored her comment. 

"Oh, lighten up," said Ron, "he hasn’t seen daylight for months, poor bloke."

Ron and Hermione both headed to the perfect carriage and Fred and George went on some business of theirs, leaving both Harry and Ginny alone in the corridors. While they were looking for an empty carriage, they met with Neville, who was doing the same; he joined them in the search and they found an almost empty one. However, upon closer inspection, they saw a blonde girl in it, reading some sort of a magazine. Harry for a moment thought it was Daphne when he heard someone greeting her, "Luna!".

They joined the girl in the carriage as they watched the train move, leaving England behind... 

Hogwarts 

Harry and Daphne finally reached the school. For Harry, it was an escape from the Dursleys, for Daphne—another prison...

Of course, they didn't see each other, but both were eager to reunite—they didn't know why, they just were. 

Entering the great hall was always like the first time for Harry. The four long tables were filling it up under the starless black ceiling and candles floated in midair all around the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who dotted the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at their friends from other Houses, and scoping out one another’s new haircuts and robes. Again, Harry noticed people putting their heads together to whisper as he passed; he gritted his teeth and tried to act as though he neither noticed nor cared.

He sat with his friends, looking around for Daphne, who hadn't shown up in the hall yet, though Draco and his gang were already there.

"Who’s that?" He looked beside him to the owner of the voice, Hermione. 

"What!?" he asked blindly. 

"Who's that woman over there," she said sharply, pointing toward the middle of the staff table.