Hogwarts Express was again, filled with the voices of the students bustling about and the Trolley witch sifting through the crowd with her Honeydukes snacks-filled cart. She cheerfully greeted Aine as she passes her cabin and the girl returned with a short smile and bought some Cauldron cakes to share with her friends during the journey.
Ginny sat next to her while Fred, George and Harry sat opposite them. Just as Aine and her friends sat down, they turned to Hermione and Ron who were still standing by the cabin doors looking very awkward and still. "Aren't you coming in?" Ginny asks and Ron and Hermione exchange looks with one another as if egging the other to speak first.
"Um," said Ron, looking away from his staring friends and siblings.
"We're— Well... Ron and I are supposed to go into the prefect carriage," Hermione said awkwardly and Aine nodded with a smile. But their discomfort wasn't directed at Aine but at their best friend. Ron was looking away from Harry; his attention drifting to his fingernails on his left hand and he seemed pretty engrossed in picking the skin around his nails.
"Oh," said Harry, realizing his friends were looking at him. "Right. Fine," he shrugs and the air around them got tenser. Even Fred and George had stopped teasing and joking around, their gaze fixated on the chosen one.
"I don't think we'll have to stay there all journey," said Hermione quickly. "Our letters said we just get instructions from the Head Boy and Girl and then patrol the corridors from time to time."
"Fine," Harry replies glumly and Aine stares at him without another word. He seemed to be in a bad mood but she didn't know whether it was due to his friends becoming prefects or something more. Though she was willing to bet that it was probably the latter. "Well, I might see you later, then," the boy bids, his lips falling into a thin line as he looks out of the window at the blurred scenery.
"Yeah, of course. See you," said Ron, casting a shifty, anxious look at Harry and Aine before he scrambles along with Hermione.
"Bye," Hermione timidly bids and Aine waves sweetly, watching the carriage doors shut close and their figure growing out of sight.
"That was awkward," Fred commented out of the blue and George elbowed him, shaking his head and mentally telling him that it wasn't the time to joke around. He just hoped that his twin got the telepathy message which, fortunately, Fred did. They all soon fell silent.
Aine and Ginny glanced at one another, their eyes directed at Harry with worry before they trail down onto the Daily Prophet newspaper that was in his hands. Crumpled with trembling fingers as he shuts his eyes momentarily. She decided to take it away from the boy, knowing that the articles written about him weren't positive. Her hands slipped to the paper and she slowly removed it from Harry's hands, the boy not giving any care to what she was doing with it. When it was finally out of his grasp, she scans the title and heaved a small muffled sigh.
'The Boy Who Lies' was plastered in bold all over the newspaper, followed by a picture of him during the Triwizard Tournament. Then at the corner of the page, she saw a small photograph of herself, Draco holding her as they stare at the unmoving body ahead of them with solemn looks. Then she read about herself in the small section:
She whispers under her breath as she read it out, "Miss Aine L. Estoileon, was found in the arms of Draco L. Malfoy during the aftermath of the tragic tournament games. Rumours have said that she has been conspiring alongside Harry J. Potter in telling false truths about He Who Should Not Be Named's return. Read on to find out all about it on Page—"
Aine took a deep breath and crushed it into a ball, her friends were giving her some weird looks and even Harry had snapped out of his little world to look at her and her hands. "What?" she asks, confused. She followed their eyes that were peered down to her hands and Fred whistled with a smirk.
"Damn, Ai. How did you even do that?" he asks.
"Do what?" Aine asks back and George jerks his chin towards her hands and she looks down onto the darkening paper like it had been set in flames.
"What the—" Ginny gasps, grabbing Aine's wrist abruptly and making her drop the paper, it withered into pieces and she could no longer see the words printed on the newspaper article, or rather, there was nothing left to see. It was just a pile of ashes that had little to no value anymore.
"Are you okay?" Harry asks and Aine nodded, looking back to her clean palms. She clenches her fists and opens them again, a faint warmness fading away from them. Odd...
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just when did I..."
"Never mind that, I wanted to do it sooner or later anyway," Harry smirks at her and she chuckles.
The ride to Hogwarts was quicker than Aine expected, probably because she had completely passed out on a nap after the mini confectionary buffet her friends and she had shared. When she had woken up, it was already dark outside and in a distance was the setting glowing Sun. Aine rubbed her eyes and turned to Ginny who had smiled sheepishly at her.
"Come on, you sleepy heads," Fred teases, ruffling the girls' hair to wake them up to alight.
"Hey!" Aine groans, giving him a glare that makes him chuckle. Ginny, however, wasn't taking it and she ended up giving her older brothers a punch on their arms, making them cower behind Harry who places his hands in front of him, fearing her punches but Ginny simply sighed. The red-headed turned her heels and links her arms with her best friend before exiting the compartment and train.
"I'll break your hands if you do that again," Ginny growls to the twins who gulp at each other before ambling behind Aine and Harry. "Just kidding," she added afterwards upon the sight of her boyfriend, Michael Corner. She looks to Aine who gave her a smirk before skipping over to join his carriage, leaving the twins, Aine and Harry.
"Damn, girls are scary," Fred whispers and Aine tilted to him. She gave him a short grin.
"I wonder why?"
George snickers at her remark, bringing his brother away to the next carriage where they met up with Angelina Johnson and Lee Jordan. "See you guys at the Great Hall!" George waved and the juniors waved back.
"Shall we go meet Hermione and Ron?" Harry asks Aine and she nodded, proceeding to the next wagon where their friends were already waiting for them at. Standing at the side of the crossway as they waited for the vehicle, Aine had also spotted their fellow Gryffindor friend, Neville Longbottom holding a rather interesting cactus plant in his arms.
The four glanced at one another with hesitant looks before approaching him. Ron's eyes were twitching and Aine knew he had found the cactus a little too overwhelming for his preference. For a split second, when they exchanged eye contact with one another, Aine could have sworn she heard him say that it was disgusting in his thoughts. She immediately shook away the voices and walks up to him. "Hey, Nev!" Aine greeted him and he turns around, giving a small shy nod and timid 'hello' in return.
Neville was looking down onto his plant and at the group as if wanting to speak and boast of his little gift from his great-uncle. He ended up picking up the courage to start a conversation as they waited. "I got this for my birthday," he spoke and Hermione plasters an awkward smile, nodding as he continued.
"Mimbulus Mimbletonia," he says proudly, bringing the pot to their faces to show them. Ron immediately took a step back and Aine held her breath at the sight of the plant, it did look a little gross to her liking. Unlike a normal cactus that had spikes all over the body, this one was covered in boils. It was pulsating, and it almost looked like it was a miniature troll breathing, giving it the rather sinister look of some diseased internal organ.
"Wow," Harry replies nonchalantly, not looking at the gruesome cactus as his eyes were locked on somewhere else.
"It's really— Really rare," Neville said enthusiastically. "I don't know if there's one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts. 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!"
"What is that..?" Harry interrupts, his voice soft as he watches their carriage pulling up. Aine follows his gaze and realizes he was in fact looking straight at the majestic skeletal creature. She gave a gasp, surprised that he could see it.
"What's what?" Ron asks.
"That. Pulling the carriage," Harry jerks with his chin and Hermione raises a brow, she looks at her friend who looked like he was going mad. Aine's lips curled at the sight of the neighing Thestral, she was always so entranced by their existence. They were beautifully haunting, the sleeked body with bones protruding from its skin, white glossy pupils that looked like marble glass and the skeletal wings that seemed so fragile yet strong at the same time.
"Nothing's pulling the carriage, Harry. It's pulling itself, like always," Hermione replies, staring back and forth at the empty spot that Harry was looking at.
Harry huffed and linked his arms with his two pals, wheeling them forward to the creature until they were standing in front of the skeletal horse.
"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Ron questions, eyeing Hermione who furrowed her brows, equally confused. She squints into the thin air, hoping to have a glimpse of what her friend was seeing.
"Don't you see? Between those shafts! It's being harnessed to the coach. Right there—" Harry pointed, his pupils gleaming in hopes that his friends understood what he had described. Yet, to no avail. "You... Can't you see it?"
The brunette girl and the ginger boy shook their heads and Harry had fallen into utter disbelief. He studies his friends' facial expressions, Hermione's eyes were whirling around the thin air, completely ignorant of the Thestral's breathing. To her, there was nothing but the chilling breeze of the evening air. Whereas for Ron, his head was moving from side to side, meeting Aine who smiled sweetly behind him. This was actually quite an amusing sight for her to see.
"What do you see, mate?" Ron inquires and Harry sighs. There was no way that his friend was faking it, not when he seemed truly confused and curious.
"It's like a horse but it has wings..." Harry replies, trying to depict the mysterious creature before his eyes.
"So, like Buckbeak?"
"No... It has white eyes too!"
"What the hell are you seeing, man? You alright there mate?"
Aine snorted and Neville turns to her, puzzled.
"Of course, I'm alright!"
"I can see it too," Aine chimes in and her friends stare at her with hanging mouths. She shrugs to them, "What? You think I'm going mad too?" she simpers.
"Why didn't you say that earlier?" the spectacled boy groans, rolling his eyes.
"It's fun to see you try hard to describe it," Aine smirks, walking up to him. Harry shot her a glare and she laughs, shrugging.
"You're not going mad. I can see them too. You're just as sane as I am," a sweet singing-like voice came from the carriage and all eyes turned to the girl sitting inside the dark interior. She was reading an upside-down magazine called the 'Quibbler' and was someone Aine knew too well.
She beams, "Luna!" Aine greeted cheerfully and the platinum blonde girl lowers her copy of The Quibbler. She quickly rushes up to the carriage with light, bubbly steps and the two exchange a small hug. "I've missed you!" she tells her and the girl softens her eyes, gazing back into Aine's dreamily.
"And I have missed you too, Aine!" she sings back and smiles. Her attention floats away to the forest behind them, slowly getting lost in the tiny wispy flying creatures.
Probably Nargles... Aine thought to herself, giggling happily.
The rest of the Gryffindors boarded the carriage, snuggling tighter together with the six of them in total. Everyone but Luna and Aine was all tensed up by the closeness they were and they stare at each other, their lips flattening. No one knew what to do to ease the uncomfortable silence that was until Hermione steals a peek at Luna and clears her throat, "Everyone, this is Loony Love—"
Aine's brows raised upwards at Hermione's comment and the brunette girl corrects her remark, "Luna Lovegood," she said and Luna waved to them, her pale silver eyes curling into crescents before they drift away from them to the Thestrals.
"How long have you been able to see them?" Harry asks her and she gave a small soft giggle. He could see the reflection of the creatures through her silver dreamy eyes.
"I've been able to see them ever since my first day here. They've always pulled the carriages," Luna replies.
"What about you?" Harry turns to Aine who was overhearing their conversation.
She looks down at her fingers and muttered back, "Since last year."
"And you didn't tell me about it?"
"Well, I figured you guys would think I'm insane or something! Didn't want to break it to you and we sat in different coaches, remember?"
"Right. I forgot."
There was another awkward silence and Aine stifles a giggle when she accidentally heard Hermione's and Ron's thoughts. Both of them had the same thought when they were eavesdropping on the conversation the three of them were having, and none of them had a single clue what they were talking about. Aine also overheard that both of them thought of Luna as an interesting oddball but she simply thought that Luna was cool and sweet. Perhaps they haven't known her well enough that they had such thoughts.
"What an interesting necklace," Hermione brought up halfway during the ride, attempting to lighten the air around them. She has been examining the pastel-blue beaded necklace that was hung around the Lovegood girl's neck since earlier.
"It's a charm, actually~" replies Luna, picking her necklace up and fiddling with it. It was a Butterbeer cork with an intricate flower bail that was looped in the beaded string. At first glance, it probably looks weird but to Luna, she had liked it. "It helps to keep away the Nargles!" she added with an excited whisper as if telling them a deep secret. However, the others forced a smile, not knowing what the hell a Nargle is. Except for Aine, of course.
"Hungry~ I hope there's pudding!" she chirps, staring into the distance again.
"Mmmm. Can't wait for the feast!" Aine answers and her Ravenclaw friend giggles along with her and they started chatting alone in their own world.
"What's a Nargle?" Ron questions.
"No idea!" Hermione replies, genuinely confused more than curious.
"They're mischievous thieves that like to infest Mistletoes and sometimes like to steal stuff!" Aine whispers to them and they chuckle nervously.
"O... Kay..?" Harry said.
"Right..." Hermione smiles, a gazillion thoughts running through her mind as she started contemplating the knowledge she has.
"Nice!" Neville complimented, having zero clue but still enjoyed the talks they had.
Aine chuckles, "They're really cool, trust me," she winks to all of them.
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Back to Hogwarts here we come~ So excited to be starting the next phase of the plot! It's only going to get more exciting from now on so be sure the check out the future chapters! I'll try my best to update once a week and twice if I am able to! Hopefully!
Thanks for reading and do upvote and drop some comments if you like ^^
- Zeneria