The roar of the train engine and the scarlet stack of the Hogwarts Express churns furiously towards the horizon.
"Quibbler...? Quibbler...?" Luna moves down the aisle wearing a pair of red and blue cardboard glasses, spectrespecs, identical to the ones modeled by a witch on the cover of the current issue of The Quibbler. She clutched a stack of papers to her chest. "There's an article on Wrackspurts this month. Quibbler...?"
The loitering students ignore her, including Dean Thomas, currently whispering to Ginny, who smiles mildly, more interested in the purple Pygmy Puff perched on her shoulder.
"He's lovely. They've been known to sing on Boxing Day, you know." Luna pets the small creature. "Quibbler?"
"Please." Then Ginny questions, "What's a Wrackspurt?"
"They're invisible creatures that float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy." Luna responds. Then moves off, "Quibbler? Quibbler?"
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I move past the commotion of people, finally finding a compartment to ourselves. We take a seat and Hermione already has a book entitled Advance Rune Translation open on her lap, while Ron lets Harry and I's invisibility cloak play through his fingers.
"Don't you see, it was a ceremony." My brother states. "An initiation."
"Stop, Harry, I know where you're going with this-" Hermione rolls her eyes.
"It's happened. He's one of them."
"One of what?" Ron questions, not paying attention to the conversation.
"Harry is under the impression that Draco Malfoy is now a Death Eater." I try to explain.
"You're barking. What would You-Know-Who want with a sod like Malfoy?" Ron asks.
"So what's he doing in Borgin and Burke's? Browsing for furniture?" Harry questions, slightly annoyed.
"It's a creepy shop. He's a creepy bloke."
"Look. His father's a Death Eater. It only makes sense." Then he looks to me. "Besides, Mia saw it. With her own eyes."
"I told you. I don't know what I saw." I tell him.
It's possible, he could be following in Lucius's footsteps, but it's so unlikely. Draco Malfoy is nothing more than a bully. He may torment us during the school year, but that doesn't mean he's a Death Eater.
Harry rises, snatches the cloak from Ron's hands. "I need some air." And with that, he walks out.
"I don't suppose one of us should follow after him?" Hermione asks. I can hear the worry in his voice.
"No, he'll be alright." I reassure her. "He just needs to take a walk, calm himself down."
"He's sounding a bit mad, isn't he?" Ron asks me.
"I don't know why he's so set on Draco being a Death Eater." I admit. "I mean, it's a possibility, but so unlikely."
The train rolls to a stop, Harry is still nowhere to be found.
"Should we wait for him?" Hermione asks.
"He's probably already on his way to the platform." Ron suggests. I nod in agreement.
"I agree." I tell them. "Let's go."
As we make our way off the train, I see a familiar, whimsical face still aboard.
"I'll catch up." I tell Ron and Hermione.
Luna Lovegood wanders down the aisle humming, red and blue Spectrespecs wobbling on the bridge of her nose. I walk up to her.
"Hi, Luna." I greet her. "What are you doing?"
"Just walking." She says with a smile.
Up ahead one compartment's blinds are shut. Luna and I stop in our tracks. We both cock our heads curiously. As we do, the light from an overhead lantern kicks off the cheap plastic lenses of Lunas glasses and, for the briefest of seconds, a fluttering cloud appears. Of tiny insects. Or pixie dust. Or a trick of the light.
Our silhouettes swell over the blinds, then the door opens. She calmly draws her wand and sends forth a blast of red light. The invisibility cloak slithers off my brothers body.
"Harry?" I question.
"Hello, Harry." Luna says with a smile.
"Mia. Luna. How'd you...?"
"Wrackspurts. Your heads full of them." Luna says matter of factly.
"What were you doing?" I ask him.
"Nothing." He mutters and I help him to his feet and grab our fathers cloak. Then he leans in to whisper into my ear, "I'll tell you later."
I nod and we make our way off the train.
The three of us missed the carriages so we are forced to walk from the platform towards the castle. Following the path in front of us, until we reach the gates.
The castle glitters. Harry, face blood-spattered, nose slightly off-center, approaches with Luna and I.
"Sorry I made you miss the carriages." Harry apologizes.
"It's alright. I enjoyed our walk. It was like being with friends." Luna says with a warm smile.
"We are your friends, Luna." I tell her.
"That's nice."
Just then, Professor Flitwick rushes forth clutching a long roll of parchment bearing all the students names.
"About time! I've been looking all over for you three. Names."
"Professor Flitwick, you've known us for five years." I tell him with a smirk on my face, but also slightly confused.
"No exceptions, Potter."
"Who are those people?" Luna asks. Harry and I turn, seeing Luna staring into the darkness, where shadows drift eerily, like ghosts.
"Aurors. For security." Flitwick informs us.
"It's a not a cane, you cretin. It's a walking stick." A foul voice states angrily.
Harry, Luna, and I turn again. Draco stands amidst a mountain of trunks and owl cages, watching Filch pass a long security detector over a walking stick.
"And what exactly would you be wanting with a walking stick?" Filch asks.
"It was his father's." Snape separates from the shadows. Draco eyes him warily, then snatches the stick from Filch.
"Is my father's. He's not dead."
Snape watches Malfoy carefully wrap the stick in felt, lay it back inside his trunk.
"It's alright, Mr. Filch. I can vouch for Mr. Malfoy." Draco eyes Snape warily again, then begins to slouch off, catches Harry and I looking.
"Nice face, Potter." Draco sneers at Harry, then glares at me.
Harry puts a hand to his nose, watches Malfoy disappear into the darkness, trailed by Snape.
"Want me to fix it?" I ask him, referring to his crooked nose.
"Personally I think you look a bit more devil-may-care this way." Luna says to him. I let out a chuckle.
"Have you ever fixed one? A nose." Harry asks me.
"Well, no." I tell him. "But I saw how Madame Pomfrey fixed Dracos arm our 3rd year. It couldn't be much different, could it?"
This does not fill Harry with confidence. Nevertheless... "What the hell." He shrugs. "Give it a go."
"Episkey." I poise my wand over Harry's nose and give it a tap. It vibrates wildly and then snaps into place.
He bends over in pain, letting out a groan. Once he regains his breath, he stands back up and looks to Luna and I.
"Well? How do I look?" He asks.
"Exceptionally ordinary." Luna responds. He smiles and then looks to me.
"Well, aside from the stream of blood running down, I'd say you look like your normal self." I smile, then take out a cloth and wrap it up. Placing it under his now fixed nose, he takes it from me to stop the bleeding.
"Brilliant." He says and we walk in to the great hall.