Tough Love

The train moved away from the station, steadily gaining speed as it went. Anya reached up and re-latched the window before taking the window seat next to George. “It looks like it wants to rain,” she commented, gazing out the window at the stormy looking sky. The other two leaned over her and stared at the rapidly blackening sky. “That’s funny,” Fred commented, “the sky was perfectly clear this morning.” The upcoming storm confused them all, but their puzzled thoughts were momentarily interrupted when a girl, who looked to be about the same age as the twin’s sister Ginny, entered their carriage.
“Do you mind if I join you?” the girl asked in a sort of dreamy voice, “Everywhere else is full.”
“Of course you can. I’m Anya by the way,” Anya told the girl, “What’s your name?”
“I’m Luna; it’s quite nice to meet you Anya.” Luna replied.
Fred and George exchanged a look, but before either one of them could say a word Anya elbowed George in the stomach and glared at Fred, making it clear that she wouldn’t stand for either of them to say one word against Luna, no matter how odd she might seem. Somehow, Luna seemed to have missed this little exchange between the three of them, and had begun trying to get her trunk up onto the luggage rack above the seats. To avoid another bruise from Anya, George jumped up and helped her lift her trunk up to the rack. “What do you have in here?” George asked her, puffing from the effort he had to use to put it up there.
“Just my things for school and my copies of the quibbler…” Luna answered in the same dreamy voice. Looking directly up into his eyes, which was quite impressive considering she was about a foot shorter than Anya, “You do read the quibbler, don’t you,” she inquired. Her unwavering stare made him so uncomfortable, he had to answer with an “of course, why wouldn’t I?”
“Good,” Luna relied, dropping her gaze from him and plopping into the seat across from Anya, which earned a grimace from Fred, who happened to be sitting on that side of the car as well. He and his twin shared a look and then continued looking past the girls out the window at the almost pitch black sky.
“So… erm, what house are you in Luna?” Anya asked her, trying to keep a conversation going that wouldn’t lead to the twins insulting the poor girl accidentally.
“I’m in my second year in Ravenclaw,” Luna replied, turning her attention from the dust motes floating through the air back to Anya, “What about the three of you?”
“Well, I’m in my fourth year and am in Gryffindor, and they’re in their fifth year and in Gryffindor too,” Anya answered for the three of them, since neither of the guys looked like they would be answering anytime soon. She shot them both an exasperated look, that neither one of them had a chance to question or object to because the train had suddenly lurched to a complete stop and the all the lights had cut off, leaving them in complete blackness. The lights flickered off and on for about thirty seconds before shutting off for good. During the quick moments of light they had, Anya could see that Luna was terrified, so she reached across the aisle and held her hand, giving the scared 12 year old something to hold onto. They sat in total silence, until Luna managed to squeak out, “L-look at the window.” The three of them turned their attention to the window, which caused Anya to gasp in shock; the window was rapidly being covered with a thick layer of frost which brought their attention to the fact that the temperature in the carriage had dropped about twenty degrees in the last few seconds alone. Luna started to whimper and Anya pulled the younger girl over to her side of the car and held her tight, “Shhh… It’ll be ok, I promise,” she whispered, trying to keep Luna calm. Suddenly the door to their car flew open and Draco crashed inside, obviously he was freaked out about something, but before anyone could ask the car door slid back open, with an oddly, claw like hand attached to the handle. Fred and George stood between Anya, who was shielding Luna, and the thing at the door. As it entered, the five human occupants of the carriage had the peculiar sensation of all the happiness being sucked out of them, making them all relive the most unpleasant moments of their lives. For Fred and George, it was when their little sister had gone missing for a day only to turn up in the river half a day later, for Draco it was when his father had locked him in the Department of Mysteries after being beaten for top of the class by Hermione, for Luna it was her mother’s funeral, and for Anya it was the murder of her parents and disappearance of her twin brother when she was four. The temperature continued to drop until some kind of glowing light filled the whole train and the cloaked thing left them alone for good.
Almost as soon as it left, the lights flickered back on and the train had started moving again. None of them moved for a minute, not sure whether the thing was truly gone or not; after a while it became apparent that whatever it was had gone and they all slumped back into their seats, all except for Draco who just dropped onto the floor near the door. “What was that thing?” he asked in a shaky voice.
“I think it was a Dementor. You know, those things that guard Azkaban. I think they were looking for Sirius Black,” Anya answered, looking paler than usual. “Although why they decided to actually stop the whole train is beyond me.”
“It’s utterly ridiculous, when my father hears about this…” Draco started, sounding more like himself as he said this.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. You’ll go running to Daddy and make sure that he makes the Minister’s like miserable until he reassures your Daddy that nothing like this will ever happen again,” Fred finished for him.
Draco stared at him, looking outraged. “How dare you mock me, you filthy little blood traitor…”
“Okay, that’s ENOUGH you two! Either act like you have some kind of common sense or get out,” Anya exploded, “If you two hadn’t noticed, there is a second year in here and she doesn’t need to hear you acting like ignorant children.”
The three guys stopped their bickering and lapsed into a shocked silence, they had never heard her raise her voice before. Anya stared back, taking in their facial expressions and lack of anything to say, noting that neither of them looked sorry, she took Luna’s hand and grabbed her messenger bag and headed out the door, leaving them alone in the car, “We’ll be back when you guy’s learn how to act your age,” she told them simply, closing the door behind her. She and Luna walked through two train cars before they found another car that had room for them, and thankfully they knew the people in it. “Hey Ginny, mind if we join you?” Anya asked her. “Sure, but weren’t you with Fred and George?”
“We where, until they started acting like children after the Dementor left, which is why we’re here now,” Anya answered, rummaging through her bag. “Wait, the Dementor’s where in your car?” Ginny asked, shocked. “Yes, it was quite an interesting experience,” Luna replied, “Fred and Draco started yelling about something or other, so Anya and I came here,” she finished, pulling a copy of the quibbler out of nowhere and started reading it upside down. She appeared fine for the most part other than the fact that she was still shivering and a little pale. Suddenly Anya thought of something that would help, and went back to rummaging in her bag, coming back up with a bar of Hershey’s chocolate, which was well known in the muggle world. She opened up the wrapper and broke off a piece, offering it to Luna, “Eat this, it’ll help warm you back up.” Luna eyed it, trying to figure out what it was, “It’s chocolate,” Anya reassured her, taking a bite, “try it.” Still not looking convinced, Luna took the piece out of her hand and took a small bite, the effects were almost instant; Anya could practically see the warmth flooding through her. She was so busy making sure Luna finished all of her chocolate that she didn’t even notice the door sliding open or the person who stood on the other side until he cleared his throat and said, “Can I talk to you, please?”
“Sure,” Anya replied, handing Luna the rest of the chocolate bar and stepping out into the hallway, closing the door behind her, “so, what did you want to talk about?” she asked, staring up into George’s face.
“I wanted to apologize for Fred and Draco’s behavior, you’re right, what they were doing was childish and Luna didn’t need to see it,” George answered, looking down at her, “Please say you aren’t mad anymore.”
Anya laughed, “I’m not mad at you, a little annoyed at your twin and Draco maybe, but not mad. I’m sorry too, for snapping back there,” she told him, meeting his gaze, “It’s just that the memories that came up for Luna back there weren’t something that those two bickering could help. She needed time to think.”
George looked puzzled, so she explained further, “If I guessed right, then she relived her mother’s funeral, which isn’t something that any twelve year should have to go through.”
“Her mum’s… I had no idea,” he said, looking aghast. “But, how do you know?”
“Just a guess, it’s what I saw too, in a way except in addition to the funeral, I saw them being murdered. Trust me, it’s not something that anyone should have to go through, let alone relive.”
George was at a loss for words, he’d never thought of what it would be like for them. In a spur of the moment decision, he leaned down and wrapped his arms around her, “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. Anya hesitated at first, then leaned into him, hugging him back, not able to think of anything to say. They stood like that for a minute, before pulling apart. “Thank you,” she told him, “now let’s grab Luna and get back to your brother, we’re almost there.”
“Let’s go,” he replied, smiling. A few minutes later, the three of them walked back into their car where Fred was laying across the seat asleep. Stifling a laugh, George went over and shook his twin awake, pulling him up into a sitting position so Luna could sit down. “Have a nice nap?” Anya asked, innocently, causing him to jump, he hadn’t realized that George had brought anyone back with him. “Um… yeah, I guess so… Look Anya, before you say anything, I want to say that I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have messed with him,”
“It’s okay, I’m not mad, I promise. Let’s just forget about it,” she responded, leaning across the aisle to fix his crazy hair, making him smile.
“Look, there’s the castle!” Luna stated, pointing out the window.
“Finally, I’ve never been so happy to see this place in my life,” George said.
Anya laughed and gently whacked his arm, “It’s good to be home.”