Loonar

I must have looked into at least thirty compartments before I spot who I'm looking for, smiling a little sheepishly through the window before I slid in. “Hello,” I sang, leaning down to hug my favourite in the bunch, “How are you?”

“Yeah, good, good.” I drew away, as usual not mentioning the last time I had seen Neville but sitting down on the opposite side, Luna Lovegood's large blue eyes glued to my face. She was someone I half recognised, knew from reputation alone. “Nice train journey?” I scoffed at Ginny and she grinned, the same impish lift of her lips as the twins. “Take that as a no.”

“Well, I’ve already run into Malfoy, which was a nice as ever.” Everyone in the carriage seemed to grimace in sync, “We’ve avoided him so far.” Harry said gratefully, “Not that we’ve exactly done much this ride.”

“Hermione and Ron still getting their prefect duty lists?” Harry and Ginny nodded and I covered a yawn, “Sarah’s only just gotten back, so don’t expect them for a while.” I felt my forehead crease, “I wonder how Draco and Pansy got out early?”

Ginny made some sort of disgusted noise and I grin, feeling my bad mood ebb slightly. “How’s it been for you?” I turn my question to Harry this time, who tries to hide his frown but fails. “Not seen too many people.”

“Plenty of stares his way though,” Ginny muttered lowly, not enough for Harry to miss. He didn’t respond but his mouth tightened and the silence, only broken by Luna flipping the pages of her magazine, lasts for a good couple of minutes. “Never read the Quibbler before,” I comment gently, eager to try and start some sort of conversation. Luna glances at me, a rabbit in headlights before she returns to reading. I pout, not knowing her enough to know how to play her awkwardness off.

“Right well…I’ll get off then, see you at the feast. Make me a list of anyone who looks at you too funny.” I winked at him, and he grinned as if my feeble joke was any good.

“You can put Rita Skeeter right at the top of that,” Ginny interjected, tearing a gummy snake in half with her teeth. “I can’t believe how anyone could possibly believe anything she writes.” I snort loudly, eyes catching on the grey pulsating plant next to Neville. I’d already seen it a couple of weeks ago and been warned of what it could do. Neville saw me looking, “It’s already gone er…once.”

“Everywhere.”

“I’m a little sad I missed that.”

“Don’t be,” Harry warned, and I had to laugh at the expression on his face.

“We had an audience after.” I wait for an explanation, “Cho came in.” Ginny fills the gap and I feel my lips tense. Poor Cho, she had been Cedric’s girlfriend, had lost him in the sudden, horrific way the Prophet was trying to deny. “How was she? She must have been having a hard time with this as well.”

“Can’t help that most people seem to think I killed him.”

“It’s ridiculous. I can’t even imagine how anyone can believe the utter bullshit they’re saying.” My temper has erupted, and I’m steaming, feeling my face grow red at how unfair it all is. “How Rita can even print what she does is…”

“It doesn’t matter what people think.” Neville broke in, silencing me, “We believe Harry and he’s right and that’s all that matters.” I sucked in my cheek nodding at him, fidgeting with my fingers to stop them clenching into fists. I hadn’t realised I had so much of a temper before today, and I’d spent far too much of the train journey angry.

“Yeah, yeah.” Ginny was smiling at him proudly and I had to share it, “Since when did you get so mature Longbottom?” He blushed instantly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people eat so much,” Leanne said, her fork daintily held in her hand as she grimaced, eyes on Dale and Ryan sitting up a few spaces, both still piling food into their mouths. “And I thought you ate a lot...” She concluded, glancing at me.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.” I respond, shooting her a look and resuming eating my jelly, “You don't enjoy food enough.” She frowned, swearing at me in jest and placing her fork down, her pudding left untouched. I roll my eyes a little, and Katie smirks at me as she became caught up in a further conversation about Quidditch.

“I really don’t get the appeal of it still.” Leanne griped, giving in and dipping a teaspoon into the caramel sauce smothering her bowl. “But they seem to get more excited every year.” It wasn’t too often that I agreed wholeheartedly with Leanne, but this was one of those times. I didn’t get Quidditch; well – I got it enough in that I understood the rules but it was as unappealing to me as most muggle sports. It didn’t help that there was a far greater chance of plummeting fifty feet than in something like football.

The food vanished not long after that, leaving Ryan with a forlorn look as his third slice of pie disappeared in front of his eyes. As Dumbledore stood one of the last remaining sounds from the mass of students was Aaron’s laughter. The typical post-meal speech from Dumbledore did not follow, instead, he was interrupted by a small woman I hadn’t even noticed beforehand. She was blathering on about traditions and going back to our wonderfully mystic routes.

I was trying to listen, but Leanne was giving me a running commentary about her odd clothing and makeup choice which was far more entertaining. “Perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited.” The woman finished with a flourish as if expecting a rousing applause. “She needs to focus on pruning her hair.” As Dumbledore clapped, several others joined in.

It had all seemed a big joke until after dinner, when, as Hermione and Ron stormed past, looking for first years she caught my arm, “That woman, she was at Harry’s hearing – she’s from the ministry.” This drops my smile instantly, she doesn’t need to say more before she calls again for the eleven-year-olds' and leaves. If this Umbridge woman was from the Ministry of Magic that was not an accident, she would be here for a very particular purpose, and Harry had mentioned how very vile half of the people in his hearing were.

The Ministry was getting involved in Hogwarts, after everything during the final task of the tournament I suppose we shouldn’t have been surprised but even so it made me uneasy. I also, I realised again, should not have been so surprised at the looks Harry was still getting. I’d glanced over at him a few times throughout the meal, and although he seemed okay I didn’t miss Ron’s mostly constant glares at someone sat on the Ravenclaw table behind him.

“Come on dilly daydream.” Dale catches me as he passes behind my back, making me jump. Ryan shoots him a confused look, sharing it with me. “What the hell is dilly daydream?”

“It’s like a stop spacing out thing, my Mum sometimes says it…oh, shut the hell up Ryan.”

“Sorry Dills.”

“You’ll be sorry in a bloody minute when I chuck you down the stairs.”

We were on a staircase when the two finally stopped bickering following Katie’s loud, disgruntled groan. “It’s the first day, how can you possibly be so annoying already?”

“It’s a gift.” Ryan winked at us both, looking dissatisfied that none of us laughed in returned. “Like, I’m annoying and this one,” He prodded my cheek gently, “has been permanently mad all day.”

I swatted his hand away, although he had a point and as we moved a little further into the crushed line waiting to get into the common room Katie piped up, “You do look annoyed.”

“Yeah, well people are annoying.”

“Hows’ that song go? If looks could kill?” Dale smirked at me, “Sarah be long gone, wouldn’t she? You’ve been shooting lasers into the back of her head for a good two minutes.” I did a poor imitation of his voice, relieving the tension a tiny bit. “For real though,” Ryan leans a little closer in, “It’s not like Harry can’t handle himself, and you getting mad at everyone for saying something you don’t agree with…”

“Saying lies and being stupid.”

“Hey!” He retaliated a little at my aggression, “Don’t bite my head off, I haven’t done anything.”

“I know.” He still looks a little annoyed and I deflate further, glad that the familiar portrait is in sight. “I know, I’m sorry I’ve been all grumpy.”

“I’m sure he’ll manage to forgive you.” Katie chips in again, but I can tell her smile is a little forced. “And you want to defend Harry, we get that. Of course, we do. But you don’t want to add any fuel to the fire, you start going on and he won’t thank you for it.”

“I guess.” That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to keep more of an eye on him. “I’m just…” only flinging my hands up seemed good enough to express how I felt and everyone seemed to understand.

“We’ve got his back too,” Dale assured, smile more sincere as we all finally crouched through the circular hole. “Right, I need to unpack. See you back down here in a bit?”

Everyone made some noise of agreement and I followed Leanne and Katie, my stomach not feeling any more settled.

Umbridge was foul.

We were three lessons in and not a single one of us had touched our wands. Instead, we spent the long hours reading through chapters of the new dreaded textbook and making notes, preparing for our fortnightly test. She just stood there, trotting around occasionally and critiquing the style of someone's notes, or telling another to better their posture.

Any hint of argument about this had faded by the second lesson, and everyone seemed to sink into an uneasy boredom. I’d discussed it with Hermione to a degree, coming to the conclusion that perhaps this was some fear from the ministry, some concern that with the threat of Voldemort out there we may be more reckless, or even dangerous. It may purely be that Umbridge had no skills as a teacher. Regardless one of my favourite lessons was slowly becoming my least, and Umbridge was working her way to my least favourite teacher – overtaking a particularly grouchy Snape.

It certainly didn’t help when Dean Thomas had filled me in on their quite dramatic first lesson in which she referred to Lupin as an “extremely dangerous half-breed” before calling Harry a liar and sending him out of the room. I hadn’t dared speak about it directly to Harry, and he had come back from each of his detentions with her absolutely fuming.

It was finally Friday, and after a first week that had seemed to stretch for months, I had a pile of homework as tall as a house-elf and a set of tired and irritated friends.

“Remember when everyone said the fifth year was hardest?” Dale groaned, slamming his head down on the table and causing me to giggle. His meeting with McGonagall on Monday had gone pretty well; in fact, it seemed like it had for all of us, allowing us pretty much to take the classes we had wanted too.

“Everyone says that every year.” Ryan countered, his Herbology book in one hand and his quill in the other; tapping haphazardly against his parchment.

“I just wish I could use a bloody biro, I hate quills.” Dale continued, his voice muffled from his position.

“You say that every year too," Ryan added, smirking as our friend grew even more irritated. I glared at him, pulling my almost-finished Transfiguration essay in front of me, trying desperately to find a decent way to word my conclusion.

“What’s up Kiddy-winks,” A familiar voice teased, the body of Fred Weasley appearing soon after, “Finding it a little bit hard are we? Want Ol’ Freddy to help?”

I snorted, Ryan chuckling at him, “You’re not exactly a stunning example of a student mate, no offence.” Fred mocked hurt, holding a hand to his heart, pulling my finished Alchemy work towards him.

“This means nothing to me.” He admitted a few seconds later, disrupting the brilliant final sentence I had finally thought of and grinning at my irritated face.

“Fred, I love you, but if you don’t go away I’m going to hurt you.” He held my gaze until he realised how serious I was and pulled himself up loudly, “Where’s everyone else then? Only half of the sixth year crew eh?” I rolled my eyes, giving up on my Transfiguration and deciding to come back to it later.

“They’re in the library.” He nodded, hovering in case I would suddenly push my homework aside and entertain him as I would have a couple of years ago.

“Merlin’s beard, when did you get so boring Amelia?” He scoffed, resting his elbows painfully on my shoulders. “Maybe I’ve always been boring.”

He pretended to ponder this thought for a second, before viciously shaking his head. “Nope, this is definitely new. Taking your NEWTS seriously are we?”

“Unlike you two?”

He shrugged, “Like I said, we’re not academic. Our fame and fortune lay elsewhere.”

“Like the front page of the Prophet when Hermione finally flips and gets you?” Ryan quipped, referring to the ongoing dispute between our favourite little prefect and the twins. She was not amused that they were trying to test their ‘skiving snackboxes’ on intimidated first years. “I was thinking more along the lines of ‘the most attractive man ever to….” His lips pressed hard together, his giveaway that he was thinking hard, but he came up empty, “Just for being the most attractive man ever I ‘spose.”

“Realistic.”

“Don’t be mean Amelia. You’re breaking my heart over here!”

I laughed loudly, “Go away you muppet, you’re distracting me.”

“I feel like I barely know you anymore.”

“A girl can dream. Go torture some more first years before Hermione gets back.” He grimaced, “She will write to your mother, you know that, right?”

“I look forward to the howler.” He winked again, ruffled my hair and crossed the common room in a few long strides. Fred interrupting us was the most exciting thing to happen for the next couple of hours, and well fell back into the hard slog of essays and even more complaining.

“Maybe we start doing more homework on the day we get it, I still have all my potions to do on Sunday and you know what Snape is like, it’s killer.” The other two agreed, even though Dale wasn't in that class and we called it a day just in time for dinner, everyone else finally reappearing.

“I haven’t done any of Umbridge's,” Katie said worriedly, “I haven’t even started it and it's due Monday!"

“We’ll do it Sunday morning,” I said, feeling quite determined, “Aaron that okay with you?” He nodded, his own work half done and I grinned, agreeing to his bargain, “Only if you help me with Charms.”

“I don't want to talk about work anymore.” Dale groaned, “I’m so hungry.”

“When aren’t you?” Leanne quipped, poking his stomach, “Won’t be able to play that rugby thing you like if you get all big.”

“You really don’t know anything about muggle stuff do you?” I asked lightly, linking my arm with hers as we left the common room, “Being big helps quite a bit with rugby.” I explained, “Well, not like fat, but big.”

Her nose crinkled, “I really don’t get the appeal.” Dale was about to start on one of his passionate pro-rugby rants when Aaron saved us all, weaving around some third years to walk in step with us.

“So, have you heard from your lover boy yet? He owled you back?” Dale and I took this very much as our cue to leave and fell back a little bit, having lost Ryan and Katie in the crowd. “He’s probably pegged it to the table, he acts like he never eats.”

“Bless him.” Dale yawned, frowning as we managed to catch up with Aaron and Leanne, catching a glimpse of her latest fairytale version of their first date. He clasped my hand and wrenched me forward instead. “I cannot take any more of that.” He had a horrified look on his face, “I just can’t.”

“Well, don’t worry. We can eat and get right back to our homework.”

"Shut the hell up Amelia."