Eighth Year Realizations

Trolleys and Thestrals

Harry still wasn't used to the fact that he could just apparate places, and he was dwelling on this fact as he stepped onto platform nine and three-quarters. He had his school trunk and Nym in tow and found himself searching for the red-headed family once again. He spotted them saying their goodbyes to Ron and Ginny, the last of the Weasley children, and headed over to meet them.

"Oh hello, Nym! Harry." Harry noticed Ginny had perched her Pigmy Puff, Arnold, on her shoulder; he hadn't even realized she still had Arnold.

"Grab your things, dears. The train is going to leave without you!" Mrs. Weasley chastised them all. "Oh, what would it be if we were on time for once," she added, softly to herself, but she winked at Harry as she noticed he had heard before folding him into a tight hug goodbye.

Hermione and Ron still held their status of Prefects and would be going to the front of the train to sit with the other prefects for the first bit of the journey, so Harry followed Ginny. They saw Luna Lovegood in a compartment with Draco Malfoy. Harry softly cursed; he hadn't realized the ferret would be returning to Hogwarts, as Lucius, his father, and Narcissa, his mother, were both incarcerated in Azkaban after the Battle of Hogwarts. Ginny reached out for the door but Harry caught her arm.

"Harry, there are no open compartments and I would like to sit with Luna. Malfoy could be different. Luna sat with him, and she was held prisoner in his mansion for months, and if she can sit with him, surely you can deal for one train ride. He's the odd one out now, not you, and I'll give him a quality hex if he says anything to you, but I bet you 10 galleons he doesn't even dare." Ginny pulled the door to the compartment open and stepped in, pulling a red-faced Harry with her.

"Ginny! Harry! I've missed you both," Luna offered one of her oddly whimsical smiles then gestured to Draco, who looked as if he'd rather be anywhere but sitting in the corner of the compartment he was in. "You know Draco." Luna hugged Ginny, who pecked the blonde girl on the cheek in return. Harry stared, incredulously.

Ginny glared at Harry, haughtily scolding, "Harry, when you refuse to come around for the entirety of summer holidays, you miss things." Not understanding how this explained anything at all, Luna laid it out for him.

"After my father was arrested, the death eaters ransacked our home so we needed to stay somewhere for a while until we could get it fixed up. The Weasleys offered us some space and Ginny and I spent a lot of time together." Malfoy's pale eyes were focused on the other blonde. Harry never realized how strikingly icy blue they were before. "We got to talking one night and I asked Ginny if she'd fancy a date and she agreed. So we are together now." She said it as if it were the most obvious, logical thing in the world. Why had it been so hard for Harry to ever go on dates before? She made it sound so simple, as if all he had to do were ask. At least he now understood Ginny's new confidence. And, Harry thought, surprising himself with his indifference to Ginny's new relationship, they look good together.

Harry hadn't realized how much he had missed in his self-isolation over the summer. He thought everyone would be focused on the people they lost, that the Weasley's would be grieving Fred's death. He had no idea they had opened their home to other wizards, had picked themselves up and focused efforts on helping those they could. Harry drifted off into his thoughts for a while; Ginny had her head in Luna's lap, reading a book while Arnold slept on her chest, and Luna and Malfoy were deep in conversation about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. It seemed as if Luna did not care at all that Malfoy was a death eater and had been on Voldemort's side for the war, though Harry guessed he shouldn't have been surprised. It was Luna after all who had been one of the first to believe his story in their fifth year, accepting him despite the other students keeping their distance. Luna would listen to what Malfoy had to say and would undoubtedly accept any sort of apology he made. Harry silently swore that he would not be so fast to let Malfoy get his way; especially when he kept catching Malfoy steeling glances in Harry's direction.  Git.

After a few more hours, Ron and Hermione found the odd group and came in. "Did you get anything from the trolley? I'm starved." Ron, not uncharacteristically, asked. Harry held out some chocolate frogs and a treacle tart for Ron to have. Harry had assumed Ron's eating habits would be much the same as they had been the previous seven years, and he was not wrong. Ron and Hermione had not even acknowledged Malfoy's presence, and Harry silently thanked them. He didn't want to give the rat any more attention than he had to.

As they approached Hogwarts, they changed into their robes like always to prepare for the feast. Leaving their trunks on the train to be taken up to the castle separately, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Malfoy headed for the carriages. Hermione stopped in her tracks just as Ron and Ginny simultaneously took a sharp intake of breath. "What? What's wrong?" Harry looked where they were looking but he couldn't see anything out of place: the carriages were set up just as they always were, waiting for students to step into them, pulled by the -- Harry understood immediately. They could see the thestrals that were pulling the carriage. Surely enough, he looked down the line of students waiting to get into carriages and it appeared that more people than ever before were able to see the thestrals. He looked down at his feet, realizing just the sheer number of people who had now seen death due to the war that he helped start. He ran his hands over his unkempt hair and found himself yet again struggling to catch his breath, just as he had felt that day in Diagon Alley. What was happening to him? It seemed as if the noise of the students loading into carriages was so loud his ears could start bleeding, as if the robes on him were weighing too tightly, too heavily. He was still holding his head in his hands, as if trying to keep it on top of his shoulders, in one piece. When he finally looked up, he noticed Malfoy staring directly at him. "What are you looking at, Malfoy," Harry spoke through his teeth, spitting out the last word. Malfoy opened his mouth as if to say something but decided against it, quickly turning away, stepping into a carriage. Ginny and Luna had gone to the next one, as only four people would fit in each carriage and Ron and Hermione were already in the carriage Malfoy had just gotten in. Harry had no choice but to enter the same carriage. He silently swore, his heart continuing to race.