The Potter Twins and the Order of the Phoenix {5}

10. Fake Happy

"Oh please don't ask me how I've been, don't make me play pretend. Oh no, oh what's the use? Oh please, I bet everybody here is fake happy, too" ~ Fake Happy, Paramore

I refrain from mentioning to the others that we had the same hallucination as Luna if that's what it was, so I say nothing more about the strange horses as we travel inside the carriage. Nonetheless, I can't help but watch the silhouettes of the moving horses beyond the window. 

"Did everyone see that Grubbly-Plank woman?" Ginny asks. "What's she doing back here? Hagrid can't have left, can he?"

"I'll be quite glad if he has," Luna states, "he isn't a very good teacher, is he?"

"Yes, he is!" we all say angrily. 

"Well, we in Ravenclaw think he's a bit of a joke," Luna says unphased. 

"You've got a rubbish sense of humour then," Ron snaps, as the wheels below us creak. 

Luna does not seem perturbed by Ron's rudeness; on the contrary, she simply watches him for a while as though he's a mildly interesting television programme. 

Rattling and swaying, the carriages move in convoy up the road. When we pass between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds, I lean forward to try and see if there are any lights coming from Hagrid's cabin; but the grounds are in complete darkness. 

Hogwarts Castle, however, looms ever closer; a towering mass of turrets, jet black against the dark sky. 

The carriages jingle to a halt near the stone steps leading up to the oak front doors, and I climb out of the carriage first. I turn again to look for lit windows in the carriage by the forest, but there is definitely no sign of life inside Hagrid's cabin. Unwillingly, I instead force my eyes upon the skeletal creatures standing silently in the chill of the night air, their blank white eyes gleaming. Harry soon joins me, brushing my shoulder with his with a heavy sigh. 

"Are you coming or what?" Ron says beside us. 

"Oh...yeah," Harry says quickly, grabbing my hand and dragging me into the crowd hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. 

The Entrance Hall is ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as we cross the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast. 

The four long house tables in the Great Hall are filling up under the starless black ceiling, which is just like the sky outside. Candles float in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who are dotted about the Hall, as well as the faces of students eagerly talking to their friends. 

Slowly, our group begins to lose members; Luna drifts away to join the Ravenclaw table, and Ginny and Asher join their fellow fourth years. Myself, Harry, Hermione, Tay, Ron, and Neville find seats together about halfway down the table, nearby Nearly Headless Nick, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown. The last two of whom give Harry and me overly friendly greetings, making me believe that they were talking about us moments ago. We have more important things to worry about, however. 

"He's not there," Harry says, scanning the staff table for Hagrid. 

"He can't have left," Ron says, sounding slightly anxious. 

"Of course he hasn't," I say firmly. 

"You don't think he's....hurt, or anything, do you?" Hermione says uneasily. 

"No," Harry says at once. "

"But where is he then?"

There is a pause, then I lower myself, so Neville can't hear. "Maybe he's not back yet. You know - from his mission - the thing he was doing ver the summer for Dumbledore.'