Don't Leave | Luna Lovegood

A New School

I should have been excited, overjoyed, elated to be finally leaving my parents and heading off to Hogwarts. The school that every young witch and wizard waited their whole life to attend. The school full of excitement, and learning magic, and making friends. The school where everybody made lifelong friends and lifelong partnerships. The school that Harry Potter attended, for god's sake!

But I wasn't.

As I stepped onto the Hogwarts Express, hauling my trunk behind me and waving goodbye to my adoptive parents, I could already feel staring eyes burning through the back of my skull, hear the low but not-so-inconspicuous whispers of "Is she really a black?" and "her father disgusts me" and "let's hope she isn't like the rest of her family". Somehow, I had hoped that I could just go unnoticed, but looking back at that, I realised it was stupid that I had ever even hoped that. Of course the news that a mass murderer's daughter was joining Hogwarts would spread like wildfire. I mean, what had I expected to happen? That I would somehow manage to get through the entirety of secondary school without anybody ever knowing my name or recognising me from the pictures of my father that had plastered every newspaper years ago? How stupid of me.

After depositing my trunk on a luggage rack, I made my way down the train corridor, carefully glancing into each compartment to see if it was empty, but trying not to be seen doing so. Eventually, I found a completely empty compartment and made my way inside. I sat down on the seat closest to the window and found that the cushion sank down much lower than I had expected it to under the pressure of my weight, but it was comfortable all the same.

People walked up and down the corridor, and every once in a while somebody would peek through the door only to jump away when they saw me sat there. Just as I started to relax and think that nobody was going to disturb me, another first year poked her head around the door. She had mid-length fiery ginger hair and her pale face seemed to be coated in freckles.

"do you mind if I sit with you?", she murmured, seemingly as nervous of meeting new people as I was, "It's just, all the other compartments are full, and my brother told me to bugger off when I tried to sit with him." she let out a nervous laugh.

"of course you can sit with me", I said, slightly reluctantly but returning her laugh.

she shuffled inside, closing the door behind her, and sat down opposite me.

"So you have a brother?" I enquired

"yeah,  ron", she mumbled, "uh, would it be ok if I open the window, I just want to wave goodbye to my parents".

Her face looked pained at the thought of having to leave her parents, and in all honesty  I had completely forgotten about waving goodbye to my parents, so I slid open the window and searched for my parents on the crowded platform. I could see parents, grandparents, siblings, even pets dotted around the place, all looking rather sorrowful at the sight of everybody leaving.

In amongst the crowd, an older boy was running in between the people, desperately trying to make it to the train on time, clutching his trunk tight to his chest. He jumped onto the train just before the whistle blew and I snuck my head around the door, as he darted into a near compartment to much laughter from who I assumed to be his friends. I silently slid back into my seat and waved goodbye to my parents, who had tears leaking out of their eyes and concerned looks on their faces. I smiled at them to stop them worrying so much about me, but really I didn't want to leave them. I bit back the urge to cry and continued waving as the train started to move.

Eventually, I turned back to the girl in front of me, and noticed tears glossing over her eyes. In attempt to console her, I decided to start conversation with her.

"so, what's your name then?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound too rude

"Ginny Weasley", she replied quietly, facing the floor, "how about you?"

"Ivy", I responded, making sure to miss out my surname, "you know, Ginny, I'm sure you'll be elated when you get to Hogwarts, and you'll make plenty of friends, and you won't have to worry about missing your parents"

"I, well, thanks, Ivy" she smiled and wiped the tears off her cheeks.

We were now on our way to Hogwarts, and I wasn't sure whether I was excited or absolutely terrified, but I was leaning more towards absolutely terrified.

Well that's the first chapter, sorry if it a kind of rubbish also I think it might be a bit short but oh well. This is my first story, and I'm not sure where it's going to go and honestly I doubt anyone will read it, but if you are reading it, Hi, thank you so so much, feel free to point out any mistakes I made and I'm going to write the next chapter soon :-)