What If? Year 1

Chapter 6

The girl smiles at Ginny and I as we sit down across from her. 
"I'm Luna," she says, dreamily. Ginny looks at her in surprise. 
"Luna?" she asks, "Luna Lovegood? It's Ginny Weasley." Luna smiles at Ginny. 
"Yes," she says, "you are.. and who is your friend?" Ginny smiles at me. 
"This is Marigold Potter," she says, making Luna smile at me. I smile back. 
"Good to meet you, Marigold," she says.  
"Call me Goldie," I tell her, "and it's nice to meet you too, Luna."  Luna smiles at me and hands me a magazine. 
"The Quibbler," I read the name out loud, "You're father.. publishes this?" Luna nods, proudly. 
"Yes," she says, "father is going hiking in the mountains in hope of finding a new type of nargel." I nod. 
"I've read a few articles about those," I say, "They seem like interesting creatures." Ginny laughs at me.  We hear a knock on the compartment door.  A boy with brown hair and cubby face, opens the door. 
"H-hello," he says, "E-everywhere else is full, I was wondering if I could sit here."  
"Of course," Luna says, "What's your name?"  The boy's eyes quickly scan the compartment. 
"My name is Neville Longbottom," he says, sitting next to Luna.  
"You're in Harry's year," I blurt out, making my face turn red.  He smiles at me. 
"Yeah," he says, "how do you know Harry?" He had such an adorable smile. 
"He's m-my b-brother," I reply, "I'm Goldie." Neville smiles at me. 
"His less crazy sister," he says, laughing, "that's what Harry always said." I smile. He was not wrong. 
"Are you in Gryffindor?" Ginny asks, "I'm Ginny Weasley, by the way." Neville nods. 
He seems so sweet. Cute even.
"What house are you three hoping for?" Neville asks. 
"Ravenclaw," Luna says, "That what my parents were." 
"Gryffindor," Ginny says, "everyone in my family has been in Gryffindor." 
"Gryffindor," I say, "but anything but Slytherin.. my father would kill me if I was in Slytherin." 
"I still think that I should be in Hufflepuff," Neville mumbles, "I'm not brave." 
"Same!" I say, "I'm not brave like Harry or my dad.  I'm a bloody coward."  Neville laughs. 
Could he stop being adorable?  I blush, trying to expel the thought from my head. We talk for a while and soon the train starts to move. 
Were we that early? We continue to talk, until a boy with bleach blonde hair opens the compartment door and sneers. 
"What are two beautiful looking girls doing with Longbottom?" he asks.  Ginny glares at him. 
"There are three of us," she snarls, as she points Luna, herself, and me.  He laughs. 
"You think I did not know that," the boy replies, pushing his greasy hair back, "why would I call her beautiful?" He points at Luna. 
"Because all of that hair gel is clearly getting to your brain," I snap at him.  He glares at Ginny and me.  
"Why don't you just leave us alone, Malfoy?" Neville asks. 
"Of course," Ginny mumbles. 
"No need to ask your name, Weasley," Malfoy snarls, "how can your parents afford for you?  They must starve themselves." 
"At least they did not raise stuck up snobs," I growl, making Ginny sends me a warning look. 
"Just go away," Luna says. Draco slams the compartment door, making it shatter. 
"Great," I mumble, getting up and standing in front of the broken door. 
"Reparo," I say, making all the glass dance in the air before setting itself in the correct spot and repairing itself.  Neville smiles at me. We continue our talk when Fred and George knock on the door. 
"Time to get dressed!" they shout, "we should be getting there in about fifteen minutes." Neville nods to Luna, Ginny, and I before exiting the compartment with his clothes.  We get dressed into out first year robes. I start to feel the bad feeling in my stomach again, and it must have shown on my face.
"You alright, Goldie?" Luna asks.  
"Just nervous, I guess," I reply.  She nods and goes out to tell Neville we are finished changing. Neville comes back in with Luna.
He looks even cuter with his uniform on. 
"Look!" Neville says, "that's the train station!" We all look out the window. 
"Finally!" Ginny says, "I'm tired of sitting in this train!" We all laugh. I grab my cat when Neville stops me. 
"They'll take everything up to your dorms," he says, as I set Midnight back down. 
"Bye, Midnight," I whisper to her as I feel the train start to stop. We open our compartment door and file into the wave of older students. Ginny sticks next to me, but we loss Luna and Neville in the crowd.
"'irst year!" a man yells, " 'ver 'ere! 'irst years 'ollw me!" Ginny and I walk over to the man that was shouting. I look up at him. 
He must part giant!  Not full though, to small to be pure-blood giant. Luna was already waiting for us. 
" 'ellow," the part-giant says, "I'm Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of the keys here at Hogwarts. Call me Hagrid! Everyone does. You must be Marigold, Harry's told me all about you!" 
"All good things, I hope," I say, quietly. 
"Of course," Hagrid laughs, "now, is that everyone?" I start to worry about Harry. I thought he was going to check on me on the train, but now I had not even seen him since Kings Cross. 
" 'ollow me," he says, as he starts to walk down the path. 
Harry told me about this part. He said it was really pretty.  I sigh. I hope he is alright. We all get to the end of the path and to the start of the lake. 
"Four to a boat!" Hagrid says, "and only four! Anymore then that and it will flip over." Ginny, Luna, and I hurry to a boat.  Another girl soon joined us. 
"Hello," Luna says, "What's your name?" The girl grimaces, like she did not like the question. 
"Don't hate me," she says. 
"We won't hate you!" Ginny says, "Why would we hate you?" 
"My name is Ara Malfoy," she says. 
"Ugh," I says, "You're related to that boy that broke our compartment door." Ara nods. 
"Yeah," she says, "He's so arragont. Can't let me find my own friends. He'll hate that I'm sitting with you three." 
"He doesn't need to know," Ginny says, making Ara smile. 
"You're right." We turn a bend in the lake and see it. 
"Hogwarts." 
Harry did not describe this correctly. The sunset perfectly outlined the castle, which was black, except for the windows, which showed the light that was within. Everything was so serine.
"Awesome," Ginny mumbles next to me. We start to near the shore when I see a car flying into a tree. 
"That couldn't have been," I mumble to Ginny. 
"They wouldn't have."