Harry Potter: Master of Talismans

‘I’m not looking for another fight tomorrow,’ I said. ‘I haven’t forgotten what I promised either.’ She held my gaze for a moment, then asked whether she could keep both things with the research materials, separate from the other bottles. We would record anything we did with them. I agreed, adding that they remained mine, and she said she knew.

She wrapped the horn properly and placed it with the bottle in a protected part of her bag. I watched her close it. Entrusting them to someone felt different from leaving them at the bottom of my pouch, where I could postpone deciding what came next. Hermione said Harry and Ron should hear the story before we tried anything with them. I told her they could hear it when they arrived, then looked out at a platform containing neither of them.

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We watched more students board. The compartment door opened while Hermione checked the time, and a girl stood there holding a magazine. She had dark gold hair, pale eyebrows and grey eyes which rested on us without the hurried glance towards the luggage I expected from someone seeking a seat. Small radish-shaped earrings hung beside her face, and a cork dangled from a cord round her neck.

I forgot to say hello. ‘May I sit here?’ she asked, with a quiet assurance that made it sound entirely reasonable. Hermione’s shoe touched my ankle beneath the table, bringing my attention back to the answer I had failed to give. I said yes and moved the bag nearest the window.

‘I’m Luna Lovegood.’ She sat and smiled at us in turn. I introduced myself, explaining that this was my second year. Hermione gave her name and said we were both in Gryffindor. Luna greeted each of us as though she had plenty of time, despite the final goodbyes growing urgent outside.

I asked whether she was a first-year. She said she was, then mentioned her father telling her how lovely the lake looked when the light changed. We had taken photographs there, I told her. When she asked from which side, I took out the copy I had kept and showed her the castle behind us.

She watched Ron turn away inside the picture and laughed. I liked the sound enough to find myself hoping she would do it again. While Hermione looked along the corridor for Harry and Ron, Luna asked about the boat and the slope on the far bank. I described Hagrid trying to line us up, and she returned the photograph with another smile.

Hermione came back as the train gave its first shudder. She said the boys must be in another compartment. I nodded, although I would have preferred to see them rather than accept another reasonable explanation for their absence. Luna opened her magazine upside down, with The Quibbler’s title facing away from her.

Hermione noticed the title before the direction of the pages. She asked whether it was the latest issue, and Luna said her father edited it. Hermione’s mouth closed on whatever she had been preparing to say. I looked at the cover, then at Luna, who seemed quite content to continue.

‘There’s an article about a creature people keep looking for in the wrong places,’ she said. ‘They say it doesn’t exist because they haven’t found it.’

‘Sometimes not finding evidence is a reason to doubt something,’ Hermione replied. Her voice was careful rather than dismissive. Luna agreed, then pointed out that looking in the wrong place was still possible.

‘How would you tell the difference?’ I asked. Luna considered the platform moving past us before suggesting we ask somebody who had seen the creature. Hermione added that we would need to check what they had actually seen. Luna accepted that too, without the offence Hermione seemed prepared to explain herself against.

I did not know whether the creature existed. A year earlier, I would have treated a three-headed dog as an unnecessarily enthusiastic piece of fiction, which seemed a good reason to ask questions. It was less convincing as a reason to believe every answer. Hermione returned to her book while Luna and I carried on talking, with London giving way beyond the window.

She asked about classes, then Leo, then the prepared strips I had taken out while checking my pouch. The subjects arrived without warning, but I found them easy enough to follow once I stopped expecting a formal change of direction. When she asked whether the paper was for magic, I gave her a water preparation to examine. She held it carefully, taking care not to bend the edges.