"Harry, Ginny!" called Erin from a compartment where she was with Luna, Astoria and Daphne as she spotted them.

Ginny waved at her with a smile but she then started walking to the opposite direction, leaving Harry standing alone. Neville joined him shortly after.

"Come here, boys!" Astoria appeared in the dorway.

“Hello, Harry,” said a girl with long blonde hair and large misty eyes.

“Luna, hi, how are you?”

“Very well, thank you,” said Luna. She was clutching a magazine to her chest; large letters on the front announced that there was a pair of free Spectrespecs inside.

“Quibbler still going strong, then?” asked Harry, who felt a certain fondness for the magazine, having given it an exclusive interview the previous year.

“Oh yes, circulation’s well up,” said Luna happily. “Are we still doing D.A. meetings this year, Harry?”

“No point now we’ve got rid of Umbridge, is there?” said Harry, sitting down. Neville bumped his head against the seat as he emerged from under it. He looked most disappointed.

“I liked the D.A.! I learned loads with you!”

“I enjoyed the meetings too,” said Luna serenely.

"Yeah, Erin surely enjoyed it too." Daphne winked at her best friend.

Before Harry could respond, however, there was a disturbance outside their compartment door; a group of fourth-year girls was whispering and giggling together on the other side of the glass.

“You ask him!”

“No, you!”

“I’ll do it!”

And one of them, a bold-looking girl with large dark eyes, a prominent chin, and long black hair pushed her way through the door.

“Hi, Harry, I’m Romilda, Romilda Vane,” she said loudly and confidently. “Why don’t you join us in our compartment? You don’t have to sit with them,” she added in a stage whisper.

“They’re friends of mine,” said Harry coldly.

“Oh,” said the girl, looking very surprised. “Oh. Okay.”

And she withdrew, sliding the door closed behind her.

“People expect you to have cooler friends than us,” said Luna, once again displaying her knack for embarrassing honesty.

"What are you saying?" asked Erin, wrapping her arm around Luna's shoulder. "We are the coolest people in whole Hogwarts!"

“That's right. You are cool,” said Harry. “None of them was at the Ministry. They didn’t fight with me.”

“That’s a very nice thing to say,” beamed Luna. Then she pushed her Spectrespecs farther up her nose and settled down to read The Quibbler.

“We didn’t face him, though,” said Neville, emerging from under the seat with fluff and dust in his hair and a resigned-looking Trevor in his hand. “You did. You should hear my gran talk about you. ‘That Harry Potter’s got more backbone than the whole Ministry of Magic put together!’ She’d give anything to have you as a grandson. …”

Erin frowned. "Oh, don't say that, Neville! You also have more balls than the Ministry put together. You are just as brave as any of us and never let anyone tell you otherwise!"

Neville blushed and looked down at his lap. Erin could tell that he was not used for people to compliment him.

She smiled and changed the subject to O.W.L. results. Neville recited his grades and wondered aloud whether he would be allowed to take Transfiguration N.E.W.T. with only an “Acceptable". Daphne told them her grades too. She did well except for Herbology where she got P.

Erin was listening to her friends as she watched Harry, who seemed to be zoned out. She wasn't the only one to notice it.

“You all right, Harry? You look funny,” said Neville.

Harry started. “Sorry — I —”

“Wrackspurt got you?” asked Luna sympathetically, peering at Harry through her enormous colored spectacles.

“I — what?”

“A Wrackspurt … They’re invisible. They float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy,” she said. “I thought I felt one zooming around in here.”

She flapped her hands at thin air, as though beating off large invisible moths.

The weather beyond the train windows was as patchy as it had been all summer; they passed through stretches of the chilling mist, then out into weak, clear sunlight. It was during one of the clear spells, when the sun was visible almost directly overhead, that Ron and Hermione entered the compartment at last.

“Wish the lunch trolley would hurry up, I’m starving,” said Ron longingly, slumping into the seat beside Harry and rubbing his stomach. "Hello everyone.”

Erin's eyes lit up brightly at Hermione. They hadn't seen each other earlier this day as she and Ron had to go to the prefect's compartment.

Hermione looked around for a place to sit. As Erin saw that, she patted on her thighs.

The Gryffindor raised her eyebrow. "You want me to sit on your lap?"

"Of course, why not?"

"I'll crush you."

Erin rolled her eyes. "Nonsense, I'm not out of glass." She spin Hermione around and grabbed her hips.

"Erin— No— Oh." Hermione soon found herself on Erin's lap with her girlfriend's arms wrapped around her waist. "Oh, hi."

"Hi!"

"Guess what," said Ron, turning to Harry. “Malfoy’s not doing prefect duty. He’s just sitting in his compartment with the other Slytherins, we saw him when we passed.”

Harry sat up straight, interested.

“What did he do when he saw you?”

“The usual,” said Ron indifferently, demonstrating a rude hand gesture. “Not like him, though, is it? Well — that is” — he did the hand gesture again — “but why isn’t he out there bullying first years?"

“Dunno.”

“Maybe he preferred the Inquisitorial Squad,” said Hermione. “Maybe being a prefect seems a bit tame after that.”

“I don’t think so,” said Harry. “I think he’s —”

But before he could expound on his theory, the compartment door slid open again and a breathless third-year girl stepped inside.

“I’m supposed to deliver these to Neville Longbottom and Harry P-Potter,” she faltered, as her eyes met Harry’s and she turned scarlet. She was holding out two scrolls of parchment tied with violet ribbon. Perplexed, Harry and Neville took the scroll addressed to each of them and the girl stumbled back out of the compartment.

“What is it?” Ron demanded, as Harry unrolled his.

“An invitation,” said Harry.

“Who’s Professor Slughorn?” asked Neville, looking perplexedly at his own invitation.

“New teacher,” said Harry. “Well, I suppose we’ll have to go, won’t we?”

“But what does he want me for?” asked Neville nervously, as though he was expecting detention.

“No idea,” said Harry. “Listen, let’s go under the Invisibility Cloak, then we might get a good look at Malfoy on the way, see what he’s up to.”

"He's gonna get into so much trouble," said Daphne as Harry and Neville left, shaking her head.

***

Hours later, the train finally stopped in Hogsmeade.

When Erin and her friends got off the train, she checked one last time if she has everything.

"Oh no!" she groaned. "I forgot my wand!"

"Do you want us to go with you?" Hermione asked and Erin shook her head.

"No, it's okay. I'll go alone."

It took a while for her to find her wand as it was far under the seat.

When she finally got off the train again, Erin spotted Harry walking with a woman beside him.

"Tonks?"

"Wotcher, Erin!" Dora quickly approached her and tightly embraced her.

"What happened?" Erin asked, looking at Harry. "Everyone thought you already got off the train. "

"Malfoy stunned me and throw my invisible cloak on me. I was lying on the floor when Tonks found me," Harry explained.

"And why did Malfoy stun you?" When the boy didn't answer, Erin realized it. "You were spying on him, weren't you?"

"Why are you here anyway?"

Erin held up her wand. "Forgot it. I think we should go or we'll be late and I don't fancy having a detention when I didn't even step to Hogwarts yet."

"I think you are already late," said Tonks. "I sent a patronus to Dumbledore that I got Harry. Come on!"

"I almost forgot," began Erin to Tonks as the three of them followed the carriage tracks, pulling a picture of her backpack. She gave it to Tonks, who scanned it for a while before furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

"Where did you get it?"

Erin pointed at one of the three girls on the picture, at the one with dark brown hair and blue eyes. "It's your mum, isn't it?"

Tonks nodded. "Yes, it is, and that's why I am concerned."

"And this is Narcissa Malfoy?" Erin's finger pointed at the blonde young girl.

"Yeah, definitely. Mum has a lot of pictures of her. She misses her," Dora admitted. "And this is Celeste Black, mum's twin sister, the one that she misses the most."

Erin stopped in her tracks, suddenly wide-eyed.

"Who is Celeste Black?" she asked.

"Well, my mum's twin sister. Apparently, they were best friends. Celeste fell in love with a Muggleborn, dunno who it was as my mum never told me his name. I'm not sure if she even knows it. After her parents found out, they went insane. Celeste got disowned before she could even graduate from Hogwarts. Mum hasn't seen her since they both left school. She's not sure if she's dead or alive, if she's still with that Muggleborn. . . Nothing."

"Similar to your mum," Erin mumbled.

"Yeah."

The girls and Harry, who was quiet, started walking in silence before Erin decided to break it.

"Do you think I could speak to your mum about this?"

Tonks's eyes brows furrowed. "Why?"

Erin sighed. "I think it's my mum on the picture. I think she's Celeste."

"Oh wow." Was all that Dora could say. She nodded. "Wow, mum's gonna go crazy but yeah, I believe she wouldn't mind. Sent me a letter with the date of when you can go to Hogsmeade. I'll tell mum to meet you somewhere."