Summer Ghosts

At the end of your sixth year, Hogwarts is in chaos, full of rumours about Voldemort's return that are only strengthened by the sudden disappearance of Harry, Hermione and Ron last week. On one of the last nights of term you wake up to candlelight and whispers: the sixth year Ravenclaw girls are here because, as Grace Midgen announces, the best two houses should stick together. Bravery and wisdom conquer all.

It's two to a bed and Loony Luna Lovegood crawls in beside you without a word of greeting or recognition, as though you do not exist and this is her bed. In the next bed, Maeve Finnegan speaks tentatively to a serious audience and says that her brother told her that nobody's going to be going home this summer, and then Rebecca Ackerly chimes in to announce that actually, the rest of the world is at war already, but it's top secret.

You curl up to compensate for the fact that Luna's knees and elbows seem to be all over the place, and pull the quilt over your head.

---

The Ravenclaw girls do not go back to their part of the castle in the morning. It's two to a sink in the bathroom, same pairs as last night, and Luna brushes her teeth with odd-smelling green foam that drips down the sink and onto the sleeve of your nightdress. Everyone gets dressed in the crowded dormitory in silence, the Ravenclaw girls having brought their uniform along with them.

At breakfast, McGonagall announces that students are to go home after all, although everyone is invited to stay behind on the presentation of a permission slip from a parent. Charlie sent you a brief Owl yesterday, saying he'd meet you at the station, but somehow you can't imagine being in his care for the holidays - he was always quiet and uncomfortable around anybody else. So it's likely you'll be staying for summer. Your parents are in Egypt with Bill, Ron's missing, Percy's missing, you think the twins are at Grimmauld Place but you haven't heard from them in a while - so it's only Charlie who's lurking around at the Burrow.

---

It's not that you dislike Loony Luna Lovegood, it's just that she's a little odd. That doesn't usually put you off, but coming to bed to find that she's already in it is not something you want to deal with right now. She's brought her own blanket this time at least: ancient patchwork with embroidered dragons.

On this night, the crowded dormitory is silent, except for the sound of Maeve's snoring, the late night of yesterday catching up with them. In contrast, you lie awake, staring up at the stars on the ceiling of your four poster bed, ignoring Luna's elbow poking at your stomach.

---

It comes as a surprise to you the following morning, when McGonagall reads out the list of students who are staying, and your name is not on the list. So you scurry up to your dormitory and pack frantically, because although everyone was instructed to do so the night before regardless of expectations, you didn't. Luna sits on your bed, and watches you in silence. Her name wasn't on the list either.

---

You and Luna have a habit of sitting together on the Hogwarts Express. At the beginning of every year, you take a long while to get used to the idea of talking to quiet Maeve and blank Sarah and the rest of the Gryffindor girls that all seem ever so dull and difficult compared to your brothers. Luna, on the other hand, has always been always easy to sit next to. She'll read the Quibbler in comfortable silence until you'd run out of things to think about, and then she'd read to you in a perfectly serious voice and not mind (or maybe not notice) you laughing behind your hand. And at the end of the year, when all the girls were crying and calling out farewells to one another, it was nice to slip away and sit next to quiet, serious Luna.

Sometimes you see her in lessons too, although not to talk to. In Care of Magical Creatures, she helps Hagrid with the demonstrations and doesn't seem to blink when her hair is singed or her robes torn. In Herbology, she sits opposite you and you're sure you can see her whisper to the plants. In Charms, her strange singsong voice can be heard clear above the other students. She doesn't share any of your other classes, and she doesn't play Quidditch, so that's all.

On this day, you and Luna share an empty carriage in silence, as usual. Sounds echo through the door that won't shut properly: whispers, nervous coughs, the squeaks of ancient seats shifting under fidgety students.

---

When the train reaches the station, and the crowd of students disembark to mingle with the unusually large crowd on the platform, you go and sit against a pillar and wait for everyone to disperse before you attempt to find Charlie. In groups of threes and fours, people begin to filter away, and you scan the figures that are left for your brother.

But the only person you recognise is Luna, who is singing to herself and walking up and down a white line painted on the platform, one foot carefully in front of the other and avoiding stepping off the line.

You can't recall if Charlie has a tendency to arrive anywhere late. As far as you remember he always turned up unexpectedly.

"Luna," you call, because it's the only thing left. "Hasn't anyone come for you, either?"

Luna stops, one foot still in front of the other, and wobbles a little as she looks around her. "No," she says, at last. Though she seems to have only just noticed, she doesn't seem in the slightest bit worried.

"Do you know how to use the... Muggle train... tube thingy?"

---

You've only been on a Muggle tube once, and you can barely remember it. You were in your father's arms, watching Ron charging up and down the carriage and falling over people, and when you got home you were desperate to tell your mother about your adventure, only you'd promised not to.

Luna's answer to your question was a simple 'yes', although she didn't go into any explanations as to how she knew Muggle London so well. You find yourself dashing after her through crowds and across roads full of cars that somehow look far scarier than the old Ford Anglia, trying to keep your trunk from bashing people in the shins. Luna doesn't seem to notice when her trunk hits people, and you attempt to smile apologetically at everyone but soon give up and stare at Luna's shoes instead.

After the tube, which is quite unlike your memory of it, Luna leads you onto a more normal looking train which is going to Ottery St. Catchpole itself. The two of you easily find a carriage to yourselves and Luna buys two cups of hot chocolate from the Muggle lady pushing a drinks trolley, producing oddly shaped Muggle money from inside her socks. It's not really the weather for hot chocolate, on this typical July day, but you murmur a "thank you" and drink it anyway.

And finally you stumble out of the train station into the quiet village of Ottery St. Catchpole. You turn to Luna and aren't quite sure what to say in terms of a goodbye, and she smiles and says, "I'll see you soon, maybe. Don't forget to Owl."

"Of course I won't," you say, effortlessly, and turn around and drag your trunk up the steep hill.