Chapter 21: Strange Girl
The next morning, I got up bright and early. I did my morning routines and showered afterwards. When I finished getting ready I walked into Harry's room.
"Hey, wake up!" I say loudly.
Harry rolls over glances at me before rolling back over grumbling about stupid Slytherins. 'This little shit wants to play games?' I thought with a touch of irritation. I then say in an even tone, "If you don't wake up I'll tell Hermione about the crush you have on her."
Harry shot up and looked at me with a betrayed look. I shot him a smirk when he said, "Dude, not cool."
"Padfoots teachings are a gift that I intend to use Prongslet." I say sagely while using the name I had come to call him since Sirius had said it so many times.
"Is that so 'little warrior'?Do you really want to start another prank war now?" Harry said with a raised eyebrow. We had come to an agreement that we would put up with the names that Mother and Sirius called us until we became Animagi. Then we would come up with Maruader approved names.
The prank wars were started by Sirius as a way to relax after so much training. He said if we didn't do anything to wind down after working so hard we'd turn into another Remus.
"Well, you know I'd love to see how your Gryffindork friends would react to your smell after a dungbomb, but we have to hurry up or we'll miss the train," I say as I walk down for breakfast. Mothers cooking improved astronomically since Harry started teaching her. Today she made us a full English breakfast, which was delicious. She kept sending me worried glances all morning. We had talked about the danger of returning to Hogwarts and she had begged me to transfer to Beauxbatons, but I declined and told her that my Heirship is in Britain and I don't want to give it up. We finished eating before leaving through the floo and arriving at London King's Cross station.
Harry kept glancing around looking for the Weasley's. I know from the story that they don't arrive until the last second, so when the train pulled up I told him we can save him a seat.
We boarded and it wasn't 15 minutes before Harry got impatient and said he was going to look for Ron and Hermione. I rolled my eyes as he left and pulled out a book titled, "Wanderings with Werewolves". They may be shit defense books, but they sure are entertaining reads. The Wizarding World has a shortage of books that aren't just informative.
The door opened right when I was at a good part and I glanced up and had to do a double take. There standing in the train aisle was Luna Lovegood. She had long flowing blond hair that would of made people mistake her for a Malfoy and silvery-blue-eyes that seemed to be staring out at nothing and everything at once. She glanced down at me and said, "Would you mind if I joined you, Ares Black?"
I nod and stare at her while she walked in and sat down pulling out a copy of the quibbled and reading it upside down. I was caught off guard and went through my memory to see if I had ever encountered her before. Once I had decided that, no, I had definitely not met her before I asked, "How did you know my name? And who are you?"
"You were in the papers many times recently. Terrible things Rita Skeeter says, but I think she's just trying to draw attention away from the Rotfang Conspiracy," She said while whispering the last part like it was some kind of secret, "And I'm Luna Lovegood, or at least I hope I am. If I wasn't then someone will surely be upset that I'm using their name." She went back to her dreamy expression and continued reading her upside down newspaper.
Feeling amused at seeing Luna Lovegoods weirdness first hand I said, "Well it's nice to meet you Luna, like you said my name is Ares Black." I held out my hand and grunted to get her attention again. She looked over the paper and put her hand into mine as I kissed her knuckle. She giggled and decided to put her papers to the side and we seconded into pleasant conversation. It was fascinating getting to see her mind in person. I couldn't tell if she genuinely believes in these creatures or if she does it to mess with people.
Then she asks something that sends a shiver down my spine, "So Ares, are you enjoying this life more than your past one?" She asked innocently. I jump back at that and cold feeling settled in my gut. Before I could say anything, Harry returned with Ron and Hermione. They were arguing with Blaise who had tagged along. I greet them all and look back to Luna who had gone back to reading her Magazine.
The train ride was longer than I remembered, maybe because of how tense I was and kept stealing glances at Luna. How in the world did she know I had a previous life, was she really a seer? I've seen some theories that she was one, or she could have some kind of mage sight which, while rare, wasn't impossible. It would explain her seeing creatures no one else sees. Maybe I give of some kind of aura that she sees? Whatever the cause it doesn't look like she was going to say anything to anyone, and I would pity anyone that decided to look into the mind of someone like her.
We exit the train and they have us ride the thestral carriages and I was surprised I could see them. We rode up to Hogwarts and endured the boring sorting session, the only ones first years I could remember were Ginny and Luna and they both went exactly were they did originally. They eventually shuttled us off to the common rooms and I went straight to bed after greeting Daphne, Tracy, and Millicent.
Lying in bed, thoughts of how to handle the Luna situation went through my mind and I just decided to meet her somewhere alone and ask her my questions.
I went to my classes the next day and finally found Luna walking into the library. I shrugged and guessed that was as good as I was going to get. I pulled up a chair at her desk as she said in her dreamy tone, "Hello Ares Black."
I cast a silencing charm and say, "Hello Luna I believe we need to have a talk."
Her eyes brightened before she said with a smile, "Do you want to talk about Nargles? I know they aren't the nicest of creatures but is there really a need for the secrecy?"
"No Luna, what did you mean by past life on the training?" I said with a tone of exasperation and a touch of anger. Now was not the time for dancing around the subject.
"Oh," she said as if she was disappointed, "I thought that was obvious your living a second life. Was I not supposed to know that? I know things sometimes that I shouldn't and it gets me weird looks sometimes and makes people call me 'Loony'" she finished with a sad tone.
My face softens and I say in a gentler tone, "It's alright Luna, I just wanted to know how you knew I had a previous life."
She visibly beams at not messing up and says, "Oh, Daddy said that I'm special and can see things no one else can. You have two aura's on you, one that's an appropriate age for you and one that's much older. Though they are almost completely merged now I only caught it while we were talking and the Nargles drew my attention to them.
'I have two aura's?' I thought, 'That must be my souls from both lives, am I really two people in one body? I thought it was more like a possession.'
"So which one am I?" I ask curious to know.
"Your the younger one silly," she said staring above my head, "the older soul looks to be just streaming into the younger one, like giving it memories and experiences. The best way I could describe it is that you are Ares, but with someone else's memories."
'Ok.' I think shellacked. 'Apparently I'm actually 12 years old, I just have someone else's memories flowing into my mind. For some reason, I'm not upset about that, this is my life and I'm just lucky enough to have gained a previous life's memory.'
I smile at that and say, "Thank you Luna, but could you refrain telling anyone that, I don't want anyone to use me for my knowledge. Where I came from, our world was a story and I know of things that will come to happen and if someone were to find out, it wouldn't be good."
"Ok Ares Black, does that make us friends since friends keep each other's secrets?" She asked with a hopeful expression on her normally spaced out face. "I've never had friends before.." she trailed off.
Pity wells up inside me, I can relate since I didn't have a true friend until I met Blaise, and even then it took me until almost the end of First year to realize it, "Of course Luna, if you want we can meet up and study here on Tuesdays. Then you can meet some of my friends, I'm sure they'll like you."
She looked happy at my admission of friendship before looking down and mumbling, "Most people don't like me because I'm weird. I hope your right."
I say goodnight to Luna and head up to my room and just go over that conversation in my mind over and over again. Just knowing that I'm actually my Mothers son instead of someone who took his place is such a relief. It's something that had gnawed at me sometimes that I had done my best to ignore. I fall asleep excited to introduce Luna to everyone and laugh at their expressions.
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