The Hogwats Gaijin

The snow in the grounds was falling lazily in large flakes, instantly settling on Kieran’s dark hair. Ginny was leading him further away from the entrance, towards the snow-covered arches where there was less chance of running into curious older students.

Morgan walked beside her, and not a trace remained of his former confidence. He looked as though he had just encountered a curse for which he had no counter-curse in his arsenal. Ginny could see that hidden bewilderment in the way he kept adjusting his cuffs and frowning down at his feet. Talking to him now required care — like approaching a wild animal that could easily be startled or provoked into aggression.

‘You don’t really understand what you did wrong, do you?’ Ginny asked softly, breaking the silence.

Kieran sighed, and a small cloud of vapour escaped his mouth.

‘Not entirely,’ he admitted. ‘I tried to defend myself as well as I could, but she… it was as though she was trying to kill me.’

Ginny gave a small huff, pulling her scarf tighter.

‘It wasn’t about the training, Kieran. And it wasn’t even about the non-verbal spells. You need to understand one thing: Hermione had a very hard time here in the first few years. She was always different — too clever, too proud, too correct. For a long time no one wanted to be friends with her. Hermione often felt lonely, and it’s very important to her that she can cope with everything on her own.’

They turned onto a side path. Kieran listened attentively, catching every word.

‘So where did I go wrong?’ he asked more quietly.

‘The lake, Kieran,’ Ginny stopped and looked him straight in the eyes. ‘Your scene with Krum. Hermione was terribly upset.’

Kieran reluctantly looked away, his jaw tightening stubbornly.

‘I just… I was scared for her,’ he muttered. ‘This whole hostage business is idiotic! When I saw her on the shore, wet and pale, I just… panicked. And then the Bulgarian got in the way, and I lost my temper…’

Ginny couldn’t help letting out a short laugh.

‘Oh, Merlin, you boys are all the same. Whether it’s Wales, Japan or the Burrow — your instincts are identical.’

She grew serious again and raised a finger instructively.

‘Listen carefully, Morgan. You can’t treat Hermione like a child. You can’t hover over her, and you certainly can’t make scenes in front of the whole school. That’s practically an insult. And what’s worse — you only fuelled the rumours from the Prophet. Think about how it looked from the outside?’

Kieran froze. It was clear that the gears in his head were turning with difficulty, readjusting his usual picture of the world. He was silent for a long time, digesting what he had heard.

‘I really am an idiot,’ he finally said.

‘First step to recovery,’ Ginny smiled.

But she didn’t get to finish. From behind a snow-covered pillar, swaying gently, Luna Lovegood appeared. She was wearing a bright yellow cloak, and several spruce twigs were stuck in her hair. She stopped and began thoughtfully studying Ginny and Kieran, tilting her head slightly to one side.

‘Hello, Luna,’ Ginny said with a smile.

Luna didn’t answer straight away. Her large, clear eyes focused on the space around Morgan’s head.

‘Are you trying to freeze out the Wrackspurts?’ she asked in her dreamy, sing-song voice. ‘In this weather they become very sluggish, but their concentration here is simply remarkable.’

She shifted her gaze to the utterly bewildered Kieran.

‘Mostly yours. You think too much… Or you think about the wrong things. Or perhaps you just… think you’re thinking, but you’re mistaken…’

Ginny couldn’t help grinning as she watched Kieran’s face lengthen.

‘Kieran, meet Luna Lovegood,’ Ginny said cheerfully, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow. ‘Luna, this is Kieran Kai Morgan. You’re both walking enigmas, so you simply must become friends.’

Luna nodded politely, causing the spruce twigs in her hair to quiver.

‘You have a very interesting aura, Mr Morgan. It looks like a frozen lake. Beautiful, but the fish must find it rather uncomfortable. I was just going to look at the Thestrals — they like this sort of weather. Would you like to come?’

‘The what?’ Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘The Thestrals,’ Luna looked at her with mild surprise, as though explaining something obvious. ‘They’re very beautiful creatures. They live right on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They must be feeling rather sad at the moment because the ground is too cold for the Nargles.’

Ginny exchanged a glance with Kieran. He merely gave an uncertain shrug, as if to say, “Why not? It can’t get any worse.”

They set off towards the dark edge of the forest. Ginny pulled her collar higher, shielding herself from the stinging snowflakes. The fresh crust crunched reassuringly underfoot. Twilight was gathering, and the castle behind them began to glow with warm golden windows, turning into a scene from an old fairy tale.

Luna walked ahead, her light steps barely touching the ground, and chattered without pause.

‘Daddy and I are preparing a very important article for The Quibbler,’ she confided, turning to her companions. ‘About Miss Granger. You did read that dreadful article by Rita Skeeter, didn’t you? Daddy says Miss Skeeter is simply a Transfigured beetle that feeds on other people’s secrets. In reality Hermione isn’t manipulating boys at all. That’s all just a cover to distract attention from her true mission to save the Puffskeins.’

Kieran, who until then had been walking with the air of a man who had resigned himself to his fate, suddenly pricked up his ears.

‘And what is the “reality”?’ he asked cautiously.

‘Oh, it’s much deeper,’ Luna stopped to retie a loose shoelace and continued, looking at them with complete seriousness. ‘In reality Hermione is the Chosen One of the Ancient Powers. She doesn’t go out with boys because she truly loves only girls, but she hides it so as not to embarrass the Ministry of Magic. All these Krams and Potters are just a smokescreen to divert attention from her real mission to save the Puffskeins.’

Ginny made a sound suspiciously like a suppressed hiccup. She turned away, biting her lip fiercely, then began gesturing frantically at Kieran when Luna became distracted by the treetops: “Don’t you dare argue, just nod, she’s serious.” Ginny herself was barely holding back a fit of laughter, imagining Hermione’s face if she ever heard the theory about “the Chosen One and girls”.

Kieran froze mid-step, trying to process what he had heard. Such a complicated internal struggle played across his face that Ginny had to pinch her own arm to keep from bursting out laughing.

‘Well… that’s… interesting,’ Morgan managed. ‘A very… interesting theory.’

They ventured deeper into the undergrowth. Here the tall firs closed their branches overhead, protecting the ground from snow, and instead of crust the ground was covered with dry, reddish needles. The air was still and smelled of resin.

Luna suddenly stopped in a small clearing surrounded by ancient, gnarled trees. She stretched out her arm, pointing at what appeared to be a completely empty gap between the trunks.

‘There they are,’ she whispered with reverence. ‘Aren’t they beautiful? So sad and graceful…’

Ginny narrowed her eyes, peering into the emptiness. She saw only bare branches and shadows creeping across the ground. Ginny was used to Luna’s eccentricities, to her stories about invisible creatures and fantastic conspiracies. That was part of Luna’s charm — her world was brighter and stranger than everyone else’s. But when Ginny turned her gaze to Kieran, her smile slowly slipped from her face.

Morgan was not merely nodding politely. He was looking at the same spot as Luna, and there was not a trace of pretence in his gaze. He looked as though he were studying something incomprehensible but undeniably fascinating. Ginny felt a cold, unpleasant shiver crawl up the back of her neck. It was one thing to listen to Lovegood’s fairy tales, and quite another to find herself in an evening forest in the company of two lunatics at once.

‘What kind of creatures are they, Luna?’ Kieran asked quietly. There was genuine curiosity in his voice and not a hint of mockery.

Luna, without turning, tilted her head to one side.

‘I’m not sure they have an official name — textbooks mention them very rarely. But they are very kind. And very sad. Probably because almost all people look straight through them, as though they don’t exist at all. It must be lonely to be part of a world that doesn’t notice you.’

Ginny felt she had had enough. She jabbed Kieran sharply in the ribs with her elbow, making him start.

‘Oi,’ she hissed in his ear, ‘aren’t you taking this play-acting a bit far? This isn’t even funny any more. Stop scaring me, Morgan.’

Kieran slowly turned his head towards Ginny. In the twilight his eyes looked completely black, and in them she read sincere, deep bewilderment.

‘Play-acting?’ he repeated, frowning. ‘Er… you can’t see them?’

Ginny let out a sound that sounded suspiciously like a stifled scream, which she quickly turned into an angry whisper:

‘See what?! There’s nothing there, Kieran! Nothing at all! Just air, trees and a couple of dry branches!’

Morgan hesitated for a second. Then he reached out. Ginny noted that he did it extremely carefully: he gently took hold of her wrist, holding it through the thick fabric of her robe sleeve as though afraid of crossing a boundary. His fingers were firm and steady.

‘Don’t be frightened,’ he said quietly.

He pulled her hand forward, straight into the emptiness where, in Ginny’s opinion, there was nothing but cold evening air. Ginny wanted to protest, but suddenly her palm met something solid.

She gasped, but did not pull her hand away. Beneath her fingers was skin. Cold, incredibly smooth and thin, under which she could clearly feel sharp, protruding bones.

‘Merlin’s pants…’ Ginny breathed, feeling her heart start to race. ‘What… what is that?’

‘It’s… a horse,’ Kieran replied, and there was a note of uncertainty in his voice, as though he himself was trying to find the right word.

‘What do you mean — a horse?’ Ginny continued cautiously feeling the emptiness, sensing a powerful neck and the curve of a huge wing beneath her hand. ‘An invisible horse?’

‘A skeletal horse,’ Kieran began to describe, never taking his eyes off the creature. ‘It has enormous leathery wings, like a bat’s. And a very strange face… almost like a dragon’s, but the eyes are white and empty. But it is definitely a horse. Only… it looks dead.’

Ginny felt nausea rising in her throat. She looked at Luna. The girl had just taken a piece of raw meat wrapped in parchment from her bag. Luna held it out into the air, and Ginny watched in horror as the meat simply vanished into emptiness, as though erased by an invisible hand. There came the distinct sound of crunching bones and chewing.

The forest suddenly felt too dark, too quiet, and infinitely eerie. Ginny felt that in another minute she would simply start screaming. The boundary between reality and madness had grown dangerously thin in this thicket.

‘Can we go back now, please?’ she pleaded, unconsciously pressing closer to Kieran. ‘Please. I really don’t like it here.’

Morgan changed instantly. All his philosophical interest vanished; he became collected and cold once more. He carefully removed Ginny’s hand from the invisible creature and turned her towards the castle.

‘Yes,’ he said shortly, ‘of course. Let’s go. Luna, it’s time to head back.’

They set off back. Luna walked ahead, humming something under her breath, while Ginny and Kieran brought up the rear. The crunch of snow underfoot now seemed to Ginny the only sound keeping her sane. For the first time in her life, Ginny felt a strange urge — to go to the library and try to understand what these strange invisible horses were that grazed near the school.