NOVEL NEXT 33. Welcome back
Returning to Hogwarts in the early morning, Dan didn't expect much. Maybe a word from Flitwick about missing out on a delightful holiday-themed charm or news about the twins' next prank. Hell, he even expected them to come back and the castle would simply disappear from its place, leaving only a crater or two behind.
He never expected to see a disheveled Hagrid with a loaded crossbow at the ready. A man the size of a mountain stood at the gates of Hogwarts and turned his head around, looking for even the slightest sign of danger.
Standing next to the groundskeeper was a woman Dan didn't know, wearing red robes and spouting bright pink hair. From afar, it was difficult for him to see any details about a stranger and he preferred to stay as far away as possible.
The biggest reason for this was the woman's job. Even Muggleborn first years in the wizarding world knew that magical cops wore red uniforms. Objectively, it was a bad idea to try to approach a cop if you looked like Dan. He doubted that the sudden appearance of a huge monster out of thin air would benefit the health of anyone present.
"Ah, here they are." Hagrid said, slinging his crossbow on his back and opening the gates to the school. "Welcome back, Miss Lovegood!"
The woman looked at Xeno and Luna, looking away from her conversation with the groudskeeper. The Lovegoods went ahead, and Dan stood still, frowning at her. She remained at her post and carefully examined the perimeter, watching every slightest movement.
A sudden wave of paranoia swept through his mind, what are the Aurors doing at Hogwarts? Could someone have leaked information about his existence to the Ministry? Dan didn't know the answers to these questions and refused to take risks.
So he began to move with careful steps footprint with Xeno, stepping only where his foot was.
"Good afternoon, Professor Hagrid, Miss…?" He nodded at the pink-haired woman in silent question.
"Tonks, just Tonks." She replied with a bubbly smile. "Nice to meet you."
"It is, Miss Tonks. My name is Xenophilius Lovegood and this is my daughter Luna."
"May I inquire what happened at the school that might have attracted the attention of the Ministry? Is this something to do with the increased activity of Pigius Explosies and other dangerous creatures?" Xeno asked, already taking out a scroll of parchment and a quill, not even hiding his own interest as a reporter. Luna only nodded her approval as she watched her father's actions.
"Just some usual Halloween business," Hagrid muttered, knowing that Luna would still hear the story from her fellow students and eventually pass it on to her father. "Some fella decided to take up necromancy!" He spat out the word in disgust. "Made the poor thing's body crawl like a puppet even after death! Terrible thing, necromancy, I tell you. Forced it to some masters' bidding. Dumbledore stopped the poor thing, thank Merlin."
"I don't know about poor thing, big guy." Tonks patted Hagrid on the back, or as high on the giant's body as her hand could reach. "The beast was over sixty feet long and could kill as many as ten thousand people with a single drop of poison. As much as I love animals, I'm glad this one is now dead."
Dan was glad too. He wouldn't want to meet that thing, whatever it was. But for some reason it's description sounded familiar for him.
"S'pose that's true, part of life and all," the giant muttered, "now it can rest in peace."
Dan didn't think that was what Tonks meant, but he couldn't and didn't want to tell Hagrid that. Knowing his love for everything terribly dangerous and dangerously terrible, it wasn't surprising that the man was upset when he heard about the death of some monster.
"Necromancy? On a beast of this size, too? What kind of animal has been the victim of such dark magic?" Xeno asked as he wrote down all the facts on parchment.
"They say it was the Slytherin monster itself, a huge basilisk." Hagrid responded, making Xeno put a thick blot on the parchment.
"A basilisk, truly?" The man breathed.
Dan stopped listening after that, believing that Luna would repeat the most important things for him later. She was wonderful like that.
'I should tell her that more often,' he thought.
"– if the minister had sent the Aurors after the news about Black, Potter and Grainger wouldn't have had to lure the monster away from the Main Hall." Tonks said, scratching the bridge of her nose. Now that Dan was closer, he could see what the woman looked like.
She was young, maybe in her early twenties. Her pink hair shimmered strangely in the light, as if changing shades at the will of its owner. Brown, narrow eyes sat at an equal distance from the cute nose with a button on the heart-shaped face.
Even with her not-so-tall stature, Tonks looked good. She was obviously an attractive woman, not of the level to call her a supermodel, but still pretty. Only the longer Dan looked at her, the more something seemed... off.
She had two legs, two arms, a head, a torso, Tonks was definitely human. But something in the back of Dan's head confirmed to him that this was not entirely true. Something felt familiar when he looked at Tonks.
Deciding to think about it later, Dan carefully stood behind Xeno, looking to the side so that his barely visible eyes would not be visible when the sun was rising. The invisibility spell wasn't perfect after all.
"– we won't keep you any longer, although classes have been canceled today, you still need to tell Flitwick or McGonagall about your arrival. Good luck, squirt." Tonks gave Luna a friendly pat on the head – Dan understood perfectly why she did it, Luna was too cute not to pat – causing the girl to tilt her head in confusion.
"But I'm not a squirt anymore? Once upon a time, maybe I was, but then I got into mom and grew into a person."
Tonks and Hagrid looked at the little witch with strange expressions on their faces, as if they were forced to swallow something sour. Dan covered his mouth with his palm, trying to keep the laughter in himself so as not to betray his existence.
"Thank you for your answers, Miss Tonks, Professor Hagrid." Xeno nodded, not paying much attention to his daughter's words. After all, it was true. "Have a good learning experience, Moonbean, write to me more often, okay?"
The girl nodded with a bright smile and with the last hug from her father, she skipped to the entrance to the castle, humming something to herself. Dan immediately followed, noting with the same smile that her tracks were just at the right distance so that he could comfortably walk on them.
'I'm really not grateful enough for her friendship.' Dan thought, shaking his head.
This waif of a girl had already done so much for him that Dan felt he could never repay the same.
