Gabriel had just finished breakfast - scrambled eggs over a toast with frankly excessive amounts of ketchup and mayo with a side of orange juice. His muscles still ached pleasantly from this morning's training, the kind of soreness that left his body humming with energy even as it begged for rest. It was certainly a stark difference from the way he had been almost unable to move the day following the start of the training.
He'd just finished licking the crumbs from his plate when he heard a faint 'tick, tick, tick' coming from the glass front of the house.
He frowned, turning his head.
A small brown owl was perched on the glass wall, tapping its beak impatiently, a letter clutched beneath its feet.
Gabriel blinked once, then smiled. "Oh, already?"
The owl tapped again - harder this time.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" He muttered, chuckling. He grabbed one of the cooked eggs still left from the table, placed it on a small dish, and stepped outside. The morning air was crisp, the forest around them still veiled in a light mist. Sitting on the porch, he pushed the plate toward the owl, who immediately dove in, tearing the egg apart with a ferocity that made Gabriel laugh.
"You birds are vicious little bastards, né?" he teased.
The owl paused mid-bite to glare at him and barked indignantly.
"Hey! I'm just making an observation, mate!" he said, hands raised in surrender.
The owl gave him one more distrustful look before resuming its breakfast, and Gabriel turned his attention to the letter.
He unfolded the parchment, reading aloud in a mock-serious voice:
"'Dear wizards and witches,
We're pleased to inform you that you have successfully passed your first year at Hogwarts. Enclosed within you shall find your Hogwarts report, along with a list of books and equipment necessary for the new school year.
The new school year shall begin soon; we will be waiting for your owl's reply.'"
He flipped to the next page.
"'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk' - nice. 'Viciousness and Vicissitude by Adalbert Waffling' - ooh, sounds cool. 'Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart' - so we'll be studying banshees this year?"
His brow furrowed as he kept reading.
"'Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart,' 'Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart,' 'Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart,' 'Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart,' 'Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart,' - oh, for Merlin's sake - 'Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart' - oh sod off."
The owl squawked at his tone, feathers puffing up.
"Not you!" he said quickly, waving his hand.
With a sigh, Gabriel stood and headed back inside, flipping through the rest of the list. The rest seemed fairly normal - or as normal as anything involving cauldrons, dragon-hide gloves, and moondew ink could be.
"Mum!" he called, heading down the back stairs toward the potion labs below.
The air there was thick with the smell of herbs and simmering concoctions. His mother stood before a jade-green cauldron, slicing a handful of tiny enoki mushrooms that were very desperately trying to scuttle off the cutting board.
"Yes, meu anjo?" she asked without looking up, her knife moving in rhythmic, merciless chops.
"Do you know any Gilderoy Lockhart?"
She paused, head tilting slightly. "I think he's a writer? And something of a celebrity. Valeria was telling me she's been trying to get in touch with him, but he's always traveling."
Gabriel's lips twitched. Valeria - Blaise Zabini's mother. The memory of her from his birthday night made his face heat up, and the thought of her trying to get in contact with this man did nothing to improve his mood.
"Well, apparently the pillock landed himself the DADA job and decided to make a quick buck off kids by forcing them to buy all his books." He slapped the parchment with the back of his hand.
Eloá hummed thoughtfully. "Smart. I'd do the same. There's nothing quite like taking candy from children."
"You're a horrible influence," he deadpanned.
"Respect your mother, you miscreant." She flicked her finger toward him.
A flash of red shot across the room.
Gabriel ducked instinctively - two months of magical dodge training paid off - grinning in triumph. "Ha! Ouch!"
A second bolt nailed him square on the nose. His eyes watered instantly as the area swelled, and he glared up at her, lower lip jutting in exaggerated betrayal.
Eloá snorted, stirring her potion with infuriating serenity. "Think positively," she said. "If this Lockhart studied all those creatures for his books he might actually have useful experience. And if he's a celebrity, at least he'll be a better speaker than Quirrell."
"I guess," Gabriel muttered, rubbing his still-tingling nose. "Just got a bad feeling about him."
Her warm brown eyes flicked toward him, thoughtful. "Hmm… is that so?" she murmured. Then, with a casual wave of her spoon, she turned back to the cauldron. "I'll warn Valeria, just in case. For now, go get dressed. Since your letter's here, there's no reason we can't buy your supplies early."
Gabriel snapped to attention, giving her an exaggerated salute. "Yes, ma'am!"
He marched stiffly toward the stairs, back straight, head high, the perfect image of a soldier.
Behind him, Eloá's laughter followed him all the way up.
-~=~-
Autumn arrived quickly, brushing the trees of the English countryside in bronze and gold. Before Gabriel quite realized it, he was once again at King's Cross Station, striding toward the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten. The solid metal shimmered for a split second as he passed through - and then he was standing on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, the scarlet Hogwarts Express hissing proudly in the cool morning air.
Moments later, he found himself settled in a compartment, playing Wizard's Chess with Neville while Hermione stood beside them with a book in hand, offering commentary that grew increasingly exasperated.
"Knight to E5," Neville murmured, biting his lip in concentration.
"Don't you dare-" Hermione started, but Gabriel moved his piece anyway.
"Check."
The look on her face was worth the lost game. Gabriel grinned widely, barely stifling laughter as Hermione's eye twitched.
Neville, bless his heart, was oblivious - utterly focused on the board as if the fate of the world depended on it.
Gabriel was just about to sacrifice his queen to a pawn for absolutely no reason when the compartment door slid open.
Standing there was a small, red-haired girl with bright, crystalline blue eyes, and beside her, a tiny blonde girl whose silvery gaze seemed to look through him rather than at him.
"Hi," said the redhead - her tone awkward, uncertain. "Did any of you see my brother Ron? Mum asked us to look for him, and Fred and George told me to check with the second-years."
Gabriel had a weird feeling when looking at the girl, followed by a brief, vivid flashback of Neville searching for his toad last year. The mental image of a red haired toad sent him into a snort of laughter that startled the girls. The redhead frowned, unimpressed.
"Sorry, sorry," he said quickly, still grinning. "Just reminded me of something that happened last year." Neville blushed at the reminder, while Hermione slapped him on the shoulder. He ignored it, his smile growing, "You're Ginny, right? Come in - Ron told me you're wicked on a broom. Said you're better than him, actually."
She blinked, surprised, and the mention of Quidditch distracted her enough to step inside with the blonde girl in tow. Hermione offered them both a polite smile as they sat.
"I doubt he said that," Ginny replied with a raised eyebrow.
Gabriel chuckled. "Yeah, well, he was actually grumbling about how you keep showing him up, but I got the subtext."
That earned him a faint, proud smile. He turned to the other girl. "And what about you, mini-Galadriel?"
The blonde tilted her head. "I'm Luna Lovegood," she said softly. "Who's Galadriel?"
"She's an elf queen," Hermione supplied immediately, "from Tolkien - he's a Muggle author."
Luna blinked slowly, as if picturing herself as an elf queen. Ginny, on the other hand, frowned. "That's not very nice."
Hermione looked taken aback. "What? Why?"
Gabriel intervened before it could turn into one of those conversations. "Muggle elves are very different from house-elves. They're like... person sized fairies, but without the wings. All mystical and ethereal and stuff."
Ginny nodded in sudden understanding, while Luna gave him a small, sincere smile. "Thank you."
He blinked. "Uh, sure?"
Then Hermione's voice practically cracked the air. "House what?"
Gabriel waved her off. "I'll get you a book about them later."
That seemed to pacify her for now though he could already see her mentally planning a research list. Then, as if remembering something, he perked up.
"Speaking of books…"
He drew his wand. "Locomotor!"
His trunk floated down from the luggage rack to rest on the floor with a soft thud. Opening it revealed an impossibly expanded interior: drawers on one side, cubbyholes on the other. He pulled open the drawer with "Livros" written in golden letters at the front, pulling, and pulling, and pulling on it, passing through more than a hundred books before he found the one he wanted. The sight of the portable library made Hermione's eyes gleam with envy.
He smirked inwardly. 'Well, now I know what to get her for her birthday.'
Gabriel pulled out a blue leather-bound volume with gilded corners and an ornate title:
The Weaving of Words: A Dreamer's Guide to Spellcraft
~ by Pandora Lovegood
He opened it to the first page, where a glittering black signature sparkled like a constellation.
"Here," he said, turning the book toward Luna. "Signed by Pandora Lovegood. That's your mum, right? I love this one - she's the only author I've ever seen make spell creation sound fun and not like a theoretical nightmare, I- wait, are you crying!?"
Indeed, Luna's wide silver eyes shimmered as she gently traced her mother's name with trembling, reverent fingers. Ginny put an arm around her protectively.
Gabriel looked desperately toward Neville, who immediately stared very hard out the window, pretending not to exist. Hermione alternated between glaring at him and silently mouthing, 'Fix this!'
'Useless,' he thought bitterly, bemoaning in his mind. 'My friends are all useless.'
"Uh- are you okay?" he asked lamely, wincing as soon as the words came out of his mouth.
Ginny shot him an incredulous look that said 'what do you think, you absolute idiot'.
But Luna nodded, smiling through her tears. "Mhm." Slowly, hesitantly she started to hand the book back to him.
Gabriel flailed. "No, no! I- uh, I've read it a thousand times already, you can borrow it!" Seeing her frown he moved quickly, pushing it back towards her and continuing in a rush, "Really, I insist!"
She hesitated, then hugged the book close to her chest. "Thank you."
Desperate to change the subject, Gabriel blurted, "So, does anyone know who Gilderoy Lockhart is? Seems he's our new DADA teacher."
Ginny made a face. "He's one of those guys who write books for old women. Mum reads him a lot."
Nevilles agrees, "My Gran has a bunch of them."
Hermione gasped. "He's so much more than that! He's a hero! Really, Order of Merlin, Third Class - though honestly it should've been First, he's certainly saved enough people for that. Oh, I really wanted to go to his book signing, but my parents said one trip to Diagon Alley per week…" She sighed dreamily. "Well, at least we'll be seeing him all year!"
Gabriel looked supremely unimpressed. Ginny mirrored the expression perfectly.
"I went to that signing," Ginny said. "Mum dragged us all. Didn't much like the look of his mug." The lower, almost whispering, she completed, "Made Harry uncomfortable, too."
Now Gabriel was looking at her, unimpressed.
Hermione sniffed. "Well, that's to be expected. Little girls wouldn't understand."
Ginny's eyes narrowed dangerously. Gabriel was opening his mouth - eager and ready to pour gasoline on the fire - when Neville suddenly screamed.
They all whipped their heads toward the window just in time to see a blue car flying alongside the train.
Inside, Harry and Ron screamed silently at them through the glass before looking forward again in sheer panic.
For a heartbeat, the compartment was silent. Then Ginny groaned, pressing her hands over her face.
Gabriel burst out laughing. "Guess we found your brother, eh?"