The weather cleared itself up rather quickly once nature took over again and erased any sign that Julian had interfered with it. The rest of the trip to Hogwarts passed without much incident, since despite the girls naming every magical ability they could think of, Julian methodically ruled them out one by one as things he did not possess. Once the train arrived at Hogsmeade Station, Luna split away from the group and joined the rest of the first years heading to the boats. Hermione, however, quickly realized that Harry and Ron had never actually been on the train at all, and that left her worried.
"I'm sure they'll turn up later in some dramatic fashion," Julian told her with a grin. She knew he was probably right, considering exactly who they were, but that did not stop her from worrying anyway. Julian, meanwhile, was already working out how to take the diary from Ginny before it had the chance to corrupt her enough to open the Chamber. The real problem in this case was not Ginny at all, but the soul shard inside the diary. As the first Horcrux, that piece of Voldemort was basically a version of him that was still relatively sane and extremely knowledgeable in advanced magic.
That also meant that if it somehow realized Julian was hunting it, the shard might overturn the whole situation in order to escape and could easily do far worse than merely petrify people using the giant magical serpent hidden beneath the school. Obviously that was the worst possible outcome, but Julian still had to account for it. Most likely, however, he would simply stun Ginny when she was alone and remove the diary from her without anyone ever realizing what had happened. The best part was that despite the diary's magical concealment, Julian could still sense the evil magic saturating it as clearly as a torch in a dark room, so he would know exactly when the best moment to take it was.
After petting the thestrals pulling the carriages, Julian and the rest of the group made their way to Hogwarts, eager to begin another school year. While the first years were being sorted, Julian noticed Snape entering the Great Hall and speaking with McGonagall and Dumbledore, neither of whom looked at all pleased. Leaning toward Hermione, he whispered into her ear, "And there's the dramatic reappearance," before chuckling at the reaction it drew from her, which was a mix of embarrassment and anger. She was embarrassed by how close he had leaned in, and angry because Harry and Ron had very clearly done something stupid again.
Just as in the original story, Luna was sorted into Ravenclaw while Ginny went to Gryffindor. It was also obvious that everyone in the castle quickly learned what Harry and Ron had done, either from the newspapers or because McGonagall had informed her house directly. Most of Gryffindor thought their method of arriving at Hogwarts was brilliant and were already planning to congratulate the two once they made it to the common room. Neither Julian nor Hermione intended to be part of that, though for two reasons that were similar without being quite the same.
For Hermione, it was because she fully intended to lecture them for breaking rules and nearly getting themselves expelled. For Julian, it was because they had chosen the single stupidest possible way to reach Hogwarts while panicking. For one thing, Harry had an owl and could easily have sent a letter in a hurry to explain the problem. For another, all they actually needed to do was wait by the car for the Weasley adults. There was no way Arthur Weasley would have abandoned his beloved enchanted car, which meant he would have returned, found the boys, and gotten them on their way without much trouble at all.
Julian had honestly thought his own presence and that of the girls would have prevented this whole event, but clearly he had been mistaken. Even so, the biggest commotion of the evening did not come from the boys' method of transportation. It came when Dusk entered the Great Hall and landed on Julian's shoulder, rubbing his head affectionately against Julian's face. Most people did not know what he was at first, but Anthony Goldstein loudly identified Dusk, and that immediately threw the hall into chaos. In Julian's opinion, though, the best reaction came from Lockhart, who looked as though he had just bitten into a rotten lemon.
Julian had to stop quite a few people from trying to touch Dusk, because even with the bird showing patience for Julian's sake, that was still an excellent way to provoke him. Julian made that very clear to everyone in the hall, and the hands that had started reaching out quickly drew back into fists as people remembered that the bird would be more than happy to remove their fingers. After that, Julian received no small number of jealous looks as he ate while also feeding Dusk, who was nearly as much of a glutton as Julian himself. 'I really do seem to attract gluttons,' he thought with a quiet chuckle.