A Trek Through Worlds- HARRY POTTER X OC

14.

Effie and Luna walked further into the woods, still unaware of their fellow classmates following them closely. Effie squealed out loud when she saw a baby Thestral and pulled on Luna's arm to confirm that she was seeing it too. After confirming that it was real, she immediately ran up to the creature and started petting it as Luna pet its mother.

Effie had never seen death. Her grandparents had died, but she didn't witness it. Brushing off the tension this realization caused, she pushed her focus back to the cute little thestral baby in her arms.

From behind a large tree, Hermione and Ron were looking at the girls with confusion. To them, the two girls were reaching towards nothing.

"I thought she was normal," Hermione stated.

Harry, having witnessed the death of his mother, saw nothing unordinary about the girls except the fact that they were going near such frightening creatures.

(Rowling tried to justify his not seeing thestrals before Cedric's death by saying her couldn't see Lily's death without his glasses. I think that's dumb. So I wrote it out.)

"I agree. Who'd possibly want to go near those things?"

Ron and Hermione looked at him wildly.

"Are you bloody insane?!" Ron whisper yelled. "There's nothing there. They are petting bloody air."

"You don't see those?"

They looked at him again.

"Harry... there's nothing there," Hermione said gently.

Effie reached into her bag, pulling out another apple from her bag, this time a warm yellow colored one. She held her hand down to the creature's mouth. Slowly, it accepted the apple and began to eat it. Ron and Hermione stared wide-eyed at the apple that was being eaten by an invisible force. Harry however, felt incredibly bad about stalking Effie. He turned to his friends.

"She's not meeting anyone out here, just those creepy winged horses. We are being terrible friends by not trusting her and stalking her for no reason."

Ron raised a brow.

"Creepy winged horses mate? Have you gone mad?"

"And Harry, remember her Boggart. And the train. Don't forget the whole, knowing your cup had the Grim without seeing it thing. She's obviously got a secret."

"Maybe she does Hermione. But that's just what it is, a secret. What if it's something that she just doesn't want to tell us until she knows us more or we earn her trust."

"But-"

"People are allowed to keep secrets. The three of us have plenty of secrets. We are breaching her privacy. Her secret doesn't concern us."

"Mate, you've been seeing a black dog everywhere and what did we spot on her robes? A black dog hair. She knows something."

Harry opened his mouth to protest. He couldn't get the flash of hurt her saw on her face when she caught him following her out of his head. It was killing him to continue breaking her trust.

"But-"

Hermione interrupted him.

"After the Polyjuice potion is finished, we'll have our answer. No harm, no foul. She'll never need to know and we can know for sure that she isn't a threat."

Harry's face fell. As usual, he knew Hermione was right. He turned and walked determined back up to the castle, Hermione and Ron following in his wake.

Not long after, Luna and Effie said their goodbyes to the creatures and headed in. It was nearing dinner and Effie was starving, having only eaten a few bites of her breakfast and an apple. Luna left her to deal with something involving Wrackspurts and Effie made her way alone to the Great Hall.