Kindred Spirits.
Rising to the occasion Loki looked at the Nimbus 2001 that Lockhart was holding.
'Well, at least I get to ride on a new broom.'
"You know how to ride the current?" Lockhart asked.
"Yes, professor. I learnt it in my first year." Loki nodded, remembering the previous flying classes he had taken where he was taught about air currents and how to ride them using a broom so that he'd not be against the wind.
"Good. Good." Lockhart spoke and then without any delay sat down on his broom and waited for Loki to take off with him.
Loki enchanted his trunk to follow him which Lockhart copied and then seeing Lockhart's enthusiasm Loki didn't delay anymore and sat on his broom and launched into the air along with Lockhart.
"What are we doing professor!?" Loki asked trying to ignore the wind slamming into his face.
"We must #!*&#!" Lockhart said something, but Loki didn't catch what he said and Lockhart seemed to have realised that so he pointed his hand ahead and motioned for Loki to follow him.
Following Lockhart, Loki slowly made his way into the air and after a while stepped into a steady pace as they followed the train tracks.
'How is his hair so firm!? It feels like it's piercing through the wind!'
It wasn't long after that Loki finally spotted a blue Ford in the distance.
'Seriously!? They actually thought it'd be a good idea to use a flying car to come to school!?'
Finally seeing the car, Lockhart seemed to speed up and so Loki followed him.
Lockhart caught up with the car before Loki and seemed to be talking with its driver, Ron.
'What is he doing!?' Loki exclaimed inside his head.
Something seemed to have happened as Loki found Lockhart pulling open the door and trying to land inside.
Loki kept following from a distance, wondering if he would at some point have to dive to catch Lockhart who was flying beside the car.
After Lockhart moved into the car successfully, Loki looked at the Hogwart's Express that was rolling on metal wheels under him.
'They wouldn't mind right?'
'Yeah, I don't think they'd mind.' Loki concluded seeing that no one was looking behind for him.
Loki found a compartment with an open door and immediately dove close to it, landing inside and stopping right when he landed.
'Nice!'
With the trunk following behind him Loki walked up to the first compartment right beside the Prefects and knocked on it.
"Loki!!!" Loki heard a squeal from behind the door as it opened to reveal the bushy-haired girl happily greeting him.
"Mione!" Loki greeted, and after a welcoming hug, Loki stepped into the compartment with Hermione.
Sending his trunk up the rack "Did you see me flying up there?" Loki immediately asked.
"No? You were flying? How!? Why!? Why didn't you board the train!?"
"Calm down! Calm down! I missed the train, the barrier to the platform closed on me before the time for some reason and I met Professor Lockhart at some point so we were flying on brooms to catch the train."
"Professor Lockhart!?" Hermione asked with bright eyes. "Where's he?!"
"Along with Ron and Harry, up there. Can you see that blue Ford out there?" Loki said pointing at the sky.
Hermione peered through the window and once she noticed the Ford that was closely following the train, her mouth hung loose.
"What? What is that!? Are Harry and Ron driving it!?" Hermione asked shocked.
"No, I think Professor Lockhart took over after he landed inside while I stayed outside and landed on the train."
"You can't be serious!" Hermione said, her shock never vanishing.
"Eh…Can you wait for a minute? I want to borrow an owl from the prefects."
"Why?"
"I sent Professor Snape a letter telling him I was stuck on the platform earlier. I wanted to send him a letter to inform him that I actually boarded the train. Wouldn't want to waste his time. He'd get grumpy about it."
"I can see that." Hermione nodded and Loki left the compartment to borrow an owl from one of the prefects in the compartment beside them.
Coming back, Loki quickly penned a letter for Snape and let the owl fly out of the window.
"I hope you can fly a little faster! It's a time-sensitive letter." Loki told the owl before it *hooted* in understanding and flew away into the spirit world.
Loki and Hermione spent a little bit of their time asking each other various questions about what they were planning to do with Loki's business venture but soon moved on to a more interesting topic right after.
"Mione! Did you know there's a field of magic that deals with the mind!?" Loki told Hermione, trying to get her interested in occlumency naturally so that she could protect herself from Lockhart's mind-bending Beyonder item this year.
"Mind magic? You mean Occlumency and Legilimency?"
"Oh!? You already know about it?" Loki asked surprised since he hadn't read many books in the library that had any information on the subject.
"Yeah, I read about it in a book in the library, but found it ridiculously hard to begin training in it." Hermione said with a pout, "I was unable to come in contact with my mind. I tried doing what the book said but it was fruitless. And if I hadn't asked a senior student about it, I would've thought the subject to be a lie."
"Hmm…I see. It was quite hard in the beginning for me too, but I did eventually come in contact with my mindscape."
"Oh? How did you do it? Any tips?"
"I- uh- I used an item to help me with it." Loki said spontaneously.
"An item?"
"Yes, it is an alchemical item that puts people under a hypnotic effect, and repeatedly being stimulated by the item allowed me to access my mindscape."
"Where did you get the item from? Can I use it too?"
"I didn't carry it to Hogwarts with me, but I will see if I can make such a thing since I've been dealing with alchemy recently."
"You've been dealing with Alchemy too!?" Hermione asked with much excitement.
"You too!?" Loki asked as if he'd met a kindred spirit.
"Yes! Me too! Since I couldn't perform magic over the summer, I spent time reading about runes and the process of making alchemical items using them! I learnt how to make a jar that would contain blue fire! So that we can keep ourselves warm during the Quidditch games."
"Oh!? That's nice. I made a dictation pen!"
"A dictation pen?"
"Yeah, it's a pen that I can use my mind to take notes! I don't have to touch it or even pick it up to write myself!"
"Arghh! That's so helpful! Your hands won't hurt taking notes during class!"
"Hehe, true."
Hermione and Loki spent the rest of their time talking to each other discussing various alchemical items and wondering how a few of them were made.
The train soon came to a stop and they deboarded after they changed into their uniforms. Loki left his trunk on the train but carried the broom so he could return it to Lockhart.
'Or should I just swindle it from him?'
'...probably won't get any digestion feedback because he's not a Beyondder.'
'But what if I make a professor see me swindling him?'
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A/N : I made small changes to the previous chapter, nothing too big, you can read it if you have the time. It's fine if you don't. Thank you for reading, and the powerstones, we're getting close to two hundred! Let's goo!!
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