Chapter 1 Diagon Ally

A girl about 15 years old, accompanied by what appeared to be her father got out of a London taxi and into the drizzly rain that had been threatening to fall since that morning. The girl was about 5'2 and had a slight tan. She had hazel eyes and long black hair that was covered by a large purple, silk hood from her silk robes.

Her father, a small man with black, well kept hair and deep blue, but soft eyes looked at the place they had stopped outside and asked his daughter, in a slight, but none the less, a very Irish accent, "Are you sure this is it? It's very….I dunno… Pub like!" The girl looked at the old sign on the pub and the street sign down the road. "Yep this is it. It's the right street and it's called the Leaky Cauldron." She looked back at her father as he thanked and paid the taxi driver, who looked bewildered and drove off mumbling, "Always with the weird clothes, what's with this street…" Her father crossed the street to stand beside her. "Ok, well you're the smart one, Krissy. Lets go." And they both walked inside.

Her father felt sort of out of place among all the witches and wizards, but she didn't. She walked over to the bar and asked, "Err, excuse me? Sir?" The barkeeper turned around and saw a very nervous father and a shy looking girl. "Yes, dear?" "Eh…I was wondering how to get to Diagon Ally?" The barkeeper smiled, "Let me guess, you're Ms. Molloy? Christina Molloy if I'm not mistaken. Buying your school supplies?" She nodded, "Thought so. You're the image of your sister." The girl flinched slightly. She didn't like to talk about her sister. "Ok, Follow me please." He walked out into a back area followed by Christina and her father. It was outside but was very small and was surrounded by high walls. "Now," The barkeeper said, "Just tap this brick with your wand," She did as she was told, and the wall pulled apart to reveal Diagon Ally. "And there you go, as easy as that." "Oh, thank you! Bye for now!" Christina said as she dragged her father into the ally.

She walked along the street in amazement. It was so alive with people. They went to Gringots bank first, to exchange her muggle money into Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. She pulled down her hood when she went inside, so as she could get a better look at the place. It was full of large counters and tiny goblins. Her father was a little nervous about the goblins but joined a queue at an exchange counter. While she was waiting for her father to get the money, she decided to look around. She wasn't looking where she was going and bumped into someone so hard she fell to the floor. Feeling like an idiot, she tried to make the best of it and laugh. A hand was offered to help her up, and once she was standing she looked up to thank the person. But she couldn't get the words out. Standing before her was the nicest looking guy, wizard or muggle, she had seen since leaving Beauxbatons the summer before. He was tall, and around 16 years old. He had nice muscle-y arms for his age (not really big, just nice, ya know?), red hair that was kind of messy and the cutest freckles ever. But the thing that caught her off-guard was how dreamy his eyes were.

"Sorry about that" He said, apologetically, "I was trying to hide from my brother when I ran into you, are you ok?" She just nodded. He was about to say something else when a woman's voice, as clear as a bell, screamed behind him, "FRED WEASLEY!" The guy winced and dropped his head "Watch where you are going! Are you alright dear?" The woman came up to Christina and brushed some dust from the floor off her robes. She was as red haired as the boy and was a little smaller. She was a plump sort of woman but even by looking at her you could tell she was a sweet and happy person. Christina finally found her voice and said, "Yes, I'm fine."

"Did my son apologise?" She glared at Fred who was going red, obviously embarrassed. "Mom! Of Course I apologised!" Christina turned to the woman. "Ms…Eh.. Weasley, it was as much my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going. And yes…eh… Fred was it?" he nodded yes. "Fred did apologise." She smiled at Fred before turning back to Ms. Weasley. "Well, that's ok then, dear." Ms. Weasley looked over Christina's shoulder and shouted, "GEORGE!..Oh will you excuse me dear?" Christina nodded and Ms. Weasley ran after a guy who looked extremely like Fred, although she only got a quick glance at him before he ran off to hide from his mother.

Fred looked at her for a minute and then held out his hand, "We haven't been properly introduced, I'm Fred Weasley and that crazy woman was my mom!" Christina laughed and shook his hand, "I'm Christina Molloy, but everyone calls me Krissy. And she wasn't crazy. She was really nice!" "Whatever you say!" They both laughed for a minute then Fred noticed her purple, silk robes, "I've never seen those kind of robes before, they're much lighter than Hogwarts ones. Where do you go to school?"

She looked down at her robes, slightly embarrassed that they had drawn attention. She assumed that Diagon Ally would have many, many wizards and witches in different robes but black seemed to be the theme here and her deep purple silk robes made her stand out. "Oh, I used to go to Beauxbatons Academy. Because it's really hot there, we have silk robes. Blue ones for special occasions and purple for everyday classroom use. But this year I'm going to Hogwarts so I'm going to have to buys some new robes in a minute, just as soon as my dad is finished changing my money." He looked over in the direction she was looking. There was a nervous looking man changing money with a goblin. "I take it he's a muggle?" Fred asked. "Yeah he is. So is my mom." She said smiling at him. They continued to talk for a few minutes until Christina's father retuned.

"Ok, I got a good bit of money changed." He said before he noticed the tall, red haired boy standing quite close to his daughter. "And who's this?" He asked with a note of 'fathers concern' mixed with curiosity in his voice.

"Oh, dad, this is Fred Weasley. We bumped into each other a few minutes ago. He goes to Hogwarts too." Her dad smiled, "Well, its nice to meet you, Fred!" He shifted the bag of wizard money to his pocket and shook Fred's hand. "Ok, sorry to break you two up but we have a LOT to buy. Hopefully see you soon Mr. Weasley. Come along Christina." And he offered his arm. She pulled back up her hood and linked with him. She turned to Fred, "Well, Goodbye for now. I'll see you soon." And with a backwards glance at him, she walked off with her father into the stream of people in Diagon Ally, her robes flowing behind her in the breeze. 'She was really nice, and kinda cute, especially in those silk robes. I hope I do see her soon.' Fred thought as he went in search of his family.

Christina walked with her father into shop after shop buying her school stuff but when she saw Quality Quidditch Supplies, she dragged him in there much to his protest. She walked into the packed shop and headed for the beater section before her father could say anything. She was almost drooling over the newest, strongest bat made. She told her uninterested father about how the Irish international side used the bats in their last game of the season and she proceeded to beg her dad to buy it, and he caved in so quickly it even shocked her! The truth was he felt sorry for her going to a new school so he caved in much quicker than he usually would have. Then all she had left to buy were her robes, which as it turned out, would take the longest to get. On their way out of the shop, after purchasing her new robes, they once again bumped into Fred Weasley, but this time he had his whole family with him. "Oh, hi again!" Fred said to Christina, smiling.

"Fred, who's this?" A man that seemed to be his father appeared from behind him. He was slightly shorter than Fred but had the same red hair, although he was slightly bald. He was thinner than his wife but had the same warm smiley expression - as did the rest of the family!

"Oh, dad, this is Christina Molloy and her father." His dad outstretched his hand to her father, "Nice to meet you Mr. Molloy, I'm Arthur Weasley." Mr. Molloy shook his hand and the two families walked down the street chatting. Mr. Weasley was fascinated by muggles and everything to do with them so he took to the Molloy's very quickly, indeed.

As Ms. Weasley fussed over her other 3 children and a boy that had jet black, messy hair, green eyes and who didn't look like he was part of the family about stuff for school, and Mr. Weasley bombarded Mr. Molloy with questions about muggle stuff, Fred and Christina were hanging back slightly from the group while they talked.

"So you live in Ireland! Then how come you went to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts?" Fred asked as they quickened their pace slightly to keep up with the others. "Oh, em.." She thought to herself, 'ok, you knew that someone would ask this question, just answer calmly like its nothing at all!' "I think my aunt suggested it, she's a witch and went to Beauxbatons as well. She said it would be good for me to experience another culture, another language. I'm staying with her now. She lives just outside London." "Oh.." Fred nodded and she breathed a silent sigh of relief. "So.." He continued, "You into Quidditch?" She nodded and pulled out her new bat. "I love Quidditch. I used to play back in Beauxbatons. I was a beater. My dad got me this earlier. Best bat ever made to date! I broke my old one in my last game." Fred didn't really hear the last sentence; he was too interested in the bat. "Can I see it?" She laughed to herself, knowing that he hadn't really been listening. "Sure. Do you play Quidditch at Hogwarts?" she asked handing him the bat. After a minute her question registered in his mind and he answered. "Oh…yeah, I'm a beater on my house team, so's George" He pointed to his brother who was deep in discussion with a terrified looking boy, who Fred told her was one of his other brothers, Ron. "George's probably telling him something about spiders. Ron's terrified of them!" He laughed and she asked, "Do you have many brothers and sisters?" He gave back the bat and told her, "Yeah, there's eight in my family…" when he said this he had just a slight tone of resentment in his voice. She wondered why but he continued on talking. "There's Ginny," He pointed out the small red head. "She's in third year, already told you about Ron, he's in fourth year. There's myself and George, we're in sixth year…" His hands clenched before he spoke again but his voice was back to its former happy self when he did. "And then there's Charlie. He's in Romania, works with dragons there!" "Cool" she said with an impressed look on her face. He smiled, "And my oldest brother is Bill, he works as a curse breaker for Gringots bank in Egypt." Her face lit up. "Egypt? That's Awsome!" He smiled"You think?" She smiled back nodding. He paused for a second before asking, "So, do you have any brothers or sisters?" She flinched inside but answered like it was nothing. "No. I don't have any brothers or sisters.." she didn't want to talk about it and luckily the conversation went quickly back to Quidditch without her having to say anything else about her family.

A few minutes later the group reached the Leaky Cauldron and Mr. Weasley insisted that they stay a few minutes more while he bought Mr. Molloy a drink. "Please Arthur, call me Jack! Everyone else does!" Mr. Molloy said pulling up a chair.

Fred introduced Christina to Ginny, Ron, George and Harry over a butterbeer. She was kind of shocked that she was meeting the famous Harry Potter, but she tried to make it unnoticeable and avoided looking at his scar. It was the polite thing to do and whenever her eyes began to drift when he was talking she just locked her eyes on his. All of them were arguing the finer points of Quidditch when Christina's dad came up behind her.

"Ok, Krissy! Time to go!" She stood up and said goodbye to each of the Weasleys (and Harry) separately. Fred was the last one she said goodbye to. Instead of the hearty hand shake and the wave the others got, she gave him a hug (which caught both of them by surprise) and said. "See you on the train!" Then she walked out of the pub and back into the muggle world to get into a taxi to take her back home.

As she sat in the taxi she kept thinking to herself, 'Why did you hug him! You could have left like a dignified person but no, you had to go and do a spur-of-the-moment idea and hug him. Why?' She felt so embarrassed. But she wasn't the only one. Fred sat in his bedroom, brushing off the soot from the floo powder ride back to the burrow. He kept thinking, 'Why did you just stand there! She gave you a hug. A sign of friendship and you just stood there like an idiot! She probably thinks you're a right fool!' He lay back onto his bed and said aloud, "Idiot!" "No your not!" Came his reflection in the mirror across the room. "Good point! At least I said 'goodbye' to her. Why did you just stand there, Fred? Why didn't you say 'yeah, see you on the train'? Why?" He whispered, more to himself than to the mirror but the sound of his name, screamed from downstairs told him dinner was ready, and he tried to stop his trail of thought.

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