BOOM BABY! I'M BACK! So, this is the sequel to Laughter, the name of the story is Balance… but you probably figured that out already… It's set during Order of the Phoenix… blah, blah, blah… so yeah!

He, he, I didn't even make you wait the week I was planning to make you wait for!

Disclaimer: I only own Mia and Sally…

Also, the witch on the Chocolate Frog Card is, according to the Harry Potter Wikia, actually on a Chocolate Frog card.

Chapter 1: Going To Hogwarts

Mia Homing flitted around her bedroom, throwing things in her trunk at the last minute. She hastily pushed her mousy brown hair out of her face, looking around for her tie.

"Why did I only pack half my stuff last night? Why?" she muttered to herself. Her eyes, which were a shade darker then her hair and too wide for her face, flicked around her room, and she let out a yell of triumph as she spotted her red and gold tie, and threw it in her trunk on top of her robes.

"Mia? You almost ready? Sally's waiting!" her mother called from downstairs.

"Yeah, yeah! Gimme a sec!" Mia shouted back, throwing a handful of quills in her trunk. She looked around the room again. She was forgetting something. What am I

forgetting? She gripped her scalp and ran through everything she'd packed over the past two days. Robes, Muggle clothes, books, tie, quills, parchment, cauldron- "WAND!" she yelled, grabbing it off of her bedside table, "I'd of been screwed if I'd forgotten this…" she muttered, shoving it onto her pocket.

She picked up the stack of letters she'd received from Fred and George Weasley, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell over the summer and shoved them in the black bin bag full of rubbish, along with the several copies of the Daily Prophet. She slid some photo's (both moving and non-moving) off of the table and chucked them into her trunk too, along with the Terriana Perfume and the Gloww Ball she had gotten from Angelina and Alicia last year for her birthday.

"Mia!" her mum called.

"One minute!" she called back, slamming her trunk shut. She pulled on a pair of five inch high, neon yellow boots, slipped on a jean jacket and pulled her wand out of her pocket. She flicked it and her trunk lifted about a millimetre off the bed, then dropped back down. She flicked it again. Nothing happened this time. She sighed irritably and said, "Locomotor Trunk!" the trunk flew up into the air. She'd never gotten the hang of non-verbal spells.

As she marched down the stairs, she checked her watch. Quarter to eleven. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, her parents in front of her. "Well, have fun at school, and we'll see you at Christmas," her mum said.

"Yeah, bye, Mum!" Mia hugged her mother, then her father, "bye, Dad!" her parents smiled at her before she went through the front door, letting her trunk fall to the ground- incase any Muggles were peering out of their windows. Sally Baker was standing by the wall. Sally was the only other witch anywhere near Mia, living just a few doors down.

"You ready to go?" Sally asked her.

"Yup!" Mia said, excited. This year, she was old enough to Apperated to Kings Cross Station, and she sure as hell was going to do it. Hey, it meant she didn't have to wake up at half six in the morning to take a three hour car journey!

"Ok, then. Three, two, one-" CRACK! And there was no one there anymore.

Miles away, however, Mia, Sally, and the trunk appeared at Kings Cross. Mia paused for a second. "Am I Splinched?" she asked. Sally smiled.

"No, you're absolutely fine."

"Great! Let's go, then!" Mia picked up her trunk and they made their way to Platforms nine and ten. They looked around quickly before stepping through the barrier, emerging on Platform 9¾. Mia looked around; searching for someone she might know.

"Ah," she heard Sally say. Mia looked in the direction Sally was now walking in and saw Harry Potter, standing with Mrs Weasley, and old woman and a big, black dog. Mia smiled and jogged up to them after Sally.

"Where'd ya get the dog, Harry?" Mia asked. Harry looked up and smiled at her.

"Hi, Mia," he greeted.

"Hiya," she ruffled his hair and the dog barked, "So... the dog, you can't exactly take it to Hogwarts… can you?" she asked. The dog barked and she looked down at it.

"Um… no…" next to them, Mrs Weasley, the old woman and Sally were having a whispered conversation.

"Where are Fred and George and Ginny, Ron and Hermione?" Mia asked.

"They'll be here in a min-" suddenly, a man with a hat pulled over one eye and scarred face came over to them, carrying a load of trunks.

"All ok. Don't think we were followed," Mad-Eye Moody said to Mrs Weasley and the old woman. He nodded to Sally in greeting, and she smiled back, then- without even looking at her- said, "Who's this?" jerking his head sideways towards Mia. She had a feeling his magical eye was on her under that hat.

"That's Mia Homing," Sally said, "She's a friend of the Weasley twins." Moody turned both his eyes on her and looked at her suspiciously.

"Don't worry, Mad-Eye, she's not an assassin!" the old woman said.

"Can't be too sure!" Moody said. Mia just blinked up at him.

Mr Weasley appeared with Ron and Hermione. "Hi, guys!" Mia said.

"Oh! Hi, Mia! When did you get here?" Ron asked.

"Just now. With Sally," Mia gestured to her.

"HEY! I know that woman! She was-"

"Shh!" Hermione said, then looked at Mia, slightly worried. Mia just smiled.

"Don't worry, guys, I'll just, um, pretend… that I didn't hear that," she winked at them, and they looked at her, utterly confused. Before they could ask anything, however, Fred, George, Ginny and Lupin turned up. She turned around and grinned broadly at Fred, her friend, and George, her boyfriend. She flung her arms around them and came back, still smiling.

"Hi!" she said. They smiled back at her.

Mia hung back for a minute with Sally while everyone else said goodbye to each other.

"Quick, quick," said Mrs Weasley, ushering them all onto the train and the whistle blew, "Write, be good, if you've forgotten anything we'll send it on. On to the train, now, hurry!" Mia stepped up onto the train and pulled her trunk up behind her.

Mia looked with confusion as the black dog stood up on its hind legs and put its paws on Harry's shoulder. Mrs Weasley muttered something to it and it stood back on four legs.

"See you!" Harry called, once he was on the train. As the train started to move, the dog started to run along with it. Finally, the train rounded the bend, and the dog, Mr Weasley, Lupin, Moody, the old woman, Mrs Weasley and Sally were out of sight.

"He shouldn't have come with us," Hermione said.

"Who?" Mia asked. They ignored her.

"Oh, lighten up," Ron told her, "he hasn't seen daylight for months, poor bloke."

"Who?" Mia asked again. They ignored her again. Mia just rolled her eyes. "c'mon, the compartment's will be full up if we don't get a move on!" she tugged on George's hand and they made their way down the train, leaving Hermione, Ron and Harry alone.

When they finally found a compartment and had sat down, Mia asked, "So, who shouldn't have come?" Fred and George glanced at each other, and when they didn't answer, Mia said "is it something to do with the Order?" They looked at her, surprised.

"How do you know about that?" Fred asked. Mia rolled her eyes.

"Sally's a member," she replied simply.

"…Sally?" Mia rolled her eyes. Again.

"You know, the woman who brought me to the World Cup last year? She was the woman talking to your mum."

"Oh!" Fred replied.

"Yeah, she's a member. She said that joined the last time. Like, in the very last year before it disbanded. Apparently, she was the youngest member. Joined so late she didn't even get to go on any missions, but she was still a member, so obviously she got contacted at the end of last year. But she won't tell me anything about what happens in the meetings or anything. And she also said I wasn't allowed to say I knew anything in any letters I sent to you, in case they got intercepted of something…" Mia explained Fred and George just looked at her blankly.

Finally, Fred said, "so all of our mysterious letters-"

"Weren't remotely mysterious at all. No," Mia said, then laughed, "but it was a good try."

"So… what do you know?" George asked. Mia looked up at the ceiling.

"I know that it's called the Order of the Phoenix… I know that Dumbledore set it up when You-Know-Who was first in power… um… that's about it."

"So you don't know much?" Fred asked.

"No… can you tell me?" she asked.

"Not really…" Fred said, "I mean, we don't really know much either. We found out what a few of them are doing, like tailing death eaters and stuff… and apparently You-Know-Who's trying to find some kind of weapon… Mum and Dad's in the Order, and so are Lupin and Moody, you know, our past Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, they're in it. And obviously Sally, that woman you know. Professor McGonagall's in it too-"

"Really?" Mia asked.

"Yup," George carried on, "And apparently Hagrid, but we haven't actually seen him," his tone suddenly got much darker, "and Snape-"

"WHAT?" Mia cried.

"Yeah," Fred said, "he comes and gives reports every other night. Sends us dirty looks every time he passed us."

"We were thinking of slipping him some Nosebleed Nougat, but-"

"Some what?" Mia asked, laughing. The twins grinned and started explaining about the things they were making for their joke shop, but how most of it was complete and how they had been sneaking different things away when Mrs Weasley wasn't looking to experiment with.

The food trolley passed and Mia brought a pile of Chocolate Frogs, while Fred and George brought a few boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. "Who's dog was that, anyway?" Mia asked as she finished her first Chocolate Frog, and was reading through the card. It was about some witch called Queen Maeve- who apparently trained witches and wizards in Ireland before Hogwarts. She started fiddling with the rose charm on the necklace from George.

"That was Sirius," Fred replied, absentmindedly, inspecting a green Bean, before placing it carefully back in the box.

"Who?" she looked up at him.

"Sirius Black," Fred replied, and Mia dropped her card.

"What? Why was Sirius Black on the platform with you?" she asked.

"Shh!" Fred and George told her, "it's alright! He's innocent!" George said.

"What?" they explained about how Sirius Black had been framed, and how he was actually innocent and was also Harry's godfather. When they had finished, Mia just blinked at them.

"So… he's innocent?" she asked.

"We've just said that about five times," Fred said. Mia sat there and mulled over what they had just said.

"I… think that makes sense…" she said.

"Good," Fred nodded, "so what did you do this summer?"

Rolling her eyes, Mia said, "visited Jess, my cousin, went into London and went shopping… and that was about it. Didn't do much, you?"

"Just stayed at Headquarters most of the summer," George said.

"Where is Headquarters?" Mia asked.

"Can't tell you."

"Why?"

"Dumbledore's Secret-Keeper, only he can tell someone where it is," Fred explained.

"Oh," Mia sighed heavily.

"But guess who became a prefect?" Fred asked.

"…Hermione and Harry?"

"Half right," George replied.

"Hermione did-"

"Obviously."

"-And Ron." Mia chocked slightly on the bite of Chocolate frog she'd just taken.

"You sure?" she asked.

"Yup."

"But… Ron?"

"Yeah. We thought for sure it'd be Harry," George told her.

"Huh," Mia mused, smiling slightly.

"What?" the twins asked.

"Well… it could be quite useful… having a brother as a prefect… especially a younger brother. And Ron's not like Percy-" the twins suddenly scowled, "what?"

"Tell you in a minute, go on," Fred said. Mia paused a second before continuing.

"Ron's not like Percy, we'd be able to… shall we say, convince him to let us get away with certain stuff." Mia smiled. Fred's eyebrows quirked.

"Now that... is a good idea."

"What can I say? I'm immense. So what's up with Percy?" she asked.

"He and Dad had a massive fight," said Fred.

"Percy got promoted, see. Fudge's personal assistant," George explained.

"Came home thinking Dad would be all proud. But he wasn't, obviously."

"Dad thinks Fudge is going to get Percy to spy on him for Fudge," George told her.

"So then there was this massive fight and Percy just… left…" Fred said.

"Mum's in a right state… we can't mention him without her crying…" George sighed.

"Oh my god!"

Finally, they arrived at Hogsmeade station, and they made their way through the bustling students. "I've just realised…" Mia said, as she walked along behind George, holding his hand.

"What?"

"We're in our last year… like… after this year we're never coming back…" a third year bumped into her and her hand slipped out of George's.

"Oh, don't get all sentimental!" Fred complained.

"I'm not, but I only just realised. It's kinda weird…"

"Not really."

"Oh, shut up, Fred!" she told his as she jumped down from the train, landing next to George and taking hold of his hand again.

So… there we go… the first chapter of Balance. I appreciate it may have not been the best chapter I've ever done… it was mainly for Mia to get up-to-date on what's happened over the summer. Plus, you also got to see what Mia was like before she goes to King's Cross!

Anyways, hope the first chapter was alright… and please review!