A/N: Hey there everybody! Hope you like this story. It's my first fanfic, so please no flaming. I would, however, love to get some constructive criticism as long as it can actually be useful to me. Anyway, enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any money off of this story.

Chapter 1: The New Girl

This was a rather unusual event, even for Hogwarts. Unlike with Muggle schools, Hogwarts didn't really get transfer students all that often. In fact, Harry couldn't remember there ever being a transfer student in his entire time at Hogwarts. So Harry was rather perplexed by the witch walking in with the first years, waiting to be sorted.

She looked rather slim, like she hadn't been getting enough to eat lately, and she also had on a beret with most of her hair tucked up into it. Only a few strands of black hair peeked out the back of her hat, which was pulled down and covered her eyes. The strangest thing about her though, was that she looked old enough to be in Harry's year, so he had no idea what she was doing being sorted now.

Harry saw many of the other students had noticed this girl as well and whispered conversations had started up across the Great Hall almost as soon as she had entered. Harry looked at Hermione, hoping she would have some idea what was going on, but she looked just as curious as Harry.

As the sorting process began, Harry noticed that everyone seemed to be paying more attention to the girl than the other students being sorted. No one was really paying attention to McGonagall as she called off the names, until the girl started to move towards the stool. Then everyone was frantically whispering to their friends, trying to find out if anyone had heard her name.

Harry instantly turned to Hermione and she sighed, probably already guessing his question.

"Her name is Jessica Parkins."

Harry gave her a quick smile in thanks and turned back to the sorting. The girl looked hesitant about sitting on the stool to be sorted. For some reason she looked to Dumbledore, who gave her an encouraging nod, before she finally sat down.

Even stranger, the Sorting Hat seemed to be confused by this girl as well. Harry had seen the Sorting Hat struggle to decide where to place a student before, but this seemed more like it didn't even understand why she was being sorted. Then, it looked like something clicked and everything suddenly became clear to the Hat, and it shouted out its decision.

"Gryffindor!"

The usual respectful clapping broke out across the Great Hall, loudest at the Gryffindor table, and all eyes followed the girl as she made her way over. She looked for an empty spot amongst the older students and seemed to reluctantly decide on the spot across from Harry and Ron and next to Hermione.

Everyone near them at the table was staring at the girl and looked like they were dying to ask her all kinds of questions, but the girl just stared down at the table and refused to look up at anyone.

Unnoticed to Harry, all the new students had finished being sorted and Dumbledore was standing up to make his speech. Harry finally turned back to the front of the Hall as he heard Dumbledore start.

"Welcome to all of our new students! I hope that your time here at Hogwarts is nothing but wonderful. To our returning students, I would like to welcome you all to another splendid year. Now, I know that dark times may be approaching outside these walls, but I do so hope that while you are here you can forget about that and focus instead on your studies and enjoying your youthful days. On a lighter note, some of you may have noticed a slightly older student being sorted with the first years. She has just moved to England from Australia and will be in sixth year classes. I know that it is unusual to receive transfer students, so I ask that you please be respectful to her and make her feel welcome. Now, let the feast begin!"

As the plates and cups began to magically fill up, so too did the Hall begin to fill with conversation. Everyone nearby at the Gryffindor table seemed unsure about what to say to Jessica at first and for a while everyone ate in silence, but Hermione chose to break the ice.

"Jessica, right?"

The girl looked up enough for Harry to see a shy smile on her face. She had a round face with fair, almost pale, skin. But it was still fairly covered by her pulled down beret so he couldn't really see what color her eyes were.

"I prefer Jessi, actually," she said in a quiet tone that was almost impossible to hear over the noise in the Hall.

"Hello Jessi. My name's Hermione Granger. Welcome to Hogwarts," Hermione greeted warmly as she put out her hand for Jessi to shake. Jessi took the hand reluctantly, but shook firmly once she had a hold. The others then joined in with the greetings.

"Hi. Ron Weasley."

"Hi there. I'm Harry Potter," Harry said. As he shook her hand, he searched her face for any sign of recognition, but her eyes were still mostly hidden beneath her hat.

Other students around them also introduced themselves. Harry noticed that Jessi didn't really seem to be trying to memorize the names. In fact, it seemed like she recognized everyone before they introduced themselves. But maybe he was imagining things.

After all the introductions everyone went back to eating some more before Hermione tried to start up a conversation with Jessi.

"So why did your family move here from Australia?"

"Well, we technically moved back to England."

"Oh, so you lived here before?"

"Yeah. We lived here back when I was little but moved to Australia when my dad got a job out there." To Harry, her answer seemed reflexive and void of emotion, almost fake. But he just figured that she had figured on having to answer these types of questions so she had already thought about what she was going to say.

Once more, an awkward silence hung over the group as they ate a little more.

"So why did you move back from Australia if your father had a good job?" Harry asked, trying to keep the conversation going so they could learn a little bit more about this new girl.

"If you asked my parents, they would say that they missed their family and had been away from England long enough. But to be honest, they really wanted to be here to help fight against Vol-" Jessi stopped as she saw everyone's surprised expression. "I mean, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." She quickly stared back down to her plate, looking embarrassed by what she almost said.

"You almost said his name!" Ron blurted out in his usual, unthinking fashion, earning him a glare from Hermione.

"Yeah, well, um… h-he wasn't really a direct threat in Australia, s-so there were more people who weren't really afraid of saying his name. I-I mean, we, uh, we still knew that things could get bad if he started rising up here… but there weren't any active Death Eaters in Australia yet so we weren't in any immediate danger," Jessi explained, seeming a little surprised and unprepared for Ron's question.

"Personally, I don't understand why everyone here has such trouble just saying the name. I mean, that's all it is – a name!" Harry exclaimed, everyone else giving him their usual, uncertain looks.

"The fear of the name only increases the fear of the thing itself," Jessi said, smiling only slightly.

"Exactly."

"Easy for you to say, being the all-powerful Boy-Who-Lived," Ron muttered.

Harry quickly looked to Jessi, expecting to see a surprised look on her face after Ron's comment. Instead she just continued to stare at her plate and push her food around with her fork.

"You're not surprised that I'm the Boy-Who-Lived?" Harry questioned her.

"I kind of figured it out when you told me your name."

"Then how come you didn't immediately ask for my autograph or question me about being the savior of the wizarding world?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Why would I? Sure you're famous because you survived the Killing Curse, which is a big deal, but you yourself didn't really have anything to do with that. You were just a baby lying in crib."

As Jessi gave her answer everyone just stared at her with open mouths, looking at her like she had just said something as crazy as 'Voldemort is really a nice guy.' Then Harry broke out into hysterical laughter and everyone looked at him like he was crazier than her.

"You alright, mate?" Ron asked, an incredibly concerned expression on his face.

"It's… It's just … she…" Harry tried to say between gasps for air. He composed himself before continuing. "It's just that she explained exactly how I've felt since I discovered why I'm famous. I've never felt like I should be famous for something my mum did. I've just never been able to put it into words. It's rather relieving and exciting to find someone who share's my point of view."

"It's my pleasure," Jessi said, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips.

The atmosphere became more comfortable at the table as everyone went back to eating and catching up with friends. Some people tried asking Jessi more about herself, but she would just give short replies that revealed nothing about herself and go back to picking at her food.

Before they knew it, the feast was finished and everyone started walking towards the dormitories. Hermione walked next to Jessi, taking on the unofficial role of guide, explaining some things about Hogwarts. Harry and Ron just followed behind them.

"So Jessi, you'll probably have a lot of the same classes as Harry, Ron, and I, so if you ever have any questions feel free to ask us."

"You're all sixth years?" Jessi asked. She seemed very confused and for some reason, glanced at Ron for a short moment before turning back to Hermione.

"Yes. What so surprising about that?" Hermione said, a little confused by her reaction.

"Just surprised I sat next to a bunch of people from my year, I guess," Jessi muttered. She appeared to become lost in thought and didn't bother to really pay attention to anything else Hermione said until they got to the common room.

As they entered the common room, Ginny saw them and came rushing to them.

"Harry! Hermione! It's good to see you again! Sorry I didn't sit with you at the feast, but I had some other friends I needed to catch up with first," Ginny said, pulling both of them into a hug. When she pulled away she noticed Jessi for the first time. "Oh. Hello there! I'm Ginny Weasley. Ron's younger sister. You must be the new girl."

"H-h-hi. I-I'm J-j-jessi," she barely managed to squeak out. To Harry, she looked like she had seen a ghost, or rather a ghost from her past. He also noticed that she was looking up enough for him to see her eyes for the first time. They were a warm hazel that almost seemed familiar and he was sure they would normally have looked rather friendly, but for now they were filled with shock and terror and pain.

"I-if you all excuse me, I'm rather worn out from all the excitement and I think I'll just turn in early. Good night," Jessi said quickly and rushed towards the girls' dormitories without another word.

Everyone was utterly confused, Ginny most of all.

"Was it something I said?"

No one really knew the answer to that question, so they all decided to drop the topic for now and instead chose to ask each other how their summer was. But for the rest of the evening, Harry kept thinking of Jessi's eyes and tried to figure out where he had seen them before.