Author's Note: (ok I'll keep this short) Ok, I decided to write this fic 'cause I got an idea for one. (There see? It was short)

Well, it was originally, but now I have to point something out to avoid confusion. The chapter introduction just below says "One Last Hope" and doesn't have the rest of the title. This is because this fic is the first of my One Last Hope trilogy, and the chapter intro will be counting the total number of chapters in the trilogy. Now that that's all cleared up…

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, except the ones you don't recognize; I made those up. There, you can't sue me now! HA!

Anyway, hope you like.

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One Last Hope Chapter 1: A Shocking Surprise

Amy sat perched in a maple tree, her head back as she leaned against a branch and listened to the leaves rustling in her ears. The wind blew her long red hair into her green eyes so that she constantly had to push it back. Finally she gave up with a sigh. She was very tired because she hadn't been able to sleep last night due to a strange dream. She placed her hand on her forehead and shut her eyes tight as she tried to remember it. It had been very weird…she had been in a mansion, or maybe a castle…yes, it had been a castle; it had been to big to be an ordinary house…and there had been paintings, lots of paintings. Although, the paintings had been strange too…she couldn't remember why…. The last thing she saw before the image of her dream faded away was a red room.

"Tomas! What have I told you about cleaning your room?"

Amy's eyes snapped open as her mother's angry voice floated out through the window.

"Aw, Mom, do I have to?" came her brother's instant reply.

Amy groaned as she listened to her brother arguing with her mother for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Her family was always fighting, and she never wanted to be a part of it. But it was hard to escape, even in her favorite tree in the front yard of their small house. Her mother, who had a full time job as a real estate agent, never had the time to be with her children; they were by themselves most of the day. Her ten-year-old brother, Tomas, didn't help matters; all he ever seemed to do was complain. Her father had died when she was two. The doctors said it had been a heart attack.

Amy punched her knee in frustration. It's just not fair…she thought. Why are they always fighting? Amy didn't spend much time at her house. Most days after school she went to her best friend Tara's house until she had to go home for dinner. Tara's mother was so used to seeing Amy at their house that she asked Tara where her friend was if Amy had to go home early. Amy was glad she could do her homework with Tara. It wasn't that she wasn't smart, she understood the things she was taught, but Amy would often need Tara's help to complete an assignment. It's probably because nothing interests me, she thought. She didn't know why, but she found almost everything that her teacher taught her at school boring. She would often let her attention wander by accident, which would usually earn her a stern look from her teacher, Mrs. Adams. She doesn't understand anything! Amy thought bitterly. She keeps telling me to pay attention, but she doesn't do anything to keep my attention on her! Tara, however, was the perfect student, always studying hard and doing her best. Amy didn't mind; Tara was a great friend, and even though she sometimes got annoyed, she always helped Amy with her schoolwork.

The angry voices coming from the living room brought her thoughts back to the present. Amy tried to block them out and focus her attention on something else. It was a bright August evening, and very hot. She looked through the branches and down the street. All of the houses looked exactly the same, with one tree in each front yard. Each house had a small driveway, only big enough for one car, all of which were dotted with blue recycling boxes, emptied by the truck that had driven by that morning. How they had fit that many houses on such a small street, she could only guess. But simply looking at her street wasn't enough to block the argument, now coming through the open window at particularly high volumes. Amy just sighed and laid her head back. She was so tired of listening to them argue…so tired…

"AMY!"

Amy woke with a start and lost her balance. She tumbled forwards and fell. She braced herself for impact…but it never came. She opened her eyes to see herself standing upright. She let her arms fall, eyes wide in wonder. How did I do that? What's going on? She just stood their, her heart racing. Other things like this had happened before, but not very often, and always to her. Like that time she had been racing home from Tara's for dinner, knowing she going to be grounded for being late, when suddenly she had found herself at her front door. Or the time she had had to wear her mom's old gray sweater because hers were all dirty. She had gone to school, expecting to be laughed at, but no one said anything, they all seemed to think she was wearing her favorite blue sweater. She certainly felt the same as she had then.

She was so startled that she didn't hear her mother yelling at her until she was right in front of her, screaming at her to "…GET IN THE KITCHEN RIGHT NOW YOUNG LADY!"

She walked clumsily into the house and sat down at the table, hardly noticing what she was doing, much less listening to her mother, still shaken by what had happened. She just nodded at her, and served herself potatoes, her hands shaking slightly, her mother still rambling on about how she should act her age; "…eleven-year-olds don't ignore their mother completely and forget what time dinner's at…you should be ashamed of yourself…"

Amy pretended to listen while her mother rambled on for another while. Finally, she seemed to calm down and began to eat; at least until another argument broke out between her and Tomas about how much broccoli he had to eat. Amy hurriedly ate her dinner and then left for the safety of her room, where she flopped onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow, where she tried to find an explanation to falling out of the tree without landing. It was so strange…yet it almost felt normal somehow… She was certainly different from other people. Amy had never really felt like she belonged in the world. Well, except when she was with Tara, who always understood her and was always there to help her out.

She soon got too tired to think. The many hours of sleep she had lost last night were catching up with her.

She was just falling into an uneasy sleep when she heard a sharp tapping noise.

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A/N: So, this chappie has been re-edited. I'm gonna do that for the whole fic. Let me just say that I am officially ashamed at the number of spelling/grammar mistakes I found. Yikes. But they're fixed now (hopefully all of them).

First part of original author's note has been deleted because she feels it portrayed her as pathetic and now has more confidence in her writing. Please review and let me know what you think. I know pretty much how I'm going to write this story but I need to know if people like it. So review! I know it was probably a bit boring, but I gotta start the fic somewhere! It'll get more interesting later, I promise.