no. one

Author's note: This is my first time writing a fanfiction. story That's about it, I guess.

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It was a bright, sunny morning as Harry woke up on his lumpy bed in his small bedroom in #4 Privet Drive. Slowly, he rubbed his eyes to adjust to the sunlight pouring from his window.

Yes, he thought. I finally made it to September first!

This hasn't been an easy summer. The Dursleys, if possible, seemed to hate him even more after seeing him well and alive at King's Cross. (Apparently, they had high hopes that he was going to die in the Triwizard Tournament.) Harry also sensed this ,seeing their gloomy and disappointed faces as he approached to them, a dirty , messy boy carrying his owl in one hand and clutching to his luggage and cauldron in the other. From that point on, everything went downhill. Dudley seemed to have lost a few hundred pounds after surviving on grapefruits the previous summer, and kept beating up Harry every time he saw him. It also didn't help that the Dursleys thought chasing Harry around the house and hitting him was a very good way for Dudley to stay in shape, or that they made him write to Sirius every other week and forcing him to write about how much he was enjoying his vacation. In fact, they were on the verge of making him sleep in the dark cupboard again under the stairs.

But then, a miracle happened.

Harry was mowing the lawn one day when he happened to look down at something long and dark green slithering in the grass. Without thinking, he started to talk to the gardener snake in Parseltongue :"Move out of the way or let the lawn mower will chop you into pieces!" he warned.

"yesss massster. Sssorry to bother you." the snake said.

It was then that he realized what he could do with his new found friend. He reached out his hand and hissed :"jump into my hand, I won't hurt you."

Obediently, the snake crawled up and wrapped himself up in Harry's hand. When it was ready, they set off towards the house and greeted the screaming Aunt Petunia.

Finally, after ten minutes, Aunt Petunia found her voice and cried:

" w-w-what the h-h-hell is that th-thing?"

"It's my pet, Aunt Petunia" he said coolly, raising the slithering snake closer to the poor studdering aunt, making her faint and hit the floor with an earthshattering "thmp"."

"What is going on-" cried Uncle Vernon, but stopped in mid-sentence as he saw his pale, frail, unconscious wife lying on the carpet. But to his greater surprise he then turned to his nephew, who was furiously hissing and spitting at a snake.

"BOY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH A SNAKE IN THIS HOUSE!" he roared, his face turning the color of boiled tomatoes.

" You scream at me again and I'll make it bite you. I can talk to snakes, you know. And, uh, well, I made it venomous by er....making a potion for it at the end of the school year. He um, got lost in my trunk and I just found him today.'

Seeing Harry was now armed and dangerous, Uncle Vernon narrowed his blood red eyes and snarled " Well, well, well. You may have won this time. But I warn you, you nasty little git, that if I ever even see that creature again , I'll make sure personally that you will NOT be going to that magical school of yours you cherish so much!"

After that little episode, the Dursleys were a little better to him, and eventually Harry freed the snake. He found out that whenever his relatives started become themselves again again, he only had to hiss and act like summoning his pet to make them stop. This, he found, was very funny and entertaining...

But it was also a lonely summer for Harry. Ron and his family went to Romania to visit Charlie and Hermione's family didn't allow a boy to stay at their house. So the most human contact he had was with Dudley, who always screamed and ran whenever he saw Harry.

As Harry sat in his bed, recalling the events that happened during his summer, he noticed a snowy white owl flying through his window and land on his desk, with a piece of parchment tied to her feet.

A parchment from Sirius.

Quickly jumping off his bed, Harry snatched the parchment and began to read the long-awaited letter:

Dear Harry, it said.

I'm sure you're very excited about school starting over again, and I wish you the best of luck for this coming year. Currently I am staying at Moony's place, so if you ever need to contact me, be sure to send Hedwig there. I also have very good news for you. It seems that my niece Isbella is going to Hogwarts this year. She was most insistent on going to your school instead of Beubaxton and she'll be starting her fifth year too, so be sure to help her find her way around the school. I have a feeling that you'll enjoy her company very much...

That's all for now,

Love,

Sirius.

Harry looked over the letter again, making sure he wasn't imagining things. Sirius's niece is coming to Hogwarts?. He pondered for a moment, wondering the appearance of the mysterious stranger when Aunt Petunia tapped loudly on the door and shouted:" WAKE UP AND COME DOWNSTAIRS TO PUT YOUR STUFF IN THE CAR!" Harry quickly put Hedwig back in her cage and seized his trunk before stumbling down the stairs under all the tremendous weight of the luggages. The Dursley's , however, thought it was very amusing and didn't offer any help. Finally, all his belongings were hastily packed in the van. Breakfast was eaten in the car. A cold, lumpy piece of bread with a glass of cold water for Harry while buttered pancakes with syrup and fat, juicy sausages for Dudley. The drive was also unpleasantly quiet, but it took merely minutes for Harry to be dropped off at King's Cross without a word of good bye from his relatives.

Slowly, he set off towards nine and three quarters, and was greeted by Ron on the way.

" Hi Harry! I had the most wonderful summer you could imagine " exclaimed Ron. " We mostly stayed in this building which the muggles call a 'hotel' , but sometimes Fred, George and I would follow Charlie on his way to work. Once, we came face to face with a Welsh Green and it actually fired at the tree we were hiding behind. Needless to say, Charlie was furious with us, but it was worth it. Oh, look! There's Hermione!"

Indeed, Harry saw a blur of blue coming towards him at full force and embracing him and Ron with a tight hug.

"Oh Harry, Ron, I'm so glad to see you guys! It's been such a long time since I last saw you guys at Diagon Alley. I've been so busy this summer, you know, between catching up on my reading and preparing for all my classes."

" So basically, the mudblood has no social life outside of old, useless books. How much more pathetic can you get?" sniggered Malfoy.

" Perhaps you've forgotten about Viktor Krum?" said Harry.

"Well. er..I..uh, we sorta broke up with him" said Hermione softly.

" Exactly my point. Can't even keep a boyfriend for more than a week, can you? What did you do? Make him look at you?" said Draco, who loved to rub things in.

Hermione was just about to reply when suddenly all of them were distracted by a figure coming closer to them. It was a girl, with a heart shaped face, glowing pink cheeks, big brown eyes, complete with long eyelashes, and curly, flowing , raven black hair reaching down to her slim waist. She stopped in front of them and greeted them with a bright, warm smile that made Harry heart melt.

" Hi! You must be Harry and his friends" she said in a sing-song voice." Let me introduce myself. I'm Isabella Black. As you probably know, I came from Beaubaxton, but I convinced mum and dad to let me come to Hogwarts this year. I was most impressed at Hogwarts winning the Triwizard Cup this year and a little astonished that my school finished in last place. So I decided to abandon that crummy school and come here instead."

" Well, the Blacks are one of oldest wizarding families, so no doubt you're a pureblood. Say, I would love to show you around the school, seeing as you're new and all. May I carry your luggage?" Malfoy reached out his hand to take her bags, and gave her a seductve smile.

" Don't listen to him. He is a Slytherin, and you don't need them hanging around you. I'll carry the bags for you." said Harry, who took the luggages from Malfoy and lead Isabella away.

" Yeah, let scar-boy hang around you. But don't be surprised if a madman pops out of nowhere and kills him." Draco yelled at them.

" At least my dad's not working for the madman!" Harry shouted back.

" No, he's DEAD!" Draco cried.

At that moment, their raging eyes met and at the same time, they ran towards each other and swung their fists.

Hermione was crying and Ron was trying to join the fight and help Harry, but thought otherwise as Crabbe and Goyle arrived at the scene, Isabelle, however, reacted quickly and shouted " Petrificus Totalus", putting both Harry and Draco in a full body bind.

" Isabella! You're not supposed to use Magic! Especially in front of Muggles." scowled Hermione, while trying to dry her tears at the same time.

"Oh, so I should just let them kill each other to start the year off , right?" Isabella retorted. "Look, relax, the muggles are just going to think its two bad-tempered teenagers fighting and then stopping because they cooled off a bit"

So Isabella ended up carrying not only her luggage, but hers, Draco's and Harry's while Ron and Crabbe dragged the two annoyed looking boys to platform nine and three quarters.

And so marks the beginning of fifth year at Hogwarts.

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Disclaimer: I own nothing but Isabelle. All the other characters belong to J K Rowling.