Hi! I'm back, with Fern and another year at Hogwarts! Thank you for reviewing on the last chapter, Lauren Kassidy, again, the ONLY person who did so.

Disclaimer: Do I look like J.K Rowling to you? Yes, I am in love with one of the Marauders, but they still belong to her. I own Fern.

Also, yes, I used to crush on Draco, but I moved on to...guess which Marauder!

Fern Jordan was enjoying her summer much more than the previous summer. The young witch still couldn't wait to go back to Hogwarts, her school, but there were some improvements. For one thing, she was able to keep up a correspondence with all three of her closest school friends. She was bored, though, because she was alone. All her home friends were on holiday for half the summer, and she didn't get a chance to see her school friends. Hermione Granger was in France with her parents. Ron Weasley's family had won money in something that Fern didn't know about, and they all went to Egypt, keeping some back so Ron could get a new wand, since last year's one had snapped and mostly affected the caster rather than what it was supposed to affect. But Harry Potter, Fern's other best friend, was able to receive her letters. He lived with his aunt and uncle during the summer, who hated magic, and wouldn't let him write, but the year before, his letters had been intercepted.

Fern also called him frequently, but knew after her last experiences not to mention that she was Harry's friend from school. Ron had once called Harry at the beginning of the summer, Fern had discovered. Being from a pureblooded wizard family, he'd never used a telephone before, and he'd yelled everything. Apparently, Harry's uncle had yelled through the phone at Ron to never call again and stay away from his family.

However, Fern had been getting phone calls from another kid at her school. She'd met Draco Malfoy on her first day, and most of the time, she thoroughly wished she hadn't. Sure, he was fun to annoy, but mostly, she wanted to hex him stupid. While Fern and her friends were all in Gryffindor house, he was in Slytherin, their rival house. He and Harry even played the same position on their house Quidditch teams. Draco was also hugely discriminatory. He was all about blood status in magic, being pureblooded himself, and had no qualms about using the worst word for muggleborns (people with non-magical parents) – 'mudblood'. He first called Hermione that, and although Fern had the same blood status, he'd never called her that. She'd slapped him for the honour of her friend, anyway.

But anyway, he seemed to have learned how to use a telephone, and he called Fern up frequently. One time he called, Fern was hanging out with her friends outside, and they'd all wanted to tell Draco off for what he'd been doing to Fern. Since first year, he'd asked her out, and she'd only agreed because he blackmailed her with information that would get her in trouble with her least favourite professor. The next year, he reminded her about how much the Quartet of friends broke rules, and how much trouble he could get her into. Still, he got quite annoyed when Fern's friends chewed him out.

Hermione was back from France long enough to stay with Fern for a few days. Fern introduced her to her home friends, and they discussed a whole bunch of things. They had a lot of fun, although once Hermione found out Fern hadn't finished her summer homework, she insisted on Fern doing it before they did anything fun together. She did help, but then out of the whole Quartet, Hermione was the brainiac of the group, helping Fern and the boys with their homework, and actually paying attention to Professor Binns during History of Magic, the most boring class at Hogwarts. In fact, Hermione was taking every single elective subject, while Fern, Harry and Ron were all taking Divination and Care Of Magical Creatures, and Fern was also taking Muggle Studies (because she thought it would be a cheat , since she already knew her Muggle stuff, having been one for ten years). Hermione had Arithmancy and Ancient Runes to take care of, too.

The Hogwarts letter for the year came with a permission slip to go and visit Hogsmeade, a town nearby Hogwarts. Fern was excited, because although she loved the school grounds, it would be fun to explore a bit.

The day before the start of term, Ron, Hermione and Fern arranged to meet in Diagon Alley and get their school stuff together. Ron had already told the group that Harry was staying at the Leaky Cauldron after an incident concerning his uncle's sister. The whole Weasley family was also going to be staying there, and so the two girls were also given permission. Then on the day, everyone could get to the train station together. That meant not just the Quartet, but also Ron's older brothers – Percy, who was a seventh year and Head Boy, and the Weasley twins (Fred and George) who were both fifth years and notorious pranksters – and Ron's younger sister, Ginny, who was a second year and had a huge crush on Harry.

The three other kids were at the ice-cream parlour when they finally spotted Harry and called him over.

"Finally!" exclaimed Ron. "We went to the Leaky Cauldron, but they said you'd left, and then we went to Flourish and Blotts, and Madam Malkin's, and-"

"I got all my school stuff last week." Harry explained. "How did you know I was at the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Dad." Ron answered. Ron's father worked at the Ministry of Magic, and Harry turning his uncle's sister into a human balloon would have caught their attention.

"Did you really blow up your aunt, Harry?" Hermione asked, very seriously. All three of her friends recognized her lecturing tone.

"I didn't mean to." Harry said as Ron and Fern started laughing. "I just lost control."

Hermione glared at the other two. "It's not funny."

After some discussion, the group headed off to the Magical Menagerie. Hermione's fourteenth birthday was near, and her parents had given her some money to buy her birthday present early. She wanted to buy a pet owl, same as Fern and Harry. Ron only had his rat, Scabbers, but since he was more out-of-it than usual, he brought him in to see if there was anything that would help him.

Hermione ended up buying a ginger cat called Crookshanks. It had tried to attack the group and Scabbers had been terrified of it, of course, but Hermione didn't seem to care. She adored it.

"He'd been in there for ages." she told the boys and Fern. "No one wanted him."

"I wonder why." muttered Ron. Then they all walked back to the Leaky Cauldron together.

First chapter done. Please review!