DISCLAIMER: The Harry Potter world belongs to J.K. Rowling; therefore I do not own anything save for Denise.

HARRY POTTER AND THE MATTERS OF THE HEART

- CHAPTER ONE -

Another Girl

All was well in the Dursley residence of number four, Privet Drive. As the hallway clock struck two, everything was as it was according to habit. Vernon and Petunia Dursley were to be found sound asleep in the comfort of their own bed as usual, as their son Dudley did the same. Meanwhile, the droopy-eyed teenager that lay protected under his bed covers also stuck to his normal routine.

As well as being the only night owl in the household, sixteen-year-old Harry Potter was also the only wizard. Unfortunately for Harry, the Dursleys were not too fond of the idea. The very prim and proper, non-wizarding family always treated Harry like they would any other witch or wizard, and quite frankly, this means that he was not treated too well. However, their disfavour towards Harry was not surprising, as Petunia Dursley never took to liking the fact that her own sister, Lily, was the only witch in her family. It didn't help that after Lily was killed by a dark wizard, Petunia was left to raise her only son, who the entire world of wizardry grew to know as Harry Potter: the Boy Who Lived.

Though things slowly started to change after Harry began schooling at Hogwarts. For one thing, he was finally able to transfer from his hall closet bedroom, to the spare room that belonged to Dudley's old, broken, toys and possessions. The Dursleys also learned to fear Harry, or at least any of his wizard friends, right after precious little "Icky Diddykins" sprouted a pig's tail. It also helped that many of Harry's friends, including a former dark wizard catcher with a "mad eye" have made it very clear that serious there would be serious consequences if any harm comes to him.

As Harry lay in his bed, he tried to keep his eyes open while staring blankly at the passage he was to read and answer questions on for homework. He shifted his eyes over to a piece of parchment, which was blank, save for an inkblot where he had absent-mindedly rested they tip of his quill. 'I'm never going to get this done,' Harry thought, and decided that a quick nap would do no harm. So after setting down his books and quill, Harry threw his head back onto his pillow and relaxed his eyes, letting sleep overcome him.

In his dreams, Harry re-visited his experience at the Quidditch World Cup two years back. Accompanied by his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, the three walked back to their campsite carrying a kettle and two saucepans filled with water. They greeted some people along the way, including fellow Gryffindor Seamus Finnigan, and former quidditch captain Oliver Wood. They weren't far from where they set up camp when Harry spotted a girl with a head of familiar long, black, hair. Even though her back was to him Harry immediately recognised the girl, whose name was Cho Chang.

When turned around, she saw Harry standing there and flashed a very pretty smile and waved. Harry responded to this by attempting to wave back, but instead he clumsily spilled large amounts of water down his front. Ron noticed this and started to laugh, but his laughs were hastily turned into coughs so as not to make his best friend more embarrassed than he already was. Though Harry tried to appear annoyed at Ron laughing at him in the first place, he couldn't help but smile because he had just made eye contact with the most beautiful girl at the World Cup.

They were getting closer and closer to the two tents they had poorly set up, when Harry saw a young Asian teenager with black hair flowing down her back. He started to walk towards her, but then remembered that his friends were with him. He quickly glanced back at them to see them – well, Hermione – chatting animatedly with a very cute boy. Poor Ron was standing beside her, looking around uncomfortably while trying to pull Hermione away, but the boy, whose name was Mark, seemed very into their conversation. It didn't take a crystal ball for Harry to see that Ron was jealous.

Then Harry heard the boy mutter something rather insulting to Ron about the Weasley family, to which Ron responded with a very loudly, cursing at him. Laughing lightly to himself, he knew this could go on for a while.

As he approached her, he was determined not to make a fool of himself in front of Cho again. He was only a few feet away from her when she turned around. Harry stopped in his tracks and his mouth hung open. As the girl was turning towards him, her dark hair – similar to Cho's – seemed to trail behind her in slow motion, like it would in a shampoo commercial on television. This girl was beautiful. But this girl wasn't Cho.

Harry continued to absentmindedly gaze at her in awe, noticing the pretty features she had besides her shiny hair. She had un-glossed lips, which seemed to be a perfect match to those of the girl's in the muggle fairy tale, Snow White. Her hair framed an oval face, while her olive skin seemed to be without any imperfections. But it was her eyes that seemed to make her most attractive. They shared the same eye colour – a vibrant shade of green – but unlike him, she had a twinkle in her eye, as if she knew something that no one else knew.

He was still staring at her eyes when he heard the sharp, loud, barking of a dog. He immediately snapped back to reality to that realise his mouth was still hanging open, and the dog was standing on its hind legs, with its front paws on Harry's chest. He leaned back slightly and pulled away from the golden retriever who was trying to lick his face. He didn't really know what to do next on the account that he'd never had dog before, much less made contact with one that wasn't really his godfather.

"Um, hi?" Harry spoke to the dog, which continued to attempt to lick Harry's face.

"Down, boy, down!" said an unfamiliar voice. The dog actually responded to this one, and backed away from Harry and ran back into the arms of his owner, the girl he was looking at. "Good puppy, good puppy," she said, calming the dog down.

Harry was still a little shocked from what just happened, but then he remembered that he needed to get back to the campsite. Just as he was about to head back to the ongoing argument between Ron and Mark, the girl spoke again.

"Sorry about that, he doesn't usually go right up to strangers." And for the first time, their eyes met. "I guess he likes you."

"Um," Harry said quietly. He couldn't think of anything to say, or even remember his own name. "That's…okay?" The girl laughed and Harry smiled.

"So I'm guessing by that look you've got on your face, you've never met a dog before."

"Well, actually I have," Harry blurted out, but then remembered that no one else besides members of the Order of the Phoenix, the Weasleys, and Hermione really knew that his godfather, Sirius Black, was an Animagus. "Well, no, not really." The girl laughed again.

"You wanna come pet him?"

"Sure." Harry set down the saucepan he was holding and slowly walked over to where the girl was kneeling.

"Oh, before I forget, my name's Denise," said the girl. 'Denise, what a pretty name,' Harry thought.

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter."

"Wow. So we finally meet," Denise replied. She continued to stare into his eyes, as if the fact that Harry was famous had no impact on her whatsoever. Harry seemed somewhat confused, for he was waiting for Denise to do the expected look upward to his forehead, to check out his scar. But instead she still looked him straight in the eye.

"Uh, yeah," Harry said without thinking. He couldn't help but note that she still didn't look at his scar. He decided to start a conversation to see if she would finally briefly shift her gaze to his scar.

"You have really nice eyes."

"You do too," said Harry, surprised she still hadn't noticed the scar.

"Oh," Denise spoke really quietly. She looked down, embarrassed at his compliment. "Thanks," she whispered.

'She must really not want to look at my scar,' Harry thought to himself. 'Or maybe she's just forgotten.' Harry tried to shake away the thoughts, in fear of being too arrogant. Denise went on to say a few things, while Harry continued to reply, unaware of anything he was saying back to her. It remained silent for a moment, and Harry continued to pet the ten-month-old dog – whom Denise had named Cheerio, after the cereal. A few minutes seemed to pass by before Harry looked up Denise was looking at him.

Denise realised that Harry had caught her, and shyly replied,

"I'm sorry, it's just that…" she stopped mid-sentence. "Never mind," she said, looking away.

"No, no, what?" said Harry, curious to hear what she had to say. Denise looked like she was having another conversation in her head, deciding whether or not she should tell him. She glanced up at him and began to speak.

"I, um…" she paused. "Well, you see…" Denise never got to finish her sentence; the were interrupted by loud clashing of pots and pans, and a scream coming from a girl. A girl Harry recognised to be his friend, Hermione Granger.

"Listen, I'm really sorry, but see that thing with red hair lying in that mess?" Harry said, turning his head in the direction where Ron lay in a pile of what looked to be tent material and a bunch of pots and pans. "Well, that's my best friend, Ron, and I have to go help him."

Harry got up and picked up the saucepan full of water, and stole one last glance back at Denise. He smiled and said softly, "It was nice meeting you."

Harry reluctantly left an open-mouthed Denise sitting in the grass, and arrived at the fight scene which was now surrounded by some of teenagers. He pushed a couple of people out of the way to get the middle. Once he got there, he was almost knocked over by something much larger than him being thrown into the crowd of people. He frantically searched the group of people for his best friend, when he heard Hermione screaming again.

"Stop it! Stop it!" She yelled. Harry grabbed Hermione, and pulled her out of the way just in time to avoid her getting hit by a shoe. Harry looked in the direction the shoe was being thrown at, and found himself looking at none other that Ron Weasley narrowly being missed by a shoe.

"Ron!" Harry yelled. "Let's go!"

"Yeah, be there in a second!" Ron replied while throwing one of the pans he had fallen on at Mark, who had just stood up. It hit him in the stomach, and he groaned in pain. His friends rushed to his side to support him.

"Alright, I'm ready!" Ron yelled over all the commotion. He quickly picked up his pot and made for his site, being closely followed by Harry and a very worried Hermione.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Hermione said anxiously.

"The nasty bugger can look after himself, alright?" said Ron almost immediately, speaking very quickly. "Now stop thinking about him!"

Even though Ron's back was facing them, Harry and Hermione could tell that he was furious by his beet-red ears and neck. Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but a nudge from Harry made her shut it before she said anything that would aggravate Ron even more.

They were now only a few steps away from where Mr. Weasley was sitting when Harry's scar started to burn. Groaning in pain, Harry set down the water and started rubbing his head in the hopes of making it hurt less. He looked up to his friends for help, but they just kept on walking. He helplessly called out their names, but they paid no attention. He yelled to a random passer-by and asked him for help, but the stranger took no notice of Harry. It was almost as if he had become non-existent.

'No, this can't be happening,' Harry thought to himself. He stood up quickly and reached for the water. He had gone not two steps when he tripped over a rock and fell, spilling water all over someone. Strangely, the water seemed to do no damage to the person, who barely noticed his fall. Puzzled, Harry stood up and brushed himself off, when he noticed someone was about to bump into him. He froze and squeezed his eyes shut, expecting some form of pain when the woman bumped into him, but instead he felt nothing. He figured that she had just slipped around him, but when he opened his eyes he saw the woman passing through him.

Harry started to panic and ran towards Ron and tried to grab his shoulder, but his hand went right through it.

"Ron?" he said, trying to get his best friend's attention. He then tried to catch up to Hermione and grab her by the arm like he did earlier, but all he grabbed was air. What was going on?

Harry suddenly awoke, and sat up in his bed, breathing heavily. Looking around, he found himself in his room again, books and bedsheets everywhere. A very unusual thing to feel while his scar was hurting. He then remembered his dream, and Cho. This wasn't the first time he'd awoken after dreaming about Cho. But wait, there was also something else – someone else in that dream. For the first time, he had dreamt about another girl.

As Harry sat up in his bed, he felt rather peculiar, and became increasingly aware that his scar was stinging like mad. Normally Harry would have reacted negatively to the pain, yet he felt somewhat happy.

Meanwhile, somewhere off in the distance, a very menacing laugh was to be heard over the crackling of a warm fire.

– END CHAPTER ONE –

mizzLexi

R&R