AN/ Hello everyone who happens to read this fanfic! Here's my first Harry Potter story, which I did write on my friend's account then transfered it here. Please give this one a chance, and thumbs up for a Nirvana song for a title.
"Happy New Year, Harry."
Blimey she was pretty. With her sleek black hair cascading down her back, her lips puckered, pink and shiny, her long eyelashes hung gently over her dark brown, almost black eyes that gazed into Harry's so sweetly.
Cho Chang. What a pretty name.
"Harry?" Matching loud voices shook him. "Are you daydreaming about girrrls, Harry?"
Harry blinked out of his fantasy to face two freckled faces with identical smirks. Typical Fred and George.
"Was not," Harry protested, yet couldn't help smiling.
"Oh Cho, you are so lovely," Fred mocked in a high voice, dramatically throwing his hands on his chest, to symbolize that he was in love. Harry could slowly feel his cheeks start to burn with embarrassment.
"It's such a shame I couldn't go to the ball with you last year!" Cried George in the same tone. Foolishly, the two began to dance with each other. After Mr. Weasley's attack, he was spending the New Year's with the Weasley clan. It's not like he didn't want to be, he loved the Weasley's like they were his own family, it was how he got there was what was bothering him. The dream. The snake. Harry shuddered at the memory. And even worse, he was clueless about what happened. Did he bite Mr Weasley, being the snake? Or was it Voldemort all along?
Noticing that Fred and George were awaiting a response, Harry irritatedly muttered "Shut up," then paused to let a thought sink in. "Hang on, how'd you know about that?"
"Naturally, Hermione let Ginny know you fancied Cho," Explained George.
"And?"
"Who let it slip to Mum in front of us," Continued Fred.
Harry made a face. "Since when have you been discussing my social life?"
Both twins chuckled. "Mum asked Ginny if she still fancied you, you see," Fred started. "She obviously said no, now that she's snogging Michael Corner."
"Fred! George! What on earth is THIS?" Mrs Weasley's voice boomed from the kitchen. Immediately, Fred and George erupted into laughter.
"What did you do?" Harry asked curiously. He knew if it was the twins, it definitely wasn't something pleasant.
"We 'accidently' brought a Blast-Ended-Screwt home," George said, smirking.
"How in the name of Merlin did you get one of those things?" Harry said, appalled by the fact of touching one of those creatures.
"That'll be Georgie and my little secret, there, Harry," Fred whispered.
"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY! I AM WAITING!" Molly bellowed.
"Coming, Mum!" They hollered in synchronization before disapparrating out of sight and leaving Harry to ponder about girl's minds. Was he supposed to ask Cho out after kissing her? Why did she have to cry, then and there? Why did she feel the need to talk about Cedric in front of him? He didn't understand, there was just so many questions he couldn't possibly understand, Why are women so complex? was definitely the grandest of them all.
"Girls," Harry muttered under his breath, running his hands through his untameable hair.
"Love troubles, Harry?" Sirius's voice coming from the door gave Harry a jolt. Noticing he had startled him, Sirius said, "Sorry, is this a bad time?"
"N- no, no," Harry stuttered, sitting up straight, "It's not a bad time at all."
Sirius cocked an eyebrow. "I accidentally overheard Fred, George and you chatting."
Harry smiled. This was good, maybe Sirius could give him some advice. Advice from an actual male, not just Hermione trying to explain girl's feelings, which seemed to not really be advice to him at all.
As if reading his mind Sirius said, "Girl troubles, eh? I've had quite a few of those back in the day." He airily grinned to himself, as if remembering a long lost memory.
"Really?" Harry asked, surprised. He figured Sirius would've had girlfriends back in the day, but he seemed more of the type to choose adventure over love life.
Sirius nodded, still grinning and took a seat on the bed across from Harry.
"I think I was about your age when I had my first girlfriend," He paused, then he made an odd face of concentration, raising his finger to his chin. "No, I was a year younger. In my fourth year. In that year, well, I had a lot of girlfriends. But there was one, one who really stood out. She was the one."
"It was the September of 1974, the air was cooling, the leaves began to transform from chilly greens to fiery reds, yellows and oranges. It was a beautiful day, the sun was perched high in the sky; there were very few clouds to be seen. It was warm, but not uncomfortably, with a nice breeze. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the glorious climate, on the streets of London muggles happily loaded into their cars to go to work and school. Children, waiting for buses, joyfully ran about.
There was one boy, who didn't seem to enjoy it. That boy was me.
I was fourteen, and had a horrible summer that year. That year was the the year that I really came to despise my family. My dear old Mum and Dad had invited my cousins to stay over for nearly the whole summer while their parents went on a vacation to Morocco. Can you imagine a summer stuck with Bellatrix and Narcissa? Terrible, just terrible. I spent most of my time with Andromeda who I thought was decent enough. Otherwise I spent it alone in my bedroom, listening to muggle records I had found in the trash. Led Zeppelin, I think it was. Fascinating, muggle music. Better then Wizards, I thought. Either that or writing to James, Remus or... Peter.
School was starting, and it was time for me to go back to Hogwarts. To see James and Remus again, to be away from home. I was overjoyed about that, but I resented my family enough to be in a bad mood. However, by the time we reached Kings Cross station excitement and happiness took me.
'Goodbye, Regulus, dear,' My mum called out in her awful strained, squealy voice. She hated being in the presence of Muggles, she was only there to see Regulus off.
Brandishing his new Slytherin robes Regulus turned to her, smiling slyly, saying, 'Goodbye Mum, see you at Christmas.'
I couldn't bear to hear the rest. Right as Regulus finished speaking I barreled my trolley through the wall between platform nine and ten.
And there it was. Red, black, gold and beaming with life. The Hogwarts Express. I was on the road to home already. I quickly pushed my trolley to the luggage compartments, where a grim wizard with graying blond hair and a beard took care of it for me. Upon turning to walk to the passenger entrance, which was set to leave in five minutes I heard a loud voice coming from behind me:
"Where the hell is Sirius at, Lupin? He should be here by now."
A quieter, calmer voice that belonged to Remus Lupin responded with, "Right behind you, James."
I spun around to see the grinning faces of my two best friends. James was just the same as I remembered, a mess of black hair, bright hazel eyes and circular glasses that rested on his nose. The only differences was he was a few inches taller and his voice had deepened a little. Remus, looked different. His light brown hair had been longer then the last I saw him and he appeared to be less groomed. There were various scars sprinkled across his face that weren't there two months ago. Diagonally across his nose was a large, was a recent looking gash.
'James, Remus!' I yelled joyfully, and James nearly suffocated me in a bear hug.
'Long time no see, Sirius,' Remus, said grinning.
'Yep,' I concluded.
'How was your summer with your dark magic perpetrator family? Asked James, with a grin to match Remus's.
'Wonderful,' I responded, sarcastically.
James looked genuine when he said, 'Sorry mate, I really am. I would have killed myself if I had to be around Bellatrix Black that long. She's such a-' He stopped, noticing a few first years passing by.
'Don't worry about it, it's not your problem,' I said. Seeing both James and Remus's sorry faces I immediately changed the subject. 'How'd you get that?' I asked Remus, gesturing to the cut across his nose.
His cheeks began to glow red as he stammered, 'I- I- I fl- flew my broom in- into a tree.'
As accurate as the tale could be, it didn't sound very convincing.
'Hang on,' James started, then I realized the point he was getting to.
'You don't have a broom,' I finished, pointedly.
His cheeks burned even more. 'It was my cousins broom. My cousin Donovan's broom,' He said nervously, then added, 'The train's about to leave, why don't we get seats before it's too late?'
Both James and I didn't say anything else, but exchanged quick but subtle glances. 'Yeah, let's get on the train,' I said and Remus lead the way on to the train.
We had roamed the hallways for about five minutes before finding an empty compartment. While Remus was opening the door the compartment, quite a racket was come up from the hall. It was Lily Evans who seemed to be making the most noise, along with her best friend, as so I thought, Mary Macdonald. The appeared to be arguing about something. Then I saw what it probably was about. Standing beside Lily was none other then Severus Snape. Snivellus.
'This is the last time, Lily!' Mary was shouting. 'I've put up with you dragging him around with us for the past three years and I won't have it anymore!'
'Well maybe you should have learned to like it by now!' Lily fumed.
'No matter how many times I tell you, you don't get that I can't stand Snivel-'
'Don't start talking like one of those arrogant pigs!' Lily yelled angrily, her face as bright red as her hair.
Mary stopped. Her cheeks grew bright red and she gave a definite look of distaste towards Lily and Snape. 'I guess if I'm an arrogant pig then, I'm no good for you,' She said, then spun around and headed towards our compartment.
'Mary, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way!' Lily called, apologetically, then whispered to herself, 'Oh, this is all my fault. Look what I've done.'
I could hear Snape saying back to her, 'It's really Macdonald's fault. She escalated it.' I shot Snape a dirty look.
Next thing I know Mary is right next to me. 'Can I sit with you three?' She asked. I'd never really had a close look at her like that. I'd never really talked to her much. It was mostly 'Hello's' and 'How are you?' in the common room and corridors. I remembered teasing her in second year about her freckles and how Lily jinxed my mouth into a zipper that was zipped up. And last year she 'accidently' put a firework in my cauldron for potions.
But now, I really got to look at her and realized she was much prettier then I'd thought she was. I'd always remembered her as a bit of a plain-jane to be honest. Not too pretty but certainly not ugly. This year her hair was been bleached blond not that awful yellow color he had seen before, but an even, natural looking color. Dark brown roots were coming through her scalp. Light curls hung behind her ears. Her eyes were dark blue, like the color of the sky around dinner time. Thick eyelashes clung to them.
Then I realized that she was staring at me, waiting for an answer. 'Be our guest,' I said, gesturing to the compartment. She briskly went in, followed by Remus, James and I. Just as I was closing the door, Peter scampered over. His cheeks were red and he was breathing hard.
'Sorry, my mum had trouble working the muggle car we used. Thank god I didn't miss it,' He gasped, getting in.
'Right-O,' I muttered, and took a seat next to James. Mary was perched next to Remus, where Peter, who looked puzzled to why there was a girl sitting with us, took a seat on the other side of Remus.
Everyone seemed to be settling in; Remus had taken a book out and was pouring through it, James had taken his wand out and was lazily waving it around, causing the curtains on the windows to change color, Peter was fiddling with his shoelace and Mary had leaned back with a grim look on her face.
'So,' James started, running a hand through his hair. 'What happened about Lily and Snivellus?'
Mary shot him a murderous glance. 'You keep your trap shut, Potter. It's none of your business.'
'The answer I expected,' James said, sighing. I could feel a smile creeping up my lips and could see that Remus was grinning, even with his nose in his book.
'Wipe that smirk off your face, Lupin,' She said, harshly. In a more gentle tone, but still just as demanding, she added, 'You too, Black.'
She grinned at me and I didn't know if it were me imagining things, but I thought I saw a wink. No one else seemed to notice. James was now examining his wand, Remus was still in his book. I doubted Peter would notice, he understood social interactions as much as a blind baby chimp on Firewhisky would understand Ancient Runes.
'Are you still playing chaser this year, James?' She asked on a lighter note. James grinned. 'Of course I am. Where would Johnathan Wood find a better chaser then me?'
She shrugged, and James asked her, 'The team's looking for another chaser because Filemina Arbor graduated and there's a spot left. Bobby McKinnon was pretty good last tryout, it's just that Wembley Crawford was better. Hopefully he'll try out again this year.'
'Maybe,' She said, smirking. 'I heard that Filemina's sister, Astrella is trying out. If she's as good as her I don't think Bobby has a chance.'
'He just need to brush up on your aim,' James suggested and rumpled his hair.
'You just need to stop critiquing others when your in no position to,' She said hotly. Noticing James and I's odd look toward her that she said, 'I happen to date him.'
'No wonder you get along with Lily,' James murmured in awe at her hot-headedness. Everyone knew that Mary certainly was not quiet but I'd never really expected her to be a hothead.
Trying to change the subject, I dug into Remus's schoolbag that was lying astray on the floor and pulled out a deck of cards. 'Exploding snap anyone?'
About ten minutes later, I had won a round of exploding snap. James was angrily muttering under his breath about unsportmanship, Mary was sucking on her burned index finger, Remus was putting the cards back into his bag and Peter was making sure that I knew he was impressed by me. Typical. After that, we chatted a bit about classes, teachers, pranks we'd like to play, quidditch, girls (In which Mary told us who liked who within girls she was friends with then rolled her eyes when we began dating strategies) and schoolmates who we came to dislike.
'Basically all Slytherins, they're all the same,' James stated.
'Not really,' Remus said casually. 'I've met some nice Slytherins before.'
'Yeah, nice when their not calling muggle-borns Mudbloods,' I said. Mary flinched when I said Mudbloods. I guess she was muggle-born, I had never asked before.
'Isn't your brother in Slytherin?' Mary asked me suddenly.
'Yeah, so is the rest of my family,' I said, gloomily.
'Oh, it's just that he looks alot like you,' She said, pointedly.
I frowned. 'That's a compliment,' I said in obvious sarcastic voice.
'I'd take it as a compliment,' she said, winking. 'Your much more handsome.'"
"Dinner's ready, everyone!" Molly shouted from the kitchen. "Fred, George, I told you to get that awful thing far away from here! No, don't bring it near me!"
"I guess I'll have to finish the rest of the story after dinner," Sirius said, smiling. "Enjoying it so far?"
Harry nodded, smiling. He seemed so wrapped up in the tale that he failed to notice that there was a gnawing feeling in his growling stomach. He enjoying it too much, just to hear about his Mum and Dad, the things they did, brought a strange feeling of happiness to him. To have proof that they existed, that they were real people, real kids like him gave him a new kind of hope inside of him. He had heard stories about them before, but not like this one. This one was different.
With his head painting pictures of his parents and Sirius's teenage faces, he climbed down the stairs of gloomy Grimmauld place to the kitchen, where a hearty meal awaited him.
Well? Did you like it? Please review, they make me happy! :D