We sat at the table, laughing harder than ever before.

"What do you mean, she fancied you?" George questioned to Ron.

"She fancied me! Did you see the way she was staring while I danced with Padma at the ball last year?" Ron demanded.

"Katie Bell does not fancy you, Ronald! Pull your head down from the clouds!" Hermione exclaimed shaking her head.

"If I didn't know any better, darling Hermione, I'd say you were jealous," I said with a smirk.

"I am no such thing."

The six of us sat in silence, eating our food slowly.

"Oh I just love an awkward meal, don't you, George?"

"Almost as much as Ron loves Katie!" he replied back with a smirk. Harry and I laughed, nearly spitting out our food. We were at The Burrow for the last week of summer. Harry, I, and Hermione all came over here a few days ago.

5 Years Ago

I sat down on a bench, waiting for the train that's supposed to pick me up. It was a lonely sight, a clueless first year sitting on a bench with no friends. I only associated myself with muggles, anyways.

The only wizard I knew my age was Malfoy. We went to the same school, Lindy Wayland Middle. He hardly even came to school. The only reason he ever showed up was to not get the government suspicious. "Muggle schools are for mudbloods," in his own words. But of course, I've only heard this come out of his mouth. My parents were against that sort of thing. My parents were what Malfoy would've called 'blood traitors' if he knew.

They were smart enough to keep that information to themselves so their reputation wouldn't shatter. They didn't want to get involved with the drama of blood status.

Anyway. Draco always spoke to me. I guess it was because I was the only other pureblood at that school. He wouldn't hardly say a word to anyone else. Not even the teachers.
They all thought he was insane.

It was true though. Muggle schools stunk compared to what my parents told me about Hogwarts and Beauxbatons. My mother went to the French school while my dad went to Hogwarts. They told me about the potions classes and the spells we could learn.

At muggle school you learned useless junk like math and science. Science wasn't real to wizards; it wasn't necessarily a concept to us... This "energy can't be created nor destroyed," was an absolute fib when it came to the wizarding world.

I saw someone sit beside me. She had brown hair and brown eyes. Her hair was slightly frizzy, but it had the potential to be much prettier than she made it.

"I'm Hermione. I noticed you were sitting here alone. You looked lonely, so I thought you might want someone to speak to," she said kindly while she held her hand in front of me.

"Annabelle." I smiled back and moved over a bit, so she could sit beside me.

We talked for at least 15 minutes from how nervous we were to our favorite sports teams.

It was nice to make a friend the first five minutes of being left on my own. I looked at the bench about 10 feet away from us. There sat a boy with bright red hair and another with black hair. They both sat adjacent to each other, shook hands, and started talking. The guy with the black hair had a scar on his forehead, a quite noticeable one at that...

Nearly twenty minutes into Hermione and my conversation, the Hogwarts Express arrived. While everyone crowded up to the front pushing their way in to try to get in first, Hermione and I decided to wait a few minutes so we wouldn't get separated.

As soon as we were at the door to the train, she realized she'd left her notebook at the bench. She quickly ran back to go get it. As I rushed through the insane crowd of people to get near her, I clashed heads with someone and I nearly fell backwards.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" the person asked taking my hand to keep me balanced. It was the one I noticed before with the scar.

"I'm fine. I'm so sorry. I was just trying to find my friend- she seemed to have gone off..." I said with a giggle in my voice.

"Don't worry about it. My name's Harry," he held his hand out for me to shake.

"I'm Annabelle. It's nice to meet you," I said shaking his hand. Then Hermione came.

"Oh, there you are! I thought you'd vanished!" she exclaimed. Harry looked at Hermione with a puzzled look on his face.

"Oh. This is Hermione. Hermione, this is Harry." I said, smiling. I just introduced two people to each other that I'd only just met less than an hour ago..

They both looked uncomfortable and awkward. Luckily, the Hogwarts Express' horn made it clear to voice exactly what I needed.

"It was nice to meet you, maybe I'll see you around school sometime." I said smiling. It was nice to call Hogwarts 'school' now. It had a nice feel on my lips.

"Yeah, definitely." We all boarded the train and walked to separate compartments.

"Harry. Wake up, it's 7:10," I said. I soon became frustrated with his laziness and pushed him on his back.

"No, I need more sleep- go wake Hermione or- something," he rolled back on his side and placed a pillow on his head.

Harry and I were the best of friends. I've never been closer to anyone like I am with him.

Not even Hermione.

"You've got to pack," I mumbled glaring at his messy room. "Mr. Weasley needs you to be ready by 7:30 to go to the hearing," I said sighing, hoping that the reminder of the hearing would hurry him up.

I heard a surprised gasp and saw him literally jump from the bed. He put on a shirt.
"You want to help me pack, Belle?" he asked, fumbling for his glasses. That was the name he'd made for me after these five years: Belle. I didn't like it at all. It reminded me of how pathetic my love life was compared to that cliché fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast. I'd rather be called Annie or Anne, or just plain old Annabelle.

"I will, if you stop calling me that ridiculous name," I said giggling. I pulled out his suitcase from his closet and opened it up.

"I owe you one, Annabelle." He walked into the restroom and attempted at using a comb. He dragged it through the sides of his head but not at all at the back. It gave him that 'Harry' look he wore so well.

I felt a little bad that he had to do this all in 10 minutes. I've never gotten ready, packed my bags and eaten breakfast in less than 60 minutes. I think it might be legitimately impossible to do it in just ten...

He put on a nice red and gold plaid shirt and buttoned it up.
I was surprised to watch him start packing the muggle way, the simple fold-each-garment-then-put-it-in-the-bag-way.

"Harry, don't you understand that you're just about the most powerful teenage wizard out there?" I asked. His expression made me laugh while I cast a charm on his clothes, which made them pack themselves.

"You're brilliant, Annabelle," he said, quickly skipping down the stairs. I went ahead and put Hedwig back in her cage and fixed up Harry's room a bit. It was a mess.

Banana peels on the nightstand, four day old butterbeers on his dresser, and dirty socks under his bed. As soon as I cleaned up small things like those, I decided to make his bed. As soon as I propped up his pillows, I saw a few papers under one. I was putting them in his bag, but then I saw my name on one of them. It looked like a letter. It was in letter format, and was on a sheet of parchment.

Right as I was about to read it, I heard someone running up the stairs. I immediately hid them back under the pillow. I pulled up the comforter above the pillows, so it wouldn't look like I've been reading what wasn't mine. I hate when people do that. Those people that invite themselves over to your house and find your things and read them while your back is turned. It annoys the living everything out of me, it does.

But I can understand if they read it because their name was all over it… I mean, it's obviously their business if it's speaking of them...

Anyway, it was Harry that was running up the stairs.

"Annabelle, would you mind fixing me some breakfast, I really can't cook." I felt his eyes and critical voice nudging me away from the bed. "Yeah, sure. What do you want?" I asked half-heartedly. I was insanely curious at this point..

"Fruit Loops," he said sitting on top of his pillow. He was definitely hiding something. We both knew there was no cooking involved in making cereal, but I just went along with it.
I wanted to know.
Really bad.

"Hey, Annabelle." Hermione greeted cheerily.

"Good Morning." I replied sighing.

"You alright?" she asked, with a stare at my face.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" I asked shrugging my shoulders, hoping she didn't ask any more questions.

She hesitated, which was very unlike Hermione Granger. She looked around then focused her eyes on what I was pouring into the bowl. "Frui-Fruit loops! You hate Fruit loops." She said in a lighter tone.

"I'm making this for Harry." I was wondering if she was hiding something the way Harry was. I looked back at her. Something was strange. "Hermione Jean Granger. What are you hiding from me?" I asked her, giggling. I had a hard time putting on an angry face.. I always ended up laughing or giggling.

"Nothing, really..." She smiled, and put her hand in front of me, exposing her right ring finger, which was capped with a gorgeous ring. It wasn't an engagement ring, of course, but it was beautiful.

"Is that from who I think it is?" I asked with a smirk.

"Yes!" she giggled and pulled me over to a table to talk to me about this.

I've never seen her or any other girl so excited about something like this, but I couldn't blame her, there's been some romantic tension between them for a while.

"That's sweet. I'm happy for you two. I know he's liked you for almost as long as you've liked him, so if I may say so myself, it's about time," I said with a smile.

Fred walked in. He gently took her hand, and kissed it.

My jaw must have dropped to the core of the earth.

Before I could say anything, or even close my mouth, I heard a laughing Harry come downstairs. I couldn't tell if he was laughing at my reaction, or if it was because of Hermione and Fred's new relationship. I just walked back to where I was making the Fruit Loops, and decided not to say anything. I was always taught, "if you have nothing good to say, you don't have anything to say."

So, I guess I didn't have anything to say, then.

"When did this happen?" Harry asked.

"Yesterday," Fred said in a smile.

"Here are your loops," I said as I handed the bowl to Harry.

"Thanks, Annabelle." He smiled and began to eat.

"Harry! We need to leave!" Mr. Weasley yelled from the front door.

Harry devoured the rest of the food and set the plate in the sink.

"Hey. Be safe." I sincerely stated.

"Don't worry about me," he said while he pulled his bags toward the door, "Good luck with the whole Hermione issue." I gave him a hug. I felt him kiss the top of my head.

"Be safe while I'm gone, alright?" he looked at me until I nodded. I waved to him and watched as he walked out the door.