Chapter ONE:
Harry's POV:
I was sitting at the Gryffindor table, waiting for the beginning of the year feast to begin. Dumbledor was giving a speech as he did every year.
"I am forced to remind all students that the Dark Forest and the Third Floor continue to be forbidden..."I lost track of the speech from there.
There were plenty of new Gryffindors, each looking timid and nervous, I didn't blame them though.
"Poor little first-years, don't know what to expect do they?" Ron blurted, apparently he was following my gaze down the table at the first years.
"Looks like one of the boats flipped over." I noted with indifference. "Look at them! At least three of them are soaked!" Ron scoffed.
"Well they probably deserve it, whiners the lot of them. It seems as though that with each year the first years are more stuck up then the last bunch!"
"Ron! You were probably just as nervous as they are when you first started!" Hermione jumped in, glaring at Ron, who merely looked at me and shrugged.
Smiling with amusement, my attention spread farther down the table. As usual, all the first years were huddled together at the edge of the table. Among all the first year students, I caught sight of a slightly older person, maybe a third or fourth year. She seemed to be trying to have a conversation with a particularly nervous first year girl. She must have been trying to get the young girl's mind off school.
"It's not that---- Some of the professors may be------ You'll really enjoy being in Gry------ Are you sure you're ok------" That was all I could hear.
From where I was sitting, I couldn't see much of what she looked like: Long, dark brown hair, pale face. That's really all I could see of her . . . Actually from this distance she was quite pretty.
"Who are you looking at?" My train of thoughts were interrupted by Ron who was craning his neck to see who it was.
"No one, it's nothing." I replied quickly before he could say anything more. Deciding I didn't want to be caught at an awkward moment again, I turned my attention to Dumbledore's speech once more.
"I would also like to announce that the staff and myself have decided to expand our field of study." I heard a few groans from each house. Surprisingly, Dumbledore smiled. "Now don't worry, it is completely hands-on. We have noticed so much talent within you in singing." The girls blushed, and the boys laughed. " So now you all have the chance to bring out that talent and show off to all of your friends, for this term we shall play the musical, 'Phantom of the Opera'!" The room went almost silent except for a few gasps. Ron turned to me and raised his eyebrows in confusion. I shrugged.
"For those of you wondering what 'Phantom of the Opera' or even what a musical is. A musical is a muggle form of entertainment where people act out a story, but they do so in singing and dancing. 'Phantom of the Opera' is a tragic love story which I'm sure all of you will enjoy. There will be a sheet with the date and time on the notice board in each house. The auditions though are in about two months if any one's interested."
"Hogwarts never performs a musical." Hermione stated curiously, I too was wondering about it. Was this the first stage production Hogwarts has ever done? Probably, and why were they doing one this year? For some odd reason, I didn't feel too comfortable with it, something just wasn't right. It was probably because it was so sudden, yeah, that was it.
The feast was great as always, Ron stuffed his face... As always. After the sorting ceremony had come to its end, I headed up to Gryffindor Tower alone, I lost Ron and Hermione in the crowd coming out of the Great Hall. But I knew I'd probably find them again in a few minutes. As I approached the first floor staircase, I began to think of the musical. 'Should I audition? No, don't be thick! I've never performed before! But it could fun I guess-' I didn't get the chance to finish my thoughts. I knocked into something, the impact making me stumble and fall to the ground.
"Oh my god, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I-I didn't see you!" I heard a soft, female voice cry out.
"S'okay," I mumbled as I recollected myself and sat up straight. I looked up to see who I walked into, something looked familiar about her. I couldn't remember though! I hated when this happened, and it always did at the worst time! It dawned on me though when I saw her house crest upon her robes. Gryffindor... She was the girl I saw talking to the first year in the Great Hall! She was really pretty, now that I was looking right at her, I could see her features clearly. She had wide, innocent looking blue eyes, that was what made her look younger I bet. She had dark brown, long, wavy hair that framed her face wonderfully. She was short as well, not much taller than 5 feet. But still, she was obviously at least fifteen, she was probably sixteen really. I supposed she noticed I was staring at her because she was blushing a bit... At least I think she was, I didn't get a good look, she started to run off just a moment later. I glanced after her, confused. Why was she leaving so suddenly?
"Wait!" I called absentmindedly after her, I didn't even know what I was going to say! But it was too late, for she turned around swiftly to face me once more. I don't know what happened in that split second that she turned back. She looked at me for a moment, her eyes widened to an extreme point.
"Again, I'm really really sorry, Harry. I'm such an idiot, I-I'm just... Never-mind, I should just go." She began running away even faster now. I raised one eyebrow in confusion, did I intimidate her or something? I got up and ran after her.
"No wait. It's okay! You don't have to-" Too late, she was already on the third floor, she really was running fast! I gave up, disappointed, she was really pretty, and she seemed friendly enough. Despite the fact she was extremely shy... Wait, didn't her robes say she was in Gryffindor! It did! I could always catch up with her in Gryffindor Common Room! I started running again, hoping she wasn't in the Girl's Dormitory before I got to the Common Room.
As I approached Gryffindor Tower, I shouted out the password to the Fat Lady.
"All right, all right dearie. No need to shout." She said before she revealed the portrait hole. I climbed through and though I was out of breath, I continued running for the Common Room.
"Did you see a girl earlier?" I asked Ron and Hermione, who were talking to many other familiar seventh years.
"We've seen loads of girls, mate. Where have you been?" Ron asked.
"What happened? You're all worn out." Hermione looked worried, but I could tell she was finding this amusing.
"Nothing happened at all." I answered briefly, frustrated that I couldn't find the girl.
"Oh. My. God. You didn't! What did you do after?" I saw a small group of girls gathered around someone.
"Nothing, I ran! I was too embarrassed! Can I go now?" A timid voice was heard from the middle of the crowd.
"Nu-uh! Give us all the details missy!" Another voice shouted, I started to approach them. Though I was careful not to be seen.
"About what?! There's nothing to say! I ran into him, I ran away. That's all" The timid voice was getting frustrated now. I was more hopeful now that it was her. One girl must have heard me coming, she saw me there, gasped and turned back to her friends.
"Jennifer, sweetie. He's here!" 'Jennifer, that's her name, then' I thought
"Huh?!" She was becoming distressed. Then she saw me and looked prepared to run. "I didn't mean to tell anyone really. They forced it out of me." She indicated towards her friends.
"We'll see you later okay?"
"Bye bye! Tell us all about it 'kay?" All of a sudden, the girls were gone, and only Jennifer was left. She looked after them for a moment, then sighed with relief and frustration.
"Are they you're friends?" I asked her. She looked a little surprised at first, but then smiled nervously.
"Oh, um. No-not exactly. They're only nice to me when they think something interesting has happened to me. Otherwise I'm totally invisible to them..." She paused for a moment, as if think about what else she could say. "But oh well, doesn't matter much I guess. No point in trying to make close friends now when you've only got one year left at Hogwarts, besides this year."
"So you're in your sixth year?"
"Yeah, I know it's kind of hard to believe I'm sixteen. I've had people tell me I look twelve. It's probably because of my height... Or lack of it." I didn't know when she got so talkative, but she seemed to find the confidence in her to talk. "I must be boring you, I tend to just ramble on about nothing. I'll get going, bye." She started to walk away quickly.
"You don't have to leave if you don't want to!" I called after her.
"R-really?" At that moment I felt sorry for her, it sounded like she felt no one wanted her around.
"Yeah! So... Is your name Jennifer, by the way?" I asked to be sure, I didn't want to call her the wrong name. She nodded in 'Yes' though. "Are-uh-are you auditioning for the musical?" All of a sudden her eyes lit up and she smiled brightly.
"Of course! I adore musicals and "Phantom of the Opera" is my favorite! Are you?"
"I don't know, I haven't really given it much thought, I was thinking about it until..." Jennifer giggled awkwardly.
"Well I hope you do audition, it would be nice to have someone I've met there too." Her face went bright red. I could have almost declared I was auditioning right then and there, but I couldn't sing, or act!
"I'll think about it." She was smiling shyly now.
"Great! Well I guess we should get some rest." Agreeing with her, I walked her to the bottom of the Girl's Dormitory staircase and she began to walk up, but still facing me.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow I guess?" I asked hopefully. She smiled and nodded once more before turning around and running the rest of the way up.
"What kept you?" Ron asked the second I walked through the door to the Boy's Dormitory.
"Nothing."
"If you insist..." Ron said skeptically.
"Wait... Do you know a girl named Jennifer?" I asked before climbing into my bed.
"No... Harry, have you met someone?" Ron asked with a slight smirk, I gave a small laugh.
"Well yes..." I thought for a moment about what he had just said and laughed. "Don't jump to conclusions, Ron!" He gave a short fit of laughter before he slipped under the bed covers and slumped his head onto the pillow. I had no doubts he was already asleep about a minute later, and sure enough, loud, obnoxious snoring greeted my ears and I too rested my head against my pillow.
A/N: Please read my profile on stuff about how Mary-Sue Jennifer is if you think that she is. But please, give my poor OC a chance, and that doesn't mean judging her within the first part, there are NINE parts, some with 10 chapters each! You'll have plenty of criteria to judge her, and if she does happen to be a Mary-Sue, then I will fix what I can (please keep in mind that everything I've learned about writing stories, I've learned it on my own.)
Also, please review? It can't be that hard to say if you liked it or not. I'm a big girl, I can handle critism (obviously I'll have to anyway, for this has been a total failure of a fic), but please refrain from writing flames. They're accepted, but it'll be wasting both my time and yours. They're immature, they don't look good on your record either. I've seen flames before, and honestly they all looked like a little kid was writing it. It doesn't matter to me personally, I'll reply to flames only because it's fun! evil grin :P
ON A HAPPIER NOTE! I'm really sorry that I'm being so strict/cross. I am a really friendly person, honest! There are just some things reviews could do without. So please, enjoy:)