"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" Mrs. Weasley yelled up the long flight of stairs at the Burrow. Her red hair was pulled messily in a ponytail and her face was prematurely wrinkling due to the stress of having seven reckless children. It must be tough to be . Some say Mrs. Weasley is a bit on the pudgy side, and they were right about that, but the woman was one of the kindest people on the planet. Unless you were her troublesome kids, that is.
Ron poked his head out of his room, nervously, waiting for whatever punishment he was about to receive, "It wasn't my fault, Mum! Fred taught the gnome how to right hook. I was just walking out in the garden and the gnome snuck up behind me. Then he punched me, causing me to fall into the bird bath, and I just happened to break it. This could technically be your fault. Because if you didn't feed me so much I wouldn't weigh as much as I do. Not that I'm fat. Because I'm pretty sure I'm not. But Harry was there! It wasn't my fault. Right, Harry?" Ron rambled.
He then dragged Harry out to the landing of the stairs. Harry hadn't been the same since he watched Cedric Diggory die in front of his very eyes a few months or so ago. His face was pale and his scar was hurting more than ever recently. Of course, he didn't want anyone to worry about him, so he tried to fake his happiness as much as possible. No one fell for it.
"Oh, uh, yes. That's exactly what happened. Though if I remember correctly, the gnome got two punches in, not one," Harry said, with a laugh that wasn't entirely genuine. Things like this didn't amuse him as much as they used to.
"Have to rub it in, don't you, Harry?" Ron said and punched Harry lightly in the arm.
"YOU BROKE THE BIRD BATH?" Mrs Weasley screeched, "Your father loves that bird bath! Oh, Ron. I suppose we'll have to talk about this later. I need to ask you a favor. Ginny has a friend staying here for a few days and she needs help with her bags. Harry, would you mind helping as well?" Mrs. Weasley asked, and then pointed to a giant pile of bags that were somehow balancing on the rickety table behind her.
"Ginny has friends?" Ron teased. Mrs. Weasley ignored his comment. Ron and Harry climbed down the stairs to Mrs. Weasley. But then Ron tripped down the last few steps and landed in a heap on the wooden floor. A girlish giggle trickled in from the other room, joined with Harry's a moment later. But Harry, not wanting to trip on Ron, tried to walk around him, but this failed because Ron wrapped his ankle around Harry's, causing Harry to crash down next to him. An even louder laugh burst through the room.
"Boys…" Mrs. Weasley muttered to herself, before walking back into the kitchen. The smell of freshly baked cookies wafted into the room, making both boys lift up their heads, sniffing, and their eyes locked to the mysterious laughing girl. To say she was beautiful was an understatement. Her long, wavy blonde hair cascaded down her back, and curled up at the bottoms. Her light, blue eyes sparkled in the light, and her perfect face lit up from laughter, along with her dimples. The girl was one of those perfect girls without effort. She had little to no make-up, and was wearing a beat-up pair of jeans and a graphic tee from the band, Wizard Rock. She had this glow to her.
"Need a hand?" The girl offered, grinning at the boys, and holding out her hand. Harry noticed a small lightning scar on the back of her wrist almost immediately. It wasn't red like Harry's, but a less noticeable white color and outlined in purple. Harry immediately wanted to ask her if Voldemort did that to her too, but felt the question too personal considering they just met. Maybe later. It would be nice to have somebody who understood. Harry hated feeling so alone all the time. Ron was too busy staring at the girl herself, and didn't notice the strange scar on the back of her wrist.
Harry grabbed her hand gently, and she pulled him to his feet. Ron just continued to sit there, open-mouthed, at the girl. Harry waved a hand in front of his face, "Anyone home? Earth to Ron!" The girl giggled again.
"Is your name Medusa? Because you could definitely pass for the goddess of love," Ron said, stupidly, and still gawking at the girl.
She giggled some more, "I think you mean Aphrodite. Medusa is the girl with the snakes in her hair! But either way, no. It's Anna." Anna then bent down and reached for Ron's hand, and tugged him up. Ron, loving the feeling of her warm hand laced with his, held on for a few seconds longer than necessary.
"Oh, uh, right. Well you're definitely not Medusa. Anna is a pretty name though. I'm Ron! And this is my best friend, Harry Potter. Though I'm sure you already knew that. You know the whole lightning scar thing," said Ron, gesturing towards Harry.
Anna's face glanced up at Harry's scar, a strange look flashed across Anna's face. But then she smiled and continued happily, "It's nice to meet the both of you! Do you two attend Hogwarts? I just transferred there."
"Yeah, we do. We're fifth years. What year are you in?" Harry asked, still glancing down at her strange scar.
"I'm a fifth year as well!" Anna answered, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and hiding her wrist behind her back when she caught Harry staring at it.
"Then how do you know my sister?" Ron asked, while messily ruffling his hair. He prayed silently to himself that it looked sexy, and not stupid.
"Oh! I bumped into her at Diagon Alley, and we talked. Then she noticed that I was alone, and I told her that I didn't have any place to stay because my parents are back in France. And your mother and Ginny said it would be perfectly alright if I stayed here for the remainder of the summer," Anna answered, bouncing a bit as she explained their meeting.
"Brilliant," Ron said, smirking slightly, "I look forward to having you here. My room is up there," Ron paused to point up to his room and then continued, "If you ever need me or you're just looking for a good time," Ron suggested, and then ruffled his hair some more.
Just then, Ginny emerged from the kitchen, "Ron, cut that out. She doesn't want your perv services," Ginny snapped, and Anna laughed. "I'll leave you two boys to carry up Anna's bags. C'mon Anna, let's go eat the cookies before all my brothers eat them all. They're pigs," Ginny commented, and briskly walked back into the kitchen
Ron and Harry sighed, and each picked up a handful of Anna's bags and started climbing up the stairs. Harry noticed that on each and every bag there was that lightning with the purple outlining, just like the one on her wrist. How strange.
"Hey Ron, did you notice that scar she had on her wrist? It's marked on all the bags," Harry asked, pointing to the bags, while balancing them on his knee.
"Huh? No, I didn't. Maybe it's a tattoo and she's majorly obsessed with you, Harry!" Ron said, with a laugh. "But back off, mate, she's mine!" And Ron gave Harry a slight push, right into Hermione, who had just been making her way downstairs.
"Who is yours?" Hermione questioned, nosily. Her bushy hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She wore boot cut jeans and a sweater vest. The girl didn't put much effort to her appearance.
"Nobody," Ron muttered, and he and Harry continued to drag the bags up the stairs. Hermione huffed silently to herself and made her way to the kitchen to join the other girls. Jealously flashed across Hermione's face. She knew it was Anna. She had heard them, but didn't want to believe them.
A few minutes later Harry and Ron joined the girls in the kitchen in the huddle around the deliciously, yummy cookies Mrs. Weasley had just baked. Each kid plucked a cookie out of the pile and bit happily into it and took a seat at the wooden table. Ron slid into the seat opposite of Anna, and was about to open his mouth to say something, but Hermione kicked him from her seat next to Anna.
"Don't you even dare thinking about talking with your mouth full, Ron. No one needs to see that!" Hermione scolded, and took a small bit out of her cookie, just as Harry slid into the seat across from Ginny.
"Jeesh, what are you, my mum?" Ron said coldly.
A look of hurt flashed across Hermione's face. All she wanted to do was make sure that Ron talked to Ginny's new friend as little as possible. Something about this girl gave her the creeps. She was different. In what way, Hermione did not know. But she knew.
Author's Note: I wrote this ages ago and only just recently found it again and thought I might post it here and see where it goes. I'm not entirely sure whether I'm going to keep going with this or not so thoughts are appreciated xxx