Another Year…Another Year…

Harry Potter grabbed his trunk and Hedwig's cage. He jumped into a good looking shirt, and practically jumped down the two flights of stairs to get to the front door of the Dursley's.

"We don't expect to see you again boy…" muttered Uncle Vernon, still keeping his eyes on the paper. His radish shaped face was it's usual purple, and Aunt Petunia was busy helping Dudley into his trousers.

"Well, Vernon, it's been grand staying here for so long." Said Harry, bowing, a sarcastic tone filling his newly, deep, changed voice. Over the past few summers, Harry had been changing from a teenager into a real man. It was surprising to everyone at school that he had suddenly grown to be 6"4.

"I can still hurt you boy!" yelled Vernon in reply to Harry's comment. But Harry had already walked out the door, and was on his broom, flying to King's Cross Station.

"Harry! Over here!" came a womanly voice. Harry landed at the Station, and had already gone through the barrier. Hermione Granger, fully dressed in head-girl blue, with her badge glimmering, was waving for him to come by her. Harry ran over to her.

"Hi…" he muttered, leaning forward. They locked in a deep, passionate kiss, letting out all the time they had missed each other over the summer.

"God I missed you…" whispered Hermione, after gently breaking away. Harry smiled, and kissed her again.

"I missed you too!" he said, pulling something our from behind his back, "Tah-da!"

"Oh Harry!" gasped Hermione, as Harry handed her a dozen Wizard's roses. Before she could give him a thank you kiss, Ron walked up to them.

"Hi guys," he muttered, obviously scanning the crowd, "Have you seen Lavender?"

"Nope." Said Harry flatly, taking Hermione's hand. Just as he did, a girl with thick, red hair walked up to them.

"Excuse me…" she said, an American Accent filling everything around her, "Is this Platform 9 and ¾?"

"Yes, and you are…?" asked Harry, looking at the girl. She had magnificent green eyes, quite like Harry's. Her green robes made the sparkle of her eyes dance, and Ron seemed to drool over this girl's beauty.

"Rebecca O' Ryan, wonderful to meet you, Harry Potter, right?" she asked, shaking Harry's hand. She had quite a firm grip.

"Yes, this is Harry, my boyfriend. I'm Hermione Granger." Said Hermione, butting in. She was obviously sensing the boy's liking to Rebecca's beauty.

"Hi Hermione, and you are?" she asked, turning towards Ron. His mouth was open in awe. Rebecca let out a giggle, and pushed his jaw up.

"It's not polite to stare," she whispered in his ear, laughing. Ron turned bright red, and snapped out of his trance.

"Oh, hi, I'm R-R-Ron!" he nearly yelled. Rebecca laughed again.

"I just moved here with my family. I'm going to be a 7th year Gryffindor they tell me, but I'm not sure if that's a good house." She said, looking at her list. Harry put a hand on her shoulder, and Hermione tensed up.

"We're all in Gryffindor, don't worry about it! It's better than Slytherin…" Hermione grabbed Harry's hand off the new girl's shoulder.

"Can I talk to you, Harry?" she asked, a slight bit of anger in her voice. She yanked Harry away from Ron and Rebecca.

"Don't you DARE do that Harry, I'm not stupid. You like her!" whispered Hermione harshly. Harry laughed.

"Hermione, I would never love anyone else!" he whispered back, kissing her. This obviously reassured Hermione, and they walked back, hand in hand, to where Ron and Rebecca were standing.

"How many family members are going here of yours?" asked Ron, smiling. Harry and Hermione knew that he was going to ask Rebecca out soon.

"Well, in first year is my brother, Devin. In second year are my twin "mischief making" sisters, Erin and Colleen. In fourth year is my brother Steven, and in 6th year is my sister, Kathleen." Said Rebecca, frowning, "What about you guys?"

"Well, my little sister, Ginny, is in 6th year, and my newest sister, Ferguson, will be starting school in a few years. She's 3 ½ now." He smiled dreamily at Rebecca, and it was time to get on the train.

"Rebecca! WAIT UP!" came another American accent. Ron was helping Rebecca bring her trunk on, when a tall girl with black hair, wearing an American Eagle shirt, ran up to them.

"What house are you in?" asked the girl, jumping ahead of everyone else, and sitting down in an empty compartment. Rebecca sat down in the seat across from the girl.

"Gryffindor, and you, Ashley?" she replied to the girl. Ashley smiled.

"Me too! Yeah girl! We rock!" they did some sort of a hand shake, Ron watching every one of Rebecca's moves.

"Um, may I ask who YOU are?" asked Hermione, obviously paranoid that this girl was in their compartment. Harry noticed the edginess in her voice, and took her hand again.

"Ashley Ashford, pleased to meet ya!" she said, grabbing Hermione's free hand and shaking it, "I know who you are all, Mr. Harry Potter, Ms. Hermione Granger, and Mr. Ronald Weasley!"

Hermione looked at this girl and seemed to like her a lot more than Rebecca. She was very nice, smart, and Harry didn't seem to go for her. Plus, she said that she already had a boyfriend Kenny, back at home.

When the train reached Hogsmeade Station, it seemed as if they were all just old friends. In a matter of hours, the trio had become a five person peanut gallery.

"First we have the welcome back feast, and then we get to do whatever we want in the common rooms," whispered Hermione to Ashley. Ashley giggled.

"Who is that hottie?" she asked, pointing at none other than Draco Malfoy. He must've heard her, because he whipped his head around to face Ashley.

"Hottie?" he snarled. Ashley laughed.

"Yeah, you short stuff, wanna sit by me at dinner?" she winked at him. Draco turned red.

"Let's go Pansy…" he put his arm around Pansy Parkinson's shoulders, and they walked away.

"I've gotta work on him…" she muttered, Hermione laughed.

"You're gonna have to work on him a lot!" she looked around for Harry to see him talking with Assistant Teacher, Cho Chang.

"My little sister is going here this year!" Cho was saying. Harry was gazing at her, obviously trying to hide his dreamy look, as Hermione walked up to them.

"Hi Cho! How are you?" asked Hermione, taking Harry's arm, and kissing him on the cheek, "You must so miss being at Hogwarts?"

"Yes, very much Her-my-ow-nin-ie." She said flatly, pronouncing her name wrong. Hermione gave a snotty laugh, and pulled Harry over to where Ron was talking with Rebecca.

"You were a model?" asked Ron, amazed. Rebecca laughed.

"Not a model Ron, I was in a magazine, yes, but not on television or anything…" she gave Ron a million dollar smile, and that was when Ron fainted.

"He does that," muttered Harry to Rebecca, but she was on the floor, holding his head.

"Nothing serious!" said Hermione, taking a look at the look on Ron's face. It was a half smile, with his tongue hanging out. No one except for Hermione, Harry, and Ashley noticed.

"Students, please take your seats!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, standing on his chair. All the students rushed to sit. They wanted to see the sorting.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" cried Dumbledore, his eyes sparkling, "We have to get to the sorting, for we have many a new face here, more students will be sorted into Hogwarts today, more than ever!"

Everyone clapped, as Dumbledore called up Annie Abercrombie, Aaron Blunt, and the third person was Sung-Yi Chang.

"Ravenclaw!" croaked the hat. Everyone at the Ravenclaw table clapped for Sung-Yi.

They went through about 25 f's and g's, 10 i's and j's, and they finally got to M.

"Beatrice Malfoy!" called Dumbledore. A girl with golden hair walked up to the sorting hat, her face set in a look of interest.

"Slytherin!" shouted the hat. The girl, who looked nothing like Draco, took the seat to the left of her brother.

"Danielle Malfoy!" shouted Dumbledore. A girl, who looked exactly like Beatrice, came up, same look on her face, and shoved the hat onto her head.

"Slytherin!" called the hat, and Elizabeth took a seat next to her sister.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to take another Malfoy…" muttered Harry. Hermione kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't worry!" she said, reassuringly. Harry smiled at her, and they went back to look at the sorting.

As it ended up, Devin O' Ryan was in Gryffindor, just like all of his other siblings. "I guess it's true when they say all families are in the same house!" Ron had laughed, during the feast.

After eating, everyone left the Great Hall to go to a party in their Common Rooms.

The Gryffindor Common Room was decorated to show off its elegance. Gold and Crimson ribbons hung around the whole room, and everyone was dancing to the music of an enchanted CD player.

"I read 'Hogwarts, A History' before I came here, so I decided to enchant it!" Rebecca had practically yelled over 'Independent Woman Part 1' by Destiny's Child.

'Because you Loved Me' came on, and Harry and Hermione slow danced. Ron asked Rebecca, and she blushed.

"Sure, I guess!" she finally said, Ron sweeping her out onto the dance floor. Everyone had a really good time, and at 12:00 pm, McGonagall came into the room, only to see Harry and Hermione STILL slow dancing. Everyone else had gone to bed.

"Go to bed you too." She said flatly, catching them by surprise. Hermione jumped away from Harry, and grabbed a quill.

"We were just, um…finishing homework!" said Hermione, a little too quickly and loudly. McGonagall laughed.

"Sure you were." She chuckled before closing the door. Hermione looked at Harry, and blushed.

"Sorry," she muttered, going over to him and looking into his deep green eyes, "I'm not used to this whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing yet, you know? We've been friends for so long…"

"Yeah, I understand," he said, taking her hand, "But we really should go to bed though, we have Potions right after breakfast."

"Alright…" groaned Hermione, dropping her hand from his, "Goodnight Harry."

"You know something Herm?" asked Harry, looking at her and laughing, "I'm gonna have to find a pet name for you. What about 'sugar'?"

"NO." emphasized Hermione, laying down the law, "My dad called me that, and…it makes me miss him."

"Ok, Goodnight Herm…" he kissed her on the forehead, and descended the staircase to the boy's dorms. Hermione walked up the stairs to the girl's dorms, and felt truly alone, for once that day.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, except for Rebecca O' Ryan, all her brothers and sisters, Beatrice and Danielle Malfoy, the new Weasley, and any other characters you've never heard of. The plot belongs to me. And yes, I know I changed Rebecca O' Ryan's description.