Having already gotten his school materials, harry had a free weekend ahead of him. He spent his time finishing homework given out for the summer. Proffesor Flitwick gave a long essay due about sleeping charms. "If only they were dreaming charms", harry had thought throughout the weekend. He had spent the summer sending owls back and forth to ron, hermione, and sirius. sirius had told harry to try and forget the nightmares, he couldn't make it up for the school year to see harry and didn't want harry spreading around that he had been having even more nightmares. then again hermione was worried half to death that something tragic was to happen at hogwarts. what with last year but the last letter he had recieved from her was one month ago. dudley had lost a whole 5 pounds since his diet and aunt petunia was so pleased she had bought a 7 layer cake topped with chocolate frosting. since then, dudley seemed to get bigger and bigger throughout the summer.
but now harry was in the car going to kings crossing station and couldn't wait until he finally boarded the bus. he could just imagine him, hermione, and ron comparing summers. hermione and ron's by far better than his.as he hadn't heard from hermione for a month, nor had ron. he got out of his uncle's car and grabbed the trunk that vernon threw harshley out the door. harry walked in front of the 9 3/4 entrance and carefully entered. the large train stood in front of him.seeing that hermione and ron were both not there yet, harry found an empty cart and trudged his trunk and hedwig up into the empty compartment.
after waiting for around 15 minutes, a pretty girl with blonde long straight hair, and glowing blue eyes, stepped into the cart.
"May I stay here for the trip?", the girl timidly asked harry with a slight american accent.
"Sure. You must be a first year. What's your name?"
"Heinous Autumnalli.call me autumn. that's what most my friends call me. Actually i'm a transfer from japan but i was born in america. My father worked for the school down in japan. Until it shut down that is. what is your name?", autumn sounded grateful for someone to talk to.
Harry hesitated for a moment. "Harry.... umm... Harry Potter. Im a fifth year."
Autumn seemed not to notice the name. "Well potter im a fifth year also. I hope you don't mind me calling you potter. Most everyone calls you by your last name in japan."
harry nodded his head. Autumn seemed nice but there was something odd about her. he couldn't make it out.
just then ron walked in breathing loudly from the heavy load. "hey harry...", he stopped, seeing autumn. "who's your new friend? hey im ron."
"this is autumn. she's a fifth year also. she transfered from japan."
Ron and autumn started up a conversation while harry searched for hermione. finding her nowhere, he went back into the cart.
"Ron, Hermione's nowhere. She's not on the train." Ron just looked at harry for a few seconds.
"didn't she tell you??", ron paused a moment, his eyebrow started to do a kind of quiver, " hermione...... well.. hermione's moved harry."
Harry stared at ron shocked. He knew it couldn't of been a joke. The quiver in ron's eyebrow had never been there before.
"moved where? and why didn't she tell me ron??" harry asked ron who looked completly confused.
"she didn't tell you anything?? i found out just the other day. she's gone off to america. she's going to some school called Westley, its not a wizarding school harry. What're we gonna do??"
"America??" harry sat down in a booth. he couldn't believe hermione would move and not tell harry.
"Who is hermione?" autumn asked a bit suspicious.
"She's a good friend of me and harry. why do you sound so weird?", ron answered, noticing the suspicious tone in autumn's voice.
"well.....", autumn's voice shoke, "would that be hermione granger?? the friend of harry potter the famous??"
"yeah.. she's my friend. i am harry potter. how do you know her?" harry was beggining to get confused and highly curious.
"your.. your the famous harry potter??", autumn's eyes narrowed slightly.
" Yes and how do you know hermione??", harry was beginning to get iratatid.
"well... potter.... i meet up with her on one of my flights. My father doesn't believe in flying broom. we take the muggle way. she couldn't stop talking about you and how much she'd miss you two.", autumn seemed, to harry, to be making the story up as she went. Harry didn't believe a word of it. but still... somehow autumn knew hermione somehow. he just couldn't figure it out.
* * *
the rest of the train ride was pretty normal. except for the fact that they kept getting unusual visits from malfoy and autumn being there instead of hermione. and the 23 packs of all flavored jelly beans was getting to ron and harry. autumn didn't snack on much. she told ron and harry simply that she didn't like candy. ron, being ron, began to back off like she was some kind of evil demon. malfoy came in over 10 times throughout the ride. and each time he was oddily polite to ron, harry, and autumn. ron made a crack about malfoy going off to finishing school finally and draco just got red in the face and left. Autumn didn't believe for once that malfoy was mean and tried to make conversation with him, each time he ran off before autumn could get an utter in.
when they arrived at the castle, harry helped autumn get out and the three went into the carriages.
"wow, this is much bigger than my last school", autumn stated in awe.
"Yeah, i bet a heck of a lot better too!" Ron had been bragging about the school to autumn for some time now.
Harry was still stunned about hermione.
"Harry, snap out of it. It took me about 15 minutes to get over it, you've already beaten my record by several hours!!", Ron glanced at autumn to roll his eyes about harry, but autumn was looking downward and her face was tinted a bit red.
"Ron... five years. We've known her five years. how can you just trash the subject like that? Hermione was a really good friend of ours", harry was flabbergasted that ron didn't feel the way he did.
"Harry, I'm sure she'll keep in touch. You know hermione. It's just not like her to not tell us what's going on." Ron sounded even more annoyed than harry had with autumn.
"and... what if she didn't keep in touch??", autumn's voice came as a suprise to both harry and ron.
"why wouldn't she autumn? unless you know something about hermione that we don't i dont think think keeping in touch will be a problem.", harry's voice pronounced that he didn't very well like autumn.
"cool it harry.", ron was tired of talking. all he wanted to do was go to his dorm and sleep.
The three went into the great hall and sat down at their table. The decorations were beutiful this year with candles the color of each table. The first years were lined up including autumn. The sorting hat then was brought out and sung its song. Harry didn't pay much attention to the song, he kept his eyes on autumn who was obviously nervous due to the fact that she was twisting her hands together so hard that it looked like she was ringing them. proffesor Mcgonagall started calling off the names. Autumn, due to the beggining of her last name, was the third to be called.
"Heinous Autumnalli.", proffersor mcgonagalls voice boomed.
Autumn put the hat on her head and turned red almost instantly. Harry knew what it felt like. The sorting hat whispering in your ear your every secret. And he could just think up all the unusual facts about autumn that the sorting hat could crank out. Autumn still sat there about 2 minutes later, quite a record for hogwarts.
About 1 minute later the sorting hat called out Gryffleplaslyth. The great hall filled with murmurs. Autumn just sat there biting her lip, her face a deep red. Harry felt sorry for her in a way. She may seem different, but she didn't deserve to be split into four. He hid a laugh at what he had just thought. The proffesors rushed up to the sorting hat and autumn and took her into the side room. The sorting continued while harry and ron slid out of their chairs and headed to the side door quietly. They knocked on the door and were let in by Proff. Flitwick. Autumn was inside looking embarrased and a tad bit angry.
"My dear, dear, girl... do you have any idea whatsoever of what could've happened with the hat?", he questioned sympathetically. Autumn just stood there looking angry that this had to happen to her. She thought for a while and took a moment to answer.
"Well.... umm.. no.. i guess not.", she bit her lip again. With all that biting, Harry expected to see some blood.
Just then Dumbledore walked in and looked a bit stern as he excused Autumn and the others.
"Heinous, you may bunk in the Gryffindor house for your time at Hogwarts. You all can go to your houses.", Dumbledore's eyes weren't showing the glee they usually did. Autumn didn't seem to happy either.
They left the room and found everybody to be eating. Dumbledore had said for them to go to their houses so the three went up the stairs and into gryffindor. They had known the password for Dean had told them, since he was the new Prefect.
Autumn crept up to what was supposed to be her dormitory and disapearred.
"There is something strange about that girl", harry commented once she was out of sight.
"Relax harry. Your just mad about Hermione leaving."
"That's not nice Ron. She was our friend. We should be sad. and what did autumn mean when she said that hermione might not keep in touch??"
"I don't know harry, let's go to bed."
And with that Ron flung off his shoes and instantly fell into bed and asleep. Harry was left alone to think about autumn. He could've sworn he saw her put a goblet of red liquid into her bag after coming from the bathroom on the train. He could've sworn it was"..... red..... liquidy.... thick....",his mind drifted for awhile,"... red... liquidy...thick....red..liquidy..thick....",one last thing came to his mind before he fell asleep completly, ... blood"
* * *
(i know your sad but... TO BE CONTINUED... must be written. i will come out with the second in about a week or two)
