Yay! You liked the first chapter enough to read the second! Digital high-five! I'm planning to post at least one chapter a week, although I know I won't be able to keep up with that after a while. Please comment and give constructive criticism, as I want to make this fanfic as good as possible. Again, all characters from Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling. Have fun reading! Bye!

Chapter Two: Dance Class

I wanted to just close my eyes and go back to sleep, but then I realize that today was Monday. And although it was still Summer, Mom had signed me up for a latin dancing day camp at the local community center.

I slide out of bed and turn my alarm clock off. I stumble across the room to my dresser drawer and open it to look for my favorite pair of jeans. I sit there for a few minutes, staring blankly at the walls, half-sleeping. Then I come back to consciousness and quickly put some jeans and a t-shirt on. I pack a small bag with my latin skirt and some ballroom shoes.

I chose to do latin dancing because it s not ballet, like my sister does. Not many kids do it. But it s beautiful. And the skirts are fun to swish around in, to be honest. I guess I enjoy being different than all the others.

I gobble down my Cheerios and pack a cheese sandwich, a bag of popcorn, and an orange for my lunch. I find Apple, who was sleeping on a pillow we left out for her, and wait for her to do her business. (We haven t gotten her a proper litter box yet.) Then I give her some of last night s leftovers to eat. (We haven t got Apple any food yet, and I reckon leftovers will be her main diet while we re at Hogwarts.) Apple and Merlin seem to have tolerated each other in the short time that she was here. Although, we can t stop a few hisses and barks escaping their mouths.

I kiss my Mom good-bye and get in the car. Dad is driving me to camp, since the community center is on his way to work. I get out of the car and walk up the steps into the large building. I was, surprisingly, a bit early. I change into my dance clothing and take out Hogwarts, A History. Of course it crossed my mind that I was in a muggle class, but I also knew that if someone saw me reading this, they probably wouldn't give it a second thought.

I got a few weird glances from some of my classmates. And one even went to the point of asking me what my book was about.

Haven t you ever heard of Hogwarts? It was a terrible disease that killed many pigs who lived in Brazil, The girl goes away, but I m pretty sure she s wondering why I m even reading that. If she ever asks, I ll say I want to be an exotic animal veterinarian. A small boy (the first person here who looks my age) with dirty-blonde hair that has almost a greenish hue and quite a bit of dandruff on his shoulders to it sits down next to me. I recognize him. His name is Rei Tanton and he lives down the street from me, but I ve only talked to him once or twice during block potlucks. All I know is that he likes swimming. (The chlorine is probably the reason his hair has a bit of green in it.)

Hey, I start. I didn t know you danced,

My Mom made me, He says, closing his book.

I see, I take a quick look at the cover of his book.

Your book I stammer.

What about it?

It s Hogwarts, A History! I show him my book. His cheeks go red.

You- You re a wizard, too?

Well, yeah. My Mom s a wizard and my dad s a muggle,

At least one of your parents is a wizard

I see, you re a muggle-born, Some people find muggleborns dishonorable and call them horrible names. But I don t see them as any different than me. Just different kinds of parents.

But why are you going to the British school?

Why are you going to Hogwarts? He challenges.

My Mom wanted me to go. Made all her memories there,

My family is going to move to England next month,

We sit there for a moment. So, He asks. Embarrassingly enough, I ve never gotten around to knowing your name, I m R-

I know, you re Rei Tanton. I m Leah Chang-Fletcher, Rei blushes.

Before we can continue our conversation, our teacher, Madame Palacio invites us to the dance floor. Since we are the youngest campers there, we are paired together. We start with a simple merengue. The other campers seem so graceful, so elegant. Me and Rei are clumsy and awkward. Whenever we mess up, Rei seems to take the blame.

We bump into other dancers: "Oops, sorry, I was leading you in the wrong direction,"

I step on his toe: "Sorry, I was taking the wrong step there,"

Madame Palacio yells at us: "I was probably the one who messed up," What an idiot. A nice idiot, though, I know we're going to be great friends at Hogwarts.

At the end of class, we take the bus home together and talk about wizard things, he asks me a million questions about how magic works and what kind of spells can you use. And we talk about muggle things, too. Who do we think should be the next Doctor? What books are we reading? Why do I have the same name as Princess Leah. I don't. It sounds similar, but it's spelled differently. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars. It's been years since I watched them, and I'm surprised that Rei hasn't read The Lord Of the Rings.

It's nice knowing another wizard, my age, who will go to my school. I know we'll be great friends.

I get home and take out a piece of cheddar cheese and some strawberries for a snack. I finish up the last few chapters of Hogwarts, a History and then proceed to break open The War Against the Dark Lord: a memoir by Hermione Weasley. I read a few chapters, but then skip to the end to read the most exciting parts. Then I proceed to casually skim through the pages.

"Hey Mom! You never told me that you actually kissed Harry Potter!"

Mom blushes. "Well, yeah... It was a bit awkward, though,"

"Yeah, but why did you break up?" I ask.

"Well, it's hard to explain. His friend, Hermione Granger, did something very mean to my friend, Marietta Edgecombe. I was ashamed of what Marietta did, but what Hermione did to her afterwards was just cruel, and Harry stood by her and didn't even care about what happened to my friend. Also, sometimes I feel like the only reason I ever loved him was because he was the only one who really knew what happened to Him,"

Mom never really got over the death of her childhood love interest, Cedric Diggory, who was killed by the Death Eater, Peter Pettigrew, during the Triwizard Tournament. I make a mental note to find out more about what happened that night when the Tri-Wizard cup turned into a portkey that almost killed Potter (saved by an extraordinary case of Priori Incantatem) and finished off Diggory for good.

Well, I start. We learned basic steps of a merengue and the tango,

Cool! Did you make any friends?

Yeah. Rei Tanton was there. He was the only kid my age,

Oh! I didn t know Rei danced, I thought he only swam,

Well, his Mom made him,

I see,

He s also going to Hogwarts, I say quickly. He s moving to England this summer.

Mom gives me a quizzical look. Wow. That s quite a coincidence. That someone on your block is going to Hogwarts, too,

Yeah. It s pretty amazing. But we re friends, if I can say that after one day,

Do you looooooove him? Hanna had been home from ballet camp for a while now and was now being annoying as usual.

Hanna I barely know him,

That s what you say,

I roll my eyes in exasperation. I hear the door open and Dad comes in. (His work ends a bit later than Mom s) I tell him about my day and we chat a bit. Dinner was stir-fry. It was OK, but I ended up searching through the pile of veggies to find the little marinated steak pieces. We watch some movie about human origins, it was good, but we didn t finish it. After some more reading of The War Against the Dark Lord, I go to sleep.

I wake up with a similar routine as yesterday. I quite like it up here, in my little attic. It s a bit drafty, but it s big and quiet, which, for someone like me, are things a good bedroom needs.

I go to camp, this time exactly on time and am partnered up with Rei again as we do the salsa. We chat a bit, but quietly, as we don t want to attract too much attention.

So who were the most recent headmasters?

Minerva McGonagall is the current headmaster. Albus Dumbledore was headmaster for a while before then, but was killed by Severus Snape. Then he became headmaster for a year before he was killed,

Why did he kill Dumbledore?

Well, according to most sources these days, Snape had been a double agent for Dumbledore, pretending to be a Death Eater. Dumbledore was under a curse that was slowly killing him after destroying one of the horcruxes, the things that kept You-Know-Who alive for so long. People thought that he had sided with You-Know-Who, because he became headmaster when Hogwarts and the rest of the ministry was under control of the Death Eaters,

Huh. That s confusing. Why did he side with Dumbledore?

You will never stop asking questions! I groan. On and on and on!

Sorry, He says sheepishly. It s just habit,

It s OK. This subject interests me, I continue. Anyway, Snape was originally a Death Eater, and nobody really knows why he switched sides, but the people closest to him say he was in love,

With who?

Well, you know about the prophecy that Sybill Trelawney told Dumbledore? The one about Harry Potter? Well, Snape was the one who overheard it and relayed the message to You-Know-Who. As we know, he killed the Potters. It is said that Snape had been in love with Lily Potter since childhood, and because he was a Death Eater, she never loved him,

Poor guy,

I guess, I say. I thought that at first, but when you think about it, he only left the Death Eaters because of one person, I feel like if Lily Potter hadn t died, he would have happily gone on helping You-Know-Who. Plus, we don t know if all this fluffy stuff even happened, But it was sad, and I don t like to admit it, but I m kind of romantic, love stories, real or fiction, intrigue me.

The only way we assume this, I add on. Is because when You-Know-Who killed Snape because he wrongly that he was in possession of the Elder Wand, a wand that can beat anyone in a fuel, he gave his memories of Lily to Harry Potter. It would be a strange person to give his memories to, because the loathed each other their entire lives before then, but Potter was the only person there, and he was Lily s son,

Why did they hate each other? I sigh. Snape was Harry s potions teacher, and Harry assumed that he was a Death Eater. Snape always saw Harry as being more like James Potter, who bullied him to no end as a child. I guess Snape saw something more in Harry as he was dying,

What a terrible life, He murmurs. Now, tell me, how do you give someone your memories?

Chang! Tanton! I hope you re both discussing how to salsa over there! Madame Palacio says in her gruff voice.

All this salsa-ing is making me hungry, I say. Rei and I both laugh. I enjoy magical history, especially history relating to You-Know-Who. Maybe it s my Mom who got me into it. But it s so intricate and complex, it s utterly enjoyable learning about it. It s more than just reading a history book. It s more than that.

When we finish up, I call my Mom with my crappy little pink phone with a million parental controls and ask her if Rei can come home for dinner. She was a bit hesitant at first (she thoroughly believes in family time over friend time), but with some persuasion she said yes.

Rei came home with me and we chatted a bit more about the fight against You-Know-Who. Dinner was some beef tacos (as requested by two hungry dancers), it was pretty good. Hanna asked some questions about it too, noticing we were discussing it. Mom was happy that we were talking about the subject, and mentioned many times that she had helped Harry Potter destroy the Ravenclaw diadem, a horcrux, by letting him into the Ravenclaw common room during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Mom showed us her old broom, a Comet Two-Ninety, which isn t that good, but we wanted to ride it anyway. I once rode it last year when Mom was away for the Dumbledore s Army reunion (which, to be honest, I m not so certain if she earned the title of being a member of it), and she got pretty angry when she found out. It was fun, though. I felt like a bird doing dives and turns like that. Mom didn t let us now. ( What if the muggles see? ) But it was cool seeing it.

Rei left soon, and I went to bed knowing that soon, I d be at Hogwarts, learning magic.