A/N:

Thanks to everyone who's read, reviewed, favourited and followed, the encouragement was much needed!

Disclaimer:

Everything belongs to JK Rowling except Alexa, her Dad and subsequent original characters, if any.

Chapter Two

Harry's eyes glazed over to see whom Ginny had just greeted. He was surprised to see Professor McGonagall there, who seemed to be trying to placate the girl Ginny had just called Alexa.

"Alexa, it has to be done. You started a fire at my house, you ended up Flooing yourself to Malfoy Manor, and Merlin knows I don't need to remind you about the Death Eaters breaking into your house —"

"Min, I don't need a bodyguard!"

Harry raised his eyebrows. Min? He tried to catch Ginny's eye, but she seemed engrossed in the conversation.

"I'm not the only one in danger here, people are dying every day, the attacks aren't stopping, heck, if anyone needs a bodyguard, it's Harry bloody Potter!"

Harry's eyebrows moved higher.

"There's a madcap out there who's out for Harry Potter's blood but the wizarding world thinks it's perfectly alright to send him out to the front line and call him the Chosen One, and if everybody stopped idolising him for just a moment they'd probably realise he's only sixteen!"

Harry bit back a smile. He, and everyone around him, had gotten so used to the idea of him being the saviour, that it was quite refreshing to see people like Alexa who still saw the injustice of the theft of what should have been a run of the mill adolescence. He liked her already.

"This is not about Harry, Alexa, this is about you. Goodness knows how much longer your father will be stuck at St Mungo's, and I'm sure he'd like to see his daughter well and alive when he's out."

Harry began to feel slightly uncomfortable. This wasn't a conversation they should be eavesdropping upon. McGonagall and Alexa didn't even know Harry and Ginny were listening in, it had to stop. He wondered if he should announce himself.

"Your father is in St Mungo's and your mother is dead. Don't you go about being reckless and letting it all be in vain. You're all I have left, Alexa, and you know it. Perhaps you're right, and a bodyguard would draw more attention to you, so I'll hold off on the letter to the Ministry for an Auror. But let me let it be known that this is no longer the time to be running off irresponsibly towards danger— that's something you would do well to remember, too, Mr Potter," McGonagall finished, turning to Harry at last. Harry's face turned warm. He looked up at Alexa who seemed unfazed by the fact that he'd been listening in. She stared coolly at him till he looked away.

"Er, yes, Professor. I'll - I'll keep that in mind, definitely."

"That's good to hear. And it's always a pleasure to have you back, Mr Potter," McGonagall continued warmly.

Harry gave her a small smile.

"Min, you can move on ahead. I'm staying here. It's final."

McGonagall pursed her lips, then, looking ahead, went on, "Well, I have an announcement to make.

Sonorus.

Welcome to Hogwarts, dear students. Well, almost, as we still have about an hour left here. Well, we all know that Voldemort is back, yes, Voldemort, so I'm not going to beat about the bush here — dark times are ahead of us, and we at Hogwarts are doing everything we can to keep you safe, which includes the ride to Hogwarts. We have two teachers on the train, myself at the front and Professor Sprout at the back, in the event that things go wrong. If you find anything suspicious, you know where to find us. We hope you have a great year ahead of you, and that your families remain safe."

She reversed the Sonorus spell and, giving Alexa a final look, moved ahead.

"What's she going to do when the Death Eaters come? Turn into a cat and scratch them with her paws?"

Harry, Ginny and Alexa turned to see Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle snickering away in their compartment. Well, Malfoy wasn't snickering, which surprised Harry. He waited for Malfoy to add a dumb comment, but it was Zabini who complained, "Why couldn't we have Snape, that'd have been way cool."

Before Harry or Ginny could get a word in, Alexa had opened her mouth to retort, "Oh, probably because he's with the blasted Death Eaters already, haven't you heard?"

Then she turned to Pansy, gripped her wand tightly and, barely trying to control herself, said, "Don't worry your face over Death Eaters, Parkinson, they're not going to waste their time on you Slytherins. Oh, and that part about cats? Well they bite. And their grand nieces can hex you into oblivion, so watch it."

"Oh reall—"

"It's not worth it."

Harry was startled, as were the others, to hear Draco Malfoy say that. Harry peered at Malfoy, wondering whether it was due to just the fact that Malfoy's father was in Azkaban, or something else. It wasn't every day that Malfoy looked so subdued, or passed up a chance to be snarky.

"Leave it," muttered Ginny. Then she looked at Harry and asked, "Would you like to sit here only? I think I'll stay on here with Alexa."

"Sure."

Harry watched Alexa get into the compartment. She was a tiny thing, probably barely five feet tall, but he wasn't one to judge. Just 5'4" himself, he'd stopped caring about his height the minute he realised he was Harry Potter, whose job was to save the world. He'd realised inner strength was what mattered, and Alexa sure could take care of herself.

"Harry, this is Alexa McGonagall, Professor McGonagall's grand niece. She's in my year and one of my- well, now, my best friend," she stuttered at the last bit, obviously remembering Hermione.

That explains "Min", thought Harry.

"And Alexa, this is Harry, of course."

"Of course," said Alexa gently. She had a rather calm voice, the kind that could spew out the harshest words in the most beautiful way.

As they stood smiling slightly at each other, Harry took in her appearance. She was small, with wide, round eyes (which he would later learn were blue), wavy dark hair that barely skimmed her shoulders, and a slender physique. She wasn't pretty in the Ginny way, but she had that effortless manner about her. She didn't have perfect skin (he saw a couple of scars), her teeth were mostly even except for a slight gap between two teeth, and they weren't as unflinchingly white as Gilderoy Lockhart's had been. But she had an easy, winning smile, and brought a certain calmness to the air.

They sat down, after a moment.

"How come I never knew McGonagall had relatives?" asked Harry.

"I know right? When I came here I half expected to find a Chocolate Frog with my picture on one of the cards, that's how popular I thought I was. Alas, no luck. Yet. Still looking."

Before Harry could reply, Alexa went on, "Do you follow football?"

"Er, no, I —"

"It's so much like Quidditch, I love it. I went with Dad to see a match over the summer, it was beautiful. I missed the broomsticks though, definitely."

Harry looked at her with interest. Quidditch was definitely a passion of his. He'd been given the post of Captain, and while he knew he didn't have it in him to play for the team, not this year, he knew he'd like to coach the team. And Alexa looked spunky and like she meant business when it came to Quidditch.

"Oh, do you play then?"

"Just a little, over the summer, with some of my friends who live near Min's. But I like to think I'm phenomenal."

Here's a girl who definitely loves herself, thought Harry to himself, grinning.

"What position?"

"I'm a Keeper."

"Oh," was all Harry could say. He hoped she wasn't better than Ron then. If Ron lost his spot on the team, on top of everything else that was going on, he didn't think his best friend had it in him to deal with it.

"Mhm. Dad always used to tell me I look like the Chaser type, but I'm not the go-after-what-I-want kind of girl. Blocking someone else's path, stopping them in their tracks, breaking their hearts, that's more my style."

Alexa saw the look Ginny gave her, then grinned and said, "Kidding!" But Harry could tell from the glint in her eyes that she wasn't.

Harry liked how the conversation was going. Sure, she may seem a little overwhelming. A little too talkative. Overconfident. Just a little. She was what his Dad had probably been like in school. For the first time in so long, there wasn't a conversation about his latest encounter with Voldemort, or his next plan of action, or a discussion about a nightmare, or about somebody dying. There were no condolences, only laughter. There was something so raw and unabashed and unapologetic about Alexa, about that moment, that Harry stopped himself from telling Alexa he was sorry her father was in St Mungo's.

As Harry lost himself in his reverie, Alexa chattered on with Ginny. Then, her face grew sullen as she said, "Min wants me to get a bodyguard."

"Yeah, what was that all about?" asked Ginny.

"Oh, you know, I've sort of been battling death ever since —"

There was a long pause.

"Do you lot think Min's getting lonely out there?"

"Um," said Harry, wondering what to say. He'd never thought of his teachers and the concept of loneliness in the same context. Besides, he knew Alexa was hiding something. What was it?

"I think I'll go check up on her," said Alexa, jumping from her seat, magically sending her luggage to McGonagall' compartment.

Just before she left the compartment, she gave a half smirk to Harry.

"You aren't the only one who can have secrets around here."

And she was gone.

Harry laughed. It was probably the first time he'd laughed since Hermione and Sirius had died. Next to him, Ginny was smiling too, and shaking her head.

The rest of the train journey was rather uneventful, as Harry and Ginny just looked out of the window in silence, getting up to change as the Hogsmeade station neared. When the train came to a stop, they met Ron, Neville and Luna, and walked out towards the carriages together.

"Oh, no," muttered Ron.

As Harry looked up, Ginny grabbed his arm. "Are those - those are Thestrals aren't they?"

Harry exchanged a look with Luna. He just nodded at Ginny. He'd been able to see Thestrals since last year, and Neville and Luna always had, but his heart went out to Ginny and Ron, for whom the loss of Hermione must have sunk in fully only then, as they finally saw the winged horses that carried the carriages on their backs.

They got into a carriage and made their way to the castle in silence.

In the Great Hall, Harry and his friends saw a line of nervous first years waiting to be sorted. The smell of delicious food filled the air. Dumbledore had his usual warm, welcoming, knowing smile. Everything was the same. But nothing was.

All of a sudden, Ginny bit her lip and smiled.

"What is it, Ginny?" asked Harry curiously. Merlin knew he needed a reason to smile right then.

"Oh, it's just - in my first year, when you and Ron had that whole flying Ford Anglia fiasco and were late, she was all by herself and I'd just been sorted into Gryffindor and she bossily told me I could sit with her and she appeared to be all kind and as though she didn't want me to get lonely but I knew something was up. And then when I told her I was your sister, she launched into this whole thing about how irresponsible you two were and how she couldn't believe you were late to Hogwarts and by the end of it she just signed and said, 'Oh those boys, how I miss them.'"

Harry felt his chest tighten. He didn't know what to say. As they sat down, Harry saw Alexa and a few other fifth years gesture to Ginny. Ginny looked torn.

"Go."

She was still hesitant, but she left. Harry was glad. Alexa would be good for Ginny.

And for me too, he thought, colouring ever so slightly.

Dumbledore finished his speech, and the Prefects led the way to the common rooms. Gryffindor's new Prefects were Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil, and Harry struggled to not remember Ron and Hermione as the same.

They told the Fat Lady the password, then went to their good old four poster, crashing into bed at once.

Trying to sleep, Harry remembered the countless late night conversations he and Ron had had about whether or not Hermione liked Ron back, the thrilling nights where he'd happily read a letter from Sirius. He was trying to move ahead, but all the memories kept tugging at him, begging to be reexamined, one by one.

Harry wondered just how he was going to get through the next year and then he remembered Ginny's anecdote.

His last thought before sleeping was, oh Hermione, how I miss you.