New year, New faces

"SIRIUS BLACK! IF YOU DON'T GET HERE IN THE NEXT TEN SECONDS WE ARE LEAVING WITHOUT YOU!"

Sirius came sprinting down the stairs, still putting on his cloak.

"I'm here, I'm here. Jeesh. No need to get so cranky, Moony!"

Remus growled threateningly, and Harry bit his tongue to keep from laughing.

"If we don't leave, Harry will be late for the train!" Remus shouted and then looked impatiently at his watch. He gasped, and his eyes widened as he noticed the time.

"We only have five minutes left! Quickly Harry! Sirius, I'm gonna kill you!"

Remus ushered them quickly out of the house, Sirius yelping a Remus jabbed him in the back.

"Oi! Calm down! I'm going, I'm going!"

Harry bit his tongue to keep from laughing and Remus grabbed his arm and apparated, asking, or more like ordering, Sirius to bring the trunk.

They arrived on the plat form just in time. Parents were ushering their kids quickly onto the train, with tears and more hugs. The Potter family was stading right near the train, Lily frantically checking on Hayden, and Hayden and James laughing whilst rolling their eyes.

Just then James noticed them coming towards them.

"Sirius! Remus! About time! I was just about to go to Black Manor myself. What happened?"

With all the rushing Remus was doing, they were all slightly out of breath. Remus quickly took Harry's trunk from Sirius and hauled it onto the entrance of the train.

"Someone took too long getting ready!"

James and Lily looked at Sirius who grinned sheepishly. Lily rolled her eyes and turned towards Harry.

"Harry! Hayden is already in, you should get going. I'm sure you can find him!"

Harry looked at his mother weirdly. "What? Why would I want to find Hayden?"

Lily looked at him as if he'd grown another head. "Who else are you going to sit with…?"

Sirius interrupted before Harry could say anything. "He does have friends, Lils. You of all people should know that, your there with him all the time!"

Before he could get too heated, Harry quickly grabbed his god father into an embrace.

"I'll see you … hopefully before the Christmas holidays"

Harry hugged Moony too, as Sirius said firmly "You'll see us on your first Quidditch game."

Remus ruffled his hair fondly as he said "Now, don't forget to-"

"- send one letter a week. With detail. Got it" Harry grinned.

He hugged his god fathers one more time before getting on the train.
"I better go find Nev. Bye Padfoot, Moony!" Harry turned to his parents "I'll see you at school, Professors." He then walked in waving at Sirius and Remus, smiling widely.

"Harry! Thank merlin. I thought you missed the trained." Neville said relieved as he embraced Harry as he walked in.

"No. We were running a little late this morning… What did I miss?" Harry asked.

Neville shrugged as they sat down. "Nothing much. I just managed to find a compartment… You would think-"

Just then the compartment door flew open.

"Harry! Neville! Here you are. We've been looking everywhere for you!" The twins walked in and sat down beside either boy.

Harry grinned and told them what he had told Neville.

"Oh yeah! Fred, Lee's probably waiting for us."

The twins got up and looked at the two boys.

"We need to go."

"Lee saved us a compartment and-"

"We can't seem to find Ginny. We'll be around-"

"Later. Bye!"

"Bye." Harry and Neville smiled, and the twins left. They were just getting ready for a game of exploding snap before there was a knock on the compartment door.

"Umm… Hello? Can I come in?" There was a small unsure voice, one that seemed vaguely familiar.

Harry and Neville exchanged glances before Harry shrugged and got up to open the door.

Just as he opened the door, his eyes fell on a very familiar face that was frowning down at the hem of her pants trying to tug it up, long locks of red hair hindering her as she tried. Just as she was about to look up, her feet caught in the long pants and she started to fall forwards.

Harry was a trained Quidditch player. His honed instincts made him duck sideways from the oncoming crash and once he realised who it was, he quickly turned sideways and grabbed her around the waist, to stop her painful fall.

Chocolate brown eyes met his emerald green.

He was snapped back to reality by the coughing/ chuckling fit that Neville seemed to suddenly have, and he slowly helped the quickly turning red girl back to her feet.

He glared at Neville, then looked at the girl encased in his arms and grinned.

"We really need to stop meeting up like this."

This caused her to turn even redder and mumble a long string of apologies. Once he was sure that she wasn't going to fall, he let go of her and helped her pull her stuff into the compartment.

"Hi Ginny." Neville grinned mischievously, and Ginny blushed again.

"Hi Neville." She then turned to Harry, "I'm sorry about that-"

Harry smiled "It's ok. Sit down, I'm surprised you haven't found a compartment"

Ginny groaned frustrated. "I know! I expected some prefects to show up or something, or maybe one of my brothers, but no. I've been trying to find a compartment, people are so mean." She huffed.

Harry and Neville laughed loudly.

"Welcome to the Hogwarts Express." Harry grinned.

"We had it a little easier," Neville smiled understandingly "With Harry glaring of course"

Harry huffed at him as Ginny and Neville laughed. They had just started playing exploding snap when there was another knock on the compartment door. Neville got up this time.

As he opened the door, they saw a girl with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes, quite obviously someone that was new, as Harry hadn't seen her anywhere before.

She was about to speak, then she saw Ginny and her eyes lit up, as did Ginny's. Just as the two girls were rushing towards each other, Ginny accidently tripped Harry who was walking to Neville.

Harry pushed Neville, which imbalanced the girl with blue eyes, and Ginny was already falling. Neville steadied himself and quickly grabbed the new girl, who was just about to hit the ground.

Just as Harry steadied himself, he saw Ginny about to fall again and quickly rushed to catch her.

Neville and the girl looked at each other straight in the eye and felt their hearts race. Neville quickly came to his senses and helped the girl to her feet, before rubbing the back of his neck, a habit he had picked up from Harry.

Harry glanced at the girl in his arms and tried but failed to keep himself from grinning. She was tomato red and mumbling about her stupid clumsiness.

"You really need to stop that." Harry whispered to her, and if possible, she turned even redder.

"Sorry guys. I've been clumsy from birth."

The girl grinned at her.

"I know." The two girls embraced happily, squealing all the while. Neville and Harry looked at each other bewilderedly as they did so, completely confused.

Ginny suddenly turned towards them. "Oh, and Neville, Harry, this is Luna Lovegood. Luna, this is Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter."

Luna smiled at them warmly, her eyes scanning over them. "Nice to meet you. Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Neville and Harry grinned. "Of course not!"

They sat down, Ginny next to Harry opposite Neville and Luna.

Hence began one of the strongest bonds of friendship ever seen.

The four of them sat and talked animatedly for the next few hours. Exploding snap all forgotten, they talked and laughed, and all in all, it was the best time Harry had ever had.

"So, Luna, how did you and Ginny meet?" Neville asked them curiously.

Ginny and Luna looked at each other and smiled.

"We only live a hill across from each other. We met when we were 5 and have been best friends ever since."

Harry smiled at them. Luna turned to him.

"Harry, how did you and Neville become friends?" Luna asked obviously incredibly curious.

Harry and Neville started chuckling.

"Well, our parents are good friends, and we have the same uncles. So, we knew each other from birth. "Harry grinned "But, apparently, the first time we met we looked at each other over and over then hugged and sat down together, then refused to eat without the other for a week. Drove Aunt Alice batty." He chuckled as Neville also chortled.

Ginny and Luna awed and laughed thinking of a baby Harry and Neville. The rest of their time was spent with similar conversations. Harry caught Neville looking at Luna once in a while and grinned madly. He caught Ginny beaming the same, and they both grinned at each other in unison, already planning moves.

They hadn't seen the looks Neville and Luna shared either. Luna was fairly sure her best friend was in love with her new best friend, but she would talk to her about that later.

Harry and Neville had discovered that Luna was quite unique. In the first 20 minutes of their conversation, she acted completely weird, and had confused them both with words like 'nargles". Then slowly, she started to act more normal…. Naturally. Harry had been tempted to read her mind to see if she really believed such things but stopped short at the thought of breaking her privacy.

He then later realised that was her defence. Ginny looked like she was used to it, and after a while Harry realised Luna acted the way she did to build a defence, to see who a real friend was.

Harry glanced around at his 3 friends. He felt quite happy with what he had. More than happy.

/AN

I'm very sorry for the late update. Hopefully this chapter is good, and I think, (maybe) the next chapter will include Ginny's POV. If not, then let me know. I might take ages to write, and I'm sorry, but just know I will NEVER give up on this story.

PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Cheers!