Sorry it took me so long to update. I've had a ton to do to get ready for Christmas and New Years and my computer was broken again. I promise I'll update more often. I'm also starting to write about "Escape To Witch Mountain", the 1995 TV version. It's under Misc. Movies and it's very originally called "Escape To Witch Mountain." Please check it out. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or anything to do with the books or movies; they belong to JK Rowling and the filmmakers. I only own the OC.
Chapter Six: Summer Before Second Year
Mira woke suddenly early on the morning of July 28th. She was excited because Ron's parents had invited her to spend the rest of the summer at their house and her aunt and uncle had agreed to allow her to do so. Mr. Weasley and Ron would be coming to collect her at 9 AM and Mira couldn't wait. She had missed Ron and his older twin brothers, Fred and George, who had always made her laugh. She had also missed Harry and Hermione, but she wasn't sure if either one would be joining her at the Weasley home. Hermione said that she may be going on vacation with her parents, and she wanted to spend time with them. Harry, on the other hand, was a different story.
Mira, Ron, and Hermione had collectively written to Harry over a hundred letters to Harry, but he hadn't responded to any of them. They were all very worried about him because they knew how horrible his aunt and uncle were. Mira just hoped that nothing bad happened to him. She had hoped that her feelings for Harry would fade over the summer, but they had seemed only to intensify and grow in magnitude. Mira jumped out of bed and started getting ready. She got dressed, brushed her hair, and fed her owl, Satin. She made sure that all of her belongings were packed and then headed downstairs for breakfast. As usual, her aunt and uncle were already there. Aunt Andromeda was preparing breakfast and Uncle Ted was reading the Daily Prophet at the table. Tonks was still doing her Auror training at the Ministry and would be doing so for several more years. Mira missed her every day and couldn't wait to see her again at Christmas.
Mira went back up to her room after breakfast, making sure one last time that she had all of her belongings in her trunk. She wouldn't be coming back home for several more months and wanted to make sure she wouldn't forget anything. Sure, her aunt and uncle could just send anything she forgot to her at school, but Mira didn't want to burden them. Finally, 9:00 came; Mira grabbed her trunk and owl cage and took them downstairs just in time to see the fireplace erupt in green flames. Out of the fireplace walked both Ron and his father, Mr. Weasley, into the living room of the Tonks household. "Ron! You're here!" exclaimed Mira excitedly as she flung herself into her friend's arms for a hug. Ron hugged her back with just as much enthusiasm.
Ron seemed to have grown at least six inches since the last time they had seen each other. He was still thin and gangly, with bright red hair and a face full of freckles. "Hey, Mira, how are you?" asked Ron. "I'm great! I've missed you and the others these past two months," Mira replied as Ron nodded in agreement, indicating that he too had missed her and their friends that summer. Mira looked around and saw Mr. Weasley was deep in conversation with her aunt and uncle. Apparently the three of them had attended Hogwarts together and Mr. Weasley had been good friends with Uncle Ted. Mr. Weasley was fascinated by Muggles and would always ask Uncle Ted about his upbringing, since he was Muggleborn. He was currently trying to understand the concept of a microwave, something that Uncle Ted was having a hard time explaining.
"Dad, are you ready to go yet?" asked Ron in exasperation, tired of the fact that his father always had to ask about the Muggle lifestyle. Mr. Weasley sighed, upset that he wasn't able to grill Uncle Ted about Muggles, and turned to help Mira put her trunk and cage inside of the fireplace. Mira hugged her aunt and uncle goodbye and stepped into the fireplace. She was immediately transported to the Burrow, the Weasley house. Ron's older twin brothers, Fred and George, were right there to help her unload her belongings from the fireplace. As soon as they were finished, they both grabbed her into a huge hug, for they had become good friends of hers the year before as well. Mira laughed, she had come to think of them as her own brothers; for even though she had a sister figure in Tonks, she had always wanted to have a brother. Fred and George were always able to make her smile and laugh, and she loved them for that. Mrs. Weasley came out of the kitchen and gave Mira a hug. Mrs. Weasley was a wonderful woman who always agonized over how thin Mira was and forced her to eat large amounts of food at every meal.
After Ron and Mr. Weasley arrived, Ron showed her up to Ginny's room, where Mira would be staying. They deposited her belongings in the room and then went up to Ron's room so they could talk about their summers. Soon enough, the topic turned to Harry. As it turned out, Ron was just as concerned as Mira was about their mutual friend. He hadn't heard from Harry at all that summer, and he was just as concerned as Mira was that Harry's aunt and uncle had done something to him. Harry had implied at King's Cross that he wasn't going to tell his family that he couldn't do magic outside of Hogwarts, but what if they had found out? They wouldn't do anything to him while they believed that he could do magic, but who knows what they would do to him if they knew he couldn't. "Mum says that if he hasn't responded to our letters by the end of the week, we're going to go get him just to be safe," said Ron. "But what if something happens to him before that?" exclaimed Mira, "We can't wait for the end of the week! We need to do something now!"
"We can help with that," came a voice from the doorway. Mira and Ron turned to see Fred and George standing there, having heard every word the twelve year olds had said. "What do you mean?" asked Ron apprehensively, as if afraid to hear what his older brothers had in mind. Fred explained their plan: In a few nights, they would "borrow" their father's magically enchanted flying car to go to Harry's house to rescue him. Mira knew they shouldn't take Mr. Weasley's car without permission, but at that point she was so concerned about Harry that she almost didn't care. On the night of August 3rd, Fred and George came and got Ron and Mira, and the four of them snuck out to the shed on the side of the house to get the car. Mira was terrified that they would get caught, but she knew she had to do this to save her friend.
A few hours later, they arrived at Harry's house. They discovered that Mr. and Mrs. Dursley had placed bars on Harry's window, presumably to prevent Harry from escaping through the window. Harry must have heard the car outside because he quickly came to the window. The four kids in the car were able to break the bars off the window and helped Harry load his school belongings into the car. Just as Harry was about to enter the car, his aunt, uncle, and cousin appeared in the room and tried to stop him from leaving. Thankfully, Mira and Ron were able to pull Harry into the car and into safety. He embraced his two friends, grateful that they had come to rescue him. When they arrived back at the Weasley house, tired but happy, they were soon horrified when confronted by Mrs. Weasley, who had discovered their absence during the night. She was fuming at the thought of her children stealing their father's car to fly all the way across the country without an adult present. She didn't blame Harry, for he hadn't been in on the plan at all; nor was she mad at Mira, because she was sure that her three youngest sons had dragged the young girl along with them.
Harry, Mira, and Ron spent the next six days having fun together at the Burrow. Harry, who had never seen a magical family in their day to day life, was fascinated by how the Weasleys ran their home. Mira was just happy to have Harry safe with them, and was embarrassed that her feelings for Harry hadn't changed in the slightest. Seeing him after just two months apart somehow had made her feel for him even more, and she didn't know how to tell him how she felt. She didn't know if she would ever be able to tell him, she hadn't been able to tell anyone. Mira was afraid to tell him, she didn't want to ruin their friendship. She hoped no one had noticed that she cared for him as more than a friend. Mira had grown up seeing her aunt and uncle's wonderful relationship, and she hoped that one day she could have something like that. But she was afraid that she was too much like her parents to have such a pure, wonderful romance with anyone, let alone with Harry Potter. Her mother was crazy and cruel; her father was unfeeling and cold. She was afraid that she would become just as emotionally and mentally corrupt as they were, and not be able to love or be loved.
Six days after Harry had come to the Burrow, August 9th, the Hogwarts students received their new school letters. For some strange reason, all of their Defense Against the Dark Arts books were about Gilderoy Lockhart, a famous wizard who had earned a fortune writing books about his supposedly great adventures fighting dangerous creatures. Every woman in the wizarding world was in love with him; every woman, that is, except Mira Lestrange. She had no idea why everyone thought he was so spectacular; sure, he was extremely good looking, but Mira doubted that he had really done all of the things he claimed to have done. No one could have done all of those things in such a short amount of time, it was impossible. She didn't see the need to buy all of his books for a single class; unless, as Ron suspected, the new DADA professor was a female fan of Lockhart's.
Just after their school letters arrived, they received a letter from Hermione. Apparently she had just gotten back from vacation and would be going to Diagon Alley on August 15th and wanted to meet up with the three of them there so they could get their supplies together. Mira quickly replied that they would, and she couldn't wait for the next week to pass by so she could see her best female friend. Sure, she loved Harry and Ron (although she loved Harry in a different way than she did Ron), but she needed some "girl time." While she had made friends with Ron's little sister, Ginny, Mira still needed to see Hermione. Mira was seriously considering telling Hermione about her crush on Harry. Surely, Mira thought, Hermione would be the one person who would have a logical way to deal with the way she was feeling.
That next week passed by quickly and before the occupants of the Burrow knew it, August 15th had arrived. It was finally time for them to go to Diagon Alley to meet up with Hermione and buy their school supplies. Mira couldn't wait, she loved going to Diagon Alley! She lined up with Harry and the Weasleys in front of the fireplace to Floo into Diagon Alley and wasn't surprised when Harry revealed that he had never done so before. Having grown up in a Muggle family, it wasn't odd that he had never even heard of it before. Despite her lack of surprise, Mira was concerned for him. Travelling by Floo Powder could be very dangerous if it wasn't done properly. She volunteered to go first to show him how it was done, and waited on the other side for everyone else to join her. Her concerns for Harry were unfortunately proven justified when Ron came through and asked where Harry was.
"What do you mean, 'Where's Harry?' He hasn't come through yet!" exclaimed Mira. Ron shrugged and replied, "He went through straight after you did. He should have gotten here before me." Mira felt the panic in her rising. Where could Harry be? Had something bad happened to him? As soon as Ron's family came through, they all started searching for him. During their search, they ran into Hermione and her parents, who helped them look for Harry. Mira felt herself becoming more and more terrified as time went on without a trace of Harry. How could they have lost Harry Potter? Why did they have to do Floo Powder when Harry hadn't ever done it before? Before Mira could get even more worked up, she heard Hermione cry, "There you are, Harry!" Mira turned to see Hermione jumping into Harry's arms for a hug. She had never before felt a bigger wave of relief than when she saw Harry standing there. He was covered in soot and looked very disheveled. He explained to them that he had accidentally turned up in Knockturn Alley.
They all entered the book shop to purchase their school books when they saw a large crowd of people packed in. They saw a sign that said Gilderoy Lockhart was doing a book signing, which explained the large numbers of women in the crowd. The group made their way to the front, at which time Harry was spotted by Lockhart. Lockhart grabbed Harry and insisted that they pose together for a picture for the Daily Prophet. He gave Harry his entire collection of books free of charge (Harry would later give those books to Ginny and bought his own) and proceeded to announce that he would be taking over as professor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. Mira groaned along with Harry, Ron, and all of the other Weasley boys, because they all knew that the DADA class would prove to be a torture this year.
After a confrontation with Draco Malfoy and his father, Lucius, at the front of the shop, they decided it was time to return to the Burrow. Hermione decided to spend the rest of the summer with them and bid farewell to her parents before they all Flooed back home. That night before they fell asleep, Mira confided in Hermione and Ginny about her crush on Harry. She told them how she couldn't stop thinking about him and was afraid that she would never get to have a relationship with him. Her two friends were supportive of her and Hermione told her to not be afraid of being more than friends with Harry, she was sure he would like her back. She just encouraged Mira to wait until they were older to tell him how she felt, because they were only twelve and were too young to think about dating anyone seriously. Mira decided to take Hermione's advice and thought that she would wait until at least next year to tell him. She fell asleep that night with a smile on her face, hoping Hermione was right that Harry might like her back. She couldn't wait to find out. Mira had a feeling that this school year was going to be just as crazy as last year, full of adventure.
