[A/N: I hope you like flashbacks. This makes me really want to write a story for first year...]
"She said what?" I asked.
"Something about getting closer to muggle culture," Ron replied.
Everyone at Grimmauld was gathered in the kitchen with the exception of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley who had gone out to get food from some muggle restaurant.
"But why?" I asked.
"Because she wanted to obviously," Hermione replied.
"I was perfectly okay with eating her food everyday for the rest of my life or at least for my time here and I'm sure everyone was too. I mean-."
"Hannah, do you ever stop talking?" Harry asked.
I shook my head. No, for as long as I could remember, I never stopped talking. I even talked too much the very first day I ever met Harry. My constant need to run my mouth annoyed him even then...
I'd been so excited to sit there in floor of the bookstore and read all day. It was mybirthday, Dumbledore had given me my Hogwarts letter - not that I hadn't known that I was going there all my life - and we'd finished buying my school supplies.
So, reading our potions book over and over again was the perfect way to get me excited about school, even though I wouldn't be going for another month.
Just as I got to the fifth chapter a scrawny and disgruntled, boy with blue-green eyes covered by broken circle glasses, messy black hair walked over.
"Hello," I said.
"Oh, hi," he said unsurely.
"Going to Hogwarts?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah I am," he said, now sounding relieved.
"First year," I said. He nodded. I climbed to my feet. "Me too. That means you'll be looking for this book then right?"
He nodded. "That'd be it."
"Here you go. I've got two copies already. I really like potions. It's really difficult and most people hate it but I've always been a bit of weirdo," I said.
"Nothing wrong with being weird. I've been weird my whole life," he said.
"Muggle born then?" I asked.
"I'm not sure what that means," he said.
"Were your parents muggles? Could they not use magic?" I asked.
"No. They were both wizards but they died before I could remember. But I remember that they said my mum's parents were muggles but not my dad's," he said.
"Ah, so you're a half-blood like me. My mum was a muggle born as well," I said. "And you won't believe this but my parents are dead too."
"Yeah, me too. It's funny, I've never met another person like me before," he said. "I only found out about that I'm even a wizard at midnight when I turned 11."
"Today's your birthday?" I asked. He nodded. "You won't believe this but mine is too! What a small world."
"Yeah. What's your name so I can look for you when we start school. It'll be nice to have a friend," he said.
I nodded. "If you want a friend, you'll need to look for Ronald Weasley. He's my best friend. He's a first year too. Definitely find him too. But my name is Hannah."
The boy smiled at me and laughed. "But you couldn't be. . . Hannah Potter."
". . . I am. . . And if you've only been a wizard for less than a whole day how cold you have heard of me?" I asked.
"I've known who you are my whole life," he said.
"How is that even possible?" I asked. "I mean, if you've been listening to gossip on the streets all day then people really need to find some current events to talk about because honestly, I'm like, I don't even remember what I did and it happened like 10 years ago and-."
The boy reached up and clamped his hand over my mouth. "You're scaring me."
"Sorry," I said taking his hand down."But if you just found all this out this morning how do you know who I am your whole life?"
He lifted his hair from his forehead and revealed a lightning bolt scar. "Because, I'm Harry Potter."
I proceeded to talk his ear off the rest of the day and I haven't stopped talking it off since.
"I hope she's not getting McDonalds. It doesn't really count as food in any manner," Hermione said.
"What's McDoogles?" I asked.
"McDonalds," Harry corrected me.
"And it's a very muggle thing," Hermione said.
It was funny how ever since the sorting Harry and Hermione had been throwing that phrase around like crazy.
"So then after he told me who he was I remembered you told me to look for him," Harry said while Ron shoveled food onto his plate.
"Aw, you mentioned me, Hannah? I'm touched," Ron said.
"I know," I said.
"Your brother's a nice guy. I say we keep him around," Ron said.
"Of course we're keeping him around. He's my brother," I said.
"Hopefully you'll get along with each other better than I get along with my brothers," Ron said.
"The twins aren't so bad. And I like Bill and Charlie. They're cute," I said. "Especially Bill."
"And what about Percy?" Ron asked.
I glanced over to Percy. "Well. . . He makes me want to eat flobberworms."
Harry and Ron laughed, though Harry definitely wasn't sure what a flobberworm was. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"So do you really fly on brooms?" Harry asked.
"Yes, sadly. It's primary mode of transportation," I said. "I'm a horrible flier. I get motion sickness and mid-air terrifies me."
"So you two know how to fly then?" Harry asked.
"Hardly. I begged Dumbledore to exempt me from the class and he laughed at me," I said.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Don't be. I'm sure you'll be a good flier. It's just rumor, but McGonagall says that our dad was the Quidditch player Gryffindor has ever seen," I said.
"What's Quidditch?" Harry asked.
"Only the greatest sport ever!" Ron said.
"Don't know why," I said, rolling my eyes. "I'm sure Ron will talk your ear off about it all night."
"What kind of sports do you like Harry?" Ron asked.
"Football," he replied.
"What?" I asked.
"Soccer?" Hermione said.
"Now I'm even more lost," Ron said.
"Must be a muggle thing," Harry said.
Now the only reason I knew about soccer was because of delicious, delicious David Beckham.
"Hey, does David Beckham still play football?" I asked.
"He plays in America now so he plays soccer," Harry said.
"Man, I wish I knew people who knew David Beckham," Hermione said.
"Actually, Victoria Beckham is a witch. She went to Hogwarts and everything," Lupin said.
"Oh, Victoria Adams, the really, really, hot Slytherin girl two years younger than us I hooked up with once?" Sirius asked.
"Yes, Sirius," Lupin said.
"You guys knew her?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah. I knew her," Sirius said. "She didn't like your mother very much though. Especially seventh year when she started going out with James. Victoria really had her eye on him."
"She didn't like any of us very much after that," Lupin said.
"I didn't like you very much after you forced me to not hook up with her again while she was being all depressed about James," Sirius said.
"That's what good friends do," Lupin said.
"I wish you'd stop me from hooking up with people while we were in school," Bill said.
"Well you see I was too busy making bad dating choices to worry about yours too," Tonks said.
My friends were very verbal about my bad dating decisions, especially Hermione, which I always found odd considering the peculiar circumstances under which we even became friends.
"Isn't she in your dorm?" Harry asked.
"Sadly," I replied.
"How do you even put up with her?" Ron asked.
"I say hello and goodbye to her. That's about it," I replied.
"I've never met a more nightmarish person. It's no wonder she hasn't got any friends," Ron said.
Then someone shoved between us and stomped off ahead of us.
It was Hermione. I sighed.
"I think she heard you," Harry asked.
That night at dinner, Hermione didn't show up and I felt awful about it. Parvati told me that she'd been in the bathroom crying all day so I went to find her and apologize.
I walked into the bathroom and could hear her sniffling.
"Hermione?" I asked.
"Go away," she said.
"It's Hannah," I said.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better? Come to laugh at me some more?" she asked.
"No. It's just. . . I wanted to apologize for being so mean to you," I said. She swung the door open. Her eyes were read and puffy from crying. "I'm sorry I said all those awful thing about you. And Ron too. I mean he's a boy and boys are prats like that."
". . . Well, I accept your apology," she said. "Now excuse me, I'd rather be friendless alone."
"You don't have to be friendless. I can be your friend," I said.
"You?" she asked. I walked over to her.
"Yes, me. I can be your best friend if you want," I said.
"Well. . . It's not like you're in competition with anyone for that title," she said. "You're the only friend I've got."
I smiled and we hugged. Then she slowly started to back away from me.
"What is it?" I asked. She pointed. I turned and behind there stood a troll. We both backed into the stall and ducked down. The troll swung his club and smashed the stall to pieces. We screamed.
"Girls! Move!" I heard Harry suddenly. We started screaming as we crawled away. The troll continued to smash the stalls over us.
When we reached the end of the row, we crawled over to the sinks. The troll swung his club down at us, smashing a sink and nearly taking off Hermione's head.
Harry jumped onto the trolls back and the troll started flailing around like crazy. Harry took his wand and shoved it up the troll's nose. The troll, rather peeved by this, grabbed Harry by his legs and hoisted him up into the air.
"Do something!" I shouted to Ron.
"What?" he asked.
"ANYTHING!" Harry shouted.
Ron pulled out his wand and took a deep breath.
"Wingardium leviosa!" he said. The troll's club lifted out of his hand. Then he released the charm over top the troll's head causing the club to whack him upon the head, knocking him over on the ground, out cold. Harry crawled away from the troll and pulled his wand from it's nose bringing a long string of snot with it. Harry wiped this off on his cloak.
"That's attractive," I said.
Just then Snape, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Quirrell, and Flitwick burst through the door. They stood in awe of the scene before them and McGonagall looked up at me.
"Explain. Now," she said.
"Well, what had happened was-."
"It was my fault Professor," Hermione said.
Harry, Ron, and I looked over at her in surprise.
"Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked.
"I went looking for the troll. I'd read all about them and thought I could handle it. But I was wrong. If they hadn't shown up in time. . . I'd probably be dead right now," she said.
Harry, Ron, and I exchanged glances. She was covering for us after we were so rude to her.
"I am surprised at you Miss Granger. Five points from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement. As for you three, few first year students could take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. 5 points will be awarded to Gryffindor. . . For sheer dumb luck," she said.
"Be-be-be-better go. It m-m-m-might wake up," Quirrell stuttered at us.
We four walked out the bathroom into the hallway.
"Good of you to get us out of trouble like that," Harry said.
"Mind you we did save her life," Ron said.
"Mind you her life wouldn't need saving if he hadn't been so rotten to her," I said.
Ron looked over to Hermione and smiled. "What are friends for?"
The way I saw things, we were the oddest bunch of friends at Hogwarts. Leave it to us to bond over something like nearly being killed by a troll or outright alienation.
"Earth to Hannah," Hermione said waving her hand in front of my face. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "I was just. . . Remembering."
