When Willow woke the next day, all anyone could talk about was that Harry Potter had driven a flying car over muggle London to get to school. Apparently he had even fought a man-eating tree. With his fists. Willow scowled down into her breakfast as she heard Ginny ask questions to one of the older years who claimed to know the whole story.

When Harry Potter himself came into breakfast, Ginny wouldn't even talk to her, she was so busy trying to hear what he was saying. Willow pushed her breakfast away and went to spend the day in the library. Classes didn't start until the next day, but Willow decided she would rather study ahead then hear anymore about the amazing Harry Potter.

The only other people in the library were Ravenclaws, and they hardly took notice of her. Willow took a history book off the shelf and sat down to read it. When she opened the book, however, she noticed there was an entire chapter dedicated to Harry Potter. She almost slammed the book shut, but decided instead to read about it. She only really knew what her daddy had told her. Apparently, Harry Potter had stopped He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Her daddy said no one knows how. While she was reading the book, she realised even books didn't know. This one claimed that Potter had carved runes into the floor, but he was only a baby.

For the rest of the day Willow watched Harry Potter to see some signs of a genius who had been writing runes his whole life. Instead she saw him trip over his own feet, flinch from others, and avoid the crowds. Not a genius. Probably not a fame hog though, because he didn't seem to like that others were following him around. She'd have to tell Ginny.

So she did. But Ginny seemed to idolise him more for it. Of course he didn't like the fame. What true hero WANTS the fame? Willow stuck by her gut to avoid Potter. He was likely to be a liar or a troublemaker and neither seemed like someone she wanted to know. The whole day she hadn't seen a hair of Chris, or any of the other first year Slytherins.

But the next day at breakfast she saw him. She tried to catch his eye, but he didn't even look at her and Willow felt her stomach sink. She turned to Ginny. "Why do you think Chris isn't looking at me?"

Ginny stopped smiling. "We can't be friends anymore." Was all she said.

"What?"

"We can't be friends."

"Why not?

"He's a Slytherin now. We are Gryffindor."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"He's now part of the dark side. We are on the good side."

"You can't say that! We spent the whole train ride together. We're friends." Ginny looked at her dubiously. "Really, you can't stop me."

"I...won't. But I can't be his friend anymore. My brothers would never let me."

"Do you always listen to your brothers?" Ginny's face turned red and the conversation stopped. Willow was upset that this was an issue. Willow tried to catch Chris after breakfast, and dinner, but both times he didn't look at her and kept himself surrounded by the other first years.

Willow was frustrated on Monday when she still couldn't catch his eye during breakfast, but was quickly distracted by her nerves about her first class. Transfiguration. Ginny and she both arrived five minutes before class and started to talk about the transfiguration magic they had seen and wanted to do. When class started and all they got was a lecture, Willow was disappointed.

"I know this day is less than thrilling." Professor McGonagall admonished. "But it is important to know the foundations of any magic so that you can cast it safely and in the way you wish to. Never fear, our class later this week is practical and we will begin to practice our transfiguration, but first your homework..."

The rest of the classes that week were the same, excepting History of Magic where the ghost professor, Professor Binns, immediately began telling them about the Goblin Wars. It was Wednesday after lunch that Willow had her first Charms class. When she walked in, she immediately noticed she was sharing the class with Slytherins, and that Chris had an empty seat next to him.

She didn't hesitate to immediately walk to the seat and sit down. He looked up shocked then looked away. Willow felt tears fill her eyes but she didn't let them fall. She saw Ginny sit reluctantly next to her but she stayed facing Chris until he slowly turned toward her. His eyes widened at her tears and his chin dropped.

"Sorry." he muttered.

"Why did you stop talking to me?" Willow demanded in a whisper as Professor Flitwick began to lecture them on the basics of Charms.

"You're a Gryffindor."

"You're my friend!" Willow bit back at him. He looked at her again and his eyes widened. "Do you really hate me now?"

"I... no. No I don't. But, Gryffindors and Slytherins are never friends."

"We can't be the first. I bet there are other Slytherins and Gryffindors who get along." Chris didn't respond. "Please," Willow whispered, a sound like a whine coming from her. "You were the first person I got on with. Please."

He looked up and his eyes were guilty. "I..."

"As long as no one says we shouldn't, can't we stay friends?"

He blinked and she watched as his eyes began to think about what she said. "As long as no one says..." She grinned at him, he smiled tentatively back, glancing at the other Slytherins who really didn't seem to mind at all.

Ginny refused to speak to him, but Willow and Chris quickly caught up, being as quiet as possible to not get in trouble. At the end of the lesson Chris had promised to sit with her in the other class they had together.

The week passed by peacefully, and another week after that. Ginny didn't speak to Chris, and Chris didn't speak to her; but they existed peacefully with Willow and spoke to her without hesitation. But then Ginny stopped talking to her so much. Willow felt herself glaring more and more often in Harry Potter's direction. He was the only reason that Ginny would sit and write in her diary for hours without talking to her or telling her what she was writing about.

Willow was quickly distracted from that when she began to hear a voice. It wasn't the same as the voice in the back of her mind that she used to hear back when she had the broken feelings, but the ideas were the same. Death. It spoke about death. Then Halloween arrived, the day of death. Willow was on edge the whole day and hardly noticed her friends.

It wasn't until she was walking to the common room after dinner that she realised she had not sat with Ginny, but rather the boy Colin. Before she could become too worried and begin searching for her friend, she heard a scream from up ahead in the crowded corridor. Willow felt a cold chill down her spine and froze.

When the whispers came down the hall that it was only Harry Potter again, and that he had attacked a cat, Willow turned from the commotion and rushed to her common room. She found Ginny sitting next to the fire, staring blankly into it. Just grateful that her friend was OK, Willow sat next to her silently as they waited for the rest of Gryffindor to return.

In the coming days, Ginny seemed to return to her normal self and even started to talk to Chris again. The three of them could be seen sitting together during lunch and no one had yet commented on it. Ginny's brothers didn't seem to mind either, as the twins would sometimes come sit next to them by the lake. Ginny's youngest brother, Ron, never spoke to her at all.

Then it was time for the first quidditch game of the season. Willow wasn't a huge fan of the sport, but it sounded like everyone she knew was going. Chris went to sit on his side of the field and Ginny sat next to Willow. She hadn't even realised that Harry Potter was on the team until his name was called and everyone started to scream. As the game continued Willow watched as Harry Potter began to be chased by a bludger. Ginny pointed out that it was odd. Then suddenly Harry Potter was falling and Ginny screamed the sound out of Willow's ear. They watched as he was carted off of the field.

Ginny spent the night vigorously writing in her diary and Willow sighed as she went to sleep with the sound of a quill still scratching the paper. She didn't sleep well. Willow was surrounded by darkness and whispers of death and hunger echoed around her. She woke up gasping for breath. She glanced over and noticed that she hadn't woken the other girls. Needing a walk so stood and left for the common room, the embers lighting the room with a glow. She sat down and curled into a ball. She didn't want the voice back. She didn't want those feelings back. She stared at the embers until they disappeared. She was awoken by a prefect in the early morning and escorted back to her room.

There was a strange solemnity to the morning as she ate her breakfast. Ginny was moodily poking her breakfast, Chris wasn't there yet, and Colin, the only other person she talked to, hadn't arrived yet. Then they made the announcement. Ginny agreed to go visit Colin in the hospital wing, though Willow wondered if she was just going to see Harry Potter.

Rumours floated around quickly, and Willow watched as those around her bought a lot of junk amulets. Her daddy's letters told her not to buy any of them, and that he would send her a real one if she wanted. She did. So three days later Willow had a necklace of silver twine with protection magic wrapped around her neck.

Ginny began to ignore her again and write more vigorously in her diary as the days and weeks went by. Willow often had to remind her to write notes in class instead of writing in her diary. But as the classes went on, Willow found that really enjoyed potions, even if the professor would never give her a compliment. She also found that transfiguration was the hardest for her, while charms was much easier. Herbology was boring, and Astrology was hard to stay awake for. Defense was interesting, but they didn't do much in the way of magic, mostly listened to the professor tell stories about his adventures.

Then they announced a dueling club just before Christmas. As first years, they weren't allowed to participate. But Ginny begged Willow to sneak in with her so she could watch Harry Potter. In her own words "This is my only chance!" Reluctantly Willow agreed. They both hid behind a pillar watching as the older students began to cast spells that Willow hadn't even heard of. But then suddenly Harry Potter and a familiar blonde climbed into the duelling platform. Willow had to admit that Harry Potter was good at casting spells. But then the blonde cast a spell that made something appear and everyone got real quiet. Potter began to speak to something, telling it to leave someone alone. But Ginny gasped and was holding her mouth.

Moments later murmurs swept through the hall and Ginny turned to leave. Willow followed her confused. When they finally were climbing the stairs, and Ginny still hadn't said anything, Willow grabbed her arm. "What's wrong?"

"Harry Potter... he's a parselmouth!"

"A what?"

"It means he can talk to snakes. Did you hear him speaking? It gave me goosebumps."

"What are you talking about?" Willow felt her forehead crease. Had she missed something Harry Potter had said?

"It's just... bad. Tom said... But then it's Harry and I..." Ginny trailed off and clutched her ever-present diary closer to her chest.

Willow sighed as she dropped her friend's arm. It was always hard to understand Ginny when she got onto one of her Harry Potter rants. Willow only listened with half an ear as they climbed the rest of the way as Ginny talked about the rumours going around about the Chamber of Secrets.

Christmas approached faster than she expected, and suddenly she was saying goodbye to Ginny and Chris and heading home on the train.

Christmas and rest of Year 1 to come soon