Author's note: Please, please, please review this after you read it! I don't mind criticism, constructive or otherwise, but please please PLEASE review it!
*~*Chapter 1--Hogwarts Express*~*
On the morning of September 13, Harry was driving (yes, he has a driver's license now) himself and Uncle Vernon to the Kings Cross Station where the Hogwarts Express was located. As he pulled up to the drop-off area, he spotted Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger scanning the crowd.
He got out. "Ron! Hermione!" he shouted, and waved.
They smiled, seeing him, and rushed over. "Oh, Harry, I've missed you so much!" exclaimed Hermione as she threw her arms around him. They hugged each other tight, like best friends should.
Then Harry turned to Ron. "Hey, how's it going with you?" he asked.
"Everything's okay at my place. Dad got me a new owl because I cleaned the whole house while they were gone. Here she is. Isn't she a beauty?" he said, beaming. He held up a cage that contained a tawny brown owl with her head under her wing.
"Wow, she is a pretty one," Harry replied. "What's her name?"
"Well, er, I haven't really thought of a name for her yet. I was kinda thinking Footsock, to go with Hedwig, but I decided it would be kind of degrading to have an owl named Footsock, and even more so to be an owl named Footsock."
"Hmmmm. Who are your favorite musicians?" Harry asked.
"Well, I like Andrew Kea and Dennis Kavan and Zilpharis Greer and--"
"Wait. What was that last one?"
"Zilpharis Greer?"
"Yeah. Zilpharis would be a great name for an owl! Don't you think so, Hermione?" Harry said.
"Well, I don't know. I guess so," Hermione responded, sounding very unsure.
"Ron, what do you think? About naming your owl Zilpharis?" he asked.
"I think that's a great name for an owl! Truly, you are a genius, Harry!" Ron replied, excited.
"Hey, Harry, are you just gonna stand there all day instead of getting your stuff and getting out of my face for a year or am I gonna have to take you home and put up with you while you're supposed to be at school?" came Uncle Vernon's angry voice from the car.
"Oh, oops," said Harry. "Hang on a sec, guys, I gotta get my stuff out of my uncle's car. Be right back!" He ran over to the car and opened the trunk. He pulled out a trunk, a cauldron, and everything else he'd need for his sixth year at Hogwarts.
"Bye, Uncle Vernon!" he called, knowing he would only get a grunt in reply. Then the three sixth-years walked through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters together.
The train was still there, and they got on and went to the back.
"Phew!" Harry exclaimed as he plopped his stuff down and collapsed on the nearest seat.
"Phew what?" Hermione and Ron asked in unison.
"That trunk is heavy!" Harry exclaimed. "And it's not just that! It's my cauldron and my wand and my books and everything! Jeez!" Suddenly, as if the man were right there in the train with them, Harry heard Lord Voldemort's voice.
"Harry Potter," it said, chilling Harry to the bone. "I have awaited long for you, and I now know that you are out of my reach forever."
The boy knew his enemy was lying. "You can't fool me, Voldemort," Harry replied, causing Ron and Hermione to stop their conversation about Hogsmeade and stare at him. "I saw you and . . . . Gamadri or whatever the heck her name is. You are planning to have her seduce me and lead me straight to you."
"How could you know about that?" Voldemort asked, his once calm voice now containing a quiver of nervousness.
"I have my ways. And anyway, you can be assured that if I see anyone named Gamadri or resembling the girl I saw with you, I will sure steer clear of her."
"Hmmm. You are a clever boy, Harry," the Dark Master said, changing tactics completely. "You would be great beside me. You obviously have great powers, or you would not have been able to defeat me twice, and escape from me four times. Please do not take what I am saying lightly. I'm serious."
"Really, now, I thought you were Voldemort!" Harry retorted sarcastically.
"Shut up and listen to me, you little--" He stopped, took a deep breath, and attempted to regain his composure. "Harry, think of your parents."
"How dare you even think to mention my parents after what you did to them?" Harry shouted through clenched teeth.
"Harry, Harry. Calm down. Would they want you to go on hating for the rest of your life? Would they want your soul to be hardened by bitterness?" Voldemort asked, his voice milky smooth.
"Would they want me to befriend and assist the wizard who killed them?" Harry asked angrily.
Voldemort sighed audibly. "Well, there you have a point. Look, all will be explained to you in time. I'm not as bad as you think. All I want to do is rid the world of Muggles. Don't you want to get rid of those Muggles you live with?"
"Who wouldn't want to get rid of them? But not all Muggles are like them!" he protested, thinking of Henedra. "Some are kind and caring, not to mention beautiful! Why, my own best friend is Muggle-born! Do you think I would want to get rid of her? Just because some wizard thinks that magic folk are better than non-magic or Muggle-born? You got the wrong guy. Just go away and leave me alone!"
"Well, I'll let you think it over. Don't forget: either you join me or you die." Then he left, as sure as if he had walked out the door, he left.
Harry looked breathlessly at Hermione and Ron, who were staring at him and looking very concerned. "What was that, Harry?" whispered Hermione. "You were talking to the ceiling."
"Couldn't you hear it?" Harry asked anxiously.
"Hear what?" Ron asked, puzzled.
"Vol--You-Know-Who! He was talking to me!"
Hermione and Ron glanced at each other nervously. "Harry, are you sure it was, you know, him?" Hermione asked.
"Well, yeah! I mean, who else could it be?"
"I dunno, Harry. It sounds awful fishy to me. You hearing a voice no one else could hear--wait a minute! Hermione, do you remember the static sound we heard while Harry was talking?"
"Yeah. . . . . Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, the truth coming through to her at last. "Harry, he was speaking Parseltongue, and that's why we couldn't hear it!"
"Oh. Okay, I didn't think of that."
It was at this moment that the door to their car opened, and in walked a beautiful redhead. "Is this the Hogwarts Express?" she asked, her voice hinting at Scottish ancestry.
"Uh, um, yeah?" Ron mumbled, clearly awed by this beauty.
She giggled. "I am Almalia Ferinthrup. I just got transferred from Beauxbatons because I moved to England. What are your names?"
"Ongwishley," Ron muttered, his voice cracking.
"Excuse me? Didn't quite catch that, sorry."
"I'm Won Reasley."
"Oh. Very nice to meet you, Won."
Hermione giggled. "His name's Ron Weasley. He's feeling a bit tired right now; think he had one too many butterbeers at the Leaky Cauldron this morning.
"I'm Harry. Very nice to meet you, Almalia."
"Hermione Granger. It's a pleasure."
"And the same to all of you," she replied. "I'm hoping I'm caught up in all my studies. It's been a while and I've heard they don't teach the same material that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang teach. I've attended both, and, personally, I preferred Beauxbatons."
"Hm." Harry wasn't really interested in what she was saying, but Ron seemed to be hanging on to her every word. She frowned at him.
"Are you okay? For some reason, I don't think this is your--how shall I put this?--normal everyday behavior," Almalia remarked.
"Hehehe," Harry chuckled, embarrassed. "Um, no, this isn't his everyday behavior," he said as he stretched and purposefully elbowed Ron in the ribs.
"Ouch!" Ron yelped.
"Oh, sorry, old boy!" Harry said fakely.
"So how many years were you at Durmstrang and Beauxbatons?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, I was at Durmstrang for two years and Beauxbatons for three. This is my sixth year of wizarding school," she replied, glancing at her perfectly manicured nails.
"What material did you cover while you were there?" Hermione was eager to prove that she was better than any student from another school.
"Oh, just the basics: curses, potions, antidotes, plants, animagi, transfiguring rabbits into kittens, the works. I am a registered Animagus, you know. They make certain. . . . exceptions for excelling underage wizards and witches."
Hermione was taken aback by this shocking news. "Um, what do you transform into?" she asked awkwardly.
"Allow me to demonstrate," the other girl said, grinning wickedly. She pulled a wand out from inside her robes and transformed herself. Into a rather large lioness.
"Um, Harry," Ron swallowed nervously. "I, uh, think we should move or something. She looks dangerous like that. See her tail swinging to and fro like that? Well, on a large cat, that's not a good sign."
Almalia the lioness lunged. Ron and Hermione dove out of the way, only to see her pin Harry to the ground.
"Harry!" Hermione screamed, a lump rising in her throat.
The big cat laughed a chilling laugh. "Do you actually think I'd do anything that could actually hurt him or something? No!" She turned back to face Harry, and licked his face with her long cat tongue.
"Stop it!" Ron cried out. He wanted to be the one she was licking, not Harry.
"Why?" she asked.
"Be-because, um, we're almost to Hogwarts! Yeah, and, um, we need to make sure our stuff is ready!" Ron replied.
"Ron, our stuff is ready. It's not going to do anything in the next fifteen minutes unless we do something to it," Hermione said matter-of-factly.
He shot her an angry look, which clearly said that he didn't like Harry being the center of attention. Hermione simply raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head. He clenched his fist.
"Well, if we're almost to Hogwarts, then we still have a few minutes," Almalia said. She lay down, still on top of Harry, and curled up for a catnap.
"Geroff, Almalia. We've barely even met and already you're lying on top of me! I just don't feel comfortable with this. Sorry," Harry said, seeing the hurt look on Ron's face.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Almalia exclaimed. "I must have gotten a little carried away! Forgive me!" She got up and moved herself off of the boy.
"Thanks. No offense or anything, you know."
"Oh, of course! My fault completely!"
The four students heard the train whistle. "Well, we're there!" Harry said. He went to his trunk and pulled out a bottle of Sparkling Cider and a bag of plastic goblets. "To celebrate the beginning of another school year!"
Both Almalia and Ron stared at the bottle skeptically.
"What is it?" asked Ron.
"Oh, it's just like carbonated apple cider, nothing more. No alcohol or anything in it!" Harry assured him.
"Okay, I'm trusting you on this one, buddy." Harry poured him a bit and let him taste it.
"Ptooie!" Ron exclaimed after swallowing. "That stuff is rancid!"
The three others laughed, then drank their cider and prepared to get off and begin another fun, yet challenging year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Yay! I'm finished with Chapter 1! Chapter 2 to come very soon: probably tomorrow or something. Please review!