- CHAPTER ONE –

An Unexpected Visitor

  The sun was setting in Little Whinging, and the cool night air blew over the identical houses as the residents retired to their beds for another routine checked day. But among all the bustle of adults trying to get their kids to bed, a boy of about sixteen walked along the street, his messy dark brown hair blew carelessly in the wind as his sharp green eyes flicked around the street, he was definitely on the lookout for someone. He flopped down sullenly on a bench that was at the end on the street.

  "Oh who am I kidding? He isn't coming back..." The boy sighed. He looked in the bushes longingly, if only there was a slight noise, a rustle, a shadow...but there was no point wishing he reminded himself sternly, as much as it pained him to admit it...he was gone, Sirius, his godfather  was gone.

  "WHY? WHY ME? WHAT DO YOU WANT? DO YOU WANT TO MAKE MY LIFE A MISERY???" He shouted, glaring at the sky, somebody, anybody answer me he thought.

  "Erm...actually I just wanted to sit here..." A feminine voice said nervously. He looked up and saw a girl of about the same age looking down at him. She was tall and slim, with raven black hair and misty blue eyes, her face was narrow, but her haircut offset it very nicely, she wore a pair of combats that were loose and baggy and a black vest top under a casual denim jacket. The boy was slightly taken aback by her sudden appearance.

  "Oh...yeah...it's OK, I wasn't talking to you..." He responded nervously, blushing slightly, after all she had just heard him yell at no-one.

  "Thanks." She said as she sat down. An awkward silence filled the night air.

  "So...um...what's your name?" the boy asked nervously to try and break the silence.

  "Which one?" She responded with a laugh.

  "Erm...your first one, or something everyone normally calls you by..." The boy wondered why she would have trouble figuring this out.

  "Well...erm...people normally call me Amethyst."

  "That's a pretty name." He just noticed then that she WORE an amethyst necklace.

  "How about you?"

  "Harry."

  "Nice to meet you Harry."

  "Same to you Amethyst."

  "So...you live 'round here I guess?"

  "Yeah...Privet Drive, number 4."

  "Cool. I'm from all over the place before you ask; don't even have time to go to school..."

  "Well, I'm sure you at least live with your parents...instead of an aunt, uncle and cousin whose soul purpose in their lives is to make you as miserable as they can while you live there..."

  "I live – I mean travel with my dad, my mum's dead..."

  "Oh...both my parents are dead...they died...um...when I was a baby..." Harry choked back a sob. He only managed to stop himself from saying "By Lord Voldemort".

  "Oh...well maybe we should talk about something else?"  Amethyst asked, sensing that Harry was upset.

  "Yeah..."

  "So what school do you go to?"

  "Oh erm...it's pretty far away...you probably won't know it..."

  "Let me guess, the farther away the better?" She asked with a smirk and a sparkle in her eye.

  "Yeah." Harry laughed slightly.

  "Heh...Well...erm, I'd better go, my dad's got a cool DVD, and you could come over if you want?" She raised her voice slightly, sounding hopeful.

  "Well...OK, doubt the tormenters would be upset if I left..." Harry stood up and followed Amethyst.

  "So, oh yeah, you'd better call my dad Mr. Goodfella...he believes he invented the Goodfellas pizza..." She rolled her eyes. "Great father...completely off his rocker though..."

  "So do people call you Amethyst because of the necklace?" Harry asked, he'd been wondering since he noticed it.

  "Partially. It because I ALWAYS wear amethyst jewellery, people say that I believe it protects me, which is sorta the truth, I always feel calmer and safer wearing it...guess it's just its magical properties..." She laughed.

  Harry's ears pricked up at the sound of the word "magical" from this girl's lips, could she be a witch? Does her father work for the Ministry and is THAT why she constantly moved?

  "You OK?" Amethyst looked at him quizzically.

  "Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine."

  "Here we are." She hopped over a garden fence and walked through a rather forest looking garden. "We haven't really had time to clean up..." She admitted sheepishly. Harry opened the gate and followed Amethyst. "DAD!" Amethyst called as soon as she entered the house.

  "In here Aimee!" A man shouted back.

  "Let me guess, short for Amethyst?" Harry said with a slight smile.

  "Yeah...coming dad! Living room's down the hall and the first door on your left." She directed as she ran into the kitchen.

  Harry followed Amethyst's directions feeling slightly out of place, it was unusual for him to actually be at another house during the holidays, unless you counted when his friend Ron and his brothers Fred and George – who now run a joke shop - came and rescued him with a flying car, or last summer when Remus Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Elphias Doge, Dedalus Diggle, Emmeline Vance, Sturgis Podmore, and Hestia Jones helped him escape to Sirius' house, which was the headquarters of The Order of the Phoenix.

*

  Harry sat alone in the Living Room, feeling very nervous and stupid. He was in the house of a girl he'd only just met and she wasn't even here. The door's handle rattled insanely and Amethyst entered the room looking rather flustered.

  "Sorry about that...my dad was being an ass..." She muttered angrily.

  "Right..." Harry responded.

  "Now let's see...hmm...28 Days Later...I've heard about this, made with Lottery money and a video recorder...the Americans are stark raving mad for it!"

  "Cool."

*

  Vernon Dursley a rather well – rounded – man, with a moustache and no neck sat in his – what he was proud to call – normal home watching the news. He sighed contentedly, that boy wasn't around which made his day the best it had been in a while.

  "Petunia dear, the news is on." He called.

  Petunia Dursley, an overly thin woman with too much neck (probably to make up for her husband's lack of one) walked into the main room with a mop in one hand.

  "I do hope that they've lowered the prices for the petrol, the very idea that you should be paying that much for a liquid!" Mrs Dursley raged. "Vernon...where's my little Duddykins and...That...boy...?"

  "Dudley is out with his friends, as for the boy the further away from this house he is the better."

*

Author: Well as I'm too lazy to write anymore...the rest of this chapter will be coming shortly!