"Last call for passengers!" A man shouted, peeping out of the train.

Harry and Mandee quickly waved goodbye to her parents and jumped onto it, hauling their luggage behind them.

"Harry!" Hermione Granger called, looking out from a compartment. Ron Weasley, a redhead whom Mandee's best friend Mary thought was adorable, peeped out from behind Hermione and grinned.

"Hey, guys," Harry said. "I'll introduce you to my friends, come on."

They slid into the compartment, and Harry sat down, purposely knocking into Ron.

"This is Mandee Parker," Harry said. "Her parents knew my mum and dad, and I'm going to be staying in her house this summer."

"Oh, how wonderful!" Hermione exclaimed. "No more Dursley's, Harry! You can sit next to me, Mandee." She said, offering her a little room. She shyly said down and smiled.

"I have to say it's a lot better with at least one girl in here on the way there," Hermione whispered, smiling.

"No kidding!" Mandee laughed.

As soon as the train started moving, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all told their summer-stories, Harry's being the most interesting, of course.

"So what'd the Dursley's do to you this time?" Ron asked, smiling from ear to ear.

"Well, first, they gave me this long talk about how I need to shape up, which lasted pretty much the whole day, because they had a list of things I do wrong, and a list of things I need to do right. The second thing they did was hide my wand and homework and everything, and then lock me in my room for the rest of the summer. You should have seen them trying to work all those locks just to bring me food. but I survived, because they forgot about the window. thanks a lot Ron for sending me the cakes and stuff, it was a huge life-saver."

"No problem," Ron said, munching on a chocolate frog.

"My summer was the same as last years," Hermione said. "Do a little reading, and then practice. Then I do some more reading, and some more practicing."

"Wow, Hermione," Ron said sarcastically. "That story was so mind-boggling; you could just feel the suspense."

They all laughed and carried on having a merry time until the Hogwarts Express came to a halt, and they skidded out and into the castle. Boy, it was sure good to be back here, Mandee thought, and she assumed Harry was thinking the same thing by the way he was smiling.

Harry pointed to one of the gargoyles. "That's where me and Ron placed one of Fred and George's Bumble Bee Bombs," Harry whispered to her. "And when Malfoy walked by, it exploded in his face."

Mandee laughed heartily, and they all slid into their seats at the Gryffindor table. Dumbledore continued his speech about the beginning-of- the-year announcements, and the food brandished its way onto their plates once again.

Half-way into the meal, though, Mandee felt a poke in the back. "Ouch! What the-?" She said, turning around to face her best friend, Nina.

"Where were you today?" She asked angrily, sitting down in the empty seat beside her. "And why aren't you sitting with us?"

"Because..." Mandee shrugged. "It's a long story, but I'm sitting with them right now, but I promise to spill the details later." She whispered.

"Okay," Nina said. "See you in the common room."

After the meal was over, they all headed into their dormitories, girls on the left, and boys on the right.

"Well, I'll see you," Harry said, waving to Mandee. She was almost certain, though, that when he was walking about Ron had nudged him. She simply shrugged, it could have been anything. But what would Ron nudge Harry about? As soon as Mandee entered the girls' dormitory, Nina sprinted up and asked, "So what happened?"

Mandee smiled and walked over to her bed, flopping onto it. "Harry's staying with us for the summer, since my mum and dad used to be friends with his mum and dad and they figured it'd be easier for Harry if he just stayed with us instead of those awful Dursleys. So, we met in Diagon Alley, and he stuck up for me when Malfoy called me a Mudblood, so I hung with him. He's really cool."

"That is SO CUTE!" Nina squealed. "What'd he do? Punch Malfoy?"

"No," Mandee laughed. "How lame is that? He hexed him for me."

"That is so totally cute!" Nina screeched. "You guys are totally in love!"

Mandee narrowed her eyebrows and sat up in bed. "No, I'm not. I haven't even thought of liking him, only when I first saw him. But we're friends. just friends. I don't expect to like him any more than I do right now."

"Whatever you say," Nina said in an I-don't-believe-you tone. "He's totally falling for you."

Was he, though? I mean, he had hexed Malfoy for her, but they'd been enemies since. forever. He might've done it for pure joy, anyway. She really didn't want to think about it though. I mean, Harry and her were just friends. Strictly friends.