A/N: See, told ya I'd get it up by the end of the week. Blah. I'm feeling very non-creative, right now. Too stressed out. I just did my Math Placement test for Allegheny. It sucked.

Chay is pronounced "Shay," just so you know. Hehe. It means "fairy dwelling."

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. I love reviews! Though, I haven't had very many, which is strange, because when I first wrote this, I had a lot more than I do now, and that version was horrible. Hm...so please R/R!

Chapter 5

The New Arrivals

Harry fumbled in a hurry to tie his shoelace. He glanced hurriedly at his watch, and swore under his breath at the time.

The whole of the Burrow was in an uproar, late, as usual, for the Hogwarts train.

Ron was running frantically around his bedroom doing a last check to see he had everything. Harry sniggered as Ron stumbled for the fourth time over a book that no one had bothered to pick up.

Hermione glanced in the open door, Crookshanks gathered in her arms, and a look of disdain on her face.

She paused for a moment to take in the clothes-and-paper-strewn room and raised an eyebrow histrionically before continuing down the stairs. Harry thought he heard her tutting to herself as she descended.

Finished lacing his shoes, Harry grabbed Hedwig's cage and the handle of his trunk and dashed out the door as Ron muttered continuously about his misplaced dress robes.

A few landings down, Harry came across Ginny looking flushed and irritated, on the verge of tears.

"Ginny, what's…?"

"IF YOU THREE DO NOT GET DOWNTAIRS RIGHT THIS INSTANT, YOU'RE GOING TO MISS THE TRAIN, AND DON'T THINK I'LL BE HELPING YOU THEN! "

Ginny eyed Harry warily as if daring him to finish the question.

"Er…right."

"Harry, you haven't seen my book on Catcher techniques, have you?" She swept a lock of hair away from her face in exasperation, and looked up at him hopefully.

Just then, overhead, there was a loud crash, followed by an "Oomph!"

Harry bit his lip to keep from laughing.

"Yeah. That makes the fifth time Ron's tripped over it."

Ron came bounding down the stairs then, with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Found your robes, then?" Harry asked, eyeing the bundled up wad of deep blue fabric in Ron's fist.

"Yup. Wouldn't have, though, if I hadn't tripped on that bloody book that last time. Fell flat on the floor and saw they'd been under my bed the whole time."

Ginny rolled her eyes and grabbed her book out of Ron's hand. "C'mon, before mum has kittens."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Twenty minutes later they were on the platform and saying their goodbyes.

Molly gave each of them a hug in turn, straying the longest on Harry. After, Arthur shook his hand and said quietly, "Mind yourself, Harry," with a warm smile.

He climbed onto the train and followed Ginny to find a compartment while Ron and Hermione headed off to the Prefects' meeting.

Ginny poked her head into a few compartments, but confirmed that all were full. They made their way to the very end of the train, and finally found an almost deserted compartment, and lugged their trunks in after them.

There were two people in the compartment; a boy about their age, with dark brown hair, who was asleep on the shoulder of a girl sitting next to him. Her face was completely hidden behind a copy of none other than Hogwarts, a History. Only the top of her chestnut colored hair was visible.

"Mind if we sit here?"

Without moving, the girl answered, "Sure. Don't see why not."

Harry and Ginny glanced at each other. Here were two people who they had never seen before, but certainly weren't first years. And the girl had undoubtedly spoke with an American accent.

Harry and Ginny sat down opposite the two strangers. Looking cautiously at the pair, Ginny poked Harry in the ribs and then mouthed, "Exchange students?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders, but then it dawned on him. Exchange students. From the U.S. Hadn't Hermione said something about that? Except she had only mentioned one person. A girl.

It looked like Ginny had remembered too, and she jumped up to rummage through Harry's trunk.

"Er…Gin? What're you doing?"

"AHA!"

She sat back down with a smug look on her face and plopped the copy of History of American Sorcery; from the Salem stunt to modern day mayhem, 3rd edition Hermione had bought for his birthday into his lap.

Harry and Ginny spent the next half hour reading up on American Wizarding Schools and sneaking glances at the two across from them. Harry felt rather uncomfortable as he and Ginny had to sit very close to be able to read together, but Ginny didn't seem to notice, so he kept on reading. It's just Ginny, he told himself.

His thoughts were interrupted by loud voices. Harry could hear Ron and Hermione minutes before they reached the compartment. Ginny perked up, too, and bit her lip in concentration.

"S'okay," she said, relaxing. "They're not fighting, just being loud." She grinned at the idea of Ron and Hermione not fighting, but wiped it quickly off her face as Hermione slid the compartment door open.

"...me neither. Imagine me going to America without the both of you!"

"Are you saying you'd be scared?" Ron goaded.

Harry and Ginny exchanged worried glances. "Well, I thought so, anyway," Ginny whispered to Harry.

"No! Of course not. I'm just saying that I wouldn't want to be that far away from home by myself."

"Scared. Now would you please move. I'd rather have this conversation inside the compartment, not in the hall."

Hermione threw a glare over her shoulder and started to walk, but then stopped again when she saw the two strangers in the compartment.

"'Mione...move!" Ron puffed from behind her. Hermione ignored him.

"Are you Chay?" she asked the girl, excitement growing on her face.

Now the girl dropped her book, a smile formed on her face, and she stood up to throw her arms around Hermione. The boy who'd been sleeping on her woke up with a start and looked wild-eyed around the compartment. Harry sat confused. Did they normally give hugs to people they didn't know in America?

Ron saw the look on Harry's face, and sat down on the other side of him. He opened his mouth to speak, but then saw the proximity between Harry and Ginny, and a knowing smile crawled across his face. Harry tried to ignore it, and muttered impatiently, "What?"

"Oh. Apparently, Hermione couldn't wait 'til September to meet this girl, so they've been owling back and forth all summer. We only just found out at the Prefects' meeting that she decided to bring a friend." At this he gestured to the boy who was groggily trying to take in what was happening around him.

Hermione took that moment to make introductions. "Chay, this is Ron, I've told you about him--"

Hermione broke off with a start and a blush started to creep up her neck.

"I-I mean t-to say, well, I've told you about Harry, too, and Ginny." She gestured to each person in turn. Harry and Ginny were both trying desperately not to laugh. Harry finally stopped laughing enough to look up to say 'hello,' but when he saw her face, his blood suddenly ran cold. It was the girl. The girl from his dream. She had the same startling emerald green eyes and intense, ethereal look.

She was in the middle of extending her hand to shake Harry's, but faltered, seeing the look on Harry's face, and looked in confusion at Hermione.

"Er...Harry?"

Harry jerked when he heard his name. "Right, sorry. Sort of dazed out there."

He smiled, and extended his hand. The girl took it and said, "I'm Chay. Chay Morris."

"Harry Potter," he said, waiting for her eyes to fly to his scar. But they didn't. She only smiled at him curiously (he was sure he was still looking at her funny), and went on to introduce her sleepy friend.

"This, if he would ever wake up, is Aidan," she said, and then added to Hermione, "He has a bit of jet-lag. He just flew in yesterday on a muggle plane."

After all the introductions were made, Chay launched into a speech about the houses. Aidan joined in quickly. It seemed they were both worried about where they would be sorted, if at all.

"Oh don't worry, they'll definitely sort you," Hermione said knowingly, "There's only the two of you, and it's not like during the Twiwizard tournament when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had somewhere else to sleep. I told you about that, right? Right." Hermione scrunched up her brow. "So what house do you think you'll be in?"

Aidan was the first to speak. "Ravenclaw."

Chay crossed her arms and leaned back in the seat she inhabited. She sent a mild glare at Aidan.

Aidan laughed. "She doesn't want me to separate us. Like it's my decision."

"Why, what house do you think you'll be in?" Ginny asked Chay.

Aidan answered for her. "Oh, she'll definitely be in Gryffindor. Or at least she says she won't be in Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff or Slytherin?" He snorted. "Yeah, right."

Chay finally broke out of her pretend mood to smile. Her green eyes sparkled. "You'll give those Ravenclaws a run for their money, won't ya? I think it would be upsetting for them if an exchange student got the top grades."

The conversation went on like this for a while before the sweets cart pulled up. Chay and Aidan looked through the sweets everyone bought with interest.

"You don't have Chocolate Frogs?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Well, we do," Chay answered, "but they're not very popular. We have Laughing Taffy, though. It's my favorite. It gives you the giggles. Mmm...donut flavored ones are the best. And they have cards of famous Quodpot players in them."

Ron snorted. "Why would anyone want those?" he said under his breath. Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.

"S'okay," Chay said. "Neither of us are too big on Quodpot. Quidditch is definitely better. But they don't play it too much in the States."

"So...do you know the Cannons?" Ron asked.

Chay and Aidan snickered and exchanged glances.

"Yep," Aidan said, "Why?"

"Well, we all support the Cannons, don't we?" he said looking around at his friends. Ginny looked as if she wanted to say otherwise, but Harry hurriedly said, "Course!" and Hermione just rolled her eyes.

Aidan looked disbelieving, while Chay just looked insulted. "The Cannons? They're nothing compared to the Prides!"

"The Prides? You like the Pride of Portree?--"

"Do you have a problem with that? They're doing a whole lot better than the Chudley Cannons. Pride is awesome. I've even met Meaghan MacCormack, you know. She's the greatest Keeper there is--"

"WHAT?"

The other members of the compartment began to ignore the conversation (if you could call yelling a conversation) between Ron and Chay. Besides, no one could get a word in edge-wise. Hermione and Aidan were discussing what they'd read in Hogwarts, a History. Aidan said Chay had read it too. Even though she wasn't big on schoolwork, she was what Aidan called a "bookie."

"Maybe she's even read more books than you, Hermione," Aidan jested.

Harry and Ginny were joking about the unlikely ness of a train ride without a visit from Malfoy, when the compartment door rolled open and a head popped in.

"Hey, Neville!" Ginny said, motioning for him to sit down.

"I can't," he said, "Hannah Abbot has a new plant down the hall, and she doesn't know what it is." He looked at Ron and Chay, who hadn't noticed his arrival, due to continued yelling over Quidditch, and then smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "But a lot of people have been talking about the D.A.--" Here Harry winced.

"We decided that we'll keep if up," Harry sighed. "That is, if we're allowed."

"Oh, Dumbledore wouldn't mind," said Neville, "in fact, I think he'd rather like it. Just wanted to know. See ya in a bit!" He closed the door and continued on down the hall.

Aidan asked what the D.A. was after Neville closed the door. Hermione looked at Harry, not knowing whether she should say or not, but was spared answering, as Chay said loudly, "Oh, psh!" during a lull in their conversation, and startled them all.

Harry just wanted to be in his nice four-poster bed. Not worrying about the D.A. Not worrying about this new girl who he'd been dreaming about all summer. And not worrying about Voldemort, or Death Eaters, or......anything.