So, now that I'm on a roll (well, a small roll), I'll keep on writing… one thing, though: I've already thought a bit about how I want to do book five, so if I don't get to there until after the real one comes out, I'm going to use my ideas and mix them with the real one :-) I've also decided that there WILL be a small romance going on, but I'm not telling who it's with.

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Thanks & Responses

Aidenn Legacy- I'm glad you like it!

D-Chan- I'm not telling who the other person is yet :-) Don't worry, you will find out (but I don't know when, yet)

Usagi Malfoy- It's not unfair… and who knows, she may choose Draco… but she might not.

Elisabeth- I'm definitely going to make it a romance fic, but maybe not with Harry… I'm going to definitely have Usagi end up with the guy that I'd wanna be with ;-)

Honey- I'm not telling you who they are, but you are wrong (on one count, at least…)

Daystar Flame- I'm writing more as I… write :-D

Silver_Tenshi- I know the feeling… it happens without sugar all the time. She might've chosen the Malfoy, too, and Usagi might not end up with Draco.

Serenity- I'm hurry with it! But I'm not rushing too much, because I don't want it to be too horribly bad ;-)

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"Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad! Tell my brother that I said bye, and that I hope he drowns in a toilet!" Usagi screamed as she waved good-bye to her parents, who were pulling away from the station. She checked her watch and gasped, "Oh no! I only have five minutes to find the train!"

The girl sprinted through the station, pushing a cart with her trunk on it ahead of her. She skidded to a halt, facing platforms nine and ten, remembering the instructions on the letter she had received from Hogwarts. "I have to walk straight at that thing?" she muttered to herself. She thought she saw a flash of bright red hair as she began to walk towards the barrier, but it disappeared quickly and she thought she must've been imagining it.

"I'm going to crash and everyone is going to stare at me," she thought as she neared the wall. "Oh, well, I usually manage to make a fool of myself anyway…" and she walked straight through the wall, emerging on the other side in front of a smoking scarlet steam engine with the words 'Hogwarts Express' painted on the side. "Wow! I guess I did make it," Usagi exclaimed. She walked along the train and went in near the back, trying and failing miserably to haul her trunk in after her.

Hazeka, who Usagi had put inside already, said, "Why don't you ask somebody for help? There seems to be plenty of people around…"

"I… I guess I will! Thanks for the idea," Usagi replied, mentally hitting herself for not thinking of that. "Oh, um… could you help me with my trunk?" she asked a passing girl.

"Certainly," the girl replied. She picked up the end that was outside the train, and Usagi once more bent and picked up her end.

Together they were able to store the trunk, and the girl disappeared as Usagi called, "Thank you!" She wandered along the hallway, trying to find an empty compartment. The one at the very back had no occupants, so she took a seat by the window in there, with Hazeka in the golden cage next to her.

"Why didn't you try to find a seat with someone else?" Hazeka asked. Normally, the girl would've been bouncing around, introducing herself to everyone, but she seemed uncharacteristically shy.

"I just don't know how to act around everyone… they're all wizards and witches, and probably know a ton of magic already from how they grow up. I've lived around muggles all my life, and I don't know how magic people are," Usagi explained, somewhat sadly. She really would've loved to meet some people.

"What about that Harry boy you told me about? Why don't you go see if you can find him? He might have some friends he can introduce you to."

That seemed like the obvious option to Usagi, and she was glad she had chosen this particular owl. "Well then, let's go see if we can't find him," Usagi said, taking up the cage and emptying the room. Harry was soon to be found in one of the compartments not too far away, and as she knocked on the open door, she said, "I don't know if you remember me… I'm Usagi Tsukino, and I went to your house one time to ask for directions to Mrs. Figg's house."

"Oh, yeah, I remember you. Ron, this is Usagi Tsukino, Usagi, this is Ron Weasley," Harry said, recognition dawning on his features. How could I not remember you?

"Pleased to meet you, Ron," Usagi said holding out her hand.

Ron's ears went red as he looked at Usagi standing there, face open and friendly, a yellow tee shirt and light blue jeans on. He mumbled something that sounded like, "Pleasemeto," and looked down at his hands.

Noticing the boy's embarrassment, Usagi turned back to Harry. "So you got a letter too? That's why I had to find Mrs. Figg, you know. She told me how to get some things and showed me how to send an owl."

"Oh, I definitely got my letter," Harry said, grinning, "Why don't you sit down? It's kind of a funny story, really…" and so they whiled away the hours on the train, talking about how they got their letters, everything that happened when they did, and many other things.

When they were interrupted three times in a row, Usagi turned to Ron's rat and said, "Hello, there. What's your name?"

The rat replied, "Pettigrew," and Usagi thought it a very odd name indeed.

When they were alone again, Usagi said tentatively, "What did you say your rat's name was, Ron?"

"I didn't say, but it's Scabbers," Ron said, his ears still a light pink.

"But he said that his name was-" Usagi was cut off by a girl-Hermione, was it? – coming into their room and saying, "You'd best get into your robes. I've been up front talking to the conductor and he says we're almost there."

Blushing slightly at the implications of that statement, Usagi said, "I'll see you when we get there," and rushed out of the room. After she fetched her robe, she was relieved to see that her previous compartment was still unoccupied, and changed in there.

One magical boat ride later, she found herself and the rest of the first years standing in a small room off the entrance hall, the nervous silence interrupted only once when several people screamed (herself included) as some ghosts glided through the walls. They were marched into the Great Hall, and told that they'd be trying on a hat to be sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

Usagi had no idea which house she wanted to be sorted into, and only after "Thomas, Dean," had been called up did she realize that she would be trying the hat on soon. Indeed, she was the very next person, and stepped up to the stool and sat down. She did notice that several of the people in the hall had the same shocked look that she was growing very used to in the wizarding world. Her vision was suddenly blocked as a hat was placed on her head, and a small voice began muttering in her ear, "Not Ravenclaw, not quite clever and studious enough for that… can't be Hufflepuff, no… it just wouldn't work out there at all… and Gryffindor would hold you back, I see, so it had better be SLYTHERIN!"

She walked slowly to the table that was clapping politely; one thing she had noticed while waiting to be sorted was that while other houses clapped loudly, this house was cooler, not as excited. She wasn't sure if she liked any of them. When food appeared on the table, however, she completely forgot about the house she was sorted into and began to eat. She started small at first, not sure what the food would taste like, but then she began to tuck in ravenously. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw the dessert selection in front of her, but it was nothing to the looks of her housemates around her as they watched this tiny girl eating everything within reach.

"Wow, she must've been starved before or something," one of the older boys whispered to the girl seated next to him. After a few more announcements from the headmaster, they were all sent off to bed. Usagi followed one of the girls she knew was a first year as well, and soon found her dormitory. She chose the one bed next to the door… the dungeon theme of the whole house area was very uncomfortable to Usagi, who was used to the pink fluffiness of her own room.

None of the girls seemed to dislike her, but Usagi also felt uncomfortable around them. That was how she ended up eating breakfast and lunch outside every day.

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The morning in mid-September was like any morning for Usagi. She had woken up earlier than all the other girls, gotten all her things ready for the day, and dashed up to the Great Hall to snatch some toast for breakfast. Then she trudged out to her favorite spot on the stands in the Quidditch pitch, on the highest row overlooking the lake.

Usagi began to daydream, gazing out over the gently rippling dark water, munching absently on her toast. She hadn't noticed the boy watching her, but he was, and very carefully. He was tall, and older, in his fifth year.

He knew that to like her would be forbidden… she was Slytherin, he wasn't. But still, after the first day he'd seen her eating outside (he'd been returning his broom to the broom shed), he had come outside, just to watch her eat. It was the only opportunity he had to see her. Suddenly, he seemed to make up his mind about something, and he climbed up behind her, silently sitting. After a few seconds, he said, "It looks nicer from the air." Startled, Usagi glanced up to see who had spoken, and saw a boy she didn't recognize. Still staring out at the lake, he said, "Not that I'm saying it isn't pretty from here, but it does look great from the roof."

"But I can't get to the roof," Usagi pointed out with a small smile, "There's no stairs going up there, and it's not like I can fly…"

"Oh, but you can," the boy said again, this time looking down at her and smiling. "I'll be right back."

Shocked, Usagi watched as the boy gracefully sprinted off in the direction of the broom shed, and then saw no more of him.

"Ready?" his voice said in her ear.

She must've jumped about a mile high, and turned to see the boy grinning at her from a broom. "F-for what?"

"To fly, of course!" he said. "Come on, hope on." Usagi obediently clambered onto the broom in back of the boy, and clamped her arms around his waist. Suddenly, the stadium began to fall away beneath her, and her hair flew out in back of her.

"Where are we going?" she asked in his ear.

"Where else? The roof!" he called.

"He's bonkers," Usagi muttered to herself, but she still smiled.

A few moments later, they landed on the roof, overlooking the lake. "Wow," Usagi breathed, "It DOES look better from up here." She walked closer to the edge to see more of the grounds, but felt slightly dizzy looking down and scampered back.

"Too bad I couldn't come up here EVERY day for breakfast," Usagi said, sitting down on the roof.

"You could," said the boy, sitting next to her. "You could borrow my broom and fly up here on your own."

"Really?"

"Really. It's in the cabinet marked Gryffindor, on the shelf called Oliver Wood… that's my shelf, you see," he said, grinning.

"But I don't know how to fly!" Usagi said, her face falling.

"I'll teach you. Let's go back down to the Quidditch pitch… we don't want any accidents happening up here, do we?"

Nodding her agreement, Usagi perched on the broomstick in back of Oliver once again. In the pitch, he showed her how to hold the broom to mount it, how to grip it, and told her a bit about steering and landing.

"Now, push off, hard," he said, sitting on a school broom, hovering in the air a few feet off the ground. He had a strange red ball under his arm, and Usagi wondered what it was for.

She obediently pushed off, as hard as she could, and flew once more into the air. The feeling was awesome, and she flew up and down the stadium a few times before Oliver said, "Come over here!" He was now in front of the hoops at one end of the pitch. Usagi flew up and stopped right in front of him. "Take this," he said, holding out the ball. Usagi took it from his hands, and he positioned himself more in the center of the three hoops. "Now," he began explaining, "Try to throw this into any of the hoops. I'm going to try to stop the ball."

"Um… all right," Usagi said tentatively. She zoomed around in front of the hoops a few times, and then with no warning threw the ball into the hoop furthest from her. It went through neatly, and Oliver had no chance to stop it. Eyes glinting, he tossed the ball back to Usagi, who put it past him once more. By the time for their first lesson, Oliver had only been able to block Usagi from scoring three times, and she'd scored many more than that.

"You'd make a good Chaser, Usagi," he said, walking with her back to the broom shed.

"Thanks, Oliver," she said, blushing slightly. She glanced at her watch and shrieked, "Oh no! I'll be late for potions! Bye, Oliver!" she called over her shoulder as she sprinted off to class. She arrived before Snape, the potions master did, and slid into a seat beside Pansy.

She spotted Harry, but didn't have a chance to say anything because Malfoy walked up and said, "I saw you with that filthy Gryffindor… I'd stay away from them if I was you." Thankfully, he said it so only Usagi could hear, and Usagi was able to reply in kind.

"Well, you're not me, and you can stay away from them. Some of them, however, happen to be my friends, unlike most of you stinking Slytherins," she hissed back at him. Just then, Snape walked in and began lecturing them all on different potions, and how they'd be making one particular one soon. Usagi absently scratched the notes down, but didn't take in what she was writing at all. Her thoughts were on Oliver Wood, and Gryffindor, and how she was Slytherin.

Maybe the hat made a mistake… she thought. It seems like I'd be much better suited to Gryffindor! I can't make friends with anybody in Slytherin. All my friends are in Gryffindor… she sighed heavily and picked up all her books, heading off to Herbology with Ravenclaw.

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"You must choose," the tall man said.

"I can't, Severus… I just can't. I can't hurt either of you!"

"Choose," the one who looked like Malfoy said.

"I can't, Lucius… one of you will be hurt, and I can't hurt you!" the woman said, sounding desperate.

"You have to choose, Queen Serenity," the men said in unison.

Usagi woke up from her nightmare. It had been haunting her every week since she had arrived at Hogwarts. It seemed too clear to be a dream, though. It seemed more like a memory… a horrible memory that she didn't want to have. Every time she dreamed, she saw a little bit more of the situation, of the Queen choosing between Severus and Lucius.

Severus? She thought, starting up from her laying position. Lucius? Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy? I thought that they were the same age… Severus looks like he could be Lucius's father, though…so it can't be Professor Snape…but what was Snape's father's name? Or did he have a brother? A cousin? I met the Severus Snape from the dream in the Leaky Cauldron… it must be a relation of Professor Snape… but who is the Queen? She looks so much like me, but she can't be related. All my family has been normal muggles! Oh, I'm so confused… and Usagi drifted back into an uneasy sleep, dreamless, yes, but still very uneasy. She remembered the look that Snape had given her that first day in potions… the shocked look. Why did everyone look at her like that?

The next day was Saturday, so she had no classes. She decided she needed to talk to someone, and she knew who that someone would be.

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So, whaddaya think? Reviews would be nice! Sorry that this is taking so long, everyone, but I need to figure out where this is going to go. I think I'll be able to crank out one more chapter today, but maybe not… at any rate, it might be coming kinda slow now, because my vacation ends tomorrow and I'll be getting lots of homework! Yay! Not. So, review and let me know what you think!

~**Rini**~