(2)A New Friend

Harry sighed dejectedly. Barely two weeks in & already he was stuck with two three-parchment long essays in potions. One was the Warming Potion; it was done but Harry wasn't sure if he got right & the other was the opposite, the Freezing Potion! It was near midnight; Ron & Hermione had gone to bed & Harry couldn't sleep & he wished he could have someone's opinion on his essays before turning them in to the Great Professor Of Dread; someone like Hermione or...... The portrait swung open as Merida Hepburn & a friend snuck back inside. The two girls stood horrified when they noticed that Harry had seen them! "Don't worry!" Harry tried calming them. "I do that too! What, may I ask, were you doing?"

"Um---," Merida started. "Something stupid! We just we--uh---well, promise not to tell him?" At Harry's nod of an oath, she went on. "We just rigged Professor Snape's door to spill a bucket of water on him in the morning!" she blurted out. Harry laughed out loud! He could just picture a drenched Snape standing in the door of his office, swearing to know who did that! "What are you dong up?" Merida asked him.

Harry immediately stopped laughing & rolled his eyes. "Potion essays!" he muttered.

"Oh! Need help?"

"Desperately!" Harry sighed with relief. Merida sent her friend up to the dormitory & lay down beside Harry in front of a pile of homework.

"It's odd, isn't it?" Merida started. "Potions is my favourite subject & my best but taught by my least favourite creature on the planet! Well OK second least favourite! Spiders are first!"

"You wouldn't happen to be a friend of Ron Weasley, would you?" Harry laughed softly at the memory of being in the giant spiders' lair & Ron flipping out wishing to follow butterflies! Butterflies! Ha!

"I've seen him a few times! Why? Is he arachnophobic to?" Merida asked. Harry nodded. Merida picked up Harry's Warming Potion essay. "What one are you working on now?" she asked.

"The Freezing Potion," Harry started. "I'm supposed to write what are the three most important ingredients & then state a use for the Potion."

"You've got the easy ones!" Merida started. Seeing Harry stare in disbelief, she explained, "It's a trick question. What do you think of when you hear the word freezing?"

"Ice. Snow," Harry tried to think. "Santa at the North Pole?"

"You've got the first half right!" Merida laughed. "But I don't think Santa would appreciate being stuffed into a cauldron! Your third ingredient is Hoarfrost & though Ice is acceptable, Hail is the better term. As for your Warming Potion, you got most of it right except it's ashes instead of wood & powdered sulphur instead of charcoal!"

Harry sighed. Now he would have to rewrite the whole Warming Potion essay again & finish his Freezing one on top of it & both were do tomorrow! Merida noticed his frustration & came up with a plan. "I could copy out this Warming essay & just replace the wrong words with the right ones. That way it'll still be in your own words & you can finish your other essay while I do this one!" Merida pulled out some new parchment & began writing. Ten minutes later, Harry was watching her in awe & forgetting to write the rest of his Freezing essay. "What?" Merida looked up at Harry.

"Uh---aren't you right-handed?"

"Oh, that!" Merida smiled sheepishly. "Actually, I'm double-handed, though I prefer the right side! It's thanks to Snape that I learned left-hand as well, because of the long essays he gives us, if only to give my right side a break!" Merida laughed. "How's that essay coming?" she reminded Harry.

"Almost done!" Harry returned to it & finished it off. Merida finished copying his Warming essay & gave it to him. She got up to leave, but something snapped around her neck. A broken necklace fell to the floor. It had a gold heart-shaped pendant with a dolphin picture carved on it. The pendant was a locket & it lay opened on the floor but instead of a picture, it contained a message: "We give this to you..." it said on one side, "...for your protection." it finished on the other side. "Oh, no!" Merida exclaimed. "It's broken & it's all I have left from my family----well my REAL family anyway & a letter."

"I can fix it!" Harry pulled out his wand. "Repairus!" The necklace flipped & lay on the floor again, but still broken. "REPAIRUS!!!" Harry commanded. Finally, the necklace decided to cooperate! "Strange!" Harry worried. "I shouldn't be having a problem with that old spell!"

"It isn't you," Merida explained. "It's the necklace. It's bewitched. Spells bounce off it! It really is for my protection, given to me by my real family."

"Real family. What does that mean?" Harry asked to fast. That's not your business! he scolded himself!

"I mean REAL family, related by blood. I was adopted by muggles & didn't know I was a witch until my 11th birthday." Merida explained. "My muggle parents were good to me. They told me that something special was to happen on my 11th birthday & on that birthday, they gave me two letters; one from Hogwarts & one from my original parents. The letter from my parents explained everything about why they couldn't keep me because of Voldomort so they hid me with some muggle friends. They didn't expect the Dark Lord to find me with muggles but...." Merida's voice trailed off. "In the letter was this pendant just in case I returned to the wizard world & a key to a vault in our wizard bank were my scholarship to Hogwarts was. My muggle parents told me that Voldomort had destroyed my family right after my original parents gave me to them. No one knows if anyone else besides me survived & in that letter, my parents were careful not to say their names in case it fell into the wrong hands, so I don't know who they were." Merida paused a moment & looked at the pendant where on its front was a dolphin carved into it. Then she finished. "He killed my muggle family a while ago & my blood family a long time ago. I'm alone now."

Harry tried to think of what the good old wizard, Dumbledore would say at a time like this. "Mmmm-----in Hogwarts, no one is alone!" Sheesh, that was lame! Harry told himself! But Merida smiled at him so maybe it wasn't THAT bad after all.

"See you in the DA tomorrow night?" Merida asked. "I've been practising the Patronus & it's a dolphin but I can't get it to stay very long!"

"A dolphin?!" Harry asked, surprised. "Just like that picture on your pendant! OK, see you tomorrow night & we'll work on holding the charm for longer periods of time!"