After traumatizing her grandmother with her cell phone for the rest of the day (at first Molly thought Lydia was have a mental breakdown and talking to herself until she discovered "that funny piece of plastic" Lydia held to her ear. Then Lydia had her friends talk loudly from the phone so her grandma was convinced someone had broken in and was talking rather loudly for a burglar), Lydia slept a deep sleep – interrupted only by a strange dream.

Surrounded by a black mist that seemed to glow despite its color, her senses were all...clogged? Dampened? Limited? Whatever the word, she could barely see, hear, feel, smell...she couldn't even taste her own mouth. It felt sort of like she was under anesthesia. With an enormous effort, she took a step forward. Instantly a tall spiral of smoke appeared before her, then it vanished to reveal a person...with a featureless face. She squinted and tried to look closer, but all she saw was a colorless blur for a face.

It motioned for her to come closer, and, without wanting to or ordering her body to follow the thing's command, she approached the being with her usual speed.

A blast of pure light erupted from the thing's face suddenly, right where a left eye would be. Then a blast from the right eye's space, then one from the nose area...the last one, from the mouth, faded along with the other ones...and Lydia saw her own face looking back at her. It smiled mischievously, and winked. Immediately the rest of its body matched Lydia's. Suddenly Lydia couldn't breathe. Her nose and mouth felt like they had a thick cloth pressed against them, blocking her airways... Darkness crept to the sides of her eyes and took over her vision as she choked, unable to scream... The last thing she saw as her body hit the ground was the thing, staring down at her as it turned its back on her death...

With a jolt, Lydia was brought back to reality, covered with cold sweat and gasping in shuddering breaths. Nausea overtook her, and she stumbled to the bathroom and retched.

Shaking and wiping the bile from her lips, Lydia closed her eyes and gulped several breaths. Trying to calm herself, she thought, it wasn't that bad a dream! Why am I reacting like this?

A steady throbbing pounded in her head. Suddenly a familiar ring sounded – her cell phone. With a shaking hand, she reached into her pajama's breast pocket and took out her phone. Something twisted her gut as she realized she'd last put the phone on her bedside table – why was it in her pocket?

"H-hello?" she asked, voice trembling.

Silence answered. She took another look at the phone:

UNREGISTERED DEVICE/NUMBER it read as identification for the caller. Unregistered device? What did that mean?

"Hello? Anyone there?" she tried again.

Nothing. Then abruptly, a barely distinguishable hissing noise came through the cellular. It got louder, until Lydia heard slithery words being formed.

"What do you want?" she cried into the phone.

The hissing stopped, and her phone beeped to let her know the connection was broken.

Lydia knelt in the bathroom, shivering, for several minutes before she got up, went to her bedroom and crawled into bed. There she stayed awake for several hours, too afraid to go to sleep, until exhaustion took over and her eyes finally closed. This time, her sleep was dreamless.

Staring at her fruit salad with tired eyes, Lydia sat at the breakfast table silently while everyone else talked about what kind of robe to get for Lydia, whether goblins were trustworthy or not, and getting a phone (that was her grandpa, of course, with Molly saying, "No, Arthur").

"Lydia, are you all right?" Marie asked.

"I didn't get very good sleep last night," Lydia said. "I'm kinda tired."

Ron frowned. "Should we go to Diagon Alley tomorrow instead?"

"No – no, it's fine," Lydia mumbled. She forced a slight smile, eating a grape for good measure. Ron kept his eye on her a moment longer, then resumed his talk.

At precisely two, the doorbell rang. Arthur ushered Daniel in, saying, "So glad you could come, my boy..."

"Do I have to pay for all my own stuff?" Lydia asked her mother. "I only have about twenty bucks—"

"Oh, no, hon, we've got your own bank account we've been saving up for you," Marie told her. "You have a total amount of about two hundred Galleons, fifty Sickles and fifty Knuts."

"Huh?"

"Wizard money, dear."

Lydia bit her tongue. "Isn't that a lot of money for you to give to me?" she asked.

"Well, since your grandpa helped in the final defeat of Voldemort—" (here Arthur and Molly both shuddered; Ron winced) "—and worked for the Ministry of Magic, after he retired he gets an extremely large sum of money each month and donates some to your account."

"Thanks, Grampa," Lydia said. "How come I was never told about this?"

"Didn't think of it," was the nonchalant answer.

"Oh, by the way, hi Daniel," Lydia said.

"Hey," he said, smiling. "Shall we go?"

"Of course," Marie said, grabbing her purse. "Ron, are you coming?"

"Yeah," he said, planting a kiss on her newly lipsticked lips. He smiled, red on his lips.

"Oh Ron, my makeup—" Then she looked at his lips and burst out laughing. "You'd better wash your mouth," she told him.

"I'll manage," he said indifferently. He winked at Lydia.

"Are we going by Floo?" she asked nervously.

"How else?" Ron said. She groaned inwardly.

They proceeded to the fireplace, where Lydia was volunteered by her parents to go first after being handed a large bag ("Money for your supplies," her mom said).

"Maybe I should go first, in case I need to catch her again," Daniel said jokingly. "Hey, I'll go first."

Lydia shot him a grateful look as he disappeared in the strange green flames. Then she followed with the shout, "Diagon Alley!"

This time, she closed her eyes and steadied her body, so when she stopped, she was able to casually step out of the fireplace next to Daniel in—

She gasped. She was in a vast alley, with bustling crowds and chattering shoppers. Various shops were positioned at either side of the alley, titled names such as "Flourish and Blott's" and "Wendolyn's Witch Wares".

"Never been to Diagon Alley before, eh?" Daniel asked.

"N-no," she replied shakily. "It's amazing!"

He grinned, and – took her hand. Lydia's head snapped to look at him, but he was only leading her to Flourish and Blott's. When they reached the entryway, he let go. "We'd better get our books here," he told her. He waved at Marie behind them to let her know where they were, and then they were in.

Countless amounts of books were stacked on numerous shelves. Lydia couldn't see any books she'd ever seen before. One book was called "A History of Muggles", and Lydia remembered that Muggles were people who weren't magic. They have histories of us? she asked herself, then corrected herself. I'm magic too, she remembered. I-I'm a witch.

It sounded strange to call herself a word she'd always dreaded. But then she saw a face she knew...

"Lydia?" Lauren Lovegood called. "Lydia, is that you?"

Daniel looked on curiously as Lydia said uneasily, "Oh, hi Lauren."

Lauren looked quirkily at Lydia, saying, "I'm surprised you didn't tell me sooner."

"T-tell you what?"

Lauren rolled her eyes, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "That you're a witch, of course. I mean, with your dad and all I knew it was in you and I thought maybe you'd talk to me about it sometime, since most of the people you knew were Muggles. "

"I honestly didn't know you were a witch," Lydia confessed.

Lauren frowned. "What, your dad didn't say anything? Gosh, he knew my mum was magic..."

"My dad knew your mum?"

"Oh, yes, of course, they were at Hogwarts together. My mum helped with the defeat of You-Know-Who as well."

Lydia's eyes widened slightly. Lauren cast an interested look at Daniel and asked quizzically, "And who might you be?"

"I'm Daniel," he introduced himself politely.

"Lauren Lovegood. I've known Lydia's family for a long time."

The way she said it, it seemed like she and Lydia were good friends.

"Uh – but we never really got to know each other, really," Lydia said hurriedly.

Lauren gave her a strange look.

"Well, we'd best be going," Daniel said, taking Lydia by the waist and steering her outside. "Nice meeting you!" he called over his shoulder.

"Thanks," Lydia gasped. "That was weird; I never really knew anything about her... My dad knew her mum...?"

"Guess so," Daniel said. "We'll get our books later; I could tell you were uncomfortable."

"Thanks," she repeated, noticing suddenly he hadn't removed his hand from her waist. "Um...don't I need a wand or something?"

"Yep... Ollivander's is the best." Daniel took her to an old-looking shop. They entered, and inside was an even older-looking man with wispy white hair.

"Lydia Weasley, I presume?" the man asked. "Don't ask me how I know; you look like your father. I remember when he came in here for his first wand... After using his brother's and comparing their performance to a new one, he was quite amazed... So happy was he that I do believe he is the cause of my sign..." He gestured toward the sign outside, which was hanging lower on one side than the other.

"He jumped for joy and loosened the chain holding it up. Ah, well, let's see," he continued, selecting a box from one of many shelves. "Holly, nine and a half inches, unicorn hair. Just wave it about."

Lydia flapped it around but no sooner had she moved than the wand was snatched out of her hand.

"Perhaps not," Mr. Ollivander said, giving her another one. "Redwood, eleven inches, extract of silver..."

Once again, Lydia waved it around, but another was shoved into her hand barely after she'd tried it.

"Ahhh... Willow, eleven inches, dragon scale..."

Feeling exasperated, she waved it... But this time, when she moved, a whirl of wind appeared and a line of light shone from where the wand had moved to where it was in her hand.

"Excellent!" the man said, obviously delighted. "Wonderful! That will be eleven Galleons."

Lydia peered in the bag she'd been given. "Um...which ones are Galleons?" she asked Daniel, who pointed out the big gold ones.

She paid Mr. Ollivander and left the shop, twirling the wand in her hand. "So, what can I do with this?" she asked.

Daniel snatched it suddenly. "Not what you're doing," he informed her loftily. "Wands have to be handled with care. They can be broken or send off some kind of spell you didn't want it to do."

"Oh." Lydia blushed. "Okay." She reluctantly put it back in its box. "Where do we go next?"

"We could try Flourish and Blott's again," he suggested.

"Okay," Lydia agreed. Once again inside the store, Lydia's eye was caught by "Care and Beauty of the Face: Use Magic To Improve Your Looks" and picked up a copy. The print was shadowed, and she squinted until she realized the shadow was created by a person. She looked up.

A young man with thick reddish-blond hair and exceedingly good looks stood before her, smiling a gentle and gorgeous smile.

"Hello," he said. Even his voice was beautiful. "I'm Michael Sameya."

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Thanks y'all for reviewing!! gwenyth-rose, if you look at Chapter 1, I belive it says that the Hogwarts raised the minumum age for enrolling. That's why Daniel's a second year instead of third. And I actually prefer my chapters short, thank you! :)

I know, Earadel, you can't believe that I, (I'd put my name here but I'd prefer to keep it secret) have appointed Snape headmaster. Eh, well, wait and see m'dear! And Ron isn't with Hermione because Hermione is d... I'm giving too much away. Just wait! By the way, where's my King Arthur bit I did at your house? I'm still waiting for it.

"Kogina" I'm so glad you like my fic. You don't need to keep referring to me as 'C', just call me FalafelPrincess or something... Oh well, 'C' works too. ::thwaps you::

Thanks everyone, and again, keep reviewing!