Hallo. Here's the second chapter, and I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters. Thanks for reading! 

'How about door number five?' thought Laure. She opened the door slowly, and almost screamed in surprise. In front of her was Alex with a death look in her eyes and a bow and arrow in her grasp. She was pointing them straight at Laure!

"Oh! Oh, my God! I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to kill you, I promise!" Alex squeaked suddenly, a hand over her mouth. "Are you alright?"

"Um," said Laure, eyes still wide in shock. "Yeah, I'm as fine as one could be after that little trauma…"

Alex looked very apologetic, and momentarily glomped Laure. "I'm sorry," she repeated, removing herself from the glomp and putting her hands on her hips.

"It's quite alright, really. What were you doing with a bow and arrow in here, anyw-" she glanced at the door and stopped talking altogether. On the door was a circular, wooden board with an arrow stuck directly in the centre, but that's not what she was staring at. Pinned to the board by the arrow, was a photograph of a very handsome-looking young man. Its corner read, "Love, Oliver." And suddenly Laure understood all the talking about "Oliver" from the train compartment.

"That's, er… my old boyfriend," Alex said, scratching the back of her head with one hand. "He's already graduated from Hogwarts… went to pursue a Quidditch career," the archer said with a bit more venom than she probably meant. She looked thoroughly embarrassed, then she cleared her throat and hastily changed the subject. "So, how d'you like the common room?" prompted the Scotswoman brightly.

"It looks really comfy," Laure replied with a smile as she looked around the room for her bed. Unlike the rest of the castle, the dormitory had hardwood flooring which made it seem warmer. There were five four-posters in the small, circular room, one of which had Laure's trunk at the foot.

With a sigh, Laure let herself fall on her bed. Suddenly reminded of her belongings, however, she sat up straight again and said, "Oh, yeah, where's my owl?"

"Owlery," answered Alex simply as she removed the arrow from the board with little effort. She paused, as if thinking about something, and threw her bow and arrows on her bed. Laure didn't notice her take out a small piece of parchment and a quill, nor did she notice her begin to scribble something down. Alex had a downright mischievous look on her face as she set her quill down and pulled a white ribbon from her hair, tying one end of it to the parchment. "I'll be back later," she told her, walking out of the common room with a glint in her eye.

Laure quirked an eyebrow, but then decided not to worry about it as she began to change into her PJs.

Draco Malfoy sighed as he lay on his bed with his hands behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling, bored with himself, not quite sure what to do when he heard a knock at his door. With a grunt, he stood reluctantly and reached out to open the door to the common room. Standing there were Crabbe and Goyle, looking at him with a bored and pleading look.

"What?" Malfoy barked slightly.

"We're bored…"

"Well, what do you want me to do about it? Ugh, get out of here before Pansy sees me and tries to death-hug me."

The two cohorts didn't even bother to nod as they walked away. Malfoy shut the door behind him, annoyed with the disturbance of his thoughts. Mainly, he was thinking about what was to come this year, but there was also a thought nagging at the back of his mind…

Another knock, which sounded more like a tap. 'They better not be back,' thought the platinum blonde, glaring at the door. 'If they want entertainment, they've got to fund it themselves.' He lay there for a few moments and then closed his eyes, almost nodding off to sleep when the tap came again, a bit louder this time.

Malfoy growled, eyes still closed, "What do you want?"

Another tap.

The Slytherin's eyes opened as he walked over to the door once more and opened it. There was no one standing there, he thought, until he heard small squeaking at his feet. He looked down. There, playing with a piece of white ribbon tied around its neck, was a pure white ferret. Malfoy froze, remembering his fourth year… how awful that Professor Moody had been, making him look like an utter fool… he, a Malfoy… he stared at the ferret, and noticed that attached to the white ribbon was a small slip of parchment. Malfoy hesitated before picking up the ferret gingerly and opening the slip. Written on it was the simple, unsigned message: "If you can handle a joke, you'll keep it."

Fury rose to his cheeks as he looked around wildly with angry silver eyes for anyone that would try to play a joke on Draco Malfoy. The mere thought made him angry, and at first his thoughts flew to… "Potter," the 15-year-old said in a deathly growl.

'But wait, how could a Gryffindor get into the Slytherin common room?' he thought. Remembering an instance in his second year, Malfoy thought of Polyjuice potion at once. 'But they would get caught if they tried that again…' He continued to look but found no one, not even Crabbe and Goyle, save a dozing first year on one of the couches. 'And he couldn't have done this, he's too young to know about my fourth year,' thought the teenager miserably.

A voice in the back of his head said, 'Well, might as well save your pride and keep it.' Malfoy nodded as if to reassure the voice, and walked back into the dormitory with ferret in hand. He set the little creature atop his trunk in the same ginger manner, and untied its white ribbon. 'The little thing isn't so bad,' he thought, as his silver eyes softened a little – a little. He looked at the ferret's bright blue, pleading eyes; for some reason, they told him this ferret was female. Malfoy straightened up, and shut the door to the Slytherin dormitory with a thud.

"Pawn to D-5," said a boy with untidy, jet black hair. He leaned over a table in the Gryffindor common room, Ron Weasley opposite him.

"Pawn to E-6. Cor, Harry, you walked into that one," said Ron, watching gleefully as his pawn shoved a sword through Harry's pawn. He removed the piece from the board and looked at Harry expectantly.

Harry blinked in surprise, having not noticed Ron's pawn nearby at all. Well, one couldn't blame him – his mind was mainly on Sirius, whether he was safe in his own house or not. Someone could find him, someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. Harry was also preoccupied with the Quidditch tournaments coming up, although he didn't know why – flying was the most natural thing in the magical world to him. So as one could see, he wasn't thinking about wizard's chess as much as he should have been.

"Who was that Ravenclaw girl you were talking to earlier, in the carriage?" said Harry, looking up from the game and up at Ron.

Ron's ears went pink as the expectant look on his face turned into an embarrassed one. "Her name's Kyung-Soon Park." A dreamy look became apparent in his eyes as he commented, "She's bloody brilliant. A Ravenclaw."

"I know, Ron, I just said that," Harry's eyes darkened. "I thought I was the one who was supposed to like Ravenclaw Asians," he said teasingly, noticing the look in Ron's blue eyes.

As if he had been smacked in back of the head, Ron said suddenly, "Wha'? Ravencalw Asians? Who says I like her! She's just a friend of mine I met over the summer-"

"No one believes you, Ron, might as well give up," said a low female voice behind him. Ron was startled to see Hermione having arrived suddenly. She took a seat next to Ron and added, "And I saw the way you were talking to her in the carriage."

"Scary, you are. It's like when you kept popping up in random classes, and we never saw you come in! Righ', Harry?" Ron said, turning to Harry bewilderedly.

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. He swallowed hard and finally replied, "Er, sure."

Ron nodded to reassure himself as Harry shoved the chess board out of the way so he could rest his arms on the table. Luckily, Ron had not protested, as he was busy thinking about K-Soon.

"Let's hear more, then," Hermione said firmly, placing a hand on the table. For once, she didn't have a stack of books, it being the beginning of the year.

"More about what?" Ron wasn't a very good liar.

"You know perfectly well, what," she shot him a look he knew all too well.

Harry rested his head on his arms as he listened to the redhead across from him with Hermione about who he could possibly tell them more about. His mind flew back to the carriage ride; who was there? There was he and Hermione, of course… Ron and Kyung-Soon… Alex Hunt, whom he knew from Quidditch… and three more girls he didn't know. One he had remembered quite vividly, as she had had magenta hair and electric blue eyes. The others were both dark-haired, one with yellow eyes and the other with acid green; one thing Harry prided himself on was his good memory.

He thought a bit more about the second girl. Harry had seen the other two before, he was sure, but this one was new to him. 'Ah, of course,' he thought. 'She was the older girl who was sorted into Ravenclaw…' Harry hadn't noticed the absence of his best friends squabbling as he pondered.

"Harry?" said Ron. "You alright? You haven't said anything in a while…"

Harry blinked and looked at Ron. "Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit tired… I think perhaps I'll head off to bed. 'Night, everyone." He nodded at the two of them and walked toward the boys' dormitories, eyelids drooping already.

The next day passed by quickly for Laure. She sat at the breakfast table that morning, still in awe of the Great Hall. The girl was just beginning to poke at some eggs as hundreds, maybe thousands of owls of all colors flew overhead, landing on the breakfast table, peoples' shoulders, others' arms. Laure watched as her own tawny owl landed on the table next to her breakfast plate; in its clutches was a piece of parchment with her parents' writing:

Chère Laure,

Nous espérons que tu t'amuses à ton nouveau lycée. Ton père et moi, nous venons d'acheter une petite maison à Paris pour faire des vacances d'été! Nous espérons avoir bientôt de tes nouvelles. Protège-toi et n'oublies pas d'écrire fréquemment.

Bons baisers,

Maman et Papa

Dear Laure,

We hope you are having fun at your new school. Your father and I have recently bought a new cottage in Paris for summer vacations! We look forward to hearing from you. Stay safe and don't forget to write often.

Love,

Mum and Dad

She smirked and tucked the letter into the safety of her new, black, Hogwarts robes. Laure felt a disturbance next to her, and found that Alex had sat down right of her.

"'Lo, Alex," said Laure in a relaxed, yet cheerful voice.

"Hi!" managed Alex between enormous mouthfuls as she shoveled in eggs, sausage, and english muffins in less than a minute. The Scottish girl wiped her mouth off, threw the napkin onto the table, and began to run off. Waving, she said speedily, "Bye!"

"Er… bye," Laure's widened eyes watched Alex run away, when a great, red bird flew onto her shoulder suddenly. Alex stopped running to let the bird perch on her arm, staring at it proudly. It wasn't an owl; it was a bird the French girl had never seen before, and it looked wild, although it nipped affectionately at Alex's finger.

The Scottish girl returned to the table once more, beaming at her bird.

"What is it?" said Laure, incredulous.

"'s called a kestrel - a British bird, but they're seen in Scotland a lot. I got him for my fourteenth birthday, and now I just use him as an owl," Alex grinned, removing a letter from the kestrel's leg.

"That's brilliant!" exclaimed Laure, watching the kestrel as he scanned the room with his sharp eyes. "Does he have a name?"

"Oliver," said the exotic bird owner distantly. Her cerulean eyes looked off at the window in an almost wistful manner. Quickly, she returned to the letter and walked off again with a slight wave to Laure.

Later, Laure headed to Double Potions with K-Soon, as Torrey, Jinx, and Alex were nowhere to be found.

"And we've got this with the Hufflepuffs?" asked Laure uncertainly.

K-Soon nodded, "After this we've got Transfiguration with the Gryffindors, and finally Herbology with the Slytherins."

"We share classes like this all the time?" Laure raised an eyebrow at the peculiar method. The school seemed big enough, why not have separate classes?

"Pretty much," replied K-Soon calmly as she headed down to the dungeons with the French girl. She pulled open the rusty handle and entered the room, in which there were only about three or four students. Professor Snape was not in the room yet.

Laure took a seat next to K-Soon, getting ready the materials she would need in the class that day. More students filed in slowly, and once most of them had situated themselves, Professor Snape entered the room immediately and started writing on the chalkboard: "Chopped daisy roots, Skinned Shrivelfig, Sliced Caterpillar, One Rat Spleen, Dash of Leech Juice".

The Korean patiently added all the things needed in her potion, and finished before most of the others in the classroom. The girl sitting next to her, however, wasn't having as much luck.

"Oh, skinned shrivelfig. So that's why this potion isn't working," said Laure, frustrated at her ignorance. "It's different in French… blasted country…" she mumbled on.

The class drew on as Prof. Snape gave a lecture on the effects and dangers of properly mixed shrinking potions. The minutes crawled by until, FINALLY, it was time to leave. Laure and K-Soon made their way out of the dungeons and to the large stone courtyard. They heard footsteps behind them and turned around.

"Oi, where are you two going in such a hurry?" Alex jogged up behind them and walked beside. She had a vaguely dreamy look on her face, along with patches of pink on her cheeks as if she had just run a great distance.

"Uh… to class?" said K-Soon with a teasing grin. "Where've you been, I didn't see you in class. And where did you come from?"

"Me? Where have I been?" Alex asked, as if there were some mysterious unknown person she were addressing. "I've been, you know, busy."

"Busy?"

"Yeah, busy. McGonagall next?" Alex abruptly changed the subject, hoping to curb them from the thought that she might be somewhere else…

"I think so," Laure said tentatively. With a mischievous tone, she added, "We've got it with the Gryffindors… lucky you, K-Soon."

Immediately the Korean blushed and said, "What about Gryffindors? They don't even pay attention most of the time."

"Yeah, maybe because ONE is busy looking at you the whole time," said Alex plainly. She had currently been looking straight across the courtyard to the other stone corridor. Something had obviously caught her eye, for she suddenly said, "Okay mates, I've got to go-"

"Wait wait wait. Where are you going now?" Laure interrogated, but Alex had already quickly run off, rounding the corner to the girls' bathrooms. 'I wish I knew where she were going,' she thought.

Harry was immensely bored in Transfiguration; not only were they reviewing something they'd done ten times last year, McGonagall was also giving them a thorough lecture on it as well. Today seemed the day for lectures, as he'd already had one in his History of Magic class as well.

The Gryffindors had never had Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws before, so he was taking a look at the crowd. A few seats ahead of him was Kyung-Soon, the girl that Ron liked. Ron… Harry took a look at the redhead. Ron was leaning on one hand, staring straight at the Korean witch. He had that dreamy look on his face as if he were someplace far more pleasant than a Hogwarts classroom.

Harry's green eyes scanned the area once more, and found that, a ways left of him was the other girl from the carriage, and her name was… her name… 'What was her name?' Harry was a bit perturbed at the fact that he actually didn't remember something. 'Oh well, I'll figure it out later.' He couldn't help but look at her for a few moments and wonder who she was…

The object of his staring, however, was trying her best to pay attention in class, but the window looked so inviting… she couldn't wait to get down to the grounds at lunch and explore them. From what her new friends were saying, the thing she wanted to do most was relax in the shade near the lake with everyone. That would be ideal.

With a sigh, the girl looked around to see if anyone else was really paying any attention. Aside from the bushy-haired girl she had seen in the carriage earlier, no one was. Her thoughts fell on Harry Potter, and after a few furtive glances at him, he looked as though he had given up on listening to McGonagall as well. The two sneaked looks at each other for the rest of the class, each wondering what the other was like for some reason unbeknownst to them.

"Now, in your third year you worked with these puffapods before, but this time we're going to harvest them from the edge of the Forbidden Forest," the voice of Professor Sprout rang out in the small valley she and her students stood in. "Oh, and this time, please make sure you don't drop them. That would be rather unfortunate if they all bloomed… AGAIN…"

Malfoy wasn't paying much attention to Professor Sprout as he stood in the damp, dew-kissed grass. Crabbe and Goyle weren't far behind, as always, and were mulling around as Professor Sprout led them to the puffapod patch.

"It's right over here," she said briskly, hurrying much farther than the class to the small, green area. The class gradually followed after an eager wave from Sprout to the patch. The sky above them started to gray up, but the patch remained remarkably green given the current light changes.

"Gather 'round, now, gather 'round! Oh, look at the sky, it's going to rain!" Sprout was positively bursting with excitement at the mere thought of rain, it seemed.

'Maybe we'll have a magical storm,' thought Malfoy dismally, hoping that through lack of magic, they would at least have no classes. No such luck came as he and the other students assembled around the patch, all wanting very much not to be there. Malfoy rolled his eyes as everyone began to pick up various puffapods and walked away to lean on a nearby tree. Since Sprout was so enthralled with the process, she didn't seem to notice the blonde straying away from the group.

Silver eyes scanned the group condescendingly, filled with disgust. At least the Slytherins didn't have to group with the Gryffindors as usual; this was a pleasant change, although the Ravenclaws still had their downs. His thoughts drifted from the simple Herbology class when he felt a tugging at the hem of his robes. Drawing his wand out quickly, he searched the ground with a sweeping gaze. Nothing. Malfoy growled softly and didn't notice a snow-white ferret climb onto his shoulder, remarkably…

Laure picked up a puffapod tentatively, as if it would attack her at any moment. From behind her she could heard footsteps, so she turned to find none other than the pink-haired girl, now with pink and blue hair, one pink eye, and one blue eye. Laure blinked in surprise a little before realizing that…

"I'm a Metamorphmagus," she said with a wink. "I figured, that's why you were givin' me that look. You're Laure, right? I'm Jinx Lexington, 5th year Ravenclaw."

"Yes," she said with a smile, nodding. "Why are you here late?"

"I was sorting something out," said the newly-named Jinx in a voice that was almost too cool. "So, have I missed anything good?"

"Non," Laure shook her head and held up the puffapod. "What exactly do these do?"

"Puffapods?" the pink-and-blue-haired girl laughed. "Well, when you drop them, th-" She had been scanning the crowd, but she stopped talking immediately when one pink and one blue eye locked onto Draco Malfoy.

Laure looked slightly alarmed at the abrupt stop in speech. "Er… what's going on?"

"I can't believe this," Jinx practically growled. She wasn't all that mad, but had more the unpleasant anger that follows a bad day. "Ooh, when I get my hands on her…" She began to tromp through the grass, not taking care that she was stepping on several flowers on the way. Laure decided to tag along, wondering what the hell she could be so mad about.

Malfoy was leaning against a large tree with a ferret perched on his shoulder, oddly enough. Laure was reluctant to follow, but was close behind Jinx all the same.

Jinx muttered things such as, "I don't believe it" and "THAT'S where she's been". She walked right past Professor Sprout without the slightest bit of hesitation. She stopped in front of Malfoy, hands on her hips, multi-colored eyes glaring.

"So, Malfoy, where'd you get that ferret?" she said with a nod toward the small animal. The white ferret looked a bit panic stricken, and even looked as if it were trying to find somewhere to run off.

Malfoy, caught by surprise, had been stroking the ferret. He stopped, gave Jinx a patronizing glance, and said in his usual cool voice, "She's a gift. What's it to you?"

Jinx let out a skeptical, "Hmph," as the ferret scuttled into one of Malfoy's slender hands, bright blue eyes darting around fearfully. It let out a small squeak and hurried into the Forbidden Forest as fast as its little legs would carry it.

Jinx rolled her eyes and murmured, "Never mind," to no one in particular.

"So, what was the problem?" Laure ventured as they both made their way to the now almost-empty puffapod patch. She looked back at Malfoy, who leaned there, glowering with his arms crossed.

"That ferret," Jinx sighed, "is Alex."

Woot! All done with second chapter… it's a little short, but I've been rather pressed for time over the last couple of days because of… stuff… ;) I hope you liked it (if anyone's even reading it yet -), and the third chapter will be up soon. - Rreference to a fanfiction by English-Foxlette. Read it, it's good. Used with her permission.