Chapter 2- Going Home Again
The next few days passed in a blur. Ron had sent Harry two of his school books, The Standard Book of Spells Grade 6 and The Guide to Dealing with Dark Dealings. A train ticket had arrived, with the usual message, platform 9 3/4. Harry couldn't help but feel bored, his mind kept straying to Simone.
Harry felt as if Petunia had just told him to cook a banquet for Dudley. Although upset that he wasn't as excited to go to Hogwarts as in the past, he hoped that he would feel better once he met up with Ron and Hermione.
"Just 10 minutes until I get to see Ron again," Harry said, trying to get some rise of emotion out of himself. Nothing. He shrugged and put his luggage on the cart, placing Hedwig's cage on top of it. He then settled into a quick pace, making his way to platforms 9 and 10.
He looked towards the platform and opened his eyes in shock, to find Simone mumbling to herself in another language. "Simone," Harry said, putting on his deepest voice, "you're not looking for platform nine and three quarters are you?"
Simone took a step backwards and exclaimed in her unfamiliar accent, "You go to Hogwarts Harry?" Harry nodded and pushed his cart, motioning for Simone to follow him. His pace lightened, considerably, almost to a skip, as opposed to his heavy footed walk he had used just moments earlier. He faced the barrier between the platforms and started to run, closing his eyes, as he felt the familiar, cold sensation of passing through the gate.
Simone stepped through the gate onto the platform and smiled a quick, grateful smile towards Harry. Harry smiled back, his eyes lingering off to whence she had been.
"Harry!" cried a familiar voice as she hugged him, hard around the middle. "How are you? I'm so excited for this year! I've already started working on the Protean Charm some more, did you look at the books?"
Harry laughed gaily, "Sounds good Hermione! You and Ron need to go to the prefect's compartment right? I'll save you guys seats... I'll be in here with Neville," Harry pointed to the otherwise vacant compartment.
Hermione nodded, her hair jumping around in a radical fashion behind her. "Thanks." Hugging Harry one more time, she grabbed the now conspicuous Ron and tore to the front of the train. Ron tripped as he called back, "Oy! See you later mate!"
End Chapter Two
Two Author's notes and a thanks:
(A/N: Who didn't expect this? Imagine Simone going to Hogwarts... sorry for the predictable but I promise, that'll be the only thing in an otherwise well-written and worked story)
(A/N: I had originally made a reference to my favorite line in the first movie! Did anybody catch that, the place where I would put it? "Yer a wizard Harry" thing? I found it funny, and quite frankly that's all the people I care about ;) but my beta suggested against it.)
(A/N: A huge thanks to my beta that hates the storyline but agreed to beta it anyway story645)