The usual disclaimer: So I'm not the creator of these characters or this world. I'm not making any money off of JK Rowling's creative masterpiece Harry Potter, and well… you know the drill.

A/N: Wow, chapter five. You all should be pretty excited by now.
Or at least you better be!

A/N2: Also, please do not e-mail me saying "YOU KNOW JK ROWLING CONFIRMED MARK EVANS HAS NO SIGNIFICANCE?!" because I know that already. This is my fanfiction—I will do with Mark Evans what I please.

Chapter 5: Jealous Dreams

Ron was looking at Harry with puzzlement. "What, Harry?" he kept saying, but Harry put his fingers to his lips every time to shush Ron. Mark Evans had come to Hogwarts? It was hard to believe, but there he was; sitting at the front of the hall with the sorting hat upon his hat.

Surely this couldn't be so… Mark Evans was a muggle, and always had been. But a painful memory lodged itself in-between Harry's brain and heart… "No one ever told me what happened. I was taken to the orphanage and no one knew what was in my past. I asked everyone I could find, but they just said I was dropped on the doorstep of the orphanage with a note that said my parents had been murdered. I always run away but they always catch me, and I ran away this time and they aren't even looking for me. They thought it was a joke but I know it's real and I'm going there."

"Going there." Harry had wanted to ask what Mark had been talking about, but then Dudley showed up. Harry now knew what Mark had been talking about; he had been referring to going to Hogwarts.

"They thought it was a joke, but I know it's real" Harry couldn't believe he was experiencing this strange day. First, the sorting hat had sung the same song as Harry's 5th year, then Tonks had become the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and now Mark Evans was attending Hogwarts- and why was it taking so long for him to be sorted?

Mark was shaking slightly, peering up at the hat, which he obviously feared.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted to the hall, and the Gryffindor table went wild with applause. Mark quickly whipped off the hat and ran to go join the Gryffindors, looking relieved. He noticed Harry and quickly went over to him.

"Harry!" Mark practically shouted, "Harry, you go to Hogwarts? Why didn't you tell me this summer?"

The whole hall was now staring at Mark, for he had said Harry's name rather loudly. Harry indicated the seat next to him, telling Mark he should sit down. "Well," Harry began, "I just thought that you were a muggle, and I didn't want to break the rules about revealing our world…"

Mark looked up to see another person get sorted into Hufflepuff. He was nodding, and he didn't stop until his head was completely facing the ceiling. He was obviously very fascinated by the starry enchanted ceiling. "This place…" he said "I dream about this place at night, and I forget it in the morning."

Ron laughed. "You ought to take Divination when you're a third year then." Ron said, giving Harry a raised eyebrow. But Harry didn't see that as amusing; as soon as Mark had mentioned his dreams, Harry had remembered that he too had experienced dreams about Hogwarts before he knew it existed… dreams of flying animals, dragons, giant halls with floating candles; Harry couldn't believe it had taken him so long to remember them.

Harry had a strange connection with dreams; he did not have them anymore. The visions he saw in his sleep were usually quite real…. He had learned to know his dreams were visions of what were happening at a given time, or a message from Voldemort. It had been for this reason that Harry's godfather Sirius Black died.

Harry's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a delicate voice, one he knew but hadn't heard frequently. "Hey, Harry," she said, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. He spun around in time to see Sororia Linguish, a girl in his year that was in almost all of his classes. She was a Ravenclaw, thin and blonde with amber eyes. "How was your summer?"

Harry felt vaguely aware that Sororia was trying to make conversation with him. He was tired, and didn't have much to say, so he responded with "It was okay."

"Only okay?" Sororia asked, looking somewhat concerned. Her hair was falling out in front of her face, curly as it usually was. "I mean, you look kind of upset about something. Are you okay?"

Harry felt annoyed. "Oh yes," he said. "Perfectly fine." He was noticing that the sorting was still taking place, and Sororia had left her seat to go talk to him. No one took much notice but a few of her friends at the Ravenclaw table.

Sororia nodded. "Harry," she said. "I've liked you since our first year…" she paused. "I would have never told you, but my friends weren't going to let me sleep in the dorm tonight if I didn't."

Harry heard these words and was suddenly interested. "Oh?" he said, feeling nervous.

"Yeah…" said Sororia. "God, I feel so stupid now! Why did I even come over here?" she was biting her nails, and looking around frantically. "I'm a muggleborn," she said. "I liked you even before everyone told me who you are… and what you did."

Looking at her, but slightly dodging her eyes, Harry knew he would have to reject Sororia. He didn't like her; he didn't think he ever could. He was genuinely interested in dating Luna, and that would be difficult with Sororia hanging around.

"Sorry," began Harry, looking down to Sororia's feet. "I hardly know you," this wasn't the reason why he was rejecting her but it was not a lie. Sororia was hardly around, for she was only in his charms and divination classes. "I can't date you or anything… er, yet."

Of course, the ever-waiting "yet." He had to say it. It was the easiest way to let a person down without having them make an impression in the ground. Harry cared for Sororia as a friend… he really did. He just could not like her.

"Oh," she said, very disappointedly. "Well… see you."

As Sororia made her way back to the Ravenclaw table, Harry watched as Padma Patil gave him a dirty look, finally accepting Sororia over to receive a hug. "I don't understand it," said Harry. "I can get girls whose names I barely know, but I can never seem to get the ones that I want!"

Ron looked at him. "What?" he said, having completely missed the entire conversation with Sororia. "What's that mate?"

Harry sighed. "I just got asked out by Sororia Linguish," he said, frustrated.

Ron's eyes got very wide. "Sororia Linguish?" he sounded like a parrot. "That saucy Ravenclaw girl that Dean obsesses over?"

Harry was baffled. "Dean likes someone?"

Astonished, Ron abandoned his look of longing towards his empty plate to stare at Harry. "Where have you been living in the past two years? Late at night, Dean sits awake in his bed jabbering to Seamus about how beautiful she is… you don't hear that? Oy, you must sleep pretty soundly."

"What?" Harry asked. "I guess I do sleep soundly… or something." He was confused.

Nodding, Ron surrendered his glance to the sorting again. Professor McGonagall was now calling up children whose last names began with "T". Harry could tell that Ron was anxious for the food and the food only.

Once the sorting was finally over, Harry and Ron went up to the dormitory together and began discussing Sororia. It took the entire conversation and at least ten minutes of sleeplessness before he realized what he had to do.

His crush on Luna Lovegood had developed so largely over the summer, and he knew she was probably not interested in him. Sororia was. Maybe… just maybe, if Harry went out with Sororia he'd be able to make Luna jealous. After this happens, he could break up with Sororia and be with Luna… hopefully for forever.

Perhaps it was teenage lust, but there was nothing more than Luna that Harry wanted. The next morning, he found Sororia and as she ran from him, he called, "Sororia! Wait! I'll do it! I'll go out with you!"

She seemed delighted to hear that Harry Potter wanted to date her. Harry felt bad about his false attraction to Sororia, but he figured they'd have a short relationship anyway. He liked her a little, even if it had never been enough to act on. Now, however, Harry was willing to spend a good month or two with Sororia, if it meant getting Luna in the end.

Catching Harry by surprise, Sororia got on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek when he delivered the news. "Er…" he said, "I realized I really do like you. I was being really dim at the feast. Should have realized it sooner."

Sororia smiled a grin of amazing desirability. "You have no idea how much better you just made my life," she said.

Harry grinned apologetically in his own right. Maybe Sororia would prove to be a good girlfriend after all.