Chapter 2: In the Sunset
The next morning, Brianne woke up to a ray of sunshine that was beaming into the room from the window. She rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms and legs as she rolled out of bed. Hermione was already awake and dressed, putting on make-up in front of the mirror. Parvati and Lavander had already left for breakfast. "Morning," Hermione said to Brianne brightly. Groggily, Brianne mumbled "morning" back to her. She stood up and went over to her trunk to put on her school uniform and robes. When Brianne finished putting on her make-up, she and Hermione went next door to get Ginny, and the three of them headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
When they sat down at the Gryffindor table, Harry and Ron were already there, talking about Quidditch try-outs. Harry and Ron were both part of the team; Harry, of course, was the Seeker and Ron had just got the position of Keeper last year. They were discussing all of their open positions: they needed two beaters and two chasers. Katie Bell was now the new captain of the Quidditch team. Harry and Ron hoped so badly that she wouldn't be as tough as Oliver Wood or Angelina Johnson. Angelina, Alicia, Fred and George had finally graduated, so now the best members left were Harry and Katie. Though Ron still wasn't the greatest keeper, he had improved greatly over the summer holidays, and was determined to get better. As Brianne sat down at the table, Harry spoke up. "And here's our possible beater now!" Brianne blushed slightly as Ron responded. "This is the one, huh? Good hitter?" he asked her.
"Well, when I played Beatball back home, a lot of people thought I was good."
"Beatball?" Ron asked, confused.
"It's an American thing," Harry said. Hermione, getting slightly annoyed with all of the Quidditch talk, decided to change the subject. "So, what does everyone have for schedules today?" Ron pulled out his Monday schedule and frowned. "Potions first thing today! That's bloody rotten! Then after that we have Care of Magical Creatures, Divination (he and Harry groaned loudly), mid-day break, and then our last class today is Defense of the Dark Arts. I hope Ridgemore's better than that bloody Umbridge we had last year."
"You're telling me!" Harry said, as he looked down and rubbed the back of his hand. He so painfully remembered "writing lines" for Umbridge in many detentions. Brianne was confused as to what they were talking about, but she decided not to ask. She didn't want to come across as someone prying. Brianne sat quietly and ate a bagel as Hermione talked about how excited she was about going into the advanced Arithmancy classes. They finished eating quickly, and gathered their stuff to head to their first class of the day: Potions.
Professor Snape seemed to be in quite a foul mood that morning as Brianne, Hermione, Harry and Ron walked into the dungeon classroom. Brianne shared a table with Harry and in front of them, Hermione shared one with Ron. They guessed Snape's bad mood came from the fact that he did not get the Defense Against the Dark Arts position again as he had so desired. Everyone knew that Snape, for the longest time, wanted to become the Dark Arts teacher, and every single year, without fail, he was rejected for the position. Harry had a feeling he would be getting more of a hard time than usual from him that day, considering him not being in the best of moods. Regardless of how angry Snape ever was, he never liked Harry, and made his life miserable while he was in his class. Snape knew Harry's father back when they were going to Hogwarts, and after a practical joke that had been played on him by none other than James Potter and his friends, Snape took his loathing for James out on his son, Harry. That day, they were learning how to make Snoozer potions, which was more simply called, a sleeping potion. Professor Snape wrote the ingredients and directions on the board and told the class to pair up in twos.
Hermione seemed to already have been giving Ron a lecture about how he needed to put the passion flower pieces into the culdron before adding the peppermint leaves. Harry and Brianne began their potion together, each chopping up the passion flower petals, peppermint leaves, and valverian root. Harry continued to chop up the ingredients as Brianne heated up the vervain water. For once, when Snape walked by, he didn't make a snide remark. However, he growled at poor Neville Longbottom, who had accidently thrown in the valverian root before the peppermint leaves, and his potion glowed an reddish brown color, rather than the vibrant teal most everyone else's was making. Snape continued to observe the students, checking over each of their potions. "First day of class and I don't like him already!" Brianne whispered to Harry. "Doesn't take much, does it? I'm shocked he hasn't said anything to us yet," Harry responded quietly.
Snape seemed to have made his way back over where Harry and Brianne were working on their potion. He watched as they carefully added the valverian, the last ingredient, and the potion began to glow teal as they stirred it. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Potions was always his worst class, and it didn't help when Snape found another excuse to mark his grades low or give out extra homework. Professor Snape gave Harry a look of daggers, and then peered over at Brianne. "Well, Mr. Potter, I suppose the only time you make your potion right is when you've got someone there to help you out. Granger must have given up on you, I imagine," Snape sneered. Harry's angry green eyes stared up at Professor Snape with a deep contempt. Draco Malfoy and his friends from the other side of the room snickered as Snape walked away from Harry and Brianne's table. Snape then continued. "By next Monday, I want 15 inches of parchment on valverian root and what potions they are used for. Please explain why they are known to aid in sleep and protection." The bell rang, and the students gathered their stuff quickly and left the classroom. They were relieved that it was finally over. Care of Magical Creatures was next, which Harry assured would be a lot more fun than what they just went through.
Brianne, Harry, Hermione and Ron headed down to Hagrid's hut for their class. Harry knew that Hagrid must have something fun planned for the first day. During Harry's third year, Hagrid taught about hippogriffs, a half horse, half eagle breed that seemed scary at first, but Harry ended up loving them after taking a flight on Buckbeak. Sometimes Hagrid had creatures that wern't always fun to deal with, such as blast-ended skrewts, but because Hagrid loved magical creatures so much, it was hard not to eventually come to appreciate them at the very least.
The four Gryffindors reached the outside of the hut where other students were waiting for class to start. All of them were talking about what Hagrid had in store for them. Draco Malfoy was off to the side with his friends, Crabbe and Goyle, making dreadful comments about Hagrid, as usual. Malfoy was laughing, saying that Hagrid was so thick, he'd bring in some illegal dragons for the class to play with. "I hope he does, because when the stupid thing burns my hand off, we can get rid of him for good! They'd probably sack Dumbledore as well!" Harry grinded his teeth, trying with all of his might not to lose his temper and go after him. Hermione touched Harry's arm lightly, and whispered to him, "Just ignore him. It'll be no good if you get yourself into trouble like you did last year. Provoking you is exactly what he wants!" Through clenched teeth, Harry responded, "I know, I know."
Hagrid then took a step out of his hut, with Dumbledore following behind with Fawkes on his right arm. Harry, Hermione, and Ron's eyes all twinkled, knowing exactly what they would be learning about today: Fawkes, a Pheonix that belonged to the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore. Harry, Hermione and Ron knew all about Pheonixes, as they had met Fawkes on several occasions, however, it seemed clear that many students did not know what they were and were very confused as to why Dumbledore was with them in class. Hagrid got the students' attention and began his lesson. "Welcome back, class!" he said warmly. "Today, I am happy to say that we have two very special guests. They won't be staying long, so we'll make this quick and talk a little about Diricawls and maybe we'll even get to take a peek at one of them." Malfoy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest. It was clear he would be bored, since there wasn't much to harass Hagrid about that day. "This here is Fawkes, and he belongs to Professor Dumbledore, as you can see." Brianne stared curiously at Fawkes' long, crimson feathers, that shined with a golden mist. She had never seen a pheonix up close before. Only in photographs in textbooks had she ever seen what they looked like. They were always her favorite of the magical creatures. Brianne thought Fawkes was beautiful, and she wished someday to have a pet pheonix of her own. Hagrid talked about how the pheonix tears have healing powers, and the songs that escape from their beaks bring courage to those who need it most. Dumbledore added to Hagrid's lesson by mentioning that pheonixes burst into flame when they are ready to die, and are reborn from the ashes. Hermione, of course, decided to add that she had read in the textbook that pheonixes are most faithful to their owners. Most of the students looked at Fawkes in awe, however Malfoy and his friends looked bored and uninterested.
Divination didn't turn out to be as bad as Harry and Ron described to Brianne. She thought it would be as bad as Potions was, but she came to find that Professor Trelawney was harmless. Brianne actually found Trelawney quite entertaining, and snickered under her breath every time she made yet another death prediction for Harry. She leaned over to Harry and whispered, "Honestly Harry, you need to have more of a sense of humor with this woman. She's not that bad."
"Yeah," Harry replied. "I don't think you'd be laughing if she made a bunch of death predictions about you!" Ron and Brianne looked at each other and smirked. Harry just rolled his eyes and brought his attention back to the class. Brianne shifted uncomfortably when Harry and Ron began to doze off.
Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Ridgemore was interesting to say the least. Harry, Ron and Hermione were glad to see that they wern't studying from textbooks anymore. Last year, Professor Umbridge refused to teach the children any kind of dark arts defense. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had to resort to teaching themselves and trying their best to hide it from Umbridge, as they would be expelled if they were caught. Professor Ridgemore seemed to know what he was doing for the most part. He told the class that he once used to be an Auror, but resigned after his wife was killed by a Death Eater. He seemed very intent on teaching the students that they could not trust anyone. "Look around you," he snarled. "The person sitting next to you just might be a follower of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!" The class nervously looked around at each other. Harry peered over at Malfoy, who shifted uncomfortably. Harry had very well known that Draco Malfoy's father was indeed a Death Eater, and at that very moment, he was serving a prison sentence in Azkaban. Ridgemore continued. "You see, you do not know whose parents might have been Death Eaters, and these parents could very well pass their values on to their children." He gave Draco Malfoy a stare of daggers. "Which is why you must be aware that you have to watch your back at all times! You do not know when one may betray you. That said, I shall teach you today about dueling, and the different jinxes, hexes and curses you can use. I understand that there is a dueling club here, and some of you have been taught the disarming jinx, but I can assure you, you will need to know much more than disarming. It is a very convenient jinx, oh yes, but will never know how to block these spells if all you know is one jinx. Open your books to page 41 and we will dscuss how to use some of these spells, and how to block them. After that, we will put you into pairs, and you can practice them." Brianne sat there, stunned by what she had just heard. No doubt, this professor was very bitter, and she knew it had everything to do with the death of his wife.
There was a couple of hours before the students had to be at dinner after their classes got out. Hermione and Ron were at a meeting with Dumbledore with the rest of the prefects. Harry supposed it had to do with the danger of Voldemort out there, and wanted the prefects to be alert of any suspicious activity on Hogwarts grounds. Brianne was about to sit down and begin her essay for Potions, but Harry walked over to her. "Um, Brianne, would you like to practice some Quidditch moves in the field?" he asked. "I thought you might like to practice a bit before try-outs next week." Brianne's face brightend, and her grey eyes twinkled. "Yeah," she responded. "I'd love to."
Outside, the sky was a deep blue, and the shining sun brought warmth to Harry and Brianne, who were in the Quidditch field hitting bludgers. Harry admired Brianne's agressive nature while she was on her broomstick. She had a look of determination in her eyes every time the bludger was near. They practiced for about an hour, losing track of time. Harry suggested they take a walk by the lake until dinner. He thought it would be a great way to unwind.
They walked along the water, and found a spot by a tree, whose leaves were turning red and orange. They sat down next to each other and watched the sun begin to go down. Harry turned to Brianne. "So, what brings you all the way here?" he asked.
"I've always wanted to see England. My aunt also kind of talked me into it. I guess she's sick of taking care of me. Not that she ever put much effort into taking care of me in the first place," she replied softly.
"Where's your parents?"
"They died when I was around three. They were killed by a drunk driver. I got dumped at my aunt's and she was only 21. She resented me and my parents for it."
"I'm sorry," he said, looking down to the ground. "I was raised by my aunt and uncle as well. They never cared much for me, either."
"I miss my friends back home, but it's nice to be this far away from my aunt. She just got married last year, and I hate the guy she married. I refuse to call him my uncle."
"I almost had a chance to live away from my aunt and uncle. My dad's best friend, my godfather, had offered to let me stay with him. He died a few months ago, though." Brianne's eyes widened and looked in Harry's green eyes sympathetically. "Sorry to hear that," she said, lost for words. "That's awful."
"He was the closest thing I had to a father," he said quietly. "Wow... I haven't really talked about any of this since it happened."
"We can change the subject if you want to," she offered.
"Yeah... Maybe it would be best if we did that," said Harry. Brianne nodded in response.
"Harry," said Brianne. "Anytime you need to talk, about anything at all, I'm always here to listen. And I would never tell a soul, either, just so you know."
"Thanks," replied Harry. "I really appreciate that. It's nice to be able to talk to someone who doesn't know much about me. Ron and Hermione are wonderful friends, but sometimes, they know me too well."
"I know what you mean. Sometimes it was really hard to talk to Mel and Dana back home just because they were too involved with my life. Biased views don't help me solve my problems."
"Exactly." They fell silent, watching the waves of the lake as they glistened the reflection of the setting sun. "Nature's so beautiful, isn't it?" Brianne said. "I love sunsets."
"It's amazing what you miss when you don't sit down and look around for awhile."
"Yeah... we don't get nice sunsets like this in Connecticut. I mean, we don't get views like this. This place is amazing." Her heart started beating and her body began to shake a little. She was very nervous, and Harry appeared to be little nervous as well. He kept running his hand through his hair and fiddling with the brissles of his Firebolt. Brianne had this way of making him feel comfortable enough to say almost anything on his mind, yet still make his body physically nervous. Harry admired the way her reddish brown hair glistend in the setting sun. Brianne looked back at him, wondering why he was staring at her. Normally, Harry being extremely nervous around girls he was interested in, he would turn away and pretend he wasn't doing anything. But this time, he met his eyes with her's. He leaned over to Brianne, held her cheek with his right hand, and gently kissed her lips. Brianne felt as if the ground beneath her had vanished; as if she were flying. His lips felt so soft against her's. She had been kissed by guys before, but it never felt like that before. She reached out and touched Harry's left hand. When their lips parted, they smiled at each other, and then quickly turned their eyes to the ground. "Um... I guess... we should... er... head to dinner." Harry said in a nervous, awkward voice. Brianne smiled shyly and nodded. She had no idea how to react to what had just happened. All she knew was that before she went to bed that night, she would be sending an owl to her best friends.
Hermione and Ron noticed Harry and Brianne acting oddly during dinner. They were barely able to look each other in the eye for more than a second, and Harry kept changing the subject every time Hermione asked him what he was up to after they got out of class that day. Finally, Hermione got some kind of an idea about what was up when she noticed how Harry would stare at Brianne when she wasn't looking, and she would do the same when Harry wasn't looking. "Harry, what is wrong with you tonight? You've gone nutters!" Ron asked.
"Why would you think anything is wrong with me?" Harry asked quickly.
"You're all... jumpy."
"Ronald!" Hermione said. "Come with me!" Ron gave Hermione and curious look and walked with her. When they were out of earshot, Hermione spoke up. "Don't you see? Harry likes Brianne! And I think she likes him too."
"How do you know?"
"Because, they're avoiding each other, yet I still find them staring at each other when the other isn't looking."
"Honestly, I don't know how you girls pick up on this stuff!"
"And I don't know how you can be so oblivious as to not even see that Harry's acting nervous around Brianne!"
Later on, the common room was filled with students doing homework and goofing around. Hermione, Ron, Harry and Brianne all sat together at a table doing their work together, not talking very much. Hermione finished her work quickly, and Ron got sidetracked when he saw a few fourth year Gryffindors picking on the first years. As prefect, he told them to knock it off or he'd take away house points. Harry and Brianne were left at the table, quietly doing their work. Every once in awhile, Brianne would peer at Harry when she thought he wasn't looking, and Harry appeared to be doing the same. Somehow, they had to act as if nothing happened, but all it did was make things awkward. It began to get late, and everyone started to leave the common room, one by one. Harry and Brianne were the only two left out there. Both of them seemed to be very tired, and uninterested in doing homework, but Brianne didn't seem to want to leave Harry's side. Harry kept thinking to himself that he should just get up and go to bed, but something inside of him was stopping him. He could hear his godfather's voice in his head. Go for it, Harry! You know you want to. No need to avoid a pretty girl, you know! Brianne finally couldn't take the silence anymore, and spoke up. "You know, Harry... I can't stop thinking about earlier," she said, beginning to turn pink.
"Neither can I," he replied.
"This all seems to be going kind of quick for me. I mean... I like you... I just... I don't want to screw things up between us."
"Oh," Harry said, staring at his Potions essay, in which he had only finished five inches of parchment so far. "Yeah, I understand."
"It's not that I didn't like it. I mean... it was kinda nice... Really nice, actually. I just... I mean, I've only known you for a day. I think it would be best if we got to know each other as friends first."
"Sure, yeah... it would be better that way."
"I've rushed into relationships before, and I only ended up getting hurt. I don't want to get hurt anymore--"
"I would never hurt you," Harry said quickly.
"How do you know that?"
"I... just... I just feel something when I'm with you. I don't know why. I can't remember the last time I felt this good. But you're right. I'm not exactly ready for any kind of relationship. I've got a lot on my plate right now."
"Harry... I want you to know, though, I don't want it to just stop at friends. I just want to slow down a bit... until then..." Brianne leaned over and gave Harry a quick, soft kiss on the lips, then gathered her stuff together. "Goodnight, Harry," she said, as she headed off to bed. Harry sat there, dumbfounded and speechless by what just happened. He smiled to himself, then went off to bed.
Dear Mel and Dana,
First day at Hogwarts was actually pretty good! I made some amazing new friends--Hermione, Ron, and (you're never going to believe this)... Harry Potter! I've read about him in books before, but let me tell you--the books don't say a thing about who he is. And they really should... because he's probably the kindest person I've met here. He and his friends have been so good to me since I've got here, and they've all made me feel at home here. You have to see this place! It's beautiful here. The castle is just amazing, and I hope I can explore it a little more while I'm here.
Anyway... that's not the best part about what's happened here so far. Guess what? ...Harry kissed me!! He kissed me while we were hanging out at the lake watching the sunset. It was so romantic! I promise though, I'm not going to make the same mistake with Harry as I did with Jake. I know better now...
But I have to admit... Harry is so cute!
In other news, I'm trying out for Quidditch! Harry said I would be a good Beater, because I had told him how I've played Beatball for such a long time. He thought I would be perfect for that position. I'm trying out next Friday, so wish me luck!
I'll let you know if anything else interesting happens. Write back and tell me how you're both doing and what's been going on lately. I miss you both very much, and I hope to see you soon.
Take care,
Brianne
Brianne folded the letter she wrote and hid it in a dresser drawer under some clothes. She gave herself a mental note to go to the owlery first thing in the morning and send it to her friends. Exausted, she changed into her pajamas and curled up in her bed, sleeping soundly through the night.