Chapter 2

New Friend

"HARRY!" a voice screamed from the opposite side of the street. Harry whipped around and saw a pale-faced girl with long black hair running towards him. She stopped in front of him and grinned, her cheeks reddening.

"Its so good to finally meet you!" she said. She glanced at his shocked face. "Er…you are Harry aren't you?"

"Yeah," he said, blushing slightly, "yeah I am."

Roxanne was quite tall, not as tall as Harry though. She had pale mauve eyes and her hair reached almost reached down to her waist and was wavy and all over the place. She had her nose pierced and her ears pierced quite a few times. In fact, she looked quite gothic. She was wearing a dark denim skirt just above her knees and a top with fishnet sleeves. Even in Diagon Alley she stood out a bit.

"Phew! That would be really embarrassing running up to the wrong person! I hope I'm not too late," she added, adjusting the backpack on her shoulder.

"No, I just got here," said Harry.

She was nothing like he had imagined. She had said in her letters she couldn't send a photograph as her aunty wouldn't allow her. She had told Harry what she looked like but he had imagined her much more…less noticeable!

"Shall we go in then?" she asked, pointing to the shop. He liked her slight Northern accent.

"Oh…yeah, ok then," said Harry.

Inside Hermione was just paying for her huge mound of books.

"Hey Harry, do you have your list? I forgot –" Ron stopped in mid sentence, "who are you?" he asked Roxanne rudely.

"This is Roxanne, she's my pen pal," explained Harry.

"You never told me you had a pen pal!" said Ron, looking crestfallen.

Roxanne frowned at Harry.

"I had my reasons," mumbled Harry, "Roxanne, this is Ron, Ginny and Hermione."

They all smiled at her and said hello. Hermione looked quite astonished at Roxanne's choice of clothing and accessories.

"She used to go to a private school in Durham. She's starting sixth year at Hogwarts too," said Harry, grinning.

"Cool, I s'pose you don't know what house you'll be in?" said Ron.

"No, but I bet I'll be put in Hufflepuff. Not that there's anything wrong with them," she added, twiddling with her spiky belt nervously.

"Nah, I bet you be in Gryffindor," said Harry, feeling a bit more brave. He felt like he knew Roxanne very well, even though they had only communicated in letters.

"Actually, she'll most likely be put in Ravenclaw as private schools tend to be ahead when it comes to most subjects," said Hermione, talking as if Roxanne wasn't even there.

Roxanne shrugged, "I really don't mind. I would prefer Gryffindor though." She grabbed the books she needed, nearly dropping them in her urgency.

"But Ravenclaw doesn't always take in the really smart people. You would be in there otherwise," Ginny pointed out.

"And anyway, I'm not smart," said Roxanne as she handed the money to the shopkeeper.

"Wow! You're taking nearly as many classes as Hermione!" said Ron, "that's not wise," he added, "Hermione had a mental breakdown she had so much homework."

Hermione scowled and walked outside without saying another word.

"Harry told me. But I'm not taking as many, I promise."

"Did Harry tell you how she managed to do it?" asked Ron, peering at her inquisitively.

"About the time turner thing? Yeah he did. You lot had some amazing adventures!" she said, her eyes lighting up.

"Hmm…Harry, can I speak to you a moment? Alone."

They walked outside and across the street. The passer-by's either scowled at the teens stopping in the middle of the path or pointed at Harry and stared.

"Are you mad?" he hissed to him, "you can't go telling everyone…everything!"
"You can trust her, she –"

"But you don't even know her! She looks like…" Ron fidgeted about uncomfortably, "well Harry, she looks really evil!"

"She's a goth, that's the whole point," said Harry bluntly, rather annoyed with Ron's instant dislike for Roxanne.

"But you don't know her family. You don't even know her surname!"

"I do, its Winters."

Ron's mouthed fell open when he said that, his eyes slightly bulging.

"You are kidding me, Harry. Tell me you're joking!"

"No, why?"

"The Winters' have a really bad record, mate. Really bad. Their name used to be feared nearly as much as You-Know-Who's!" said Ron in a hushed voice.

"Used to be," Harry pointed out, but he felt a horrible feeling in his stomach. "And how come I've never heard of them?"

"That's because they've all been locked in Azkaban for years! I guess they're not a threat anymore, but they were eleven years ago," said Ron, his voice going quite high-pitched and panicky for a sixteen-year-old teenager, "nearly the whole family is apart from three people, four if you add Roxanne."

"I don't care and I doubt Roxanne is like them, she may not even be closely related," said Harry simply. But his happy mood deflated like a balloon. He did care, what if she was a spy? She could even try to kill him…

"What was that all about?" asked Roxanne, staring at Harry's troubled face as he waked back to her.

"Nothing, don't worry," said Harry, smiling.

They went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and they all bought new robes. Then to the pet shop where Roxanne spent twenty minutes looking for the perfect cat.

"Do any have magical abilities?" she asked the shop owner, eyeing a bird that was playing chess with a huge tarantula.

"None of these cats do," said the woman, "but these twins 'ere are mighty intelligent," she added, clearly anxious for a buyer.

"Oh I can't take just one, the other will be lonely!" said Roxanne, stroking the felines affectionately, "I'll take both."

"Y'sure? Cost an awful lot!"

"I'm sure, thank you," she said as she handed the woman a lot of Galleons.

Ron stared wide-eyed at the amount of gold and threw Harry an 'I-told-you-so look'. Harry scowled and went with Roxanne out of the shop, the black cat on her left shoulder and Hermione carrying the white one.

"I'm going to call them Ebony and Ivory!" she said as Ebony nuzzled her cheek, "aren't they adorable?"

"Yeah, beautiful," said Harry, his eyes not straying from Roxanne.

Despite himself Ron couldn't help but hum the Ebony and Ivory song, which made Roxanne laugh. He blushed slightly and avoided Harry's gaze.

After a fun day of shopping and spending money, it was time for Roxanne to leave. They found Mr and Mrs Weasley and headed off to Gringotts, where her aunt and uncle were.

"See, they look decent people," Harry whispered to Ron. Ron silently agreed.

The couple looked normal enough, your average wizard and witch. The woman looked an older version of Roxanne but the man had neat, grey hair and grey eyes.

"Hello, you must be Harry! Roxanne's talked non-stop about you since your letter! My name is Allen and this is my wife, Miranda," said the man, holding out his hand.

Harry smiled at them both and noticed the solid gold watch on his wrist, studded with diamonds. Mrs Winters also wore very expensive jewellery.

Mr and Mrs Weasley introduced themselves and shook their hands.

"We have to hurry I'm afraid, Roxanne," said her aunty, her voice urgent.

Roxanne turned to Harry and looked very gloomy.

"Well…I guess I'll see you in three days time," she mumbled to him.