III—Surprise Notes

Professor McGonagall decided she was going to wait for her class to settle down before she began. However, frustrated by the fact that she had Head Master duties on top of being a teacher, she decided to push right ahead.

"Alright, settle down. Introductions can be finished later, at your own convenience. For now, we are going to be focusing on human transfiguration. Later we will be going into transfiguration from air."

Harry looked around the room. Many of the students he did not recognize (as it mostly was in Hogwarts these days) but some he did. Neville for instance, pouting because Herbology had been dropped this year, Ernie Macmillan, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff, and Millicent Bulstrode of Slytherin. Harry wondered if there was anybody in the other years that had come back.

Next class was charms. Harry thought he saw some recognizable faces in the hallway and his heart gave a slight leap when he saw a flash of red hair dart around the corner but when they rounded it, it was gone.

"Say, Ginny didn't come this year did she?"

"Are you mental? I had to force my parents to let me go, you know that. She kicked and screamed and they made her stay home."

Harry nodded, relieved. Though his heart ached with misery since he left her, he felt that she was safer out of Hogwarts with her parents and brothers.

Hermione was getting along with the new students swimmingly. Harry preferred not to talk to them, and Ron was in the middle, but mostly standing with Hermione. That evening, in the library with a ton of homework, Hermione invited the young dark haired girl named Gwen who had shared their carriage, to their table. "Hi Harry, Hi Ron. This is quite the school you have here, isn't it? It's like a maze."

Ron vocally agreed with her where as Harry only nodded.

"How do you like it?" Hermione asked, "You mentioned before that you were home schooled, so you've never been to school before."

"Oh, that's not true. I went to Muggle School when I was little, to learn about the world, but we moved away when I was eleven to start my magical education. You see, in Canada, there are no restrictions on using magic outside of school because you have to sign up for magic school, where as here, you get invited."

Harry remembered his invitation, and shortly after, when Hagrid had picked him up to collect his school things. That time seemed so much simpler than now.

She grinned at Harry, looking at his scar as he copied down text onto parchment. "Where did you get your scar?" she asked.

Harry looked up to her, unbelieving. Hermione and Ron glanced at each other, shock faced. The quizzical expression on Gwen's face, told them everything. She did not know who Harry Potter was.

"How can you not know who he is?"

"It's the home schooling," Ron assumed.

They left the library, aware of the librarian's eyes on their moving lips. They preferred not to be chased with books as they left, so they left silently.

Saving Harry the ordeal, Hermione quickly told her the story of Harry Potter from his birth as "the boy who lived" to the end of the previous school year, leaving out the more precise details. As it turns out, she was absolutely clueless. Voldemort was half a world away and, living on an isolated farm at the time and away from other witches and wizards, her mother had never heard the story of the boy who lived.

Gwen thanked them for the story, because she had heard whispers from other students about him but did not know what they meant. She told them of how she grew up in a city, attending Muggle School until she was eleven, when her father left her mother after finding out that they possessed magical properties, "He was a muggle and didn't understand. I miss him, because I haven't seen him since, I doubt I ever will. My mother and I moved to a farm in the middle of the country, the closest neighbor was two kilometers away let alone the closest magical neighbor." Gwen seemed to grow excited with her tale, as if she had never been able to get it off her chest. "I saw a side of my mom I'd never seen before because she had kept being a witch a secret from my father. I knew there was something strange about her, from a muggle standpoint, but I could never pin it until then. If you ask me, it was stupid to keep it secret because he left, but I suppose, he would have left much quicker if she had told him sooner. She started using magic again and she became very happy. She bought me a wand, and she had kept all of her old school books and taught me how to use magic day and night."

"You must miss her," Hermione said with a sympathetic expression on her face.

Gwen nodded, "I've never been away from her before but she said she'll be sending me express owls almost every week, so that's not so bad. Wait until I tell her about you guys!"

"No, don't!" Harry exclaimed suddenly.

Gwen, taken back, asked, "Why not?"

"Yeah Harry," Hermione said, with her eyebrows raised, "It's nothing everybody doesn't already know."

In annoyance and through gritted teeth he replied, "I would just prefer not to have an owl intercepted that's all."

Gwen nodded in understanding, "That's OK, Harry, I know what you mean. I'll tell my mom about you, but I'll spare her the whole story." She grinned widely, flashing her white teeth.

"Harry Potter," an excited and familiar voice exclaimed. Harry turned to see little Colin Creevey, not much bigger than he was in Harry's second year, behind him. "Harry, Professor McGonagall gave me this note to give to you, can you believe it? She gave it to me to give to you! She told me it's very important that you receive it, so here it is!"

Without reply, Harry took the note and nodded as Colin scampered off. He opened it up and read it quickly afterwards bidding farewell to his friends and Gwen, whom he wasn't so sure about still, and made his way to the corridor with the Gargoyles.

He knew Hermione and Ron would understand and he hoped that Gwen would not ask too many questions.

AN: Thanks for your comments, I'm not getting as many as I'd hoped for but I suppose, Harry Potter is more popular in the fan fiction department than Crossing Jordan is… oh well, I hope that all who read it are enjoying it!