CHAPTER 2

I woke up early and took a shower before my mother and father got up. I wore the new clothing I had bought, most likely the only normal clothes I would wear the whole school year, because we wear robes at Hogwarts. My hair took a long time because I had to make it just perfect. By the time I was done my mother was already calling me down to breakfast.

"You have to eat fast, we are already running later than we should be," my mother told me as I sat down across the table from my father, who was already eating.

"Good morning to you to mother," I said, smiling. I was in a good mood because it was only a couple of hours before I saw Harry.

"Someone's happy to be goning back to school," my father commented.

"Yes I am," I hurridely ate my breakfast and brought my trunk downstairs.

"Did you clean out Lily's cage?" my mother asked.

"Yeah, this morning," I replied the went upstairs to get her.

Lily, my owl, wasn't colored like other owls. Her feathers were more a richer brown than most and she had eyes the color of lilies, hence her name.

"Are you ready to be let out Lily?" I soothed her because she had been stuck in her cage most of the summer, only to be let out on some nights.

She clicked her beak in response.

"Soon, Lily, soon," I kept soothing her.

The ride to the train station seemed to take forever, but my mother said it was normal time, everytime I asked her. Finally we made it and I was kissing my mother and father goodbye and getting on the train.

I looked for Harry and quickly found hin by first spotting the Weasley's red hair.

After seeing him the things seemed to slow down. The train seemed more crouded than usual. I blamed that on the first years. I found the last compartment open and put my trunk and Lily's cage, with her in it, up on the rack. My mind was more preoccupied with Harry and where he and his friends were going to sit. I was sitting for a moment, with Lily constantly clicking her beak, but I didnt seem to notice.

The door to my compartment opened and I saw Harry with his frieds standing behind him.

"Would you mind if me and my friends sat here? Everywhere else is full," he said.

I felt like I was in a dream, but I quickly nodded. I also didn't notice, but Lily had stopped clicking her beak.

"Thank you," he said and all three of them came in and put their stuff up on the opposite side. After they did this they sat down opposite me and Harry sat right across from me.

"You're in Gryffindor and our year, too, aren't you?" Ron asked after they had gotten settled.

"Yeah," I answered.

"What's your name?" Harry asked and I was going to answer but Lily let out a hoot and I remembered I needed to let her out.

I quickly stood and got her out of her cage. I held out my arm and she landed on it. She pecked me harder than usual for forgetting abut her.

"My name is Amy and this is my bird, Lily," I answered as I sat back down.

She was facing me so they could see her eyes and Hermione asked, "Why is her name Lily?" after a quick look to Harry.

"Well, you can't see from that point of view but my bird is very special, her eyes are the color of lilies," I was happy to answer the questions. I was more than happy to be sitting in the same compartment as Harry. I tried not to show it to much though.

"Oh Ron, we have prefect duties, lets go, see you later Harry, nice to meet you Amy," Hermione said and left the compartment, followed by Ron.

Harry was petting Lily or I would have let her out. I wanted her to stay on my arm but when she clicked her beak I knew I couldn't make her any longer.

"She wants out, she's been stuck in her cage a while," I said reluctantly.

"Okay," Harry replied and I opened the window to let her out.

I thought that it would be hard for me to talk to him, but there was barely a moment when we hadn't talked. It was almost like talking to Isabella, almost, but better, much better. We seemed to talk about everything and found out we had alot in common.

As each moment passed I felt closer to him and liked him more than ever. I could just tell that this year thing were going to be different. I wasn't sure how much different, but I knew this would definately be my best year at Hogwarts.

"If you love Quidditch so much, why haven't you ever played?" he asked me.

"Oh, I dunno, I figured I wouldn't be good. I don't have a broom and I never get to practice," I said.

"You have never even tried. You know, I'd like to see you fly."

'Oh my God, Harry wants to see me fly! I can't wait to write to Isabella tonight,' I thought.

"Well, maybe, I've always been good at sports, and I'm OK on a broom."

"Well, there you go, I'll bet you'll be great. I can't believe you've never played before."

"You're great at it though. I've seen even game you've ever played in. You fly really well," I stopped myself from talking more because I didn't want to seem like I like him, even thout I do.

"Thanks," he said.

I think he was blushing. I didn't say anything about it though, in case I was wrong.

"Oh my, is it that time already? Would you like anything from the trolley?" he asked after we heard the lunch trolley go by.

I got out my money pouch and got up.

"No, it's Okay, I got it," he said stopping me.

"Oh, no, you don't have to," I said.

"No, it's fine, wait here," he left, closing the compartment doors behind him.

I sat down with a big smile on my face. My letter to Isabella was going to be very long.

He came back into the compartment a few minutes later with his arms full of food.

"What do you want?" he asked me.

"You really didn't have to buy all that, I can pay you back," I offered.

"No, really, it's fine. What do you want?" he repeated.

"A chocolate frog," I gave in.

"Good choice," he replied, tossing me one.

"Yeah, I have a good sized collection of the cards, but I'm missing quite a few," I said, catching it.

"Really, who are you missing?"

"Well, Dumbledore, for one-"

"Dumbledore? I have like five of him, maybe I can trade you for something that you have and I don't."

"Cool, let me get my cards out," I turned to get my trunk down just as he turned to get his trunk down.

'Yes, Isabella, you better be ready for a long letter,' I thought to myself. As I felt through my trunk I felt something that I didn't recognize, but I didn't think anything of it, then. I just kept feeling around until I felt the cards and pulled them out.

After I had gotten my cards out and sat back down he already had his and was searching through them. He found his Dumbledore and pulled it out and set it aside.

"Let me see all your cards," he said after he found his Dumbledore.

"Let me see yours," I said, handing him mine.

As I looked through his cards I made a pile of the cards that I didn't have but he had more than one of. He did the same for my cards.

We were trading cards when Ron and Hermione came back into the compartment.

"We need to change into our robes, we'll be approaching Hogwarts soon," Hermione said.

"No way," I said, not believing the trip was almost over.

"We haven't been on the train that long," Harry said, voicing what I was thinking.

"Yes we have, have you looked out the window lately?" Ron replied.

Sure enough, when I looked out the window it was dark and I could almost see the many towers of the Hogwarts castle.

"Where have you guys been the whole trip?" Harry asked.

"Patroling the corriders," Hermione answered almost instantly.

"In the prefects compartment," Ron answered at the same time.

"In the prefects compartment," Hermione said quickly.

"Patroling the corridors," Ron said at the same time.

They shared a look and Hermione started turning pink. Ron's ears were long since red. They started blending in with his hair.

"What we mean is we were in the prefects compartment for some of the time and patroling the corridors for some of the time," Hermione tried to cover up for the slip of their tongues.

"Yeah," Ron agreed.

I looked at Harry who just stared for a minute. Hermione and Ron looked at him expactantly.

"Well, lets change into our robes, then," he said and started taking back his cards.

For a second Ron, Hermione and I were still but then they started getting out their robes and so did I. I couldn't believe that Harry didn't notice anything was wrong, but I wasn't going to say anything, especially since I wasn't completely their friend.

It wasn't long before the Hogwarts express slowed to a stop in Hogsmeade, but no one said anything about the wierd moment earlier.

When we were getting off Hermione and Ron had prefect duties to tend to, but Harry and I found an empty carriage.

"OK, quick before they come back, you noticed something was up earlier, right?" he waited for me to nod then hurridly continued, "Well, I think that I know why."

"Really? Why?" I asked, glad he felt he could talk to me about stuff like this, even though we'd known each other for only one train ride.

He leaned so close to me I could feel his hot breath on my face. I wanted to kiss him so bad as I looked into those deep green eyes, but I resisted the urge. "I think they are dating," he whispered.

"Why would they keep it a secret though?" I asked, still very tempted to kiss him. I could hardly focus on what was being said.

He moved away, "Here they come, I'll tell you more later," he said and I heard their voices, too.

I didn't talk much for the rest of the carriage ride or during dinner. I was to wrapped up in my thoughts. When I finally got to my dorm I wrote a long letter to Isabella, used Lily to send it and fell into a deep sleep, with many dreams of Harry.