The next two months at Hogwarts mostly focused around Harry. The night we first talked I also sent a letter to both my dad and uncle telling them about Harry. I also requested pictures of our family to be able to show him and explained how outraged I was that he had never seen a picture of his own parents. Since then my family and I had been corresponding almost daily and Harry had even started to write to them as well. I knew he asked them all sorts of questions and they had all been eager to oblige. Dad even invited him over for Christmas which Harry happily agreed to.

I also told the twins about knowing Harry's parents during the war and how I had few cherished memories of being like his older sister. In response they had just hugged me and forwardly treated Harry like one of the mates whenever he was around. The only thing I couldn't quite convince them of was to lay off Ron.

It was now Halloween and my group of friends were all heading down for the celebratory feast. I was excitedly explaining to Harry that it was much like the Welcoming Feast but filled with sweets and pastries instead of meats and potatoes. As I talked to him though, I noticed him give Ron pointed looks when we took our seats.

"What's going on between you two?" I asked looking between them. "Come on, out with it."

"Well, I may have insulted this girl," Ron explained while I shook my head.

"Hermione," Harry filled in.

"And she might be crying her eyes out in the girl's lavatory," Ron finished while I gasped.

"Ronald Weasley! All that girl wants is some friends, she's just trying to in her own way," I explained, standing up from the table to head back out of the Great Hall.

"By bothering us and complaining?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Yes!" I shouted back as I headed away from the table.

"Oi, Marnie, where are you going?" Lee called out after me.

"Just to the bathroom Jordan," I called back causing Fred to elbow Lee.

Once I exited the Great Hall, I walked down the stairs and through the corridors until I reached the lavatory in the Charms hallway, which I knew was the class the first year's on Thursdays. When I opened the door, I immediately heard a light sobbing before I closed the door gently.

"Hermione, are you in here?" I asked, causing the girl to emit a squeak like I surprised her.

"It's Marnie, isn't it?" Hermione replied back.

"That's right. I just wanted to come down and tell you that I know what an insufferable fool Ronald Weasley can be," I said casually before sitting up on the sink.

I heard Hermione let out a soft laugh.

"You don't have to be nice," she commented which meant it was my turn to laugh.

"I just figured you would want to hear it from someone who had their deepest secret spilled because of Ron that he isn't all that bad, he just talks before he thinks," I explained before a pregnant pause.

The latch on the stall door then clicked and the puffy-faced girl stepped out.

"He did that to you?" she asked as I nodded.

"Yea he did, and it was horrible. But I think he might have felt even worse about it than I did when he realized what he had done," I explained while Hermione nodded.

"I know I talk too much, and I come off as a know-it-all," she started to explain before I cut her off.

"I told him all you wanted was to be friends," I replied which caused her to softly blush with a smile.

After a few moments of quiet I hopped off the counter and stretched my hand towards her.

"Why don't we go to that feast, the pumpkin pasties are the best," I said as she smiled before taking my hand.

"You should be a prefect," Hermione said which incited me laugh.

"That's awful nice for you to say, but I'm afraid Fred and George might disown me," I said to which she only nodded.

But as we approached the door, I started to smell a hideous odour coming from just outside paired with a loud stomping sound. I looked back to Hermione who just shrugged with a fearful look in her eyes.

"Marnie," she whispered.

"Yea," I said back.

"I'm starting to remember something that is supposed to protrude this distinct odour," she said while covering her nose.

"I'm not going to like it am I?" I asked as she shook her head.

Back in the Great Hall Harry and Ron were talking with Lee and the twins.

"How was I supposed to know that by being annoying she was trying to be my friend?" Ron asked causing Harry and Lee to shrug.

"Oh dear brother, there is still so much you need to learn about our feminine counterparts," Fred said while shaking his head.

"Is that why you keep Marnie around?" Ron asked while it was then Harry's turn to shake his head.

"Marnie is one of us, and she also happens to be the one fixing your mess," George explained with a stern look.

Harry and Lee stifled their laughter.

"Troll, in the dungeons!" Professor Quirrell shouted moments after rushing into the Great Hall. "Just thought you would like to know," he added before passing out.

The hall immediately erupted into panicked whispers.

"SILENCE!" Professor Dumbledore shouted as every student followed his solitary instruction. "Prefects, escort your houses promptly to their houses. Professors, with me to the dungeons," he exclaimed efficiently.

The boys stood up before Harry froze in his tracks. He looked over to Ron who had stopped with him instead of following the others.

"Marnie and Hermione, they're down in the dungeons," Harry said frantically.

Harry then took off opposite of the students followed closely by Ron. Once they had run down to the Charms hallway, a horrible, putrid smell emanated from the other end. They followed the scent cautiously before hearing a pair of screams. This started them hurrying for the girl's lavatory again before running through the entrance which had already been parted from its hinges. When the boys finally turned the corner, it was only to see a huge troll in between them and the girls. Hermione had a visible wound on her head while she was holding an unconscious Marnie in her lap.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked as he simultaneously sized up the troll.

But before Hermione could answer the troll started to seize towards the girls.

"Hey dung brain," Ron hollered as he started throwing rubble at the troll.

Harry followed suit as both boys threw debris at the troll. In response, the troll turned around and started to advance onto them instead.

"Do something!" Hermione screamed as Harry noticed the troll bending down to attack.

Taking advantage of the troll's lowered position, Harry jumped onto its head which caused the troll to abruptly stand up and try to sway him off.

"Ron!" Harry yelled in a panic.

Hermione expertly started coaching Ron into a plan from across the room where she was still separated from them holding Marnie. As per her instructions the troll's club started floating in the air above the troll and then unceremoniously came crashing down onto its head, rendering him unconscious. As the troll fell, Harry ungraciously made his way to jump off and landed beside Ron. The two boys then approached Hermione and a very still Marnie.

"What happened?" Harry asked frantically.

"We were making our way to leave the lavatory when I figured out that there must somehow be a troll in the corridor. But before we could make our move, the door blasted open causing Marnie to be thrown back. She hit her head and landed unconscious. I ran to her and dragged her to the far end, but the troll spotted us. Thankfully that's about the time you two ran in," Hermione explained as Harry bent over to bring Marnie's head to his own lap.

"You're okay now Marnie. I'm here, your brother's here," Harry repeated while Hermione looked surprisingly towards Ron who just put his finger to his mouth and shook his head, indicating it wasn't a well-known detail that the O'Hara girl and the Boy Who Lived considered themselves siblings.

Moments later a group of professors approached and McGonagall let out a loud gasp.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded while the others looked around in astonishment.

"Looking for fame and glory most likely," Snape sneered at Harry rather maliciously.

"That's enough Severus," Dumbledore ordered before approaching the group of children.

"Professor McGonagall, send for Madam Pomfrey so Miss O'Hara and Miss Granger can be assessed. Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley will be escorted by myself to the Gryffindor common room while they relay their story to me."

"It was me professor," Hermione interrupted before anything more could be said.

"What do you mean Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked incredulously.

"I mean, I went looking for the troll while Marnie came to try and talk me out of it. But we saw the troll before we could escape and then Harry and Ron came and saved us when they noticed us missing at the feast," she explained while her head of house looked appalled.

"That is a serious feat Miss. Granger which recklessly rendered Miss. O'Hara unconscious," McGonagall shook her head. "Fifty points from Gryffindor. Now follow me as we help get Miss. O'Hara to a hospital bed," she grabbed onto Hermione's arm and she levitated Marnie away.

Dumbledore did escort the boys to their dormitory, but silently since Hermione had taken the blame, before making his way back to the dungeons to rid of the troll.

As the two boys entered the common room, they were met by the stares of every Gryffindor who had obviously noticed their absence.

"Where the bloody hell is Marnie?" Fred asked, almost charging the boys.

"In the hospital wing," Harry answered meekly.

"What happened?" George came over with a worried expression.

"She was sort of mowed over by a troll," Ron explained.

"WHAT?" the twins shouted in unison while Angelina, Alicia, Katie, and Lee ran over.

"What do you mean mowed over by a troll?" Angelina asked incredulously while Fred and George were already running towards the door.

"Fred! George! Stop!" they heard their prefect brother shouting, to which they easily ignored.

The twins ran all the way to the hospital wing before barging in and spotting Marnie a few beds away. She was unconscious and had bruises all over her arms and face.

Fred let out an audible whimper while he and his brother made their way to her bedside.

"It's nearly curfew! You boys mustn't be here," Madam Pomfrey chastised as she came out of her office with healing potions for Marnie.

"Please, just five minutes?" Fred pleaded while the matron took in his desperate manner.

"Fine, but not a minute more or you won't make it back before curfew," she said before turning away.

"Why is it always Hare?" Fred asked anxiously, causing George to look over at his brother.

"She's always trying to do the right thing and because of it all she always ends up here," Fred continued.

"She's a fighter Fred, there's nothing that's going to slow her down," George said softly while carefully picking up his friend's hand.

"Bloody git of a brother, she was fixing his bloody problem. She shouldn't have even been there," Fred started but George just sighed.

"Yea, but then Hermione would have been alone. And who knows what would have happened?" George countered making it Fred's turn to sigh.

Both of them looked over to the adjacent bed where Hermione was sleeping, no doubt having been given a sleeping draught.

"Just feel so bloody helpless," Fred said dejectedly.

"Me too, Fred. Me too," George agreed before the two of them went quiet.

They just looked at Marnie who remained asleep through their brief visit, looking worse than she ever had. After their five minutes ended, both Weasley's slowly got up and hesitantly left the hospital wing with intentions to visit first thing in the morning.

XXX

Marnie could feel the sun coming through the window as the light shone through her eyelids. There were muffled whispers around her bed which she thought was very odd. Her birthday had already passed, and she didn't think it was a quidditch game today, so why were the girls circling her bed?

But then the events from last night slowly filtered back as the last thing she remembered was the horrid stench of the troll and the door being blasted through as it entered the lavatory.

"'Ermione," I whimpered as I tried to open my eyes.

"Ermione. Needs help," I said, trying to brush back the wave of nausea and blurry vision.

"I'm here Marnie, everything is alright," I heard the girl say from somewhere beside me.

I could then feel both of my hands being held and the weight of someone leaning over the end of the bed.

My vision slowly came through as I noticed Fred and Harry each holding one of my hands and George sitting on the bed at my feet. Hermione was standing beside Harry and Ron was at the foot of the bed looking at me. I tried to smile but felt the muscles in my face hurt from the movement which caused me to wince.

"Marnie, don't move. You were thrown by a troll," Harry ordered as he gently put his other hand on my chest to stop me from getting up.

"What happened?" I asked, hearing Harry sigh.

"Ron and I came to get you once Professor Quirrell announced there was a troll in the castle. When we got to the girl's lavatory Hermione had dragged you out of the way, but the troll was advancing towards you. So, Ron and I got its attention and eventually were able to take him out with his own club," he explained quietly while Hermione and Ron nodded their agreeance.

"But, that's not the official story so don't say anything, even to the professors," Hermione whispered.

I managed to nod briefly in assurance.

"Am I the only one who got hurt?" I asked hopefully.

"Yea, and I'm so sorry," Ron said guiltily.

"It's not your fault Ron, I'm just glad that no one else was hurt and that I managed to find Hermione beforehand. Plus, it's nice to see everyone here together," I said with a pointed look at Ron who blushed.

"Yea, we're all good now. After the troll and everything," Hermione said with a smile.

"Hare," Fred interupted quietly. "I can't believe you go from taking on Flint to a mountain troll."

"Not that the two aren't necessarily dissimilar," George added with a smirk.

"But we would really appreciate it if every time you confronted something you didn't end up bruised and unconscious," Fred finished with a sigh.

"It's not like I do it on purpose," I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

"Alright, I think it's time for Miss. O'Hara's visiting party to leave and only return tomorrow after she has gotten some rest and has had time for her bones to mend," Madam Pomfrey interrupted.

My friends all bid me good night before quietly vacating the wing. Despite only having just woken up I could feel everything in my body aching which in turn made my eyes feel heavy. Within minutes I was asleep again.

XXX

Two day later I was finally able to leave the hospital wing. The twins and Harry had been constantly at my bedside which had driven Madam Pomfrey mad, but they hadn't budged. Harry filled me in on more details about the troll attack, which had usually made Fred turn green. I think it scared the twins more than ever this time when I had landed myself unconscious.

I also found out that one of the only downsides to having a new brother was that he reports back to my family. Dad and Remus had almost come to the school when Harry told them I had been attacked by a troll. Apparently, he tried to downplay it in the letter, but hearing your daughter was attacked by a full-size mountain troll is an extreme circumstance in itself.

In response I had to send dad my own letter telling him he couldn't pull me out of school since it would leave Harry by himself. This had gotten my father to begrudgingly agree to let me stay, especially since Harry would be playing in his first ever quidditch game in a few days.

A few days later Harry and the rest of my friends were setting off to play their first game of the season. All of them had been extremely hesitant to leave me alone, with Lee in his usual spot to announce, so I was sitting with Hagrid, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna.

As we watched the players come out on the pitch, I felt my stomach hitch since I was nervous for Harry only being a first year. Hermione and Hagrid also shared my concern while the others were stoked to see Harry fly. Reportedly he was quite brilliant. As we watched them set off, I was quite impressed to see Harry zooming around purposefully as he looked for the snitch. However, after the game began Harry's flying soon became erratic, like he had lost control.

" 'Here's summat wrong wit' 'Arry's broom stick," Hagrid said as I stood up in worry.

I then watched Harry's broom suddenly drop about ten feet before somewhat stabilizing. Seeing this I shouted at the top of my lungs.

"FRED! There's something wrong with Harry's broom!"

I hadn't expected Fred to hear me, but he looked out into the audience before looking up towards Harry. In response to seeing Harry whirling about Fred and George both flew over to Harry and tried to get him off the broom. I watched nervously as it seemed to be an impossible feat. When either of the twins tried to grab onto Harry, the broom would try and buck Harry off. Tears formed in my eyes as I watched my best friends attempt to bring my brother to safety. After several failed attempts, the twins decided to fly lower, underneath Harry, so to catch him if he fell. Although I was thankful for their efforts, it made me sick to think they would have to try and catch Harry from those heights. Just then I felt Hermione pull on my sleeve.

"Look Marnie, it's Snape," she said as I grudgingly pulled my gaze over to where the professors were sitting.

Sure enough I could see Snape incessantly mumbling while keeping his eyes from blinking. Classic signs of a jinx.

"What in Merlin's name is he doing?" I asked incredulously as I tried to fathom why the professor hated Harry so much.

Harry had told me all about how Snape incessantly targeted him in class, more so than any other Gryffindor. But to try and kill him in a quidditch match, that seemed off the charts.

"Wait here," I heard Hermione say before heading off in the direction of the professor's section. I darted my gaze between Hermione and Harry, watching as the twins circled and Hermione made her way over. Moments later I saw smoke start emanating from where Snape was sitting and realized Hermione had started a small fire to break the professor's gaze, therefore breaking the jinx. I then whirled my head back over to Harry who now had control over his broom. I let out a deep sigh in relief.

In the next moment however Harry's broom darted towards the ground and I felt my stomach drop again. Instinctually, I grabbed onto Ron who was the closest beside me. He clasped onto my hand and we both watched in horror as Harry neared the ground. However, in the nick of time he pulled up his broom before setting down on the ground. Still watching him, I noticed him starting to heave. This seemed to be all I could take watching Harry si I decidedly turned to go down to the pitch.

"Marnie, look!" Ron exclaimed, causing me to turn back curiously.

"Harry Potter has the snitch! Gryffindor wins!" I heard Lee bellow from the announcer's box.

In utter shock I ran and hugged Ron before turning to Neville and Luna. All of us then ran down to the pitch with Hermione who had caught up to us.

I ran straight at Harry who returned my embrace as I practically threw myself onto him. I had tears of relief and saw Fred and George approach. I disentangled myself from Harry for a moment only to hug Fred and George.

"Thank-you," I whispered to both of them.

"He's our friend too, Hare," Fred said with a smile.

"Couldn't have him becoming a pancake now. He's an excellent seeker, we need him to win the cup," George said, causing me to hit him on the arm.

I then turned back to Harry and put my arm around his shoulder. He was now talking with Ron and Hermione about what we had seen.

"We'll talk later," Harry whispered beside me, trying to be discreet since now it seemed a teacher was out to murder him.

But before we could say anything else, we heard a snarling voice from behind us.

"Look, O'Hara thinks she has a boyfriend," I heard Flint sneer maliciously.

"How does the dirty squib think she could ever date someone as famous as Potter here, despite his already bad taste in friends," he said looking over at Ron and Hermione.

"You leave her alone Flint," Harry said evenly, causing Flint to raise his eyebrows in surprise.

"You don't want to be with the likes of her Potter, her blood is as dirty as they come," he added.

"Shut it Flint, you already lost the game," I said wanting to prevent any fight from breaking out.

"Yea, well your boyfriend here is a pathetic flyer who can't even handle his own broom," Flint snarled.

I noticed now that his cronies had also started to walk over.

But before anything could break out, Hagrid finally made it down to the pitch and hollered at the gathering Slytherins.

"Get away with yeh!" he demanded, earning him some well pointed sneers from the Slytherins.

"Dumbledore warned yeh bout harrassin' anymore," Hagrid said sternly before Flint sent one final glare and finally turned away with his teammates.

"Thanks Hagrid," I turned around with a smile.

"Best be gettin' up ter the castle yeh lot," Hagrid said.

The twins were already in the changing room along with Angelina, Alicia, and Katie. Harry ran off to quickly change while we waited for them to return. I noticed that Hermione, Ron, Neville and Luna had me flanked as I came to stand in the middle of the group.

That night at dinner, after convincing the twins not to murder Flint, Harry and I were discussing the letter I was going to send my father about the game.

"I don't want him to worry!" Harry said in desperation.

"You told him about the troll!" I retorted.

"Yea, but this is different," he said unconvincingly.

"A teacher is trying to off you mate," Ron piped in while Harry turned back to glare at him.

"What if he revokes my quidditch permission slip?" Harry asked anxiously.

I looked at him for a moment and knew the game meant just as much to him as it did to the twins and the girls. And even though I was still anxious from today's game, I didn't want to take that happiness away from him.

"We won't let that happen Harry. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything rash. I mean, Remus talked him into letting me stay in school, I'm sure he will do the same for you," I reasoned.

We both looked at each other a moment later.

"What if he wants to take us out of school?" we said simultaneously before laughing at our identicalness.

"That's just creepy," Ron said with a shudder. "I've only ever seen Fred and George do that, and I think they rehearse," he continued.

We smiled at each other before I got an idea.

"I want to show you something," I said, grabbing his hand to lead him away from the group.

My friends gave me a quizzical look, but I waved them off.

"I'll meet you back at the common room," I said.

I led Harry to the trophy case outside of Madam Hooch's office. I had seen it when I had taken flying lessons in my first year because I had known to look for it. Remus had always gone on about James' seeking days and how talented he had been to watch. That was why I had looked for his name in the engravements of previous Gryffindor seekers.

"Dad knows James was a seeker and how much it meant to him," I said while Harry stared at his own father's name. "He won't make you quit," I finished confidently.

"Thanks Marnie," was all he said while he continued staring at the name with a small smile.

After several minutes we made our way back to the Gryffindor common room where our friends were waiting. Harry went off to talk to Ron and Hermione, no doubt about Snape's attempt on his life, while I went to sit with my own friends. I already knew what had happened during the game, so I didn't particularly feel like hashing out the details from earlier. It was actually nice to just be able to relax with my own friends who were still reeling from their win against Slytherin and temporarily forget about the dangers which seemed to be following me and Harry.