AN: Thank you all once again! I notice I only got 1 review for my last chapter… :( Just be honest! Did you like my story or not? All I want is feedback, good OR bad… And please let me know if I have anyone do something that is completely out of character for that person. Oh, and I'm very sorry this update took so long. Summer vacation has been even busier than school, believe it or not. I'll try to be better about updating sooner.

Also: Please note that dialogue and such will be different from that in the actual books. Because I am adding a new character, she may affect the actions of others.

I changed iPod to Walkman, as was suggested. For those of you who don't know what a Walkman is, it's like an old iPod.

Disclaimer: horsegurl16 does not own

The Gryffindor common room was painted scarlet and gold. I had never really cared much for the color red, but there was nothing I could do about it. I was ready to call it a night, but as I stepped through the portrait hole, for a moment, I thought something had exploded. The painting closed behind me, and I realized that the Gryffindors were throwing a party. From what I could gather, Ron and Harry had flown to school in a flying car. Not only had they crashed the car into a rather violent tree called the Whomping Willow (which happened to hit back), but they had lived to tell the tale. They hadn't even been expelled! I was rather excited by this, but when I saw the look on Hermione's face, not to mention Percy's, I had a feeling I should go to bed before Hermione took it out on me. Ginny saw what I was doing, and one glance toward Percy told her she should probably be doing the same. We headed up to the dormitory together. Ginny chose a bed and gestured for me to take the one next to her. I did, and the next thing I knew, she was talking up a storm.

"So I have six brothers – can you believe it? You've already met Ron, but Fred and George – they're twins – and Percy still go to Hogwarts as well. And Bill and Charlie have left already. Bill works at Gringotts and Charlie's in Romania working with dragons. How many siblings do you have?" she rambled breathlessly. She seemed to have turned into a completely different person now that we were alone.

Zero, I thought. But that was only in my head. Distantly, I heard myself saying "One."

"Just Hermione?" she asked. When I nodded my head, she continued to run her mouth. "You're lucky – you don't have to share as much. I have to divide everything into sevenths. It really isn't fair." Ginny stifled a yawn. "Well anyway, good night, Emma."

I yawned as well. "Night Ginny." I pulled back the curtain around my bed and pulled my Walkman out of my trunk, which had somehow been bought up to the dormitory for me. To my dismay, it wasn't working properly. Great. It had worked on the train. Why wasn't it working now? It must be something about the magic in the air around here.

Sighing, I packed away my device and pulled on my pajamas. A loud roar from downstairs told me that I the party was still going on. As I pulled up the covers, I began to wonder what we would be doing tomorrow. A quick glance at my schedule told me that I had Herbology first thing in the morning. This was followed by Transfiguration, Potions, and Charms. I was in for a busy day tomorrow.

I was the last one to wake up. Everyone else except Ginny was gone, and she was only there because she was waking me up. More correctly, she was jumping on my face.

"I'm awake already," I muttered.

"Are you sure about that?" teased Ginny. "I've only been trying to wake you up for the past half hour."

At that, I sat straight up in bed, knocking Ginny to the floor in the process. "I've missed Herbology?" I yelped. It wasn't that I wanted to go to Herbology, it was just that the last thing I needed was to miss my first ever class at Hogwarts. First impressions were important, and I was sure that the professor wouldn't think to fondly of me if I missed my first class.

Ginny sat up, rubbing a sore spot on her head. "No, but you missed half of breakfast. And you'll miss the other half and Herbology if you don't hurry up," she said, somewhat sourly.

At the mention of breakfast, I jumped out of bed and proceeded to tear my trunk apart to find my robes. As I quickly dressed, Ginny watched me, amused. I caught her looking. "What? It's food! Honestly, what do you expect? Food is about the only thing better than sleep!"

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "You remind me of Ron."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Errr… Yes," muttered Ginny.

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. We both looked at each other for a moment before cracking up laughing. "C'mon, we'll be late!" I said as I pulled Ginny through the door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she said, stumbling through after me.

Breakfast was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Besides the feast from last night, obviously. I almost didn't know what to eat! There were just too many choices! Finally I settled on something simple. I had a feeling that I would have plenty of other chances to eat all this amazing looking food, and I wanted to leave some surprises. Before I could finish, my eye was caught by an owl with a bright red, smoking envelope in its beak. I watched as it flew awkwardly towards the other end of the Gryffindor table, dropping itself and its burden in front of Ron. The owl crashed onto the table and lay there, unmoving. Ron looked absolutely terrified of the envelope. He gingerly picked it up and began to tear it open. Before he could finish, however, a voice boomed out of it. He dropped it quickly and shoved his fingers in his ears. After recovering from my shock, I did the same.

"RONALD BILLIUS WEASLEY, HOW COULD YOU? STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT GONE? WHEN WE GOT THE LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY BOTH COULD HAVE DIED, JUST THINK! YOUR FATHER AND I ARE ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED. YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME!"

There was a ringing silence. Ron looked like he wanted to disappear, and Harry wasn't looking much better. As I hastily finished my meal and headed to Herbology with Ginny, we started talking about what the class would be like, more to change the subject than anything.

"I doubt we'll get anything too difficult," Ginny was saying. "I mean, it's only our first day."

"I bet you anything that the teacher will spend the entire period talking about what we'll be learning this year, instead of actually learning it. I mean, what's the use in knowing what we're going to learn? I'd much rather just start right away and get it over with," I countered.

Ginny didn't know what to say to that. "Yeah, probably," she said, giving in at last.

We entered the greenhouse in silence, having nothing more to say. We took our seats next to each other and looked around the room. I was disappointed to see that none of the various plants scattered throughout the room appeared interesting in the least. I could tell already that Herbology was not going to be my favorite subject at school. Taking a peek at my schedule, I learned that our teacher's name was Professor Sprout. I chuckled silently to myself. A Herbology teacher named Sprout! Too funny.

Just then, the professor in question strode in, ready to teach. The class, which had been full of busy muttering before, fell silent when she entered the room.

"Good morning, class, "she said clearly. "My name is Professor Sprout. I will be your Herbology teacher. It is here that you will learn about the flora of the magical world. Some are helpful, some can be quite deadly. It is my job to teach you which to trust and which to avoid. You will learn how to deal with some of the most dangerous plants in existence." Catching the eyes of some worried students, she laughed. "Don't worry," she assured them. "You won't be required to go anywhere near that sort of plant until much later in your magical education. But enough talk of the future. It is now time to enlighten you about what you can expect to learn this year."

I glanced pointedly at Ginny. She caught me looking and rolled her eyes to the heavens. I smiled in return. As Professor Sprout lectured us on the types of plants we would be dealing with this year, and the sort of thing we would be expected to do in the classroom, my thoughts began to drift to video games, as they always did when I was bored. I thought of my Walkman upstairs, which had broken last night. You see, I had gotten up at about 5 A.M., panicking because I hadn't been on the internet in like, 24 hours. I had forgotten completely about the fact that it wasn't working at the moment. I had also forgotten about the fact that Hogwarts didn't really have electricity. Anyway, I was so upset that it didn't work that I stupidly banged it against my bedframe. Hard. It also didn't help that I was half asleep at the time. In my zombie like state, I had completely forgotten that Walkmans were breakable. Did I mention I'm not a morning person? Anyway, I was pretty sure that Walkmans couldn't be glued back together once they'd broken in half. Oh well.

I was removed from my thoughts by the sound of someone calling my name.

"Last call for Emily Granger!" Professor Sprout was saying.

I mentally kicked myself. So much for leaving a good first impression, I thought glumly. "Here I am," I said, raising my hand. Professor Sprout turned, and her face broke into a wide grin when she saw me.

"You must be Hermione's sister!" she exclaimed.

Something like that. I thought. But I told her that yes, I was. She seemed very pleased with this news, and was smiling for the rest of class. I sincerely hoped that Professor Sprout didn't think I was anything like my sister. Because I wasn't. Not one little bit.

Transfiguration was just the same as Herbology. Aside from the fact that the class didn't take place in a greenhouse, Professor McGonagall's class was much like Professor Sprout's. Oh, and Sprout didn't turn herself into a cat at the beginning of class. That was new. Her lecture, however, contained much the same thing as the one we had gotten in Herbology, and I found myself starting to drift off again. But then Professor McGonagall changed topics abruptly, making me sit up with a start.

"Now, you may have noticed your first period teacher called role," she said. "Those of you with older siblings at Hogwarts may know that this is not the way things are usually done around here. Professor Dumbledore thought we should try it with the first years – in other words, you. This is something new, and we may not continue it next year."

I groaned inwardly. I hated change. I began to tune Professor McGonagall's voice out, realizing that this could turn out to be another lecture. But I could tell that Professor McGonagall was the sort of teacher who could keep a class's attention most of the time. I knew that I would be snapped back into consciousness again soon enough, no matter how fiercely I stared out of that window. Sure enough, I came to just as Professor McGonagall called my name.

"Emily Granger," she called. I saw a flash of recognition fly into her eyes before I raised my hand.

"Of course, Hermione's sister," she said knowingly, before moving on to the next name. I sighed. I had the worst feeling that my first year at Hogwarts would be spent as "Hermione's sister". I would just have to deal with it.

Potions was not what I had expected at all. Professor Snape called role just like all the other teachers had, but unlike the other professors, he didn't even blink when he said my name. I could tell I was going to hate Potions, though, despite his lack of care as to who my sister was. His tone of voice gave me the creeps, and he always seemed to favor the Slytherins. I already knew what the Slytherins were like, so it wasn't that difficult to make the jump to Professor Snape being a sourpuss as well, considering he was head of Slytherin house. Especially now that I had seen him.

The rest of the day was rather dull, compared to the morning's excitement. I barely had time to reflect that if every day at Hogwarts was this eventful, then I was in for one interesting year before I passed out on my pillow.

I'd like to thank reviewers percyjacksonlovr, jason. matthews. 940436, juliansimmons1205, Fading Ashes, and NazChick for their support. PLEASE follow in their footsteps and review!

And just a fun fact: The introduction is exactly 1,000 words long. It's true! You can check! (Including the AN)

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