Harry awoke the next morning, in a decidedly better mood, to the sun shining through his window. His room was near the front of the house facing out into an active muggle London. Harry looked at it pensively from a few feet back. He knew the world outside wouldn't be able to see the lone figure in the window but somerthing inside kept him from venturing closer.

Harry dressed carelessly in a dark red T-shirt and jeans and headed downstairs preparing himself for a crowd at breakfast.

To his relief in the kitchen he was greeted by only the Weasley family and Hermione. He smiled at them all and took a place between the twins and Ron, across from Hermione and Ginny. After a casual morning greeting breakfast went by with a companionable silence. . .Which ended when they all heard a distant thump. . .thump. . .thump down the steps.

Harry turned toward the door with everyone else. He, Ron and Hermione gave an involuntary gasp of horror when a head of silver blonde hair appeared and a pair of cold gray eyes surveyed the group.

Harry instinctively shot up from his chair, instantly wary and glared at the figure in the doorway,

"What are you doing here!"

Draco Malfoy smirked, clearly amused, "I live here." He stated matter-of-factly, "Good morning Mrs. Weasley." He said levely turning in her direction.

"Good morning Draco." Mrs. Weasley replied with a calm smile.

Malfoy smiled back stiffly and took a spot at the table, to Harry's shock and panic, right next to Ginny.

Later that day Ron, Hermione and, especially Harry were still reeling from the discovery that morning. Apparently Malfoy had been living at headquarters for the past two months since he had run away from Voldemort's Death-Eaters, claiming to be reformed.

"So d'you reckon we can trust him?" Ron asked thoughtfully.

"No." Harry answered bluntly. He, for one, was still thinking of how close Malfoy and Ginny were at the table. . .but there were other reasons not to trust this young man.

"Didn't think so."

Hermione rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Oh, honestly both of you! I'm sure the Order wouldn't take him in unless they were sure of his loyalty. . ."

"You said the same thing about Snape." Harry murmured darkly. He at once was taken back to the north tower but stopped himself. The memories were too painful.

Hermione bit her lip at that but refused to yield, "Well this is a very different situation and I for one will choose to have faith in this case." She gave them both a dark challenging look, "Now will you please move this conversation on? We're nearly there and I don't want my cousin's first impression of London to be you two's sullen faces!"

Harry rolled his eyes and turned his focus to the young Muggle family sitting across from them.

They were on the London underground headed towards the London Airport to meet Hermione's mysterious visiting cousin. She had refused to give them any details about her, saying repeatedly, "You'll find out when you meet her." It was annoying him to the point of distraction, come to think of it,Hermione hadn't even told them this cousin's name!

Ron must have been thinking the same thing, "So who is this cousin anyway? You haven't told us one blessed thing about her! Does she live in a cult or something? To never have come to London. . ."He gave an amazed shake of the head.

Harry frowned slightly, that was a little unfair. He had never been to london until Hagrid had taken him all those years ago on his eleventh birthday, he decided to let it pass.

Hermione was a bit less forgiving, "No Ronald my cousin does not live in a cult," She said this very sharply, "It's like I said before. She lives very far away and most people from this place have never even seen London!"

Just as she said this the train came to a screaching halt. Within minutes they were going through the revolving doors of the airport terminal.

Ron's mouth was agape as he stared at all the muggle wonders about him.

"Blimey! Dad's right, what they do without magic!"

Hermione ignored him and glanced up at the illuminated schedule up ahead,

"Gate G64 We'd better hurry!"

Harry was quick to notice that Hermione was steering them away from the board before they could see where the plane was arriving from.

"Hermione what are you hiding?"

"Nothing, I just don't want her to arrive with no one waiting for her." But Harry didn't miss her sly smile.

After a frantic sprint passed many gates stopping twice to pull Ron away from a window where a plane was taking off, they finally reached an area marked G64 and stopped panting long enough to see a flood of people spill from the doorway.

Hermione watched the crowd intently before a wide grin spread across her face. Harry followed her gaze to a young girl, about sixteen, with thick, shiny blonde hair and glasses,wearing a casual green jacket and jeans carrying a little, red, hawaiian-print back-pack. The girl was looking around anxiously until her eyes met with Hermione's, her face split into a grin as well.

Harry heard his friend give a very un-Hermione-ish squeal and started to bolt toward the now running figure of her cousin.

The two girls met and gave eachother a warm hug and started jumping up and down. Now both too far away to be heard they started talking excitedly. Ron and Harry looked at eachother, shrugged and started toward the the pair. Harry took this as an opportunity to examine this new addition more thoroughly.

She was tall, about 5'8", and extremely pretty, he decided on further inspection of her face which had a sweet rounded heart shape with dark well-arched eye-brows, and a firm chin. Her nose had a cute button quality and as they drew closer Harry could see her flashing a bright smile of white, straight teeth.

Her frame,rather comical, had a long neck, arms, and legs, connected to a short curvy torso with a small waist, and dainty hands and feet. But these odd proportions coupled with an underlying poise gave her a unique movement of casual, awkward grace.

When they finally reached the new-comer and their friend, the latter immediately started introductions.

"Harry, Ron. . .This is my cousin Miranda Harris. Miranda these are my best friends Ron Weasley and Harry Potter."

Miranda appraised them both through the sturdy tortoise shell frames of her glasses. The eyes behind them (Which Harry noticed were big and brown like Hermione's) twinkled with fun as she stuck out her hand,

"Nice to meet Ya'all!"

Ron's Jaw dropped and Harry had to fight back a laugh. So that was why Hermione refused to tell them anything. . .This girl was American.

Regaining composure both boys shook hands and gave a murmur of welcome.

Miranda still smiling continued saying, "Hermione has told me so much about both of you! Now let me guess which is which." She gazed at them thoughtfully and pointed to Ronwith a sly smile, "This has to be Ron Weasley, Hermione's said alot about you,"

Harry wasn't sure but he thought he saw Miranda half turn to Hermione and wink.

She quickly turned to him and smiled warmly, "So I suppose you're Harry Potter. . .Hermione's told me some interesting stories about you." She had a high-pitched, resonant voice that clearly held a dry and keen wit, "It's nice to finally be able to put a name with a face."

Harry smiled back, He decided he liked Hermiones cousin. . .and he could always get used to the voice, "Same here only in our case it's more like a title to a name, face, voice, and overall personality."

Miranda chuckled, "Sorry about that, I'm afraid that was my fault. I wanted to see you guys' reactions to my. . .well you know, and I figured any detail could give me away."

Ron cocked an eye-brow at her, "How very American of you." He retorted dryly without smiling.

Miranda turned and gave him an odd look before Hermione quickly suggested they go and get her bags from the luggage area.

Soon Ron was too distracted by the constant motion of the baggage carousel to notice the hard stare Miranda and Hermione were giving him.

Harry tried to make up for Ron's comment by helping Miranda grab her two large rolling suitcases when they passed, Ron glanced up,

"Pack enough did you?" He stated dryly.

Miranda laughed uneasely, "Uh. . .yeah, I'm staying for like, three weeks. Most would say I didn't pack enough."

Harry looked down at the two suitcases. It didn't look like that much. What was Ron's problem? He decided to ignore it and focus on Miranda who was thanking him but said she could handle it from there.

He noticed her flashing Ron a look as she took both handles of the heavy suitcases and started to pull awkwardly but with her head held high.

Harry heard Ron mutter something about, "Bloody American independence." Before they started toward the doors to Miranda's first view of London. . .

Author's note: Well I finally got my plot rolling. I'll be sure to start my next update when this chapter is validated. Please Review! Thank-ya-kindly.

Oh and I don't own Harry Potter. Just Miranda.