The rest of Harry's summer rushed past faster than usual. The Quidditch Tournament came and went, with all its scare and bustle, he got to spend his last days of summer break at the Weasley's, his scar hurt. The memory of his vision of Voldemort shook him more than he admitted. The thought that Voldemort could return was terrifying.

But none of these things were on Harry's mind as he entered Hogwarts on the first day of school. Even with the rain pouring down and soaking his clothes, a feeling of warmth and happiness sprung up in his chest as he passed under the arches of his school. Just being back in Hogwarts made him feel like he was flying on clouds. Ever since he had first set foot here, Harry had always thought of Hogwarts as his home away from home. This was the start of his fourth year, but he already had more memories of this place than he could count.

After drying off in the entryway, Harry Hermione and Ron started for the Great Hall. They spoke a little on the way, but they were too busy warming up to keep a real conversation going. The short walk seemed to take forever. They had almost made it when Seamus came running up to them, gasping breathlessly and dripping water from head to foot.

"Harry! Have you guys seen her? Did you see her in the train?"

"What?" Hermione took a step back to avoid water droplets as Seamus shook himself like a dog, spraying water on a passing third-year. "Did we see who?"

"Her. Have you seen her yet?"

Harry grabbed Seamus' arm and turned him so that he could look him in the eye. "Seamus, what are you talking about? Who is this person?"

"Neville's girlfriend!"

Harry's eyes widened in shock. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped, having nothing to say. He heard Ron make a choking noise as if he had swallowed air down the wrong tube. Hermione scowled, appearing unimpressed.

"Is that it? She's not that big of a deal."

"Are you kidding?" Seamus turned to her with an expression of disbelief. "Of course she's a big deal! Where did he find her, much less get to know her?"

"She's a girl, Seamus. They're found everywhere on the planet."

"Not like this, they aren't. She is… man, she's on fire! Just look at her legs-"

Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously. "She's a human being, Seamus. The least you can do is treat her with respect."

"I am! Those Bulgarian veela have nothing on this chick."

"Looks aren't everything, Seamus."

"Really? They seemed good enough with Lockhart!"

"Alright, that's enough." Hermione and Seamus both went for their wands. Harry separated the two and looked from one to the other. "Calm down. Don't start a fight out here. Snape might be around."

Seamus lowered his wand and laughed. "Yeah, whatever. It doesn't matter. Lockhart's old hat anyway. Sorry." He held out his hand.

"It's fine." Hermione put her wand away with a huff. Her cheeks turned slightly red as she shook it. "I overreacted."

"That's better." Harry sighed inwardly. Whoever this girl was, she was already getting to Hermione. That, or Hermione was edgy after the Cup.

"Neville's what?" Ron started as if he had just woken up.

"His girlfriend." Seamus shook his head and grinned at their surprised looks. "I didn't believe it either until I saw her for myself. I mean, whoa, she is smoking hot."

Hermione rolled her eyes and grabbed Harry by the arm. "Whatever, come on Harry, Ron. Let's go the Great Hall. It's freezing out here."

"Wait a second," Ron refused to budge. He stared at Hermione with a mix of pain and surprise. "You knew about her and didn't tell us?"

"You'll meet her anyway. She's staying with Gryffindor for the year. Let's go."

"In a minute." Ron stepped closer to Seamus, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Where is Neville? I want to meet this 'girlfriend' of his."

"Ron!"

"Oh, fine, I'm coming." He grunted in annoyance and turned to head after Harry and Hermione. As he caught up with Harry, he coughed loudly. The noise that came out sounded oddly like the word "Jealous!" Harry stifled a laugh. He reached into his pocket for his wand to make sure it was dry. His wand was gone!

That's twice in one summer, stupid, he thought. How can you be this dumb?

He excused himself from Ron and Hermione, and hurried back in the direction of the entrance. Hermione watched him until he rounded the corner, glaring at him suspiciously. He ran down the hallway, slipping between clumps of soaking students and searching the area for a fallen wand. It was nowhere to be found. By the time he reached the main doors, he was growing frantic. He asked several passing students if they had seen his wand. They all said no, and shook their heads at his absentmindedness.

"Harry! There you are."

He turned when he heard Neville. Two things registered in his mind as he saw him. One, Neville had his wand, and two, right behind him was one of the most stunning girls he had ever seen.

She was Harry's height, with a petite frame. Her blond hair fell in her face, while she repeatedly brushed it away with thin fingertips. He swallowed hard; there was no denying that this girl was beautiful, if a bit on the slender side. Actually, beautiful did not quite fit. A goddess was the term that came to mind as she approached, her eyes glowing in the lantern-light.

"You dropped your wand." Neville handed it to Harry, who took it slowly. He was shocked by the girl standing beside Neville. Seamus had told him she was pretty and all, but nothing that Seamus told him could have prepared him for meeting her face to face.

"Harry, you alright?"

"What?" he tore his gaze away from the girl and faced Neville, who was eying him curiously. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for getting my wand for me." His eyes darted back to the girl. As if on cue, she took a step forward.

"Hi, I'm Megan." She extended a hand and smiled at him. His stomach lurched as he met her gaze.

"Parryhotter." Blood rushed to his cheeks and he bit his lip. "I mean, Harry Potter."

Megan giggled at his embarrassment. "Nice to meet you. Neville's told me a lot about you."

"S'nice to meet you too." He turned away for a second and scanned the hallway, willing his cheeks to turn back to the normal color. "You new here? I don't remember seeing you here before."

"Yeah, this is my firs today here. I'm American; foreign exchange student."

He nodded, still not wanting to turn back to face them. His cheeks were burning red. He wished that someone would come over. Anyone, even Draco. Anything to take her eyes off of him.

"Neville's family and mine go back a ways," she was saying. "I stayed at his house this summer. It's a great place. You been there before?"

"Not yet."

"That's a shame. His Gran's a wonderful lady. And he's got a cool collection of magical plants." She put her arm around Neville's shoulders. Neville blushed a little as she did it, as if he was not comfortable with the compliment.

"Really? You never told me you were that interested in plants."

"Uh…" Neville shrugged. "It never came up."

"True." Harry gave them a lopsided grin. "So, why are you in England this year? Don't you have your own school in America?"

"We do. We've got about a dozen actually. My parents wanted me to have a more rounded education though. In America, we incorporate a lot of normal stuff into our schools." She paused when he gave her curious look. "Muggle stuff, as you'd call it. We do mathematics and physical education, and normal sports. My dad insisted that I get at least at few years of classical learning under my belt before I graduate. We don't do much pure magic in the States. All of it is connected with something normal."

"What kind of magic do you learn?"

"All kinds. Probably the same as you guys, but we focus more on how we can integrate that into our daily lives as normal people and get away with it. Stuff like lightening bags and such. Stuff that no one would notice. We also have a good ATC."

"What's an ATC?"

"Auror Training Course. It's the most popular course, but it's also the hardest. It is heavy on conditioning and squad-sized tactics and dueling. My dad used to be an instructor at my school in that course. He was the best we'd ever had. He drove us hard, always pushing us to our limits. He revolutionized the course in the six years that he was there."

"Who is you dad? He sounds like a pretty cool guy."

"I think you know him. Does the name Judder McDouglass ring a bell?"

"Judder? As in, the Judder who is Vandermine's partner?"

"Exactly." She smiled at his bewildered look. "Never told you about me, did he? That figures. He's always really busy with work. I rarely saw him once he joined up with Mr. Vandermine. It's been three years since I last talked to him." The smile on her face died away and she stared at her feet. She sounded embarrassed.

"That must be hard, not talking to your father."

"Yeah. Last year he started sending me letters again. It was good to hear from him. He told me all about Hogwarts and the creatures and the students. He told me a lot about you and your friends; Ron and um… what's her name."

"Hermione."

"Yeah, her. He wrote to my mom and convinced her to let me come over here for a year or two to study. She didn't think it was a good idea, but he insisted. I'm glad he did. This is a cool country. There's so much magic and history here. It's so different from the States. Back home there's too little magic and too much normality. No magical ruins or anything."

"Uh-huh." He glanced at his watch, wishing that it hadn't broken long ago. "We need to go. Dinner will start soon. Ron and Hermione are waiting for me."

"Could we join you?"

"Sure." He turned towards the Great Hall and waved his arm. "It's this way."

They hurried down the hallway. Thankfully, the feast had not started yet. Harry showed them to the spot where Ron and Hermione were waiting. Ron nearly fell out of his chair when Harry introduced Megan to him. His face turned a color that matched his red hair as she shook his hand. She winked playfully back at him, causing him to blush even further. Hermione glared at Harry when Megan was not looking. She did not appeared very pleased that he had invited them to sit nearby. When Harry introduced her, she welcomed Megan with a cold 'hello,' and that was all. Megan took it in stride, returning the greeting with an exaggerated grace that made Hermione glower angrily.

"Sorry," Harry whispered as he took his seat beside Hermione. Hermione ignored him, focusing on the Sorting Hat and the new students being called out.

"I thought you went looking for your wand," she muttered accusingly. "Looks like your catch was just a tad bit bigger."

"Neville found my wand and returned it, that's all. Honestly, I didn't go back to look for Megan."

"Wow, you're on first name terms with her already. Any plans in mind that I need to know about?"

"Hermione, stop being thick. You know as well as I do that I'm not interested. She's Neville's girl anyway."

"I'm sure you could get her if you wanted. Just use your fame card and 'poof,' she's all yours. American girls always go for the famous ones, right?"

"Sounds like someone's jealous." Ron leaned in across the table, winking at Harry when Hermione scoffed and looked away. "Why do you not like her so much? She's not bad at all."

"That's precisely why I don't like her. All you boys are drooling over her because of her body. She's enjoying all the attention." Hermione pointed over at her subtly enough that only Harry and Ron could see it. "See her now? Look at how's she's enjoying it."

Harry and Ron turned to look, being careful to not be too obvious. A whole gang of Gryffindor boys were ogling her with what they thought were discreet stares. Megan was eating her food slowly, shaking slightly as she tried to not laugh. Every few seconds she would purposefully look in their direction, and all the heads would immediately turn away before they thought she would see them. A handful of the boys knocked heads with those beside them, they were turning so fast. She giggled as they stared shamefacedly at the floor, rubbing their sore heads. Neville did not seem to mind, because he joined in with her laughter and exchanged a few comments in hushed tones with her.

"She's playing with Neville."

"I doubt it. Neville's smart enough to know when he's getting played. He looks like he enjoying it just as much as she is."

"Well, she's probably going to get him in some kind of trouble."

"Like what?"

"Draco." She nodded in the direction of the Slytherin table. Draco was glaring at Neville from across the room. He looked incensed that Neville had a girlfriend. Harry noted that Draco was also sizing up Megan when she wasn't looking his direction. He definitely appeared interested.

"Yeah, that could be a problem." Ron frowned and looked at Neville again. "That could be a big problem."

"Precisely." Hermione gave a sort-of grin and poked Harry in the shoulder. "That girl's trouble. Stay away from her."

"I don't think she'll be too much trouble. Her dad wouldn't let her be a problem, I don't think."

"Really? How could he do that? Doesn't he live all the way in America?"

"Actually, he's right there." Harry pointed over to the teacher's table, where Judder was sitting right by Professor Flitwick. The two were having an animated conversation about who knew what, but from the way they were gesturing Harry guessed that it had something to do with one of their classes.

"Who?"

"Judder. She's his daughter."

"He's married?" Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. Her shoulders slumped and she whistled.

"What, hopes crushed?" Ron's smirk was erased when Hermione kicked him under the table. He winced and rubbed at his shin. "Ow."

"Shut up."

Ron grinned and held up his hands in submission. "Alright. I'll stop."

"I merely meant that he doesn't look it. How old is he?"

"Thirties, maybe." Harry glanced back at Megan. She just seemed to have noticed Judder, because she was squirming in her seat, straining to catch his eye. He did not notice her however, and she gave up in frustration.

"They're not that close though."

"Obviously. They live on different continents."

"I mean, they don't talk much."

"Oh." Ron started to say something, but he stopped as Dumbledore rose to give his speech. He mouthed the words 'later' and they settled back, ready to face the new year.