Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter.

Warnings: This centers around Harry and my own character.

Pairings: Mainly HarryxOC, RonxHermoine

A/N: I wrote the majority of this story back before book six came out – the original is still on another website – but I went back over to it today and realized that I could do so much better – so here is my attempt. This chapter is unbeta'd.

New to Hogwarts

By: akirk85029

Harry and Kate were sitting about halfway down the Gryffindor table when everyone started filing in. Ron and Hermoine spotted them immediately and moved to sit across from them. Neville ended up sitting down next to Ron, and Ginny and Dean started to make their way to sit next to Harry.

As Ginny and Dean walked casually past Harry and Kate to sit down, Ginny grinned as she saw Harry's arm around Kate's waist.

Ron followed his sister's gaze curious as to what was making her smile and saw what she had seen. "What's going on?" Ron asked of his friend.

Harry grinned and told them that he and Kate were now going out.

"It's about time!" Hermoine stated and smiled as everyone turned to stare at her. "Well, how many nights did you sneak into her room?"

Ron looked horror struck. He turned his head sharply towards Harry, "You what?"

"Now Ron, don't get excited, all we did was talk." Harry replied trying to calm his friend.

Ron looked at them both and decided to drop it, he wasn't thrilled about the idea but he did trust Harry. Ron immediately turned to his sister and Dean and formally told Dean to remove his hand from Ginny's waist.

Ginny turned to her brother and gave him the evil eye telling him silently to back off.

"Well our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is here." Harry said trying to change the subject. Everyone looked up to study the new teacher.

"Well, I already don't like him!" Kate stated trying not to feel unnerved.

Hermoine and Ron gave her a curious glance. "Why?" Ron asked quietly.

"Because he keeps staring at me!" Kate complained.

"Well he does look a bit dodgy if you ask me!" Ron replied finally noticing that the teacher was indeed staring their way.

They all turned around as Professor McGonagall opened the door loudly and led all the first years up to the front of the room to be sorted.

Ron turned to Harry, "So why did you two have to be here early?"

"Well, Kate got sorted and then Professor McGonagall told us about our career path we had chosen and other than that I don't know why?" Harry responded softly as Professor McGonagall started calling the names of the first years.

"Well isn't it obvious?" Hermoine asked. They all turned to look at her again. "There are no teachers aboard the Hogwarts Express, if someone powerful wanted to attack you Harry that would be the time to do it." Hermoine said plainly.

They all replied with a collective "oh."

"So which career are you looking at?" Ron asked Hermoine trying to change the subject himself this time.

"Legal, I want to try and make some changes at the Ministry, you know make some of the laws a little bit easier for the non-wizards." Hermoine stated proudly.

Ron rolled his eyes. He should have known better. He knew what she would want to do.

Harry then asked Ron about him, but before Ron could respond Hermoine answered for him. "He wants Ludo Bagman's job!"

Ron grinned, "Yeah, wouldn't it be great to watch quidditch all the time?"

Everyone smiled except for Hermoine who tutted under her breath. Ron promptly ignored her.

Soon all the first years were sorted and Dumbledore rose from his chair and walked up to the podium to make his start of the term speech. He started with the normal start of term notices, and then advised all the students that there will be several teacher's on patrol during the Hogmeade week-ends for everyone's protection. Dumbledore then introduced the new teacher to everyone.

Harry thought that Dumbledore surprisingly didn't look too pleased at having this person at Hogwarts, but then the look vanished so quickly that Harry thought it might have been his imagination.

After dinner, everyone headed back to the common room. As everyone settled in, Harry and Ron started to play a game of chess while Hermoine and Kate talked about their upcoming Arithmacy class.

"Why do you think our Defense Against the Dark Arts class is so late in the evening?" Ron asked while waiting for Harry to make his next move.

"Maybe he's a vampire or something!" Kate stated joking around after no one had responded.

"Yeah, that would figure, we haven't had one of those yet." Ron replied with a sarcastic tone.

Soon Hermoine stated that she was tired and ready for bed and Kate asserted that she was too. Harry rose up from his seated position and walked with Kate up to the door to her room. As Hermoine walked into the girls' dorm room, Harry kissed Kate good night and watched as she followed Hermoine's path, where he was sure Kate and Hermoine were not going to sleep, so he silently made his way back down to Ron.

"You've got it bad, Harry!" Ron said teasingly to his friend and then reminded him that it was his move. Harry sat down to trying to remember what piece he was going to move.

It was soon October and that meant the beginning of the quidditch season. Harry held tryouts in which the few remaining teammates were to attend. Kate and Ginny were two of the three Chasers they needed, Ron was their Keeper, and of course Harry was back as Seeker this year.

After a grueling tryout he decided on Dean and Seamus for the two new Beaters and a third year, Bryan Dougal, for his third Chaser. Their first match was to be against Slytherin and Harry warned them every day that it was going to be a nasty match, because he knew that Malfoy was still pissed at him for landing his father in Azkaban.

Their first match started out decently, Gryffindor was in the lead forty to twenty, but that's when it started to turn ugly. Harry watched in horror as Malfoy grabbed one of the beater's clubs and pelted a bludger straight for Kate's head.

Luckily Kate was a good flyer and ducked it easily and threw a goal while staring down Malfoy. Harry took a deep breath, he knew Malfoy was only going to get worse. He searched with much more fervor for the snitch. He then finally saw it near the stands where Dumbledore was sitting and he flew for it as fast as he could possibly fly. His hand grasped the tiny golden ball and the crowd cheered with a great roar.

It was then when Harry turned around triumphant to his teammates that he watched as Malfoy came up behind Kate, who was cheering Harry on, and swung the club as hard as he could right into Kate's back. Harry felt his stomach churn as he heard her cry out and almost fall, but she had held on and flew slowly to the ground.

Harry was so angry and he only got angrier as he watched Malfoy on the receiving end of a serious lecture from Madame Hooch, who only proceeded to ban him from the next game to give him time to think of what he had done. Harry flew immediately down to Kate and had arrived shortly before Ron and Ginny. He could tell she was in great pain and didn't want to talk at the moment. Harry led her off the field after handing her broom to Ron and steered her straight for the hospital wing. He would deal with Malfoy after he was sure Kate was taken care of.

Kate lay on her stomach on one of the beds, with her head turned to look at Harry, who was sitting next to her holding onto one of her hands.

"Harry, stop worrying, it's not like I haven't been hurt before during a quidditch match." Kate said trying to calm Harry down. She knew he was blaming himself.

"I know, but this was because of me!" Harry said trying to keep the anger out of his voice. He didn't want her to be on the receiving end of it. He knew who he wanted to take it out on.

"Harry I knew that with dating you there would be certain dangers in my life that weren't there before, but Harry I can take care of myself!" Kate replied with a pained smile.

Harry smiled back knowing what she was trying to do and raised his free hand to move a strand of hair that fell in her face. Harry turned as a door was thrown open to see Ron and Hermoine come rushing in.

"Kate, are you ok?" Hermoine asked concerned.

"I'm going to be okay, guys, no need to worry." Kate said trying to hide how much pain she was in.

Madame Pomfrey soon came in to examine her. She tried to usher the others out and frowned when Kate said they could stay. Madame Pomfrey raised Kate's shirt slowly up to try and look at the damage and she sighed as everyone gasped. She didn't want her patient to have any stress.

Kate's back was already black and blue and as Madame Pomfrey touched her back Kate was noticeably wincing. Harry felt Kate squeeze his hand while her back was being prodded and wished there was a way that he could take her pain away.

"Well, it looks like a couple of broken ribs, you're lucky he didn't break your spine with the force of that hit. I will be talking to Dumbledore about this. Here dear, drink this!" Madame Pomfrey said as she gave Kate a foul smelling potion. "You should be well enough by dinner."

Harry pulled Kate's shirt back down after Madame Pomfrey left, supposedly to go talk to Professor Dumbledore. Kate was thankful they all stayed to keep her company which consisted mostly of Kate and Hermoine trying to talk Harry and Ron out of doing something nasty to Malfoy. They ended up finally having to make them promise not to do anything at all. Kate didn't want Harry to get into trouble on her account.

After a little bit Hermoine dragged Ron off to get a head start on homework, Harry and Kate laughed at some of the comments Ron made on his way out. Kate was still holding Harry's hand and soon she was out cold. Harry knew there was probably some sleeping solution mixed in with the potion Madame Pomfrey had given her. He watched as she slept wondering how he could get out of his promise not to hurt Malfoy. Harry knew she was different from any other girl he had ever met but he didn't know why.

Finally Kate was released from the hospital wing and walked downstairs for dinner with Harry at her side. Everyone from Gryffindor clapped when they walked in, celebrating their victorious match against Slytherin. Harry looked at Malfoy who was fuming in a corner. Harry felt better since Malfoy was not having a good time.

Harry and Kate took their seats and started to eat along with everyone else pausing as people continued to congratulate them on a game well played. They all enjoyed dinner ignoring Malfoy who tried to provoke them by making snide comments across the tables. After they finished their dinner, Harry's group headed back to their dorm room for the night.

Harry and Kate sat on the couch, he had his arm around her and she leaned into him with one hand on his leg. Hermoine was sitting at the table trying to get ahead in her Ancient Runes class but Ron kept trying to get Hermoine to release him from his promise, he knew of a good jinx to inflict onto Draco. Harry and Kate watched giggling, they often talked about how much Ron and Hermoine liked each other and wondered how long it would take before one of them finally realized it.

This was the first year that during the Defense Against the Dark Arts class Harry, Ron, and Hermoine sat in the back of the room, where they sat with Kate. They had all realized in the beginning that Professor Damon did seem to have an obsession with Kate and often tried to get her to stay after class. They made sure someone always walked out with her to give a good excuse if he tried to stop her again.

During this class Professor Damon was lecturing about forbidden curses, but most of the class already knew about them so most were not paying attention. Ron was watching Hermoine take notes with an almost lovesick look on his face.

Kate leaned over to Harry, "When do you think he will finally ask her out?"

Harry smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Harry bravely put his hand on her knee and when she didn't move it, he left it there while she took notes. Harry was tired from the occulmency lessons he had been taking before this class every day, although he had to admit he was getting a lot better at it. Harry started massaging her knee and he was about to get braver, but the bell rang and they all got up to leave.

Harry had excused himself from the group to go the bathroom and while the three of them waited in the main hall Kate realized that she had left one of her books back in the classroom. She told Ron and Hermoine that she would be back in a minute and they nodded as they continued to talk. Kate was sure that the professor must be gone by now and she entered the classroom under the same belief.

Kate let out a deep breath when she didn't see Professor Damon anywhere. She headed to the back of the classroom where she had been sitting and searched for her book. She sighed when she couldn't find it and that's when she realized how cold it was in the room now. Kate started to shiver and she turned around to leave and almost screamed. Professor Damon was behind her.

"Kate, what are you doing here?" Damon said as he lifted his hand to her face and drew her gaze to his eyes.

"I forgot my book." Kate responded simply.

"I know, my pretty one, you know back on the first day when I saw you before the rest of the students arrived, I was entranced, you were the first virgin blood I could sense in a long time and I was drawn to you, do you know how rare it is for me to taste new, pure blood?" Damon stated, his fingers stroking her face.

Kate shook her head horrified. She wanted to move, to leave his presence, but she felt trapped. She didn't know why she couldn't run.

Damon moved closer to her, opening his mouth to show his fangs to his prey.

Kate finally found her voice and started to scream and tried to run but Damon grabbed her pulling her down effectively pinning her to the ground. He ran his free hand up her body and Kate tried to scream again but all he did was turn her head and lean in for the bite.

A/N : Remember that the majority of this was written before even book six came out - so anything after book five will probably not be used. I hope this was satisfactory for everyone. I left a small cliffhanger there:) Please review and let me know what you think.