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

Kate thought she was done for when she heard someone's voice and then saw Professor Damon freeze in place. Kate crawled slowly out from under him and turned to face who she thought was Harry, but instead was face to face with Professor Dumbledore.

Harry, Ron, and Hermoine came running into the classroom and were startled by what they saw. Professor Dumbledore turned to them. "Miss Granger, please be so kind as to get Professor Snape for me!"

Hermoine nodded and ran back out the door. Kate had walked over to Harry and went directly into his arms.

"What happened professor?" Harry asked looking at the still form of Professor Damon.

"I had hoped that the Ministry was correct in assuming that the potion would subdue him for as long as he was here. Damon is a vampire, as Miss Davison found out tonight, and he is a supporter of Voldemort." Dumbledore replied while turning to face Harry.

Harry had a look of disbelief; he couldn't believe how Professor Dumbledore could take such a risk.

Professor Dumbledore continued, "We had him under control and any information Voldemort passed to him, we were able to intercept the information and use it to our benefit. We each in turn had been keeping a close eye on him, and lucky we were too. At least now I can get him out of my school."

They all turned as Professor Snape and Hermoine came rushing into the room.

Professor Dumbledore sent the kids on their way and when he and Snape turned around to deal with the vampire, Damon was gone. Dumbledore became alarmed, "Severus round the teachers up we need to search the school while putting up charms on all the windows and doors to keep him from coming back in."

Professor Snape nodded and left while Professor Dumbledore started sealing the rooms along that corridor.

When they reached the common room, Kate told them all of what had happened. They all sat there quiet for a moment, they couldn't believe that he was right under their noses and they didn't know.

"You know, we were joking about him being a vampire at the start of the term, you remember?" Ron started.

They all nodded. They were joking, but none of them thought that anyone would allow a vampire onto the school grounds. No one was going to sleep well that night.

Kate wished that she could sleep next to Harry so he would have his arms around her, she felt safe in his arms. Harry also felt the same way; he wanted her next to him so he could protect her.

Professor Dumbledore addressed the students during breakfast the next morning, he didn't state why Professor Damon was suddenly gone, just that he was gone and that Professor Moody was going to be back tomorrow to fill in for the rest of the year. None of the other students were too worried about Damon's sudden absence and Harry was glad that Professor Moody was going to be around, no matter paranoid he was.

As soon as Harry and Kate were done eating they left and as they entered the main hall Harry heard Malfoy call his name. He turned as the pie hit him in the face and he heard some snide comment about cherries and having Kate lick it off of him. Harry was about to reply but Kate had already cursed Malfoy and his mouth looked like it was sewing itself shut. Malfoy held his fist up and ran off with his goons, 'probably for the hospital wing', Harry thought almost laughing.

Hermoine and Ron must have not followed them out because Harry looked and didn't see them around. Kate slid her hand into his and he smiled at her. They walked back to the common room wondering what story Malfoy was going to tell Madame Pomfrey. Harry walked up to his room after washing his face to change clothes, as his current ones were now ruined, and he was about to finish by putting a new shirt on when he saw Kate walk in.

Kate walked up to him and boldly put her hands on his chest. Harry felt a tremor of excitement run through him. He was a little nervous but he put his arms around her and kissed her passionately. They somehow made it to his bed, Kate was underneath Harry and they were kissing deeply and Harry had started to slip his hand underneath her shirt when Ron walked in.

"Hey Harry," Ron started, and Kate and Harry both jumped up. When Ron realized what they were doing his faced turned as red as his hair, "um, I'll wait for you out here!" Ron said immediately high-tailing it out of there.

Harry and Kate blushed and Harry grabbed his shirt and threw it on. He went back over to Kate and took her in his arms again and kissed her and finally realizing they had no choice, headed out into the common room to see what Ron had wanted.

Ron and Hermoine were downstairs in the common room and Kate went over to Hermoine as Ron came up to Harry.

"Sorry mate!" Ron started.

Harry shook his head while blushing letting him know not to worry.

"Um, I asked Hermoine out." Ron said to change the subject.

Harry looked at his friend shocked, "And?"

"She said yes!" Ron said smiling, still looking a little red from being embarrassed for walking in on Harry and Kate.

Harry was happy for Ron and the four of them left for their first class that day. They had Transfiguration and Professor McGonagall seemed determined to make them work as hard as possible and none of them seemed to want to work, even Hermoine, at least for the moment.

They were working on trying to transfigure large birds into workable clocks. Harry and Kate spent most of the class watching Hermoine try to instruct Ron on how to do it properly as his clock was now keeping time backwards, while Hermoine's worked and even had a nice design on it for which Professor McGonagall awarded Gryffindor ten points.

Harry and Kate didn't have much time alone with Quidditch practice and homework. With Kate and Hermoine always doing their homework it tended to force Harry and Ron to do theirs.

The next quidditch match was against Ravenclaw. The morning of the game Harry was out checking the condition of the field. It was November now and so it was much colder and he saw Cho on the opposite end of the field. He thought it was amazing how he realized that his feelings for Kate were so much more than what he ever felt with Cho. He wondered if he loved Kate, he wasn't sure what love was never having loved anyone before, but he liked the feeling he had just being near her and he turned to head back to the Gryffindor changing room where everyone was waiting for him.

They all walked out onto the field and Madame Hooch blew the whistle and they all whisked into their positions on the field. The quaffle started out with Ravenclaw, but Kate knocked it out of one of their chaser's arms and Ginny caught it and scored the first goal.

Harry was up high above the field searching for the snitch and watching the game. He thought the game was going pretty good. Gryffindor was up fifty to twenty. Ron had been improving every practice and game. The snitch flew right past him and he grabbed it, he thought to himself 'that had to be the fastest game I've ever played.'

It was soon the middle of December and mid-terms were upon them. Ron and Harry had finished their last one, Divination, and they sat outside waiting for Kate and Hermoine to finish with Arithmacy. Ginny soon came and flopped down beside them. They both looked at her wondering what was bothering her now.

"Ginny, what's wrong?" Ron asked.

"Dean and I broke up." Ginny replied. Ron smiled and Ginny almost hit him before Harry had stopped them from getting into a fight.

"Why'd you break up?" Harry questioned.

Ginny looked at him, "Because he wants to focus on quidditch, he wants to be a professional quidditch player after school and he thinks I'm a distraction."

Harry and Ron just sat in silence with her complaining about everything concerning Dean. "Oh Harry, mum says you can come and stay with us for Christmas if you want?" Ginny said as she finished.

"Okay." Harry said smiling; he would like that very much.

Ginny got up and left as Kate and Hermoine made their way out to Harry and Ron.

Harry, Kate, Ron, Hermoine, and Ginny all headed for the gates of Hogwarts at the town of Hogsmeade where Arthur Weasley was waiting for them to take them back to the burrow on the Knight Bus. Hermoine was going to the Weasley's and her parents were going to meet her there as Molly and Arthur had invited them for Christmas as well, and Arthur had so wanted to talk to them for a while, seeing how they were muggles and all.

Arthur greeted them all at the gates and walked with them over to the bus and as they all got on they noticed that Ginny was in a much better mood but didn't dare ask why. A few moments later, they were getting off the bus in front of the burrow. Kate then finally got to meet Fred, George, Charlie, & Bill. Percy was still not on speaking terms with the rest of the family.

They all got a nice surprise when Bill introduced Fleur Delacour to everyone as his fiancée. Arthur sent all the kids trunks to the appropriate rooms. Molly asked Kate if she would mind too much if she bunked with Ginny and Hermoine as Hermoine's parents needed a place to sleep. Kate told her that it was fine with her. This was going to be the first time the others will get to know Hermoine's parents.

Molly was inside preparing lunch as Arthur had walked to town to meet with Hermoine's parents, while everyone else was outside sitting down at the tables talking. Fred and George, already feeling that Kate was family, were messing with her and Harry for dating and they were about to stop when Harry let it slip about Ron and Hermoine, which started a whole new round of teasing.

Molly finally came out and yelled at Fred and George to let them alone. The attention shifted back to Harry and Kate who were at the time talking about the quidditch matches this year. Fred and George started talking about how they were the best and no one could beat them, which lead to Ron challenging them. Fred and George accepted the challenge with glee.

Everyone ran in to grab their brooms, even Hermoine decided to join in. It was Harry, Ron, Kate, Hermoine, and Ginny against Fred, George, Charlie, Bill and Fleur. Fred and George were shocked to see Ron carrying around a Nimbus and asked where he got it, he pointed to Kate who gave them a challenging smile. Fred and George looked at each other and agreed that she was definitely family.

Fred and George had brought home a used quidditch set and they played for most of the afternoon. The sun was starting its process to start setting and the game was still tied, eighty to eighty, and the snitch was no where to be found as Harry and Charlie searched for it. A bludger happened to zoom right past Hermoine's head and someone from below screamed.

Everyone stopped and looked down and realized that Hermoine's parents had arrived and her mother appeared to have almost had a heart attack from seeing something almost hit her daughter. They knew of her being a witch and of her going to a special school and Hermoine did tell them about some stuff but not everything and they had no idea how dangerous a game quidditch actually was.

Hermoine finally calmed her mother down and then introduced everyone formally to her parents, William and Emily Granger. They were all sitting down to dinner when Fred stated laughing at something, "You know Ron, you and Hermoine do make a cute couple."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and Kate kicked Fred's shin.

"Ow!" Fred groaned, "whatcha do that for?"

William looked at his daughter and she confirmed that it was true, "I was waiting for a private moment to tell you!" Hermoine said.

Molly and Arthur were pleased at the news but didn't say anything right away as they weren't sure of how Hermoine's parents were going to take the news.

"You know Fred and George don't have room to make fun of you guys, because they have been dating Sarah and Susan Diggory!" Bill replied taking away the twins amusement at revealing Ron's news.

Everyone stared blankly at the twins.

"Are they any relation to Cedric?" Harry asked.

"Yes, they're his twin sisters." George replied knowing why Harry had asked.

"Who's Cedric?" Emily asked after realizing that no one was going to volunteer the information.

Everyone looked at her but no one wanted to answer.

"He's a boy that died at school almost two years ago." Molly answered simply.

"A boy died?" Emily said in shock looking at everyone, "How?"

That was a question no one really wanted to answer because they knew that it would probably frighten them too much.

"It was an accident mom," Hermoine started, "he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." She then acted like she didn't want to talk about it and Hermoine's parents left well enough alone.

The rest of dinner passed pleasantly and Molly wanted to meet Fred and George's girlfriends, which they reluctantly agreed to.

The next morning Hermoine's parents took her and Ron into town for lunch to get to know Ron a little better since he was now dating their daughter. Everyone wondered how well Ron was doing.

Harry and Kate were sitting at the table playing a game of wizard's chess. Most people were going in and out doing Christmas shopping. The kids in school had done theirs early in the morning because of the lunch plans Hermoine and Ron had. Bill and Fleur had just come back and they placed their things on the table and accidentally knocked over the pieces on the chess board.

"Excusez-moi," Fleur exclaimed, "It was 'n accident."

"No problem," Kate said smiling, "I was kicking Harry's butt anyway."

Harry and Kate got up and decided to go outside for a walk. Molly called from the window and told them to stay where she could see them. Harry and Kate raised their hands acknowledging that they had heard her.

Molly had caught them though trying to sneak around the house and finally just made them come inside. They were up in Ron's room lying across Harry's make-shift bed on their backs. Harry was telling her how horrible the Dursley's were and Kate turned on her side towards him. She reached out her hand and gently touched his face.

Harry turned his head towards her. Kate got up and Harry sat up when she straddled him. Harry wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer as they started kissing. They were kissing deeply when Harry put his hands under her shirt and started to lift it up. Kate raised her arms up and Harry took her shirt all the way off to reveal her black lacey bra. They started kissing more passionately and Kate started to raise Harry's shirt up but Harry was too busy caressing her body with his hands.

Ron and Hermoine walked in suddenly and everyone froze in place. Ron and Hermoine turned around and Kate got up and put her shirt back on and sat back down on the bed.

"Okay, you can turn around." Kate said still blushing.

Ron and Hermoine turned back around and walked over and sat on Ron's bed. "You two really need to find a more private place to do that." Ron complained while laughing.

Harry and Kate blushed even more. "So how was lunch?" Kate asked to move the subject in another direction.

Hermoine started telling them the short story, but most importantly the fact that her parents had liked Ron.

Harry and Kate still feeling quite embarrassed stayed quite for most of dinner. Arthur was having the Grangers explain the use of several muggle objects he had found. Ron was still in a particularly good mood because Hermoine's parents had liked him.

Fred and George were showing everyone else some of their new inventions for their joke shop until it started getting really late and everyone started heading off towards bed.

Everyone was happily talking and showing off their new gifts Christmas morning. Kate watched everyone with a big smile. This was the best gift for her. She had always wanted a big family Christmas. Kate never understood why her parents never let anyone come and visit. She believed that her parents didn't even want her to become a witch because she had gone to a muggle school until she was ten; it was like they tried to keep her as far away from the wizarding world as possible until they had no choice.

She tried not to brood on it too much on it anymore but at certain times she still wondered. Harry came over and sat next to her wrapping an arm around her and she smiled at him. Yes, this was the best Christmas she had ever had, she couldn't deny that fact.

A/N : I know most OC stories don't get much attention, so for anyone that does review, thank you very much!!:) I hope that this chapter was okay.