I noticed I have a handful of followers. Thanks a lot! I hope you enjoy, and if you do, please review! I would also like to apologize in advance for my Ginny. I don't particularly like Ginny, therefore cannot write for her as well as some of the other canon characters. Enjoy!

Faith had been shopping along Diagon Alley for much longer than she thought she had been. By the time she appeared back at The Leaky Cauldron, many witches and wizards were bustling about, preparing for dinner time. Faith walked into the main dining area, scanning the area, looking for Tom. She needed to know her room number so she could take her belongings there before her loaded arms fell off.

She found him amongst the crowd of, mostly, red headed people, using his wand to put together a few tables to create one long rectangular table. Faith stood back, arms beginning to shake under the weight of all of her books, robes, supplies, and rat cage she was carrying. Finally she was noticed by a pudgy red-headed woman, who appeared to be the mother of the punch, or at least most of them.

"I'm sorry, dear did you need something?" she said to Faith, finally getting the innkeeper's attention as well.

"My room?" Faith responded, looking at Tom instead of the woman.

"Oh, uhh, yes, of course," he said. He was obviously very flustered and busy, seeing that the inn was becoming very crowded with families who would be departing for Hogwarts in the morning. He looked around, trying to find anyone of his staff to show the girl to her room since he simply did not have the time.

"We can help you out, Tom," said the woman. "No need to stress. What's the girl's room number, I'll send Ginny to help her up."

"That would be most helpful," said Tom, a look of relief overcoming his face. "Faith'll be in room 304. Thank you, Molly." Molly Weasley smiled and drew her wand. Suddenly, the heaviness of Faith's new belongings was gone as the objects were lifted from her arms and were now hovering in mid-air.

"Ginny! Ginny dear!" the woman called out to the table, which her large family was now beginning to sit down at. The youngest of the bunch, a girl with long red hair who resembled her mother quite a bit, walked casually toward the two of them.

"Yes, mum?" she said, curiously looking from Mrs. Weasley to Faith and the stack of supplies suspended in the air.

"Will you be a doll and help this girl up to her room? 304 is the number," Molly asked the girl. Ginny nodded her head and her mother sent half of the objects into her arms, the rest Faith picked back up. It was a lot easier carrying only half of her supplies instead of it all.

"Follow me," Ginny said, walking in front of Faith and heading for a staircase, inspecting the objects she was holding. "First year?" she asked, half way up the steps.

"Yeah," Faith said, a smile crossing her face.

"I can tell," Ginny replied, also smiling, grabbing the year one spell-book that had been laying inside the shiny new cauldron. "You'll like it a lot. I'll be a second year this year." Faith tilted her head.

"Is there a lot of homework?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ginny answered. "But it's not all bad. It's very interesting really." The two reached the top of the stairs and headed down a hallway. "Last year was probably different than most terms though, with the Chamber of Secrets being opened and all."

"Chamber of Secrets?" Faith asked curiously as she opened the door to room 304.

"You didn't hear?" Ginny asked. "Are you muggle born then? I don't care if you are or not, but you must be to not know about what happened last year!"

"No," Faith said, slightly offended by being asked if she were muggle born. "Not muggle born. I've just not been around our kind since I was very little."

"Oh," Ginny said. Faith could tell that she was curious, perhaps wanting to ask why she had been distanced from the wizarding world, but to her relief, Ginny did not ask any more questions. The red haired girl set down the cauldron and robes she had been carrying on the floor in the center of Faith's small bedroom.

"Thanks," Faith muttered, setting down the trunk she had been carrying.

"Sure," Ginny said before leaving the room. Faith opened her small suitcase and started to transfer her clothes into her new trunk, as well as loading in all of her new robes, textbooks, and supplies. By the time she was finished, her stomach was growling like a vicious animal. She realized then that she hadn't had anything to eat since she woke up at the orphanage.

Back downstairs The Leaky Cauldron was still fairly busy, but it seemed as if the dinner rush had died down. Faith sat down at a small table by herself and looked around. The table of the red-headed family, plus a few others, were still hanging around, chattering happily and laughing. As Faith ate in silence, she watched them as well as the other families around the inn.

Later that night, Faith got out of bed and crept down the stairs. She couldn't sleep. Her mind was racing with excited thoughts about Hogwarts. Every moment of her day was on reply, and she couldn't stop flopping around on her less-than-comfortable bed. She needed to stretch out.

It grew dark as she made it to the bottom of the staircase. She could hear a pair of faint voices arguing down the passageway and into the parlor. She decided to not go any farther, and tried to make out what the voices were saying.

She could make out a few words here and there. There were two names she could make out; one was Sirius Black, who she remembered from the newspaper headline, and the other was Harry. When she heard the name Harry, she had an image pulled from the very back of her memory. She could see her father's face, it was oval and he had a short beard, black hair, and blue eyes. "Harry Potter," her father said. She remembered this name. It had been important, but Faith couldn't recall how it was important.

But was the Harry these two spoke of Harry Potter? The chances of that were slim. Faith struggled to remember who Harry Potter was. The Harry these voices spoke of was a Hogwarts student, apparently thirteen years old, and from what Faith could gather, Sirius Black was after him. The voices resigned and Faith could hear the couple making their way down the dark passage toward the stairs. Faith, who had been sitting on the bottom step, stood up and quickly ran up the stairs and hid away in her bedroom out of sight. She really wouldn't be able to sleep now.

EDIT: In a response to a review that says she should have run into Harry- I appreciate it. In the book, Harry goes down the stairs, down a long hallway, and overhears the Weasley's who are in the main room. She didn't bump into Harry because he was further down the hallway and she was still at the stairs. That's why Faith can only hear certain words from the conversation and Harry is able to hear the whole thing. Harry goes the opposite direction and Faith goes back up the stairs before the Weasleys' make it to her. That is how she didn't run into them :)