Chapter Two: Acquaintances
The car ride to King's Cross Station was crowded and stuffy, but Amber was so used to it that she just ignored the uncomfortableness and chatted idly with Ginny about what they should do once they had the house to themselves for a year. They reached King's Cross station with plenty of time till the train left.
Walking through the crowded station, Ginny and Amber hung at the back of their group as Mrs. Weasley led the way through the throngs of people, muttering to them about how there were just to many Muggles every year. As they walked towards the platform, Amber suddenly caught sight of a flash of white out of the corner of her eye. Curious, she turned to see a boy with jet-black hair about Ron's age starting to follow them with his trolley. She assumed he was going to Hogwarts as well because of the snowy white owl perched on his luggage.
Finally they reached the barrier and one by one, her brothers went through, suddenly the boy that Amber had spotted following them shouted, "Excuse me!" Mrs. Weasley paused and glanced at the boy as he nervously asked, "Could you tell me, how to…?" Mrs. Weasley smiled kindly and asked, "How to get onto the platform?" When he nodded she continued, "Not to worry dear, it's Ron's first time to Hogwarts as well," Ron grinned and nodded a greeting to the black-haired boy, Amber smiled softly, she hoped that Ron could make a friend in this boy, she knew that her older brother longed for friends his age to hang out with for a change instead of his family all the time. Their mother continued to instruct the boy on how to enter the platform and just before he started forward, Ginny let go of Amber's hand, boldly stepped forward and said, "Good luck."
Amber turned to her sister in surprise. Normally the two always held hands the entire King's Cross trip so as not to get separated. This was the first time that her sister had boldly let go before. But then Amber caught sight of her twin's dark cheeks and she couldn't help smirking. Oh Ginny was in for it when they get back home! Amber thought to herself.
The year past peacefully at home for the Weasley female twins. They wrote to their brothers at Hogwarts weekly and were always happy when they responded back. Amber was especially happy to hear that Ron had made friends with a girl who forcibly reminded him of her. That year for christmas, their second eldest brother, Charlie, invited them to come visit him in Romania. Ginny and Amber were ecstatic to see where their brother worked, for he worked with dragons.
All in all, the year was uneventful for the two girls, as summer neared, the two started to get excited about starting at Hogwarts and couldn't wait for their letters. Ginny was also missing the chaos that their older brothers caused. While Ginny loved Amber dearly, she also knew that Amber appreciated the quiet a little to much for Ginny's tastes.
Finally summer arrived and the Weasley boys came home in a flurry of school trunks, prank materials, and noise. As they entered the house, Amber immediately went up to Percy, "Hi Percy!" Giving him a hug, Percy couldn't help but smile kindly back at her. Amber was the only one in the family who got to see Percy's warm, genuine smile and she was glad. It made her realize just how much she meant to him and how close the two of them were.
Ginny of course, completely ignored Percy and went straight to the twins and Ron to ask them excitedly how the end of the year went for them. While their siblings were distracted, Percy pulled out a rectangular parcel and handed it to Amber, flashing his genuine smile as he saw her eyes light up in excitement at what the package probably was. Just as quickly though, Amber hid the package away, to look at later. The two bookworms of the Weasley family knew that if they didn't hide their treasures, then they would be gone or destroyed in a flash, courtesy of the "male set". Amber gave Percy a wink, then went to go greet her other brothers.
At dinner, Ron told the whole family about his adventure to save the Sorcerers Stone with his two new friends, Harry and Hermione. How they figured out the clues and how he had beaten a giant magical game of Wizards chess. Then Fred, George and Percy inputted what took place at the End of Year Feast and how Gryffindor won the House cup for the first time in years. Amber and Ginny listened with wide-eyed fascination, their excitement to go to Hogwarts growing with each word spoken. Through her twin bond with Ginny, Amber could feel her sister's heartbeat speed up every time Harry Potter's name was mentioned, and she smirked at her sister who blushed a deep red, knowing that she was caught.
That was pretty much how the rest of the summer went. Ginny could not stop talking about Harry Potter and asking Ron a billion questions about him. Amber spent her time in her favorite nook in the house reading the book that Percy had given her, Hogwarts A History. Fred and George kept themselves entertained in their room, and Percy seemed to always be sending letters. When Amber asked him who he was writing, he simply blushed and buried his face in the book he was currently reading.
On the last day of July, Amber woke up to someone trying to creep past her bedroom door late at night. Instantly, Amber recognized Fred and George's quiet shushes to Ron who kept stumbling into things. Curious, Amber grabbed her glasses and stealthily followed their progress. She watched from one of the upper story windows, as her three troublesome brothers "borrowed" the Ford Angela and flew off to who-knows-where. Shaking her head at their idiocy for not turning the camouflage gage on, Amber snuck back to her room that she shared with Ginny, and grabbed the current book that she was reading. She knew that she would not be able to go back to sleep until she knew why her brothers had snuck away, and she wanted to forewarn them that Mother was NOT going to be pleased with them. So sitting next to the oil lamp in the living room, Amber sat down, opened her book, and waited.
Three hours passed till Amber heard the faint sounds of the flying car coming back. She smirked, those faint sounds would alert their mother that something was amiss. She decided to stay in her spot and see if her brothers would notice her sitting there and watching them come in.
From her sitting spot, Amber could clearly see the kitchen door being slowly opened so as not to make any noise. Fred's head then popped in, and Amber had to restrain herself from moving, so far Fred hadn't even noticed her and she wanted to keep it that way until all her brother's had entered the room. Next to enter was Ron, then surprisingly, the same boy that Amber had briefly seen at Kings Cross at the beginning of last school year. No doubt this was Ron's friend, Harry Potter. George finished up the procession and closed the door as Fred said quietly to Harry, "Come on, quietly now, this way." Again, Amber had to control herself. Fred's definition of quiet was completely different from her own. So she waited till they had just passed her spot, then said aloud, "I wouldn't call anything you do, Fred Weasley, as quiet." All the boys whipped around in panic and looked to where she was sitting with her hands clasped atop her book and a smirk playing on her face.
It was Ron who broke the shocked silence, "Amber! How did you know we were gone?" Amber rolled her eyes, stood up, and drawled, "It was pretty obvious Ronald, a herd of elephants could have heard you leaving the house." Amber then took this chance to turn her attention to the black-haired boy who was staring at her with wide eyes. Sticking her hand out, Amber smiled shyly and said, "Hi, my name is Amber, one of the younger sisters to these dolts." The boy smiled at the way Amber referred to her brothers, and shook her hand while saying, "Nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter." Amber smiled again, then turned to her brothers and said, "Just giving you a heads up, Mum did her nightly rounds of our rooms and noticed you were gone. So she will be making an appearance in three, two, one," Right on cue as Amber hit one, Mrs. Weasley came storming down the stairs and started scolding her sons.
While Mrs. Weasley gave her three youngest sons a good tongue lashing, Amber motioned for Harry to follow her, and led him into the kitchen. Harry just stared at everything in fascination, and Amber thought it was a cute look on him. But she knew that he was off limits because of the way her twin had been fantasying about him all summer. "Help yourself to a seat, the rest of the family will be in shortly." Amber gestured to the table for him to take a seat, then she took her normal spot, opened her book, and continued reading from where she had left off. After a few minutes she felt eyes on her and looked up to find Harry staring at her with that same shocked expression. Feeling a little uncomfortable, she asked, "What?" Harry jumped and blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, its just that, I never believed Ron when he kept exclaiming that he had a sister that acted exactly like our friend Hermione. But now, it is kind of scary how similar you seem to be to her." Amber smiled, "I can't wait to meet her then."
Finally the rest of the family, minus Ginny, came into the kitchen for breakfast. Amber easily faded into the background again with her book as her brothers picked up a conversation with Harry about random things. Finally Amber heard Ginny rushing down the stairs, and looked up just in time to see her sister rush into the kitchen yelling, "Amber, Mum, have either of you seen my Jumper?" Amber shook her head no, while their mother answered, "Yes dear, it was on the couch." Ginny's eyes moved to the table and suddenly stopped and widened. She had spotted Harry Potter. Harry smiled at her and said politely, "Hello!" Ginny backed away from the table slowly, and then turned and raced back up the stairs. Amber sighed, so it was going to be one of those crushes was it?
As Ginny raced away Harry frowned in confusion and turned to Ron, "What did I do?" Ron rolled his eyes and replied, "That was Ginny. She's been talking about you all summer, bit annoying really." But Harry seemed to still be thinking, "Hang on, Ginny sounded a lot like…" Harry then turned to look at Amber and she smiled and removed her glasses to confirm his suspicions. Harry's eyes widened in shock and he turned to Ron, "Don't tell me your family has another set of…" At this, Fred and George looped their arms over Harry's shoulders and said proudly, "Well done Harry," "See you've met us," "The wonderful 'male set'," "Now you get to meet…" And here Fred and George flourished their arms in the direction of Amber and the now reappeared Ginny and announced, "The Weasley 'female set'!" Both Amber and Ginny blushed scarlet at being called the 'female set' towards someone who wasn't family.
Mr. Weasley, thankfully, chose that moment to arrive home from work, breaking Harry's stunned attention off the two youngest Weasley girls. As breakfast continued, Errol, the Weasley's old grey owl, flew in to deliver the post which turned out to be everyone's Hogwarts letters. Amber eagerly grabbed hers from Percy and opened it up to read what books she would need. When she saw that she would need all of Gilderoy Lockhart's books, she stared at the parchment in shock, then to everyone, except Ginny's, surprise Amber turned to Mr. Weasley and asked in disgust, "Is this a joke?" Everyone turned to look at her and Ron asked, "What's a joke?"
Amber waved her Hogwarts letter in the air and said, "This! There is no possible way that the required books for this year are all by Lockhart. He's a fraud!" "Amber!" Mrs. Weasley gasped in shock. Amber turned to her mother and said, "I'm sorry mum but it's true. I have read some of his books before when Luna let me read at her house, and they are complete plagiaristic copies of other very well known books by renowned wizards and witches." Ron leaned over to Harry and whispered, "And this is where she goes Hermione on us." Harry nodded in fascination. He was beginning to see why Ron had acted so cruel to Hermione when they had first met. She reminded him to much of his younger, smarter sister.
Amber argued with her mother the rest of breakfast on the works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Flat out refusing to buy a single one of his books which made their mother mad because Mrs. Weasley was a very big fan of Lockhart, much to her daughter's displeasure. Finally Ginny settled the argument by saying that Amber could just use her textbooks if she ever had to use the Lockhart books.
With that out of the way, the Weasley family plus Harry, prepared for a trip to Diagon Alley. Gathering in front of the fireplace, Amber noticed Harry's confused look and assumed that he had never traveled by Floo powder before. She was right when Ron confirmed it to their Mother. Deciding she would be the best example for Harry, Amber stepped up to their mother and said, "Mum, can I demonstrate for Harry how to use the powder?" Mrs. Weasley agreed and Amber diligently took a handful of the powder from the pot in her mother's hands. Then stepping into the fireplace she stated very clearly, "Diagon Alley!" And with a whoosh! She was gone.
She finally stopped inside the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron, the entrance to Diagon Alley. Stepping out of the grate, she noticed that the pub was crowded with lots of families that day. Deciding it better to wait for her family at the entrance to the Alley, instead of in front of the fireplace where she was in the way, Amber started to weave her way through the crowd. Suddenly someone collided into her, sending her and them-self tumbling to the floor. Groaning, Amber shook her head to clear it, and then opened her eyes to find herself staring into the prettiest grey eyes she had ever seen. Those grey eyes seemed to be just as intensely staring into her sapphire blue ones. Time seemed to come to a standstill as grey stared into sapphire, then sadly the moment ended when the grey-eyes blinked and looked away.
Amber, having not realized that she had been holding her breath during that brief moment, let it out and went to help herself up when a hand entered her line of vision, "Allow me," A young male voice offered her. Blushing slightly, Amber decided to take the offered hand. When she was fully back on her feet, she let go of his hand, not realizing that that simple contact left both of their palms tingling, like they had been shocked by electricity. Looking up to see who had helped her, her eyes widened in surprise to see that the boy who had helped her had the same grey eyes that she had only moments ago been staring into. But what was surprising was that the eyes were connected to a boy with pale blond hair slicked back with hair gel, aristocratic cheekbones, and a calculating gaze. She had no doubts that in a few years he would probably look extremely handsome. Unfortunately, Amber noticed that the boy was wearing a Slitheryn school cloak, meaning that once he found out her last name, he wasn't going to be as nice as he was currently acting.
The boy continued to stare at her and it made Amber glad that she had worn the clothes that she had made herself. With having so much free time to herself since all Ginny ever wanted to do was practice flying, Amber had developed other skills besides reading. Her favorite skill was sewing. When her brothers had outgrown a specific item of clothing, Amber had taken the cloths and created new looking clothes out of them. To strangers it would appear that she had bought them, but in reality it was all the work of her creativity. For the outing to the Alley, Amber had decided to wear a dark grey t-shirt under a light blue side-shoulder sweater with dark grey jeans and knee-high boots that she had her mom change the color to blue to match her outfit. Her red hair was tied back in a loose braid and she left some of her hair out to frame the sides of her face. And on top of her head, she wore a grey beanie hat.
Finally she broke the awkward silence between the two of them by saying shyly, "Um… Thank you, for helping me." The boy sniffed and said in a tone so arrogant, it made Amber wonder if the boy was trying to imitate someone, "humph, my mother says to always help a pretty young lady if they need it." Amber blushed as the boy said the words, pretty young lady, and looked down at her hands. She suddenly thought that her family was taking an awfully long time to come through the Floo. She chanced a glance up at the boy's face again and was surprised to note a slight blush to his cheeks as well, as if he hadn't meant to utter those words.
Suddenly he put his hand out to her, "My name is Draco." Amber smiled shyly and shook his hand and said in return, "Nice to meet you, my name is Amber." She thought it odd that he didn't give a last name so she did the same thing. Suddenly she heard her name being called close to the entrance to Diagon Alley and she sighed. Draco too, seemed reluctant for their little conversation to end. But after a few more shouts of Amber's name he held out his hand again for Amber to shake and she grabbed it to shake, but to her utter surprise, instead of shaking her hand, he pulled it forward and kissed the top of her hand! Amber blushed a deep scarlet red and just watched in stunned silence as Draco let go of her hand and said solemnly, "Goodbye Amber, for I doubt that we will meet like this again." Then giving her a smile that made her heart slightly flutter, he melted into the crowd.
For a few moments Amber just stood staring at her tingling hand, speechless. She finally moved when she heard her mother's worried voice raise an octave. She met up with her family at the entrance to the alley and was immediately engulfed in a hug by Ginny, "Oh Amber you had us worried! Where were you?!" Amber frowned, "I was in the Leaky Cauldron the entire time!" After a little more fussing, the Weasley family finally entered Diagon Alley and headed to Flourish and Blotts bookstore to get, what Amber deemed, the "stupid" Lockhart books and the other required texts.
As they walked up to the store they suddenly heard a female voice shout, "Ron! Ron! Over here!" As one, the Weasley family turned to see a young, bushy-brown haired girl running towards Ron and waving frantically. Amber smirked, "Is that your girlfriend Ron?" she teased him as Ginny giggled and Ron's ears went bright scarlet as he glared at his sister, "No! She is not!" "Is not what?" the same bushy-haired girl asked, appearing next to Ron so suddenly it almost looked like she apparated.
Ron's ears continued to stay pink as he muttered, "Never mind." The girl ignored him though as she turned to look at Amber and Ginny, "You must be Ron's sisters! He told me a little bit about you two. My name is Hermione Granger." Ginny grinned while Amber gave a small, quiet smile, sensing that her sister was in one of her shy modes, Ginny took over introductions, "Nice to meet you! I'm Ginny, and this is my twin Amber." Amber waved in greeting and Hermione beamed at them as they entered the crowded bookshop.
Before Amber and Hermione entered however, a large figure with a smaller figure next to it caught their attention. Breaking away from their families, the two girls raced over to a dust-covered, broken glasses Harry, and a looming giant of a man. Hermione excitedly exclaimed, "Harry! Hagrid!" "Hello Hermione!" The big man said with a smile. Amber looked Harry up and down and asked, "What happened to you?" Harry blushed and muttered, "Wrong fireplace."
Amber shook her head in amusement and went back inside Flourish and Blotts while Hermione fixed Harry's glasses. When Amber entered the shop, she immediately wished that she hadn't. For most of the shop's first floor was crowded with women who were waiting impatiently to see Gilderoy Lockhart. Squeezing through the crowd, Amber made it to her mother's side and whispered in her ear, "Mum, I'm going to go look for my other textbooks upstairs." Molly Weasley nodded distractedly and Amber rolled her eyes in mild disgust.
Wading through the crowd, again, Amber finally made it to the staircase that led upstairs and gratefully climbed them. Once she reached upstairs, she sighed deeply in relief, then got to work browsing for her school books that would actually be useful in the coming school year. As she browsed she could still hear the crowd of women downstairs. Their noisy giggles and impatient huffs grated on her ears. What was so "special" about a man who didn't do a single thing his books claimed that he did?
One by one, Amber collected her other school books. Holding five of them under her left arm, Amber looked through her list in her right hand as she walked towards the section where she would be able to find her Astronomy book, not watching where she was going until… BAM! Amber collided into someone for the second time in one day, sending her and her books to the ground. Shaking her head, to clear the pain, Amber heard a surprisingly familiar male voice grumble, "Bloody hell… twice in one day… When my father hears about this… Oh…"
Amber opened her eyes to discover that she had, again, collided with the same boy from the Leaky Cauldron! He was staring at her in mild curiosity and mild annoyance, with two of her books on his lap. When he noticed her looking at him, he raised an eyebrow at her and asked, "Is this going to be a regular occurrence with you?" He sounded annoyed, but his grey eyes gave away his slight amusement of the situation. Amber blushed slightly in embarrassment, breaking her gaze away from his by looking down, she said softly, "I'm terribly sorry, I do hope this won't be how we always meet."
As Amber started to resort her books before standing back up, Draco stood up and offered her the two books that had fallen on him. Glancing at the covers, he raised his eyebrow again and said, "First year? Strange, you act… and look, older than a first year." Amber blinked in surprise and tilted her head to look up at him as she replied, "Thanks…I think?" Draco smirked in reply, but then his face turned serious as he suddenly asked, "What's your blood status?" Now it was Amber's turn to raise an eyebrow as she stood up with her books and asked calmly, "Why would that matter to you?" Draco frowned slightly as he replied, "Oh, it matters, now I will ask again, what is your blood status?" Amber sighed in exasperation but decided to humor the boy as she answered, "I am a pureblood if you insist on knowing."
At her statement of being a Pureblood, Draco's face split into the biggest grin Amber had seen him do yet. She had to admit, he looked awfully cute with that happy look on his face. The moment that thought entered Amber's mind, her cheeks tinted pink, mentally thanking the universe that she hadn't inherited her family's trait of their ears turning pink.
She was brought out of her thoughts when Draco, still smiling, said, "That's great! I'm a Pureblood too!" Amber rolled her eyes and stated, "Good for you" with a little bit of sarcasm, surprising Draco and herself. Amber had no idea where this confident, speaking to strangers, attitude was coming from. She was always known as the shy one in the Weasley family. She only acted like her true self around her family members and extremely close friends and even then, she hid a part of her true self from them for fear of them thinking of her as not a Weasley.
Thankfully the sudden awkwardness that settled between the two was suddenly broken by a loud sound of cheering coming from downstairs. Glancing at each other in confusion, Draco and Amber made their way over to the railing that overlooked the first floor of the bookshop. The sight below them caused Amber to want to gag in disgust. Gilderoy Lockhart had finally made his appearance, and in Amber's opinion, he was just disgusting in his gaudy gold robes that clashed with his super blonde hair, and his smile was just too white to be normal. She glanced over at Draco and was grateful to notice that he shared her opinion. Leaning over, she whispered to him, "That Lockhart is nothing but a plain, hideous, fraud."
Draco looked at her in surprise and said as much as he replied, "I'm surprised, I thought you would be madly mooning over him like the rest of those girls down there." Amber snorted, "Me, enraptured by that candlestick? Please, he looks as bad as his books. I have read through all of his books because my mum has a copy of them and all of the works that he "claims" to have done have already been done and written down in much more sophisticated and reliable books." As Amber trailed off her rant, she noticed that Draco was openly gawking at her. Blushing slightly in embarrassment, she mumbled, "Sorry, I tend to get carried away when it comes to books." Then holding her head up proudly she exclaimed, "I hope to make it into Ravenclaw when I go to Hogwarts."
Draco nodded his head and said simply, "It shows. Sorry about me spacing out earlier, it's just that you suddenly reminded me of someone in my grade year. For a moment you almost sounded exactly like her." "Oh…" Was all Amber could say to that before a flash of a camera from below caught their attention again.
Looking down, they noticed that Lockhart now had Harry Potter under his arm. Amber wondered how that had happened, especially since she noticed that Potter didn't seem to enjoy being next to the fraud. She looked to Draco to make a comment on it, but one look of his face had her mouth closing shut again. Draco was looking down at Potter with pure loathing written across his face, and anger stormed in his grey eyes. Tilting her head curiously to the side, Amber looked at Draco and asked, "Um… Draco, are you all right?"
Hearing Amber's voice, Draco's attention snapped back to the present and shaking his head he said gruffly, "I'm fine, but I need to be going." Amber tried not to let it show that his announcement caused her heart to drop with disappointment. For some strange reason she felt drawn to the blonde Slytherin boy. She somehow felt that for once in her life she could actually act like herself around him. "Oh, ok then I guess I will see you at Hogwarts?" Smirking, Draco took Amber's free hand, kissed the back of it in a gentlemanly manner, for the second time in one day and replied, "I look forward to it." Causing Amber's cheeks to once again erupt into bright pink patches.
It took a few moments for Amber to come back to reality from being on cloud nine. But even then she had an extra spring in her step as she headed to the stairs that led back down to the first floor. Unfortunately her good mood was soon ruined by the very same person that had given it to her.