Notice:

"Oh! We are sorry!" : normal conversation;

'That girl…' : thinking;

"Ah! Here we meet again." : mental conversation.

Fallen & Risen 5. Meeting New Friends or Not?

Previously…

When Draco had searched for an empty compartment with Blaise, he could have sworn he had seen the ghost of Harry Potter through the window of a compartment. He had rushed over and hastily opened the door, only to see a girl inside instead of a boy.

Draco pictured the girl in his head again. She had short black hair that framed her thin and petite figure and eyes the color of the forest after a rainstorm. For a split of a second, Draco had thought he had seen hatred directed to him in her eyes (much like in the way Harry Potter would certainly looked at him), but it had probably just been an illusion. There was no way that a girl would be connected to Harry Potter unless she was Hermione Granger or Ginny Weasley. But still, that girl…

'That girl…' Draco frowned. 'That girl, she looks a lot like Harry Potter…' he thought. 'For an instant, I really thought she was him…'

Draco smirked. He had always thought that Harry Potter was a little feminine for a boy because the boy had such a frail stature, almost as though he had been malnourished all his life. But Draco never thought that he would one day meet a girl who looked so much like Harry Potter.

'She could be him if she wasn't a girl.'

Back to Heley's compartment.

Heley went back to her previous contemplation when her door opened again.

'Again?'

Heley turned her head to see that it was the red headed boy and the bushy haired girl she had seen earlier. The boy froze when he saw Heley, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging wide open. Heley also couldn't suppress her surprise when she saw them. They were the people she had seen at the station, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.

"Oh! We're sorry!" Hermione exclaimed. "We thought no one was in here. We're searching for a compartment."

Heley composed herself and smiled to them.

"It's alright," Heley said. "I don't mind."

Hermione smiled back.

'She looks to be a nice person,' Hermione thought. "You're alone? Do you mind sharing this compartment with us? I don't think there are any more empty compartments," Hermione explained sheepishly.

Heley invited them in with a gesture of her hand.

"Please, make yourselves comfortable," Heley replied.

"Thank you!" Hermione said. "Come on, Ron!" She pulled her friend into the compartment.

"Huh? Er, yeah… Thank you…" Ron muttered as he sat on the seat across from Heley.

Once he was settled in, he went back to what he had been doing before - staring at Heley. Hermione found his behavior strange. It was very unlike Ron to be so silent. But looking at Heley, Hermione immediately understood why Ron looked so distressed.

'Green eyes and black hair… And her features… This girl looks an awful lot like Harry…' Hermione thought, sadness biting at her heart as she remembered a dear friend she knew she would never see again.

Hermione noticed that Ron's staring made the girl uneasy, probably because of the intensity Ron stared at her with. Heley turned her eyes away, avoiding his gaze. The tension was so thick; it could be cut with a knife. Luckily, Hermione came to Heley's rescue.

"By the way, are you new?" Hermione asked the girl, purposefully breaking the heavy atmosphere. "I've never saw you before."

Heley looked at her, grateful for the change in atmosphere. Hermoine smiled.

"Well… er, yes…" Heley hesitantly answered.

"Oh! Is that so! Let me introduce myself," Hermione said. She extended her hand to Heley. "I'm Hermione Granger. I'm in Gryffindor and am the Head Girl. You can call me Hermione. Nice to meet you."

Heley took her hand, shaking it.

"Nice to meet you too. You can call me Heley," Heley responded.

"And this is Ron Weasley." Hermione gestured towards Ron who was still lost in some (painful) memory of a (lost) dear friend. "He is a Gryffindor too, and he's also a Prefect."

Still in a daze despite being introduced, Ron didn't saying anything to introduce himself. Hermione elbowed him painfully.

'Ow-!…' Ron bite his tongue, cutting off the curse that had been about to escape his mouth. At least he was back on earth. Heley bit her lips, stopping herself from laughing as Ron consciously rubbed the painful spot where Hermione nudged/hit him.

"Nice to meet you too," Heley said. Then, hesitantly, she extended her hand towards Ron.

A heavy silence filled the compartment again as Ron stared Heley's face, his eyes filled with sadness.

'She looks so much like him…' Ron thought, getting lost in his memory once more.

Heley started to squirm and her cheeks became red. She felt stupid, having her hand extended without respond. She was about to put her hand down, embarrassment in her eyes, when Ron snapped out of his daze and grabbed her hand.

"I'm sorry…" Ron said, smiling apologetically. "I didn't mean to be so rude towards you. It's just that… It's just that you remind me a lot of a friend…" He shook her hand. "I'm Ronald Weasley. Call me Ron. It's nice to meet you too, Heley."

Heley smiled, relieved, and shook his hand back exuberantly.

In the Great Hall, all the students sat at their respective tables except for the first year students who were waiting by the door to be called inside for the Sorting Ceremony. Heley waited with them as well. Since she was new at Hogwarts, she must go through the Sorting with them. But it wasn't Professor Minerva McGonagall who was going to lead them in the Hall. It was Professor Filius Flitwick, the Charm teacher and head of Ravenclaw house. Heley guessed that since Professor McGonagall became the new headmistress, she must leave the job she always did to another teacher.

"Welcome back, dear students," Professor McGonagall greeted the students. "A new year at Hogwarts has started again and I hope it will be a great school year for all of you. Now, let me introduce you to our new students. Please come in, Professor Flitwick."

Behind the door of the Hall, Professor Flitwick turned around to speak to the waiting students.

"Let us go now," he said.

The first years and Heley followed him into the Great Hall. They stopped in front of everybody, just by a stool with an old hat resting on it. The Great Hall was completely silent as the Hat started singing. It chanted about the dark years under Voldemort's reign of terror. It chanted about the previous battle, the loss of friends and the decease of two previous headmasters, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. Strangely, it didn't mention the decease of Harry Potter, but merely reminded people to never forget his name. The Hat insisted on the importance to cherishing people around us and fully living out your life so that you weren't left with regrets later. Finally, that Hat ended his song with these words: "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" - words very much like the kind of words Albus Dumbledore would say himself. When the Hat finished singing, everybody burst into applause.

"Very well, we shall start the Sorting now," Professor Flitwick said. "When you hear your name, step in front and sit on the stool. I will put the Sorting Hat on your head and it will tell you in which house you will be placed. After that, you give the Hat back to me and sit with your new housemates." Professor Flitwick unrolled the parchment he had been holding in his hand and started reading the names on it. "Alford, Myriam."

A little girl with curly brown hair stepped to the stool.

"Hufflepuff!" the Hat shouted. The Hufflepuff table clapped their hands. Professor Flitwick continued.

"Alwyn, William."

"Ravenclaw!"

"Bolster, Yan."

"Slytherin!"

"Buckminster, Jeanne."

"Hufflepuff!"

"Dilligham, Anna."

Henry Glassglow, Albert Lawley, Elizabeth McConnor, Katheryne Oswald and all the way down to the letter P.

"Paddock, Christopher."

"Ravenclaw!"

"Pillings, Mary!"

"Slytherin!"

"Pennant, Kristen."

"Gryffindor!"

The Gyffindors clapped their hands and Kristen removed the Hat. She gave it back to the small professor and scurried to the lion table. Professor Flitwick continued on to the next name.

"Potter, He-…! COOOOOOOOUGH! " The small Charms teacher choked, thinking he had read the name wrong. No! He must have read wrong. There was no way that name could be on the list. Nervously, he searched his list again, but he hadn't mistaken. It was really that name. He shakingly read it again.

"Pot-Potter… Heley…" he stuttered.

In the Hall, a dead silence followed Professor Flitwick's call. All the students stopped talking, wondering if they had a hearing dysfunction, before they broke out into a clamor, discussing this new turn of events.

"Did… Did he say Potter?" a Ravenclaw asked.

"I certainly heard him say Potter," a Hufflepuff said.

"Potter? Like Harry Potter?" a Slytherin boy asked.

"Not Harry Potter. Heley Potter, you dimwit!" his Slytherin friend retorted.

'Heley Potter…? Could she be… Does Potter have relatives?' Draco wondered, frowning.

Heley ignored the commotion and stepped in front of the Hall. All the eyes in the Hall were fixed on her. Even the ghosts stopped flying around to watch and the portraits gave up all pretensions of being occupied in order to stare. The silence in the Hall was so heavy and so intense that even the god of Death would feel ashamed. Heley calmly sat on the chair and waited for professor Flitwick to put the Hat on her head. But he didn't. Heley looked at him, an eyebrow raised in confused. The small teacher was looking intensely at her, his eyes filled with emotions. He must be illusioning, he told himself. Heley stared at directly into his eyes with her green orbs as though to call him back to his senses. Professor Flitwick snapped out of his daze and, with a trembling hand, slowly put the Sorting Hat on Heley's head. Immediately, the Hat's voice spoke in her head.

"Ah! Here we meet again, Miss Heley Potter," the Hat said. "Or should I say Mister Harry Potter, as you were known up to today?"

Heley only smiled.

'Thank you for keeping my secret during all these years.'