Hello all! I noticed in the last chapter that I said the twins and Lee were debating who would be in the World Cup "this year", but the World Cup occurs every four years and this obviously doesn't line up. I was watching Goblet of Fire at the time I wrote that, and obviously was not paying for very good attention to what I was doing. Let us pretend that I said they were debating who would be at the top of the league instead :)

Chapter Seven

The rest of the trip had been pleasant enough. Most of them had napped for the last hour before the train arrived at Hogsmeade Station and they had all crammed into a carriage for the ride to the castle.

Nessa wasn't particularly listening to any of them as they spoke, too entranced with the castle in the distance. It was amazing, really, that she still felt spellbound by the castle every time that she returned. The turrets and towers rose above the tree line, seven stories towering easily over them, and she could see the glow of the lanterns through some of the top story windows. The only thing taller than the castle were the mountains that surrounded it, the jagged rock only barely higher than the castle in front of it.

As the carriages came to a stop and they made their way toward the castle, the whispers and staring started. She attempted to ignore it. She was grateful for the fact that she was not Harry every time she returned to the Wizarding world. The stares and whispers she got were nothing in comparison to him – she was only the sister of The Boy-Who-Lived, which, thankfully, was only mildly more exciting than other witches or wizards.

This, however, was different somehow. They were staring at her in the same way they would normally have done to Harry. Not to mention, it was a lot more than usual. Typically, the only people who really found her terribly exciting were the younger students once they realized she was related to Harry. The older students had become used to her presence and typically ignored her, as she was not prone to answering questions about her brother to anyone who asked and spent the majority of her free time in the library avoiding them otherwise.

This, however, was quite a few of the students, younger and older alike. They whispered and stared and then when she made eye contact, retreated behind The Evening Prophet or whatever book they had on hand, pretending as if they had not noticed her at all.

"Why are they all staring?" Nessa muttered to Tori, uncomfortably as they walked through the double doors and made their way to the Great Hall.

"They're always staring, aren't they?" Tori said, rolling her eyes and glaring at a particular third-year boy to prove her point. The boy squeaked and ran into the Great Hall immediately. "You're a Potter, so they all –"

"You're Vanessa Potter?" said a voice, excitedly behind her. She whirled around and came face to face with an excitable first year. He wasn't much shorter than her — who was, really? — and he had mousy brown hair, a large camera in one of his hands.

"Er – sorry, but do I know you?" Nessa said, coming to a stop and staring at the boy in confusion. Fred, George, and Tori were eyeing him curiously, ignoring the mutters from the other students who had to walk around them to get to the Great Hall.

"Wow. Hi! I'm Colin - Colin Creevey." Nessa stared at him in surprise when he began bouncing excitably. Ginny, who stood behind him, giggled behind her hand. "I've heard all about Harry on the train – everyone's told me how he survived You-Know-Who. It must be so cool to have a brother like him, isn't it?"

"Uh, about the same as anyone else, to be honest." Nessa said, throwing an alarmed look over at Tori and the twins, who were all sniggering at her obvious discomfort.

"Is it true what they've been saying on the train? That he missed the train and is going to be coming in a flying car –"

"What?" Nessa said, eyeing him more sharply than she had before, which seemed to surprise him. "Where did you hear that?"

"Well – some of the students were showing me a newspaper and it had a flying car on the front cover. They seemed to think it had to be Harry since they heard he'd missed the train. The pictures were moving and everything."

Nessa, who had lost interest and begun looking around the corridor, spotted a second year Hufflepuff holding a newspaper and whispering to her friend behind it. She snatched it as they passed.

"Hey!"

Nessa glared at them until they had retreated, causing Tori to snort. Eyeing the front cover, she groaned immediately. Sure enough, a photo of Mr. Weasley's Ford Anglia high in the sky was moving across the page with a headline: FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES.

"Wicked," the twins said from behind her.

She resisted the urge to glare at them, but Tori smacked them both and shook her head, making a pointed look at Nessa, who was staring at the paper as if she were waiting for it to burst into flames in her hands.

"Tell me this is a joke, Tori," she whispered in shock. "Tell me Harry is not this stupid."

"Harry is not this stupid," Tori said immediately.

Nessa rolled her eyes at her and turned to face the first years again to wish Ginny good luck — ignoring Colin's continued excited chatter — before following the other students into the Great Hall for the feast, scanning the paper as she went. Several times, Lee had to grab her elbow and steer her clear of other students.

Two muggles in London convinced they saw an old car flying over the Post Office…reported to police…six or seven Muggles in all.

"Maybe Ginny and Colin can start a fan club," Fred remarked, taking the newspaper out of Nessa's hands as they took seats around the Gryffindor table. "Honestly, George, look at this," he brandished the newspaper at his twin in awe. "How come we've never come in a flying car, eh?"

George took the paper from him eagerly and looked at the front page, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Who knew Ron had it in him…" he said in disbelief, though Nessa could hear a hint of respect in his voice.

"Truly inspired," Lee agreed, taking the paper himself and grinning widely.

Nessa groaned and put her head on the table.

"Tori, why is he so stupid?" she mumbled, but the words came out as a grumble and the twins eyed her amusedly.

"Maybe it wasn't them," Tori said, bracingly, causing Nessa to eye her as if she'd gone mad. "I mean, what are the chances some other wizard has a flying car in their toolshed?"

Nessa raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"The exact same make, model, and color?"

"Okay, well, maybe Arthur convinced Molly to let him fly them to school…"

"Victoria, please," Vanessa groaned. "It was Harry. This is the first sign of his descent into madness this year. He'll be fighting Voldemort again by tomorrow afternoon."

The others winced immediately, and Tori glared.

"Do you have to say it every time, Vanessa?"

"Are you in Gryffindor or not?" she replied snarkily, rolling her eyes.

"Besides, unless Dumbledore is hiding the Broach of Immortality somewhere in the castle, I'm thinking Harry is going to be alright." Tori said, waving a hand airily.

Nessa snorted despite her own panic.

"What the hell is a Broach of Immortality?"

"It's nothing, obviously," Tori said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, if Harry is driving, he's probably going like 5 kilometers an hour."

Nessa conceded that this was likely true, considering Harry had never once driven a car, let alone flown one. Not to mention, the fact that the Weasleys would likely need it back and Harry would be more cautious knowing that. She hoped. She certainly never expected he would have taken the car in the first place and wondered why he would have even thought of it in the first —

"What if Ron is driving the car, Victoria?" Nessa said suddenly, eyeing her as she darted her eyes to the twins, who grimaced.

"Well," said Fred jauntily. "He only crashed his broom once this summer —"

"-and that was just because Fred was holding the end of it." George finished.

Nessa let her head fall to the table again, ignoring the looks the others were giving each other above her head. They probably thought she was mad for being this worried about it, but she could only think about the fact that muggles had seen them. Okay, she still likely would have been concerned had they not been seen, but at least they could have gotten to school and served a detention and been done with it.

This, however, was entirely different. They weren't supposed to alert the muggles to magic — it had been the first rule McGonagall had explained to her upon giving her her letter to Hogwarts. Harry being expelled and sent back to the Dursleys seemed a horrible price to pay for a moment's stupidity. Why had he not sent an owl? Or waited for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley as George had assumed they would?

Groaning again, she lifted her head when she felt Hermione sit next to her.

"Have you heard the ridiculous rumors?" she stated, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, why would Harry and Ron have flown a car to school? People should really find better things to do with their time, if you ask me."

Nessa met Tori's eyes briefly and they came to a similar conclusion to say nothing to Hermione during the feast. Hearing Hermione rant and rave all through dinner about how stupid the boys were and explain the Statute of Secrecy a hundred times over did not sound like the best way to end the evening. Fred and George seemed to agree, as they casually slipped the Evening Prophet into one of their bags and winked at Nessa.

She sighed and looked up at the staff table, noticing the empty chair where Professor Snape usually sat. This did not help her overall feeling of dread as Harry and Snape did not get along very well and she could only imagine what Snape would do once he found the boys. She started when a foot touched hers under the table and looked up into George's face.

He smiled at her bracingly and she smiled weakly back and took a deep breath to calm her nerves. However stupid Harry may be for flying a car to Hogwarts, there were certainly worse things that could happen. I mean, really, if he did get to Hogwarts and wasn't expelled, she promised she would, in fact, be just as amazed as the twins. Whether that was from pure relief or actual amazement that he had attempted such a feat, she didn't really know.

She had little further time to consider the worst case-scenario as the doors to the Great Hall finally opened and McGonagall led the first years into the Great Hall for the Sorting. Nessa smiled at the awestruck looks on their faces as they gazed up at the enchanted ceiling, which tonight was clear and sparkling with stars. Some of them twitched and eyed the Sorting hat nervously as they approached the front of the Hall where the teachers sat.

She remembered in her own first-year how scared she had been when she had been Sorted. All of the eyes staring at you as you awaited your turn to be sorted, the teachers eyeing the students in interest, and the weird old, dingy hat that sat on the stool to whisper into your ear before making its final decision.

She remembered the song it had sung that year — it was different every year — and had been convinced she would end up in Hufflepuff. She had shaken horribly as she waited for the hat to pick her House and it had taken some time — much longer than the rest of her companions — for it to decide where she belonged. She was particularly difficult to place, according to the Hat, as she would fit in all of the Houses at Hogwarts – highly empathetic and loyal to a fault, ambitious and cunning, extremely analytical, and proud with a strong moral compass. The hat had whispered to her about the particularly interesting mind she had for what felt like hours as she prayed for the experience to be over. The Great Hall had waited with bated breath to see where the first Potter sibling would be placed, and she had felt like she was going to pass out when it finally decided on Gryffindor.

The shock of this decision had caused her pause as the Gryffindor table had roared in celebration. She had spent much of her first year under the impression that the Hat had made a mistake, despite knowing that this was rarely – if ever – the case. Nessa had never considered herself particularly brave and, to this day, often wondered what the Hat had seen that had pushed it in the direction of Gryffindor House.

She jumped, pulling herself back to the present, as the hat yelled out "Slytherin!" and the Slytherin table roared and applauded, briefly watching a smirking dark-haired boy run over to the Slytherin table.

"Creevey, Colin." McGonagall called and the excitable little boy with the camera raced forward, nearly tripping on his robes in his excitement.

"Gryffindor!"

Nessa clapped with the others within her house, but tried not to meet the boy's eyes as he came to take a seat at the table. Tori began sniggering when he tried leaning around her to get a look at her again, and Nessa was grateful that the Sorting was still ongoing, so she didn't have to find an excuse to ignore him. She watched with mild interest as several other students were placed within their houses but kept eyeing the door as if waiting for Harry and Ron to come bursting through the doors.

"Weasley, Ginevra,"

Nessa jerked around immediately to eye Ginny, who didn't look at all afraid, as she walked up to the stool. The hat had barely touched her head when it shouted out "Gryffindor!" Nessa grinned as Ginny made her way to the Gryffindor table, the twins and Tori cheering particularly loudly. Ginny was grinning excitedly as she sat next to Percy, some ways down the table.

Silence fell when Dumbledore finally stood with a wide smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes.

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! I have a few start-of-term notices, but I feel you may all listen more readily if you have been properly fed. So, tuck in!"

"Bless him," Fred muttered, reaching excitedly for the roasted chicken in front of him and piling his plate high. "Thought I might perish if I didn't eat soon."

Tori rolled her eyes at him and began filling her own plate. Nessa was too busy darting her eyes back and forth between the doors of the Great Hall and the staff table, waiting for some sign that her brother had made it back to the school. Surely, they had to have arrived by now.

Tori eyed her for a moment and sighed heavily before piling food on her plate as well.

"Starving yourself is not going to give you answers any faster, Vanessa," she muttered, so the others wouldn't hear. "Now eat. I've no intention of listening to you complain about how hungry you are later tonight when we go to bed."

Nessa wanted to snipe back at her, but decided it probably wasn't worth the battle, and chose instead to take a few bites of the mashed potatoes on her plate and nod politely at Hermione as she was explaining how excited she was for classes to start this term, despite the fact that she wasn't really listening. She'd hardly eaten anything when Snape made his way through the door behind the staff table and whispered something to McGonagall.

"That's the happiest I've ever seen Snape look," Tori stated grimly, as McGonagall's lips thinned, and she stood to follow Snape back through the door he entered from. "I assume the boys have made it, then."

The twins eyed Hermione cautiously, who was busy speaking with one of the first years, before joining in the conversation. Nessa would have been amused had she not been so busy going through her head all the possible scenarios for this kind of rule breaking.

"Much better that it's McGonagall though," Fred said, matter-of-factly. "She's much fairer than Snape, to be sure."

"I'm sure Snape is itching to have them expelled," Lee grumbled with a shake of his head.

"Minnie won't go for that," George said immediately when Nessa started biting her lip. "Might give them a nasty detention, but I doubt she'd expel them,"

"She hasn't expelled George and I yet," Fred said, grinning when Nessa snorted and raised an eyebrow at him.

"If that's supposed to be assuring me of her mental soundness, I don't think it's working," Nessa smirked.

The twins grinned at her cheekily.

"She adores us," they said in unison.

By the time dessert was served, Dumbledore had also left the staff table as well, an occurrence that Nessa had never seen before. It wasn't until he had returned with a rather furious looking Snape that she began to relax. Snape would not be looking so angry if things had gone his way in terms of the boys' punishment. She was certain it was this relief that made her Banoffee Pie taste so spectacular.

By the time they were making their way to Gryffindor Tower for the evening, she hardly paid attention to the whispers of other students that they had flown directly into the Whomping Willow or Hermione's constant eye rolling at the continued gossip that she found "ridiculously misinformed." Nessa convinced her to stay behind and wait for the boys so they could get into the common room in order to avoid telling her that the rumors were at least partially true.

Despite the exhaustion from the day, Nessa decided to stay up and wait for Harry and Ron and chose a seat between George and Tori in the corner of the room. The common room was incredibly packed as the rest of the house seemed to have chosen to do the same thing. It wasn't long before the portrait hole was swinging open, and Nessa jumped when the entire common room roared in celebration.

Harry and Ron were pulled through by Lee Jordan, who was shaking their hands aggressively. Another Gryffindor student came to pat them on the back and Fred and George pushed forward, Nessa and Tori following closely behind to express their admiration.

Harry eyed his sister cautiously. "Are you going to yell now?"

"I probably should," Nessa replied, eyeing him sharply and making him shift uncomfortably. "But I do have to admit, you've got some nerve."

She laughed as his face morphed into shock and Ron grinned embarrassedly next to him, his entire face scarlet. Hermione, who looked particularly sour, seemed just as surprised by Nessa's lack of distaste for their actions. Nessa was often the one to make Harry see sense when he made poor choices and had, on several occasions, yelled herself hoarse at her brother's lack of forethought.

Of all of the stunts he had pulled since his time at Hogwarts, however, this seemed rather tame in the grand scheme of things. She'd count her blessings if this is the worst she had to deal with this year.

"You've been spending too much time with Fred and George and the school year hasn't even started." Harry muttered, shaking his head.

"Maybe a bit," she grinned, pulling Harry into a hug and eyeing him as if trying to register if he were injured. "It was a stupid thing to do, though, Harry. I assume McGonagall has already taken care of that lecture and Hermione will probably take up the rest, so I'll sit this one out."

"Thanks," Harry said appreciatively.

"Just please let this be the stupidest thing you do this year, alright?" Nessa implored. "I'm trying to keep from ripping my hair out for once."

"Be a big help to me, too, actually," Tori said, grinning at Harry. "I'm the one that has to deal with her once she's done yelling at you."

Harry laughed and then immediately looked uncomfortable at something he saw over Nessa's shoulder and elbowed Ron in the side to get his attention. Nessa turned and saw a very unhappy looking Percy Weasley trying to make his way towards them.

"Gotta get upstairs – bit tired," Ron yawned dramatically.

They pushed their way through the common room in the opposite direction of Percy, still getting their backs slapped before they disappeared into the boys' staircase.

"I'll bet you five galleons right now that this is not the stupidest thing they do this year." Tori said from behind her.

Nessa sighed heavily and shook her head. She'd been thinking the same thing herself but was deliberately trying to ignore it.

"I've no interest in losing money at the start of the term," she said, making her way to the opposite side of the room toward the girls' staircase. "Now, come on, before Hermione starts lecturing me about how I let him off too easily."