Hi! This is the last chapter before you're all caught up! Hooray! In this chapter we meet another OC (I'm impatient, can you tell?), and I hope you like her. Anyways, enjoy!

-LLF

45 minutes into the awful lesson, something interesting happened. Fate works in funny ways; like, say, the knock of a door.

The knock interrupted Flitwick, who was describing the gory details of the wizard Baruffio, who summoned a buffalo on his chest by accident.

"Come in," he said impatiently, and a chubby, brown-haired girl nervously peeked into the room. She slowly edged herself in, earthy eyes flicking nervously about as she looked around. Her mustard yellow Hufflepuff robes and bits of her straight shoulder length hair were crusted in mud, as if she'd been weeding all morning. She had a smattering of freckles across her flushed, chubby face.

"Well?" Flitwick said impatiently.

"I-I'm sorry, I-I thought this was my History of M-Magic class," she said anxiously, shrinking as Flitwick sent her a piercing stare.

"Hmm," he said, then reached for a piece of parchment and a quill. "What's your name?" He said harshly.

"M-Millie Longbottom."

"What? Speak louder, girl!" Flitwick yelled.

"Millie L-Longbottom!" She said loudly, hands trembling softly as her face flushed even more.

Harry recognized the name; He knew of a third year Hufflepuff by the name of Neville Longbottom, who always lost his toad in the Gryffindor common room. They often sent Harry to go fetch it. He was supposed to have a sister, some sort of plant prodigy, but from what Harry had heard, she was supposed to start next year. He guessed that he had misheard, and studied the girl again. Her back was nearly turned, and he saw a piece of hair in the back of her head that was curly. The sweat of what she has been working on must've caused it to break from the straightener potion she had likely taken.

Without a word, Flitwick leaned down to write what Harry was sure was a scathing letter to Professor Binns.

"Mr Potter," he snapped when he was finished, and Harry jumped, freckles multiplying in a wave across his cheeks as he sat up.

"Yes, sir?" he said politely, the last of his freckles rippling across his face before settling back into their normal pattern.

"Take Miss Longbottom to Professor Binns' class, would you?" Harry immediately popped up from his seat and headed down the stairs to retrieve Millie- and her letter. She stared at it, breaking out in a sweat, as if it was her death sentence.

Just as they cleared the doorframe, Flitwick started the actual lesson.

Harry barely held back from saying something he shouldn't have.

Z

{}-{}

They walked in silence for a little while, until finally, Harry broke the silence, little flickers of dark maroon nervousness shifting into his hair.

"So, um, hi, MIllie," he said, trying to find words.

"Hello," she said quietly, cheeks flushing again, embarrassed.

"Um… I know your brother," Harry said, flushing too, not knowing what to say to the smaller girl.

"Oh, you know Neville?" she said, surprised.

"Um… yes, he always loses his toad," Harry said, suddenly giggling. Millie laughed too.

"That does sound like him!" she said, giggling. They both giggled for a little bit until they reached the bend that would lead them to Professor Binns' class.
Mille broke out into a nervous sweat, laughter and smile dying on her lips, which trembled slightly.
"Harry?" she said, voice wavering. "I don't want to get in trouble."

Harry felt bad for the poor girl, and in a sudden burst of courage, he took the crumpled letter from her shaking hand and ripped it into pieces. Millie let out a surprised shriek, and Harry grinned and stuffed the remains of the note into his robe pocket.

"Listen," he said, grinning. "Professor Binns won't realize that you didn't give him the note, even if Flitwick asks. Binns kinda forgets things sometimes. It will just be our secret," he said, and he grinned even wider. Millie's trembles were gone, and a grin jumped up onto her face as well.
"You're the best, Harry Potter! I'll see you around!" she said, and started to skip down to Professor Binns classroom. Then she suddenly turned around.
"Oh! Here, take this!" she said, and plucked a small violet flower out of her hair, tossing it to Harry. "If you ever need me, crush this flower between your shoes and spit on it," she said, smiling mischievously. Then, she disappeared into the History of Magic classroom. Harry pocketed the flower, and turned back around to walk back to the Charms classroom, grinning the whole way there.

It looked like school wouldn't be too bad after all.

Millie Longbottom is the sweetest little cinnamon roll ever also, Evil Flitwick is super funny- just picture this super tiny dude giving you the most epic stink eye ever. Amazing.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll try to update next week! Until then, have a lovely week! Thanks for reading!
-LLF out