Nicole Stevens: Roses and Mistrust

Chp. 2 Shopping and boys

.......... I awoke upon hearing screaming. It was my own.

My parents had heard my screams from their upstairs bedroom. I heard them crashing down the stairs in order to get to me. I sat up and felt that my face was wet with tears again. Then, I thought of the dream. The pain had felt real again. I looked down at the floor where my book had fallen. Then I looked at my alarm clock; 7:00 a.m.

My father threw open the door to my bedroom, his wand extended before him. He saw me sitting up in bed, and then looked around the room for intruders. Convinced that there were none, he turned to me and inquired urgently, "Why did you scream?"

I was speechless. I gaped at him. Then I shut my mouth and said in a shaky, hoarse voice, "I had a bad dream. I didn't realize I was screaming until I heard myself. Then I woke up."

He nodded and my mother rushed over to me and gave me a hug. She was suffocating me with her tight grip. "Let go, Mom, you're killing me." She reluctantly gave up her hold on me and stood up. "I'm sorry if I woke you. I really hadn't known that I had yelled."

"Alright, Nicky. Well, we certainly shall be on time to go to Diagon Alley. Come on, Lydia. I'll make coffee."

I got up out of bed. I was still wearing my lavender robes. They had gotten wrinkled from sleeping in them. I went to my closet and looked for some fresh robes. I had many. Light blue, lavender, pink, green, red, blue, yellow, black, white, you name it. I liked clothes, but I hated shopping, as odd as it may be. But, since my mother loved to shop, I always got my fill of new robes.

I picked out the light blue ones, because they matched my eyes. I dressed and put on matching Nike's. Then I walked to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. Amazingly, I had never gotten a cavity; my teeth were white and beautiful. I was proud of my white smile.

I went into the kitchen, where my mother was cooking waffles, and my father was reading the newspaper (The Daily Prophet). I sat down at the table and poured juice into my cup. My father looked up from his newspaper and asked, "Are you feeling better?"

"Loads." My mother set my plate in font of me and I started eating. I was famished. I guess pain can do that to you, even if it is in dreams.

I ate quickly and my Mom asked, "Okay, Nicky, slow down or you'll be sick. And you can't be sick today."

"Okay," I started to eat slower. "What time are we going again?"

"Nine. And it's ten 'till eight now."

I nodded and finished eating. I walked over to the sink and gently put my plate and glass in. Then, I walked into my room and picked up 'Dream Analysis' off the floor. I found my page and read it again.

Painful dreams are the strangest type of dreams known to man. They consist of where a person experiences actual, physical pain while dreaming. This includes all types of pain; broken bones, pulled teeth, and the like.

Often, when a person has painful dreams, they will remember them vividly. Color and sound are often known to be strong in this type of dreams, as well. A side-effect of this is that the subject will wake up having trouble breathing, or even crying. Sometimes, if the pain has been immense, a subject will wake up screaming and shaking. This causes confusion in the world of magical dream analysis. It has been thought that the pain was caused by being hurt while sleeping, but this is untrue. The Muggles assume, however, that this is the case, and take no further notice to it.

The explanation to these dreams is, as of yet, undiscovered. But, a possibility is that the subject may be experiencing the memories of others, though this is extremely unlikely. Another possibility is that the subject may have been through these experiences or will go through this. All of these theories are equally likely, and none of them have been proved true.

Yes, I fit all of those symptoms. I had cried, screamed, and had breathing trouble. I shut the book and put it on my desk. I still didn't understand. Who were those men in my dream? Where had they been?

"Nicole," I said to myself, "you're going mad. You're having painful dreams. You scream while you sleep. You wake up crying. You're going mad, and there's nothing you can do about it."

I jumped as my mother called me from the living room, "Nicky! Come on, we're going to be late!"

I grabbed my wand from the desk and rushed out of my room. I nearly knocked my father down as I ran. "Nicole, slow down. I was just coming to get you. We have to go now."

"Right, sorry about that." We walked together out of the kitchen to the fireplace by the living room couch. A fire was burning even though it was a nice day. Mother was standing there holding a large jar in her hands. "Who's going to go first?" I asked.

"Andrew, you go first and wait for us there. Then Nicky can go."

We all nodded and my father put his hand in the jar. He picked up some of the fine, ash-like substance. I knew it on sight; Floo Powder. He threw it into the blazing fire and it turned green. Then he stepped into the fireplace and yelled, "The Leaky Cauldron!" He whirled out of sight and my mother opened the lid of the jar again.

She turned to me and said, "Alright, Nicole." I put my hand into the jar and scooped up a handful of the power. Then I threw it into the fire.

It turned green again and I stepped in. It felt like a warm breeze was blowing, tickling my arms. The flames licked at my legs and I yelled, "The Leaky Cauldron!" I tucked in my arms as I spun around and around. I accidentally opened my eyes and I got soot in them, so I shut them quickly. I felt sick from spinning like this. The wind was roaring in my ears. Then, it stopped and I opened my eyes.

I stumbled out of the fireplace. I saw my father and I walked over to him. He sat at a table close to me. I sat down and wiped the soot off my robes. This gave me time to take in where we were. It seemed like we were in a dimly lit pub. There were little tables all around the room. Most of them were occupied by witches or wizards, but I saw what I thought was a hag and a vampire.

In a moment, my mother stumbled out of the fire, brushing soot off her robes. My father saw her and stood up. I followed his example. She walked over to us and said breathlessly, "Well, shall we go now?" My father nodded and we started off out the back door. My father tapped the bricks, and they started moving, to reveal an archway. Through the arch, I saw a crowded street lined by shops. My mother turned to me and said, "Now, Nicole, you go get your robes and dress robes. I'll take your father and we'll go get your books and supplies. We'll meet you in an hour at Florean Fortescue's." She pointed at an ice cream shop. Then she handed me fifty galleons.

"Okay." I walked through the door of the robe shop, Madam Malkin's. There was a boy about my age standing at the counter. I walked over to the other end of the counter. The boy turned to look at me. He had straight platinum-blonde hair and grey eyes that, at that very moment, were looking me up and down. He smiled at me. His teeth were even and white.

"Hello. Draco Malfoy," he introduced. He held his hand out to me. He was smirking slightly, and it annoyed me.

"Nicole Stevens," I said, not shaking his hand. "You go to Hogwarts?"

He set his hand down on the counter, realizing that I didn't mean to take it. He was still smirking, and his eyes were alight with laughter. "Unfortunately, yes. So, you're from America, are you? Why are you in England?" he drawled, making me want to slap him.

I regarded him slightly coldly, but he did not seem affronted. "Lucky chance, I guess. It's not that I want to be here. I didn't have a choice." That smirk was making me angry, but I had to admit that he was handsome (as in, really, really hot, melt in your mouth hot).

"Oh? Are you going to Hogwarts this year?"

"Yes."

"Are your parents pure-blooded?"

"Yes. Now, can you please shut up? I just want to get my robes and go." He looked angry and he stopped smirking. I smiled inwardly. His eyes lost their glittering quality, and were cold. His hands were gripping the counter tightly, and his knuckles were white. I began to feel slightly worried, but I didn't show it. He looked really strong. He must play Quidditch, I thought to myself as I looked at him.

"When you get to Hogwarts, you'll be sorry for that remark. You'll just be begging me for a date to the ball."

I laughed a cold laugh that still sounded merry. "I bet," I said sarcastically. "And I also bet that I see a professor doing the tango while I'm there, too. Oh, and I bet England wins the next World Cup. Even betting that they get into the World Cup would be enough."

He scowled at me as the cashier came up. I smiled innocently at him. He paid quickly for his things and left. I asked the lady, "Do you have any Hogwarts robes?"

"Yes, I'll get your size and ring them up. Is there anything else you need?"

"Yes, I need a dress robe. I was thinking dark green silk or black."

She nodded and started measuring me. When she had finished I went over to the rack and looked at the dress robes. I found a dress for underneath the robe (you don't have to wear a robe, just a dress if you like) that was heavy, dark satin that was iridescent; it looked black at some angles and dark green at other angles. It had straps of materiel that went over my shoulder to hold it up. It was beautiful and I liked it a lot. It would cling to the right places and accent my thin figure. I found a black cloak and took them both to the counter. The lady looked at the dress and said, "That will look lovely on you, dear. All of these together," she pointed at the packages of robes, "will be twenty galleons, six sickles, and twenty-seven knuts."

I handed her thirty galleons and she rummaged through the money drawer to find the correct change. She handed it to me and I thanked her. I picked up the packages and walked out the door. Looking at my watch, I saw that I had been in that shop for about thirty minutes. I walked toward the ice cream parlor to wait for my parents.

About half way there I was almost knocked over by a boy. He grabbed me by the waist before I landed on he ground. He pulled me up and I looked up into his face. "I'm so sorry," he said. He had dark, emerald green eyes, and messy black hair. He looked vaguely familiar. I knew that I was supposed to know who he was, but I didn't. Then he suddenly realized that he was still holding me by the waist. He removed his hands and looked embarrassed. He brushed back some stray hair from his face and I saw a lightning shaped scar. "Hi, I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going. My name's Harry Potter."

Duh, I thought. That's who he was. "Oh, no problem. I'm Nicole Stevens. I just moved here from America."

He smiled and said, "Hi, Nicole. As I just nearly killed you, may I buy you some ice cream?" He looked nervous. Then, it dawned on me. He thought I was attractive. Ah, I must bask in the glory of my own beauty. Oops, sorry.

I smiled back at him, which seemed to reassure him, "I'd love that. I'm supposed to meet my parents over there in half an hour, but they won't mind. I'll just, uh, I'll tell them that I need something or other. And it'll be fine."

"Really? I don't want to make you late with your parents. I'd love to meet them."

"Okay, but be warned, my father works for a company that sells brooms and Quidditch robes, and he loves to talk about it."

He laughed and we walked together over to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. He pulled out my chair for me to sit down in, "Wow, chivalry's not dead as it seems, after all."

He grinned and blushed, "What do you mean?"

"Well, first off, I've never had my chair pulled out for me before. Secondly, a while ago, this jerk, sorry, this boy named Draco Malfoy started talking to me. He asked about if my parents were pure-blood, and he kept smirking, so I told him to shut up."

He laughed again and asked incredulously, "You told Draco Malfoy to shut up?!"

"Well, yeah. He was annoying me a lot. What would you have done? And why's it so funny?"

He thought for a moment. He was still smiling when he said, "Alright, how should I put this? Er, well, Malfoy happens to be the biggest git at Hogwarts. The only people who have ever told him to shut up are me, and my friends, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley." He was still trying to control his laughter.

"Well, he certainly needs to be told more often. Obviously! I mean, what happened to make him so smug? Did his parents just indulge him with everything he wants, or was he born that way?" I started laughing with him.

By the time we stopped a waiter had arrived to take our orders. Harry ordered a banana firecracker split, and I got a snapping strawberry sundae. We talked as we ate. It was slightly sporadic conversation, but it was nice, none the less.

"So are you going to Hogwarts this year?"

"Oh, yeah. Do you play Quidditch?"

"Yeah. I'm the seeker for Gryffindor. Do you play?"

"Of course, I'm a seeker, too. But, I'm not horrible as a chaser. What's Gryffindor?" I inquired. It wasn't a word I'd heard before.

"Oh, right, you couldn't know about that. At Hogwarts, there are four houses. One named for each of the original founders. There's Gryffindor, for brave people, Hufflepuff, for loyal people, Ravenclaw for the smart people, and Slytherin, for the sly. I'm in Gryffindor. When you get there, you'll be sorted into your house."

"Really? And you have a house team?"

"Oh, yeah. There's a keeper place open, and I think that Alicia's the head of something-or-other so I don't think she'll be able to play. So, maybe you can try out for chaser. I hope you're in Gryffindor," he mused. "That'd be nice." Then, he realized what he had said and he blushed scarlet.

I smiled again at him. "I'd love to be in Gryffindor. Tell me more about Hogwarts, Harry. I'd love to hear."

"Well, there are seven years, and I'm in my fifth year, because I'm fifteen. The professors are really weird. The head of Gryffindor is Professor McGonagall who teaches transfiguration, she's stern, but she's not mean. The head of Slytherin is Snape, the potions teacher, and he's really mean and he hates me and all Gryffindors. Watch out for him. The head of Ravenclaw is Flitwick, and he's short, kind, and a bit off as well. The head of Hufflepuff is Professor Sprout, and she teaches Herbology. What extra classes are you taking?"

"Let's see, there's Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, and Arithmancy," I ticked them off on my fingers. "And I'm turning fifteen on Halloween."

"Really? Well, if you're in Gryffindor you'll have Care of Magical Creatures and Divination with me and Ron. And you'll have Arithmancy with Hermione."

"Cool," I saw over his shoulder that my parents were just emerging from the book shop, laden with big bags of supplies. I said sarcastically, "Oh, great."

"What?" he asked looking over his shoulder at where I was staring.

"My parents," I said shortly. He stood up and I followed. My parents saw us and came quickly over to our table. "Hi, Mom, Dad. This is Harry Potter. Harry, Lydia and Andrew Stevens, my parents. Harry and I just sort of ran into each other." I left out how we had literally run into each other.

"Harry Potter?" my father asked, as he shook Harry's hand.

"Yes, it's very nice to meet you. I accidentally bumped into Nicole, so I offered to buy her some ice cream. We were just talking about Hogwarts."

My father kept nodding and smiling. "Well, that's lovely. I hope you two are having a wonderful time. Nicole," my father said turning to me, "did you finish getting your robes?"

"Yeah, I did." I looked pointedly at my mother, giving her the please-get-Dad-out-of-here-before-he-messes-this-up-for-me look.

She saw and turned to my father saying, "Andrew, didn't you just say that we needed some things for the house, Floo Powder and some books?"

My father looked puzzled and said, "No I d--," then he saw the look I was giving him, "Oh, yes, dear you're right. We really do need to go get those. You don't mind, Nicky?" I shook my head quickly and they walked off, leaving Harry and I alone standing next to the table.

I sat down the same time as Harry and he asked, "What was that all about?"

"Oh, nothing. They're just kind of odd. Well, they're parents, aren't they? They don't really need more of an explanation than that."

"Yeah, you're right." Harry looked over my shoulder at someone and called, "Hey, Hermione! Ron! Over here!"

I turned in my chair and saw two people approaching. One, was a girl with slightly bushy brown hair. Hermione, I thought. The other was a tall boy with bright red hair and freckles, Ron. Harry and I stood again, to greet them.

"Hi, Harry. Who is she?" he asked.

"Ron, meet Nicole Stevens. Nicole, meet Ron Weasley." I held out my hand and he shook it.

"Hi, Ron. Nice to meet you."

"You're from America?" he asked.

"Oh, you noticed?" I said jokingly. Ron smiled at me. "And you must be Hermione Granger. Am I correct?"

"Yes. It's nice to meet you. Are you going to go to Hogwarts?"

"I am in fact. I'm in fifth year."

Hermione nodded and asked, "What school are you from? I know that there are only two; Sterling School of Witchcraft, and Wendlyn's Academy."

"Well, actually, there are three. The third is a lesser-known academy called Nordon's Magical Learning College, but it's not like a regular college, it goes from ages 9 to twenty."

Hermione and the boys looked stunned. Ron said in awe, "Wow! You knew something Hermione didn't! Good catch, Harry."

"What? It's been there for ages. I just did a research report on it for History of Magic."

Harry smiled and said to Ron, "Guess what."

"What?"

"Nicole told Malfoy to shut up, because he was annoying her. Can you believe that?!"

Ron looked amazed. So did Hermione. Ron held out his hand for me to shake again, "Good job, Nicole. You are officially one of the IHM Club: the 'I Hate Draco Malfoy Club'. Good for you. He's needed that for ages."

I mock curtsied and said, "Thank you, this means so much to me."

They sat down in the two empty chairs at our table and we talked. Well, actually, we laughed mostly, but we talked, too. Hermione asked me about what school was like back in America, and about the spells I had learned. I told her and she seemed genuinely interested. Occasionally Hermione would ask things like, "So, you learned the theory of the spells, before you learnt the actual spell?" while I told her about teaching methods.

The boys talked of the next Quidditch World Cup, and the Britain Team's chances of getting in. We sat in contented conversation for at least an hour. Then, while none of us were paying attention to anyone walking by, a voice I remembered all too well spoke from behind me, "Well, look who went crawling to the Wonder Boy, and his two faithful side-kicks. It figures." I spun around in my chair. My head snapped up to meet the furiously cold gaze of Draco Malfoy.

"Oh, back for some more insults, Draco? Or, did you not get your fill already?" I snapped at him. I said his name slowly, drawing it out, just to annoy him. His scowl deepened at the use of his first name. "I thought you'd have listened when I told you to shut up earlier. But, you don't seem able to take a hint." I stood up. Ron and Harry laughed coldly and stood up too, their wands drawn. Harry walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. Draco saw this and smirked.

"Oh, I see. You'd rather have Potter, the savior. Well, that's nice. But, when he falls for the buck-toothed mudblood, don't come crawling to me." He turned and stalked off.

"Pretty-boy," Ron muttered under his breath. "Oh, well. Hey, Harry, are you at The Leaky Cauldron, too? Hermione and I are staying there."

"Oh, yeah I am. You go ahead, I'll meet you later." Ron nodded and pulled Hermione away, to go back to the hotel. Harry turned to look at me, "So, you're not staying here Nicole?"

"No, I just came to get my supplies. I wish I didn't have to go, but I doubt my parents'll let me stay here for much longer." He looked sorry that I had to leave. I realized that I liked him a lot. He was one of the nicest boys I'd ever met.

"Well, I'll see you on the train." He bent down and kissed me on the cheek. Just as I was about to leave he turned back to me and his lips brushed mine. "Bye."

"Bye," I said a bit wistfully and I walked away to find my parents. As I left, my fingers lightly traced where our lips had met. My mouth tingled and I enjoyed the sensation. It was now near two o'clock. How the time had flown.

I found my parents outside the book store, and we went back to the pub. My father threw some of the new Floo Powder he had bought into the fireplace, and I went in first.

One minute, and many swirls later, I was home. My parents came behind me carrying all the packages. I ran straight to my room and looked at the calendar on my wall. I picked up a pen and circled the date September first. Only ten days until I saw Harry again. Flopping down on my bed, I fell asleep.