The New Girl

A very old house sat quietly on the end of the street. It was covered in green ivy vines crawling over the red brick that made up the house. There were two tiny winds covered in dust and other unknown things. Several cats were lounging in the green grass and unkempt flowers, enjoying the sun and the quiet, but not for long. A shiny car, that looked like it didn't know what dirt felt like, pulled up to the curb in front of the quaint little house, scaring the cats and several birds. The door opened.

Harry got out of the Dursleys' car. More like shoved by Dudley. It was Dudley's birthday, and once again Harry was left at Ms. Figg's house to spend hours of fun with her cats. Yeah, right. He walked up the driveway and to the door, and turned to look as the Dursley's car drove away, probably as fast as Uncle Vernon could drive. He heard the door open and turned back around, to face a very pretty girl, who was probably his age. Harry stared as she glanced at his scar, but quickly looked into his startling green eyes.

"Hello. Umm... what do you want?" She tried not to sound rude.

" Uhh... well I'm suppose to come here to spend the day..." Well that only sounded a little stupid. The girl looked at him again.

"Well, I suppose you better come in." She turned and walked into the house with Harry following. The inside of the house looked very different from the last time Harry was there. Every one of the many pictures on the walls were strait and the floor was clean. Everything looked more lived in, rather than died in, as it was the last time Harry came.

"Grandma, is this boy suppose to be here today?" the girl asked upon entering the front room and seeing Ms. Figg come in from the tiny doorway that lead to the kitchen. The front room was clean and tidy. There were several pieces of furniture and a wooden coffee table. Everything had the look of being made of carpet, or the like, except for the table and the actual carpet.

"Oh, Harry! I forgot that you where coming today! Come in! Come in! Jessie has just finished making a beautiful cake." Referring to the girl who answered the door. "My you look bigger than the last time I saw you! How old are you now?" Ms. Figg hobbled over to the flower couch and sat down, motioning for him to do the same.

"I'm turning sixteen in a few weeks." Harry made his way over to the chair opposite the couch.

" Oh, that's wonderful. My Jessie will turn sixteen next month!" She smiled at Jessie when she reentered the room with three slices of cake. She set them on the small coffee table and sat on the floor between Harry and Ms. Figg. One particularly small cat jumped into her lap and began to rub against her. She rubbed behind the cat's ear and it began to purr.

Ms. Figg pulled out one of her albums from under the coffee table. "I've added a new picture, Harry, but I can't remember where I put it, so we must look through all of my books!" She smiled and started to open the album.

"Grandma?" Jessie broke in. "From what I have heard, Harry has looked through those enough." She smiled at Harry. "I don't think he really wants to look at them." Harry let out a sigh of relief.

"Then what would you like to do Harry?" Ms. Figg smiled. She wasn't at all mad that Harry didn't want to look at her pictures, which surprised him. He had been around the Dursleys way too long.

" Umm, I really don't know. I don't think I've ever been asked that before." He looked away from Jessie and turned a light shade of pink.

Jessie stood up. " Why don't we play a nice card game or something?" she asked, looking at her grandma. Jessie walked over to a dresser standing in the corner of the room and pulled open a draw. The dresser was beautiful. It was made out of a red wood, and had carvings of snakes all over it, some running over the top, some on the side, and down the drawers. She pulled out a deck of cards and walked back over to the coffee table.

Twelve pieces of cake, and twenty-three games of go fish later, there was a knock on the door. Jessie stood up to answer it, but Harry put a hand on her shoulder to make her stop. If Dudley saw her, he would never be able to come back. Hanging out with a beautiful girl, who made a wonderful cake, would be counted as Harry having a good time. "I'll answer it. It's probably the Dursleys. I hope I'll see you before the summer's over." She smiled at him.

"That would be nice." Both of the teens blushed as they looked at each other. They quickly turned away. There was another knock on the door. Harry waved and went to the door.

"He's a nice boy, Jessie." Ms. Figg understood the unspoken. "And very handsome too. He's had a hard life just like you." Jessie's face fell as she heard her grandma talking about Harry. 'How does she know that I even remotely like him?' she thought. 'Yeah, he is pretty cute, and he is nice, but I just don't like boys... right?'

"A very nice young man," her grandma said.

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Harry sat down on his bed. This was the most fun he had ever had on Dudley's birthday. Jessie was rather pretty too. But, she was a Muggle. A Muggle. Those words rang loudly in Harry's head. His horrific thoughts of telling Jessie he was a wizard were interrupted by a sharp knock on his window. He ran over and let Hedwig into his room. She swooped over the shabby bed, and landed on his worn dresser. She put her foot out, for Harry to take Ron's letter. Harry ran over and quickly removed Hedwig's awful burden.

Harry,

Hello again. Yeah, Ginny is still sulking around the house because you're not here. I'm ready to hex her! Mum says that you can come in two weeks. I can't believe Dumbledore is making such a deal out of you staying here all summer. Nothing exciting planned yet. Hope you are still alive and in perfect health! Write back fast!

Ron

Harry sat down on his bed; his quill already perched to write a letter. Should he tell him about Jessie? Would Ron flip because he liked a Muggle? Why did his life have to be so hard? He began to write whatever came into his head. Maybe he should ask his best friend for girl advice?

Oi! Ron-

Don't hurt Ginny! She didn't do anything! I'm kidding Ron, just in case you didn't know. I really want to come to your house, but this girl moved in down the street. She's really cute and funny, but I think she's a Muggle. I'm so depressed. I wonder if she likes me... Sorry, now I'm just writing to myself... Have a nice day, Ron.

Harry

"Yeah, right, I'm going to send this to Ron," he said sarcastically as he wrote the name on the envelope. He threw it out the window and Hedwig shot after it, clutching it in her claws. Harry watched as his snowy owl soared into the sunset (a/n: corny, yes, I know) and yelled "I didn't actually want you to take it!!!" He was too late, even if Hedwig was listening to him. He sat back down on his bed. 'I wonder when I can sneak out to go see Jessie...' he thought before changing into his pajamas.