Spider's Blood

Chapter Two

"I'm sorry to startle you," she smiled, showing pearly white teeth and lips that curled, raising her cheeks to show a pleasant and amused face. "I was just wondering if the there was room in here...everywhere else is full."

"Of course," Harry nodded. He leaned over and moved Hermione's book to the side, offering her a seat. The girl sat across from him, her lips still curled in gratitude and sank into the deep red cushion.

"Do you mind if we pull the shade?" she asked, fidgeting with her sunglasses. "I just had my eyes checked...they're a little sensitive to light."

Harry nodded and pulled down the cream colored shade, hiding the spectrum of colors outside the window. The room suddenly turned dim and two candles near the doorway lit themselves, filling the compartment with light.

The girl exhaled and removed her glasses, blinking several times as they adjusted to the change. "Thank you," she smiled again, making her blue eyes laugh and they tightened together from her smile.

Harry continued to stare at her. She looked familiar, but he swore he had never seen this girl before. Ever! She had to be a student but he couldn't place her face, and how could anyone (especially a teenage boy) forget a face as beautiful as hers? She looked to be about his age, too old to be a first year student and far too young to be a professor.

"Is anything wrong?" she smiled gingerly, reminding Harry of Mrs. Weasley.

"I'm sorry, I just don't recognize you...is this...your first year?"

"Umm...technically," she sighed, "I'm in eleventh grade, but it's my first year here."

Harry studied the girl for a moment. No one he knew had ever used the term "eleventh grade" before and he noticed she had a very American accent that he had only heard on Dudley's TV late at night.

"Oh, wait," she said shaking he head, her hair loosening from behind her and drifting across her shoulder, "We do it differently in America....I'm, ah...sixth year? Second to last?" she added with deep concentration.

"Yeah, sixth...you're from America?"

"Umm, yes...mid west," she nodded with a smile.

"And you're at Hogwarts?" Harry continued his questioning.

"Well...I got a letter...and it said I was accepted to this school of witchcraft, and I didn't know what to think of it...so I threw it away. Then I got another, and another, and another."

Harry chuckled as he thought of his own acceptance letter to Hogwarts. How each had been specially addressed to him and how they flew through the mail slot and chimney and finally drove his uncle to the brink of insanity. "Something similar happened to me too," Harry chuckled.

"Well, then Professor Dumbledore and Mc...McGonagall? I think that's right. Anyway, they came to see me and explained everything...and here I am. A witch!" she added with a laugh.

"Surprising isn't it? You come from Muggles then?"

"Muggle?" she inquired, her eyebrows contorting together in confusion.

"Non-magic people, everyone but US," Harry explained, remembering he too had no idea what a muggle was when he first met Hagrid.

"Oh, well...then yes...I came from...Muggles," the girl replied carefully.

"So, the toad was on the candy cart! Same as last ye-" Ron's voice came closer to the open door. His freckled face appeared with a smile and then turned to surprise as he looked in the compartment.

"Hallo," he said to the strange dark haired girl in Hermione's spot. Hermione stood next to Ron and nearly dropped his hand as her jaw fell open. She quickly regained herself and straightened her face while Ron still goggled.

"Hi," the girl smiled, showing her bright face.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting to find someone else in here," Ron said as he realized Hermione was clenching at his hand, seconds from digging her sharp manicured nails into his skin.

Harry pushed over closer to the window and let Ron and Hermione sit next to him.

"Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger...this is..." Harry began and stopped as he peered at the strange girl. How could he have not asked for her name? "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"Zorina Birk," she smiled as she stretched out her hand to shake with Ron and Hermione's. "Hermione...Ron," she said as she took each hand and stopped in front of Harry, "and you are?"

"Oh...Harry...Harry Potter," he replied with a smile as he took her hand and reverently shook it.

"Ok then...Hermione, Ron, and Harry. Nice to meet you all, you're the only people I know in this place."

"It's obvious you're not from around here," Ron laughed. "You didn't freak when you heard his name," Ron explained as he motioned his head toward Harry.

"I'm sorry, was I supposed to?" she asked as she peered at Harry.

"It's nothing, really!" Harry interrupted, "it's stupid!"

"Don't worry, you'll hear about it eventually!" Ron continued with a smile.

"So," Harry continued as he desperately wanted to change the subject, "what house are you in?"

"Slytherin, what are you all in?" Zorina asked curiously.

"We're in Gryffindor," Hermione chimed in, "are you the girl replacing Pansy Parkinson?"

"Yeah, that'd be me!" Zorina chuckled. "For the year. All the way across the big blue pond to study witchcraft."

"Are there schools in America?" Hermione persisted; she was obviously on a learning kick and was excitedly curious.

"I really don't know, I don't think so," Zorina replied a little unsure.

"Something else for you to look up when you get the library then?" Ron commented with a smile.

"Oh, be quiet!" she smiled as she playfully hit him on the arm. Ron grabbed it, pretending his arm hurt more than it really did.

"Did you see that? See what I have to put up with?" Ron pestered Harry and Zorina.

"Oh please," a voice said from the doorway, "she probably missed you you're so skinny!"

"Who asked you, George?" Ron sneered at his older brother as he rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," George sighed as he sat next to Zorina. "Hallo! I'm George, Ron's brother. What's your name?"

"Zorina Birk," Zorina chuckled as she studied George.

"Hmmm...nice name. Kinda like Hermione over here...don't hear that name everyday! Anyway, are you the new Slytherin girl? There are rumors flying all about the train about that! Did you hear Pansy set the school on fire and they had to rebuild it over night?"

"Really?" Hermione asked as she tried to pin point the spell needed to work that magic.

"No, I just made it up! But it sounds good, right? I'll have to use that when we get to Hogwarts...first-years'll believe anything! Oh, no offense!"

"It's fine," Zorina chuckled, peering questionably at George.

"Want to hear something worse?" Harry laughed, "There's two of him. Twins!"

"Someone call for me?" Fred said as he poked his head in. His eyes went wide when they met with Zorina's. He stood straight in the doorway as he looked at her.

"Hello," he muttered, his eyes widening even more.

"Hi," she smiled. "I'm Zorina," she introduced as she stuck out her hand to shake his.

"I'm Fred..." he said as he reached his hand to take hers, "rick!" he added quickly. "Fredrick!"

"Fredrick?" George mouthed to the other half of the compartment, all of which were equally astonished.

"Well, my friends call me Zora for short."

"Well," George began, "pleased to meet you, Zorro...I mean Zora!" he laughed as he shook her hand again. "Dear brother, are you going to stand there all day gawking at her like a stupid git or are you going to sit down?"

Fred's ears turned a bright shade of red that surpassed his hair as he glared at his twin and sat roughly across from Hermione.

"Now...why did we come in here? OH! Harry...birthday present, Fred...rick?" George said breathlessly as he snapped his fingers at his twin.

Fred smiled proudly, ignoring his twin, and placing his embarrassment away for Harry's moment. He dug into his shirt pocket and removed a small box wrapped in red foil paper and white ribbon.

"Ginny wrapped it," Fred said as he tossed it to Harry, who caught it in the air as if it were the Golden Snitch.

Harry peered at the foil and remembered Ron's warning about the box moving by itself before. He gave Ron a worried sideways glance before pulling the ribbon off the box and tore at the reflective red paper, which threw a red glow on Zora's pale face and George's neck. He removed the lid to reveal a large brown spider crawling around on the bottom of the box.

The spider quickly began to crawl up Harry's arm, inching towards Ron. Ron jumped up from his seat and tripped backwards over Hermione's legs, making him fall on the hard ground with a loud thump. His breathing became rapid and his eyes widened in fear.

"What-is-that?" he breathed shortly, his eyes growing wide with fear.

"A chocolate spider!" George said proudly. "A Weasley Original!"

"Hurry up and eat it!" Ron shrieked at Harry.

"Ron's afraid of spiders," Harry explained with a laugh to the new comer as he watched the spider crawl around his arm.

"You would be too with those two for brothers!" Ron shrieked as he attempted to back further away from Harry.

Harry quickly grabbed at the spider. One of its thin eight legs melted from the grab just before he stuffed the spider into his mouth. "Mmmm! Just like a Chocolate frog," Harry smiled as he continued to lick the melted chocolate from his fingers.

Ron's face softened and he stood. He smoothed out his clothes and coolly sat between Hermione and Harry. He looked as though he had not just been shrieking his head off at Harry and that nothing had happened at all.

"Was that your squealing I just heard, Weasley? It sounded like a dying owl!" the familiar superior drawl sounded from the doorway.

Hermione and Harry simply rolled their eyes while the Weasley boys' ears and temples turned a scornful shade of deep red.

"Good to see you weren't the one kicked out, Draco. It'd be such a shame," Ron commented, as his look grew hard on the tall blonde boy at the door.

"I've got so many comments having to do with shame and the Weasley name that I barely know where to begin," Draco yawned, appearing bored. His eyes fell on Zora and a sleek wave of recognition passed quickly over his eyes before he continued, "But I must say one thing, Weasley...you know how to pick a riding companion. You must be Zorina Birk, the new Slytherin...I'm Draco Malfoy."

Draco stepped gracefully into the compartment and took Zora's hand from her lap and gently kissed it before placing it back in its place.

"Malfoy?" she sounded, in a daze, "that name sounds so familiar."

"Of course it does," Draco continued, sounding pleased, "it's a very famous name. You've probably heard of me before through word or mouth, gossip, or The Daily Prophet."

"No," she laughed, breaking her dazed look, "I know where I heard it! Some accident with you in Potions class and an engorging potion on your nose turned it into something that looked like a horse, is that right, Harry?"

Harry's eyes widened as he remembered that day his fourth year. It was the potion that increased Hermione's teeth and when reversed allowed her to shorten them to a more natural looking size. It was quite possibly the best day in Hogwarts' Potions' class history!

"Yes, it is! I remember!" Harry laughed as he looked at Draco, imagining the huge nose he had. Ron and Hermione quietly joined the laughter as they too recalled the wonderful day in Potions.

"Petty rumors, these invalids have been telling you," Draco continued unscathed, "I ask that you join the more cultured crowd and join me and a few friends in a private compartment."

"Umm...it sounds lovely," Zora began, "but I think I'll stay here. It's comfortable. And my new friends were just about to tell me more about that accident in potions...Now did someone have to help him carry his nose?"

Draco let out a grunt of dissatisfaction before slamming the compartment door closed as he left. The silenced snickers turned to full outbursts of laughter once the soundproof door was closed.

"How in the world did you know about that?" Ron asked as he tried to catch his breath, "Did you see his face?"

"Umm...Professor McGonagall told me that something like that happened to an unfortunate Malfoy boy...I really didn't think it was true," Zora explained.

"Well, cheers to the new girl," George said with a smile. "Too bad you're in Slytherin! It's an unfortunate waste of character."

Zora nodded her head at George before turning her eyes to her hands in her lap, appearing to be in some deep wilderness of thought.

"We'd better all change into school robes," Hermione chimed in as the usual voice of reason, "We should be arriving soon."

Everyone nodded and made their exits to change into their red and gold colors and Hogwarts robes. Ron had finally managed to get his hands on a new set of robes; he'd grown much taller than any of his brothers and couldn't even wear Bill's old robes without looking like an idiot. He walked proudly with his brand new robes as he made his was back into the compartment.

The twins were talking to Harry about the chocolate spider and Hermione was flipping through her Eiffel Tower book.

"So it's just like the Chocolate Frogs?" Harry asked, leaning in towards the twins.

"Basically...just a spell to make them crawl. But you should let us know if you start feeling queasy at all...haven't really been tested," George explained.

"Are you serious?" Harry asked after shifting his eyes from twin to twin, waiting for a chuckle or laugh.

"Where'd Zora get off to?" he asked as he sat next to Hermione, avoiding her deathly glare for asking such a question.

"I don't know, she hasn't come back yet," Fred replied just as the train began to jerk to a stop.

Harry sank back into his seat for a moment, trying not worry about the possibly harmful candy now in his system. He reached his hand out to the cream colored shade drawn over the window and gave it a tug. It spun quickly to the top, revealing the dark night sky behind the familiar train station.

"We're home," he muttered under his breath before he rose to join his friends as they began exiting the train.

As they walked to the carriages set to take the students to the school grounds, Harry couldn't help but glance around for the strange girl. Not many girls had long black hair like hers so he thought it should have been easy to pick her out among the crowd. He thought she might want to ride with some of them considering she didn't know anyone else and seemed to get along with everyone all right.

"Did you leave something on the train?" Hermione asked as they passed the small wide-eyed group of first years. All were gazing up at the sky and to the castle and especially at the huge burly man named Hagrid. Hagrid gave a little wink over at Harry as he and his friends passed. The three replied with a smile and a wave and continued towards the carriages.

"No, I was just looking for Zora," Harry finally answered to Hermione.

"Oh, honestly!" she burst out, "a new girl comes and everyone goes completely bonkers over her. If you ask me, she wasn't that impressive looking, she didn't know anything about schools in America and...and...well...she was just very strange!"

"Alright then, we got Hermione all wound up and his took us...eleven second from setting foot on the school grounds! Good work, Harry," Ron said from Harry's side, shaking his hand.

"Thank you, sir!" Harry replied with a smile.

"Oh!" Hermione said exasperatedly and threw her hands in the air, stomping off towards the carriages.

"Did we really get all wound up over Zora?" Harry asked, seeing an opportunity to talk without Hermione's presence.

"Not as much as Fred, did you see him? Trying to look all dignified and everything? 'Fredrick'? Where'd that come from?"

Harry chuckled slightly as he remembered Fred's countenance when he saw Zora...then Ron's...then Draco's. Harry wondered if he had looked at her in a similar way. Hermione was right, she was just a new student, but she seemed different. She seemed very eager to be accepted into their group and steer away from Draco Malfoy and probably would the other Slytherins as well. She was so different and at the same time so familiar. Maybe she reminded him of someone he once knew, or someone he had seen in a picture. She looked like many ancient witches from history class, although not like any of the girls he'd seen recently in school.

"C'mon!" Ron rang suddenly and loudly in his ear, "the carriage...it's this way! C'mon," he continued as he pulled at Harry's sleeve. Harry was a little surprised by the insistent pulling at his arm. Harry studied his friend's expression as he was pulled. Ron looked worried and fearful for some reason. Harry looked back to see if there was a spider or something in the other direction.

There was no spider, no monster, no life threatening creature out to keep the students from getting to the banquet on time, but what Harry did see made him stop dead in his dragging tracks so that not even Ron could pull him any further.

It was Neville Longbottom, the awkward looking boy Harry had shared a dormitory with for five years. But Neville looked greatly different when he had his arms around a certain red headed young girl. Even with the dark school robes that matched everyone else, Ginny was still recognizable. Harry wondered if he could pick her out of a crowd without her flaming hair. He was sure he could.