From Far Away

She had no particularly distinguishing features; just regular brown hair and eyes; pale skin. She wasn't incredibly beautiful - rather she was on the short side and had dark circles framing her eyes. She wasn't the smartest or the bravest or the most loyal, nor was she extremely cunning in any way. When Harry bumped into her, they simply exchanged nonchalant glances of slight apology (the kind of "I'm sorry" that you don't really mean but feel obliged to express). Yet this one girl single-handedly ruined Harry's life.

*

Harry Potter was a calm person. He often got himself into trouble, but it was always (well, usually) for a good cause. Harry had two wonderful friends: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry had a beautiful and loyal girlfriend: Chang Cho. Harry was the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Harry was living a good life.

Well, relatively good, that is. Okay, but who didn't have an evil madman plotting his demise constantly? And who didn't have a freakish scar somewhere on them that shot pain throughout their entire body when that lunatic was near? And who didn't know a relative that happened to be a convict from the most notorious and decidedly horrendous jail known to their world but was actually an innocent man?

Hmm, maybe his life was a little unorthodox, but Harry Potter mostly lived a regular teenage life. Discarding the fact that he was a wizard, that is.

Harry was sitting on his bed on number 4 Privet Drive (of the Muggle universe) when his owl, Hedwig, flew into the window - screeching like no tomorrow. Harry jumped up and closed her cage seconds before his Uncle Vernon appeared through his doorway.

"What is that bloody bird screeching about?" Even in the light blue pajamas with the innocent looking plaid design, Uncle Vernon looked notoriously intimidating.

"I don't know, I swear I don't!" Harry coyly explained.

"He does, father, I know he does!" Dudley had just appeared in the doorway. Harry shot him a look of poison before being shoved aside by the massive hand of his uncle.

"What are these?" Uncle Vernon held up a stack of letters that were scattered about the bed.

"They're letters," Harry explained sarcastically, but secretly praying that Uncle Vernon wouldn't open them.

He did.

However, before Uncle Vernon could read them, Harry calmly stated, "They're from my Godfather, and they're private thank-you-very-much." Harry didn't say "thank-you-very-much" (he wasn't that daft) but his tone practically drawled it for him.

The mention of his godfather worked; Uncle Vernon stared at him in silence, contemplating his abnormal nephew.

"Fine," Uncle Vernon gave in, "Just make sure that your bloody - er - your pet, keeps it's noise down!"

After Uncle Vernon left, Dudley lingered broodingly in the doorway before retiring, giving up on the chance to see Harry get beaten down.

"What is it, girl?" Harry opened the cage once more. Hedwig knew better than to squawk again, but it's spasmodic flapping alerted one Mr. Potter about the problem; Hedwig had a very large gash, placed directly on her chest.

*

Hermione awoke to the gentle purring of Crookshanks, who had placed itself on her chest. Hermione yawned and sat up, causing the cat in question to claw her neck and Hermione to let out a small squeal.

"Geroff you silly cat!" Hermione plucked the claws from her cotton pajamas. It was still dark outside, but Hermione felt strangely awake. Awake and tense.

She stood up and stretched. Maybe she should do some reading; sitting in her bed and waiting to fall asleep certainly wouldn't be getting anything done. She had been on the third chapter of "History of Witchcraft and Wizardry" and more than halfway asleep when a loud noise erupted from outside. Stillness followed and Hermione sat straight up. Nothing stirred. She was about to discard the noise when it came again. It was a strange cracking noise that echoed eerily.

It was coming from right outside her window.

Hermione gulped and walked slowly toward the window. Reminded of the many horror movies that she and her friends watched once upon a time ("Don't go near the window!") Hermione suddenly felt silly for going so slow. The noise always ended up being some cheesy, badly animated monster. Hermione opened the window with shaky hands, but humorous heart of course, and found a small bird hitting its beak against the pecans that lay on the ground from the neighbor's tree.

Despite herself, Hermione heaved a deep sigh and smiled at the little bird. All of a sudden, the bird screeched and before Hermione could react a cold hand grabbed her neck and she fell unconscious.

*

The next day - the first day of school - Ron readily accepted the chaos among his family.

"Fred, George! Get those bloody wands out of this house!" his mother screamed with huge vehemence for such a short person as a bunny suddenly hopped past and out the back door.

"Where are my socks?" Ginny ran down the stairs in agony. "And my shoes! They were in my room a minute ago!" Ron dodged as she shot past.

"Ron! Come help me get the baggage together!" Ron's dad yelled from some other room. Ron, meanwhile, was still trying to get his own things down the stairs.

There was Pidwidgeon, fluttering madly in his cage, his large case of clothes, and two extra cases of secondhand books - it was fifth year and the booklist was insane.

"Eat the eggs quickly please!"

"Ouch! Fred, you threw that on purpose!"

"Mum, where did you put my robes?"

"Honey, do you 'spect it's bad if the 'car' is smoking and steaming and-"

A huge explosion took over everyone's attention. In the yard, the car was but a flaming bundle of metal.

"Yes, dear, I believe it is," Mrs. Weasley answered her husband.

"Mum, how are we-"

"Everyone, to the fireplace - and snappy, please!"

*

Emily Hamilton looked at the large train that was pulling up and breathed a deep sigh. There was no one there to wish her a safe departure; the Ministry didn't care for such nonsense as making a young girl feel secure.

This was Emily's fifth year of schooling, but only the first time at Hogwarts. She'd have to get "sorted" they'd told her. Whatever "sorted" meant, Emily simply knew that she needed to go to Headmaster Dumbledore's office straight away from the train and wait for the dinner ceremony to be done with.

Looking around at all of the families giving their last hugs kisses and (yes) tears, Emily felt sick. She pursed her lips and carried her kitty - Ruby - to the nearest empty compartment.

There were no pre-new school jitters; she'd done this so many times before. Emily only wanted to be alone; to enjoy the scenery while it lasted. How long would it be this time? A couple of weeks? Maybe a month or two. Emily gave a slight squeal as Ruby bit her. She had been petting the cat to hard.

The compartment door suddenly swung open and a boy fell backwards with a crash into the small space. Emily didn't move but simply gave the boy a curious look.

He had brown hair [a/n, I'm going towards the movie description with the hair], a lacking build, and large teeth.

"M' sorry!" the boy spouted, "The train rocked and I guess your door wasn't closed all of the way,"

"Quite alright," Emily smiled slightly at his stutter.

"I'm Neville, by the way - Neville Longbottom." The boy blushed and shook her hand before slowly retreating to the door. "Well, bye." He left before giving Emily a chance to introduce herself.

Emily didn't mind.

However, this wasn't the last she'd see of Mr. Neville; he returned only moments later, bashfully poking his head through the door.

"'Scuse me, I was just wondering if . . . that is, all of the other compartments are filled."

"Of course," Emily said, moving aside so as to give Neville more room - or more likely to space herself from him. It had become her habit not to get too close to anyone.

*

Harry, Ron, and Hermione jumped on the train just in time. The train's final lurch turned into a steady movement and the whistle blew loudly from outside. The trio looked for a nearby compartment and finally found one with only Neville and another girl inside.

"'Lo, Neville," Ron commented cheerily, "Mind if we join you two?"

"Not at all," Neville said, looking first to the girl, who smiled invitingly, though her eyes still bit with slight hostility.

"I'm Ron." Ron shook hands with the girl, as did Hermione and Harry.

"Emily Hamilton," the girl nodded. Her eyes rested on Harry's forehead and her eyes got minutely larger before she looked away to the window.

"Are you new here?" Hermione asked after a few moments of tense silence. Emily just nodded.

"I really hope you enjoy Hogwarts - I hope you get into Gryffindor!" Ron laughed uneasily.

Harry cleared his throat. "So, Hermione, what's with the gash on your head - you're not trying to copy me are you," he commented good-naturedly. Neville inspected Hermione.

"Yeah, looks like you hit your head on something," he commented.

"Well, I feel quite silly about it now," Hermione smiled, "I heard a noise outside my window so I opened it up and looked out. It was just a bird, but then I felt a hand on my shoulder and had scared myself so badly that I accidentally hit my head on the window. The hand was my dad's."

They all laughed lightly and exchanged more of their vacation stories until the train came to a standstill in front of the towering castle that was Hogwarts.

They all went their separate ways.