A Warm Heart Turned Cold

She rested her broomstick against the wall in room number nine. She then went downstairs to work. She had been working at the Leaky Cauldron for only three days and was already the only waitress in all of history there. People usually ordered at the counter and their food or drink was given to them on a floating tray but one day while she was washing some dishes, Siaka shouted out an order of a person who had just entered the door. Tom, the owner, immediately saw the benefit of her working as a waitress.

She had not even opened the door to the restaurant yet when she shouted out, "Sherry. No, make that two and a side of raw liver." She then proceeded to pick up the order and carry the floating tray to the table just as the couple of witches sat down. They smiled nicely at her and when they left, she got a large tip (five sickles) for such accurate service.

Not only was she the waitress but she was also the appointed errand runner. Tom hated her leaving the Leaky Cauldron, but she had talked the dish washers into letting her do all the errands so she could do shopping for Hogwarts, and meet more people. She was always eager to learn, which sometimes got her in trouble because she stayed out on errands much longer than she should.

A short wizard entered the inn by the front entrance and immediately pulled his robe out of his bag and put it on over muggle-looking clothes. Siaka got a kick of watching all the people come in from Muggle Britain and hide their muggle looking clothes as if it would kill them. "Nettle tea." The order appeared on the counter and she floated the cup over to the man and he grabbed it without acknowledging her and took a seat.

"Siaka, dear. Would you mind getting some more rat tonic, dragon liver, a new copper cauldron because Geraldine just broke the other one while making the lunches, and more tea leaves for tea?" Tom called across the dark room.

"Tell Geraldine to stop breaking the cauldrons or else we will have to invest in non-breakable ones and I already got tea leaves yesterday. They are in the cabinet over the cups." With that she grabbed the basket for shopping and put her tips that she had collected already in her robe pocket and walked out the back of the Leaky Cauldron into the passageway to Diagon Alley.

She got the rat tonic and dragon liver first because that store was first. The copper cauldron was easy to get but the lady working there gave her a hard time...again.

"This is the fourth one this week. Why don't you talk Tim into getting a non-breakable one? You will end up saving money. He has no reason about that sort of thing!"

"It's Tom and I tried - -."

"Try harder my dear! And that will be seven Galleons."

Siaka nearly ran into a house-elf while bolting out of the store, she did not like the owner for she always messed up people's names and never understood anything. But the prices were good at the Cauldron Shop. She figured she would have just enough time to get a peak at the new book in Flourish and Blotts so she opened the door and was greeted with smiles because everyone knew her well at this store. She was peaking through the new book when she was tapped on the shoulder. She turned around to come face to face with Draco.

"Hello Draco. Fancy seeing you here in a bookshop. Thought you had all your Hogwarts materials already?"

"I do, but I figured you would be here when some guy at the Leaky Cauldron said you were running errands." She smiled because that was very true, "Anyhow. I am running an errand myself for my father today."

"Really? What do you have to do for him now?" She asked sarcastically because he was always running around doing things for Mr. Malfoy.

"I have to go see if they got in a new shipment of poisonous candles in Knockturn Alley." Knockturn Alley was a horrible place; she had only been there once before with her father. She knew she did not want to go with him there. "Would you like to join me?"

"Well, I have to get back to work really quickly. Tom is getting really mad about me staying out on errands to long."

"That has never stopped you before, but whatever you say. I will stop by later at your work to say hello again." With that he turned left out of Flourish and Blotts and proceeded to Knockturn Alley. Siaka put the new book down and turned right out of the store to go back to work at the Leaky Cauldron.

*********

She entered through the back to the Leaky Cauldron and put all of the items in the kitchen. She quickly picked up a jar as Geraldine dropped another cauldron.

"Thanks Siaka." Geraldine said shyly as she started to clean up the mess.

"Why don't you get the house-elf to help you clean all this up?" Siaka questioned looking at the mess the spilled soup was making.

Geraldine looked at Siaka with almost a look of fear, "I can't do that!" Right... She had almost forgotten, "Hermione would have my head!" How could she have forgotten about S.P.E.W. Siaka had not met Hermione yet, but already she did not like her very much. She always seemed to ruin things.

Siaka continued to the front of the Leaky Cauldron where she nearly tripped over a huge pile of ragged looking luggage. She noticed immediately that on every piece of luggage there were initials. She looked at the one she nearly fell over; it said "R.W." Ronald Weasley she thought to herself. She looked at all the other ones and saw that Fred, George, or was it Ginny, their parents, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter were all here, in the Leaky Cauldron. She moved all of the luggage against the wall so nobody else would fall over it, particularly Geraldine, and went to the main room. She saw all of the Weasley's -- except for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley who were checking in -- and Harry and Hermione all sitting at a table. She concentrated really hard on what they were all going to order and within minutes had three glasses of butterbeer, one glass of hot chocolate, and two cups of nettle tea.

"Thank you very much." Said Ginny, while trying to catch a secret glimpse at her crush, Harry. Even Siaka, who had never met her before could tell she fancied Harry.

"You're welcome." Siaka replied while setting everyone else's drinks down in front of them. Harry, who hadn't been paying much attention because he and Ron were reading a book about Quidditch moves, suddenly perked up. There was something familiar about that voice, something...calming. Harry glanced up at Siaka and looked at her. Her hair was familiar, he recognized her but he didn't know where from. Siaka looked at him but quickly looked away. Was this really the way she wanted to meet her brother for the first time?

"Harry. Harry! Snap out of it!" Ron was waving his hand in front of Harry's face trying to get him to look at a cool move he just read about.

"Oh, sorry. Did she look familiar to you?" Harry asked the table. Everyone shook their heads and went back to doing whatever they were doing. Siaka then marched right back to the table and glared at Fred and George.

"If you actually do set off that dungbomb in your right pocket I will hurt you...severely." Fred quickly took his hand out of his pocket and went back to drinking his drink. George just gave her an awkward smile. She was satisfied that they were not going to be doing any tricks, so she walked away.

"Bloody Hell, she sounds just like Snape when he thinks we are up to something." George whispered to Fred. Harry looked at George and nodded thinking the same thing.

*********

After another week, everyone, including Siaka was on their way to Hogwarts at last. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were off for their seventh year. Siaka and Ginny were off to their sixth. The only reason, Siaka had found out, that Fred and George had been at the Leaky Cauldron with everyone is because they were looking for places to start their joke shop.

Siaka had no trouble getting onto platform nine and three quarters thanks to Draco's explanation. She boarded that train and found an empty compartment. She put all her things away and opened a book, determined to finally finish this book. Just as she turned the first page, Draco popped his head in.

"We can sit in here Goyle. Go get Crabbe." Draco opened the door the rest of the way and took a seat across for Siaka.

Siaka glanced up from her book. "That was rude."

"What was rude?" Asked Draco as if he didn't even know she was there first.

"You could have asked me if you three could join me. Maybe I wanted to be alone for the ride to Hogwarts." She had now put her book down beside her.

Draco shrugged and took out a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. He did not offer any to anybody, although it was obvious Crabbe and Goyle wanted some. So this is who I am going to be spending all my time with? These are going to be my friends? This is the boy I'm starting to have a crush on? Siaka sighed out loud...this year would be interesting.

They reached Hogwarts and they all went into the Great Hall. Siaka, however, because she was not in a house yet was led to an empty room. She was told by Dumbledore that she was to stay here until the next morning. Snape would be waiting for her in his office.

*********

The next morning she woke up with a start. She remembered that she was supposed to go see her father in his office, but where the heck was his office? She had no map, no anything. She did, however see a pot of floo powder by the fireplace.

She stepped into the fireplace with a fistful of floo powder and muttered, "Snape's office."