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The Girl in the Corner


JaneDoe
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got this idea from someone somewhere mentioning that during the DADA class taught by Lupin, there were one or two mystery girls that could have been in Harry’s year and in Gryffindor. Perhaps the reason that they were a mystery is because they chose to remain that way. Anyway here’s my one shot.

 

The Girl in the Corner

.

 

The day that she had arrived at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry had been the most exiting of her life. Being the only child of a long line of witches, yet not having displayed the same talents as her parents, she was relieved when the letter had arrived. Her parents breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness for that,†they had said.

 

The girl was quite pretty, not at all plain and had long straight blond hair that fell in a curtain down her back and was cut blunt just above her waist. She wanted to cut it, her mother would hear none of it, and so the girl would often be seen with the mane twisted on top of her head secured by a pencil or two. She was quite tall for an eleven year old, and because of this would often stoop to disguise her height. Her father frowned at her when she did this, and would say, “Straighten up girl; you’ll get a crooked spine.†So she would stand at her full height, then stoop down again once out of their sight.

 

Her parents had dropped her off early at King’s Cross station on that first day of September, since they both worked at very important jobs at the ministry of magic. She had wandered along the platform towards an empty carriage after they had said their farewells, dragging her overloaded trunk behind her. She struggled a little to pull it on to the train but still, no-one offered to help her.

 

The girl had been sitting in the compartment alone for at least 5 minutes before the first person came in.

 

“Oh!†said the girl in a haughty voice. â€I thought this compartment was empty? Still, never mind, my name is Hermione by the way, Hermione Granger and you are--?â€

But she never got to answer, at that moment a boy called Neville Longbottom barged in panicking because he had lost his toad. A short while later, another girl came into the compartment followed by the return of the girl called Hermione and for most of the journey they chatted between themselves, occasionally leaving her alone to attend to some business or other.

 

When the train began to slow as it came into Hogsmeade station, the girl could hardly contain herself. She was out of her seat and the compartment before the train had come to a full stop. “Wellâ€, said Hermione Granger, “What’s her hurry?â€

 

On the platform a large hairy man was shouting, “firs’ yers over ‘ere!†and so she followed.

They all piled into little boats and she was amazed how the seemed to steer themselves towards the castle which loomed large and imposingly ahead.

 

It was only once they were all inside the castle that she heard the rumour. Harry Potter had come to Hogwarts. She tried to crane her neck over the heads of the other students to see which boy he was, but even with her above average height couldn’t see as she was at the bottom of a staircase that was crammed full of others.

 

Professor McGonagall had escorted them into the great hall then for sorting. The girl was so nervous about this that all thoughts of Harry Potter disappeared from her head. Hers was one of the first names called and she carefully sat on the stool and waited for the hats verdict. It barely touched her head before it boomed in a loud voice “GRYFFINDOR!†she took it from the loud applause that this was good news and smiling, hurried off to take her place at the Gryffindor table where she sat next to another first year girl called Lavender.

 

Soon, there was only a few people remaining to be sorted and one of these was Harry Potter. Her immediate thoughts when she saw him, was that he looked like a nice boy. Mum and Dad would have certainly thought so, but then they believed that he had magical powers that no-one else had and “Any parent would be happy for their child to be friends with Harry Potter.â€

 

When after some time the hat eventually placed Harry into Gryffindor, the table almost erupted with cheers. The other members of the house cheered and screamed and two boys who looked so alike they had to be twins, kept shouting, “We got Potter, we got Potter.†This after a while became rather annoying.

 

The girl tried to speak to Harry Potter as he sat at the table, but too many people got in the way and besides, she wasn’t all that sure what she would say to him.

 

Sometime later, the first years were led to their common room behind the portrait of the Fat Lady. She was very tired and was relieved to find that the girl’s dormitory was up a flight of stairs from the main room. In her room were four, four poster beds with heavy velvet drapes in the Gryffindor colours. She briefly wandered if all the bedrooms were decorated in this way. As no-one else seemed to have been up here yet, she selected the bed furthest from the door, where she knew she would be disturbed as little as possible. Surprisingly it was at the foot of this bed she discovered her own trunk. Later, three other girls came along, they were, Hermione, Lavender and another girl who was called Parvati. The three chatted for a while and occasionally asked her the odd question but before long they stopped and carried on as if she wasn’t in the room. At this point, she climbed into her bed and drifted into a dreamless sleep.

 

Early the next morning, the girl awoke to the sound of bird song. Seeing that the other girls were still sleeping soundly, she washed and dressed in silence before tip toeing from the room and going downstairs into the common room. She settled herself into a large comfy chair in the corner of the room and opened up the text book she had quickly grabbed from her belongings. The book was called Hogwarts: A History. And she thought it might contain some interesting information. After a short while, she became aware that she was no longer alone in the room. Lifting her head, she glanced towards two further comfy chairs which occupied the room and was surprised so see Harry Potter sitting in one, watching her. “Ohâ€, she said in surprise,†I thought I was on my own.â€

 

“You were for a while, I just got here, but you looked so engrossed in your book I didn’t want to disturb you.†Said Harry Potter.

 

The girl smiled, and was about to say something when suddenly a stockily built, red haired boy came bounding down the stairs opposite to the girls dormitories and cut her short. The boy grabbed Harry Potter’s arm, pulling him to his feet, and the girl heard him say something about breakfast as he lead him through the portrait hole. The girl followed as she’s was quite hungry herself, and Harry Potter looked back over his shoulder and mouthed the word “Sorry.â€

 

In the next few weeks and then months the girl would often get up early in the mornings and retreat to the corner of the common room in hope of being able to talk to Harry Potter, but if he was there, he was nearly always with the red head boy who was called Ron, and later Hermione Granger would be with them too.

 

***************

 

 

The girl had been woken by something strange one night in the weeks leading up to the end of their first year. She had become accustomed to hearing Hermione Granger sneak out of the dorm at all hours. She was sure that Hermione had seen her awake once or twice, but neither had spoken of at the time nor later. This time however, the noise was far too loud to ignore, and she got up from her bed grabbing a dressing gown as she made for the stairs. When she got into the common room, she saw what she thought was a pair of disembodied shoes exit through the portrait hole. She walked towards it but was stopped in her tracks by the sight of a very rigid Neville Longbottom lying on the floor. She knew that going to get help from Professor McGonagall would cause trouble for Harry and his friends, so she rushed upstairs to retrieve he charms books. In the light of her wand, the girl searched for a counter spell to Hermione’s Petrificus Totalus! Neville’s eyes stared at her imploringly.

 

The girl soon realised that she wasn’t going to find anything, and hoped that either the spell would wear off soon or a teacher would catch the trio and therefore come back to the common room and put the situation to rights. In the meantime, the girl told Neville she would stay with him.

 

Indeed, the next morning Professor McGonagall did come to the common room. She found the girl asleep on the floor next to Neville, who although still bound by Hermione’s spell, had also managed to fall asleep. The Professor undid the charm and listened whilst the Neville and the girl told her what had happened. Professor McGonagall explained that Ron and Harry were safe and were in the hospital wing and although uninjured, Hermione had insisted on staying with them. She then proceeded to tell them about the events of that night. The girl said nothing except that she asked if she might visit Harry Potter later.

 

The next day the girl went to visit Harry and entered the hospital just as Professor Dumbledore was leaving. “Hello young lady, if you’re going to see Mr Potter, do be aware of the Bertie Botts, I have just been unfortunate enough to eat an earwax flavour one!â€

 

The girl was surprised to find Harry Potter sitting up in his bed, reading a pile of get well cards.

 

“Hello Harry, how are you feeling?†she asked.

 

“I’m fine, everyone has been very kind. Would you like a sugar quill?â€

 

The girl took one and put it in the pocket of her robes.

 

“Thank you, you know, for looking after Neville. He’d have blown everything if he’d stopped us, in fact why didn’t you go for help.†Said Harry.

 

She didn’t answer Harry’s question but instead she said “Surely if you’d gone for help yourself in the first place, none of this would have happened.â€

 

“True, but then I was convinced that it was Snape was trying to steal the stone and since no-one believed me, I had to do something.†He replied.

 

“Still, you were lucky, you could have been killed.â€

 

True, even more so since it turned out to be Voldemort.â€

 

The girl smiled at Harry who seemed surprised that she didn’t cringe when he used the word Voldemort.

 

The girl stood up to leave and as she made her way to the door Harry called after her, “Wait, I don’t know what your name is.â€

 

The girl smiled again but said nothing.

 

“I guess I should have paid more attention in lessons. Well if you’re not going to tell me, then I’ll just call you the girl in the corner.â€

 

With that, the girl in the corner closed the door.

 

FIN

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