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Introducing Me!

Hi!  I'm Ariana, and in a few days, I start my first year at Hogwarts!  I feel as though my life is finally beginning!  But before I get swept up in all of that, let me tell you a little bit about myself.  

I grew up on the outskirts of Ottery St Catchpole, right next to the River Otter in Devon, England.  I live in what I call Whitewood cottage with my mother and father, who both work in the Ministry of Magic.  I've grown up very sheltered and my best friend is a girl called Ginny Weasley.  She also starts her first year of Hogwarts tomorrow, and I can't wait to start this adventure with her!  We've done everything together pretty much since we were babies and her mother Mrs. Weasley and my mother had us just three months apart from one another.  I have so many happy childhood memories with her, such as sneaking out to the hidden orchard near her house to "borrow" her brothers' brooms to practice flying and such.  We've been talking about our first year at Hogwarts for years now and I can't believe it's finally happening, not even a week from now!  

But anyway, I thought I'd tell you what happened today!  Before I'd even woken up this morning, Ginny burst into my room on the verge of a panic attack.  She started babbling to me at the speed of light not even giving me time to process what was going on.

"Ginny, GINNY!  Hold up!  Calm down!  Let me open my eyes first!"  I joked, sitting up in bed and rubbing my eyes.

"How am I supposed to calm down when I acted like a completely crazy person in front of the Harry Potter just three minutes and twenty-eight seconds ago!"  Ginny continued, pacing back and forth in front of my bed, and tugging at her copper-red hair that reached just past her shoulders.  "I'm sure he thinks I'm a complete nutter now!"

"What?  I'm going to need so much more context to even begin to understand what you're talking about right now Ginny."  I chuckled, my eyes following her as she continued to pace around my room.  

"Ariana!  It's the Harry Potter!  He's sitting in my kitchen right now eating breakfast like it's just any other normal day when I feel like I'm living in the twilight zone or something because I just wanted breakfast but now I can't even have that because he's there talking to my father about some rubber chickens or something!"  Ginny continued to word vomit, though I didn't feel I was getting any closer to understanding what was going on.

"Ginny!"  I interrupted her everlasting sentence to silence her, allowing her to take a breath and sit down next to me on the bed.  "Go from the beginning.  What's going on?"

We sat in silence for a moment as she took another deep breath and wrung her hands, staring at her feet which I noticed were only covered by a pair of very muddy, fluffy socks.  She was also still wearing her dressing gown, and her hair was rather tousled.  She opened her mouth, to say something, only to close it again.  I could see her mind whirring, which is an expression I saw on her face a lot when she was processing something that had just happened.  The last time I saw that expression was at Christmas when her brothers Fred and George had pranked her by filling her room with hundreds of loose chocolate frogs, all hopping madly across the floor and crawling into every shelf, draw, and corner.  At that time she was already plotting how she would get them back.  She stayed silent for a moment longer before finally speaking.

"Fred, George, and Ron flew to Surrey in dad's car last night to get Harry and bring him home and now he's sitting at the kitchen table in my house eating breakfast with my family."  She finally said, her expression telling me she couldn't even quite comprehend what she had just said herself.

"The Harry Potter?"  I barely understood what was going on.  

"Yes the Harry Potter," she exclaimed, "the actual boy who lived!  Ron hadn't been getting answers to his letters to Harry also Summer so he was worried about him.  Apparently, they've been planning to rescue him from his crazy Aunt and Uncle for weeks but just haven't told me about it!?  Can you believe they didn't tell me!?"

Ginny went silent for a minute but rose and began pacing back and forth again.  I couldn't focus.  My mind was flitting back and forth between the subject at hand and the fact that her muddy socks were making squelching noises with each and every step she took as she marched to and fro across my room.  

I sighed, finally getting out of bed and trudging over to my dresser from which I pulled out a clean pair of socks and a towel.  Silently I gave these to Ginny and pointed silently to her feet, to which she heaved a sigh and left my room to head to the bathroom and clean herself up.

This gave me a chance to get changed and clear my head for a minute.  Then as Ginny returned to my room I took her hand and silently pulled her downstairs to the kitchen.  In my experience, whenever Ginny got like this, what she needed first was something to eat and some time to ponder what was going on.  

Long story short, once we had both eaten I got the whole story and finally understood the situation.  I knew Ginny had a crush on Harry Potter since she had briefly seen him at Kings Cross Station at the beginning of the previous school year, and now this was a lot for her to deal with.  He was supposed to be going with them to Diagon Alley when they all went tomorrow to get their things for school.  She practically begged me to come with them so that she'd have company and emotional support so that's what we're doing tomorrow.  I'm quite curious to meet him myself tomorrow, and see what he's really like!  I can't imagine what someone who beat the most dangerous dark wizard ever would be very likely to want to hang around either of us anyway though so I think Ginny's safe.  

So, I'll tell you tomorrow what happens!