Fleur De Lis

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Harry slightly dreaded the upcoming meeting as he strolled towards the Head Boy and Girls compartment on the Hogwarts express. The inevitable meeting with this year's Head Girl was approaching faster than he had time to mentally prepare for. The young man knew he could not delay it any longer.

Harry could say that he had made very few friends during his time at school. He could probably count the number on one hand in fact. He was friendly with most of his house and the Hufflepuffs for that matter as well, but when he walked into the head students compartment he knew the closest thing he had to a best friend was quite cross with him. Her arms were already crossed, and she seemed to have been impatiently tapping her foot on the floor.

Penelope or Penny sometimes had the girl next door look to her. Harry could probably count the number of times he had seen the girl wear makeup on two hands, and she also had an innocent streak ten miles wide. When she found out what had gone down between Pettigrew and the young man she definitely thought of as her best friend, she cried... a lot. It was slightly funny that Harry had to comfort the girl after he had taken a life, but Penelope was just like that, and it probably kept Harry on a more straight and narrow path than anything else had.

Her brown hair was in curls, and her light blue eyes showed her displeasure, "I thought we agreed to meet five minutes before the train took off so we could compare reports prior to the rest of the prefect's arrival?"

"Sorry, Clearwater, I was speaking with my parents." Harry said nonchalantly.

Harry had just unbalanced the girl in multiple ways. First of all Penelope hated it when he called her by her last name. She claimed they were way too close for that. Secondly Penny knew that Harry did not have a good relationship with his parents until recently. She softly said, "So summer went okay then? You hardly wrote back to me at all."

Harry gave her an apologetic smile, "I was really busy trying to finish up some projects, and then I am sure you heard about what happened at the Quidditch World Cup."

"I did." The girl said softly.

The boy shrugged, "I really did mean to write to you more. I think I had even started a few times, but then got scatterbrained working on a million different things."

Ignoring his last comment she asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Taking a deep breath Harry sighed, "Not really. I have talked about it more with Amelia Bones than I ever wanted to talk about it with anyone. I promise though if I was to talk to anyone outside of an Auror's uniform it would be you."

It seemed like Penny wanted to say more about this topic, but Cedric Diggory, the only other person who could possibly qualify as Harry's best friend came in, "Harry, Penny, how are you two? Congratulations on making Head Boy and Girl, I had little doubt."

Harry grinned at the strapping Hufflepuff Prefect, "Glad you aren't jealous."

Cedric laughed, "Oh I am, but I knew you deserved it. Thinking I will have to beat you in Quidditch this year to make up for it."

"Train as much as you want, Diggory, you will never beat natural talent. Besides you will have to get through my brother this year too. We probably have the greatest Seeker lineup in Hogwarts history seeing the three of us could probably all go pro next year if we wanted to." Harry said with a cocky grin.

Penny rolled her eyes, "You two are impossible. Though I admit I am curious to see if Harry can beat his brother this year. It was so close last year, and I know your little brother worked hard in the off season."

"Keeping tabs on my little brother, Penny? Should I tell Susan she has competition?"

This caused the girl to blush and the two boys to chuckle, but before she could retort the red headed step child walked in. Percy Weasley, the Gryffindor 7th year prefect, looked around pompously (as he usually did), when he spoke with his chest puffed out to a point Harry wasn't quite sure how he was breathing, "Hello Penny, Potter, Diggory."