Golden Dreams

GD: Chapter 1

Ali rushed ahead of me, throwing herself up the steps of the train. I followed after her, though not quite as carelessly. She looked in each cart as we walked through the train, smiling when she found the one she was looking for. Ali opened the door and gestured for me to enter. I stepped inside and carefully set my luggage up overhead, raising onto my toes to reach. My sister flung her bags next to mine and plopped down next to Charlie.

"Hi!" She exclaimed excitedly. "How was your summer?"

I sat next to Percy who was just shutting his book. He glanced up at me and I noticed he looked flushed.

"Good, I practised a lot of Quidditch," Charlie answered, smiling warmly at Ali.

"Hm," Percy hummed shortly. "It's almost like we didn't just see each other two weeks ago."

Smiling, I squeezed his shoulder. "Two weeks too long, right?"

The shyer redhead shrugged, reopening his book. Percy often seemed rude but I knew he was just very reserved. He has grown up in his two older brothers' shadows, and yet Fred and George are complete opposites of him.

Ali and Charlie continued chatting and I tuned them out, briefly staring at Charlie. He almost seemed more attractive than he had the year before, and even in just the two weeks I haven't seen him. I admit I have had a crush on him for many years, and the only person who really knows about it is Ali. He's two years older and I honestly have no hope anything will come of it, especially when he and Tonks have been on and off in a relationship ... But no matter how I suppress my feelings, they don't go away.

I realised Charlie was returning my stare and I rubbed my eyes back into focus. "What?"

He gave me a toothy grin. "Nothing, you were just zoned out."

"Oh, sorry," My cheeks warmed and I looked at Ali, who was smirking knowingly at me. I shook my head at her. "I think I'm going to sleep for a while."

They both nodded and continued with whatever they had been talking about. I think Ali was asking Charlie about his classes he had taken in his fifth year, which is what Ali and I are in now. He is in his seventh year.

The train took off and the rhythmic lull of the train eventually set me off into sleep.

My fifth year goes pretty quickly. Gryffindor won every Quidditch match we took place in. Charlie has truly made the team amazing, especially with the addition of Ali. My part in the team is chaser but I'm not as good as my sister or Charlie.

I exceeded in all of my classes, though, especially my two electives of choice: Study of Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. My scores in the O.W.L. tests were very good in my opinion, and I had a wide range of classes I could take next year. Ali didn't do very good in her classes but her disregard for grades and her O.W.L.s is high. Charlie nearly broke Hogwarts records with his N.E.W.T. scores, if that's even possible. Honestly, I feel bad for Percy having to live in his shadow, but Percy is practically as academic as Charlie.

Ali and I's birthday was early into our year, making us some of the older students in the fifth year. Charlie celebrated his birthday a couple months after us.

Eventually, at the end of the year, I said my goodbyes to Charlie. He was spending the summer on a paid internship in Romania to care for magical creatures. I think he said something about dragons. Also, much to my pleasure, he had officially broken things off with Tonks. No hard feelings to her, of course.

That summer sped by very quickly. Ali and I were together nearly all of it; our parents work for the ministry and are gone almost the entire time. The last two weeks of summer, however, we spent with the Weasleys, again. Charlie was still stuck very far away and Bill hadn't been able to come back from his job in Egypt. I helped Ron, the newest Weasley to Hogwarts, buy all of his necessities for his first year.

Amazingly, Ali and I met Harry Potter on the ride to Hogwarts. He quickly became friends with Ron and another girl named Hermione. It was very interesting meeting the famous boy; he hadn't even known what a celebrity he was to the wizarding world at first.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione quickly became referred to as 'the trio,' and they got into plenty of trouble. Nearly as much trouble as the Weasley twins, which is saying something.

I buried myself in studying and homework, investing myself especially in Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. Finally I had decided what I would do after completing my seventh year- specialise in herbology for healing magical creatures. I wanted to become a sort of doctor for the unique and unknown creatures of the world; afterall, everyone needs healing at some point, right?

a/n: first chapter! sorry its short- it's mainly an intro into the series and I didn't want to start off right into where most of the story will take part (in Romania) but i also don't want to focus too much on their school years.