Protégée (George Weasley)

Chapter Two

"Elly!" Lisa practically screamed, her luggage dropping onto the common room carpet with a loud thud as she raced towards the raven haired boy, tackling him with a hug, "Merlin's sake, I've missed you so much!" she sighed, feeling her best friend put his arms around her as well.

"It was that bad, huh?" Noel chuckled, "I would have thought that you enjoyed your bit of summer vacation extension. And plus, Lisa, Luxembourg. How could you not have had fun in Luxembourg?"

"It's as ordinary as anything," Lisa rolled her eyes, "You wouldn't believe how boring everything was. I would have much rather spent it here. With you. And Katie, too. Oh god I haven't written to her all summer, she's going to kill me." she fished something out of her pocket, dangling it infront of his face.

"I got you another keychain for your collection, by the way." she said as Noel took it gratefully from her, "I still don't understand why you collect keychains. You don't even use keys in your house."

"They're just fun to collect, you know? But I'm probably the only one who has keychains to countries that I've never been to." he chortled, "Perks of having a Quidditch baby for a best friend, am I right?"

"Don't you know it."

Noel gave her a little time to change in to her school robes, before they headed down to the great hall for breakfast. He had told her about the delicious food at the feast in wonderful, colorful detail, which made her mouth water in envy.

It was another reason why Lisa resented that stupid trip, as she always looked forward to the start of year meal. He filled her in with things that happened while she was gone, two of them being Grubbly-Plank coming back to teach Care for Magical Creatures, and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"How long do you think she'll last?" Lisa chuckled, knowing full well about the rumors of that certain teaching position. Noel shook his head, "Not very long, I hope. She made us read the entire week, can you believe that? As far as I know, defense classes are supposed to be a performance based subject."

"Maybe she's just covering the basics before getting to the real stuff?" Lisa suggested as they slipped into the Gryffindor table, fixing up a plate for themselves.

"Nah, I have a really bad feeling about her, though. I heard she told Hermione Granger that there was no point in learning defensive spells because we weren't gonna need it anyway. And he gave Harry Potter detention on the first day for preaching about you-know-who's return."

It had been all over the Daily Prophet during the summer, Lisa's parents practically annoyed with the lack of sports and entertainment articles. Harry's proclamation about his return was believed by very few, even if he was backed with Dumbledore's words. And now people believed that the headmaster does not have all his marbles intact.

"Do you believe him, though? Harry?"

Noel shrugged, "I'm not sure. Although my parents are a little bit skeptical. But he's a great kid, you know, Harry, I don't see why he'd lie about something as big as that. What about your parents?"

"Oh you know them. Anything is barely a threat unless it's a Quidditch game canceled."

They shared a laugh, Lisa reaching across the table, flopping a pancake on to her plate. A familiar brown haired boy slid beside Lisa, smiling up at her expectantly, "So, did mum and dad get me the chocolate that I asked for?"

She gave her little brother a look, "Well hello to you too, Callan. Yes, my trip was fine. Yes, I arrived safely. Aww, I miss you too."

"...but I didn't ask you any of that..."