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Zinna sat nervously at the small wooden desk in her shared room, studying the fading of the dark oak and the collection of cracks in the surface. She stared sullenly at the blank bit of parchment that lay flat on the decaying surface. With all her homework done and little to no distractions she found herself fallen into a hole of worry for Harry. Since the early hours of that morning she woke only to miss Harry by a few minutes, ever since then she had been trying to distract herself anyway possible.

Zinnia was not the kind of person to be willingly doing extra work for school but found herself acting out of character all the same. She looked over to Maurice who's big eyes were set upon the girl and turned her head.

"What are you looking at?" She raised her eyebrows at the small brown cat. Maurice simply raised his paw and batted the girl on the arm.

"You're incorrigible" she replied back with all seriousness, being met by a strewn meow from the odd animal.

"Tell me about it" Zinnia replied back.

"Not talking to the cat again are you?" Basil strode into the girls room with ounces of confidence.

"Of course not, if I did I would be mad" Zinnia smiled at her older brother.

"Not any more than you are already" he shot back, sitting himself on the trunk at the end of the bed.

"Hey don't you ever knock?" she asked, noticing the intrusive nature of his visit.

"Waste of time" he said lying back. "Knocking would warn you I'm coming, and then you would stop doing embarrassing things like talking to the cat," he smiled.

"Don't you have your own flat to go to?" she muttered, looking back at the blank paper.

"Exactly, but I'm stuck here until you guys head to school, something about needing all the protection we can get." he tossed his wand around in his hand.  Zinnia humed at the news, still anxious about Harry she stared at the paper more and decided to focus on something else. She began to write to Kian and Fay with minimal detail but great excitement whilst Basil played with Maurice.

As she sealed the letters that were regrettably short, she heard a commotion downstairs and the subtle hint of Arthur's voice, Zinnia and Basil's head shot towards each other and they both sprinted to the stairs, Zinnia having a head start. She skipped the stairs as she went down and as she got to the final flight, her breath hitched when she saw Harry in the hallway. He looked at her with a sunken face and she almost broke down at the idea of not having her best friend with her at school. Zinnia raised her eyebrows at him curiously and his frown turned to a proud smirk.

"I'm not expelled" he simply spoke and the crowd that surrounded in the hall broke into sighs of relief and cheers of happiness. Even though Harry was surrounded by hugs and an influx of people congratulating him, his eyes met Zinnia's as she stood in the middle of the staircase and they simply smiled at each other, sharing all their words silently.

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Getting out of grimmauld place was utter nonsense, although they didn't have the added stress of waiting for Prim to pack at the last minute, the added shouting and running around the house of the Weasley family did not help.  Clothes were being thrown down flights of stairs and toiletries and stray clothes were being snatched and fought over in the cramped spaces of the narrow halls, with the added help of Daisy jumping into everyone's trunks.

Zinnia, all packed, struggled to get her trunk down the stairs even with the added help of the parents charming it to float downstairs. Dahlia looked on with an astonishment you could only expect from a muggle on a day like today. Once getting the trunk to the car with a few bumps to the walls, Zinnia took a deep breath, looking over to Poppy who stood nervously in the hallway. Poppy had her hair neatly tied into two short braids and a navy headband neatly placed on her small head.

"Where's you get that?" Zinnia pointed to the headband and crouched to talk to her sister.

"Prim gave it to me, she said it would give me luck" she said nervously playing with the zipper on her jacket. Noticing the headband from Prim's first day of Hogwarts, Zinnia smiled.

"You are going to do amazing okay? No matter what house you are in and no matter how much or little time we spend together we will stick close. Got it?" Zinnia smiled at her nervous sister and held out her pinky for her to hold, without hesitation Poppy wrapped her pinky around Zinnia's and gave her a toothy grin.

"Alright! Heading out. Lets go lets go lets go!" Violet started shouting, sporting her new head girl badge proudly on her tweed blazer.

"We better go before she gives us detention when school hasn't even started yet" Zinnia said to Poppy as they all hopped in the extended car ready to head to the station.

Kings Cross Station was all the same, however this time was different. The Order and all the Weasley's and Beaumont's headed to the station in a quiet and protected manner. In groups of four as not to be noticed or draw attention to themselves.

Zinnia nervously walked along the tile on the station and was suddenly distracted by a large black dog bumping into her legs on its way to Harry.

"Padfoot! Are you barking mad? You'll blow the entire operation" Moody spoke under his breath with a threatening tone, Zinnia couldn't help but laugh at the unintentional pun and the sheer absurdity of Sirius. Zinnia watched as Sirius and Harry walked down the stairs to a private room, not long before Fred grabbed her arm and forced her to continue along with the group.

"Take it easy Fred, I was just curious" She said as she ripped her arm away from him

"Yeah I bet you are," Fred said with a mischievous smirk. Zinnia gave him a teasing face and he turned back to wink at her. Zinnia scoffed at him as they made their way back to the platform

Upon walking through the magical wall, Zinnia notices Prim making a beeline straight for her friends in Slytherin, particularly one girl who she was extremely close to. Prim paid no attention to the rest of her family after hugging them goodbye and gave all her attention to the tall black haired girl. The girl looked over to the Weasleys and the Beaumonts and gave a wicked scowl.

"Merlin what's her problem" Zinnia retorted as she turned away from the black haired girl.

"Prim's new best friend, Laura Rockwood," Fred told her.

"You mean?" Zinnia asked, shocked, remembering the names Harry had heard in the pensive last year.

"Prim what are you getting into?" Zinnia muttered to herself shaking her head, worried about the idea of her sister hanging out with a possible death eater or daughter of one.

"ZINNIA!" The young girl heard from down the station, next thing she knew she saw Fay Dunbar speeding towards her, her fringe trim jacket swaying with her lively movements. Just before Fay could get to her, Moody stepped in front of the girl and held out his hand to stop her.

"Miss Beaumont, who is this, a security risk?" Moody asked cautiously

"Security risk?!" Fay shouted loudly

"She's not a security risk, she's my friend" Zinnia said before Moody moved out of the way, still eyeing the girl.

"Honestly if i were to find words to describe you, security risk wouldn't be off the table" she smooth voice of Kian spoke as he came up behind fay.

"What's with the bodyguard?" Fay said with a nasty snarl towards Moody, who was examining the running first years.  Zinnia looked at the crowd of order members following Harry into the station and frowned.

"I'll tell you later, it's... it's a bit complicated." she said with tight lips, looking at the floor. The train whistle went off for the first time meaning they only had five minutes to get on the train. Zinnia hugged all her family goodby and gave Daisy one last piggy back before leaving.  Grabbing a very nervous Poppy's hand, she boarded the train with everyone and waved at her family through the window as the train left the station.

"Can I sit in a compartment with you?" Poppy said shakily as she looked out of the window, Zinnia sighed remembering how scared she was to leave home for a whole year. She straightened Poppy's jacket and looked her in the eyes.

"You can come to me anytime you want poppy, but i think anyone on this train would be more than lucky to meet you. I bet there are heaps of kids feeling the same way as you and are all alone in a compartment, I think you should go brighten up their day" Zinnia said softly to her sister, she had a bit f a soft spot for her considering she reminded Zinnia of her younger self. Poppy smiled and skipped off to the compartments with a humble smile.

Zinnia made her way to the compartment the quartet usually sat in, weaving her way through the students and shutting herself in the small space. Harry was huddled up in the corner, seemingly not wanting to speak to anyone. Zinnia was finding his behaviour quite childish and ignored his moping.

"Blimey Hermione, school hasn't even started and you're doing work" Ron spoke out after seeing Hermione pull out a runes book and parchment.

"This is O.W.L's Ron, if I were you I would get a headstart of studying. The exams are supposed to be super tough" Hemione said, not looking up at the boy but rather burying her head further into the book.

"Merlin Hermione, if you get any closer to that book you'll fall in" Zinnia chuckled at the girl as Hermione shot a look back at her. Zinnia as per routine pulled out her walkman and played the new mixtape basil had given her featuring a surprising amount of Alanis Morissette.

Further into the long trip, Zinnia looked up to see that Harry had fallen asleep, he was moving a lot and muttering. Zinnia shared a concerned look with the rest of her friends.

"He's been doing it a lot, worse than last year" Ron whispered as not to wake Harry up. Zinnia sighed and looked out of the compartment door. She hated how terrible Harry must have been feeling and hated herself more for getting annoyed with him. She could understand why his mood was all over the place at that point but still only wished for the same Harry that kissed her in the stairwell last year.

"I'm going for a walk," she said, bringing her headphones with her.

As she walked along the empty corridor she failed to see a boy sitting on the floor next to a compartment door. Zinnia tripped slightly on his foot and would have fallen to the floor if not for the wall next to her.

"Watch where you're going" she boy spoke in a heavy Irish accent

"Well what are you doing sitting in the middle of the corridor?" she shot back at his, taking off her headphones but not bothering to pause the music

"Reading" he replied cockily, lifting up his book

"Well I gathered that, what are you doing reading here" she spoke, looking down at the boy still sitting on the floor with his knees to his chest.

"I'm not one for socialising on a long ride" he tipped his head up "and neither are you I expect"

"What do you mean by that?" Zinnia retorted with a grimace

"Well you're walking the halls by yourself blasting Alanis Morissette in your ears, don't scream 'i'm open for a conversation'" he said as he got up from the floor. Zinnia noticed that he was considerably taller than her with a lanky build. He had thick shaggy brown hair and a sly cheeky grin

"I can see why you aren't very good with socialising" she bit back with crossed eyebrows. Rather than taking offense to the comment he merely laughed with a devilish smile.

"Robbie Dalton" he held out his hand to her. She raised her eyebrows and shook her head in surprise.

"Zinnia Beaumont" she replied as she shook his hand. He had a firm grip that somewhat comforted her.

"See you around, Beaumont" he smiled as he walked in the opposite direction. Zinnia let out a small chuckle as she returned to the compartment. Just as she entered, Harry woke up with a roll of his neck and a strained look.

"What's the giggling for" he said to her

"Are you alright?" she asked, ignoring his question.

"Fine" he simply spoke and raised his eyebrows at her expecting an answer to his question
"Just had a strange interaction, that's it." she said as she sat down, Harry gave a stoic look and turned to stare out the window. Zinnia turned to Hermione with a shocked look on her face at Harry's ignorance towards her and Hermione just shrugged back.

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The group of friends exited the train once the once blue sky had turned to a dark black, they all idly strolled by before the intrusions of a certain slytherin.

"Surprised the Ministry's still letting you walk around free, Potter." the nasally voice of Malfoy echoed from behind them. Zinnia visibly rolled her eyes at the boy and elected to ignore him.

"Better enjoy it while you can, I expect there's a cell in Azkaban with your name on it" he continued despite the group's ignorance. However Harry suddenly jumped for him, only being held back by Ron.

"Fuck off Malfoy" Zinnia jumped in front of Harry and faced the blonde wizard. He gave a snarling look towards her and backed away.

"What did I tell you, complete nutter" he retorted as he walked away.

"JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME" Harry yelled out at the disappearing Malfoy and his cruel crew. The friends looked at each other with concern

"It's only Malfoy," Ron said, still holding Harry back.

"If you ignore him he'll give up" Zinnia backed Ron up, turning to face Harry as he escaped Ron's grip.

"Yeah, cause that'll teach him" Harry sarcastically said as he walked in front of the group to the carriages

"Someones on edge" Zinnia muttered as she looked at Ron and Hermione. "One minute im his favourite person in the world and the next I'm right down there with Malfoy" she continued as they walked to Harry who stared longingly at the carriage that just left.

"Hi guys" Neville spoke from behind them, Zinnia turned to the boy and gave him a large grin

"Hey Neville" they returned at the same time. As they stood there, Harry turned around seemingly distracted by something behind him, bewildered by the sight.

"What is it?" he asked, still staring up. Zinnia turned around to look in the same direction but saw nothing there, just the same old rickety carriage that they got on every year.

"What's what?" Zinnia gave him a strange look.

"That! Pulling the carriage" he spoke bluntly.  Zinnia furrowed her brows in confusion and looked concerningly towards Ron who shared the same expression.

"Nothing's pulling the carriage Harry, it's pulling itself like always." Hermione spoke with concern looking around at the rest of the group. Harry slowly moved to the side of the carriage, still entranced by this invisible object.  Hermione and Zinnia looked at each other with confusion and followed the boy.

"You're not going mad" the soft airy voice of a blonde girl spoke from inside the carriage. "I can see them too, you're just as sane as I am" she said as she lowered her very brightly decorated magazine. She was adorned with fascinating jewelry and the strangest mixture of clothing. Zinnia loved her immediately.

They all jumped onto the carriage, Zinnia making sure to snag a seat next to this intriguing girl.

"I like your earrings," Zinnia said, smiling at the blonde girl.

"Thanks, they're radishes. My dad grows them to keep away the garden gnomes" She said in that same airy voice.

"Cool" Zinnia chuckled honestly and smiled.

"Everyone this is Loony Lov-" all heads turned to Hermione and her slip up, Zinnia sent her a nasty look and was dangerously close to knocking her friend in the shin for that. "Luna Lovegood" she corrected herself with great embarrassment.

"What an interesting necklace" Hermione attempted to redeem herself with the same compliments Zinnia had given.

"It's a charm actually, it keeps away the nargles" Luna informed everyone with a gracious smile. Everyone fell silent without a response to muster up.

"Hungry. I hope there's pudding" she said as the carriage began to take off, Harry's eyes were drawn back to the supposed creature pulling it.

"What's a nargle?" Ron whispered to Hermione.

"No idea," Ron said.

"Well thank merlin Luna has the charm to keep them away, I don't fancy meeting one" Zinnia leant over to the two of them with a grin.

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(A.N- HEY IM BACK. sorry for the long hiatus i had a lot going on but thankfully i have a lot of spare time now to write.

sorry if this chapter seems a bit boring, i promise i will get into the juicy stuff in later chapters cause i have a lot planned for this year including Harry and Zinnia angst.

Also a huge thank you to everyone reading and a big thanks for 1.39k. every small milestone feels like a huge one❤️.

comments and votes always appreciated, feel free to tell me what you think or what you want to see in further chapters💕 )