[a/n: Hello everyone! Welcome to my new fic! I'm very excited about this one because I got this idea from a dream I had a while ago before the 5th book came out. This chappie is boring and I don't get into what the main character is like too much but I PROMISE it gets better! I hope you like it and thanks for reading!]

Disclaimer: I don't Harry Potter. And even if I DID, I would be working on the 6th book and not on this pathetic fic (HINT HINT JK Rowling!!!). ^.~

Chapter One: The Birthday Present

Claire Woods opened her eyes at nine o'clock to the bright June sun shine pouring into her bedroom. She sat up quickly and her eyes flew to her calendar. Today was June 21, her birthday.

In a rush of excitement, she dressed quickly and ran down the stairs. As she came to the kitchen, she saw a small pile of presents waiting for her. Not even aware of the trip from the doorway to the table, she found herself searching through the gifts immediately, looking for the one she'd been waiting the past three years for.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" her mother said from the stove where she was making pancakes.

"Where is it...where is it?!" Claire said, tossing present after present aside, searching, hoping with all her might that it was there.

"What are you talking about, Claire, hmm?" her mother taunted as she flipped another perfect pancake into the air, knowing perfectly well what her daughter was so eager to get her hands on.

"It's not here..." Claire said, falling into a chair completely out of breath and trying not to cry. How could her mom have done this? She promised that it would be waiting for her when she woke up on her birthday. Well, it was her birthday, but it looked like her mom hadn't kept her promise...

"Oh, is this"—her mom pulled out a thick package out from one of the cabinets—"what you're looking for?"

Claire felt her heart skip a beat and a huge smile growing on her face. She ran over and had the present out of her mother's outstretched hand before she had time to blink.

"YES!!!!!!!!!" she screamed as the last bit of wrapping paper fell to the floor. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Shhh!" her mother warned, but she still grinned that way all mothers do when they know they've made their child happy. "You'll wake up you're brother!"

"Ahh!" Claire continued to shriek with excitement, hugging the fifth Harry Potter book as if it was a friend she hadn't seen in ten years. "I love you, mom! You're the best!"

"I'd better be," her mother replied, walking over and putting their breakfast on the table. "That store was a zoo this morning! All over that book!"

"This isn't just a book, mom!" Claire said, staring at the cover with happy tears in her eyes. "This is the book! The book I've been dreaming about for three years!"

And with that Claire ran out of the kitchen, her eyes darting back and forth quickly reading the first page.

"So what do you wanna do today?" her mom called after her as Claire was halfway up the stairs.

"Absolutely nothing!" she shouted back as she neared her bedroom door. "I don't want to go anywhere and I want the house very very SILENT!"

And with that she shut her door, flopped down on her unmade bed and began to read.

"The hottest day of summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large square houses of Privet Drive..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Two days later, the entire Woods family, minus Claire, was sitting in the living room, watching the five o'clock news when they heard a cry from upstairs.

"What was that?" Mrs. Woods asked from the couch where she was playing checkers with her son, Dylan.

"Claire," Mr. Woods answered. "I'll go see what happened."

On his way up the stairs, the crying got louder and louder. He was afraid his twelve-year-old daughter had somehow gotten hurt, and his pace quickened.

Without even knocking, he opened her door and said in a worried voice, "What happened?! What's wrong?!"

But when he saw Claire he knew immediately she wasn't hurt in any way. She was lying on her bed, her head in her arms on her Harry Potter book, which was open to what looked like the last one hundred or so pages. She was sobbing like she had just been told the sky was falling and everyone on Earth was doomed.

"Dead!" she cried. "He's d-d-dead!!!"

Mr. Woods walked over and sat down on the edge of his daughter's bed and placed a comforting arm around her.

"I'm sorry, Claire," he said.

Claire simply sobbed in reply, shutting her book so it wouldn't be made unreadable by her tears.

After Claire had regained her self-composure, her dad went downstairs to get her a glass of water. Claire simply stared at the closed book in disbelief.

"How could she do that?" Claire said, drying her eyes on her Harry Potter blanket. "How could she kill Sirius?"

In order to prove to herself that he wasn't really dead, that the words had been a figment of her imagination, she opened the book again to that fateful page that had crushed the hearts of so many HP readers.

"There's nothing you can do Harry...nothing...he's gone."

She began to cry all over again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Two weeks later on a rainy afternoon, the doorbell rang.

"Grandma!" Claire heard her mom shout from downstairs. "I'm so glad you made it!"

Claire groaned. Her great-grandmother was cool for being a million years old, but her visit meant that she wouldn't be able to read much for the next three days, since they would be taking her all over the city to see the "sights"...whatever those were.

"Claire!!" Mrs. Woods hollered up the stairs. "Claire, get down here!"

"That child's never been one to stay up in her room," the old woman commented. "What's she doing up there?"

"Oh she's been re-reading those Harry Potter books again," Mrs. Woods replied. "I swear I think she's been depressed since she read the newest one."

"Yeah, it was very sad," the old woman replied. "I myself cried for an hour."

Claire's mother about fell over in shock.

"You read them???" she asked.

"Of course, don't you?"

"Hi Grandma," Claire said, coming down the stairs unenthusiastically.

The rest of the day passed fairly slowly. They had a big lunch and went out to eat for dinner, and in between they caught up on everything the kids had been up to and the most recent travelings of their great-grandma. But that night, as Claire was busy reading, there was a knock on her door she didn't expect.

"Can I come in?" her grandma asked, poking in her head.

"Sure," Claire said, drying her eyes. Every time Sirius was brought into the story she found herself crying, even his brief mentioning in The Sorcerer's Stone.

"What're you reading there, honey?" the woman asked, sitting down on Claire's bed and putting her cane next to her. "Ah, this one is my favorite," she added, seeing it was the 3rd HP book, "So much action at the end! Kept me on my toes!"

"Me too," Claire said in a sniffly voice.

Her great-grandmother looked at her, concerned and asked, "You still upset about 'ol Sirius kicking the bucket?"

Claire felt her blood boiling. She hated this old woman talking about one of her favorite characters "kicking the bucket".

"Yes," she replied shortly, shutting the book and folding her arms across her chest.

"Ah, I can see the wheels spinning in your head," the woman said in a wise voice. "You'd have written it differently, changed the whole story line so he could've lived, is that it?"

"Of course I would, if there was a way!" Claire stated simply.

"Hmm...I see..."

Claire looked up and saw her great-grandmother staring at her curiously. Then something very peculiar happened. The old woman reached out a wrinkled hand and placed on top of her great-granddaughter's dark hair. Her eyes were shut tight as if she was concentrating very hard on something.

"Uh...Grandma? What are you doing?" Claire asked after a minute of waiting.

The old woman removed her hand and said, "You'll see." As she got up to leave and added, "Good night, honey."

"'Night," Claire said, picking up the book again and wondering about the old woman's sanity.

But as the door of her room closed, Claire began to feel very sleepy. She finally drifted off with the book open in her hands having read this line:

Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

In her sleep she felt she was falling...falling...falling like she was never going to stop. Her eyes were wide open in this dream-like world, watching things fly past her. An owl...a cauldron...a black set of wizard's robes...a wand....

THUMP.

She landed on the hard stone floor of a castle she had visited many times in her dreams and in the world of reading.

Only this time...it wasn't a dream...

[a/n: DUN DUN DAAAAAAAAAAA! How did this happen? What will happen to Claire? Review me and I'll tell you in the next chapter! ^.~ Thanks for reading everyone! I luv u!]