STORY ONE

The Trouble With Mary

Chapter 1

His head spinning slightly from the transition, Harry looked curiously around him. I must've been knocked out, he thought. It's the end of the day.

The Common Room was crowded and noisy. Harry was sitting beside Ron, who was making a card-castle, and Hermione, who was bent over a very thick textbook with a look of intense concentration on her face. Harry himself was holding a quill with a scroll of parchment set in front of him. On it was the beginning of an essay regarding Knowledge Potions – the very essay that was due day after tomorrow in Professor Snape's class.

Harry turned to Ron, very confused. "How'd I get here?" he asked in an undertone. "What's going on?"

Ron gave him a blank look. "You've been here all evening, with me," he said with raised eyebrow. "What d'you mean, how'd you get here?"

"I must've blacked out a minute," Harry said. "Or fallen asleep, or something…"

"Yeah," said Ron, placing a card on top of his castle. "Look! It isn't falling. Where were you this morning?"

Harry thought a moment, and then memories of the cold dungeon room returned to him. "I dunno," he said. "I think I fell asleep or something. I had a really weird dream. I dreamed I was in this room, like a dungeon –," he stopped, for Ron, intent on his castle, seemed uninterested in the dream.

"Oh," was all he said. "You must be tired."

"Yeah," said Harry dubiously. "I guess I'll go up to bed after this essay."

For the next three-quarters-of-an-hour, he concentrated as hard as possible on Knowledge Potions, wishing he had one right then to help him along. "Hermione, how long does it take to make a Knowledge Potion?" he asked in desperation near the end.

Hermione looked at him severely over the top of her textbook. "I'm not going to do your homework for you," she snapped. "It's not my fault if you don't pay attention in Potions."

"Aw, come on, Hermione," Harry pleaded, stifling a yawn.

Hermione sighed and thought a moment. "Forty-three point nine minutes," she answered. "If you do it correctly, that is."

Harry scribbled down the time, wrote a hasty concluding paragraph, and then tossed the pen onto the desk with a hearty sigh. "Well, that's done with," he said in satisfaction.

"Go to bed," Ron said, staring in concentration at the final card he was laying atop his castle.

"Not a bad idea," Harry admitted, stifling another yawn. "Maybe I'll stay awake better tomorrow…"

Replacing the essay, quill, and ink into his schoolbag, Harry said goodnight to his friends and headed up to the dormitory. He fell asleep quickly, more tired even than he had realized, and had a dreamless night.

---------------------------------------------------

The next day progressed normally. In Potions class – the first of the day – Snape, in an especially vindictive mood, deducted fifteen points from Gryffindor for each Harry and Ron, who had accidentally spilled a drop of their Knowledge Potion. The entire class was torn between terror and excitement as a small section of the floor began to recite the twelve Minor Charms in a slightly nasal voice, until a furious Snape hurried over with a counter-potion and cut the recitation short.

By dinnertime, Harry – who had had only a light lunch, due to a surprise Quidditch practice – was famished. He hurried into the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione, only to find the Hall in an uproar even more violent than usual. Many of the students were standing on the benches, craning their necks to see toward the staff table and the cause of the commotion. Nearly deafened by the noise level, Harry, Ron, and Hermione found seats at the Gryffindor table near Lee Jordan, who seemed oblivious to the melee raging around him.

"What's up?" Harry asked curiously, leaning back to try and see around a clustered group of seventh-years all talking excitedly.

"New student," said Lee shortly. "Crazy, she's sitting up there at the staff table, but she couldn't be more than a third year."

Before Harry could reply, he saw the top of Dumbledore's pointed hat rise above the throng of students. Gradually, the conversation died down, and the black-robed students resumed their seats somewhat shamefacedly.

"Please, begin your dinner," said the Headmaster, his blue eyes twinkling merrily. "What I have to say can be said as well over a meal as not."

Obligingly, the plates on the tables filled with food, and most of the students began eating. After the initial clanging of silverware and chinking of glasses had subsided, Dumbledore continued his address.

"We have with us tonight a special guest. She is an exchange student from America, and will attend Hogwarts School for the next three months. I am proud to introduce, Mary Sue Smith."

For the first time, Harry caught a glimpse of the source of the commotion. Blushing slightly, a girl came from the end of the staff table to stand next to Dumbledore. She was one of the most stunningly beautiful girls Harry had ever seen; he felt his jaw go slack, and noticed that he was not the only one.

Her hair, golden-blonde, hung past her waist in a sheet of shimmering brilliance. Her features were delicate and exquisite, as though she were a very fine porcelain doll. Harry realized he was holding his breath, waiting for the girl to speak.

But instead, it was Dumbledore who resumed his speech. "Though it is not the general procedure, Mary Sue will be sorted tonight. As she is the only student, she will be the only one. Professor Flitwick – the Sorting Hat, if you please?"

Flitwick jumped excitedly from his chair, holding the dilapidated Sorting Hat with both hands. He hurried quickly to Dumbledore, who took the Sorting Hat and placed it on Mary Sue's head.

There was a long pause. Underneath the brim of the hat, Mary Sue had gone slightly pale – a state, Harry observed, which only served to enhance her finely crafted face.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat called, startling Harry back into reality. Beaming, Mary Sue allowed Dumbledore to remove the Sorting Hat from her head before walking gracefully to the Gryffindor table. Harry scooted away from Hermione and bumped into Ron in his haste to clear a seat for the pretty exchange student. To his delight, Mary Sue headed toward the seat he had just freed as if she had meant to go there all along.

"Is it all right if I sit here?" she asked, her slightly accented voice like silver chimes.

His eyes wide, Harry nodded mutely. Hermione scowled pointedly at him, but he ignored her as the blonde beauty sat down beside him, flicking her golden hair out of her way with one white, manicured hand.

As soon as she had served herself from the platters all along the table, Mary Sue began to speak. Harry, his eyes fixed on her face, picked distractedly at his crescent roll as Mary Sue described her life in America, her delight at being chosen to come to Hogwarts, and her strong desire to meet the famous Harry Potter during her three-month sojourn.

At this, Hermione gave a snort, and Harry realized that Mary Sue had not once glanced at any of them since she sat down. "Oh," was all Harry could say, very nonplussed. Mary Sue glanced up at him, smiling coquettishly. As she looked at him, however, her eyes grew round in surprise.

"Are you – you aren't –," she said prettily.

"Actually, I am," Harry replied, reddening. "I mean, I…" he stopped, aware suddenly that Hermione was giggling at him from behind her hand.

"Are you Harry Potter?" Mary Sue asked, her eyes very wide.

Harry nodded and ducked his head.

The girl gave a little cry of surprise, and then smiled. "What an amazing place this is!" she said after an appropriate recovery period. "I feel so honored to be here – why, already I've met a legend!"

"Yeah?" said Ron from behind Harry, leaning around him to better see Mary Sue. "I'm Ron Weasley. My dad works in the Ministry of Magic."

"The real Ministry of Magic, here in England?" Mary Sue asked excitedly. "How amazing! In America, we do not have a Ministry. We have a Magical Senate to govern the wizarding world. It can get quite confusing, with so many people running for office every few years."

"Yeah," said Ron again.

"And you must be Hermione Granger," said Mary Sue, turning to Hermione.

"Guilty as charged," Hermione replied. "But if I may ask, how did you know?"

Mary Sue delivered a chime-like laugh. "Oh, everyone knows of Harry Potter and his two best friends. You're top in all your classes, aren't you, Hermione? It will be lovely to have some competition at last. I've never really had a rival before, at my school in America."

"Hmm," said Hermione, shooting Harry a look he couldn't quite interpret.

Mary Sue turned back to Harry and Ron, her hair glimmering in the candlelight. "This castle is so enthralling," she said rapturously. "We have nothing like it in America – no castles outside of Disney World."

"What?" said Ron, flabbergasted.

"It's a Muggle fun park," Harry muttered.

"Our school has a building all its own," Mary Sue continued. "It's very modern – we even have electric lights in many of the rooms. But the feeling here is so quaint! I shall be quite sad to go back to America at the end of my exchange."

"Maybe you could stay!" Ron said excitedly.

Mary Sue laughed again, her cheeks dimpling. "I wish I could," she said, "But my family is in America, of course, and I could never leave them."

Ron reddened and turned back to his plate.

The evening concluded much sooner than Harry would have liked – it seemed that only a moment after Mary Sue Smith had taken a seat beside him, he was up in his dormitory bed, nearly asleep. Across the room, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas were talking in excited whispers.

"She was gorgeous, really beautiful . . ."

"And she's in Gryffindor too!"

"I can't wait to get to know her . . ."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I had a comment that Mary Sue didn't seem "American" enough. As will be disclosed later, Mary Sue's not your average California babe, she's from a very RICH family, hence her mannerisms. Yes, there IS a reason for this.