A week later, Amanda was in Potions class with Fred and George. Professor Snape walked into the dungeons and all chatter stopped.
He marched up to the front and started handing out the marks for the essay they had to do for homework. Amanda was pleased to see that she received an E. However Fred and George began to complain, because one of them received a P and the other received a D.
The group were lucky, because for once, they were having their Potions lessons with the Hufflepuffs.
Snape grabbed a piece of paper off his desk and started to drone, "I have been required by Professor Dumbledore to have intersex pairs work on potions together because for some infernal reason this encourages teamwork. I want all the girls to go to the back of the classroom and all the boys to be one boy per table, so we can begin wrapping this up as soon as possible."
Amanda groaned and grabbed her books. She walked to the back with Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, her roommates. She looked back and saw the twins smirking. She poked her tongue out at them.
"When I call out the names, the girl will go sit in the seat free next to the boy. Alicia Spinnet, George Weasley."
Alicia walked over and sat next to George. Amanda watched as the girls around her walked to the various Gryffindor or Hufflepuff boys they were paired with. She had vague sense of familiarity as this reminded her of her Sorting.
Eventually her name was called, "Amanda Potter, Cedric Diggory," and the names continued to be called out in the same tone. Amanda walked up to Cedric, who she remembered being the first one called out at her Sorting and sat down next to him.
She looked over at the twins to see them still smirking. She poked her tongue out again and laughed as Fred found himself without a partner.
Snape was about to go on with the lesson when someone knocked on the door. He sighed and commanded one of the students at the back to open it.
Professor McGonagall quietly walked in and stood at the back of the dungeon room. She spoke clearly for Snape to hear, "May I please have Miss Potter for the rest of the lesson, Severus?"
Amanda looked up at the mention of her name, then at the twins, who shrugged. They hadn't done any pranks yet, so they couldn't be in trouble for anything.
Severus Snape sighed exasperatedly. He nodded and Amanda quickly packed up her things, hurrying after Professor McGonagall as she left the room. She closed the door behind her and turned around to greet her, but what was greeted with the two additional people - Oliver Wood, her Quidditch team Captain and her little brother, Harry.
She raised a questioning eyebrow.
Professor McGonagall noticed the raised eyebrow and had to refrain herself from chuckling.
The Professor led the group of three through the school and outside. She gave some keys to Oliver and said, "You know what to do," making Amanda's eyebrow shoot up again.
The Professor walked back up to the castle, making sure that the students didn't see her grin.
Oliver led the two over to the Quidditch storage shed, unlocking the door before asking Amanda for help to carry a large trunk out. Amanda was beginning to have an inkling of what was going on.
Oliver quietly explained to her what was happening as they walked down to the Quidditch pitch. Amanda had to contain herself from jumping around, laughing and beaming at the news.
She told him that she would demonstrate the roles of the players after he had explained and went to get changed into some spare Gryffindor Quidditch robes.
She walked out on the pitch and met the two boys. Oliver Wood was a few years older than her and was the Captain of her Quidditch team. She played a Chaser normally, but when they couldn't find a good Seeker, she was happy to fill in the role. The twins played the Beaters on the team, and Alicia and Angelina, her dorm mates, were the other two Chasers.
Harry beamed at her as he saw her, making Amanda smile and laugh.
Oliver and Amanda opened the box cautiously, with Amanda ready to attack a Bludger to the ground if it escaped. Neither did, so Amanda hopped on her broom.
Oliver firstly showed Harry the Quaffle, and then chucked it in the air. Amanda dived for it, before racing across the field, chucking it to the side before catching it again to demonstrate passing the ball to another player. She lobbed it at the hoops, getting the ball through the middle one.
Amanda flew down and quickly grabbed a Beater's bat and flew back up. She nodded at Oliver, who released a Bludger. She zoomed up to it and smacked it with all her strength. It zoomed away, and she chucked the bat to Harry, who managed to hit through one of the hoops, making her beam.
He was a born Quidditch player.
She landed on the ground, and as the Bludger zoomed back down to them, she tackled it, holding it tightly and shoving it back into its spot, belting it in place.
Oliver released the Golden Snitch, and she demonstrated looking for it, finding it and catching it.
She then gave her broom to Harry, who practiced with charmed golf balls, as Oliver packed the balls away and she changed back into her school uniform.
Oh, her dad would be proud.
...
Amanda walked into the Great Hall and sat down next to the twins. She grabbed a meat pie and started to eat, explaining that Harry was going to be the Seeker for the team.
The twins cheered and she grinned, happy that for once, everything seemed completely normal in her life.
She excitedly explained that he was going to be joining the practice sessions the next time one of them came up. For a while, Harry was going to borrow her broom while she borrowed one of the school brooms.
...
A little while later, Harry received a parcel. He opened it with Amanda, and she gasped when she saw that Harry had gotten a Nimbus 2000.
She glanced up at Minnie. She knew Professor McGonagall as Minnie since she was a baby, as Minnie had been great friends with her original parents. She was almost like a grandmother to her.
Minnie was looking at the siblings, a smile on her face. They hadn't known each other properly for very long, and she could already see the sibling bond.
Amanda mouthed a 'thank you' to her and she beamed.
The two had discussed it a week ago about buying Harry a new broom. Amanda had given her permission to use the Potter account for Harry's broom, but she had declined.
Amanda helped Harry carry his broomstick up to the dorms, but they were stopped by a blond boy with two other boys stood behind him.
"Who are you?" Amanda asked in a sweet voice, laced with warnings. She already knew one of them, but she did not want to show that in front of her little brother.
Harry muttered in her ear, "Draco Malfoy, and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle. Horrible people."
Amanda knew who the other two were now. Francis and Melody Bloom, the people who took care of her, were related to the Malfoy's on Francis' side, and she had heard talk about the Crabbe's and the Goyle's.
Francis had been a Slytherin himself, while Melody had been in Hufflepuff.
Malfoy had been muttering about some stuff until Amanda stepped forward saying, "Shove off, Malfoy."
Draco looked angered and said, "My father will hear about this!"
By then the two siblings were climbing up the stairs, but Amanda turned around and said, "No he won't. And if you do tell your father, my carers are related to you, and Francis can give a good talking to when he wants to."
Draco Malfoy looked positively terrified. There was only one Francis in his family, and his great-uncle was terrifying when he wanted to be. Malfoy ducked his head and stepped away.
When no one else was looking, he winked at her. She replied in kind.
...
That Saturday saw Amanda being woken up by Angelina and Alicia.
They were yelling at her to get ready, and she quickly obliged. Girls could be scary when they wanted to, and she didn't want one yelling at her so early in the morning.
She grumpily walked down to the common room and met Harry, Fred and George, as the other three had already walked down.
As they walked, Amanda grumbled the entire way, trying to rub sleep out of her eyes. Fred and George noticed how tired the Potters were, as Harry looked like he was about to drop as well.
So the twins walked quickly in front of them without them noticing, and hoisted the siblings onto their respective backs. And so they gave them piggy backs the entire way to the Quidditch pitch.
In truth, Harry and Amanda were so tired because they both had had the same nightmare last night. It terrified Amanda, as it had terrified her every year, on and around her birthday, but Harry didn't have an inkling of what was happening. The screams had been what had scared him.
Amanda looked around her, suddenly realizing she was on one of the twins' backs and she quickly wriggled, and jumped, landing on her back on the grass behind. George quickly turned around, Fred with Harry on his back following suit.
Amanda groaned and stood up, thinking, 'what a great way to start the day.'
...
As they were in the Gryffindor team's 'get ready' room, as Amanda called it, Oliver was going through a long speech of Quidditch tactics for this year.
Amanda looked around and saw that the others were falling asleep, so she took it one step further. When Oliver had his back turned, she quietly stood up and walked over to the corner where the spare Quidditch uniforms were. She lifted them and snuggled into the corner, draping the uniforms on top of her as a blanket.
That was where they found her an hour later, after Oliver had finished his speech.
Oliver huffed as he found her, sleeping in the corner. Harry walked over to her and gently nudged her, trying to wake her up.
Amanda groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She saw the team staring at her and swore under her breath.
She got up and muttered, "Sorry, didn't get much sleep last night."
The twins walked up to her and asked, "The nightmare again?"
She nodded, they were the only ones that knew about the nightmares that she had, and the more vivid ones she had around Halloween. The only thing they didn't know was that her birthday was on Halloween as well.
They had asked when it was before, but Amanda was too stubborn and never told them. After a while, they just gave up.
Amanda marched out of the room and down to the pitch.
The group had a brilliant practice. Amanda, Angelina and Alicia enjoyed throwing the ball to each other, while trying to manoeuvre around Oliver. Fred and George chucked golf balls back and forth, with Harry in the middle playing Piggy-in-the-middle.
Ron watched from the benches and greeted his siblings and the Potters with some toast, which they ate gladly.
They raced inside the castle.
...
On Halloween, the students had classes as usual. Amanda dragged her feet everywhere, and her friends noticed. She slept all through History of Magic, having to be woken at the end, and she even fell asleep in Potions, where she was promptly given a detention by Snape.
Fred and George were worried about her, and so they gave her books to Lee to carry and let her lean on them as she closed her eyes once more, before they led her to their next class.
They made it to Transfiguration early and sat her in a chair. Lee poked her shoulder, causing her to wake with a start. She looked up at the faces looking down at her and groaned.
"Did I fall asleep again?"
Fred and George nodded. She groaned again.
They told her about the detention for the next night. She groaned once more.
The door swung open and in walked Professor McGonagall. She looked suspiciously at the prankster group, but when she saw Amanda falling asleep on Lee's shoulder she understood.
She walked over and nudged Amanda. Amanda's head shot up and she yelled, "Unicorn Hair!", before turning to Fred and sleepily asking, "Did I get the question right?"
George chuckled and Minerva looked at the girl with sympathy. She knew how hard it was for her at Halloween. She dismissed the girl with a note, telling her to get some rest and get the notes from class later.
Amanda thanked her and left the classroom.
As she walked back to the Common Room, she saw Ron and Harry walking with a group of boys and couldn't help listening in on the conversation.
"She's so annoying, thinks she's so smart-" Ron said, making Amanda gasp as another Gryffindor girl, Hermione Granger, pushed past him, tears in her eyes. She watched her race off to the girl's bathroom and called out to Ron.
The boys turned to face her.
"Why are you talking about a person like that? You made her cry, you git!" She cried, angry that someone she thought of as a brother would say such nasty words in the presence of the person.
"Why are you defending her? Haven't you seen how bossy she is?" He said, before Harry asked, " Are you okay? You look like you haven't slept in days."
Amanda turned to the two once more and said, "Ron, I haven't seen a bossy girl at all. I have seen a lovely girl who feels the need to help other people when they don't pay attention in class. And Harry, thank you, yes I am alright, although what you said is true, I haven't slept properly for a few days, and hardly got any sleep at all last night."
With that said, she turned and marched away, leaving a dumbfounded Ron and a worried Harry.
She walked straight to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. She fixed her hair before knocking on a cubicle that had sniffling sounds coming out.
"Hermione, it's Amanda, can you please come out?"
The young girl slowly opened the door and Amanda wrapped her in a hug. She whispered a few soothing words in her ear.
They sat and talked for a while and Hermione let Amanda sleep for a bit.
Later that day, Amanda was well-rested and walking down to the Great Hall, reassuring Hermione (who didn't want to go) that she would be back with some food for her.
She sat down at the table and rested her head in her arms. She was one of the first to arrive.
She was awoken by a tap on each of her shoulders and looked up to see Fred and George sitting on either side of her, with Lee crawling underneath the table to sit opposite them. They were soon joined by Harry and Ron who also sat opposite them.
Harry asked Amanda if Hermione left the bathroom yet and she said, loud enough for the people closest to her to hear, "No, she hasn't left yet, the poor girl. That boy was horrible to her, and can you believe he hasn't apologised for his behaviour yet!"
Fred, George and Lee looked up at her, but, used to her crazy ways, soon lost interest.
Ron had turned scarlet and she smirked.
They had tucked into their meals when Professor Quirrell ran into the Hall, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Troll! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know-"
He collapsed.
People started screaming, but Amanda just put her head in her hands and groaned for what seemed to be the millionth time that day.
Dumbledore gave orders that the Prefects leave with their houses and lead them to their respective Common Rooms.
Just as they had left the Great Hall, Amanda gasped and muttered, "I'll be back in a second!", to Fred and George, she raced off to the girl's bathroom, knowing in her heart that she had to get Hermione out.
She ran as fast as she could, not noticing Harry and Ron running behind her, although they couldn't see each other, having had the same idea as her.
She raced faster, skidding into the bathroom, and running over to Hermione's cubicle, just as she heard a grunt behind her and the door slamming shut behind it. She turned around and saw a mountain troll staring back at her. She quietly knocked on Hermione's cubicle, "Hermione, please come out as soon as possible, but be very quiet."
Hermione confused, opened the door and looked up.
She screamed.
Amanda pulled her wand out, just as the door opened again. She looked toward the doorway and saw Harry and Ron standing there. She groaned once more.
By then, Harry and Ron had their wands out and pointed at the troll. Hermione had squished herself against the wall, looking like she was about to faint.
Harry yelled desperately at Ron, "Confuse it!"
Ron threw a broken tap at the wall, distracting the troll, making Amanda slap her hand against her head.
The troll started for Harry, giving Amanda not much chance to think, "Oy, Pea-Brain!", she yelled from the other side of the room, throwing a metal pipe at it.
The pipe hit the troll's shoulder, but the troll looked like it hadn't even noticed. It turned to face Amanda instead.
"Come on Hermione, run!" Ron yelled, but Hermione was so terrified she didn't hear a thing. The shouting and the echoes in the room seemed to drive the troll berserk.
Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid. He leapt onto the troll's back.
The troll couldn't feel Harry on its back, but it did notice when Amanda jumped onto its back as well, forcing Harry to get off, but in the process, Harry's wand went up it's nose.
Harry rolled on the ground to break his fall, but Amanda was still up in the air.
The troll howled in pain and twisted and flailed its club, with Amanda hanging on for dear life. Any second, the troll would end up flinging her off.
Hermione had sunk to the floor, looking up with terror. Harry and Ron had run to her side to comfort her.
Ron stood up and pointed his wand at the troll's club and shouted the first spell that came to his head: 'Wingardium Leviosa!'
The club flew out of the troll's hand, rose high up in the air, before dropping, with a sickening crack, on the owner's head.
The troll swayed on the spot before falling flat on its face, Amanda managing to fling herself from its back just in time.
Harry ran over to his sister and helped her up.
She groaned again, holding her head. Harry grabbed his wand and pulled it out of the troll's nose. He wiped the bogies on the troll's pants and stood up straight, before the door burst open and the teachers walked in.
Amanda groaned for what she hoped to be the last time that day.
Professor Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Harry and Ron. Hermione and Amanda were left unnoticed.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Professor Snape glared at the two. He was going to have a word with Amanda about her brother.
A small voice came out of the shadows.
"They were looking for me."
"Miss Granger!"
"I went looking for the troll because I -I thought I could deal with it on my own - you know, because I've read all about them.' She said, getting off the floor at last, "If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."
Harry and Ron tried to look as if the story wasn't new to them.
Professor McGonagall finally noticed Amanda and said, "Well, in that case, Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
Hermione hung her head.
"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this, I'm very disappointed in you. If you are not hurt at all, you'd better get to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing off the feast in their houses."
Hermione left and she turned to Harry and Ron.
"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken one full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. Amanda stay with me, I need to talk to you. You two may go."
Harry and Ron hurried out of the chamber and left to the common room.
Minerva then turned to Amanda, conjuring up a plate of sandwiches for her to eat.
"Tell me what really happened."
Amanda shuffled her feet and a quickly as she could, explained exactly what happened.
Minerva sighed, "All in all, you are not very lucky on your birthday are you?"
Amanda chuckled, "No I'm not. It wasn't one of my best birthdays, but it also wasn't my worst. So it's a winner anyway."
Minerva dismissed the extremely exhausted Amanda and she raced to the tower. She skipped having anything else to eat and collapsed on her bed.
...
Soon after, the first match of the year was about to start.
"The first match of the school year is our favourite rivalry, Gryffindor versus Slytherin! Of course, we do know who is going to win, Slytherin doesn't stand a chance-"
"LEE!" Professor McGonagall screamed, making the twins and Amanda laugh. The game hadn't even started yet and the Professor was already yelling at him for his biased commentating.
"Sorry Professor. Okay, we have the Gryffindor team walking onto the pitch, there's Wood, Spinnet, Johnson, Potter, Weasley, Weasley and Potter! Let's see if you can guess which Weasley is which, because even though I've been best mates with them for three years, I still can't tell them apart-" Lee was saying, making Amanda burst out laughing.
She cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled as loud as she could, "I CAN!"
Lee chuckled as he heard her, prompting him to say, "Lucky duck. You'll have to teach me to Spot the Difference!"
Amanda laughed once more and turned to Madam Hooch.
"Now I want a nice clean game, all of you!" She said, but then muttered, "because God knows if it will happen."
As the whistle blew, the Quaffle rose and she raced for it, catching it just before a Slytherin did. She zoomed off, clutching the Quaffle and raced to the hoops.
"Potter has the Quaffle and she races off, off to the hoops... and she shoots... POTTER SCORES! Amanda Potter takes the first score of the season for Gryffindor! That is two years in a row for her."
Amanda continued to play the game, but stopped when she saw her little brother's broom, jerking him all over the place.
She looked over to the stands and saw Snape muttering. He could either be the cause or trying to stop it. She was going to speak to him later.
Suddenly she saw Severus's robes catch fire, sending the teachers into disarray. But to her relief, Harry was back on his broom.
The game continued.
...
The game carried on and Amanda was proud to say that her little brother caught his first Golden Snitch in a match.
She clapped him on the back and walked off to the Gryffindor Common Room, where the team was going to be celebrating for a successful start to the Season.