The end of the summer came too quickly for the Potter siblings.
They were both looking forward to going back to Hogwarts, but Harry had told Amanda that the month they spent at the Burrow had been the best of his life, which made Amanda feel extremely happy for him.
On the day that they had to go back, Amanda and the twins had helped carry all the trunks down to the car, a small Ford Anglia. Mr Weasley had told Harry in a whisper all about how he had put special spells on it to make it bigger on the inside.
As they left to go towards the station they had to stop, first for George to get his box of Filibuster fireworks, then for Fred to get his broomstick, and lastly for Ginny to run in and get her diary.
All in all, by the time they arrived, Mrs Weasley was feeling very flustered and Amanda was in peals of laughter at Fred and George trying to think of a joke to say for the occasion but failing miserably.
As they stopped outside of the platform, Percy and Mr Weasley went on to the platform, while Amanda grabbed the twins' arms and hurried after them.
They loaded their trunks onto the scarlet express and joined Angelina, Alicia and Lee, followed soon by Hermione and Ginny.
Ginny sat down next to the two girls and Hermione asked, "Have any of you seen Harry and Ron? I've looked, but I can't seem to find them."
Amanda popped up. "I'll help you look."
The two girls walked through the train carriages, searching for Harry and Ron, as the train left and started to speed through fields and past towns. Amanda became increasingly worried as they could not find the two boys anywhere.
Eventually Amanda collapsed back in the carriage, propping her feet up on George's lap and fell asleep on Fred's shoulder.
...
Amanda was woken up by Angelina and they trudged up to the carriages, leaving Ginny with Hagrid. When they arrived at the actual castle, they walked into the hall and sat at the head of the Gryffindor table.
They watched Ginny be sorted into Gryffindor, and Amanda still looked up and down the table in search of her little brother and his best mate. She saw Severus leave the hall, and wondered what he was doing, but caught Lockhart's eye and promptly dived under the table.
The twins pulled her back up, laughing. She glared at them, and later, when they were dismissed, she raced off to the common room, leaving them behind as they tried to catch up.
As she got into the common room, she started to hear rumours about Harry and Ron flying the car to Hogwarts. She sighed and slapped her head with where hand.
When she finally saw Harry and Ron again, Lee Jordan raced up to them and said, "Brilliant! Inspired! What an entrance! Flying a car right into the Whomping Willow, people'll be talking about that one for years-oomph! Hey!"
Amanda had elbowed him to shut up, but the twins were just getting started. She had to drag them away so that the two younger boys could go up to their dorms, and made the twins sit down in the couch. She noticed Percy wearing a deep scowl on his face, but didn't say a word, because she knew better.
She went up to bed that night, exhausted, and collapsed on to her bed.
...
The next day Amanda almost cried when she saw her schedule. She had never remembered so many Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons. She loved these lessons, but the less she was around Lockhart, the better, in her opinion.
She grumbled as she loaded some sausages and toast on to her plate. She watched as the owls in the hall flew in. She could see Errol, who flew and landed in front of Ron. Amanda could see the distinct red colour of the Howler that was tied to Errol's leg. She braced herself for the screaming.
"STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT HAD GONE..."
The shouting continued, but Amanda almost cried when her morning got worse. Francis's owl had landed in front of her, and she could see another Howler waiting for her.
She quickly grabbed it and raced out of the hall and made it outside when it exploded. She could hear Francis's booming voice and she cried as she listened to the abuse it was saying.
"HOW DARE YOU LEAVE MY HOUSE, YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE CHILD! I AM ABSOLUTELY ASHAMED OF THE WAY YOU TURNED OUT TO BE, JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER, A FILTHY MUDBLOOD WHO DID NOT KNOW WHAT WAS GOOD FOR HER! MARK MY WORDS, YOU WILL TURN OUT AS FILTHY AS SHE DID! NOW BE WARNED, A STORM IS BREWING, AND THE SECOND YOU GET BACK HOME, YOU WILL BE IN FOR A NASTY SURPRISE YOU LITTLE BRAT!"
She cried at the mention of her mother. Her crying had turned to whimpering when she heard someone walking toward her. She looked up into the eyes of Draco Malfoy. He had obviously followed her outside and had probably heard the entire thing. The look in his eyes almost confirmed it.
He sat down next to her and she hugged him. Draco and herself were good friends. Living with a fatherly figure who threatened and scared the children made them have something common, so they had stuck together for support.
Draco knew that at this moment, she needed the support, so he let her cry on his shoulder. When the bell rung for the first class of the day, the two raced off to go to their separated classes.
On the way to her first class, she bumped into Harry, Ron and Hermione. She raced past them, ignoring the looks of bewilderment they were giving her upon seeing her puffy red eyes from when she had been crying.
There was no way she would tell anyone about that Howler. Ever.
...
Unlucky for Amanda, her first class was with Lockhart.
He gave the class a test about himself and Amanda groaned. She made no effort to answer the questions, and on the last page had written in capital letters, "THIS IS STUPID!", diagonally across the middle.
Lockhart tutted as he looked at the class. Amanda could see that he expected people to know a bit more about him, considering he was so 'famous'.
Then suddenly, "Miss Potter!"
Amanda dived to the floor, and when he asked, "What are you doing?", she almost whimpered, but stood up and said, "I was hugging the floor because it was lonely."
Lockhart looked bewildered. Even more bewildered than usual, she thought.
"The floor has emotions?"
"Oh yes. You see, now it feels sad, because you are in the classroom."
Lockhart looked angry at her. He ripped up the test she had 'tried' so very hard on, and promptly said, "Now now Miss Potter. I don't give these very often, but I am afraid that you will have detention tonight. Eight o'clock sharp. I will see you then."
...
Amanda sat at the table at lunchtime, her head in her arms. She was having a terrible day. First the schedule, then the Howler, then DADA class, then a detention for tonight, and now she had a problem with that Creevey kid bothering Harry for photos and autographs. When she had tried to stop him, he had asked her as well. And to top it all off, Lockhart had turned up again.
This just wasn't her day.
...
At the end of the day, after she had finished her detention with Lockhart, she popped up to the seventh floor and walked to the stretch of wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.
"I need a place where I can be away from it all...I need a place where I can be away from it all...I need a place where I can be away from it all." She thought.
A door appeared and Amanda stepped into the room. She looked around. There was a fireplace with a cozy armchair, a shelf full of her favourite books, a tub filled with some sort of essence (which she had no idea why it was there or what it was), so she ignored it, with an updated Marauder's map on the wall and a corner surrounded by candles with pictures of her parents. She looked at them and tears sprung to her eyes as she looked at their smiling faces.
She found a photo album and flicked through the pages. The photos were all of her parents, her and Harry playing together, and there were a few of her Uncle Jacob, Wisteria, Sirius and Remus as well. She hugged the book to her chest and started to cry.
She cried and cried, and at the end, she felt better after letting it all out.
She didn't go back to the common room that night. She stayed in the room, curled up on the armchair, clutching the album like her life depended on it.