Howdy!

In case you haven’t learned yet, I’m the worst updater in the world, no matter how regular I try to be. I hope I haven’t lost my two readers. No, I’m not kidding, only 2.

To GinnyLover14: I do support the cannon relationships, and most of the plot that JKR established will still be set, but as I have learned while outlining what I’ll do with this story, adding even one character can change so much, so bear with me, because there will be significant changes.

To hnicoleee: I really liked your stories, and I hope you repost them…

(Sorcerer’s Stone)

Chapter Four

When Ashley and Hagrid returned back at the Burrow, it was very late at night. Except for the kitchen, all the lights were off in the house.

“Thanks Hagrid,” Ashley said brightly. “Everything was brilliant!”

“Yer Welcome Ashley…” Hagrid said, clapping her on the shoulder, making her knees buckle. “I’ll see you at Hogwarts then?”

“Defiantly,” Ash smiled, then she turned and walked in the front door.

“Oh Ashley, dear you’re home…” Molly exclaimed, rushing to the front door. “I didn’t hear you coming! Arthur, Ashley’s back!” Ashley almost laughed, knowing that her mother had probably bee watching out the window all day.

“Molly, honestly, let the girl breathe,” Arthur chuckled, seeing the fuss his wife was making over Ashley. Molly stepped back and rolled her eyes.

“Right then,” she said. “How was it?”

“It was great Mum…” Ashley said, faking a long yawn. “But I’m really tired; can we talk about all of this in the morning?”

“Of course dear, you go on to bed…” Ashley nodded, said goodnight to her parents, and rushed up the stairs to almost the very top of the house. She knocked on the door before walking in (a habit she and Ron had spent months perfecting when they were younger) and saw Ron asleep on his bed, snoring loudly.

Ashley couldn’t contain her excitement any longer. She ran over and jumped on Ron’s bed, startling him awake.

“Geoffme…..” Ron grumbled. Ashley laughed.

“Fine, I won’t tell you all about my day today…” she said. Ron said something that sounded like ‘go away’ into his pillow. “I met Harry Potter.”

“You what?” Ron sat up and nearly fell off the bed. Now she had his attention.

“I. Met. Harry. Potter!” she squealed, putting her hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. She was supposed to be in bed after all. “He was perfectly normal, Ron. And he didn’t know ANYTHING about magic! Anything at all! When I first met him, he didn’t even know I existed!” Ron put his had over Ashley’s mouth as he heard the obvious sounds of Mrs. Weasley’s footsteps in the hall.

“Tell me more tomorrow,” Ron whispered, and Ashley ran over to her bed, flying under her sheets just as the bedroom door opened.

Both Ashley and Ron turned and faced the walls, so that Molly couldn’t see that they were awake. She made a tutting noise as she stepped over the mess on Ronald’s side of the room, finally reaching Ashley. She laid a handful of gifts on her bedside table, unable to give Ashley her birthday gifts on her actual birthday due to recent events. Molly reached down and ran her hand over Ashley’s auburn hair.

“Seems like only yesterday…” she sighed, kissing Ashley’s temple. Then she walked over to Ron’s bed and did the same. Then, quietly as she could, she left. The two stayed quiet for a moment, as Molly entered Ginny’s room before heading back downstairs.

“Happy Birthday Ashley,” Ron whispered across the room. “Glad you finally got your birthday wish.”

“Thanks Ron,” she whispered back before falling asleep. “Me too.”

August seemed to be the fastest month of Ashley Potter’s life. All of the sudden, Molly was running around on the night of August the 31st, making sure that Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ashley all had clean socks and underwear, their school books were together, and their trunks were packed and by the door.

Ashley and Ron stood back as Ginny stormed by them in the kitchen, stomping loudly up each stair and toward her room where she slammed the door, making the house shake.

“Mum and Dad just said she couldn’t go to Hogwarts this year.” George informed the other two.

“Poor Gin, gunna be here all by herself for a year…” Ashley said, grabbing her clean clothes out of the laundry room.

“Yea, sucks for her…” said Fred absently, then he handed Ashley a purple sweet. “Ash, taste this and tell me what happens,” Ashley simply laughed.

“How stupid do I really look Fred?” Ashley looked at the twins skeptically.

“I’ll try it,” Ron said, taking the sweet from Ashley.

“That answer you Ash?” George asked. Ashley rolled her eyes and went upstairs and put her laundry in her trunk. She looked in her trunk and saw the first hand text books that she was allowed to get with the money from her and Harry’s vault at Gringotts. She looked over to Ron’s bed, where his second hand books were sprawled across the bed. They were really tattered and torn.

Without thinking twice, Ashley snatched up her books and opened them, writing Ron’s name in the cover of each of them. Then she took his books and wrote her name in the covers. Then she took the second-hand books and put them neatly in her trunk. She smiled to herself: Ron deserved at least one thing that wasn’t a hand-me-down.