Prologue



He sat there alone in the darkness of his room, thinking about Hogwarts. It had been a long summer for him. All he and his family did was go to London for a short trip to the Ministry of Magic. He thought is was just boring and there was nothing to do really. Unless you call boring magazines, and the Daily Prophet fun. He lay there, thinking about his friends Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He mainly thought about Hermione though. He liked her a lot, yet he couldn’t tell her, so he pretended not to like her so much. He sat up, walked across the room, and turned the light on. It was one in the morning, he couldn’t sleep, so he walked over to his desk, took out a quill, a piece of parchment, and began writing to Hermione.

He wrote how his summer had been going, and that he couldn’t wait to see her when he met up with her at the Burrow, Ron’s home. But as he sat there looking at it, he shook his head, tore the parchment, and threw it away. He was lonely. His parents weren’t there, they were away in London doing their business with the Ministry. His parents liked their jobs at the Ministry, but he would have preferred it if his parents were home more than they were away. True, they were home for a few weeks when he got home from school two months ago, but they had left three weeks later to go for some secret mission the Ministry was sending them on. He hated it that the Ministry did this, but he had to live with it.

His thoughts drifted to Hermione again. He had first noticed Hermione when they were starting their second year. He immediately fell for her. She was so beautiful and so wonderful that he found it hard not to think about her, especially during classes. He'd end up day dreaming. When he had asked her to the Yule Ball, she told him he missed his chance to ask and that someone already did. Alex was pretty upset to see that it was Krum she went with, but he, otherwise, didn't care as long as she was happy and she looked it. He looked down at his desk and came to a conclusion. He was going to ask her out this year. He couldn't take not being with her any longer. He had to be with her.

He looked around, then picked up another piece of parchment and wrote on it. It was a letter to Ron, it consisted of only eight words, followed by his signature:


Ron, can you ask your parents to come here and get me? My parents are on a secret mission thing for the Ministry of Magic and won't be home in time to see me off on the Hogwarts Express. So, ask them for me. Thanks.

Alex


With that, he tied it to his owl’s leg, and let the owl out the window. He walked over to the light, turned it off, and went to bed. This time, he fell asleep.