Erin and Draco were sitting at their table at the ice cream parlor.
"They�ll be any minute," Erin said anxiously.
"Who are meeting again?" Draco asked.
"Only my best friends," Erin said letting her nervous state show, "Sorry. Their names are Ali and Kristen. You probably don�t Ali; she�s in Hufflepuff. Kristen�s in your house, though."
"Kristen, yes, she�s a bit slow, isn�t she? Not very good with spelling? And very forgetful?" Draco said airily.
"Yeah�" Erin said, "That�s Kristen."
"I said, �a hip-hop, hip-hop, anonymous!�"
Erin wheeled around in her chair, "Ali, Kristen, over here!"
"Hey Air, what�s up?" Ali asked. Kristen was staring at the sky.
"Nothing, I�m cool," Erin answered. She turned to Kristen, rolled her eyes, and then turned to Draco.
"Draco, I believe you already know Kristen. This is Ali Huff. Ali meet Draco; Draco, Ali.
"Hi," they both said not very enthusiastically.
"Draco, will be joining us?" Erin asked.
"Nope, thanks, though. I�m meeting Crabbe and Goyle here in a couple of minutes," Draco replied.
"OK, then, I�ll see you later," she said smiling.
Erin, Ali, and Kristen walked around the shops and decided to go into the pet shop.
"Erin, you are so lucky to be staying with him!" Kristen said rather jealously.
"I know," Erin said grinning from ear to ear.
"You know, Air, you can still stay with me," Ali said, not impressed with Draco like Erin and Kristen.
"I told you Ali," Erin said, "My dad said," she now put on a fake deep voice, "�We are under certain circumstances. This means you must stay with the Malfoys. I cannot explain it to you at the moment, but you must trust me.�" She now was talking in a more sarcastic voice, "Trust him? Yeah, the day I trust him is the day Kristen will be able to spell, reconnaissance."
"R... E� K� A� Uh� I�m not even going to try!" Kristen said.
"Well, you got the first two letters right." Erin said.
"Yes!" Kristen said.
"Erin, I think your dad�s crazy; come stay with me," Ali said plainly.
"I can�t," Erin said pleadingly, "His dad is worse than mine; he�d never let me go!"
"So you�re telling me this has nothing to do with Draco?" Ali asked suspiciously.
"Nope," Erin responded.
"Uh Huh," Kristen added.
"And you�re telling me that you haven�t flirted with him once?" Ali inquired further.
"What�s it to you?" Erin said feeling defensive.
"Oh come off it, Erin, you know what I mean!" Ali said.
"And what is that?" Erin asked frustrated.
"She�s talking about your little charm thingy or whatever it is!" Kristen yelled, obviously frustrated at both of them for not just saying it.
"Oh yeah," Erin said eyeing Ali up. "What about it?"
"Erin� I�m just worried about you! You can�t just keep using your little charm, whatever, to get guys to like you," Ali started, "You can�t go around toying with every cute guy�s feelings! You�re just going to end up hurting yourself?"
"So you think he�s cute, too?" Erin asked offhand.
"No and that�s beside the point!" Ali said frustrated.
"Alright, alright, ok," Erin said, "I�ll stop. Now can we talk about something else?"
"Yeah, sure," Ali said.
"Erin, when are you getting sorted?" Kristen asked.
"I think next Tuesday," Erin said idly, "I�m going to Hogwarts, to meet Professor Dumbledore and I�ll be sorted then."
"What house do you think you�ll be in?" Kristen asked. (Ali was looking at a litter of kittens)
"Kristen, I swear you can be such a dumb-ass. I just told you this like yesterday in my letter!" Erin said in disbelief.
"Short term memory; you have to remember that!" Kristen said.
"Yeah, alright," Erin said still in disbelief.
"Oh you guys, have either of you met that Granger girl?" Erin asked disgustedly.
"Yeah, I have a couple of classes with her," Kristen said.
"Me, too," Ali added.
"She�s a smarty-pants, know-it-all," Kristen said, but then added hastily, "No offense."
"Don�t worry about," Erin said.
"Yeah, she likes to draw attention to herself," Ali said.
"Well," Erin said, "We�ll just see about that"
According to Erin�s watch, it was now eight o�clock.
"Oh, man," Erin said gloomily, "I guess I should be getting back to the Malfoys."
"Alright, Erin," Ali said, "I guess we�ll see you on September first?"
"Yup," Erin said.
They hugged each other and said their final goodbyes.
"See you later," Erin said
"Buh bye!" Ali yelled.
"Owl me!" Kristen said as they each went their separate ways.
Erin walked around, looking for Draco and finally found him in a quidditch supplies store.
"Draco," she said, "Hey, what�s up?"
"Hey Erin," he said, "Oh this is Crabbe and Goyle."
"Hello, nice to meet you," she said smiling at them. (Uh OH!)
"So," Crabbe said, "This is the girl whom you�re not sure if you�" Draco had cut him off by elbowing him in the ribs.
"�Hi�" He said trying to breathe.
"Hey," Goyle grunted.
Then Erin remembered her promise to Ali and it was all she could do to stop from hitting herself on the head.
"So," she said, "What are you doing?"
"Laughing at all the losers who can�t afford the Firebolt 9000." He said laughing.
"Yeah," Erin couldn�t help from laughing, too, "You�d think they�d just move along after two hours of staring at it."
"Oh, wow, look at the time," Draco said, "Erin we really should be going."
"Alright, then," Erin said, "Nice meeting you," she said to Crabbe and Goyle.
"Yeah, I�ll see you guys later," Draco said. He and Erin walked out of the store.
"Do you think it�s safe to leave those two by themselves?" Erin asked nervously.
"What do you mean?" Draco said confused.
"I�m afraid they won�t be able to find their way back to their parents," Erin said.
"They probably won�t," Draco said laughing slightly, "Some one will find them, though."
They got home and ate dinner. After dinner, Erin and Draco went into the living room and decided to play a game of exploding snap. They ended up talking a lot more than playing.
They talked about everything, almost. Erin told Draco about her parents and about her life as a muggle. (With slight reluctance and with the utmost disgust.)
Draco told her about Hogwarts; about the different houses, the staff, the other students, and of course, quidditch.
They talked for hours. When they finally finished, they decided to go to bed. They walked up the steps, hand-in-hand. They got to Erin�s room. There was a pause.
"Good night," Erin finally said.
"Yeah, See you tomorrow, I guess," Draco said as he walked towards his room. He could�ve punched himself in the face.
He, Draco liking this girl? Especially a girl like this? It was unthinkable.
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