As much as we would like to, neither of us own Harry Potter

Chapter 1

Hermione Granger woke with a start to find herself on the Hogwarts Express. Next to her, Harry and Ron were playing a game of chess, and Ginny was sitting next to Harry, petting Crookshanks. Hermione smiled. It had taken so much work to get those two together, but it was so worth it when you saw them together…..Hermione's mind suddenly came back to what she had been thinking about before she started thinking about her friend's love lives. It had been the dream. She had been having that same dream all summer. At first she blamed it on the atmosphere in Grimmauld Place (though it was much better than it had originally been, it was still creepy in some places) or nerves about exam results. But much to her surprise and unhappiness, this particular dream continued to visit her every night. It was always the same. She was wandering around what she guessed was the Hogwarts' grounds, searching by her favorite weeping willow for something. In the dream, Hermione continued to search and when she finally found her favorite tree and ducked under the branches, feeling that sort of desperateness that comes when you've been looking frantically for something and you're on your last hope of finding it, only find a small white envelope on the ground at the bass of the trunk and to feel a sadness and fear so strong that it shook her to the core. Hermione would sob and call out to someone, but they never came. Left alone, she sank to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably and clutching the little white envelope to her chest. More often than not, Hermione had wakened from these dreams to find that her eyes were wet from crying and that her hands were shaking. No matter what, this disturbing dream continued to chase her always ending with her sprawled on the ground sobbing and holding that little white envelope like it was a life vest and she was lost at sea.

Looking up, Hermione saw that everyone in the compartment was staring at her. "You alright Hermione," Ron asked nervously (Ron had never been good with ill or injured people, especially when it involved vomit or blood); "you look rather pale…"

"I'm fine Ron!" Hermione lied quickly. No one bought it.

"Stop it Hermione!" Ginny said in a concerned voice. "We heard you muttering in your sleep and you look like you're about to cry."

"I'm fine!" Hermione repeated firmly, looking from one concerned face to another. "It was just a dream…" 'Yeah, a dream that I've been having for the past 2 months non-stop!' she thought sarcastically to herself bitterly.

"Well, if you're sure…" Harry said in a slow, concerned voice staring at Hermione worriedly, cocking his head to the side in a way that Ginny loved.

"Completely sure, absolutely positive! I suppose we'll be there soon, do you think they'll have cheesecake?" Hermione said in a chipper voice, but even in her own ears, the words sounded forced and cheesy.

They finally arrived at Hogwarts and made it through the pouring rain to where the carriages would pick them up. After Ginny departed from the group to find other 5th years, Harry, Ron, and Hermione waited in the rain. Suddenly, a rampaging carriage came flying down the path headed straight for Hermione! Thought she commanded herself to move, she couldn't, she was rooted to the spot in fear! And just before the carriage closed the gap between itself and its victim, Hermione was pushed to the side. She landed in the mud with someone lying on top of her. This "someone" was cursing quite loudly, and finally looked down at her with concern in his grey eyes.

"Granger! Granger, can you hear me? Granger come on get up! Hermione!"

Hermione looked up when she heard the anguished break in her rescuer's voice. Startled, she looked up to see the grey eyes of Draco Malfoy staring down at her with a look of fear and concern that Hermione wouldn't have thought possible for the Slytherin Ice Prince. Seeing her blinking up at him, Malfoy smiled in relief.

"You almost gave me a heart attack," he whispered to her gently, "when I saw that carriage hurtling towards you…Why didn't you move?!" He asked in a voice that was almost angry.

Shocked, Hermione looked at him and said "I couldn't move my feet…" She looked down, hating how vulnerable she felt.

"Well you best be more careful from now on!" Draco scolded in a playful tone that caught Hermione off guard again. "Wouldn't want to lose you now would I?" he continued, tucking a muddy strand of hair behind her ears.

"Hermione!" suddenly, Harry and Ron were next to her and were all talking at once. "Are you hurt? What happened? Why didn't you move out off the way?!" It was only then that Hermione realized all of the people around her look at her with concern and shouting all at once. For some reason, however, all Hermione could do was look at those abnormally concerned eyes that wouldn't leave her wide brown ones. Finally Ron asked in an irritable voice, "Will you get off her now Malfoy? Hermione can't get up with you lying on top of her like that!"

Unwillingly, Draco slid his eyes from Hermione to Ron and said, "Of course Weasley. I didn't realize that even after breaking up, you were still so protective of her." He got up off Hermione and pulled her to her feet. Ron quickly took Hermione before Draco could do anything else.

"Come on Hermione, let's get up to the castle, you're soaked."

"Ron, I'm fine, really. You don't have to-" but it was no use arguing so Hermione let herself be dragged along by Ron as Harry flagged down a carriage for them. Looking over her shoulder, Hermione saw with a pang of sadness almost like the one in her dream as she saw that Malfoy had melted in with the rest of the students milling around the platform and was out of sight.

After insisting that she needed to shower and change before dinner, Hermione walked up to the common room while Ron and Harry went to tell Professor McGonagall where she had gone. Ron had been particularly difficult to shake off, but finally Harry had managed to get him off of her with a grateful look form Hermione. She liked Ron just fine but he still seemed to fancy her even after she had let him down in July. As she walked over to her bed (feeling happy for once that the House Elves had done some work and brought up her trunk already, though Professor McGonagall had probably asked them to do it for her) Hermione was surprised to find a black rose sitting on her pillow with a note tied to it. After being sure not to stab herself with the thorns on the flower, she read the writing on the note.

I will be gone for the weekend visiting family. I'll be back on the first day of term. Please be safe while I'm gone.

Hermione stared at the rose for a few moments, and then put it in a vase beside her bed. As she got into the steaming water of the shower, Hermione contemplated the strange note's meaning and realized that the sadness that she had been feeling was gone, and that it had nothing to do with the hot shower. -----

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A/N: Read and Review please!!!