Title: It's Not a Game

Author: Tessa1440

Rating: Pg13 (just in case )

Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own anything except the plot (kind of) and any characters I may introduce.

Prologue-First Sight

Hermione slipped through the barrier to Platform 9 3/4 after waving good-bye to her parents, surprised that it was as easy as her books, and the woman from the Ministry of Magic, had promised her. It was her very first year at Hogwarts and she knew that with all of her precious books she had gotten from Diagon Alley over the summer, she was as well informed about the wizarding world as any non-muggleborn witch or wizard.

She glanced around, slightly nervous around the witches and wizards that surrounded her. She dragged her trunk over to the train and stopped at one of the doors, trying to figure out how she was going to get it onto the train.

"Hey, you need a hand?" Hermione turned to see two red-headed boys, about fifteen, standing behind her.

"Yeah," she replied gratefully. They grabbed the handles of her trunk and hefted it up onto their shoulders and carried the trunk up onto the train. They lugged the trunk into the third compartment on the left and boosted it up onto the rack. They turned towards her and with a grin and a mock bow, they introduced themselves.

"I'm Fred Weasley," said the one on the left. "And this is my twin brother, George."

"I'm Hermione Granger. Thanks for helping me!" She smiled and answered their bows with a small curtsy.

"I have a feeling," Fred started.

"That we are all going to like you," George finished.

Hermione stared at the blonde boy standing a few meters ahead of her. She, and the rest of the first years, were boarding the boats that were to take them over to the castle. The boy in question was talking and laughing animatedly with two suspiciously stupid looking boys. He flipped his hair out of his face and grinned an especially charming smile.

She stared at him with a dreamy smile and slipped past the people standing in between the two of them. When she was close enough that she could have touched his platinum blonde hair, if she had wanted to, she hid behind a particularly tall Italian.

She could hear him talking. He had such a smooth voice, a soft drawl. "Crabbe, Goyle, isn't this place amazing? I can't believe I'm finally here. I've been waiting for this ever since my mum showed me those pictures when she and dad were at Hogwarts."

He looked so excited, like a child at Christmas. And when he laughed, she fell in love.

They were standing in a small room, crowded close together, too scared to move any farther apart. Hermione sidled up to the blonde she was fairly sure had stolen her heart. He smiled, just as nervous as everyone else who was crowded into the waiting room.

"I'm Hermione Granger," she whispered softly, quietly enough that he had to move his head within inches of her own. She smiled secretly, and smothered a nervous, yet happy, giggle.

"Draco Malfoy," he said, still as nervous as he has been, yet conveying an air of importance, as though he expected her to recognize the name. She remembered reading his surname once or twice in some of her more recently written books, but she couldn't place it. Just then the teacher who had left them in the room came back in. The professor led them out of the room and into the… what was it called again? Yes, the Great Hall. She gasped when she saw the enchanted ceiling and the floating candles.

When Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her head and it announced that she would do her best in the Gryffindor house she was thrilled. She had hoped that this would be the result, that or Ravenclaw. She held her breath and crossed her fingers when Draco's name was called. She hoped that the hat would call out the same word it had called for her. But all her wishing was for nothing. The Sorting Hat had barely been on his head when it called out triumphantly, "Slytherin!"

It was at that moment that she knew there was no way Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy could ever be together.

Because it was then that she remembered where she had heard the name Malfoy. The Malfoy's were a very prominent pureblood family who despised muggleborns, or as they called them, Mudbloods.

Hey, it's Tessa! Kind of a cliché (and very short) start, but I promise it will get better! I'm hoping that the next chapter will be up sometime tomorrow, but it depends on the whims of my very independent imagination.

Love it? Hate it? Indifferent? Leave a review!

Love,

Tessa