Chapter 1

A/N: Why hello there. Here's my new story! I just hope you guys like it, and if you have any other suggestions for titles, please don't hesitate to email me. Thanks.

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Hermione woke up from her deep slumber to see the early morning sun pouring in through her window. 'Damn.' She thought, looking at her clock.

She got up and changed, getting ready to meet her cousin, Cara, for some more early morning training. She then looked at her calendar, and nearly jumped for joy. It was very nearly September 1st.

She threw on some running pants and a tshirt, running down the stairs while pulling her bushy hair back out of her face with an elastic.

When she reached the front door of her house, Cara was sitting on her porch, tapping her foot in annoyance and glancing at her watch every couple of seconds.

Hermione smiled. How like her. When she opened the front door, Cara jumped up, eager to go.

"Alrighty, 'Mione, let's get going… you're almost a minute late." Yes, this was definitely Cara. Exercise freak extraordinare, the girl was almost Hermione's opposite.

She stood at about 6 feet, with long, pin straight, dark red hair. She had sharper features than her soft-faced cousin, and her almond shaped green eyes held all of her emotions. When she was angry, she was almost as frightening as Harry himself.

Hermione giggled, and started stretching. "So, you excited for your first day, Care?" she asked, looking up at her cousin from her awkward position on the ground.

Cara just smiled. "You bet. And so totally ready to meet all the GORGEOUS boys at your school, too," she giggled, sighing dreamily. Yes, Cara was most definitely Hermione's opposite.

"Okay, ready," she smiled, bounding down the front steps, "betcha can't catch me!" she laughed, taking off down the path into the woods beside her house.

That statement would have been false at the beginning of the summer, but now that she'd been running for 3 months, she was almost a perfect match for her cousin. Cara just took off after her cousin, laughing the whole way. The chase was on.

After a good two hours of running through the forest, both girls were refreshed and ready to face the day.

Hermoine sighed again, looking at the kitchen calendar. They still had to do all their school shopping. Now that was something Cara couldn't disagree with.

"Hey, Care, we still need to get a few things before school starts… do you wanna go shopping?" She asked, knowing the answer before the question was even out of her mouth.

"Oh dear god, yes." Cara agreed happily, again the perfect example of a 17 year old girl. "Well, we have to get books and stuff too, you know, right?" Hermoine asked, predicting the crestfallen look on her cousin's face. All of a sudden, that look was gone, just to be replaced by a smirk so frightening it could rival Malfoy's in the fear that it struck in Hermione's heart. "Oh man. No. No way. I am NOT letting you give me a makeover Cara. Don't you dare." Sadly, Cara did dare.

Hermione dropped onto her bed, totally exhausted. Nothing could make her this exhausted. Nothing but shopping and makeovers. At least Cara had fixed that mess that Hermione had called hair. Well, she hadn't really done much with it… other than cut it all off. Now it fell to her chin, and the back was cut in an A line, eliminating any possibility of bushiness. Now t hat it was all gone, she felt like a different person. It was so surreal. AS she looked at herself in the mirror, she had the fleeting thought that not even Harry and Ron would recognize her.

'Whatever, at least I don't look like a poodle anymore.' She thought, happily.

While she lay in bed, waiting for sleep to take her, she thought about the day's events, pulling out a little green bound book with her initials embossed in silver on the front. She pulled out a quill, and started to write.

She and Cara had gone to Diagon Alley to get new school supplies and such. First, they went to a wizarding hair salon, and Cara had blindfolded her, so she wouldn't protest when they started chopping off all her hair. She hadn't been allowed to look afterwards, either, so the only thing she knew was that her head felt much lighter than normal.

The next stop was Madame Malkins, for new school robes and dress robes. After that, Cara decided that none of the other clothing shops were quite nice enough, so they stopped into Muggle London to get lunch and more clothes.

Now, Hermione had always come from a wealthy family, as both her parents were dentists, but they had never really shown off that wealth, and they just bought what they needed, rarely more. Cara's family, on the other hand, loved to spend money. They were filthy rich, probably close to or richer than the Malfoys, but they preferred to stay quieter in the Wizarding world, as they were a pure-blooded family with no allegiance whatsoever to Voldemort.

Cara, having grown up in this mindset, was fully prepared to spend as much money as she could on this shopping expedition. Naturally, the first store they went into was one of those crazy expensive, highly regarded Muggle designer clothing stores, and as she was dragged in by an overly enthusiastic 17 year old, Hermione Granger could not have been more trepidatious should she have tried.

Immediately, she gravitated towards the older fashions, things that she was surprised they continued to sell here. These things were more her style. Loose-fitting and frumpy, Hermione felt right at home in the old lady's section of the store. Seeing this, Cara came over right away, leading her fashion ignorant cousin to the newest and most flattering pieces in the place.

After what seemed like hours of being waited on hand and foot, Hermione was becoming tired of the entire experience. She had tried on what felt like thousands of outfits, and to be honest, she never thought that it was possible for her to look so good in clothes.

After running and training all summer, Hermione's body was in top condition, and she had lost all the baby fat that had remained on her body from reading books all day in her favorite chair in the Hogwarts library.

She had never really known her size in anything, preferring to just grab whatever was on the rack closest to her that looked semi-appealing, and after making sure it wasn't too tight or small, she would buy it. Now, she had been informed that she was a size 3, which surprised her, as she had estimated that she was a size 6 or 7 at least.

Cara finally came out of the change room with her last outfit, bought everything she wanted, and somehow managed to convince Hermione to do the same. When Hermione insisted that she only really wanted one outfit, Cara stayed for a few moments, and asked the cashier to just charge all the other outfits to her own account later.

An hour and fourty-five minutes later, with five gorgeous dresses and at least 20 outfits later, the two girls stopped for lunch at a cute little café in Muggle London.

Hermione sighed, remembering the events of the day all over again. It had been surreal for her, sure, but what had happened next had just baffled her.

When Cara and Hermione sat down for lunch, she felt as though they were being eyed like pieces of meat. As she had never really received this kind of attention from men before, Hermione was rightfully uncomfortable.

Somehow, she managed to order her drink normally, without getting up and running as fast as she could. No matter how hard she tried, she didn't think she'd ever get used to being looked at like that.

Thankfully, none of the men came up to them, but when Hermione saw the man walking towards their table, she almost wished that every man in the vicinity had offered her drinks, and come to sit at their table. Every single man but the one with his eyes locked on her, seemingly set to ruin her day.

There, in the middle of London, was Draco Malfoy, ferret extraordinare, looking every inch the high-ranking pureblood that he was.