Hi guys! This is the first chapter of what I hope will be a long story. I always appreciate feedback, so feel free to review. It's the summer now so updates should be quite frequent, no promises from the end of September however.

Hermione stared out of her bedroom window and watched as her twin brother Nial played outside with his friends, Miles Mulciber and Theon Flint. All three 10-year-old boys were on broomsticks and currently trying to throw quaffles through one of the three Quidditch hoops, situated to the left of the maze in Hermione's garden. None of the boys were impressed by the size of the Avery manor as not only had they seen it before, but they all lived in places of a similar calibre. However, to someone from a less affluent background the manor was extremely impressive. The building was made from stone and had many turrets protruding from various sides, and from these turrets one could clearly view the entire Avery estate which stretched for miles; the most prominent feature being the large maze that took up more than 10 acres of land on the property. However, the inside of the manor was inarguably more impressive, with the design emulating that of every other pureblood's home in the U.K. Everywhere you could look there were portraits and statues that were thousands of years old, and not a speck of dirt was present anywhere due to the work of the numerous house elves the Avery family owned.

Hermione felt as though she was the only person in the world that could not stand the manor, and when she was given the opportunity to design her own room she had of course jumped at the idea. Instead of the dark colours that featured prominently in the rest of the house, Hermione had opted for silvers and golds, and as her bedroom was in one of the turrets, she was able to turn one of the walls into a massive window overlooking the estate. Hermione's mother had of course not let Hermione have a sub-par room and so everything was overly ornate, but at least it was cheerful. The bed was a shimmering silver, with a gold bed frame, and all of the furniture was gold while the curtains and carpet matched the bed sheets. Hermione had had to promise that the amount of gold in no way meant she wanted to be in Gryffindor once she reached Hogwarts age. Hermione had decided that this small lie was preferable to the consequences were her parents to know that the gold represented exactly that.

Remaining on the window seat, Hermione turned away from watching her brother and looked back down to the book she was reading. No matter how hard she tried, she could not concentrate on the words swimming before her, as she was just too nervous. Hermione had never been overly confident and hated being the centre of attention, which was why the ball coming that night had made her feel sick for the last several days. Hermione had been a very sick child, and the doctors had not been convinced of her survival beyond her childhood years, and so for this reason her parents had decided to hide her existence. Had it been any normal disease her parents would probably have not been ashamed, but as it was, the disease could only be contracted by children of parents closely related to each other and while incest was a common occurrence among pure blood families, especially those of the sacred twenty-eight, it was still something to be hidden and left unacknowledged. It was not until Hermione was declared healed ('a miracle!' the doctors had exclaimed as no one had ever been known to fight the disease) that it had become a possibility for Hermione to be introduced into pure blood society. That night was going to be the first time Hermione had ever met anyone besides her brother, parents and house elves, and to say she was nervous was an understatement.

As Hermione had not been allowed to be around people, she developed an avid obsession with fiction and had read every fictitious book she could get her hands on. However, she could not stand non-fiction books and had often been told off by her father, who tutored her in his spare time so that she would not be behind her brother who had formal lessons three times a week with a tutor. Try as she might, Hermione just could not gain a passion for learning as she would much rather delve into a book and pretend she many friends, and boys falling at their feet for her. It was so much more exciting! The prospect of making actual friends that evening was the only thing Hermione was looking forward to. Whenever Nial had had friends round, Hermione was forced to go to her room and not be seen, but that would all change this evening!

Hermione let out a squeal of shock and promptly fell off her window seat as a loud POP sounded in her bedroom.

'Tiny is sorry miss!' Hermione's house elf exclaimed as she ran over to help Hermione stand.

'That's the fourth time I've injured myself this week,' Hermione grumbled as she stood up. 'It's not your fault Tiny, maybe one day I'll get used to magic.' Hermione was very clumsy person, and often hurt herself due to the unfortunate fact. Tiny happened to be the main reason for Hermione's shock as the elf had an uncanny ability to arrive at the times when Hermione was most distracted, or absorbed in her thoughts. Tiny was Hermione's personal house elf, given to her when she was a one-year-old as her mother had struggled to juggle being a socialite with a darling son, and also caring for Hermione while she was ill. Hermione loved Tiny as much as, if not more than, the rest of her family.

'Tiny is here to get you ready for ball, Miss Hermione!' Tiny squeaked enthusiastically, pulling her tattered cloth sleeve back up over her shoulder. Hermione gulped, she hadn't realised it was only two hours until the ball.

'Okay Tiny, will mum be coming to help?' Hermione questioned while walking to the bathroom attached to the bedroom, once more decorated in gold and silver.

'Miss has said she cannot come, she is too busy overseeing the decorating in the ball room,' Tiny said with a frown as she ran Hermione a bath.

'Oh'.

Hermione climbed into the bath and let Tiny wash her, spending extra time conditioning Hermione's hair which, while was only wavy, could turn itself into knots in a matter of seconds. Hermione had inherited the Avery hair trait of brown waves; the knots however were completely unique to her. Once Hermione was out of the bath and sat in her dressing gown while Tiny dried and curled Hermione's hair, she asked in a nervous whisper,

'Tiny, do you think I will make any friends?'

'Of course Miss will make friends!' Tiny exclaimed. 'Miss will be the belle of the ball and will no longer have to read her books.'

Hermione smiled at that, no matter how many friends she may make she would never stop reading. Two and a half hours later, Hermione was led over to the mirror by Tiny, who had assured her that while the guests were to arrive half an hour ago, Hermione still had ten minutes until her grand entrance. Hermione smiled when she saw herself; her usually manic hair had been calmed and turned into delicate ringlets that bounced as she turned this way and that in front of the mirror, accentuating her youthful features such as her round cheeks and wide, bright blue eyes (another Avery trait). Her straight cut dress fell to below her knees and was a deep forest green, picked by her mother, ever the slytherin. Hermione felt pretty as she twirled around in front of the mirror, like one of the older girls from the books she read, and she turned around to give Tiny a hug.

'You is looking beautiful, Miss,' Tiny beamed. 'It is being time for your entrance.'

Nervously, Hermione took Tiny's hand as the smile fell from her face and she headed towards the largest of the manor's ballrooms. Hermione's mother had informed her that all the pure-blooded children her age in the country were going to be there, blood traitors excluded of course. Hermione personally thought blood purity was ridiculous, and long ago promised herself should she be allowed to make a friend she wouldn't let a silly thing like blood stop her. Reaching the entrance of the ballroom Hermione met Nial, who was going to walk her down the stairs once she was introduced. As this could happen at any second she and her brother immediately took their position holding hands and looking straight ahead and Nial only had time to whisper 'I bet you trip down the steps,' before the doors swung open.

Gulping, Hermione looked down determinedly at her feet, desperate to make sure she didn't topple over and instantly forgetting her etiquette lessons. Rule number 12: always look up with your back straight, never at your feet. Once she made it down the marble staircase she looked up triumphantly only to immediately meet the glare of her mother. 'Oh yeah,' she thought, 'rule number 12'. Silence stretched out as Hermione looked around nervously, hundreds of eyes on her. Doing a quick curtsey once she remembered, Hermione let out a breath as music began to play and the focus was brought away from her.

'You have to walk around with mum for a bit while she introduces you to people, I'm gonna go find my friends,' Nial said dismissively as he wandered into the crowd.

'Nial wait!' Hermione hissed, but it was too late, her brother was gone. Hermione very suddenly wished she was back in her bedroom with her books as she felt her mother's hand clamp down on her shoulder. Hermione looked briefly up at her mother and saw a very fake smile plastered on her face, her blonde hair scraped back into a bun at the back of her head as she guided Hermione towards a group of adults, including Hermione's father.

'Remember your cover story,' her mother whispered as they neared. Hermione of course was not allowed to let anyone know the true reason for her anonymity in the wizarding world for all these years, and so instead her parents made up a story for her. If anyone were to ask, which was most likely, Hermione was to say that she had been in France with a distant cousin, so as to gain the more glamourous education system of Beauxbatons, a French wizarding school which you could only go to if you were brought up in the country. However, the untimely death of her cousin had sent her back into the arms of her loving parents who had simply missed their darling daughter too much to let her leave again. It was a good thing Hermione had been forced to become fluent in French since a young age, as was the case with most pure-blood children.

Hermione curtsied once more and half listened as the adults gushed over how cute she was, choosing to focus more on the ballroom. Hermione had never been here during an actual ball and was slightly disappointed by the lack of change. Her mother could not possibly have spent the whole day decorating the room as the inherently ornate ballroom, while impressive, looked the same as usual. The only change was the platform added with a string quartet playing classical music, and the table laden with expensive wines and champagne. Hermione was brought back to the conversation when she was directly addressed by a woman introduced as Walburga Black.

'So, Hermione, you are ten years old yes?' the woman asked sternly as she looked down at Hermione and scrutinised her, and Hermione was instantly scared of this woman with her pinched face and rigid posture.

'Yes mam,' Hermione replied quietly, itching to run off and find her brother, or just hide from the gaze of Walburga.

'So Hogwarts next year then, you should be in the same house as my son Sirius, he will join at the same time as you. Let's all hope she grows into her hair,' Walburga addressed this to the other adults instead of Hermione, who was busy feeling very sorry for the boy with such an unfortunate name as Sirius, although she herself could not talk with a name like Hermione. Hermione ignored the dig at her hair.

It was a long time before her mother allowed her to leave the adults and go in search of her brother, only due to Hermione's constant zoning out of the conversations. Hermione knew she would be in trouble but the social pandering was extremely boring. She had never heard her mother laugh so much at blatantly unfunny jokes made by Abraxas Malfoy, he must be very important.

Hermione soon found her brother among a large group of people her own age and went over with trepidation. She tugged on Nial's sleeve, interrupting him as the eyes of seven children turned to look at her.

Nial sighed at the interruption and turned to face his friends, 'Everyone, this is my twin sister Hermione.'

While the introduction was lacking, Hermione had been dreaming of making a friend all her life and was not going to turn down this opportunity. Turning on her best smile Hermione looked around the circle of people and stuck her hand out at the nearest girl, 'Hi!' she exclaimed.

The girl smiled hesitantly and shook Hermione's hand, 'Hi, I'm Daisy Parkinson.'

Hermione went to say something else but was immediately talked over by her brother.

'As I was saying,' Nial carried on. 'Me and Miles were hid around the corner, and Theon guided the elf to where we were. When we jumped out the elf was so scared it fainted!' At this point, every child present began to laugh but Hermione looked at him in horror.

'NIAL!' She shouted over the laughter, despite knowing she should keep quiet. 'That's a horrible thing to do!'

A boy that Hermione recognised as Nial's friend Miles glared at her, 'No it wasn't, they're elves.'

'So?' Hermione challenged Miles, 'they have feelings and you were mean to one. You acted like a bully!' Hermione knew that this would not go down well, but while she wanted to make friends, the one that she did have was an elf and the thought of someone being mean to Tiny like that made her see red.

At this point, Daisy interrupted, 'At least he's not some freak from France! Honestly Nial, your sister is so weird.'

'All I did was defend a house elf!' Hermione was very confused about how this escalated so quickly, surely they should be on her side. She looked to her brother for him to defend her, but he was glaring at her along with all of the other children.

'Hermione, you should go,' Nial said to her, 'I'm gonna tell mum about this.'

Hermione looked at him with wide eyes filling with angry tears before she ran off as quickly as she could. Wiping the tears away quickly so no one would see, Hermione knew she could not leave the ball as her mum would ask why. Hermione's mother was sure to Nial's side, she always did.

After such a horrible experience, Hermione decided to make the most of the lack of supervision and headed to the table of alcoholic drinks which the muggles in her books seemed to enjoy. Looking around quickly to make sure she wasn't seen, Hermione grabbed a glass of something glittery and ducked under the table, hidden by the white table cloth. Hermione had learned to entertain herself after all these years in the manor not allowed to see people and so had gained a slight disregard for the rules that, while she found healthy, was not enjoyed by the rest of her family. Hermione loved the thrill of doing things she wasn't supposed to, and a table full of forbidden substances was not to be missed. Especially after that friend making fiasco.

Sitting down cross legged, Hermione was about to try the drink when a sudden voice shocked her.

'I can see your knickers.'

Hermione let out a yelp before a hand clamped down on her mouth. A boy her age was staring back at her. The boy had black hair that for pure bloods was long, as it touched his ears; his eyes were a steely grey, lightened by the twinkle of mischief hidden in their depths. He had very aristocratic features despite his slightly chubby cheeks and Hermione could tell he was brought up to be taught that he was important. Hermione licked his hand and it was his turn to yelp as he snatched his hand back and glared at her, before they made eye contact and both began to laugh, quietly so they wouldn't be caught by adults nearby. Hermione adjusted her dress to go over her knees before asking the boy, 'what are you doing under here?'

'The same as you,' The boy gestured to a similar drink in his hand. 'You're Hermione Avery?' He asked, and when she nodded he scowled, 'so it's your fault that I have been dragged to this thing.'

Hermione was mildly offended, but after the previous encounter she held her tongue and instead decided to try a sip of the sparkly drink.

'EUGHH!' Hermione spat out the drink immediately, if this was what adults drank they could keep it. She looked over to see the boy laughing, and was extremely embarrassed that she had once again forgotten her etiquette lessons. Hopefully the boy wouldn't tell on her, but that drink really was awful.

Once the boy had finished laughing he looked over to Hermione and stated, 'I like you. You're very unpurebloody.'

'I don't think that's a word,' Hermione said, but smiled all the same. She was making a friend! Even if the boy was quite rude, at least he wasn't mean like that Daisy person. Hermione was also secretly pleased to be called 'unpurebloody' and wondered if she had met someone who felt the same as her about blood purity.

'So what's with the tear tracks on your face?' The boy asked, and while Hermione was embarrassed that he could tell she had been crying, she so desperately wanted to trust him and make a friend that she decided to tell him about her fight with the other children.

'Yeah, Daisy Parkinson is a complete cow and her brother is worse, I don't like any of them really. Your brother included, no offence.' The boy replied after she had finished her story, and Hermione did not take offence, she didn't like her brother right now either. 'But you must have met people like her before in France?'

Hermione blushed at this, 'I actually haven't ever met people my age before, except my brother. But I don't think he likes me very much,' Hermione left out that she'd never met people of any age to stick to her cover story. The boy's eyes grew large at this.

'So you've never had a friend?' He asked. When Hermione looked away embarrassed he continued. 'I haven't either.' Hermione turned back to him incredulously. 'That's the real reason I'm under here, I can't stand any of these people. The only one I like is my younger brother Reg. He hangs around with all of them though.' Sirius said 'them' as though it was a dirty word.

'Why don't you have any friends?' Hermione asked.

'Why don't you?' He shot back defensively.

'Hermione sighed, 'I always thought it was because I hadn't met anyone to be friends with, but maybe my mother is right. She thinks I don't act like a proper pure blood.'

The boy grinned, 'Well that's good cus my mum says the same thing about me!' Hermione beamed at him. 'We should be friends, and protect each other from the other children.' As he said this last sentence he wiggled his fingers in an overdramatic fashion that made Hermione laugh loudly.

Suddenly, the table cloth lifted slightly to reveal an old man peering at the two children. Hermione immediately hid the alcoholic drink in her hand behind her back, but the boy merely grinned at the man, who grinned back.

'Hey Uncle Alph.'

'Your mother is looking for you boy. It's time to go, and don't let her catch you under here.' The man disappeared and the boy turned to look at Hermione.

'Well, this is my cue to leave. I'll see you at the next one of these.' He made to leave but Hermione stopped him.

'Wait! What's your name?'

'Sirius Black,' Sirius replied with a smirk, and Hermione looked at him pityingly. 'What?' Sirius asked.

'I've met your mother.' Sirius laughed loudly at this and winked, before he ducked out from under the table and disappeared.

Hermione exited from under the table soon after, cheered up from the horrible start of the ball. Hermione had not realised how late it was, as only a few people remained in the room, saying goodbye to Hermione's mother. As they began to leave, Hermione sidled to the door in an attempt to escape from her mother. No such luck. One look froze Hermione in place and she could tell her brother had told on her already.

Later that night, Hermione lay in bed thinking about her day. She had made her first friend! Hermione even decided fighting with her brother's friends had been worth being told off by her mum, for if she hadn't she might not have met Sirius. She was so excited to see him again.

After their first meeting, they kept bumping into each other over the next year and a half. Hermione had not realised just how many social occasions one could attend, and began to understand why she was so often in the manor alone before her illness cleared. At every social gathering Sirius and Hermione could be seen huddled together in a corner, one or both of them usually laughing heartily. Most of the time they were either discussing Hogwarts (after they had both received their letters) or were laughing due to the game the two had made up to play. They would pick two people and each play one of them, making up what they were saying.

At one of the Malfoy events, Sirius had picked his own parents for the two to play and it had the two laughing manically.

'Ah yes, my wife, I do agree that Abraxas Malfoy looks like he's stepped in shit!' Sirius exclaimed in a very deep voice to emulate his father, and Hermione couldn't keep from laughing, more out of shock at the swear word than the phrase he was saying. They had both badly caught the giggles, and were unable to stop them as they did not notice a group of three boys march over.

When Hermione caught sight of the boys her laughter stopped, as did Sirius'. Hermione grabbed Sirius' hand, as she had taken to doing as they grew closer; Sirius found he did not mind it as neither child received much physical contact from their parents at home.

'Hey Herm,' Nial said, using a nickname he knew Hermione hated. Hermione did not know why but her brother greatly disliked Sirius, and ever since he and Hermione became close her brother had been more irritating towards her.

'Don't call me that Nial,' Hermione said, annoyed that her time with her friend was being taken away.

'What are you and Black doing anyway?' Nial asked, ignoring her previous statement.

Hermione went to answer her brother but was interrupted by Sirius. 'It's none of your business Avery,' he said with a glare, and Hermione knew the anger was due to her telling Sirius about Nial and his friends teasing her when they came over to the Avery manor. Hermione had not realised Sirius would be so angry when she told him, but she secretly liked that she had a friend that would stick up for her, and that someone had a temper worse than hers.

'What goes on with my little sister is always my business, Black.' Avery accentuated Sirius' last name as he directed his gaze to him.

'I'm only seven minutes younger than you!' Hermione cried.

Sirius and Nial both ignored Hermione as Sirius said, 'It's not your business if you're mean to her. Big brothers shouldn't do that.' At this, Avery's smirk dropped and he took a step towards Sirius.

'Watch what you say, Black, there's three of us and one of you.' At this, Hermione's temper flared and she shoved her brother backwards. What was she? A Cornish pixie? Not expecting it, Nial fell to the floor and looked up at his sister in shock. Clambering to his feet he glared at Hermione, 'you are in so much trouble.'

'RUN!' Hermione shouted as she grabbed Sirius and pulled him from the ballroom, bumping into people and causing them to spill their drinks as they ducked and weaved through the crowd. They ran until they could no longer hear the guests of the house, taking twists and turns, going up and down stairs until they were safe.

'Why did you do that?!' They both shouted at each other at the same time, once they had caught their breath.

'JINX!' Hermione exclaimed, and they both forgot their anger at each other as Sirius asked,

'What's Jinx?'

''You have to say it when you both say the same thing and then the person who said it last can't speak until you say their full name, I read it in a book,' Hermione explained.

'Wicked.'

'Hey that's speaking!' At this Sirius gave Hermione his best puppy dog eyes, they were very convincing and Hermione knew that the Jinx game was going to be rigged. Hermione huffed but relented, 'Sirius Orion Black, you may speak. But seriously, why did you get so angry at Nial? And oh my god! I pushed him!'

At that Sirius laughed, 'Did you see his face?'

Hermione smiled slightly at that, it was quite funny to see him look so shocked after all. 'We're going to be in so much trouble,' she continued, but she couldn't work up the enthusiasm to be scared of her mother, this wasn't the first time she and Sirius had gotten into trouble; it was the first time it had become physical though.

'If she kills you, come back as a ghost and I'll visit,' Sirius said with a wink and Hermione began to laugh again. 'Now onto a more serious topic, pun intended. We will be catching the Hogwarts Express in less than one week, and it you do not sit with me I will write to your mother and tell her it was you that accidentally caused the chandelier to drop at the Flint's wedding anniversary.'

'But that was you!' Hermione cried in outrage.

'I know,' Sirius grinned.

'If I don't get sorted into Slytherin you won't need to write home to my mum anyway, I'll already be dead by Nial,' Hermione said with a frown. Both had made it known to each other that while neither wanted to be in Slytherin, it was most likely they would be.

'As long as either both of us are or neither of us are, we'll be okay Mione,' Sirius said as he grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her back in the direction of the ballroom, using the nickname for the first time. Hermione liked it a lot better than Herms. 'I go second so if you're in Slytherin I'll think really Slytherin thoughts so we stay together.'

Hermione laughed, touched that Sirius would sacrifice himself to make sure they stayed together. 'Sirius? Promise we'll stay best friends forever?' Hermione asked him as they neared the ballroom.

'Obviously…. Herms,'

'I take it back.'

'Aw Herms I'm sorry!' Sirius made to wrap his arms around Hermione but she squealed and danced backwards. Unfortunately, her famous clumsiness caused her to trip on the corner of the rug and as she flailed, her hand knocked something. Fortunately, Sirius caught her, unfortunately, she had knocked Lady Malfoy and caused her to spill bright red wine all down her white dress. Sirius and Hermione froze as the Lady of the house turned to slowly look at the two eleven year olds.

'Is it time to run again?' Hermione whispered.