Hermione slammed her books down loudly onto a table in the Gryffindor common room. Harry and Ron exchanged looks darkly, but knew not to ask. She had been like this for a few weeks, ever since Ron had been dating Lavender. Neither of the boys really knew why. They assumed it was because Hermione resented the intrusion to their close knit group of 3 or because she did not like Lavender. Both of them were much too dense to realise it was because Hermione had liked Ron for ages, and had even considered telling him before she saw him and Lavender with each other's tongues down their throat. Even the memory now made her eyes prickle with faint tears. She raised a hand to her face and brushed them anyway, with a haughty sigh to cover up the fact she was upset.
A scroll and quill lay in front of her, along with her charms book. Page 57 was the homework, an essay on charmed objects and their advantages and disadvantages. Hermione knew, having read the Daily Prophet this morning, that there had been problems recently. Ever since You-Know-Who's come back had been admitted by the Ministry, people had been trying to protect themselves. This included objects that contained the shield charm, but the shields had been malfunctioning. Instead of preventing spells coming in, they prevented spells going out. It was an easy enough essay but Hermione was not in the mood. Particularly as Lavender had just crawled through the entrance of the common room, and thrown herself onto Ron. So, she collected up her stuff, dumped it in her bag and left.
'Hermione, where are you going?' Harry called to her, worried about the state his friend was in.
'Away. I need to get out of here,' she replied without looking back or waiting for him.
Hermione walked down corridors, not knowing where she was going. She passed Draco looking upset but did not give it too much thought. She bumped into Ginny and Dean, who seemed too wrapped up in each other to worry about her. Various students were hexing each other, not caring about the detentions they could get. Peeves was throwing flour bombs onto any first years, but Hermione did not think to stop him. She even saw Luna, who told her not to worry, as they wouldn't last anyway and to take the next left. She wasn't sure if Luna actually knew what was wrong or was just warning her about Snurkles or whatever they were called but it was the most useful thing she had heard all today so she took Luna's advice. It led to part of the castle she recognised. The Room of Requirement was near here. Maybe Luna did know what she was talking about.
And there it was, the door. Hermione took a nervous glance around, but there was no one around. She pushed the door open, and walked in. The room was as she had never seen it before. It was small, with nothing but a table in the middle that had a giant hour. It looked like a large version of the time turner she'd had three years ago. Hermione shrugged, got her wand out and repeated the words that were on inscribed on the hour glass. The Room of Requirement had always been a positive experience and she hoped it knew what it was doing now. Her wand expelled a bright pink light from the end that seemed to curl around the hour glass like ribbons. She nervously followed the light, and touched the hour glass. The minute she did, she felt a jerking sensation around her navel. 'Portkey' her brain thought, as her body was thrown. She landed, with a bump, back onto the cold floor of the Room of Requirement. Not fully understanding what had just happened, she pushed herself up and looked around. It looked almost the same as the room she had just left, with the exception of a boy about her age in the corner looking upset. At first glance, he looked handsome with dark messy hair and grey eyes you could get lost in. He gave her a startled look and wiped his eyes, immediately transforming from upset to angry.
'Who are you?'