Before.

Hermione Granger smashed her face into her pillow and screamed; she felt like hitting something, or rather someone. She had promised herself she wouldn't cry but here she was, tears of frustration leaking into her pillow. Hermione felt pathetic. How could something as simple as a snide comment affect her so greatly? It shouldn't and that fact only made her want to cry more.

With one last hiccupping sob she was finished. She stood and unceremoniously threw the last of her belongings into her trunk before slamming it shut. It was when she turned that Hermione caught sight of her reflection in the mirror, puffy eyes, red blotchy skin, tear stained cheeks and bushy hair.

Hermione Granger had never felt uglier. Under her breath she cursed his name.

Draco Malfoy felt he had never looked better.

He ran a comb through his hair while admiring his reflection, behind him a wiry house elf (whose name was unbeknownst and of little importance to Draco) packed his school trunk. Draco was fully capable of packing for himself, in fact it would have been much faster, but he drew great enjoyment from watching the little elf struggle. Pip (for that was the house elf's name) had nearly finished when his master approached. He examined the elf's work for several seconds, it was organized and tidy which made no difference to Draco who was looking to have a little fun.

"Can't you do anything right?" Draco exclaimed, summoning as much ferocity as he could into one single sentence before kicking the trunk and scattering its contents across the floor, "Do it again, and do it right this time."

Ignoring the shaking elf Draco strutted out of the room, a cool smirk stretching across his face, today was a good day. As he walked down the long hallway he paused feeling momentarily disturbed, those words coming back to him—something that old hag had said to him in passing. Draco tried his best to shrug it off, it was nothing, and she meant nothing. Right?

Hermione dozed with her head propped against the window of the Hogwarts Express. She sat alone in the compartment, Luna and Neville had offered her a seat with them but Hermione had refused—she wanted to be alone. Spending the whole summer trying to find her parents had taken a lot of energy but in the end it had all been for nothing. It was as if they'd disappeared off the face of the earth. And it broke her heart.

The door to the compartment flew open with violent force startling Hermione awake. A pale young man stood with his back to the door his face completely drained of color.

It was none other than Draco Malfoy.

Out of reflex Hermione's hand went straight to her wand. It was clear however that Draco wasn't of much of a threat. Slowly he slid to the floor shaking ever so slightly. Hermione made no attempt to move or speak, hatred burned in her stomach, she simply stared at him coldly.

Malfoy started when he saw Hermione glowering from her seat by the window, he tried to regain some composer but failed quite miserably.

"Granger" was all he said, clearing his throat and attempting a sneer.

"Get out." Hermione replied flatly.

"Believe me I'd rather be almost anywhere but here. Almost anywhere"

Hermione bristled, drawing her wand from her cloak, "then get out, Malfoy."

"You don't understand" he said firmly, also drawing his wand, "I think someone's fallowing me"

Hermione scoffed and rolled her eyes in response.

"Listen you filthy little mudblood—"

"It's nice," Hermione interrupted, "to see that some people never really change"

Malfoy could see this wasn't getting him anywhere; he closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair.

Just the day before in Diagon Alley two things happened that would forever alter Draco Malfoy's life, although they seemed of little significant at the time.

Having run into Hermione in the street he said something quite horrible in passing—something that upset her a great deal. However, it being of such little importance Draco quickly forgot all about it.

In fact he wouldn't have thought of the incident again if it hadn't been for later that night just after the sun had gone down, he was passing through a particularly empty street when he heard his name. It came from a hunched over elderly woman who Draco had chosen to ignore up until that point. Her hand snaked out from a decidedly ratty cloak and clamped down on his wrist; Draco jerked back in attempt to free himself but to no avail.

"Draco Malfoy" she rasped, the cloak falling away from her face to reveal cross eyes, heavily wrinkled complexion and bulbous nose.

"Get off me hag" Draco exclaimed jerking wildly but this only made her smile showing several missing yellow teeth.

"I heard what you said to that girl"

Draco's heart skipped a beat, what girl? Then he remembered, she had to be talking about Granger, but what exactly had he said to her? He was grasping at straws.

"How the bloody hell do you know my name?"

"You are a very handsome young man" she went on ignoring him, "would you say looks are important to you?"

"Obviously" Draco sneered, "They're important to most people"

The hag let go of him, much to Draco's momentary relief. Then she was looking at him with clear blue eyes, no longer crossed.

"Best be careful Mr. Malfoy, one day you may lose your good looks" her voice was no longer raspy but soft. Before Draco could reply she was gone.

Draco had tried his best to shrug it off at first but the memory was there nagging at the back of his mind. He had seen her. He was sure of it, on the Hogwarts Express—her reflection in a window, somehow she looked different…younger perhaps but those piercing blue eyes remained the same. It scared Draco so bad he'd ducked into the first compartment he could find and that compartment just so happened to be occupied by the second to last person he wanted to see.

"Listen" he started in again, "Granger, I'm sorry—for whatever I said to you yesterday, I'm sorry for—for everything I've ever said to you, just please let me stay here and I promise I'll leave you alone"

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. She sat in stunned silence staring straight ahead. When Malfoy got up to leave, some of the color returning to his face, she finally spoke.

"You disgust me"

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think-EJ