Chapter 1

No Distractions

It wasn't the first time someone broke into Hermione Granger's locker.

Once again, they'd cut the lock designed to keep people out, and left it hanging like it been open by Hermione's own key. She usually knew what was waiting for her when she opened it, only this time she'd seen it from down the corridor.

Several amounts of paint had been poured inside her locker, dripping through the slot and down to the floor. She guessed the culprits had found their way into Professor Trewlaneys office, where the teacher kept her art supplies. She suspected this since she recognized the brand on the jar they'd left behind.

This time it was oil paint. The few things she kept in there were soaked in dark green paint and completely destroyed, and of course, someone had written the word FILTH with a black permanent marker on the inside of her locker door.

Over the past couple of years she'd learned not to keep anything of importance in there, instead, she kept all her books and notes in her school bag, which she carried with her at all times.

It was still early and most of the students hadn't arrived yet, so she decided to take her time to clean it all out.

Using paper towels from the restroom she tried to get some of the paint back into the jar, before wiping the rest of it and throw it in the trash. She also threw a couple of notebooks and an old shirt she'd kept in there, more as decoys than for use.

She thought about how excited she'd been to begin her studies at Hogwarts when she was younger.

Hogwarts was one of the most prestigious independent schools in all of Europe and the opportunity to study there was a true privilege. To get accepted you either needed parents with very deep pockets and influence, or you had to pass the entrance exam with flying colors and still be in need of a parent with very deep pockets. This prevented just anyone from enrolling there.

However, the current headmaster believed that just because you did not possess any wealth or status did not mean that you didn't belong at Hogwarts. So he became the first headmaster to create a scholarship program. Giving those who did not live with the benefits of money and titles a chance to show themselves and have a chance to be able to enroll as a student at Hogwarts school. These scholarships, however, did not sit well with everyone. a few people who enrolled their children at Hogwarts thought that commoners did not belong in the same school as their children.

Albus Dumbledore fought for years before the school-committee agreed to it. There were still parents who hated the mere thought of people like Hermione entering the school, but as it turned out, they had no say in it, yet.

Hermione already knew at the age of ten that she wanted to be able to study at Hogwarts. All thought her grades were everything a school could ask for. Her parents did not have the tuition money. Not even close. So, because of this, she kept her dream to herself. Not wanting to give her parents more guilt than they already felt for not being able to accommodate her on her wish. Although, this was before she knew out about the scholarship.

A week before her Easter break, a lady named Minerva McGonagall visited her old school. She showed a special interest in Hermione, upon discovering her own interest for Hogwarts school. The lady told her about the scholarship which she could apply for if she truly wished to attend the school. She then promised to send all the papers and application forms to Hermione's parents and asked her to talk it over with them.

If talking it over with them, meant shouting and jumping up and down, that was exactly what she'd been doing, coming home from school that day. Two days later the letter from McGonagall arrived, explaining everything in detail and Hermione, with some help from her mother, applied, and three months later she received her acceptance letter. With this, an assurance of her school tuition being funded, until her graduation. From that moment on, her future was set.

At least that was what she'd tried to tell herself the following six years, and kept telling herself as she cleaned out the mess in her locker.

Her final year, and she found herself thinking there would be nothing about this place she'd miss after graduating.

Because of the opinions, a lot of parents shared about her kind, their children got influenced by the same ideals. Resulting in them making life miserable for those who, like Hermione, received the scholarship.

To them, people who had a modest living were nothing more than vermin. And made a habit of pointing that out to them.

Especially if they were students at Hogwarts.

She wasn't the only one who been having a hard time with bullies. However, keeping beating them in tests and getting top grades in most of her classes, didn't exactly make it any easier. Mostly because they had to go home to their parents and explain why they got lower grades than a commoner.

Hermione could handle most of it, the comments, the shoving in the corridors, and the vandalizing of her locker. they'd been at it for so long that it had become one of her daily dealings. However, the recent years they'd started to throw her clothes in the garbage disposal during PE, and two times last year her bag went missing during class, only to be found thrown on the floor in the girl's restroom, with its content thrown in one of the toilets.

By not emptying her locker, she tried to keep her tormenters believing she still used it, so they'd focus on that and not her other belongings that actually mattered. She hoped that the bag incidents previous year, where mere coincidences.

She tried to keep as calm as possible when things like this happened. Only, there were times when she just couldn't hide her anger and frustration.

She was trying to scrape away the ugly word from the metal door with one of her keys when she heard footsteps.

"Good morning Hermione!" Neville's voice echoed through the corridor as he came closer and Hermione slammed the locker shut before he could see the state of it. Only, her hands were covered in green paint, and the garbage can next to her was filled with wet and green paper towels, so of course, he put the pieces together in a matter of seconds.

Oh, not again." He sighed, glancing at her locker. "They didn't waste any time at all, did they?"

Hermione shrugged. "I'm surprised they waited this long."

He walked over and opened the locker to inspect the damage, his eyes lowered to his feet as he read what it said on the door. She could see the pain in his eyes. She hated that look. It was a terrible reminder of what she'd seen him go through his first years.

Neville Longbottom was in the same year as her.

Although he wasn't a scholarship student and had a respectable name, he'd been even more harassed than Hermione the first couple of year. He'd been a chubby, nervous and a clumsy boy who did not seem to have much luck at all.

Even if he'd been a little of a klutz and struggled somewhat with his studies, the problems probably started when he started to stick up for Hermione and the other scholarship students.

He'd been the first Hogwarts student Hermione got the chance to meet.

Her first day, on the subway train, she met a very nervous and panicking Neville, who'd lost his toad. Apparently, he was bringing it for Biology class and had a box with him. Only the box was empty, and somewhere on the train, there was a toad on the run.

Fortunately, after helping him look for it, they found it sitting in a sleeping old man's lap. The rest of the way they kept each other company, and they'd been friends ever since.

Over the years, people were not as eager to make fun of him much probably because of his appearance.

Neville was now seventeen and a lot taller, leaner and tried not to be as clumsy as he used to, even if he still was somewhat of a klutz which in Hermione's opinion was a charming trait.

"You should tell someone about this Hermione," Neville complained.

Hermione looked at him, feeling uncomfortable. "I guess, but I don't think it will help. Probably it will just make it worse."

She tried to get rid of the paint on her two hands by rubbing them against each other, hoping it would dry faster and peel away. Only, Neville put his hand into one of his pockets and pulled out some wipes and gave it to her. The look of concern on his face made her feel guilty about wanting to hide the incident from him. After all, he recognized the signs better than anyone.

"It's alright Neville, I'll manage, okay?" Hermione gave him a pleading look. "It's just one year. I can handle it, I promise."

Neville muttered something in response as he closed her locker and then glared at her.

Hermione knew how he felt. She felt the same way when people were picking on him. She didn't care as much about people picking at her, but when they came after her friends she saw red. This resulting in her breaking one of her tormentor's noses in her third year.

The boy in question, together with some of his fellow classmates, caught Neville one morning before school started and stripped him of his clothes and then duct taped him to one of the flagposts on the school grounds. When the rest of the students arrived, they surrounded the flagpost and instead of helping him, they stood there laughing. When Hermione finally got there, she got a hold of one of the caretakers to help her cut him down.

Furious and hot-tempered she found him, hanging around two of his friends boasting about how he'd sneered Neville into his trap.

It was meant to be a slap in the face. but upon seeing his smug grin, it ended up as a real punch, right to the nose. Hermione sprained her hand in the process but found it to be extremely worth it.

Fortunately, Neville wasn't much of an easy target anymore and had more people than ever to support him. This Hermione thought was a good thing. He'd gotten a much better self-confidence thanks to that. As long as they didn't torment him. She could live with her own troubles.

Now, after six years of toil, sweat, and tears, Hermione felt relieved knowing it was her last year. Over the summer, she'd promised herself not to let anything distract her from her studies. Her focus was needed for more important things, like completing her final exams, hunt for recommendation letters from at least three teachers, and making sure her university applications were spot on and then sent in on time.

She was not about to throw these past years of hard work down the toilet drain. Absolutely not!

Six years of top grades, extra classes, weekends at the library and constantly being harassed by childish people was not something she wanted to regret when she finally got herself accepted into the university of her choosing. This year was going to be a new beginning for her. She just needed to get through it first.

"You really should tell someone Hermione." Neville kept complaining as they started walking towards their first period.

Knowing what he was about to say next she grabbed him by his arm. "Don't you dare tell Harry and Ron about this!" She locked her eyes into his. "They don't need to know about this."

Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were her best friends and would gladly start a riot if they found out people still harassed her. Because of this Hermione kept it to herself, and she wanted to keep Neville out of it too, only, since he'd been through similar things, and sometimes even worse, he saw right through her.

Neville sighed as nodded. "Alright, alright, I won't."

They stopped by the girl's restrooms so that Hermione could make sure that all the paint were gone and to take a breather before she went out there again. She took a look at herself in the mirror. Her brown bushy hair was in better condition then it been in years. All thanks to her mother's old friend who'd introduced her to a whole new set of hair products. Now, her natural curls were more noticeable, instead of looking like a big birds nest. She noticed that she looked a little pale. Must be because she hadn't eaten much of her breakfast. The third week in school and she was already feeling tired.

She'd been waiting for something like this to happen for a while now. And now that it finally had, she'd lost all her energy. She'd hoped that they might stop with the pranks and the vandalism this year. However, that didn't seem to be the case. Hermione had long thought about telling Professor McGonagall about her struggles. After all, she had a pretty good idea who was behind all of it.

One-quarter of the students, in particular, went to extremes to show their disapproval of people like Hermione entering Hogwarts. Not that it mattered, since Dumbledore was very clear in his resolve, anyone with enough will and intelligence had the right to study at Hogwarts. It was after all an exceptional school.

All students were on their first day at Hogwarts sorted into one of four houses created to easier help the students to chose what carrier path they wished to enter later in life. In each of this houses, you could develop certain skills and experiences according to what profession you were most interested in.

This could seem quite harsh since, what eleven-year-old know what they want to be when they grow up at that age? However, at Hogwarts, they saw things differently.

Instead of pressuring the students to tell them what they wanted to work as in the future, they simply asked them to write a letter of introduction and send in with their application to the school. And after reading these introductions the teachers together with the headmaster chose what house the students might fit into the best.

The houses were named after the four founders, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. In one of these houses, there was not a single student who didn't think people like Hermione was an abomination to the school. Slytherin was the house for a student who parents were either really old money, rich entrepreneurs or those with high ranking titles. They valued traits such as resourcefulness, cunning, and ambition. To everyone else, it just sounded like they thought themselves better than everybody else. Which was true regarding every student in Slytherin.

The Slytherin student in Hermione's year was no different. In fact, they were even worse when it came to pestering her. But even so, she kept quiet. It was easier than seeing her homeroom teacher go ballistic because of some spoiled brats who couldn't even beat her test results.

Hermione was pleased to have been placed in Gryffindor her first year, together with Harry, Ron, and Neville. As it turned out Hermione seemed to have bad luck when it came to befriending girls. Something just didn't seem to work out between her and the other members of her gender.

So she'd kept spending her time mostly with Harry and Ron. Of course, she could not ask for better friends.

Neville was waiting for her outside the restrooms. The corridors were starting to fill up with students and a little further down the corridor they tried getting past a bunch of first years, standing in the middle of it throwing a small ball back and forth. After some crouching and shoving they finally got passed them and was met up by two familiar faces.

"Do that somewhere else, will you?" Harry scowled at the first years who immediately ran of in the opposite direction, while Ron gave Hermione a hand to help her regain her balance after almost getting run over by two of the escaping first years.

"You'd think they would keep it down this early in the morning." Ron complained, "where do they get all that energy from?"

"Give it a month or so, they don't know what they're in for yet." Harry laughed, nodding at Neville as a greeting.

"Don't tell me you're getting old Ronald?" Hermione teased him.

He looked as tired as usual. His school uniform looking like he'd been walking through a tornado, with the shirt all lose and out of order and the red and golden tie just barely hanging around his neck, and the shape of his pillow still showing on top of his head. As he noticed her eyes wandering onto his head the ruffled the red hair so it changed shape, somewhat.

"No, I just like some peace and quiet before I'm sent into a two-hour science-lesson with Snape. I mean it's bloody awful as it is, don't you think?"

Neville who was standing right beside Hermione suddenly froze. "We have Science first period? I thought it was English!" He looked down at the English book in his hand and sighed. "Just my usual luck I guess..."

He was about to turn around an go back the same way they just came from when Hermione started going through her bag. "You can't go back and get it now if you're late Snape will definitely give you detention." She pulled out a book and gave it to him. "Luckily for you, I got one extra."

Neville's face quickly turned from panic to relief and he gave her a big hug in return. "Thank you!"

"Do you perhaps have a gun to go with that book?" Ron asked miserably. "I mean you seemed to have everything in that bloody bag of yours."

She shrugged. "Not everything, just the essentials. I like to be prepared, that's all."

Ron and Harry grinned at her, as they always did when they knew she was dead-serious and still thought it amusing. She cursed them both but couldn't help it when a smile sneaked it's way on to her face.

However, it quickly disappeared as someone gave her a rough shove right to her back, making her lose her balance and fall helplessly to the floor. Her hands hit it first, then her knees. Ron had tried to get a hold of the bag to pull her back up before touching the ground. However, the strap on it got lose and left her shoulder.

"Watch it, Granger."

She recognized the cold and drawling voice coming from above her head in a matter of seconds, without so much as a look.

She clenched her fists against the floor, closed her eyes and then took a deep breath before lifting her head, locking eyes with the pale, blonde boy. She'd forgotten they were supposed to have science with the Slytherins this year. This was an awful reminder.

Three feet away, Harry, Ron, and Neville were held back by two large Slytherin students, pushing them backward.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Harry and Ron called them the two gorillas or, just Big and Stupid. Mostly they were, but when it came to using their size as an advantage, they knew what they were doing. And they only listened to one other student. The one standing over her.

Over the years there been one student in particular who'd personally shown his hatred and disgust towards her. Draco Malfoy was nothing like the others. He'd made it his life's purpose to torment her. To haunt her in every possible way, and she had no idea why.

He leaned down in front of her, eyeing her with his cold grey eyes.

"Looks like the three musketeers can't rescue you at the moment." He glanced up at the three of them, still trying to get past Crabbe and Goyle. "Trying to defend this filthy little commoner. Traitors all of you..." He sneered.

"Leave her alone, Malfoy." Harry hissed.

No one, waiting outside Snape's classroom moved or said anything. Hermione tried not to start shaking. Why did it suddenly feel so cold?

"Why should I? She's not worth anything. She's a filthy mudblood."

The familiarity of the word made the three boys start to fight harder to get loose. Hermione however, just sat there. Unable to move.

Mudblood was a foul name for people like her. It translated in to, born in the gutter, or raised in the dirt. A name most Slytherins used to insult her kind whenever they could. Malfoy called her that more often than others. It was nothing out of the ordinary, yet she felt the weight of it on her chest every time, but she was determined not to show it.

She let out a sigh and once again met Malfoy's disgusted face. She knew if she waited it out, he would get bored.

"You little abomination, you belong on your knees cleaning floors." He said, leaning closer to her face.

"At the current rate your grades are dropping, you will be the one cleaning floors."

She answered with such a self-confidence that it even surprised her. She didn't think it was such a good idea to piss him off. But the look on his face amused her. disbelieve turned in to rage and he reached for her throat, she felt his fingers touch her bare skin for just a second before he suddenly let it fall and stood up, still glaring down at her. "Don't push your luck, mudblood..."

As he turned around the classroom door swung open, and the rest of the students started walking towards the entrance. Crabbe and Goyle let the others go and followed Malfoy inside.

Harry, Ron, and Neville rushed towards her to help her back on her feet.

"Hermione, are you alright?" Neville asked nervously while he and Harry pulled her up. Ron was standing there holding her bag with a grim look on his face.

"I'm alright Neville, thank you, guys." She said, brushing off some dirt from her stockings.

"First your locker and now this? You have to tell one of the teachers or Dumbledore!"

"Neville!" Hermione yelled angrily.

"I'm sorry, but someone needs to know what he's doing to you."

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked. "What happened to your locker Hermione?"

"Nothing, someone was just messing around." She narrowed her eyes at Neville, as to warn him not to say another word. "Just, let me handle it, alright? It will only get worse if you try to get yourselves involved. I can handle Draco Malfoy."

At least, she hoped so. He wasn't one to subject her to cruel pranks. He seemed to leave that to his fellow classmates. On the other hand, he was the one most likely to abuse mentally, and emotionally. Which sometimes, did more damage.

She did not know what it was that made her fear him most of all. If it was because he knew how to get inside her head so easily or if it was because she'd seen another side of him. One that made it even harder to understand why he showed so much anger and resentment towards her.

"Come on, let's go before Snape closes the door on us." She said absentmindedly as Ron returned her bag with a concerned look on his face.

"I will handle it..." She repeated as they started walking towards the classroom entrance. Locked inside her own thoughts, an old memory resurfaced itself.

One she wished, she could forget.