A/N: Reviews are wonderful, thank you for reading my fic. I've got no beta so please excuse spelling mistakes that I may have missed. I'm going to try and update as frequently as I can, this story will have at the very least 20 chapters – one prologue and one epilogue. It is not completely canon to the 19 years later epilogue of Deathly Hallows. Characters might be slightly out of character, but I feel that as they grow they also mature and better as people so they will be slightly different in attitude and looks than in the book. (regrettably-yours. tumblr .com contains character bios, pictures of the houses and outfits some characters would be wearing at specific points. Just remove the spaces!)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for the plot line of my story; the characters and places were all contributed by Jo Rowling's beautiful mind. No copyright infringement intended.

Life is funny sometimes. It can be heartrendingly wonderful one moment, and painstakingly horrid the next. In a single moment, everything can be taken from you. Blink once, and you could find yourself in a different world, surrounded by different people, with no one you know anywhere near you. You could be living a perfectly normal life, with perfectly normal friends and a poster-board family. A second, an instant later, you could be thrust into a world polar opposite to the one you were in before. Surrounded by people you don't know, no family, in a world where absolutely anything can happen. Disaster could strike at any minute, and it can take whatever it want when it leaves. How does one go about changing their world, when everything they thought they knew changes? They live. That's how you fix the after effects of a disaster, you survive. There's no use sitting there, pieces of perfection littering the ground at your feet while you fall apart.

There are two different types of moments, in my opinion. The breath taking moments, in which you are filled with ecstasy. Then there are the heartbreaking moments, when you can be so overcome with sadness that all you want to do is scream for the earth to kill you now. Sadly, love can fall into both categories. Falling in love is a part of life, a part which everyone wishes to partake in, that some people rush into, & a part that some people never get the chance to experience. Having someone love you unconditionally, loving your flaws and your quirks just as much as they love the good things – the happy things – about you is the most amazing feeling in the world. It feels you with hope. Hope for the future, hope for yourself as well as for them. Sadly, heart break can also become a part of life. Though, it is nowhere near falling in love, it can still leave one in mortal peril.

I learned that the hard way.

I guess it all started with that fateful day. There I was, the summer before my 11thbirthday, just sitting there in my house having tea with my parents when someone suddenly knocked on the door. I opened the door, and there stood a very tall man with a long beard sporting a pair of half-moon spectacles. He was wearing the most ridiculous outfit I had ever seen, it was almost like a dress and it was bright purple. He said his name was Albus Dumbledore and he was the Headmaster of a school called "Hogwarts" and said he needed to talk to my parents and I regarding a matter of "utmost importance". As we all sat in the living room, my mother serving the tea, Professor Dumbledore launched into an explanation as to why he had shown up to our house. He handed me a letter, addressed to MY bedroom. I found it quite odd that someone would address a letter to my bedroom, so naturally I opened it.

Dear Miss Granger,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Attached was the list of requirements and such that I would need to enrol at their "school". 3 sets of plain black robes, one plain black pointed hat, one pair of protective gloves (dragon hide), one winter cloak (black, silver fastenings) and various books required for classes (plus Hogwarts, a history which has become one of my most treasured possessions.)

I remember sitting there and rereading that letter a million times. What on earth was this supposed to mean? I analyzed it from every aspect I knew, and the only conclusion I could come up with was that they had confused me with someone else. Dumbledore assured my parents that there was no mistake, I was a witch. I remember sitting there, dumbfounded. There is no way that I could be a WITCH. I was just Hermione. Dumbledore had assured my parents that a representative from the school would help take my parents and me to Diagon Alley, the wizarding London's marketplace. We had asked if he would accompany us, as we didn't want to spend the day with someone we didn't know anything about.

My schooling at Hogwarts would last for 7 years. I would take OWLs (Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations) in year 5 and NEWTs (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) in my 7th year. Between years 5 and 7, I would need to choose a career to enter in the Wizarding World. I would have to take Transfiguration, History of Magic, Charms, Potions, Herbology, Defence against the Dark Arts, and Astronomy for years 1 and 2, then in year 3 I would be allowed to choose two other courses which interest me. The classes I can choose from are: Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and Muggle Studies. In sixth year, our classes are determined by how well we do on the OWLs. To continue a class, we must receive a passing grade on our OWL examination (Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, and Acceptable). In seventh year, we can continue on from the classes we took in sixth year, but we must be sure to take courses that apply to the field we want to enter into after school.

Before going to Hogwarts, I did as much reading as I could. I wanted to know about where I was going and what to expect when I got there. Basically, there are 4 houses which the students are sorted into at the beginning of their first year. The houses are named after the four founders of the school: Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff. We will be sorted by some sort of magic hat that the founders created.

September 1st came faster than I wanted it to. Suddenly, I'm being whisked away to Kings Cross Station with my parents, trying to find platform 9 and ¾. Luckily, a boy named Neville Longbottom and his grandmother were heading in the same place as we were and showed us how to get to the platform. You just walk straight through a wall. Not scary at all. My parents, Neville, his grandmother and I walked through the wall and found ourselves on a platform in front of the most beautiful train in the world. The Hogwarts Express was very long, and scarlet in color. It gleamed in the sunlight (was that what you would call it? It wasn't natural in the least, but it did look like sunlight). Neville and his grandmother told my family about the Wizarding World. A wizard named Lord Voldemort (or Tom Riddle as Neville's Grandmother referred to him as) tried to take over the Wizarding world but was defeated 10 years ago after killing a woman named Lily and a man named James. He tried to kill their 1 year old son Harry Potter, but for some unknown reason he died instead of Harry Potter dying. It was rumoured that Harry Potter would be coming to Hogwarts today with the rest of us. No one knew if it was true or not, as no one really knew where he went after Voldemort's defeat.

Neville and I boarded the train and found a compartment with a girl named Hannah and a boy named Justin. About halfway through our trip, Neville's toad Trevor got loose and we all decided to split up and look for him. Unable to find Trevor, I decided to check one last compartment and then head back to mine and wait for the others. I knocked on the compartment door, and opened it to see a dark haired boy with glasses sitting across from a ginger boy with his wand out and his rat in his lap.

That was the very first time I ever laid eyes on Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. I didn't think that, by the end of the year, these two boys would be my very best friends. I could not have imagined the things we would do over our years at Hogwarts. And I would not have guessed that I would start to develop feelings for one of them, or both of them. I definitely would not have dreamed I would fall for him of all people.

This is my story.