A/N: Don't you just hate these things when they are at the beginning? Anyway, this is a revised chapter. I felt I needed to put in a little more than what I had, so there you go. It's still seems too fast paced, a little choppy, or whatever, but I think it's better now. The preview has been taken away because that scene is now in another part of the story. I apologize. Enjoy!

Warnings: Um...AU big time, language for sure, some may be a little out of character but it will be explained, and anything that I deem necessary for this one.

Disclaimer: I only own the plot. Boring isn't it?

Knowledge

What would you do if you knew the person you disliked the most was going to die? Well, let's be honest, you hate him; but the kicker, it's by his own hand.

Simple question really. You don't care about him that much, so do you just leave it alone? Let him be until the day you find him on the floor of the bathroom, covered in blood with a knife still in his chest.

Simple question really. Do you tell him? Do you try to stop him? Is he worth it? He is human after all. You have time to make up your mind but while you're doing that, everything spirals out of your control.

The First of Many

"Turn to page 394…" the teacher's voice droned on.

"I wish he would move along already," Hermione whispered during a Potions lesson.

"You want the lecture to be over?" Harry said with low a chuckle of surprise, "that's a surprise."

"If you were to take Mandrake root and mix it with gillyweed you would get…"

"Damn, it's been a long day," Hermione thought to herself. And it was only one in the afternoon.

Harry heard an audible sigh and looked at Hermione with playfully narrowed eyes.

"You're bored," he whispered accusingly.

She glared at him and said, "Hardly. I just know the answer," as she jotted down hurried notes to catch up.

"Yes, you are," he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

She sighed again.

"So what if I am? At least professor Snape was somewhat more enthused with his job. And Slughorn was jovial. This professor…"

"…and here is when you should see the color change to bluish purple…"

Harry grinned. It was good to have a decent conversation with her. They hadn't had one since summer. He continued, "I think he's worse than Professor Binns."

Hermione chuckled a little too loudly.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Potter are you paying attention?"

"Yes, sir," Hermione said quickly, "Harry was just asking a question."

The professor glared, but continued with the lecture as Hermione looked down at her notes. How could she have been so bored with classes? Lately, all she wanted to do was nothing. Listlessness was so unlike her, but she couldn't help feeling this way. Everything was so unlike her since the war ended.

Looking back up from her notes she stared blankly into space. However as she continued looking ahead the whole room slowly changed. She was now in the Head's Common Room.

She looked around as her feet led her towards the bathroom. The room was in a state. There were tables toppled over and trash all on the floor. Books and pieces of parchment were scattered everywhere. It didn't occur her that this was unusual. Her mind had given way to her feet and she could only think about getting to that bathroom.

She didn't even hear her own breathing or footsteps as she walked and the whole room was eerily silent and cold. But the closer she got to the bathroom, the more her mind began to gain a little bit of control. She noticed something red coming from the crack in the door.

Opening the door, harsh, blue light flooded her eyes. There was blood all around her feet, on the beautiful marble counter, on the walls, on the curtains. Everywhere. And slumped over the tub, was a body. She tried to stifle her screams by putting her hand over her mouth.

Once her mind finally caught up to her, she shakily tried tiptoeing through the blood towards it. Crouching down, she saw his gray eyes and aristocratic face.

"Malfoy!" she screamed as she took hurried steps back.

She felt a cold, sticky something on her leg. Looking down, she saw that the blood on the floor had crawled up her legs and it kept going. She felt her whole body shaking and convulsing. Flashes of the scene before her and of the students in class crowding around her flew by. The blood was now nearing her chest and she could feel her heart growing cold. At that point, she was unable to hold in her screams any longer and she closed her eyes tightly.

"HERMIONE!"

Her eyes opened to find that she was on the floor staring up at nearly the whole of the Potion's class.

"She's shaking, professor, but she's awake," Harry said only a little relieved.

She sat up too quickly and threw her arms around him. She was crying out of fear.

"Harry, what happened? I…" she gasped when she remembered what she saw.

Immediately, she looked for Malfoy who happened to be still in his seat and not bleeding to death in the Head's bathroom. He looked at her with mild curiosity.

"You, well you sort of blacked out then you started screaming and thrashing your arms," was his reply. He sounded alarmed and frightened himself.

"Miss Granger," the teacher came rushing over, "you need to go to the hospital wing. Potter, you may take her," he said with concern, "the rest of you, we still have twenty minutes of class left so get back to your seats or I will give you all detentions."

"Can you get up," Harry asked.

Her eyes went back to Harry's, "Yeah, I think so."

He helped her up and she wrapped her arm around his shoulder for support.

"You're still shaking like bloody leaf, Hermione. What happened?"

All she could think about was seeing Malfoy with knife wounds and blood leaching up her legs.

"I…I don't know."

A/N: you right into the story chapter. I know it's a short chapter (they hopefully will get longer in the near distant future) but I need a little time to develop the idea behind this one because it deserves some respect. There is going to be more back-story brought into it about the war and it won't seem so choppy.

I really like the idea behind this, which I will explain later, so we'll just see how it goes. If you do like it at all, please get the word out to other people you know who write HP fanfics. I am always open for questions, reviews, awesome flames...just let it rip and let the fur fly. Thanks!