Chapter 1
"Don't raise your hand for this one Hermione," frowned Professor McGonagall as she was not surprised to see Hermione's hand fly up first. "Let someone else have a chance."
Hermione slowly pulled her hand back down into her lap. She looked down at the floor and slid low into her chair hoping that it would hide her from all the eyes which were glued on her.
"Yes Ronald?" Professor McGonagall sighed as Ron threw his hand up.
"Can't you just let the 'know -it-all' answer so it puts a lot less stress on the rest of us?" Ron asked with a smile. Hermione shot a nasty look at Ron.
"I believe that defeats the purpose of knowing if the rest of my class is really learning or not Mr. Weasley. I already know Hermione studies. I'm not worried about her. I found that out by the end of the first month of school. It's the people who feel like they don't need to study that I'm worried about." Professor McGonagall turned on her heal and walked back up to her desk. As she used her wand to flip the pages in her book she started to announce the homework.
"You will be reading chapters five through ten for homework and you will be given a quiz on it by next class. This will let me know which of my students are willing to learn and which of them are not." And with that, she slammed the book closed and dismissed the class.
"Wow, I didn't think being a first year would be this hard." Ron turned to Harry and whispered.
"I think you should apologize to Hermione," Harry said as he watched her walk out of the room with her sad face covered in her books.
"Why?" Ron stood up and gave Harry a mean look. "It's been three months into our first year and you know perfectly well that Hermione and I haven't been getting along since the day we met. She hates me Harry and I tried to be nice but nothing is working so I personally don't care about her anymore."
"Ok Ron," Harry leaned back and put his hands up in front of him signaling Ron to back off a little. "I just feel that what you did was going a little too far. But that's just me."
"I'm going to my next class," Ron grabbed his stuff.
"But it's Potions," Harry said. "Why the rush?"
"Because Hermione isn't in it," and Ron stormed out without another word.
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When Harry finally caught up with Ron, he was already sitting in a desk in the far back corner and seeing the look on his face made Harry feel he should pick another seat for that day to give him some time to cool down. Harry took the empty seat a few rows up.
Ron noticed Harry but didn't care. He was too mad and he didn't know how long it would take him to calm down. All he wanted to think about at the moment was the nasty Potions test they had today. It was better than thinking about Hermione. Ron just shook his head of the thought and threw open his book to study a little more.
Just as he was about to read the first paragraph his book slammed shut almost hitting his nose followed by the loud slams of the rest of the classes books which were open. Professor Snape came almost floating by in a fast motion while waving his wand in the air. Obviously he really wanted to start this test if he was putting everyone's books away under their desks.
A little blonde headed girl came running in right behind Snape and quickly slid into the seat right next to Ron. Ron looked up at her big blue eyes and she gave him a quick smile before throwing her book under her desk. Then she gave all her attention to Professor Snape as he swung around to face the class.
"I hope all of you picked your seats wisely," Snape said in his slow deep voice. "Because the seats you are now sitting in will be the seats you will be sitting in for the rest of the school year."
Ron knew this was going to be a long day. But he gave the cute blond another glance and changed his mind. It seemed that he picked the right seat. Then all of his worries seemed to have lifted off of him and he felt that this class was soon going to be no problem because he had a cute partner for the rest of the year!
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Hermione finally got out of her first class of the day that she didn't have with Ron and started to head for her Potions class. She quickly ran into the class room to get her favorite seat but almost ran into Ron as he was heading out. She jumped to the side just in time to see him walking out with a blond haired blue eyed girl as they discussed the test they just took.
"Yeah, I didn't understand that question either so I just guessed also," the little girl giggled.
Ron smiled at her and stopped to face her. "I'm so glad I finally have a good partner in this class."
"Yes," she smiled. "I've had to sit next to that boy who is always tagging along with Draco and I really was hoping a new seat would open up soon."
"Well, I'm glad the seat next to me was the one that opened up," Ron's ears suddenly turned red.
"My name is Bella," she laughed as she noticed his bright red ears.
"Ron," he mumbled shyly.
"Well Ron," she lifted her hand for him to shake. "It was very nice meeting you."
Ron took her hand, shook it and said, "It was nice meeting you too."
She let his hand go and turned with a smile and walked down the hall towards her next class. Ron stood there for a few more moments until he saw Harry walk by.
"Hey Harry!" Ron ran after him.
Harry turned with a smile and said, "Are you calmed down now?"
"Yes I am."
They walked of together to their next class talking about everything that had just happened.
Hermione came out from behind the door and watched Ron walk off. She couldn't believe her eyes. Ron was actually talking to a girl! Hermione shook her head of the thought and said, "He is a jerk! He isn't good enough to be a friend of mine! She probably doesn't have any friends and was desperate so she made friends with an easy target." And Hermione turned and walked into the classroom hoping that her seat hasn't been taken already.
To her luck the far back corner seat was still empty. She ran to it and threw open her book to study. But it wasn't long after that she was interrupted by Neville Longbottom.
"Is this seat taken Hermione?" He asked shyly. "It's because I'm afraid Professor Snape is going to put me at a desk with someone I don't feel comfortable with."
"You may sit there Neville," she smiled.
Neville nodded with a smile and she went back to her reading.
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Of course Hermione was the first one finished with the test but since they couldn't leave she just sat there and stared at the blank piece of parchment and quill on her desk. So many stressful things were running through her head and she couldn't seem to find a place to store them all. She closed her eyes for a minute to see if she can just forget about them but nothing seemed to work.
Then she opened her eyes and just suddenly grabbed the quill and started scratching thoughts down onto the parchment without realizing it. Before she knew it she had filled the page with just a few sentences. She placed the quill nicely at the top of the desk and picked up the parchment to read what she wrote. It read:
I am so stressed and I can't even seem to think of a reason to be here right now. I love to study and learn and be in school but what is school if you don't have any friends? I feel there is something missing and maybe if I had a friend that could help. But nobody seems to want to be friends with a smart girl. Maybe I'll just lay off the good grades for a while.
Hermione sat there a few moments longer and read it again. Writing it made her feel a little better, but that feeling quickly vanished when Snape got up from his chair and walked down the aisles of desks to check on the progress.
She quickly folded the piece of parchment up and threw it on her knees. She pressed her knees up against the bottom of the desk like she always did and pushed herself in. By accident, the folded piece of parchment slipped between a bar which was attached to the legs of the table and got stuck. Hermione relaxed again as Snape headed for his desk. She let her legs drop but the parchment didn't drop with them. She threw her tired head down into her folded arms on the desk and rested till the end of class. It was the last class of the day and ran out of the room and completely forgot about the parchment. She was too hungry and tired to even remember. All she was thinking about was dropping her books off and heading to the Great Hall for dinner. Then off to bed. Tomorrow is another day.
