Chapter 1:

Bathroom pass.

"Uh," Draco said, wrinkling his nose, "Who let in the Mudblood?"

Everyone in the small cluster turned to look as a girl with frizzy hair and I slightly mousey face hurried by, clearly hearing and ignoring Draco's snide comment. Harry recognized her as the famously smart and slightly annoying Hermione Granger. He hadn't talked to her in ages.

Come to think about it, not for five whole years. Since that first day of Hogwarts. I believe she was on the train with me and, he shuttered, Weasley.

He hardly remembered the day, except that that was the day that the sorting hat put him in Slytherin, and met his best friend, Draco Malfoy. He couldn't deny that Draco was mean to other students, but he had always been nice to him. As Harry watched the girl get on the train, he got a pang of regret. Would they have been friends if he was in Gryffindor? He shook off the thought, when he saw Draco looking at him strangely.

"Oh no," Draco said under his breath to Harry as they climbed onto the train, "don't tell me your getting a crush on that Mudblood. You could have any girl in this school—including Gina Brooke—and you want her?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Harry said laughing half-heartedly.

"Speak of the devil." Draco remarked as he pulled their usual compartment of the train open to find Pansy, and Gina, sitting across from each other, wearing faces that clearly showed they had been talking about Draco and Harry a moment ago.

Draco stowed his trunk and took a seat by Pansy and Harry followed suit, and took his by Gina. They started chatting about their summers, and soon they stumbled on the subject of "Summer-Holiday-Hookups" as Pansy quaintly put it.

"I met a boy in Romania while with my parents there, but he didn't get much because I told him how powerful you were!" Pansy said with a horrible cackle in Draco's direction, "Who did you have a Summer-Holiday-Hookup with Harry?" She cackled again, knowing very well that Harry lived with his aunt and uncle and didn't have any connection to the magical world until about a month or two into the summer, when he would depart to stay at the Malfoy Manner.

When Harry didn't answer Pansy's question immediately however, she changed her view so it was on Draco again and pursed her lips.

"How about you, Draco?" He gave a weak laugh and lay down on the cushions in his favorite position, with his head on Pansy's lap.

"I met a few girls," He could feel Pansy stiffen below him, "but nothing serious." Pansy sighed quietly in relief.

"Doesn't anyone want to know about my summer?"

The occupants of the cabin turned to face Gina. She had shifted so her back was in the corner next to the window, and she was slowly petting the black cat upon her lap.

Harry had noticed from the moment he first met Gina that she was one of those people who could manipulate people to no end. Not only was she stunning, with her long pale blonde hair and green eyes, but she was charismatic enough to make any boy roll over or play fetch for her.

"Well, I went to America, as I think I told you I would last term, and it was amazing, all the big cities and gosh it is so dirty there—are you okay Harry?" She asked giving him a funny look, "You look like you've just seen a cupcake on my head or something."

Pansy snickered.

Oh.

He had been staring at Gina with his mouth slightly open as if she was some kind of dessert.

"Err, no sorry," He quickly said, slightly slurring his words, "Keep on with your story, I have to go to the lavatory." Gina nodded, obviously trying to suppress a laugh as Harry shuffled out of the room. Not before he saw a flash of a smirk from Draco however.

As he walked to the end of the train car that the bathroom was located at, he heard a bout of loud laughing. Intrigued, he looked into the window to his right where the sound seemed to come from. The shutters were closed, and he furrowed his brow in frustration.

As if by cue, the door slid open and there stood Hermione again, looking absurdly cheerful. Her wide grin curved into a scowl when she saw him nevertheless.

"What do you want?" She asked him, putting a hand on her hip.

"Uh, I was on my way to the bathroom," Harry began, "when I heard some laughing, and I wondered what was going on in there."

Hermione raised one eyebrow slightly. "Do you Slytherins not laugh or something?"

Harry shrugged. "Of course we do, but it never sounded that—" remembering that she was supposed to be a bothersome Gryffindor, he finished his sentence differently than planned. "irritating and noisy."

Not really wanting a response to his rudeness, he stepped past her, and continued down the hallway to the toilet. When he reached the door of the bathroom, he looked back at the spot he had been standing hoping to be able to see what Hermione's reaction was to his abrupt exit. He felt his heart sink.

She had already gone.