New Edit: A/N: this is my first fan fiction that I intended on being longer than 1-10 chapters and it is also the first story I've written that was heavy on drama as well as romance. There are several characters in this story that I created for the sake of telling it as I saw fit and I feel that it turned out pretty good in the end. Many times the story changed direction as I'm sure was/is obvious to the first people that red it before I edited this Author Note, and that is why I've made minor edits to the story's content and I've went through and corrected the many mistakes that riddled this story even after I double and triple checked. This chapter, in my opinion, was one of the five or six that I felt were poorly written and lacked detail and character, so the majority of this chapter has been edited though none of the important parts have been changed.

Disclaimer: I'm not really sure why this is important so I will only do it once and once only. I don't own anything related to HP nor do I plan to gain a profit from writing this, if that was the case I would have published my own original fictions by now.

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Chapter 1

Another Fight

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There is something strange about tonight.

Hermione thought to herself wistfully as she made it to her final stop of the night during her lone patrolling. The air was bitter and cold and when she stepped foot on top of the tower, a chill rushed through her. She rubbed her cloak sleeves against her arms beneath to generate some warmth. Suddenly she wished that Ron was here with her as he was supposed to be instead of at a late night Quidditch practice. But what would Ron do for her even if she wasn't alone up here? She'd do better just protecting herself just to be safe. With that thought she pulled her wand from her pockets and walked across the tower. She paused and leaned against the turrets to look over the edge, from here she could see the Gryffindor Quidditch team flying around across the sky like blurs. Sometimes she imagined herself up there doing those stunts that her friends did, but sports just wasn't her thing, they most definitely weren't for her.

"I better get going..there's nothing interesting going on up here.." she sighed to herself, she was extremely tired, since the seventh year had started she'd been hard at work and sleep was sometimes very hard to get. She gave one last glance to the players and turned on her heel and began leaving the tower. As she passed back through the telescopes, something..or rather someone..made her stop on a dime. She hadn't realized someone else had been up there. That would explain though why she felt as if she was being watched.

Wand firmly in hand, Hermione thought out a point deduction for the student she'd never seen in her life. She marched toward him with an air of authority and prepared to tell him that he would have ten points deducted from whatever house he was in. The closer she got the more his figure came into view, he was bent over peering through a telescope, his entire face was hidden by shadow.

"You know you aren't supposed to be up here, right?." she said approaching the boy with her wand out. She stopped behind him and put her hands on her hips in a bossy manner.

The student paused from moving the telescope around at the sound of her voice and then went back to what he was doing. Hermione frowned and cleared her throat importantly. He sighed airily and gave a soft chuckle. What was funny? Hermione racked up another ten point deduction in her head just because he wanted to laugh when nothing was funny. What was he doing out here anyway and who was he? She wanted to get the rest of her studying out and get some rest, she didn't have time to be dealing with someone that chuckled when she asked him a question.

"You know its forbidden to be up here without supervision unless you're a prefect, which you aren't since I know every single prefect. Tell me what house you are in so I can deduct points." Hermione said authoritatively, she spun her wand around patiently. She had no intention of getting in an argument with someone. He could just honestly be busy, but if he was busy he should have the decency to tell her why he was up here, maybe she would give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I know, forgive me." the boy spoke. His voice was nothing like she'd ever heard before, it was very distinctive, it was soft yet seemed to carry a jagged edge deep below its surface, but was regardless, it was still very pleasing to the ears. The boy turned around and stood at full height, stepping out of the shroud. The first thing that jumped out at Hermione was his eyes. The boy's eyes were silver. He had long jet black hair that framed his handsome face. He towered over Hermione by over a foot or so, just like Ron Weasely did, but there was something more confident and dominating about how he stood over her as if his height just wasn't a physical attribute but he utilized it to instill various emotions within people.

Hermione was not swayed by his good looks nor the fact that he stood over her like a sky scraper. She crossed her arms over her chest and secretly wished she was a bit taller than she was.

"You aren't supposed to be up here. What house are you in so I can deduct points accordingly?" she made sure her tone was not one that would create a confrontation, though if it did she would be more than capable of handling it—with magic of course. She felt no need to worry though, he didn't seem like the type to get bent out of shape when an authority figure reprimanded them. The boy looked over her wordlessly until his silver eyes met hers. Another shiver rushed through her, she assumed it was from the cold air. His liquid silver eyes held a sudden cold bite to them that quickly turned into docile and pleading look that matched his expression.

"Oh, I beg of you, please do not do that. I merely had to finish up some make up work, thus I required the use of one of these." he said, gesturing towards the telescopes. He had the voice of a singer, his words floated from his lips with enough emotion to make Hermione forget why she had stopped him in the first place.

She shook her head and glanced at his Hogwarts crest to see what house he was in, but it was hidden in the partial darkness. She rolled her eyes to the starry sky before looking back at him. "No, its only fair." The boy sighed and ran a hand through his long raven hair. Maybe she could let it slide...it wasn't as if he was harming anyone, if he had a good reason she would be more than happy to let him get away with it this once. Besides it would save her the trouble of reporting him and the trouble of him having to go to detention or having points removed. "Explain to me why you have make up work and maybe I'll reconsider." she sighed, stuffing her wand into her jeans. "But you know you shouldn't be up here."

He nodded solemnly. "I was quite ill. Someone believed it hilarious to put a mixture of potions in something I drank last week. " he shrugged. Hermione noticed he did actually look slightly pale.

"Fine..but you have to come down with me, so I'll have to wait on you to finish." she said in a resigned tone.

"Great." he gave her a brief smile that didn't reach his eyes and turned his back on her.

Hermione leaned against the stone wall of the tower and stared up at the sky, though she occasionally cast an interested glance in his direction as she waited. When he felt her staring at him he looked up at her and she quickly adverted her eyes, she hadn't meant to stare, she was just strangely drawn to him.

As the two entered the castle and made their way to the Gryffindor tower, Hermione took the time to take her time in examining him every once in a while. The silence between them was strange to her, she felt the need to say something to him even though she didn't even know his name. Maybe she should start conversation? It was better than listening to the sound of their shoes echo down the empty corridors.

"So tell me, what's your name?" Hermione asked as they reached the Gryffindor portrait hole. The fact lady was leaning against the frame with her eyes closed and mouth wide open, occasional snores emitting from her.

The young man looked over at Hermione, his silver eyes locked onto hers but it took him a while to answer her."Does it matter?"

"Yeah...kinda.." Hermione ran a hand through her hair and put her hands on her hips. "Its the least you can do is tell me your name.." after she didn't turn him in, take points, and waited for nearly two hours up there with him..the least he could do is tell her his name. At least she thought so.

"Call me Richard." he smiled slightly, gazing down at her. While his mouth smiled his eyes held an intense burning that made Hermione look away from them. His eyes were so strange.

"My name-" she began with the intent of telling him, but he stopped her.

"You are Hermione Granger." he stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, never taking his eyes from her. His black cloak swept the floor and clung nicely to his tall slender frame. He was an exceptionally handsome boy, she had to admit, but there was something that seemed extremely out of place about him.

"Yes. How do you know?" she furrowed her brow thoughtfully, how did he know her name? Putting a finger to her lips she looked at him with mild interest, one of the many signs of when Hermione Granger was intrigued and wanted to know answers.

"Everyone does. You are Harry Potter and that Weasel boy's friend." his shoulders rose and fell gracefully in an otherwise casual shrug.

Well that made sense.

"Weasely." Hermione corrected him with a slight laugh, it wasn't the first time someone called the red head that so she couldn't fault him, his name was very close to the animal's.

"Yeah, Exactly.." Richard sighed airily getting off the the wall and heading down the corridor, he gave her a backwards wave and continued until she saw him disappear around the corner.

That boy there...she should just leave it alone, she'd probably never see him again and it wouldn't really matter one way or the other. This school was comprised of more than thousands of students, the likelihood of her seeing one of the same student that probably wasn't even in the same house as her was probably unlikely, but that didn't shake the weird feeling she had growing in her stomach since she met him. It was probably nothing, she told herself.

"Well?" an irritated female voice said making Hermione start. It was the fat lady in the portrait.

"Oh." Hermione said flushing. "Um...it's phantom isn't it?"

The portrait hole swung open to admit Hermione.

When Hermione climbed through the portrait hole the first thing she saw was Ron sitting in semi-darkness hunched over homework, beside him was a sleeping Harry. It hit Hermione that she was supposed to help them with homework after she'd went patrolling. But of course she'd been on the tower waiting for Richard to do his homework.

"Where have you been?" Ron asked irritably as soon as he laid tired and aching eyes on her. He virtually slammed his quill down on the desk and turned in his seat to get a better view of her. He was frowning deeply and his eyes were narrow and wrought with irritation. Hermione sighed mentally, he was always in a pissy mood when he was sleep deprived, what made this any different?

"I was .." she trailed off approaching the table and examining the work. "...you haven't done any of this?" she glanced at Harry, he was still asleep and sprawled out on several pages of homework. Ron on the other hand was frowning and glaring at her, his blue eyes were ready to set ablaze.

"Well, hell, Hermione of course not, we needed your help. Where were you?" his voice raising slightly. Hermione became defensive, she was not in the mood for an argument and there was no reason for him to raise his voice. How dare he ask her where she was, he could have done his own homework if he had actually paid attention in class.

"I was on the astronomy tower... helping someone.." she explained the gist of it . When she finished Ron had a deep ugly frown on his face, distorting his otherwise pleasant features.

"So." he said rudely. "You were helping some other boy with his homework. What else did you do for him!"

Hermione didn't like the way Ron was talking to her but tried to keep her voice stable for peace's sake. "Perhaps you should have done your own work, Ronald." she crossed her arms haughtily. Inside she was already beginning to break down, she hated arguing with him, could they go a day without getting into some spat about something completely ridiculous? For once she just wanted him to be responsible and stop holding her in contempt for his own laziness. He was a great boy and he was one of her best friends but the arguments were started to become a bit much. Every day now they seemed to have some sort of blow up, just yesterday they got into it about Yogurt. "If you would stop being so damn lazy--"

Ron stood up, making Hermione step back slightly and loose her calm, his face was fixed in a frown. "Lazy?! I'm not Lazy! You're Lazy.." he said in a hiss. "you should be helping us instead of some guy you met a few minutes ago! I mean what is that about?! Do you realize how long we were sitting here waiting on you?! That was so inconsiderate, you're starting to slack off Hermione! Get out of my face!"

Hermione stepped back and bit her tongue, that hurt her a little and he knew it. Her eyes stung with annoyed tears and the blinked constantly to hold them back. She looked hard at him and wordlessly turned on her heel and ran up the girl's staircase to her dormitory. When she got there she slammed the door, causing the sleeping occupants to rise. She flung herself onto her bed, she was exhausted emotionally and psychically, did Ron really have to start something with her tonight?!

Before she could stop them, the tears began to roll from her eyes and down her face, dampening her pillow, her soft sobs filled the otherwise silent room.

"What the-" one of her dorm mates whispered.

"That boy Ron I bet..." another said.

"Most likely." Parvati said.

"Shame really. This happens at least once or twice everyday now." Lavender said.

No one to wipe away your tears...

What was she hearing voices now too? It sounded so nice, so warm and polite, not at all rude and loud like the voice of her friend's downstairs. She closed her eyes and strained to listen to the voice again hoping it would come, if she focused on the voice instead of on Ron or her hectic day, she could quickly find rest and the tears would stop. Why did she let Ron make her cry anyway? She should be used to it by now..

He doesn't deserve it...why do you have such feelings for the boy? You deserve someone better..someone great..like me...I would never irritate you until you burst into sad and pitiful tears..I'd love you forever...and ever...don't you want that?

The voice was strangely familiar, she couldn't pin point it but she knew she'd heard it before. Slowly, while straining to listen to the distant and distinct voice chiming in the back of her head like a song in a waterfall, she began to fall asleep and her tears lay forgotten. Only when she awakened the next morning did she remember that she had been crying and why.

A/N: I feel that this edit is much much better, I regret that this wasn't the first time it was posted in the first place. There is so much I could do for the beginning of this story, after reading over it, I see that it needs severe edits. I'm going to embark on a tiny project that shouldn't consume too much time. I'm going to reconstruct chapters 2-7, then I think I'll be proud of the beginning like I am of the ending. My writing was not very good at the beginning of this story, I don't know why, maybe because I wasn't taking it very seriously or maybe because I was 15/16? I notice the parts of the story when I was 16 and when I turned 17 are much better than the beginning. None the less, since I've been writing another story and I've been getting great critiques and I've been thinking deeper into my writing, its become a hit, and I just wanted this story to be able to live up to something even after its become hidden in the millions of HP stories archived on this site.