I do not own any of the characters or story line of Harry Potter, and all credit goes to J.K Rowling, the legend herself.

Please enjoy reading this, any comments or feedback is most appreciated. Enjoy!

Chapter One.

"Happy Birthday to you," Hermione stirred from her sleep,

"Happy Birthday to you," she opened her eyes gently, squinting into the sunlight,

"Happy Birthday, dear Hermione, Happy Birthday to you!"

Hermione sat up in her makeshift bed on the floor and smiled. She rubbed her eyes gently before looking at the beaming faces before her. Fred and George's heads could be seen peeping just above Mr and Mrs Weasley's. Arthur gently held his arm around his wife, Molly's shoulder and pulled her into him tight. The four of them smiled in unison. Hermione couldn't help but smile back. Next, she noticed the jet black, disheveled hair inbetween the sea of red. Harry sat on the edge of her bed, looking quite out of place, but smiling very much like the rest of them. However, he looked a little less put together with his glasses slightly askew. On the opposite side was Ron, who was smirking slightly with one corner of his mouth curled into a smile. It was something that Ron had done a lot around Hermione over the summer, and she imagined he only hoped it looked attractive. Her thoughts however, were quite different. And sat before her in the middle was Ginny, who was practically radiating beauty even at that time. She smiled, her face near enough glowing in the warm light of what Hermione now noticed to be a cake, decorated with dancing candles, she was holding before her.

"Thankyou, really," Hermione smiled, a little overwhelmed, "You shouldn't have."

A few shook their heads and the rest laughed,

"We had to make it special," Ron pointed out, "You're only seventeen once-"

"-And you only get to blow out your candles once," Ginny interrupted, "So I'd be quick if I was you."

Ginny and Hermione laughed, before the latter smoothed back her hair and took a deep breath. She blew the candles with quite some force, but the flame merely flickered, and it was still burning strong again. After a suspicious glance, and a few more tries, a small infection of giggles began to break out between the people before her.

"I should've known," Hermione rolled her eyes, searching the sea of red for Fred and George's faces, who seemed to be looking more amused than ever.

"Another Day Won't Blow Away candles-" George informed her with a smirk,

"-We just got a batch delivered at the shop," Fred continued, "And we were sure one box wouldn't go to waste."

Hermione laughed and shook her head, before Mrs Weasley cleared her voice,

"Come on now," she said, beginning to waft her hands in the air as if to signal the others to disperse, "The poor girl probably isn't even awake, give her some time to get ready-"

There was chatter as the group began to part their own ways. Molly walked over to Hermione and cupped the latter's face in her hands, beaming at her.

"Happy Birthday sweetie," she kissed Hermione on both cheeks before turning to Fred and George who seemed to be hysterically laughing at something.

Harry also wished Hermione a happy birthday, as did Ginny and Mr Weasley.

"-So, Harry?" Arthur began, just catching Harry as he turned to walk to his bed.

He placed his arm around the boys shoulder and looked very serious,

"Do tell me more about this fire extringwisher," he continued.

"Extinguisher," Hermione heard Harry correct him, before the two disappeared through the door, deep in conversation.

It was then, that she noticed someone was still sat on her bed. Hermione turned to look, and found a grinning Ron looking in her direction.

"Happy Birthday, Hermione," he said quietly, and pulled his signature smirk again.

Hermione forced a smile, though inside she was mentally cringing.

"Thankyou, Ronald," she said politely, "And thankyou for letting me and Harry stay, too."

He shook his head and dismissed the comment, before nodding briefly and eventually leaving Hermione be.

With a sigh, the latter relaxed into her bed. She looked at the cake Ginny had left beside her bed and smiled. Staying at The Burrow was becoming a tradition for Harry and Hermione during any holiday period. As the Summer Holiday came to a close, the two arrived at the Weasley household to stay over night so the group could travel back to Hogwarts. It was more convenient to travel in bulk, and more enjoyable too. Now that Fred and George had left, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Harry made their own way to the train station. Due to past experience, Ron could handle the flying car quite easily.

The morning the fouresome endured was a busy one. At eleven o'clock, Harry, Hermione and the two siblings found a carriage on the Hogwarts express, and practically collapsed into their seats. Ginny and Hermione sat on one side of the cabin, and Ron and Harry sat on the other. Hermione had found an unexpected friend in Ginny over the previous holiday. Once Mr Weasley had installed a muggle phone into their house, which was mainly for his fascination, than to be used, Ginny took the opportunity and rang Hermione every once or twice. This became routine after a while, and as the holiday progressed, she and Ginny would talk for hours on the phone almost every night. Hermione just hoped that Mr Weasley knew that with Muggle phones, came Muggle phone bills that demanded to be payed. However, her train of thought was disrupted when the cabin door was gently slid open.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?" said the Trolley witch.

Hermione was just about to object, before Harry jumped up and spoke,

"Yes, please," he said, and turned to Hermione.

"-Come on Birthday girl, take your pick."

Hermione smiled and stood. She began looking over the trolley. They had everything. Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, the list was endless.

Hermione picked some Sugar Quills and Liquorice Wands, before thanking Harry, and the elderly lady and smiling as she left. The two turned to return to their cabin, before yet again another voice interrupted.

"Splashing the cash a little, aren't we Potter?"

That voice was all too familiar. Hermione and Harry gritted their teeth, and turned to see Draco Malfoy strutting down the train aisle. He stopped just before the pair, and smirked. Malfoy was considerably taller than Harry, and by all means Hermione, but the latter did her best to look up into his distasteful face and scowl.

"It's what friends do for friends when it's their birthday," Harry began, "But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you Malfoy?"

This seemed to amuse the blonde more than ever,

"How sweet," Draco spat, "And I guess now Potter's finally old enough to learn how to use the potty."

Harry took a step towards Draco, but Hermione pulled at his navy jacket to stop him.

"-Actually it's my birthday," she informed the snarling boy.

His cold, icy-grey eyes jolted to look into her warm, brown ones. She held her scowl.

"Well maybe now, Mudblood, you're old enough to learn your place."

"-She's old enough to do a lot of things," yet another voice interrupted.

Hermione left Draco's locked stare to look over his left shoulder. Her stomach flipped slightly. The boy smiled at her in return. Merlin's bones, she thought. Dean Thomas was a Hufflepuff, in the same year as Hermione. Though Hufflepuffs were renowned for being small and shy, Dean was not. He was tall, slightly smaller than Draco, so Hermione imagined he was around 6ft 1. His shoulders were broad, and his muscular arms tensed from his pushed up jumper sleeves. His skin was a slightly tanned, olive colour, which complimented his ash blonde hair and brown eyes. Hermione found herself grinning sheepishly in return, as the boy heavily placed his arm around Draco's shoulder. The latter, however, shrugged it off, and turned his back on Harry and Hermione.

It was all over too quickly, and Harry and pulled Hermione back into the cabin and shut the door.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked, but Hermione was oblivious, and watched the two boys outside the glass of the door. Harry began explaining the scenario to Ron, whilst Ginny watched over Hermione cautiously.

Malfoy was standing close to Dean. His face was somewhat a picture of disgust and anger. He looked down into the Hufflepuffs eyes, who seemed to be holding his stare. Dean place an arm on the wall and leaned casually against it. But Malfoy was not casual. He had his hand shoved in his pockets and he stood tall, his broad shoulders tensed. They seemed to be talking quitely, so quiet Hermione couldn't hear. And the blonde seemed to be doing all the talking. Dean nodded continuously somewhat every minute.
Dean and Malfoy had been friends for a long time. Both of their families were pure bloods, and the two had been introduced as family friends. Their parents had attended Hogwarts together, and had all been in Slytherin. It was as much a shock to their parents as it was to everyone else when Dean was sorted into Hufflepuff. Despite this, Draco and Dean still seemed to be good friends. Atleast, that is what Hermione presumed they were.

Hermione snapped out of her trance as the two broke apart. Malfoy sneered at the latter as he caught her glance on the way past, but Hermione merely scowled in return. She looked back to where the two were stood before and sighed to see Dean had, too, walked away.

Ginny was very observant. She watched Hermione with deep interest, from the second she bought her sweets, which Hermione had no appetite to eat now, to the second she turned her gaze to Ginny's and smiled. The red head frowned,

"When exactly were you planning on telling me you had a crush on Dean Thomas?" she asked, keeping her voice hushed.

Hermione glanced at the two boys opposite them cautiously, but they seemed to be engrossed in some story that Harry was telling, no doubt about a summer at the Dursley's. Hermione turned back to Ginny, and smiled guilty. She didn't quite know herself.

The students were thrown back into the Hogwarts routine all too quickly. That was for everyone, except Hermione of course. She was almost glad to be back to what she considered to be 'normality'. However, this did not seem to be the attitude of many students. As the Gryffindors and Slytherins made their way to Potions, Hermione pondered on that thought. She agreed, it wasn't the best lesson to be thrown into. Snape's distaste for her was evident since their first lesson together, six years ago, but since then, she had learnt to not submit to his level and let his immaturity bother her. To add to her chagrin, she had to unwillingly mingle with the Slytherin house, as Hermione would find out that day.

"Take a seat," Snape's monotone voice called. That was something Hermione didn't miss.

"-Quickly," he said, with a sharp tone.

Hermione sat next to Lavender, behind Ron and Harry. She turned to see Neville anxiously looking for a space. The only available one was the small fraction of a bench, not taken up by a somewhat larger than usual Millicent Bullstrode.

"Do not worry about where you are sat, you are soon to be paired up with your new assigned partners anyway," Snape said, eyeing Neville.

He sighed,

"Longbottom! Sit. Down."

Neville blushed, and did as he was told. Millicent turned to the shy boy beside her and grunted unattractively. It was clear, that like Hermione and many others, Snape was definitely not Neville's favorite teacher.

She turned to face Snape, who seemed to have an even less joyful expression that last year, if that was even possible.

"Holiday is over, students," he began, "I need your full attention and nothing but, though it pains me to do so. Now this year, you are to be assigned to a partner in which you will unwillingly have to spend time together. That time, in which, you will brew many potions and write many reports throughout the year, which I will selflessly mark."

Hermione rolled her eyes at his tone. He often phrased his opinions as if the students should pity his control over the class and his job he willingly signed up to do.

"-Now the first Potion you will be brewing is one of a difficult kind, so I have assigned you to someone I can only hope will help you excel in this lesson."

Snape snatched a long piece of parchment lay on his desk. He began reading the pairing names off the list, not before giving a deep sigh.

"-...Brown and Crabbe, Potter and Parkinson, Weasley and Bullstrode, Malfoy and Longbottom,"

There was a sense of revolt as Hermione turned, wide eyed, to look at a quaking Neville and a practically disgusted Malfoy. She pitied Neville, but was glad Malfoy had not been paired with her as her names was one of the last read from the list,

"...Granger and Zabini."

Hermione took a deep breath. She turned to he right, to see her partner. Blaise Zabini was a Slytherin at his best. He was cunning, smart, and confident. He was, however, the least horrible out of Malfoy's silly group. He sat, noticeably, with Malfoy, who still seemed to have a look of pure horror stuck upon his arrogant features. However Blaise merely looked up in Hermione's direction and met her stare. His posture was relaxed, as were his dark features, and his dark skin perfectly reflected the dungeon lights. The only word that anyone could find to describe Blaise was cool. Regardless, Hermione was only acceptable of the pairing as she knew Blaise was extremely smart. She was thankful to Snape because of this. As people began to move to sit with their pairs, Blaise stood, showing his full height, and sauntered over to Hermione. He sat next to her, silently, and rested his hand on the back of her chair. Hermione leant forwards as if scared to touch him. He smirked in response,

"Granger, I don't bite," he said.

His voice was just as relaxed and impressive as he was. Hermione felt almost foolish. She signaled, however, to Malfoy, who was sat with as much distance between him and Neville as possible. The blonde had his head lay upon his work bench. Hermione rolled her eyes at his pure arrogance and ignorance.

Blaise caught on,

"He's so oblivious to his own torture I doubt he even realizes who I've been paired with."

Hermione looked at the boy with an expression of insult. She raised an eyebrow and he merely smirked again,

"Not that I'm complaining," He continued, "I'm glad I'm paired with someone who actually comprehends basic logic of the world and it's simplistic ways."

Hermione felt a little more at ease then.

"-It was huge!" Seamus cried, "I mean, I've blown stuff up before, bu' this time, it was worse. An' see these eyebrows? Well of course ye' don't! I only went an' bloody well blasted the wee buggers off didn' I?!.."

Hermione shook her head in disbelief. She'd tried to tutor Seamus in the past, but it was hopeless. No matter what he tried, some how it resulted in fire or some sort of explosion. She wasn't sure whether this could possibly be beneficial to him in any way, or whether he should just give up now. She sighed, watching the Irish boy animatedly explain to Neville another accident he'd had. Neville, who was currently wide eyed, slowly biting a sausage and chewing on it in big motions, looked at Seamus incredulously. Hermione smiled. Though he wasn't the brightest spark, Neville was always there for you.

However, Hermione was distracted when she turned and felt the presence of someone's eyes watching her. She looked up, past Ginny's red hair, and saw those familiar brown eyes looking back at her. Her stomach flipped once more. She smiled at Dean, who was happy he'd caught her glance,

"Having fun?" he mouthed to her,

She shook her head and replied,

"Boring."

He laughed slightly. Hermione felt her cheeks blush. She'd never been able to make a boy laugh before, despite Ron and Harry, and even then it was unintentional. Ginny's eyes flicked up. She watched Hermione whisper across the tables and frowned.

"Who're you talking to?" she asked.

Hermione broke her gaze with Dean and looked at her confused,

"-Hm, what?" she frowned, "Oh, erm, no one."

Ginny had a knowing smile on her face,

"Well, 'No-one' must be good at getting girls to blush," she pointed out.

When Hermione looked back up, she saw Dean was in deep conversation with one of his housemates. She looked back at her food. She'd lost her appetite again.

Ginny didn't seem to be the only person who had the knowledge of Hermione and Dean. From the other side of the Great Hall, Draco watched the two carefully. His face was once again that of a snarl, and he inspected the situation with interest. Blaise noticed his lack of input into the conversations around him. He was quiet. The latter followed his gaze to see the scene between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff unfold.

"You know," he broke the silence, "If you stare so much, you'll start to see green."

Draco grunted in disbelief,

"I'm not fucking jealous, Zabini," he spat.

Blaise smiled,

"Then why are you so interested?" he asked.

Draco turned to Blaise and inspected his face. He frowned, as if he was looking at someone he recognized but couldn't make out who they were.

"I have my reasons," he finally said, just before Dumbledore took to his podium.

Blaise raised his eyebrows at Draco, before turning to face the front of the hall. Draco watched Blaise for a couple more seconds, before glancing at Dean, who had has back to Draco, and then Granger who still had a pathetic blush upon her cheeks. He cringed.

"-Students, students, settle down if you will," Dumbledore's voice echoed throughout the hall.

A silence fell over the witches and wizards, as they all turned to look at their headmaster.

"Thankyou," he nodded his head.

"-Firstly, I would like to start with a large welcome back, and a new welcoming to our first year students."

There was a sudden round of applause. Many Slytherins eyed the newcomers with distaste. Malfoy scoffed and turned to Blaise,

"Just another bunch of know-it-all's and wannabe's."

Blaise sniggered in return.

"-Secondly," Dumbledore began once more, "I would like to congratulate all of our prefects, and would like to inform those students that their prefect patrols commence tonight. Their rotas and pair up assignments are listen in their common rooms."

Draco grunted. Blaise had a similar expression, and turned to Draco. They rolled their eyes and sighed. The boys had other things on their minds at night than to go and search the school aimlessly for hours on end.

The castle was different at night time. Hermione found herself fascinated by the silence that fell over the usually bustling corridors. She held her wand before her, as the cast of Lumos lit the corridors. Lavender followed shortly behind. Hermione had a slight aversion to that girl. She had never been a fan of over reacting, overly nice, overly friendly girls, and Lavender ticked all those boxes. Regardless, Hermione knew it could've been worse. The brunette just tried to pace ahead a little. The less time she spent in a close proximity with Lavender, the better.

The night she had so far endured was uneventful. Only one second year was found out of bed, and when Hermione told him to go to his dormitory immediately, he mocked her tone of voice and superior attitude and strutted off down the corridor as an attempt to impersonate her. Lavender found the scene quite funny, which only made Hermione hate her more.

Lavender had fallen behind, which really didn't bother Hermione. The corridor on the fifth floor was quiet, until Hermione heard mumbling. There were two voices, she could make out, both male and deep. This was her chance to take her role seriously. As she approached the corner near the staircase, Hermione held out her wand confidently.

"Listen, Thomas," she heard a voice command.

Hermione stopped abruptly, and leaned flat against the wall, trying to keep her breathing quietly. She edged closer to the corner, and craned her neck so she could watch the scene unfold.

Dean Thomas and Draco Malfoy stood at the top of the staircase. Dean was one step down, and Malfoy towered above him. Hermione saw the Slytherin's platinum hair glowing in the moonlight, and this first gave away who it was. She edged a little closer to the end of the wall, and strained to see Malfoy holding his wand up to Dean's throat. The latter, however, stared back relentlessly. Hermione's breath caught in her throat, and she nervously watched the two boys argue.

"-And if you even think about carrying this out," Draco spat,

Dean laughed,

"It's not of your fucking business Malfoy, why are you so bothered?"

"Your mother asked me to watch over you this year. She didn't want you to fuck up like your stupid father did,"

Dean snarled at Draco, but the Slytherin held his wand tight to the boys chin, which had him frozen again.

"-You're just going to get attached to Quidditch which you were never good at, and fail all your stupid subjects. And now this?"

"I can do whatever the fuck I like, Malfoy. You're not my dad,"

Draco scoffed,

"I'm proud not to be, you're just going to turn out like him and make all the wrong decisions. You've really stooped low this time, Thomas, I hope you're proud of what you've become because you're letting yourself and your family down, thanks to her."

The Slytherin took a step back from Dean, who could finally breathe whilst resting on the banister. Malfoy looked the boy up and down and shook his head,

"I'm ashamed to even know you," he spat, before turning on his heel and stalking to Hermione's direction.

She hastily moved to the door of a classroom and opened it slightly as if she was just leaving. Hermione could hear the click of the Slytherin's shoes as he approached her. She shut the door just as he turned the corner.

The two jumped slightly at eachother's presence, before Draco sneered down to Hermione and shoved his wand into his pocket.

"What a coincidence," he chuckled, "Isn't it past your bedtime mudblood?"

Hermione stuck her chin in the air with superiority. She hated the term 'mudblood' but it was growing old now that Draco was clearly unable to think of anything else.

"Atleast I have a reason to be out of bed at this time. Shouldn't you be in your dorm? I'm sure losing points from your house isn't worth this stunt, is it?" she questioned.

The Slytherin laughed and took a step towards her, invading her personal space. She felt her breath catch in her chest, much like before, and the smell of his musky cologne intoxicated her.

"Granger, Granger, Granger," he mocked.

Hermione took a deep breath and glared at him. He made her feel so small and immature.

"-Wake up and smell the coffee, will you? You have no idea who you're messing with."

With a final inspection of the Gryffindor from head to toe, Draco's icy-cold eyes bored into Hermione's as he raised his eyebrows and eventually turned to leave.

She felt him nudge her shoulder as he barged past her, and strutted down the corridor. His heels clicked with almost arrogance, much like before. When she heard them fade out of reach, Hermione released a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. She sighed, looking down at the floor. For the rest of the night, she couldn't help but ponder over the thought of Draco and Dean's incident. For all this time, Hermione thought they were friends.

This was just something Hermione hated herself for not being able to understand.

A/N: Congrats on reaching the end! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter ( a long one at that! My apologies). There's a lot more to come, and I know exactly where I'm going with this story! Everything is not as it seems, trust me.

Don't forget review, good or bad, all feedback is appreciate and really motivates me to continue writing.

Thanks, Amelia x