Hermione Jean Granger looked out of the carriage window for one last fleeting glance at her parents, but in a second, they were gone, now merely images in her brain. Her view of King's Cross train station was replaced with rolling green hills and peaceful farm animals alarmingly quickly, but she supposed that was magic, too, just like the wall she and her confused parents had run into, and just like the station they had arrived at, 9 ¾, which, in all technicality, should not be there. She sighed and opened the locket on her chest, revealing a picture of her best friend, Alex, whom she had had to leave for "Hogwart's". She sighed. What had she gotten herself into? These wizards weren't the friendliest, and her only escape from the stares she got from the chubby brown-haired boy opposite her was the pile of books in her lap, which she read religiously. After all, how could she expect to get anywhere in her new school if she knew nothing? She hoped her successful attempts at becoming knowledgeable before she needed to be would gain popularity for her, but she suspected it wouldn't. She was just reading about the healing powers of some root when a small, timid voice interrupted her, saying "Um, excuse me, but could you get up? I think my toad hopped under your seat." .
Brilliant. Just brilliant. First, this boy stares at her without end, then he puts his ugly amphibian under her bum? How chivalrous. Slightly irked, she replied "Of course. My name's Hermione Granger. And yours?"
"Ne-Ne-Neville Longbottom, miss. If you wouldn't mind, could you help me find Trevor? That's my toad. I think he got out of our compartment." He stuttered, and when he looked at Hermione, he seemed sheepish and embarrassed, and he gave her the impression he was trying to impress her. How funny.
"Of course." Was all she replied, and she followed him out through the glass door, futilely trying to hide her annoyance.
Apparently he noticed she was pissed, and started rambling on about how bad his toad was and all the stuff it had done and how funny it was, but she was saved from pretending to listen by a compartment full of people. She tapped the boy on the back and motioned toward it, and he walked inside, his shoulders hunching as he did so.
Inside the compartment, a platinum blonde haired boy was on the seat to the right along with a boy with jet black hair and startling green eyes, and the other was occupied by two rather plump, Neanderthal looking boys who grunted and stood up threateningly when the pair walked in.
"Excuse me, but has anyone seen a toad? Neville has lost one, and you're the closest compartment to us." Hermione stood up straight when she said this, trying to illustrate to the two thugs that she had no fear towards them.
"No, we haven't seen a toad, bucktooth. How about you get out of compartment before you dirty it?" The blond boy said with a smirk that gave Hermione a desire to strangle him.
Hermione's face became uncharacteristically pink, and she hissed "Fine. If you want to be immature, I can go right along with you, albino. I suppose the toad wouldn't come in here, when I think about it, actually-your faces would have scared the poor thing off. Let's hope it didn't see you, or it may have died of repulsion."
She could see the two fat boys struggling to understand what she was saying, but the boys on the right scowled at her, and muttered profanities under their breath. Without waiting for a response, Hermione whisked out of the compartment, followed closely by a nervous Neville.
"I'm going to go change into my robes, if you don't mind. I suppose you can find your toad on your own?" She said briskly, and he nodded meekly.
Although Hermione would never admit it, those boys' attitude towards her had hurt her, and she found herself covering her teeth with her hand. Did she really look that bad? Trying to hide her embarrassment from anyone who could be around, she went back to her compartment and changed quickly, spending the rest of the trip studying.
Hermione was just reading about a boy called Harry Potter for the billionth time in one of her books when she felt the train shudder to a stop. She looked up, surprised that she had not even acknowledged that they were approaching their destination, and hastily started gathering her things. Neville had hurried into the compartment a few minutes before, and presumably moved his stuff somewhere else after thanking Hermione for her help, to which she said it was no problem. He blushed and ran out of the door after that, and Hermione wondered where he had gone while she was getting off the train.
When she stepped out of the train, a gust of cold wind, along with an overwhelming amount of rain, almost swept her over, and she probably would have fallen if someone behind her hadn't grabbed her and pulled her upright. She turned around to see who had shown rare kindness to her, and icy blue eyes stared back at her.
"Watch yourself, bucktooth. Don't want you decapitated quite yet." The blonde said with that smirk and a twinkle in his eyes, and her cheeks started turning red.
"Um… Thank you. My name's actually Hermione Granger, not bucktooth, blondie. And yours?" She replied quickly, cursing her scarlet cheeks.
"Draco Malfoy. You can call me Malfoy. Hurry up and move it, it's cold out here." He said, the sparkle in his eyes now gone, as was, apparently, his burst of kindness.
She quickly gathered all her stuff, and was about to stalk off, but she realized she didn't know where to stalk off to. Luckily, Neville walked into her and pointed out where to go, and so their year at Hogwarts began.