"What would you know?"

Hermione glared at Ron in a mixture of shock and exasperation and blind fury. "I know more than you ever will." She threatened. "Ron Weasley, I know everything."

"Not about this. You may be smarter than me when it comes to books and spells and school but you know nothing about life!"

"You wouldn't know about real life, if it came back and bit you on the ass!"

"And what would you know, huh? Hmm? You're part of a rich loving family where you were the only child and were spoilt rotten by your parents."

Hermione bit back tears. "That's what you assume. You don't know anything about me! I have nothing. I have to move every summer. I have to rent motel rooms and work at least three jobs for the whole holiday just to survive."

That stopped him. "But…you have a family."

"Not anymore. They abandoned me when I became a witch. Magic is both the best and worst thing that's ever happened to me." Hermione let the tears fall. "What you have at home, is paradise to me. I could have given up, maybe I should have done, but I am a stronger person than you'll ever know. You would have given up. You wouldn't have done anything about your life. But I have. I keep fighting."

The portrait hole closed with a clang and she looked away from Ron. "Get out." she whispered. He did so without word. "You too Harry." Harry took her hand and squeezed it as he passed her.

Pausing at the portrait hole he whispered to Draco. "Good luck. She's in a really bad mood."

"What've you done this time?" Draco rolled his eyes. He had to pick up the pieces of the distraught Head Girl regularly.

"No doubt she'll tell you, but I'll fill in the gaps tomorrow." Harry left the room.

"What's wrong Granger?" the headmaster had forced civility on the Head Boy and Girl but they responded in the same way Sirius and Snape had. In other words, both pairs hated it and barely contained their loathing for each other. Draco had managed to become quite friendly with Harry, and even moderately so with Ron, but Hermione was the one person he still couldn't stand. Maybe it was because they had to spend so much time together. But they still vented on each other when needed. But he would never consider her a friend.

"It's nothing." She sat down in her armchair and stared into the fire.

Draco sat on the sofa and pulled out a spellbook. Under his breath he counted to ten.

When he got to six however Hermione let out a frustrated roar. "Ron's such an idiot!"

"That's funny, I would have thought you'd get to eight this time." he replied setting the book down again. "What did he say this time?"

"I don't know how it started. One minute I was helping them with some transfiguration homework and then we get into a row about life."

"So, why were you arguing about life?"

"He said that there would never be a need for that spell in real life and then I think I said something about that's what he thinks."

Despite himself Draco chuckled. "Oh dear. Nothing good ever comes from that phrase."

"And then I had to tell him about my real life, for some absurd reason. Why did I do that?" Hermione buried her face in her hands.

"You hadn't told them about your summers?"

"My life has to revolve around them, remember. I have to show sympathy for Harry because I can't burden them with my misfortunes. It has to be all about him. God I hate my life. For once I'd like to not be the quiet bookworm who sits in the library quietly and walks two steps behind the boy who bloody lived."

"Oh! She's a bitter girl."

"Wouldn't you be?"

"Fair point."

"When Harry's in a rant about how little he has, I can't turn around and say I have even less."

"I would have."

"But we are very different people, Malfoy."

"Not really."

"What was that?"

Draco blushed a little and cleared his throat. "Nothing. Well if you really hate your life so much then why don't you change? Tomorrow's a Hogsmede visit. Go, and get yourself a new look, and a new you."

"Makeover's cost money, money I don't have."

"Not in the wizarding world." He smirked and got up. Hermione watched him walk into their shared bathroom with a confused look on her face. An idea was forming.

There was someone she needed to see.

Hermione left the common room and started walking the dark corridors searching for a ghost. Finally she saw Nearly Headless Nick floating out of a tapestry a little ahead of her.

"Nick! I need to speak to you." she called.

Nick glided to a stop and she ran to catch up with him. "What can I do for you Hermione?"

"Have you seen the Grey Lady?"

"Indeed. She is having a row with the Bloody Baron in the Great Hall."

"Oh dear. Another lover's spat?"

"I wouldn't go that far. They have not been lovers for over a thousand years. They have unresolved issues."

"So she keeps telling me."

"Why would she speak to you about these things? She's usually very private." Nick looked puzzled.

"She hasn't told you? She's my…how many greats is it again?… aunt. I am a descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw."

"I knew there was something behind your brains." Nick chuckled. "Well good luck, my girl." He drifted off through the opposite wall.

Hermione turned around and dashed to a painting of a gothic house in a thunderstorm which was at one end of this corridor. Checking that the coast was clear she stuck her hand into the painting and stroked one of the gargoyles heads. It purred. The painting moved forwards on hinges and revealed an old fashioned elevator with ropes to manoeuvre it. Hermione got in and wound herself down to the ground floor.

"The Weasley twins never found this secret passage." She said to herself as she got out.

"If you weren't dead already that knife would be sticking out of your neck!" she heard a ghostly woman shout.

A moment later the Grey Lady swept out of the wall beside the doors to the hall. Hermione stepped out from the shadows. "Bad day?"

"Oh, hello Hermione. That fool wants me to marry him."

"Do ghosts even have weddings, Auntie Helena?"

"Only on very rare occasions. Was there something you wished to talk about?"

"Yes. I don't know what to do." Hermione sat on the staircase and Helena Ravenclaw floated nearby looking at her in concern. "I don't like my life. I don't even like my friends anymore. I want a new start, but I haven't got the means for it. What should I do?"

"Let's go to the library. There's something you need to see. On the way you can tell me what's brought all this on." Helena smiled down on her and Hermione returned it.