Chapter 1:
Another year begins, another set of adventures awaits, just beyond this barrier. The second I step through this wall another journey is ahead, and no matter where the twists and turns may lead me, I will stick my head up high and take them like a man…or a woman, depends on how you look at it. Deep breathe….breath in and out. I flipped my hair lightly over my shoulder and walked through the platform 9 and 3/4. Every time I walked through the wall I felt this rush of emotions, everything was coming back to me. The smell of the engine smoke billowing from the top of the scarlet machine. A joyous sensation pulsed through my body as I walked through the busy and bustling platform. My chocolate brown eyes searching over the heads of the familiar faces, looking for two in particular.
I spotted the flaming red hair from across the station, bobbing up and down. Her pigtails bobbed back and forth, up and down. Ginny. I knew where she was, Ron had to be somewhere close by. I made my way through the crowds of people, greeting each other back for another year at Hogwarts. I hadn't even reached Ginny yet before she spun around on her heels, with a gigantic smile stretched across her face. Over the years she had grown bigger, prettier, dismissing her freckles and odd expressions.
"Hermoine!" she squealed, filling the gap between us by running and jumping onto me like a monkey. I laughed as we swayed on spot, her weight about to knock me back before she jumped off and stood on front of me, straightening her skirt up again, still with the smile plastered on her cheeks. Her dimples lightened everything up, so it was like looking into the face of an angel.
"Ginny! How are you, I haven't seen you since the end of last term!" I exclaimed, flipping my annoyingly straight hair behind my shoulder, and tucking the flyaways behind my ears.
"It was great! I mean, Charlie took time off and spent the summer with us," she smiled, explaining everything with her hands vividly. I smiled at her, loving to see one of my best friends again. The summer had been lonely. I had spent the entire long months inside my muggle house, among the entire odd muggle world. Ever since I have been accepted as a witch, everything outside of the wizarding world seems odd, which sounds completely ridiculous. I spent most of the summer thinking. I had received my head girl letter early on, and I felt joy and sadness all at once. I was happy, my dream had finally come true, and all that hard work and studying had paid off majorly. But this just gave all the Slytherins and Malfoy in particular a new reason to tease and ridicule me. I wasn't looking forward to it at all, which made a flip side to the situation.
"Hermoine!" a familiar voice shouted from behind me. I spun around, knowing exactly whom the voice belonged to. I held my arms out smiling furiously.
"Harry! Ron!" I said as they both ran forward and jumped on my just as Ginny had done, but this time instead of wobbling slightly, I was knocked down to the ground along with Ron and Harry laying on top of me smiling like mad. They obviously were not aware that we were all lying on the cement ground of the platform, while people stepped around us, giving us odd looks. "It's nice to see you too!" I smiled. They both laughed and climbed off me, offering a hand to help me back to my feet.
"Wow, Hermoine, you look, great!" Ron said, looking me up and down. That was another thing I pondered on the long vacation. I had decided, New Year, new person. I wanted people to notice me as more than just a book worm, and as a real person. Thus ending in my actually doing my hair, making it straight, and flow down my back and a little makeup as well.
"Thank you, Ron," I replied, smiling. I had practiced my smile in the mirror for many nights, trying to perfect it. I had changed, I knew, and I could tell Harry and Ron knew it too. We stood in the platform, looking at each other in an uncomfortable silence. "Well, shall we?" I finally broke the awkward moment, gesturing towards the steaming engine. We all nodded, taking our seats in an empty compartment. Ginny followed in behind us, dragging her trunk behind her, but not exactly joining the group. She stood in the doorway, still gripping one end of the trunk, looking down the aisle.
"You know what, I think I may go sit with some other friends for a while," she said, shutting the door, and the faint scrapping of her dragging the trunk down the hall. Ron shook his head.
"You know, I have lived with that girl almost my entire life, and I still do not understand her," he muttered, more to himself to anyone else, but everyone heard it, and smiled to themselves silently.
"So, what did you guys do over the summer vacation," I asked them thoughtfully, placing my hands intertwined within themselves in my lap like a lady.
"Oh, Hermoine, I spent the entire summer at Ron's, and we had the best time! You really should have come, truly!" Harry beamed at me.
"Harry, I told you, my parents wanted me home for the summer vacation this year. It will be our last one before I go out into the working world you know," I tried to reason, but ever since the beginning of the summer he didn't want to hear a word of it.
"But Hermoine! Couldn't your parents understand that this is our last year at Hogwarts, we may never see each other after this!"
"Harry, we have the whole year to hang out, and I guarantee you I will keep in touch with you after the year ends, alright?" I reminded him. Harry crossed his arms and slumped down in his chair, silent in defeat. I smiled to myself, I had won the first battle of the year already, and we were only halfway through the train ride.
Suddenly the door slid open. Outside stood none other than Neville Longbottom, looking quite out of breath, and was leaning against the door to regain his balance.
"Neville, are you alright?" Harry questioned, starting to get up but Neville waved him off.
"Her…herm…Hermoine!" he stated. He suddenly had my attention as I sat there impatiently tapping my foot trying to get him to continue.
"Yes, yes Neville, what about me?" I questioned, growing more impatient by the second.
"Hermoine, I was just walking down the hall, and… (heaving breath)…and…"
"Neville what is it!" I said more forcefully. Ron looked at me like there was something wrong with me.
"Malfoy," Neville spit out finally.
"Yes?" I calmed myself down a bit knowing that he was so horror struck by Malfoy, what else was new?
"Well, I was walking down the hall and he pushed me against the wall, demanding to know where you were," Neville started. He was regaining his breath more easily now. "I said I didn't know, but he pushed me up harder, claiming I was lying. He was very insistent on seeing you, and he had that smug look on his face. So I ran right up here, to warn you!"
"Why would Malfoy be so interested on seeing you Hermoine?" Ron asked, scrunching his nose at the sound of Malfoy's name.
"How on earth am I supposed to know Ron?" I said sarcastically. "Thank you Neville." I nodded to him and he left, shutting the door behind him.
"Well, so of all the people on this train, he is looking for you?" Harry stated with a puzzled look on his face.
"Why, what's wrong with that?" I questioned, I felt the steam inside me rising in anger. What was so wrong and surprising about someone looking for her out of everyone else? Was I that repulsive that no one would even ask of me?
"Hermoine, don't take it the wrong way," Ron pitched in, seeing Harry struggle to answer her back.
"How am I supposed to take it then?" I said, rising from my seat, hands on hips, a threatening look covering my normally good disposition.
"Hermoine, chill!" Ron said, throwing his hands up. I thought I was going to burst with anger. Even my two best friends in the world thought me to be repulsive. Even if it was the most conniving and evil being on this train that was looking for me, but what was so hard for them to believe it? My hands clenched into fists. I just couldn't stand it any longer. I stormed out of the compartment, slamming the door behind me. Charging down the aisle, ready to fling myself into the bathroom. I needed to calm myself down. I was getting worked up over nothing in particular, and it was making me even more frustrated. I felt frailer, more irritable. I couldn't explain the feeling; it just came over me when the slightest mean feeling came in.