A/N* April 2018: So I decided to start this story over completely. I started the original fic back in 2008 and never got back to it, because I lost inspiration for it. Then during the start of this year (2018), a decade later(!) I suddenly got a new muse. First problems I noticed with the original fic, were that it was moving way to fast and I skipped over the whole backstory. I would say that my skills in writing has evolved and become better since 2008, so I would like to redo this and make it better. I hope you will like it.

Hermione had always lived at the same house her whole life, except when she attended Hogwarts. It was a beautiful two story house with a big backyard in a nice neighborhood. Over the door was the name 'Granger' written in big letters by her father and Hermione; when she was younger. Through the years she had seen different neighbors come and go, move in and out, except their next door neighbor, Anne-Marie Agtroy. She has lived there since before Hermione was born and has a daughter around her age, named Sophie. Hermione and Sophie had indirectly grown up together with both of them being only children and later on they would go to the same kindergarten, so they grew close. That was until Hermione got her letter from Hogwarts and stopped attending Muggle school and having classes with Sophie. Hermione was not allowed to tell her, of course, but she was her best friend Hermione had to tell her something.

It was not just them, Hermione and Sophie. Sophie had a cousin, Nicholas, who would visit them with his mother quite often their primary years. The mother seemed a tad cold, but she would often spend her time with Anne-Marie or sometimes just drop Nicholas off instead of staying. In fact, Hermione do not remember ever having had any interaction with her. The three of the children had the time of their lives and they would spend hours of playing in Hermione's backward. However, around the time she turned 9 years old Nicholas would stop visiting and Hermione and Sophie never knew why.

It was not until a couple of years later that Hermione saw Nicholas again on the Hogwarts Express, or so she thought. He looked at her or rather right through her. He did not recognize her at all. Hermione quickly found out that he had no idea who she was and his name was Draco Malfoy. Through the other children aboard the train she found out very little and heard no mentions of Anne-Marie and Sophie. Could she have been wrong? He looked so much like Nicholas that it was eerie, but why would he lie? She did not get much chance to find out more, since they got sorted into different houses and when he found out that she was Muggle-born, he did not want anything to do with her.

She tried to write to Sophie about it, but she never got a reply. Instead she got a letter from her parents telling her that Sophie had begun schooling at another school and at the request of her mother, Hermione could send her letters to Anne-Marie and she would forward it. In the same letter Anna-Marie had written her own note to Hermione, explaining the situation with Nicholas:

Dear Hermione

I will explain this to you myself, as I suspect Sophie may not want to. The reason for my nephew's somewhat sudden disappearance some years ago is that we had some trouble in the family and his parents decided to move away and that Draco would be getting home schooling. They wanted a new start.

Best

Anne-Marie

After that letter Hermione did not question the matter anymore, because she trusted Anne-Marie and so did Sophie. They did not talk as much as they used to, because they now had so much distance and time between them. However, whenever Hermione had a chance to go home she took it and so did Sophie, so they could spend some time together.

After the fall of Voldermort and Hermione returned to her 6th year, much was changed. Sophie had gone with Hermione's parents to the train station to see her off, but naturally she could not go with them to the platform. Hermione had always hated keeping the secret from Sophie, but she had to. It was against the law for Hermione to tell her. Still, she was Hermione's oldest and one of her dearest friends and she felt rotten that this huge part of her life was hidden from Sophie.

They got to the main entrance and was saying goodbye, when Sophie suddenly froze in mid-sentence, as something kept her eyes behind Hermione. She followed Sophie's gaze and froze as well when she saw what Sophie was looking at. Draco Malfoy was standing across the grand atrium staring at the pair of girls for a moment and then shook his head, sneered at Hermione and walked on. Sophie then whispered for only Hermione to hear "Mi', was that Nicholas?"

Before Hermione could answer, a voice cut in from behind Sophie "Sophie Agtroy, what do you think you are doing?" Anne-Marie was red in the face and it looked like she had been running. Also, she did not look pleased. Sophie rolled her eyes slightly before turning to address her mother. "Mom, I just wanted to see Hermione off for once. Is that so wrong?" That took Hermione by surprise. Sophie had gone with them without telling her mother.

Anne-Marie was about to say something, but then in the last second closed her mouth and took a deep breath.

"No, of course, it is not wrong, but you should have told me. I was worried".

"I'm sorry, alright" Sophie said calmly back. They hugged quickly and then they both turned and faced Hermione.

"So, Hermione, will we see you at Christmas?" Anne-Marie asked.

"Yes, absolutely"

They hugged and said goodbye and then she went to the platform to find Harry and Ron. Before going down the steps, she looked back one last time and shared a smile with Sophie. Hermione wish Sophie could go with her and meet Harry and Ron and see everything. She knew Sophie would love it. As she descended the steps, it dawned on her that the moment they just had in the atrium with Malfoy was probably the closest they would ever get to see their little trio back together.

That realization put a whole chain of thoughts in motions in her head. She had now known Malfoy for 5 years, which is the same amount of time they had, knew Nicholas when they were little. In all that time, she never heard mention of Anne-Marie or Sophie, but since they were Muggles it made sense that they would have no connection to each other. Nonetheless, it did not explain the fact that Hermione recognized Malfoy's mother the instant she saw her on the platform that day for the first time clearly. This woman was the mother of her friend Nicholas. There was no doubt about it. Granted it had been years since she has seen Nicholas' mother and that was at a distance, but she was sure. This was too many coincidences for there not to be a connection. There was something amiss and she would find out what. Harry, Ron, Ginny and her found a compartment easily on the train and began talking about what had happened this summer.

A/N* I hope you will leave a review and let me know what you think. I still have the original fic, because I like to compare my different writing pieces. Also, I can still read the origin of the inspiration in the piece, which I find to be very helpful. If anyone would like to read it, let me know and I might post it as a bonus chapter.