-spinning vertex of pure, dark energy appears and Selene descends from the vertex-
Selene: -Looks around- Nathan, where the hell are you?
Nathan: pops out of vertex of light here I am!
Selene: What took you?
Nathan: sorry, traffic was horrible.
Selene: nods and turns to reader hey. This is my first Harry Potter story that I'm posting. I have others but I don't know if I want them up yet. Please let me know if this is any good. I may continue if it is any good. But even if you hate it, I insist that you review. -smiles evilly- or else I'll be forced to send my pet demon Selendra after you.
-A large, 3 headed dog pops up out of no where-
Selene: By the way: I DO NOT own ANY of the Harry Potter characters. They all belong to J. K. Rowling, the wonderful writer that she is. –bows- Thank you for creating them.
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Prologue
Draco stared out the window of the moving carriage at the blackish, twisting trees that formed the forest that lined the road on both sides. It was his 6th year at Hogwarts and this year the Defense Against the Dark Art's class was studying other forms of magic besides wizardry. So their new teacher, Miss. Milinka Griffinsin, had decided they should experience the culture of other magical types for themselves. That's why they were currently on the road to Senscarica, the only remaining sorcerer town in England and, in Draco's mind, the most boring place on Earth.
Senscarica was a town dating back to before the Founders of Hogwarts and was filled with old sorcerers who attempted to interest younger children in the "noble art of sorcery" as they called it. At least, that's what Draco heard from his cousin who had visited the town not too long ago. She said there wasn't a teenager in sight and that everyone she spoke too seemed to not understand a word of English. So Draco already knew he was heading for a boring day, which placed him in a foal mood. And the fact he had been trapped in a carriage with the Golden Trio for the last hour wasn't helping.
Goyol and Crab had been called home on an emergency, something about a death in the family so he couldn't sit with them. And Pansy had climbed into a carriage filled with other Slytherin girls, most of which would probably rape him if they got the chance. He really didn't want to be there.
So that had left him with Potter, Weasley, and Granger as all the other carriages had been full. Oh joy; this was really how he wanted to spend his time: trapped with the Golden Trio in a small carriage bound for a boring town full of old sorcerers who couldn't remember the year, much less a spell.
Draco sighed and pulled his eyes away from the misty forests outside to the other three occupants of the carriage.
Potter and Weasley, he noted, were deep in a conversation about the town they were going to and about what they would do there. Draco snorted, what idiots. They couldn't do any of the things they thought they could. He wanted to laugh at them but decided that if he angered them, the odds were not in his favor.
He then turned his attention to Granger, hoping that she was doing something he could laugh about, though he expected her to be reading another heavy text book. If that was the case, he would certainly not anger her. After chucking her astronomy text book at him once and leaving a good sized dent in the wooden wall where it had hit, he opted to never bother her while she was reading again. However, as he turned to face her, he found his assumptions were quiet wrong.
Instead of reading, he found her staring morosely out the window at the surrounding land, a strange circular muggle contraption with two long, thin strings sticking out of one side of it in her lap. The strings were attached to some other strangely shaped thing which was stuck in her ear. Somehow, music was playing from the thing in her lap and echoing through the strings into her ears.
He couldn't exactly tell, but it sounded like she was listening to some piano piece but with odd beeping sounds in the background. She looked so deep in thought Draco wondered if a rampaging troll would rouse her. He then noticed another thing about Granger: she was crying. Not full blown hysterics crying, but there was water leaking from her eyes.
He shifted slightly so he could better see her eyes, which was difficult without being obvious since they were sitting on the same side of the carriage as her. She looked awake, but Draco didn't wonder if she was really sleeping. She was acting so strange...
Actually, now that he thought about it, a lot of strange things had been happening around Granger recently. Like the letter at breakfast the other day.
Flashback
A raven had swooped into the Great Hall with the rest of the owls and dropped a crimson red letter in front of Granger. Even from across the room, Draco could see her turn white like snow as she slowly opened the letter. As soon as the letter was free from the envelope, Granger had dropped it and clapped her hands over her ears, her face screwed up in pain.
At the same moment, every owl in the hall had started screeching and flapping around crazily. But Draco had heard nothing, nor had anyone else. It took several minutes to calm all of the owls down afterwards, but, when asked what had happened, Granger wouldn't say a word. Not even to Potter and Weasley from what Draco heard. They had actually fought about it for a week supposedly before the boys backed down.
End Flashback
And then there was language class.
Flashback
At the beginning of the year it had been announced that all students under 7th year would have to take a foreign language. Four languages had been offered: French, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese. Draco hadn't understood why Japanese had been offered, but many kids had signed up for it. Mostly Ravenclaws signed up for Japanese, Gryffindors for Spanish, Huffelpuffs for French, and Slytherins for Russian. Of course there were exceptions, like Cho had signed up for Spanish and Marina, a Gryffindor, had signed up for Japanese, but the strangest exception was Granger. She had signed up for Russian with the Slytherins. ALL Slytherins.
And then, just last week, the Russian teacher, Mr. Ivan Kargonoff, had caught Granger writing a letter in his class. Immediately, he had confiscated it and decided to read it out loud, only to discover that it was being written in Russian. Perfect Russian. The letter proved Grangers fluency in the language. Mr. Ivan Kargonoff had been shocked, to say the least.
"But- how?" asked Mr. Kargonoff.
Granger had been silent.
"Why didn't you take another language then if you can speak Russian so well?"
Once again she was silent.
Mr. Kargonoff had finally gotten fed up with her and dropped the letter back on her desk. Nothing more was said between them for the rest of class.
End Flashback
That had certainly startled more then a few people. And the news had spread through the school like wild fire. Once again when people asked she refused to talk. She didn't show up for language class again so Draco assumed she had switched classes. But still, he wondered why she would sign up for a language she already seemed to understand fluently.
He was actually starting to wonder if there wasn't more to the language thing then he had originally assumed. He was curious about something else too. Once in class, he thought he heard Potter ask Granger if he could share a potion's book with her. She had snapped the book shut and moved farther away from Potter shaking her head firmly. Though she looked mostly normal, Draco could have sworn he saw fear flitter across her face at the time. At least, he THOUGHT that's what happened. Now, he wasn't so sure. The best way to find out, however, was to ask.
"Hey, Potter," called Draco before he could stop himself, "didn't you ask Granger if you could share a book with her once?"
"What's it to you Malfoy?" snapped Harry in return.
Draco sighed. "Because I was wondering...oh never mind," muttered Draco, realizing that Harry would never understand what he was talking about. But he was pretty sure that's what had happened, he never heard Potter or Weasley ask again.
'I wonder what else she's hiding,' he thought as he settled back in his seat. He decided he should try to get some sleep, he doubted Potter or Weasley would try anything.
Just as Draco was about to fall asleep, however, he noticed something about Hermione he hadn't seen before. Her eyes weren't brown anymore; they had turned a strange yellow, like the eyes of a snake or a jackal.
