It was strange really, how all the girls had changed during summer between 5th and 6th year. It was like the plague with how it spread, but for some reason, that summer it skipped me and I had returned to Hogwarts for my 6th year looking the same as I had when I left three months earlier. Three months wasn't really a long time, but when you're going through puberty and you're stuck with the same people for 9 months of the year, and though they grow during those 9 months, you don't really realise the changes until you haven't seen them for a long period of time. Which is exactly what happened during that summer.

I hadn't changed much during 6th year either, maybe I was an inch or two taller, but that means nothing. As my two best friends went on ogling all the girls that they never paid much attention to before, I just read. I read and studied and kept as much order as I could manage.

We didn't return for 7th year, too busy with hiding from the ministry and death eaters and our mission to defeat Voldemort. We were 17 years old and planning a murder, sometimes I don't think the other two realise how easily we could have been killed ourselves. Just lucky I guess. When Voldemort was defeated we parted ways, each of us needed time alone, to deal with the enormous weights that were still somehow sitting on our shoulders, at least that's how I felt. I went to Australia to restore my parents' memories and settle them back into our home in England. I stayed with them for a month, in an almost dead silent house, before I couldn't take it anymore. They weren't angry at me for erasing their memories, they understood completely, but there was something different about how we all were around each other, no, how they were around me. It was like they still had part of their memories gone, it was getting better slowly, but I couldn't take it, I had to leave.

My mother had family in France that offered me a place to stay, I took the offer. They lived close to Paris and I would spend many a days just drifting though the beauty that was Paris. It was Paris, in June, when my cousin Isadora suggested that I get a haircut. I had laughed and told her to sod off, but she persisted for a long time and finally in early July I went to her hairdresser. He spoke hardly any English, so when I had told him to not cut it short, he had heard, cut it short. He frowned at my request and then studied and played with my hair for a minute before smiling and nodding. I had thought he completely understood why I had not asked for much off, but he had thought I wanted it short and apparently, completely understood that. I do now though, he was right, short would work. And so short it was, it had shocked me, the change, and I had loved it. My cousin had adored it and immediately started firing off care instruction questions in French to the hairdresser before she allowed us to leave. Isadora was a sweet girl, barely a year younger than me, and we got on incredibly. We went on many shopping trips to her favourite boutiques in and around Paris and she never let me leave a store without at least purchasing one thing.

I was there just on three months before my parents called and reminded me that school started on September the First. I almost didn't go back, life was so good in France that I couldn't imagine having to go back to England, back to school. Harry sent me an owl mid-August telling me about the efforts and donations that the Wizard world had contributed to the rebuilding of Hogwarts. He himself had contributed a lot of time and money to the project, and was pleased to hear that the school would be open in time for the school year. Apparently a lot of debate had gone into how they were to fix the mess of a school year the previous year had been, it was decided that another year was to be added to the curriculum of Hogwarts, 8th year. All other years would move on to the next year like normal and have the correct curriculum for the previous year worked into their lessons, but for the 7th years that had missed out on proper education and had not even gotten a chance to sit their NEWTs, they would have the option of returning to Hogwarts and completing 8th year. 8th year for future year levels would be optional, a chance for further education I suppose. I replied to Harry and told him I was excited also and that I couldn't wait to see him on the First.

I had two weeks left in France before I would have to go home to England, two weeks to get school supplies, my Hogwarts owl arrived days before Harrys, two weeks to say goodbye to the place that had crept its way into my heart and didn't want to budge. I made a few last trips into Paris before I had to go. Once to collect school stuff, another to spend some quality shopping time with my cousin and the last, a night with my aunt, uncle, Isadora and her younger brother right before I had to leave.

Mum and Dad were crying when they saw me, they were so happy to see me after so much time, they felt right again, nothing was missing with them. My short hair was a topic conversation at dinner that night. What made you cut it that short? Did you have an accident with the scissors? What are your friends going to say? I explained the story to them and told them that I had no idea what my friends were going to say.

I helped mum clear the plates after dinner. She looked over at me and told me I looked so beautiful, that France did me a world of good and that she could see happiness in my eyes again. I hugged her tightly and told her that she was so right, France had shown me so much beauty and love and life that I couldn't not be at home there. I told her that I'd miss her too much if it was really home. She laughed and told me to go to bed and rest, I had a long train trip the next day.

This is where I jump back to my original point. So much changes in such a short amount of time, and when no one sees you changing, when they see the change, it's massive. I didn't understand the stares I got when I walked onto the platform, almost if no one recognised me. I couldn't have changed that much. My choice of outfit for the day was simple, dark jeans, loose fitting top, worn down boots, light makeup, a couple of bangles and a ring. And this is where I stand now, Platform 9 ¾, with a whole bunch of people just looking at me.

I frown, this isn't right, Harry and Ron should be here, they should have seen me as I entered the Platform and greeted me, it was the same thing every year. I glance around looking for the boys, smiling at the people I know with whom I make eyecontact. I find the boys, they're looking right at me. My frown deepens and push my cart towards them.

I stop in front of them. They stay quiet. "What is up with you two?" Harry raises his eyebrows slightly.

"Mione?" He asks. Ron whips his head to Harry and then back to me.

"No way." Ron drags his words out in disbelief.

"What? Why is there a question as to who I am?" I cross my arms and give the boys a 'you are barmy' look.

Ron's eyes widen. "No way!" He repeats, this time the words drawn out longer than before.

Harry whacks Ron on the head and smiles at me. "You've changed a bit Hermione."

"I haven't really." I turn from the boys and make my way over to the train, ready to get my things on board and get settled in a good carriage.

"You have too!" Ron exclaims loudly, I turn my head back to them and glare at Ronald.

"Piss off Ron. It's just a bloody haircut." I push my luggage on board the train and start looking for an empty carriage. The boys follow after me.

"But-but it's not just a haircut Mione. You're fit."

I growl and whip around to face Ron. "Say one more thing and I swear you'll regret it." Harry chuckles and Ron whimpers at my threat. I look into the next carriage to find it empty, perfect. "It's not just that you don't know when to shut up Ron," I continue as I get my stuff into the carriage and up onto the racks, "it's that you don't think before you say, and you end up sounding like a dick." I sit down and wait for the boys to finish putting their things away.

"You're swearing too now. You never swore, what happened?" Harry asked as he sat down. I shrugged and looked out the window of the stationary train.

"Life happened I suppose."

I saw the boys exchange looks out of the corner of my eye.

We spent the first hour of the trip to Hogwarts silent, and then Harry couldn't deal with the silence anymore and asked me what I did over summer. I told them everything.

Things got a bit easier after that conversation, we got back into the flow of our friendship and talked about anything and everything that came to mind. We were three hours into the trip when I needed some air.

"I'll be back in five guys." They looked up from the floor were they had started playing exploding snap and nodded.

I left the compartment and walked down the narrow hallway to the end of the train carriage, we had chosen a compartment on the last carriage of the train and I hoped that there would be a small deck on the end of the train so I could sit and watch the countryside speed away from me. I was lucky, there was. But it was occupied already. I knew that if I had gotten there first, I would not mind someone coming out and joining me, even if I didn't know them. So I took a chance and stepped out onto the small deck.

Platinum Blonde hair, Malfoy. He heard the door open and glanced up at me. He just looked for a moment before nodding and gesturing that I sit. I sat.

So we sat in silence for 5 minutes before he said something to me. "Do you have light?"

I looked at him shocked for a second, sure enough there was a cigarette in his hand. I had nothing against smokers, I just never took pureblood Draco Malfoy to indulge in this muggle drug. I chuckle softly, "You're a wizard. Use your wand." He shakes his head, cigarette still in his outstretched hand. I look at him puzzled for a moment before taking the cigarette from him, placing it between my lips and touching the end of my wand with it, setting it alight. I take a drag to keep the heat growing before passing it back to Draco.

He mutters his thanks and takes a deep breathe in through the cigarette, blowing it out into the fast winds around us.

"Why are you smoking?" I ask.

He shrugs. "So I can appreciate muggles more."

I watch as he takes a few more drags from the cigarette. "There are other ways."

He turns to me and looks me up and down. "I know. I smoke because it's relaxing. What do you do to relax?"

"Eat chocolate?"

"See? We all have our own vices." He turns away.

"I wasn't asking because I disapprove, I was asking because I was curious. You don't seem to be the kind of person who smokes."

He takes one last drag of the cigarette before letting it slip out of his fingers into the wind. "You don't seem to be the kind of person who doesn't smoke." He turns back to me again, eyes roaming my outfit and body openly.

"What makes you say that?"

"You're ring is in the shape of a gun, you're wearing military boots, dark gray skinny jeans and a gray sleeveless top. I'm surprised you don't have a bunch tattoos all over your body," his eyes flick up to meet mine, "then again there is a lot of you I haven't seen yet."

I scoff. "I'd like to see you try." I shake my head in amusement and stand up, opening the door back into the train without a glance back at Malfoy. I take a step into the hallway before I'm pulled back and shoved into a little alcove by the door. I look up in surprise at Malfoy. His body is firmly against mine, his leg between mine, his warm hand resting on my waist, his stormy eyes bearing into mine. "What are you doing?'

"Trying." He says before slamming his lips onto mine.

AN: Was going to do a part 2, but I actually like it like this. Might add to it if I can find the right way to continue it, but as for now. It's fine like this. Leave a review?

ALSO! I made a Polyvore set of what she's wearing for the train trip. It's on my profile.