Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine, nor will it ever be, for it belongs to the amazing J.
Please leave a review after you read the chapter, so I can improve as I go.
Also, if you have any ideas of a scene I should incorporate, please share it with me, I will try to find a place for it in my story. But if I cannot, please know that your idea has been thought of and fully appreciated.
I will keep an open mind, even though the whole story is pretty much all planned out already.
Hermione POV
Hogwarts, first year
Two days before school
It was her first year at Hogwarts. She had read all about the school's history, 'you never knew when that sort of knowledge would come in handy', she thought. Hermione was a very brilliant girl for her age, her parents often told her.
She couldn't help but hope that she would be an adequate witch, for she was the first in her family to have the possibility to learn, let alone use magic. Of course, she had to be the best, she could not fail, ever. Hermione had always strived to be the best at everything, sometimes without even trying. One could only hope that it would be the same with magic.
She had already gone to Diagon Alley with her mum and dad to buy all her supplies for school.
Muggle London was quite plain, compared to this place. There where stores that selled flying brooms and others that selled potions and quills. Hermione was completely astounded at that.
She found this book store called Fleury & Botts, it had quickly become her favourite out of all the other shops, simply because of all the books she could find. Her mother bought her a few that would help her deepen her skills at classes such as, Charms, History Of Magic, Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions. knew her daughter would be extremely pleased with her new books.
Hermione was feeling a bit nervous about starting school in two days, for she knew she wouldn't see her parents for a while. But she would write to them, every week. And she would sometimes visit on the weekends, if she could take a break from studying, obviously.
Hermione couldn't sleep anymore, she was feeling anxious, excited, and something she couldn't quite define...
On the Hogwarts Express, the eve of the first day of school
The train ride to Hogwarts had just began, and Hermione finally found a seat in one of the compartments. Initially, she had been sitting alone, when a young blond boy came in with five other people.
"Excuse me, do you mind if we join you? Everywhere else is full." he asked, smiling.
Hermione answered with a nod. She was reading about Albus Dumbledore, the director of Hogwarts. Therefore, she was too absorbed by her book to even look up at the people who came in and sat across from her, except the blond boy, who sat next to her.
Hermione heard them talking about food and their how excited their parents were about having their only child finally attend Hogwarts, but she paid no further attention, for the conversation was absolutely irrelevant to her.
A quarter of an hour had passed, and Hermione had finished her chapter on Professor Dumbledore, he was the greatest wizard in the history of the wizarding world, no doubt about that. It is of great honour that she will be attending his school. She, Hermione Ganger, would have the pleasure to meet the best wizard in the world...
She was suddenly pulled out of her reverie by the boy sitting next to her.
"What's it about?" he asked, looking at then open book in her lap.
"Pardon?" answered Hermione, a bit confused.
"The book you were reading, what's it about?" clarified the blond, now looking into her chocolate brown eyes.
"Oh! It's about the greatest wizards in history. They are all very talented, but I fancy Dumbledore the best." she sayed, smiling at him.
"Really? As do I!" the boy smiled sheepishly at his new friend.
"I heard he appears on the card in the chocolate frog package. I would have liked to see a picture of his face, but I haven't gotten any of those treats yet" she returned, with a sad smile on her face.
The boy looked at her briefly, before shooting to his feet and running out of the compartment and slamming the door shut behind him. 'Well, I guess that conversation is over,' Hermione thought. She didn't even bother talking to the others in the cabinet, it was just useless. She always had difficulty making friends, but she had secretly hoped that it would be different in the world of magic. She felt she was an odd girl, because she liked books more than people. Even at a young age, Hermione never truly had any girl friends, let alone boy friends, so why would it be any different now? Even though she really enjoyed being alone, she would've liked to have at least a few friends, to distract her from time to time.
The door was suddenly pulled open, and the blond boy came back. Hermione noticed for the first time that his eyes were light gray - like ice, but they weren't cold- and his cheeks were slightly flushed, as if he ran back to their compartment. He was wearing the school robes, as was everyone else. The robes didn't have the house insignia, for all the first year students had yet to be sorted in their rightful house, wether it be Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Hermione hoped she would be placed in Ravenclaw, but she had read somewhere that the Sorting Hat would make the choice, which she hoped wouldn't be Slytherin. Slytherin was the worst of all four houses, it was where the bad wizards where.
The blond sat next to Hermione again and pulled out a blue and gold box from his pocket, and kindly handed it to her.
"Here" he sayed, urging her to take it, "I bought you your first chocolate frog, I hope you like it. Come on, open it! Maybe its a Dumbledore card!"
Hermione was unequivocally awestruck. 'Did this boy just run out to buy me candy?' she asked herself.
She took the box from his hands and opened it quickly. She released a small shriek when the chocolate frog jumped out onto her lap and then on the brunette sitting in front of her. The girl grabbed the frog, and took a bite out of its head. That made Hermione shiver with disgust, even if the frog was just chocolate, it was still a little eerie.
"Oh Merlin!" she gasped, in shock.
"What's wrong?" the boy asked, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Where I come from, candy doesn't usually jump out of its box. It doesn't move at all, actually." she answered honestly.
"What do you mean 'where I come from'?" questioned the boy.
"I'm Muggle-born, you see? I am not completely used to magic yet" she sayed quickly.
"Oh! I guess shock is normal then. Have you done any magic yet?" he replied calmly.
"Of course! I have been practicing a few basic spells for a few weeks now. But just the easy ones, like levitating or repairing a broken object. I am a little afraid to try anything more complex, even with all the books I have read on the matter." she admitted.
"I've actually already mastered those, but I am still perfecting my technique at a special charm." he retorted smugly.
"Oh really? Well let's see then. Go on, have a go!" she challenged.
The boy lifted his wand at her.
"Rictusempra" he whispered, and within seconds, Hermione felt like she was being attacked, by tickles. She started giggling and jumping on her seat uncontrollably. She had tears in her eyes after thirty seconds and then it stopped.
After having gathered her wits about her, she stated, "Seems to me like your technique is already spot on." locking eyes with her friend.
He smiled at her. She had come to find that smile quite comforting in such a short amount of time. She couldn't help but smile back.
After having stared at each other for a fair amount of time, Hermione shyly looked down at the box in her left hand and pulled out the card with a famous sorcerer on it. She smiled at her blond friend when -she saw the name Dumbledore on the back- and flipped it over to see an old man, with an abnormally long beard, smiling at her. Then he abruptly up and left. 'Well, that was brief', she thought.
The blond had been searching her face for some sort of reaction to who she just saw for the first time. Feeling eyes on her, Hermione looked up to meet his gray eyes, and they both burst out laughing.
Neither of them knew why exactly, but it felt good to laugh like that.
One might call it the start of an amazing friendship...
One hour and a half had gone by so quickly while they were talking and laughing. They had found themselves alone in the compartment for forty minutes, but it was okay, they had gotten over that awkward part at the beginning of a friendship, where you don't know how to act or what to say. They where just being themselves, whatever that meant.
Hermione realized that she still didn't know what the name of her blond friend was. And he still didn't know what her name was.
"My name is Hermione Granger by the way! I somehow forgot to mention that in the few hours that we've been talking." she stated, giggling at her forgetfulness.
"I'm Draco Malfoy. Pleased to finally meet you, Hermione!" he said, smirking. He offered a hand, and she shook it.
She couldn't help but repeat his name in her head. It was beautiful, she found, unique. And she loved how he said her name, with such confidence and wit, like her name was a secret, which only he knew about, and couldn't help but tell anyone who would listen that he knew something they didn't.
They were suddenly snatched out of there thoughts when a young female's voice was heard all over the first year's train wagons.
"Hogwarts first years, please exit out of your compartments. In alphabetical order, students from A to L will go to the front of the train to retrieve their luggage, as for the rest of the students, you will go to the back of the train. Please remain calm and composed, first years. You wouldn't want to cause any disturbance, would you? Also, we will be arriving at Hogwarts in fifty minutes, you ought to have gathered your belongings by the, and returned to your compartments."
Hermione shot a glance at Draco, who was already looking at her. The look he gave her made her shiver. His icy grey eyes were staring deep into hers, like he was trying to read her mind. He then got up and took a step forward, for he had been sitting across from Hermione for the last hour. She had gotten up as well, not knowing why. She looked at Draco and smiled shyly, she knew she was blushing, what with his close proximity and all.
The, the blond boy came even closer. They were now two feet apart, and it was making Hermione extremely nervous. Draco gently took her hand and brought it up to his mouth.
"It was nice meeting you Hermione, I hope to see you around." he whispered against her hand, and then placed a kiss on her knuckles.
As he turned to exit, he looked over his shoulder at her, and smiled on last time before leaving the compartment.
Hermione had taken care of her luggage quite quickly as she was one of the first in line to retrieve her things. Afterwards, she had gone back to her compartment, hoping to find a certain blond, but found instead, three girls who where trying out spells, one of which was a transfiguration spell she hadn't heard about, probably because it was made up.
She moved down a few compartments full of students and found two boys, a dark haired boy and a red haired boy.
"Hello there! Can I join you?" she asked with a friendly smile.
"Please do! I'm Harry, this is Ron." said the dark haired boy, gesturing towards the red haired boy, who smiled slightly.
"Nice to meet you boys, I'm Hermione." she replied quickly.
There was an awkward silence as she sat next to Harry, waiting for someone to say something. The tension could be cut with a knife, until she courageously spoke.
"So, I gather you're Harry Potter."
"Merlin almighty! Does the whole world know who I am?" he burst out, clearly irritated.
"Afraid so, mate!" said Ron, joining the conversation.
"Bloody brilliant! Guess you know about my life too then. Nothing worth fretting about. Let's just eat some candy, Ron please remove your rat from my food." replied Harry.
They all looked at each other and started laughing at Ron's offended features. At that precise moment, the Golden Trio was born.
Hermione felt it was her lucky day, she met three great boys, who had quickly become her friends. She couldn't wait to arrive at Hogwarts and get sorted into her house. The thought made her nervous and happy.
In the Great Hall
The Sorting Ceremony had begun, and Hermione was next. Two girls had been sorted into Hufflepuff, one boy and two girls into Ravenclaw, three boys into Slytherin and one boy into Gryffindor.
"Hermione Granger" called Professor McGonagall.
Hermione, muttering to herself that everything was okay, slowly went to sit on the seat. She felt the Sorting Hat being placed on her head. She was shaking with fear. Fear of being sorted into Slytherin.
"Ah, right, then. Hmm, right. Okay. GRYFFINDOR!" said the hat.
Hermione let out a long sigh of relief and searched for Draco in the crowd of first years. Her gaze landed on him. He was smirking at her, she loved that smirk of his. She got up and winked at the boy, before walking over to take a seat at the Gryffindor table, next to Fred and George Weasley, Ron's older brother. She was eager to see where her three friends would be sorted.
Draco's turn finally came. Hermione was shaking. The blond went up to the seat and plopped down. He quickly locked eyes with Hermione, he needed to see her, see her reassuring eyes.
She offered a comforting smile and saw Draco's features relax. He was tense, why? She'll have to ask later for sure. His lips turned into his smirk and the Sorting Hat had been dropped onto his platinum head.
"A Malfoy I see..." snorted the hat.
Draco shot a panicked look at Hermione, who didn't react at that.
"SLYTHERIN!" screeched the cap.
Hermione mouthed 'it's okay' to Draco, who quickly nodded and smirked at her. He strutted proudly toward the Slytherin table and sat down, not taking his eyes off of Hermione's. She sent him one last wink before looking back at the ceremony.
Harry and Ron had been sorted into Gryffindor as well, Hermione felt a tremendous amount of joy that her friends where with her, at least she wouldn't be alone.
The feast began and Ron was devouring the mountain of food on his plate at an incredibly fast rate, it was a wonder he hadn't hurdled yet. She was eating mashed potatoes with a chicken breast and salad. There was so much food on the table that she couldn't make up her mind, so she grabbed whatever was in front of her. She was drinking pumpkin juice when Dumbledore gave his welcoming speech. Hermione was awestruck before the greatest wizard in history. She glanced over at the Slytherin table and met Draco's icy gaze. He gave her a knowing smile and she knew he saw her practically drooling all over herself at the sight of the wonderful director in front of them, she returned an appreciating smile and turned back to focus on what Dumbledore was saying.
"...and you shall now go to your common rooms. Your house's prefects will lead the way and explain the rules and specify the curfew. Welcome students! Get well acquainted with the others in your house, for they will be with you for the next seven years." he said, before gliding off to his seat behind the professor's table.
Hermione finished unpacking her luggage quickly. She was extremely fatigued and was eager to get to sleep. She went into the bathroom and tied her lion's mane up into a messy bun and put on her Muggle pyjamas, she brought her favourite light blue set, she needed something that reminded her of home. She brushed her teeth and went back into her dorm, which she shared with Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, they were nice girls, from what Hermione gathered in the five minute conversation they had about who would have which bed.
After preparing her books for tomorrow, she jumped into bed and dropped her head on her soft pillow, thinking if Draco had made friends yet and what did his common room look like.
That first night, she fell asleep with a delicate smile on her face...
A/N:
So that was the first chapter, from Hermione's POV, next chapter will be from Draco's POV. We will have the pleasure of meeting Lucius, Narcissa and Dobby, as well as Blaise, Draco's best mate.
I will probably be posting a chapter a week, maybe two if I am struck by inspiration!
Please share your thoughts with me, this story is for you, after all.
Till next time