Hermione Granger. Brightest witch of her age, and now completely left to fend for herself in her 8. year at Hogwarts; although she knew that both Harry and Ron wasn't planning on returning, it still hurt whenever she thought about it - but, if she had to be truly honest, it wasn't the fact that her two best friends weren't there, it was mostly the thought of NO ONE being there.
Even though she and Ron had a rather painful breakup, he still went with her and said goodbye; after all, they had been friends longer then they had been in a relationship, and that apparently counted for more in his world. Both Harry and Ginny came to wish her good luck when she was leaving, Ginny with tears in her eyes (and as Hermione suspected,it was mostly the hormones doing their best to make her best friend cry as though she was being tortured), and she finally waved goodbye as the Hogwarts-Express started moving, the black and grey smoke billowing out around the scarlett train.
She leaned back in her seat, removing her face from the window and sighed deeply. The carriage seemed oddly empty without her normaly companions, and she was once again rethinking her decision to go back to Hogwarts to finish what she started. But Hermione Granger was a stubborn girl, and she quickly shook the unnerving thoughts from her head, clearing it out and finally letting the joy of going back take over.
As the trainride progressed, the outside was turning into a darker blue, Hermione felt quite contempted with her solitude - it wasn't often she had "alone-time" after her buisness with saving the world. As she was reading her newly bought book (Magical Disasters and how to avoid them), she was slowly becoming so consumed that she didn't hear the door quietly sliding up and the footsteps gertting near her.
"Could it be that you MIGHT move your books, so other people could have a seat?" The sneer and arrogance of the voice was not to be mistaken, and her head snapped up so quickly that her neck cracked loudly.
"Well, you could go join your gang, mr. Malfoy, that way neither of us would be annoyed." She answered coldly. The chocolate brown eyes met the steely grey, and they didn't drop their gaze. Finally Draco Malfoy lowered his eyes and sighed.
"Just mov e one of your damned books, Granger." Without her consent, he drew his hand across theseat across from her, drawing the heavy amount of books to the floor of the train.
"Oi! I was reading them, you know!" She said, annoyed, and with great care started collecting her books from the floor.
"Oh, Granger, please. You might be bright, but there is no way you'd be able to read 11 books all at once." He simply stated, with his signature smirk plastered across his face. There was silence for a while, with her looking at him,. and him staring out of the window, where the scenery changed slwly - from green grass and deep lakes and with a subtle change, it was deserted field, patches of corn cropping up, and back again.
"why no namecalling? And why are you even here - shouldn't you be letting Pansy Parkinson stroke your hair while whispering evil plans in your ears?" Hermione finally asked, ending the tense silence filling out the cabin. He looked at her, as though she was slow to understand why he was here, in her cabin.
"You really don't get it? Why, Granger, i thought you were supposed to be clever. Well, for the record, i have been one of the only Slytherins from our year to return - most of them have fled. The name-calling no longer carries the desired effect, so why bother myself with talking to you more than i need to?" He answered with a shrug. She stared at him, un-suprised that his attitude hadn't changed over the last year.
"Fine." She shot back, burying her nose in her book again. she heard a sigh, but wisely chose to ignore it.
After twenty minutes, the train jolted to a halt; the doors opening and nameless first-years poured out of the train. Hermione and Malfoy walked next to each other, not a word spoken. Hermione was scouting the area, looking for Hagrids massive beard in the middle of the chaos, when a small whisper made her skin crawl sounded a bit to close to her ear.
"I heard he's taking a year off. I'm guessing he got tired of the hut. And you." Malfoy smirked as he walked away, still with the annoying bounce in his steps, although his head was hanging low, and the students spread out from him as if he was carrying a very serious disase.
"This is going to be a rough year." Hermione whispered to herself as she started walking up the hills to the Castle.
MESSAGE FROM THE WRITER:
HI! I hope you guys like the first chapter of this fan-fiction. The idea have been forming itself in the last few years, but i hadn't gotten a chance to write it before now.
I would love to hear your reviews!
Please, do bear in mind, i'm Danish, so English isn't my mother language; i really do hope it hasn't ruined the expirence of the fanfiction for you!