Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

This is my first attempt at Fanfiction so I greatly appreciate any suggestions to improve my writing. Please review and tell me what you think. Thanks!

CHAPTER ONE

Now or Never

There are days that one finds no will to do anything but sit and enjoy what the world has to offer. Days when the sun seems so much brighter and the grass so much greener, when nothing matters except for that moment. Days when everything seems so simple and we wonder why we ever thought anything was difficult or why we were so stressed the day before. Today was one of those days.

Hermione Granger stared out the window of the Gryffindor tower across the lawn and over the lake to the breathtaking hills in the distance. The sun was shining so perfectly off the lake that it looked as if the water were smiling. It was a blue as the most exquisite sapphire and so calm it appeared to be made of glass.

Sighing, she stood up and made her way to her trunk. Hermione Granger had grown up. One look at her body and you would no she was no longer a child. Her once rebellious, bushy hair had calmed itself into a cloud of golden brown curls that ran down to the middle of her back. Her too large teeth had been fixed earlier and now created a breathtakingly gorgeous smile that made boys at home stop in their tracks. Her well developed breasts were accented perfectly by her bright white blouse and her fitted muggle jeans showed off her shapely hips. Although modest, Hermione had to admit she was beautiful, something she was, regrettably in her opinion, quite happy about.

All her life Hermione had been the smart and studious one. She never took unnecessary risks or did anything her parents or her teachers would frown upon. However, the war had changed her. Oh, she was still smart and studious, but now she had learned that life was too short to always worry what others thought. She needed to live for the moment for it might be her last. It was a chilling thought, that her life could end at any moment, but she had learned to accept it. Hermione knew that it wasn't her choice to make, that she had to live to serve the greater good.

However, she did know that there was one thing she had to do still. She had put it off and put it off, but this summers attack on the order had made her realize that she couldn't put it off anymore.

It was the end of the fourth week of her 7th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and she knew that today was the day. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and she had finished all her homework so she was out of excuses.

"You just need to go down there" she said to herself, "Lord knows there might not be anymore chances for a long time. You have to do this. You owe it to yourself to do this."

Then she opened the trunk and took out the shirt that had been in her trunk since the end of the summer.

"Hermione Granger, you have faced a dragon, dementors, OWLS, Snape, a werewolf, a basilisks, and Death Eaters. YOU CAN DO THIS!

With that, she turned around and strode out the door. She reached the staircase and heard two voices in the common room that she recognized immediately. It was now or never.