Author's Note: Hello, this is my first fan fiction, so reviews on what to improve or just reviews critiquing whether you like the story or not is much appreciated. Thank you, I hope you enjoy
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It was adrenaline; pure, undiluted adrenaline pumping through her veins. All she could hear was the sound of the music pounding in her ears and all she could see was the vibrant symphony of colour cascading from the ceiling on the dark dance floor. She had never felt so alive. This was pure euphoria.
At this very moment in time, she did not have a care in the world. In her mind, she was on top of the world. Shaking her mass of brown curls in a zealous state, arms covered in glow bracelets flailing from left to right, on occasion jumping as high as she felt, she closed her eyes to the and danced to the music.
She didn't know when it began but sometime in mid-June, she started to get wrapped up in this scene. She never meant for it to happen, she just somehow got tangled with the raves and before she knew it she was hooked.
During her energetic dancing, she briefly wondered how she wound up here, at this point in her life. She thought back to when it all started when she met Zuly. If someone had told her that the pair of them would be friends, she would have laughed outright to their face. Zuly was many things she disliked in a person: she was selfish, she was careless, she drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, and worst of all she abused drugs. Zuly was definitely someone she initially never meant to acquaint herself with. However, that quickly changed when they met at Kris' infamous house party.
She unintentionally shook her head, trying to stop the train of thought to analyze her summer life-style. Her impulsive side told her to shut up and enjoy the moment. And she promptly followed her other half's instructions.
"See, Herms! I knew you'd have a great time. You just needed to let down your inhibitions." Kris yelled in her ear as he snaked his arms around her waist.
She gave a lazy smile, "Fine! You were right." She replied back, leaning her head against his neck, her hands sliding to cup the back of his head. God, everything was heightened; even the touch of his hair felt like heaven. To an objective observer, one might think these two were an item. But Hermione knew better, it was just the influence of the high. She opened her eyes once more to visually drink in all the beautiful colours; but something in her line of vision grasped her attention.
She spotted a specifically familiar face amongst the muggle crowd. Along with his face, she would be able to pick out that platinum blond hair anywhere. As she kept her wide gaze on him, and it appeared he had also spotted her in that same moment.
He was, if possible, more astonished at her presence at the rave than she was to see him at the abandoned warehouse.
However, the battle of the stunned stares was short lift when there were various yells of "Everybody split!" and "The police are shutting it down!".
Kris grabbed her hand, and started to run, while Zuly who was situated to her right followed suite.
Hermione knew the drill, run and don't stop running until they get to Kris' car. As she briefly looked back, Draco had already disappeared from site.
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Months had passed since she'd seen him at that warehouse. School was starting today and she was back to the world of witchcraft and wizardry. As fun and wild as her summer was, she truly missed this side of her life. She missed the magic, she missed the assignments, and most of all she missed her best friends.
It was the first time that she had been apart for so long from Harry and Ron; but her mother insisted keep in touch with her cousin, Mindy, and make muggle friends outside of Hogwarts so that she could have a proper balance of magic and muggle life. If only her mother knew what a bad influence Mindy was.
But that was all in the summer. She was just glad to be back in her natural environment. She was waiting at Platform 9 ¾ to see if she spotted red hair.
"Looking for someone?" She heard the masculine voice right behind her ear. She didn't expect someone to be so close to her and slightly jumped at the sound of his voice. The brunette turned around and to her utter joy she was face to face with the boy who lived.
"Harry!" Before she could even think she, embraced him into a giant bear hug. Looking to her left, she noticed the tall red head and also included him in to the hug.
"I've missed you guys." She already knew that Harry would stay at the Burrow for the last portion of the summer to get away from the Dursleys. A big part of her wished she did join up with her two best mates before they started their 6th year at Hogwarts. That way she would have never met Zuly, Kris, and the others. But an even bigger part of her was also glad that she had met them because they had opened her eyes to a whole other world; one which she would probably never disclose to Harry or Ron. She knew that they would never understand why she attended those types of parties or why she even bothered to continue hanging out with those corrupted teens.
It was just better if the boys did not know that side of her life. She decided that all the events that transpired during the holidays would remain her little secret.
"It really sucks that your mum made you hang out with family this summer, we really missed you too." Ron stated.
Hermione released them from the embrace and cheerily said "Yes, it was a bit unfair, but at least we're all together again."
"Hermione, dear how have you been?" asked a mature, feminine voice.
"Mrs. Weasley! Ginny!" she exclaimed, each giving them a brief hug. "I am doing fine. I just miss practicing spells, though. How are the both of you?" She asked the ginger haired women.
"We're doing quite alright. But you lot must quickly run along before you miss the train. We wouldn't want another second year incident to repeat itself now would we?" Mrs. Weasley chuckled as she made the remark, but they all remembered how furious she had been when the two boys had stolen the flying car during their second year.
Ron internally shivered at the memory of the howler. "Mum's right, let's head inside the train. We can catch up once we're in the cabin."
With that said they all followed suite and headed inside the train, waving good bye to the mother of the Weasley clan.
Harry detected a vacant cabin and they all decided to occupy it, save for Ginny who saw a group of friends in her year and decided to sit with them.
"So, what did you do during your vacation? You said in your letters that you were with your cousin, Mandy was it?" Ron asked.
At this question, so many events flooded her mind. To be quite honest, a lot of the events with her and her new friends were quite a blur. "Her name's Mindy, and I told you we just spent time with some of her friends at their houses. It was not eventful, really," she replied with a smile and all the innocence she could muster.
"But what I can't wait for is to get started with the assignments for Alchemy. Being able to finally take that class is one of the best things about being in the sixth year," the bright witch stated. And she truthfully meant it. She was glad to get back to her studious self, engrossing herself in her studies rather than the rush of the raves. This would allow her to get in touch with her old self, bringing her back some stability.
Ron rolled his eyes at the comment. "Typical Hermione, so obsessed with school work before school even begins," he said with a grin.
"You know I can't help myself." The trio lightly chuckled at her reply.
Harry was about to open his mouth add something else when the door suddenly opened and interrupted his thought process.
To their displeasure, standing in the doorway was Malfoy, yet to their slight surprize, his cronies were not by his side.
'Well, I guess this wouldn't be a traditional Hogwarts train ride if we weren't harassed by Malfoy,' Hermione thought with slight annoyance.
He eyed the triad. Looking at each of them individually as he addressed them one by one. "Hello, boy who just won't die," he lazily stated. "Weasel" he said carelessly. Once his eyes landed on the bushy haired teen, he said "Granger," slowly with a slight grin.
"How was your summer holiday? Was it full of crazy festivities?" At this remark, he directed his attention straight at Hermione.
"Sod off Malfoy." Ron told the blond, he was not in the mood to have the blond pest ruin their light atmosphere.
Hermione kept quiet and promptly decided to ignore him, refusing to yield to whatever game he was planning on playing.
"You know, I would have sworn you were going to end up as Weasel King's girl, but I see you've moved on to another less pathetic choice for a boyfriend. Tell me Weasel, what do you think of her new boyfriend?"
Ron and Harry looked from the blond to their friend with quizzical eyes.
"What are you on about, Malfoy," Harry asked confused.
Draco looked at Hermione's glare and pieced it together. "Oh, you mean to tell me that they don't know about you and your little nighttime adventures?"
"Don't listen to him; he's just spewing out rubbish." Hermione acted like Malfoy was sprouting nonsense.
"Enough of this, just leave Malfoy." Harry told him firmly.
"Fine by me, wouldn't want to be wasting my time with you wastes of space anyways." And with that, he turned around and walked away from the cabin.
"I'm honestly not surprised that he comes here to harass us anymore. The idiot has nothing better to do with his time."
Harry and Ron nodded in agreement.
"But what was he talking about, Hermione," the red head asked, slightly hurt that his friend may have found a boyfriend over the summer.
'Damn Malfoy and his stupid big mouth,' she thought in annoyance. "I told you, he was speaking total nonsense. He was just trying to stir up some trouble," she replied as she looked at them both.
The boys just looked at each other and gave a mild shrug and dismissed the slightly weird situation.
"So, tell me, what were you guys up to for the last portion of the summer?" She asked them.
Harry smiled, "Well, the twins decided to start a prank war…" and he went on to describe the fun events they got themselves into.
As Harry and Ron went on about their vacation stories, Hermione listened, and laughed on occasion; however, part of her attention was focused on her thoughts. She didn't like that stunt Malfoy pulled a few minutes earlier. He almost revealed to her friends the part of her she did not want them to see; at least not yet.
The next time she saw him in private, she would have a little word with him. She wanted to make it clear that she was not about to let him walk all over her. Besides, she had some leverage as well. After all, what was the bigot wizard doing in a strictly muggle environment, especially in an environment that was so unsavoury?