Chapter 1 - Her First Impressions

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters and such like (I think you know the drill)

This is my first ever fanfic so please be nice and R&R

Sweety734 xxx

It was the 1st September and Hermione Granger was about to start Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. She was extremely excited about going to this new school and becoming a witch. In fact she was so excited that after she had bought all her books from Diagon Ally she had read them all within 3 days.

She had made her way to Kings cross station and had kissed and hugged her parents goodbye on the muggle side, before passing through the barrier into the wizarding world.

Hermione paused and exclaimed 'WOW'!

It was more beautiful than she could ever imagine.

In the books she read it had described the Hogwarts express but it was so much more beautiful in real life. The dark maroon of the carriages and the steam billowing from the front, even the busy platform filled with parents and students seemed somehow inviting.

She quickly moved pushing her trolling to one of the free doorways onto the train and began to try and heave her large trunk onto the train. After her third attempt, this was much more difficult than she thought it would be, a boy came over to her. He was older then she was and much taller with light golden blonde hair. He picked up her trunk with relative ease and slid it neatly onto the train.

Hermione looked up and said 'thanks'

But the boy was already striding away from her down the platform.

She shrugged to herself and hopped onto the train after her trunk. Hermione quickly found an empty compartment and pulled her trunk inside. She could feel the excitement once again building inside her and so hurriedly changed into her new school uniform. She noticed how comfortable she felt in it, not like normally when putting on a new uniform which feel rough against her skin, uncomfortable and usually baggy because her parents bought the size up, because they say she would grow into it. No, this uniform felt warm and comfortable. After this comforting thought she settled herself down with Hogwarts: A History to wait for the other students to say goodbye to their family and climb aboard the train.

A few minutes passed and Hermione was totally engrossed in her book.

The door opened with a bang which made Hermione almost drop her book. Her eyes quickly snapped to the door at which stood a small boy.

'Presumably another first year' thought Hermione.

He looked quite surprised to see Hermione sitting there.

'I...I'm Sorry' the boy stuttered 'I thought th...this one was empty'

'It's ok' Hermione smiled 'I'm Hermione Granger'

'H..Hi' the boy mumbled still standing by the door

'Your name is?' Hermione urged

'Oh erm Neville... Longbottom' He spoke quietly.

'Please come in Neville its nice to meet you' Hermione said as she indicated to the seat opposite to her.

'Thanks' Said Neville as he quickly sat down.

Neville then gave a quick wave out of the window and his face became red. Hermione noticing this looked at who her was waving to and saw an old women wearing a large bird on top of her hat, which looked very amusing to Hermione.

'My Grandmother' Neville explained and he gave a worried glance out of the window at his grandmother

'What's the matter?' asked Hermione

'She doesn't know that I've lost my toad and if she found out that I lost him on my first day, she would be so angry with me' Neville squeaked as the train began to pull away and his grandmother began to wave frantically at him.

'Oh' Hermione said thinking for a minute, 'Well... We could always go and look for him? Would he be on the train somewhere?'

'I think so' said Neville hopefully 'I know I definitely had him when I got on, but when I went to get him out of my pocket he wasn't there'

'Come on then' Hermione said as she got up and ushered Neville out of the compartment.

Both Neville and Hermione went down the train asking in every compartment to see if anyone had seen a toad.

In one of the compartments was the blonde headed boy, who helped her with her trunk, sitting with a group of other boys. She gave him a quick smile as to say thank you and exited as none of them had seen the toad.

Further on down the train she came across a compartment containing two boys, who also looked as if they were first years, surrounded by sweets and chocolate. One of the boys had dark hair and broken glasses, but seemed oddly familiar, and the other had flaming red hair and was holding a wand.

'Are you doing magic?' Hermione asked 'Let's see then'

The spell the boy was trying to perform did nothing and so she decided to show them her magic by repairing the dark haired boy's glasses. He seemed amazed and then the realisation hit her, the boy in front of her was Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter she had read in her books.

'I'm Hermione Granger' She announced 'And you are?' she asked, directing it to the red haired boy.

'Ron Weasley' He mumbled through a mouth full of food

Hermione decided then, that as she hadn't had any response from either the two boys about the toad, she should carry on her search, and informed Ron that he had dirt on his nose as she left.