Agggggh! I slammed my quill down on the desk in frustration. Why is it that when I finally get two seconds alone to write I have nothing to say? My cat crookshanks mewed loudly on my bed.

"Oh hush up you." I muttered, collapsing on my bed. I glanced over at a picture I had taped to my wall. A smile played at the corners of my mouth as I saw the people in it laughing. There I was, an inch or two shorter but definitely me.

On either side of me were my two best friends .Kneeling in front was Ginny Weasly and her older brother Ron. Both had flaming red hair. Beside him were my other friends Harry, Luna and Neville. I sadly reminded myself that I would not see them until tomorrow.

Sighing I picked up the morning edition of the Daily Prophet. I grinned upon seeing the front cover where the all too familiar face of Draco Malfoy stared up at me. Beside him stood a pale, blond woman who could only be his mother. Both looked extremely annoyed. I realized the meaning of this upon reading the caption underneath their picture.

Malfoy's wife and son await the outcome of his trial.

"Aw, did Harry blab to Fudge that Daddy's a deatheater?" I said sarcastically and commenced to read the article.

"Oh good, he's in Azkaban." I said gleefully.

"What are you doing Hermione?" My mom called up the stairs.

"Reading mum!" I called back.

"My goodness all you've done this summer is read. It's not healthy. Look at yourself; you're as pale as a sheet. Go outside, see if Tati's in." Reluctantly I got up and headed for the door. I saw myself in the mirror out of the corner of my eye and I screeched to a halt. My mother was right, I was unusually pale. I also noticed that my bushy brown hair had grown over the summer and now hung past my waist. Thankfully, all the length had made it behave more. The quick once over showed the usual, brown eyes, freckeles, no more buck teeth thank god…

"Hermione!" my mom bellowed.

"I'm going, I'm going." I said hastily, running out the door. My parents, being muggles, knew nothing about Voldemort's rise to power, mainly because I was not stupid enough to tell them. As a matter of fact they had no clue what so ever about anything that was going on in the wizarding world if I didn't tell them. I stopped next to the house to the right of mine. The upstairs window was open.

"Tatiana!" I called. "Hey Tati!" A pretty black girl poked her head out the window, long black hair cascading around her.

"For the last time go away Travis." She sapped. "Or I swear I will stick this- oh hi Mione. One second, let me get the door open." She disappeared inside and a few moments later the front door swung open.

"Sorry about that." she said as I stepped inside. "Had a bit of trouble with my ex see? He's taken to hanging around my window." I nodded, pretending to understand exactly what she was talking about.

Tatiana Hank had been my best muggle friend for as long as I could remember. When I first found out that I was going to Hogwarts I was afraid that she would think I was a freak and drop me as a friend. Boy was I wrong. She thought the fact that I could make things move with out touching them or turn her little sister Suzie into a toad at will completely amazing. Considering she was not used to owl post I was out of contact with her most of the year but we were still close friends.

We chatted all the way to her neon purple room, mainly about school and our friends and teacher. Only when we were both seated in her room did the subject of boys come up.

"Soooooo," She said grinning mischievously. "Are you going with any one?" I blushed andshook my head.

"Not me."

"You lucky!" she sighed. "I was going with this guy named Travis but…well you know. Hey do you have a picture of that Ron bloke?" Tati was starngly obsessed with Ron. I pulled one from my pocket.

"Ooh, I want a wizard." She said fake grumpily. At that moment there came a thump of a rock hitting Tati's window. "Oh damn." She muttered striding over. "You again?"

"Tati, I'm sorry. I gotta have ya honey." I heard a boy's voice call.

"Grow up!" She snapped and with that she slammed the window shut. "That is the last time…comin' round here…I tell you." I heard her mutter as she sank into a beanbag chair. I bit my hand to keep from laughing.

"You're kidding me." I said it was two days later on the Hogwarts express. I was sandwiched between Luna, who was reading a copy of the Quibbler upside down, andNeville . Ron and Harry sat opposite us.

"I'm telling you." Harry insisted. "Draco Malfoy is a death eater. It makes sense." Neither Ron nor Neville believed his story. Luna was lost in her own world and didn't look as though she were listening.

"I just can't see it." I said. All three of them stared at me. "Ok, we all know that Malfoy's a prat but this seems a bit out of his league."

"Well go and ask him why don't you?" Harry snapped, obviously annoyed that I had doubts about his theory.

"Fine, I will." I said and briskly strode out the door. I had no intention of actually doing anything of the sort so instead I went and talked to Ginny and her new boyfriend. On the way back to my compartment I chanced to hear a familiar cold voice.

"-precious Potter. Obviously he wanted to look at the chosen one." Intrigued I peeked through the space between the shade and the bottom of the window. Unsurprisingly there was Malfoy, his head in Pansy Parkinson's lap. He was talking to a tall black boy who I recognized as Blaze Zabini. Pansy was stroking Malfoy's hair, a sickly smile on her face. My stomach twisted at the sight.

"Cow." I muttered under my breath.

"He's so full of himself." She simpered. "Nothing like you Draco."

"Oh please." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Still, you'd think he could do better than Weasly and that mudblood." Malfoy agreed, ignoring her last comment. "The-." He stared right at me.

"Oi!" he called sitting up which knocked pansy's hand away. I dashed to the nearest compartment just as Crabbe poked his head out the door. He grunted and dispersed inside. Cautiously I looked back into Malfoy's compartment.

"Nothin' there." Crabbe said gruffly.

"I could have sworn I sawGrander." Malfoy said, sounding slightly unnerved. Pansy saw her opportunity to insult someone and took it.

"Oh she's horrid." She gushed. "I pity Weasly don't you?"

Say what?

"Weasly?" Malfoy inquired. Pansy's upper lip curled into a horribly sweet smile.

"He's dating her." she said evilly. "Everyone knows it. Don't ask me why, she's hideous." Zabini spat on the floor.

"I would never even touch a mudblood like her." He said in disgust. Extremely annoyed I headed back to my compartment. So everyone knew that me and Ron were dating but me did they?

"Nice talk." I thought sarcastically. "Real nice."

"Well?" Neville asked as I walked into the compartment.

"Bunch of gits those Slytherins." I said bitterly. She looked up from her book.

"Not Malfoy again." she said. I nodded.

"Pansy Parkinson was stroking his hair." Ron made a gagging sound.

"She's vile that one." He said, screwing up his face. I looked around.

"Where is Harry?"

"He went to eat lunch with a new professor named Slughorn." Hermione replied. Our conversation drifted, mainly to what pigs the Slytherins were and all thoughts of Harry were pushed out of my mind. I caught myself thinking back to Pansy and Malfoy. To my immense dislike my stomach twisted again.