OK, I know I promised you'd find out about the timeline in this chapter, but things have gone a little different than I expected. So I'll tell you about the timeline now, if you don't want to know, don't read it!

This part of the story happened in the past and it's important for the rest of the story. In part 2, Draco will be almost twenty years old, as you will also find out in this part.

Enjoy!

-------------------------------------------

Part 1: Chapter 1 Rescued?

She was eight years old. Her parents sat about six hundred feet away in the sand. Hermione was building a sand castle. The sky had a clear blue color and the sun was very bright. It was really hot on the beach. Hermione wept the sweat of her head with her hand. There was a lot of sand in her hair.

Hermione was here on a holiday in France with her parents. This was the first time she saw the Atlantic Ocean. She had been so excited about it, but now she was bored and staring across the sea, wandering what adventures could lie on the other side. She saw the rocks and the seaweed on the coastline, but there was no sign of anything interesting there.

Looking at her sand castle, Hermione concluded it was just a big failure. While she walked around it a few times, her eyes told her what her head already knew; it was just a big heap of sand. She had never been good at building sand castles. No, her cousin was much better at it. He had won a contest last year! Of course Hermione had been there. She thought her cousin had built the most beautiful sand castle that ever existed. The big, solid castle had four towers and flags on each of them. It even had windows.

Her thoughts dwell off to the other side again, across the Ocean. There was America, the land of adventures! She fantasized being an Indian-girl riding on a horse across miles of empty lands, forests, hills, to the mountains. She would run into a cowboy and fall in love with him. He would come to live with her and her tribe and love her forever.

Hermione stopped fantasizing. Her mother always said she day-dreamed too much. Not that her mother did not like it, but because of all those fantasies Hermione would grow up being too unrealistic. Her daughter should be prepared for the real world, not a fairy-tale one, or at least that's what her mother thought. Hermione did sometimes do really weird things. Like that time when she was about to be caught at the schoolyard for skipping. The teacher did not know what had happened. The yard had been completely empty, while the only way out was the way the teacher had come from. He had been sure Hermione just went in the yard, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Later, Hermione told her mother the teacher stared around the yard and then turned around, while she had been standing in the middle of it. Hermione's mother really could not figure out what had happened, but she decided not to tell the teacher. He might think Hermione lied. Since that moment, Hermione had holy respect for the rules.

Anyway, Hermione saw a beautiful seashell drifting near the coastline. She reached out her hand to get it, but her arm was two inches short. So she took one step in the water, but the shell drifted away a little further. Taking step after step to get closer to the shell, Hermione did not realise she left her parents and the coast far behind her. Because of the rock that had been in front of the place Hermione had been standing, they could not see her until she was far enough in the sea to be in danger.

Suddenly Hermione's foot got stuck in a gap. No matter how hard she tried to pull at it, somehow it would just not come free. Planning to call for her parents, Hermione turned her head to call them, but she realised she was further away from the beach than she had thought. And the waves were now becoming higher and her mouth was filled with salt water. Hermione spit it out as quickly as possible, but only more water came in. After coughing a few times, she dived under water to see if she could set her foot free. Another wave, more salt water. Hermione felt like she was drowning. This could not be happening, she thought, I'm too young to die! Kicking with her free foot, she was finally able to free it. Only now she had to swim all the way back to the beach, which was about one hundred feet. Her foot was bleeding because of the sharp edges the rocks had under water. Hermione could barely move it, let alone swim back to the beach.

Two hands grabbed her arms. A blonde-haired boy had swum all the way from the coast to her. He could not be much older than she was, about eight years old. He was a lot stronger than she was, though.

"Can you swim with one hand and one leg?" he asked. "Then I'll hold your other arm and drag you to the beach."

Not being able to open her mouth because of all the water, she nodded once. Together, they swam back to the coast, where Hermione's parents were standing. By the time they had understood Hermione was in danger, the boy had already reached her and was swimming back with her.

When they finally got back on the sand, with their feet safely on the ground, both children collapsed, exhausted. Hermione's parents ran to them and carried them about six feet further from the water, so they were safe. It took the children a while to catch their breath. Hermione's father had already picked up the first aid kit and was now taking care of Hermione's wounded foot.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draco had not known what had got into him. He just saved a muggle from being drowned. What was he doing? But he had been watching this girl and knew there was something about her, he could sense the magic around her.

So he had saved her from the outrageous sea. If Draco had not used his magic, they would have probably both drowned. Draco looked at her face. She had brown, wild curls that now had been tamed by the salt water. Her eyes were brown, sometimes very dark, and sometimes light. It depended on the light falling on them. He still could not really grasp the fact he just saved her.

"Who are you?" a voice asked behind him. It could not have been Hermione, because she was still lying in front of Draco, watching her father treating her foot. So it must've been Hermione's mother. He turned around his head to face her.

"My name is Draco", he said, patiently. "I believe I just saved your daughter."

"I believe so, too. Thanks", her face cracked into a brilliant smile. She had the same eyes as her daughter, Draco noticed. "Her name is Hermione."

Hermione, Hermione, the name echoed trough Draco's head. There was something familiar about that name. No, it could not be. He was sure he had never met this girl before, so it must have been his imagination.

Hermione's mother suddenly grasped his hand and helped him up.

"Come on, I want you to meet her", she said, taking a perplexed Draco with her.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm already working on the next chapter, so it should be finished soon.

I hope you enjoy the story so far =)

PS. The title will become clear soon enough, perhaps you could try to have a guess.