Disclaimer: I own nothing. JKR is the man. err..woman. author....
Sorry for being slow, but life is a bitch and it wont leave me alone. unfortunately i can't say the same about my muse.
Hermione stepped onto the platform of 9 ¾ with a happy smile and took a look around, searching for her friends.
She only hoped that they would recognize her.
During the summer, Hermione had grown into a fine witch, indeed. She had vacationed in Spain for a few weeks and had sun kissed skin from the trip.
Though she didn't get any taller, other parts of her had changed drastically.
Her bushy mane of curls was tamed into chocolate ringlets to her elbows, er wide eyes shining amber with the help of some cosmetics.
Her lips were touched up with raspberry lipgloss and her grin was wide, radiant and white, no trace of the shy buck-toothed smile from her younger years.
A low whistle was heard and she looked around to find Malfoy leaning against a pillar a handome smirk on his angelic features.
If god had pushed one of his winged friends down from the heavens, she was sure that Malfoy was the one. He was the epitome of a fallen angel.
She frowned instinctively when faced with him- and any other Slytherin, really.
"What, Malfoy?" she said, a faint growl in her words.
He smirked, one amused blonde eyebrow raised at her hostility.
"You clean up nicely, Granger" he said before giving her a sly wink and walking towards the train, his shoulder brushing hers lightly, causing a trail of unintentional to shivers to run down her spine.
She watched-mouth open in shocked disbelief-as he walked away, confidently parting the throng of students like Moses faced with the red sea.
Had Malfoy just paid her a compliment?
Before she could answer her own question somebody bumped into her and a familiar voice reached her ears.
"Oh, I'm sorry...Hermione?" Ron screeched mid sentence and reddened up like a tomato in mere seconds.
She smiled, happy that he noted her change, finding a sadistic pleasure in finding him stumbling over his own feet after ignoring the fact of her gender for so many years.
"Hello, Ronald, have you seen Harry?" she asked politely and pretended not to see how his eyes scanned her whole person, stopping at key points.
She could see the wheels slowly turning inside his head, shaking of cobwebs and practically screeching against each other as they rotated and tried to put the pieces together.
Ron nodded and pointed towards the train, obviously opting to stay silent until his mind caught up with the happenings around him.
Wow, she had forgotten how thick he really was.
They started a slow trek towards the red monster train and she grew slightly uncomfortable beneath the many stares of disbelief and fascination.
"So...how was your summer?" she asked, breaking the silence.
She thought she could hear the wheels in his head come to a halt and start to rotate the other way around, before stopping completely in time with the goofy grin covering his freckly features.
As his mouth opened to foretell all of the oh, so exciting happenings during his summer at the burrow, she found herself regretting her stupid decision of breaking the ice.
Now she'd have to live through Quidditch babble until they found Harry.
Great.
–
She closed the door to the compartment she shared with Harry and Ron and drew a hand through her hair before pinning her "Head Girl" badge on her uniform.
She took a deep breath and started to walk towards the Heads' compartment, taking quick looks in passing windows to try to catch a glimpse of herself and decide if she looked presentable.
After a quick wipe of some smudged make-up she opened the Heads' compartment door and found none other than a slimy Slytherin lounging in a seat, twirling a quill between long olive digits.
Black eyes rose from parchment to meet amber ones and the silence descended in the compartment.
Her body tensed instantly, preparing for a fight of wits, insults shooting like bullets through the air but found herself deflating at his soft words.
"Hello, Granger"
She stopped herself from smiling sheepishly like a first year, mentally berating herself for preparing for a fight with someone she'd never even spoken to, based only on the crest on his robes.
His perfectly ironed and tailored robes, if she might add.
"Zabini" she replied, her tone only one pitch colder than polite.
She had seen him around school, hanging with Malfoy, smiling at the cruel wit spewing from the blonde's mouth, but never joining in when goading other students.
She wasn't sure if that was a point with or against him.
He sighed, a mournful sound in the silence.
"Can you please sit?" he said gently, patting the space next to him.
She frowned and walked forward, opting to sit on the seat in front of him, eyes focused on his eyes and fingers tense and ready to strike with the warm wood that was brushing her fingertips.
He smiled, seemingly amused at her reaction to him.
Actually he was amused, seeing the former gray mouse of Hogwarts tense and ready to pounce like the lioness she really was entertained him immensely.
She seemed to watch his every move with those enchanting eyes of hers, doe eyes, but with dangerous knowledge lurking in the whiskey depths.
He found he edge of his mouth curl up in a grin on its own will.
He extended a slightly ink stained hand towards her and waited for her eyes to leave his manicured nails and focus on his eyes.
He knew that girls always had had a thing for his eyes.
Dark and mysterious or something.
Well, he wasn't complaining, as long as it was working.
"I want to call a truce, we are going to live with each other for the rest of the year and I find that being constantly on guard rather tedious..." he proposed and waited for her hand to make contact with his, for he was sure that that was going to happen.
Gryffindors' loved having friends and being in peace with others, she wouldn't be able to decline the offer.
As predicted, her palm made contact with his, and he had to stop himself from laughing like a muggle cartoon villain.
"Deal" Hermione said softly and shook his hand, deciding to believe in his motives.
If he was lying and was planning something else, she could always sick Ron and Harry on him.
If she didn't get to him first, that is.
She smiled and decided to start from the beginning.
"Hello, My name is Hermione Granger, you can call me Hermione"
He smiled, showing slightly pointed eye-teeth.
"Hi, my name is Blaise Zabini, you can call me Blaise"
She nodded and shook the hand that still clutched hers.
"Hello, Blaise"
–
Harry was pacing in the train compartment, hands running through his wild hair as he looked desperately at his best friend.
He was rubbing the pale scar on his forehead, nearly invisible now.
It still itched now and then, when he got worried or agitated, but he was happy with that part of his life being over.
"Obviously I was kicked out, because I had too close a relationship to Hermione, but they never told me who they replaced me with and now I don't know all of the players, Ron!" he whined.
Harry would feel tons better if he knew all of the Hunters and was able to look out for Hermione.
Ron shoved another Pumpkin Pastie in his mouth and mumbled around the food "It's not like we wont notice, you know all the others, we only have to catch the odd man out that wasn't at the meeting but still hits on her"
Harry gave Ron an incredulous look and stopped pacing.
"Ron, you do realize that the Hunters aren't going to be the only ones hitting on her this year, right?" he said and looked somberly at his friend.
Ron's eyes widened, not realizing that until Harry pointed the fact out.
"Well...that complicates things, doesn't it?"
–
The sorting ceremony was as boring as always, ten new students to Gryffindor, three girls and seven boys.
Hermione found herself playing absentmindedly with the napkins at the table, twirling her wand, making them turn into a wild array of colours and shapes.
She had never been so unfocused on the headmasters speech and watched through heavily lidded eyes as he told the school something about a stupid Quidditch tournament that made the students roar with abandon.
She could barely repress a groan at the thought of a bunch of buff brainless Quidditch players from some stupid team like...say, the Holyhead Harpies coming for a visit to teach the house teams new tricks.
She saw Ron bouncing up and down on his seat, face aglow with the hope of the surprise team being the Chudley Cannons.
She twirled her wand and the napkin folded itself into crude Gryffindor red monkey.
–
After walking the first years to the dormitories and greeting all of her friends she walked out of the portrait hole and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath of the silent castle air.
She was home.
Her new appearance had gained a lot of attention, both males and females gave her smiles and compliments. It was fun, actually being noticed as a girl and not "The brightest witch of her age" or "The Muggleborn girl who helped defeat the Dark Lord".
She had a feeling that this year would bring her a lot.
A sudden crash and a yelled curse interrupted her musings and she ran towards the sound, wand in hand.
When she reached the stairs she saw a boy-Hufflepuff judging by his colours-, probably a seventh year as herself, at the bottom of the stairwell, ankle twisted in an odd direction and lower lip between his teeth to stop himself from yelling out loud again.
He had ruffled dark blonde hair and very light blue eyes that met hers as she rushed down the stairs.
"Merlin!" she exclaimed at the sight of his ankle.
It hurt just looking at it!
"Nah, I'm Josh Kendall, but you came close" he chuckled, pain straining his voice.
She noticed a faint accent to his voice that she couldn't really place.
She smiled at his bad joke and waved her wand over his body, healing the already forming bruises and wrapping his ankle tightly in gauze.
"Hermione Granger" she introduced herself as she helped him to stand.
"I know..." he said and she prepared herself for the listing of "Bookworm extraordinaire" and "Brightest witch of her age".
But found herself blushing when he said something else entirely.
"Prettiest witch at Hogwarts" he said softly and looked at her, smiling gently.
She smiled back and shook her head, sure that he was simply being nice.
"Australia, right?" she said, finally pin pointing the accent.
"Yeah" he responded, again flashing her a row of slightly crooked white teeth.
She bit her lip and tried not to giggle like a love struck first year, but this was the first time a boy had flirted with her and she couldn't help the butterflies in her stomach.
The fact that he was good looking didn't hurt either.
–
Josh couldn't believe his luck, he'd been stalking the Fox, waiting outside the portrait hole.
When she unexpectedly came out of the portrait hole, he was close to being seen and accidentally stumbled on his feet and fell down the stairs.
He tried to stop from screaming as a disgusting crack sounded from his ankle and pain raced up his leg.
Unfortunately his lips voiced his feelings before he could stop himself and before he knew it, the Fox was right there, at his feet, taking care of him.
He didn't have any idea how to get her to give her virginity to him, so he decided to improvise, after all, it had gone fairly well so far.
If you didn't count the twisted ankle.
So he turned his charm on and worked his magic.
When a blush graced her cheeks he almost smirked evilly.
The money was practically in his pocket already.
