Okay so chapter 2 is here. I'm going to try to update at least every other day.

Thank you:

Pockets Full of Sunshine, dbzgtfan2004, Magical Faerie, and pawsrule for your reviews! they really made my day.

Warning- bit more cursing than in the last chapter. If that offends anyone, sorry.

October 2, Monday

On the way home last night I had almost been looking forward to school. However, that feeling quickly dissipated when I remembered that I had presentation in French due the next day that I hadn't even started on. It's easy to say that I completely forgot about Harry and my pledge to myself. I was too busy being mad at myself for becoming so lack in my studies. I had always been at the top of my class at my old school and I had worked hard to get there. To be honest, I had been more than a little obsessed with my grades. But after my parent's divorce, little things like grades didn't seem to hold as much importance for me. Still, forgetting about a project was not acceptable.

I continued my unintentional ignorance until my last class of the day- French, my most enjoyable class by far. By the grace of some magical deity unknown I managed to actually finish my project on time, but it didn't matter because Professor Lupin pushed back the due date to a week later. In the end, I was stuck with a crappy project and some very hostile thoughts. It would have been so bad if I hadn't been made to carry the tri-board around all day, giving each of my "friends" a chance to steal it, open it up and see my pathetic attempt. I watched from my seat as one of the N's in Napoleon fall of and slip to the floor. 'Oh well.' I thought.

Half way through the period, Harry walked into class, hunched as always, as if he wasn't comfortable with his height. It's never good to be a walking, easy to spot signal for your antagonists to find you with.

"Hello Mr. Potter. Finally decide to show up to class I see." Professor Lupin said, halting a very in-depth (not) look at verbs to do so.

From this sentence alone you might assume that our teacher is a bit of a jerk, but that couldn't be farther from truth. I can only assume he was trying to be funny when he said that statement. You see, unlike most of the teachers at this school, Lupin actually seems to care for his students. He's old enough to be mature (as mature as the male gender can be), but still young enough to know that being a crab of a teacher will get you nowhere with students. Plus he's way better than the French teacher we had at the beginning of the year- at least he doesn't break down crying in the middle of class over his lost cat, Pam Pom. All in all Lupin is a pretty great teacher if you over look his fondness for changing due dates randomly. Oh, and his hideous ties that he claims his wife bought as a joke for Christmas one year (somehow I doubt that anyone could be that cruel to their partner without just cause).

Harry in response to Professor Lupin's statement said nothing, only slouched his shoulders even further down. He shuffled up to his front row desk and let his extremely heavy looking backpack fall to the floor as he sat.

"Chess tournament, right?" our teacher asked. 'Oh, so that's why I didn't notice him today. He wasn't here, duh' I thought. The annual chess tournament in question was always held in the state capital and was a big deal for most college preparatory schools.

This was not one of those schools. Here most students probably don't even know what chess was.

The scarred boy nodded his head once in return. He acted as if nothing important had occurred at the tournament and Lupin dropped the subject, never asking the obvious question 'How'd you do?' I could see from the corner of my eye a blue ribbon peeking out from his over crammed backpack.

I tried to catch his attention, and succeed in my efforts after only a few seconds. I gave him a small smile, which to my surprise he returned right away.

As Lupin slowly wrapped up his teaching I couldn't help but to stare at the clock in anticipation. All I wanted to do was go home, take a nice long bath (not shower), and try to redo some of my pitiful project. 'A fresh chocolate cookie sounds pretty good too…' I thought. My wishful musing was interrupted by a series of groans and complaints by the class. After a brief moment, I pieced together what had happened and realized that Lupin was passing out our test from last week. Now, usually I'm a good student, but a three page essay test in French about the Hundred Years War is enough to make even me feel stupid and overwhelmed. Dread swept through me as he continued his cycle around the room. Finally, the moment of trepidation came and Mr. Collins placed my paper in front of me face down.

An 91.

'Oh thank the lord.' I thought after I peeked at my grade. It was much, much better than I thought I would receive. How I managed that miraculous feat I would never know. It must have been an act of those fairies my grandmother was always talking about. Feeling relieved I look over to Harry who still had not flipped over his paper. Maybe he was nervous about his grade as well?

"Okay class. I'm done for the day. You can do whatever the heck you want as long as you're quite." Lupin said sitting down in his chair. This was a common occurrence as Professor Lupin can be pretty lazy sometimes. He had just begun fiddling with his computer when the class erupted in murmurs mainly involving the phrases 'so what you'd get' and 'damn I failed again'. I had just pulled out a book to read until the end of class (as I didn't have any good friends in this class to talk with), when I noticed Draco Malfoy stalking towards Harry.

Just like every school has a Harry Potter in its stocks so too every school has a Draco Malfoy to put him in his place. Truthfully, Malfoy can be replaced with any bully in America and no one would even notice. He is the classic troubled boy looking for affection with all the wrong tactics. He is not very intelligent, or at least pretends not to be, but still manages to scrap by every year with at least a low D in most classes. He's favorite game is torturing the weak and he probably steals candy from little kids on Halloween. As I said before, classic bully. Thankfully, Malfoy is just mean enough to override any sympathy I would have for him and his probably horrible home life, so I don't have to worry about feeling sorry for him all the time like I do with others. Anyway, when you see someone like Malfoy approaching someone like Harry you know right way that nothing good can be about to occur.

"So what you get on the test, Pot Head? I bet you failed just like the rest of us didn't you?" started Malfoy.

Without asking, he ripped Harry's paper from his desk. He looked at it in disgust, and more than a tiny bit of resentment.

"Oh another 100? Well isn't that a surprise?" he asked sarcastically and let the test paper float to the floor. Just as expected, Harry bent down for his paper which Malfoy quickly covered with his foot.

"Nope, not until you say please." he taunted. Wisely or unwisely, Harry didn't respond and sat back up in his chair, giving up on getting his test paper back for the time being.

"Aw, don't you want your precious hundred back to show mommy and daddy? Or is it that you just couldn't handle being so close to my dick without wanting to suck it?" that last sentence was whispered so that only Harry or someone listening very closely could hear. Without the obvious spite in his voice, the comments intent could have easily been a come on and not an attack on manhood. Most of his taunts are similar in that way. 'Perhaps Malfoy is hiding more than just bad breath' I thought, but then disregarded it as completely impossible. Guys like Malfoy love breasts far too much to be gay.

Again Harry remained silent, but slightly strained revealed his disgust. It was then that Malfoy apparently decided to up the taunting. This time though he hissed it into Harry's ear so that even I couldn't hear it. Forget the sticks and stones of yesteryear; Harry's face alone showed just how much words could hurt. It's the same with every bully, once they reach high school physical humiliation just isn't as effective as it once was so they are forced to get clever and use their new found English skills to do the real damage. As Harry's face became more and more distraught my rage grew to a height not reached since childhood. I couldn't just sit by and pretend to be someone anymore; I couldn't just feel sorry for someone; it wasn't enough; I had to help.

I drew myself up from my chair and as I did so my rage became something outside of myself. It became its own separate entity that drove me forward to Malfoy.

"Stop it." I said forcibly as I poked his shoulder, reminding me oddly of the day before when I had done almost the same with Harry.

"Oh, hey Granger, what exactly is it that you want me to stop?" he asked, looking not at all put out by my presence. In fact, he seemed rather pleased. At this I had to pause. My steam had run out after just the first round; how pathetic. I scrambled frantically to remember my purpose.

"Yeah?" he asked trying to prompt me, just as I finally remembered why I came over.

"You need to stop messing with him. He doesn't deserve your bullying you asshole." I said as strongly as I could. It wasn't near as impressive as my first go, but it would have to do.

"How 'bout you just stay out of it. This is between me and him- not you."

"I don't care who's it between; it's not right how you treat him."

"Look, he's just a-" Malfoy was interrupt by the bell signaling the end of the day. Not wanting to stay a minute in school that he didn't have to, Malfoy said a quick "Bye Granger, Bye dickhead" as he left out the door. I looked to Harry, feeling proud of my small accomplishment. I assumed he would be happy that I had helped but I couldn't have been more wrong.

"You shouldn't have done that. Now he'll just tease me more for having to have a girl stick up for me. It's not like I already have enough to deal with on a daily basis. Thanks a lot Hermione." and with that Harry walked out the door looking betrayed and resentful.

'So much for a relaxing afternoon…'

Aw poor 'Mione...

Have any of you seen Deathly Hallows pt. 1 yet? And if so did you notice the HUGE amount of Harry/ Hermione shipping the director was doing?

For the entire dancing scene I was thinking "Are they going to makeout now? Ron's gonna be piiissed"

Anyway, please review and tell me what you thought of chapter 2!