You know that time of morning when you're in the perfect position, your body is at the perfect temperature, you're at that perfect point between being conscience and asleep, and you feel absolutely blissful?

That was me at the current moment. I felt better than I had in years, and every problem I had at the moment seemed so far away. I could hear the peaceful chirping of the birds, and could feel the warmth of the morning sun beating on my body, warming it in the most perfect way.

As soon as reality crashed down upon me and I became capable of rational thought, all these things became irritants. The sun was too hot, this position was hurting my neck, and the birds were squeaking horrendous notes that woke me up completely.

There was also the fast that an entire bucket of water was dumped on my from above.

As soon as the frigid water hit my warm skin, I sat up spluttering. I blinked rapidly and spit out the water, gasping. Above me stood Malfoy, frozen. His jaw had dropped. After it had registered in his mind that he had spilled water all over me, he began laughing.

"This is not funny!" I shrieked. I was sopping wet, and glad that I would be able to use magic to dry off.

He put the other bucket of water down, tears spilling over his lids in joy. He wiped his eyes and began to finally calm down, breathing heavily.

"Oh you think this is funny, do you?" I said to him seriously. I didn't want to admit that after my initial shock, I had begun to find this funny as well. I scrambled to find my wand, and aimed it at him.

"Aguamenti!" I cast. His laughing stopped abruptly as he was now soaked to the bone as well.

He stood there for a moment, looking down at himself and then back up at me. I stood with a smirk embedded in my face, my arms crossed.

"Not so funny now, is it?"

"These were designer robes!" He yelled, trying (and failing) to disguise the note of humor in his voice.

"They'll dry!" I told him. "Just like mine will. I promise you the world has not ended!"

He was completely sobered up now, as was I. The feeling in the air became serious again as we got down to business. We both dried off, and began conjuring fake documents so that we may enroll into Hogwarts.

"What do you want your name to be?" I asked him as I was creating the documents.

"I think to avoid confusion we should stick as close to our actual names as possible. Actually, seeing as you're a mud-" he shook his head and blinked. "Muggleborn, you could keep your name the same. As for me, I think I shall just take your last name and we can be twins."

"Yes, we look so much alike." I said sarcastically.

"Fraternal twins, genius." He remarked. I found myself smiling. He smiled back.

We both finished up the documents, agreeing that we would head to Hogwarts as soon as possible. We conversed on the way there, finding out that we shared a love of books and learning. We talked about our likes and dislikes. Just like me, he too enjoyed spending evening curled up around a fire, reading his favorite book for what seemed the millionth time. He enjoyed the pudding they sometimes served at dinner, and loved to take walks around the great lake during the fall and spring.

"But how could you not enjoy flying? Feeling the wind ruffle your hair, and being so high up that it seems as though your problems could never reach you?" He asked me.

"Well that's just it; I'm terrified of heights!" I admitted to him.

"It's different though, when you're controlling the object you're on and you decide how high and how fast you go." He informed me. "Have you ever flown on a broom before?"

"Not since first year when we were mandated to take lessons with Madam Hooch." I told him. "Even then I didn't go more than the required 15 feet above the ground."

"I think you would enjoy it if you gave yourself the chance." He commented. I shrugged.

"Maybe."

After a while, as we neared Hogwarts, the conversation turned serious.

"Do you think, we could be friends when we get back to our time?"

I hesitated. Not because I didn't believe we could be friends, but because I wasn't sure we would be able to get back. Dumbledore had given me a way here, but not a way back. I assumed I would find out when I got here.

He took my silence as a whole different answer.

"Nevermind, that was a silly thought. Of course not; we're from two different worlds. You probably hate me-" He said. I cut him off.

"No. I mean, it's not that-"

"Then what is it?" He demanded. I hesitated again. Before I could tell him, he figured it out. "You don't have a way back, do you?"

"I'm-I'm looking into it. There must be something in the Hogwarts library; perhaps in the restricted section." I answered.

"Maybe." He muttered. We continued along in silence. I stared at the ground as we walked. I had always trusted Dumbledore. Surely he knew I'd be able to find a way back? Or did he send me back knowing that there was no way back, and expected me to know that? I hoped it was the former.

Soon we arrived at Hogwarts. We walked right up to the huge castle, and asked a couple of students to direct us towards the Headmaster's office. They looked at us weirdly, I assumed because we were new. Hogwarts never got new students so I'm sure this was an odd occurrence for them. Finally, we made it to Dippet's office.

"Hello hello!" He greeted us. "Come on now, sit! May I offer you some tea?"

We accepted his offer and soon a house elf brought us some tea.

"Sir, if we may get down to business-" I began.

"Yes yes! Of course!" He interrupted. I paused. "Well go on then!"

"We want to transfer to Hogwarts. You see, we were homeschooled in France but we got caught in the war." I allowed tears to well up in my eyes a bit for dramatics. "Our parents-they didn't make it. And I know they'd want us to complete our education here."

Dippet processed our story for a minute. I dabbed at my eyes with a handkerchief handed to me by Professor Dumbledore, who had remained silent. I knew he could see straight through our story. I knew I would have to tell him the truth, I just hoped he went along with it for the time being.

Dippet on the other hand, believed every word of it. We gave him our paperwork, and he read through them to check for authenticity.

"Brilliant, brilliant students. Yes, I think you'll be perfect additions to our school. Might even give the top of your class a -as the muggles say- run for his money!" He commented. I smirked, not being able to hide the fact that he was stroking my ego. I was normally humble and modest, but when it came to my intelligence, well, my Gryffindor pride showed.

"Looks like all we need to do now is sort the both of you. We shall do that at dinner tonight, before the feast when we introduce you to the other students.

The rest of the afternoon was spent taking a tour of the castle. Of course, we knew this castle extremely well, but they didn't know that. We were given supplies and new robes and were given some money to get more clothes on the next Hogsmeade trip on Saturday, two days from now.

Dinner came soon enough, and we stood up front as Dippet shushed the students. When everyone was silent, he introduced us.

"Good evening students! I want to introduce you to two new students here at Hogwarts. They will be in their seventh year. Here are Hermione and Draco Granger!"

We were met with a welcoming applause, and as the noise died down, Draco was sat on the stool. Professor Dumbledore rested the sorting hat on his head, and just like last time, the hat immediately called "Slytherin!"

The Slytherin table cheered loudly, and Draco sat down next to what I assumed to be other seventh years.

I sat on the stool, expecting the hat to sort me into Gryffindor, or even Ravenclaw.

Dumbledore placed the hat on my head, and it began whispering in a voice only I could hear.

"Hermione Granger hmm? I believe I have already sorted you, or shall I say will sort you. You've grown up a lot since then, I can assure you. Definitely not Hufflepuff, and you would be a great fit to Ravenclaw if only for your brains. Gryffindor or Slytherin it is then. Hmm. One will help you achieve your goal and the other may not help it at all. So it must be -"

"SLYTHERIN!"

I could tell the look on my face was pure shock. I glanced down at Draco, his expression showed that he was also shocked. We both froze as we stared at each other. He recovered and patted the bench next to him. I came back to my senses and slowly walked down to the Slytherin table. I sat next to him.

Dippet announced a few more unimportant things, and I stared quietly down at my plate as he talked. Soon he announced that the feast was to begin, and everyone stockpiled their plates with so much food that you would have thought that they hadn't eaten in months.

I grabbed some food, but not a whole lot. I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, especially not after being sorted into Slytherin. After years of thinking of this house as evil, I could not believe I was now a part of it. I supposed it was convenient, since Riddle was in this house, but every bone in my body screamed "Gryffindor" at me. I felt as though I betrayed Harry and Ron. Imagine what they would say if they could see me! Ron would be angry; his face would be as red as his hair, and he'd be yelling that the hat made a mistake. Harry would just look at me with the disappointed look that only he could make that would make me feel guilty.

"Hermione? You okay?" I heard Draco say as he grabbed me shoulder. Shaking my head out of my thoughts, I smiled up at him.

"Yes, I'm fine." I answered. "Just a bit tired."

"Yeah, me too. But I wanted to introduce you to a couple of people. This is Theodore Nott, Avery Black and Abraxas Malfoy."

"Of course. Nice to meet you all." I smiled politely. I nervously took a bite of my food.

"So Draco tells up you're going to be in all advanced classes, correct?" Abraxas questioned her. The black haired boy (who had stayed quiet) glanced up, beginning to pay attention.

"Yes, I am actually." I answered. I knew if I could compete with Riddle that would draw him out and make him notice me, so I planned to beat him in every subject.

"Is that so?" The black haired boy next to me piped up. I glanced up at him, taking in his features. His hair was perfectly combed, not disheveled in any way. And his eyes were the perfect shade of bluish gray. He had a naturally perfect complexion, with ruby red lips.

"Yes," I answered. "Hermione Granger. And you are?" I offered my hand.

He grasped it firmly with his cool dry hands.

"Tom Riddle." He answered with a wide smile, like a cat staring at it's prey. I suddenly felt very small and extremely intimidated. With my Gryffindor courage, I swallowed my sudden fear and grasped his hand as firmly as he grabbed mine.

"Pleasure," I smiled.

He let go of my hand first.