I still own nothing of Harry Potter or any songs that may pop their way into my story. Thanks to those of you who reviewed. (Burning Lily- Thanks for the thoughts. She is depressed; she just is trying to push it away for the moment. I promise it will come out, slowly but surely. And you are good at trying to predict stuff that may happen, I totally had that thought already in my mind, and you may just see it happen in this chapter!)

Chapter 3

There was only four to a carriage, leaving her to ride with Ginny and Blaise, the sickening lovebirds who were attached at the lips at the moment, and Malfoy, whom had been strangely quiet since she had told him off earlier on the train. Quiet was not good. No, quiet caused her thoughts to drift to things she did not want to think about, people whom she was trying to forget.

'I wonder what Nick is doing right now?' She thought sadly, staring out into the black night, as a single tear rolled down her cheek. 'No Hermione, don't think about him.' She scolded herself. 'Don't cry, you told yourself you were over this, over him.' She was repeatedly blinking back tears, and wildly wiping away the few that had escaped down her cheeks. She glanced around the carriage to make sure no one had seen her cry. Blaise and Ginny were still making out, and Malfoy was fiddling with his hands, she was not sure if was a nervous fiddle or if he was just bored, and he was staring out the window on the opposite side of the carriage as her. She sighed in relief, letting out a breath that she did not know she was holding in, 'that would be great, letting them see me cry. What a great way to start out the year that would have been.'

"Are any of you going to get out? Does no one pay attention? We have been sitting here, stopped for like a minute!" she was rudely awakened from her thoughts of self-pity by the annoying, whiney voice of Draco Malfoy, and all she could do was look at him and roll her eyes. "Move Granger!"

"Sorry Malfoy, I didn't realize you had NO patients," she barked at him and proceeded to gracefully climb out of the carriage, hitting Ginny on the knee as she went, as an indication to them that they had arrived. As soon as she softly landed on the ground, she smoothed her skirt, and without looking back, she sashayed her way up the castle steps and into the great hall for the feast. She was soon joined at the Gryffindor table by Ginny, who was making goo-goo eyes across the great hall at Blaise. 'Honestly, don't they ever give it a rest?' she thought to herself as Harry, Parvati, Ron, and Lavender sat down at the table across from her, also quite enthralled with their significant others. 'My life is a bloody mess,' she thought to herself, resting her elbow on the table and placing her chin in her hand, 'when is this stupid thing going to begin?'

The welcoming feast began as always, the sorting of the first years, Dumbledore making his yearly announcements about the forbidden forest among other things, and the announcement of the Heads. She stood proudly, as did Malfoy, and the students applauded them.

"I have one more announcement before we begin the feast," Dumbledore said, and Hermione looked towards him in confusion. "We have a new student this year. He is a seventh year, and he has transferred here from an American school." Hermione was straining her neck to get a look at the new student from America who had just walked through the doors, all of the students around her had stood up and were clapping wildly, but she was just too short to see around them. "Students, please sit down, I would like to introduce to you…"

Hermione did not hear the name which was introduced to the waiting crowd, as her jaw had dropped, her eyes went wide, and she visibly paled, the only word that came to mind she whispered, "Nick?"

It was now nearing the end of the meal, and Hermione just sat there, stunned throughout the whole of dinner. Her plate sat empty, in front of her, and she just starred off into space. Thoughts raced wildly through her head, 'Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! 'What did I do to deserve this? Wait, Nick's a wizard? Oh, it doesn't matter that he is a wizard, it only matters that he is here right now and this is totally going to ruin my plan of getting over him. What is that saying? Out of sight, out of mind? Well, that definitely isn't going to happen now! Why me?' her head hit the table with a loud thump, and everyone around her stopped eating to stare at her.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Ginny said worriedly, putting her hand over Hermione's.

"Yes, no, I don't know," she mumbled, not picking her head up off of the table.

"You haven't eaten anything 'Mione," Ron said from across the table, of course this was what worried him the most since his mind was always on food.

"I'm not hungry," she mumbled finally lifting her head to stare blankly at her friends. "I think I am going to go to Gryffindor tower, and go to sleep in my room now."

"Hermione," Harry said apprehensively, "were you not listening? You and Malfoy, being the heads, have to share a dormitory this year. You are supposed to meet Dumbledore after dinner so he can show you where to go."

"Oh," she said looking confused, "I must have zoned out I guess. I guess I'll just wait here then." She gently placed her head back on the table, as the last time had left her head starting to pound.

"Oh, did you see that new boy Hermione?" Lavender asked her anxiously, "He is so cute!" she ended with a squeal. "Not that I am interesting in him, Ron, I just think that maybe Hermione should try for him." With that, Hermione burst out into tears and ran from the table, and out into the hallway. "Was it something I said?" Lavender asked.

As soon as Hermione pushed open the doors, she ran into a secluded corner and sunk down to the ground. She pulled her knees up close to her chest, buried her face in her knees, and sobbed quietly.

"Hermione," she heard the gently male voice and a large hand lay itself on her leg. "I mean, get up Granger, get up and stop your crying, Dumbledore needs to show us our room, and I don't have time to wait for you to get yourself together," he had retracted his hand from her as quickly as he had touched her, and his voice became annoyed.

She wiped her tears, and pushed herself up from off of the floor, quickly catching up to Dumbledore and Malfoy, but leaving her head to hang low as she watched her feet, afraid to look anywhere except for down.

"Watch it Granger," Malfoy said to her as she had run into him for the second time that day, "Stop running into me."

"Sorry," she mumbled quietly, not removing her eyes from her bright, pink, painted toenails, and not realizing that her apology and her quietness caught him off guard and he just stood there staring at her blankly.

"Well, here you go," Dumbledore started as he noticed the uncomfortable silence between the two, "your password is 'United', and I shall see the both of you tomorrow night at our first meeting."

The portrait of a Lion and a serpent, back to back, ignoring each other swung open and the two students walked into the room. Draco stood, taking in his surroundings, but Hermione paid no attention, she walked past him heading off up the spiral staircase to find her bedroom, a place where she would have some peace, right now all she wanted to do was go to sleep.

'Maybe I am asleep," she thought to herself, 'Maybe I am asleep and this is all just an awful nightmare.' She reached the door marked with a gold plate that said 'H.G', and turned the handle, quickly shutting it behind her. She kicked off her flip flops, leaving them where they landed, and fell onto the soft comforter burying her face into her pillow and loudly cried herself to sleep.