Hello!

First of all I want to thank all those who reviewed, favorited and alerted, you're great!

Second: I honestly wasn't planning on updating today (I was thinking of updating Sunday) but next Monday I will have a very important exam and I really need to study hard all weekend long (i'm supposed to be studying right now :P). Not only will I have that said exam, but a lot of work from other subjects so I won't be able to update the next chapter any earlier than Friday (don't worry though because I have a good part of the story written and some chapters are already typed! I need to correct them and read them - again! - before publishing them. No one likes to see grammar and spelling mistakes in the story, it's just not nice).

I'm not going to fill you're time any longer, please enjoy :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter therefore all recognizable characters in this story belong to J. K. Rowling

Chapter Three

Hermione didn't know that it was possible to have a headache as big as she was having. Groaning she moved her sore limbs feeling the cotton sheets around her body. Immediately she stilled her movements. She wasn't supposed to be felling cotton sheets, for she was one hundred percent sure she had last fallen asleep in the forest, and there were no cotton sheets in a forest to greet her in the morning. Sensing someone else with her in whatever room she was (she could only be in a room seeing as she was positive she was lying in a bed) she listened carefully, hearing light breathing and the occasional sound of something that was immensely similar to the turning of a page, a sound she was oh so familiar with.

Blinking her eyes open as slowly as she could because the sunlight in the room was very bright she took in the details of the room. It had a small square shape, with to beds (one of them being the one she was lying on), one small wardrobe, a window and a shelf full small little trinkets and a few books, which she assumed belonged to the girl sitting on the bed beside's hers, reading. She had yet to notice Hermione was awake, and continued reading intently.

"Oh!" the girl said turning her brown eyes to Hermione. Her hair was very dark and she had freckles across her cheeks making her strangely doll like. Hermione concluded she couldn't be older than twelve.

"You're awake" Mrs. Cole said that you should wake up soon, but you've been sleeping for so long that I didn't really believe her." The girl said quickly unaware that Hermione had registered nothing beside's the fact that she had apparently been asleep for some time, asking the girl exactly how long she had been asleep instead of the more logical question she had thought of first "where am I?"

"Mrs. - Cole had you moved to this room two days ago, but she said you had already slept through all of that day, so guess you've been here for a little over three days. When Tom brought you, you were already unconscious so we don't know exactly how long you have been 'out of it'" the girl said making quotation marks in the air with her fingers.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked feeling her voice still weak for not having spoken for a long time.

"Wool's Orphanage" the girl said, now kneeling beside Hermione's bed who still didn't feel strong enough to get up. The name of the orphanage rang a bell somewhere in the dark corners of her mind, but Hermione pushed the feeling away assuming she had heard of it before somewhere unimportant.

"Never heard of it" she responded slightly untruthful seeing as she had a feeling she had but didn't remember. Hermione smiled weakly. Indeed, she now belonged in a orphanage.

They exchanged a few more words before the girl (who she now knew was called Sophia and was indeed twelve years old – "twelve years and seven months" she had said) went out of the room to warn the matron - Mrs. Cole Hermione Recalled – that Hermione had woken up. Both Returned, holding a small tray of food and helped Hermione sit and eat.

"I can't remember" said Hermione when Mrs. Cole asked her what had happened to her.

"Then what about your parents?"

"I don't know" She lied again, feeling a sharp pain in her gut the moment the matron mentioned them. The longer she denied herself the truth the later she would need to face it.

"Then what do you remember?" the woman asked looking at Hermione with kind pitying eyes. Hermione swallowed the piece of bread she had been chewing before answering.

"My name. Hermione. My name's Hermione."

HermioneXTom HermioneXTom HermioneXTom HermioneXTom HermioneXTom HermioneXTom HermioneXTom HermioneXTom

Only later did Hermione Realize that she didn't have her purse with her, and along with her purse her wand and camera too were missing. Hermione felt more than ready to panic.

"Are you sure I didn't have a purse with me Sophia?" She asked the girl with a crazed expression in her face. Hermione was standing and looking in every possible corner of the small room even though her legs felt like jell-o.

"Yes, I'm sure. I thought you didn't remember anything…" Sophia said with a strange glint in her eyes, looking extremely Slytherin like. Hermione was so scared she hadn't noticed her mistake.

"And I don't! But I do remember a beaded purse, and I fell- no I know! It's extremely important that I don't lose it."

"Okay, but no matter what, I haven't seen it. Maybe you should ask Tom in the morning, but now you should just sleep. Its past curfew already and I don't believe you would like it if Mrs. Cole barged in here to tell us to go to bed. She has quite the temper."

Felling defeated Hermione sat back on the bed facing her roommate who had mumbled a goodnight and closed her eyes looking to be profoundly asleep just a few minutes after. Hermione didn't sleep that night, feeling incredibly anxious to question said Tom, who might know where her bag was.

The orphanage was very dark and gloomy. Hermione couldn't help but wonder how children were supposed to grow up happy and healthy in such a degraded house. The Younger ones wore grey smocks and were the first served during breakfast, followed of course by their older housemates. The dining hall was small housing just two round tables surrounded by chairs all in different shape, color and size. Hermione counted eighteen chairs and after everyone was seated she noticed that only two were remained empty. After asking Sophia (who was seated next to her) she learned that the fifteen others in the room were the only habitants of the house.

Mrs. Cole and another young woman were seated beside each other feeding two toddlers besides them. Those two were the only babies, followed by three children that didn't look any older that five. On her table – which was bigger than the other one – there were five children all around Sophia's age and three teenagers that looked Hermione's age (or just slightly younger).

One boy and the girl were speaking quietly to each other, completely excluding the other one. Hermione than realized they weren't the only one's ignoring the black haired boy. There was a larger space on each side of his chair than normal and not one person so much as looked in his direction. He however did not seem to notice (or care), eating the hard bread they had been served along with cold milk (giving Hermione the idea that food wasn't exactly abundant) like there was nothing wrong. Hermione wondered why he was an outcast. Generally people gravitated towards people who had good looks and the boy, with is perfectly combed hair and angular face was most certainly handsome.

"What are you looking at? A cold voice asked, making Hermione freeze. She wasn't the only one, for everyone on the table had stopped pretending the boy wasn't there to stare at him like they would stare at an animal in the zoo.

"N-nothing" Hermione stuttered looking away from him and staring at the bitten bread in her hands. Hermione felt angry with herself for making such a weak impression and looking like a lonely lost five year old little girl.

"Tom, did Hermione have a purse with her when you found her?" Sophia asked the boy with a confident look in her eyes, clearly trying to win the boy's attention. The girl's crush was immensely obvious.

Hermione looked at the boy – tom – in time to see a flicker of recognition pass through his eyes. Immediately she felt relieved.

"Oh thank Merlin!" she said holding her hand to her heart, as if recovering from running as quick as she could for half an hour.

"What makes you think I did?" he asked, his smooth voice flowing in Hermione's direction. He seemed to have completely forgotten it had been Sophia who asked the question in the first place only having looked at the girl for a second.

"Your expression. When she mentioned the bag you looked like you knew what she was talking about."

"So you read people's faces?" he asked, his voice laced with suspicion and disbelief.

"No." She answered "I'm just observant."

"You're right" he admitted "I do have your purse." His manners were impeccable, not betraying how angry he felt about having lost the only leverage he had. "I'll give it back to you after breakfast."

"Thank you. It's very important to me".

Not knowing what else to say she continued eating ignoring the strange felling that had settled in the air. Soon those who had finished eating started getting up from the table, leaving to do whatever they did during the day. Tom, Hermione noticed, ate extremely slowly, as if he had nothing better to do than taste the hideous bread that their breakfast consisted on.

Finally getting up from the table Tom went out of the room without saying a word, Hermione following silently behind, wondering with each step she took, what in the name of Merlin was wrong with the boy.

Tom entered a small room, much like the one Hermione was sharing with Sophia. Not wanting to be rude she waited outside and seeing as Tom had closed the door she had no idea of what Tom was doing inside (but whatever it was he sure was taking his sweet time doing it).

After what felt like and eternity – but was really only five minutes, which was still a very long time if the only thing on had to do was retrieve a purse – the door opened revealing Tom with Hermione's bag in his hands.

"Thanks" she managed to say before he closed the door in her face, the message clear: stay out. Hermione absent mindedly thought that h was a very rude boy, her immediate thoughts being an uncoordinated bottle of joy for finally be holding her wand again.

All Tom could do was curse his bad luck. Sure he could not have giver her he purse but then he would have risked getting in the witch's bad side, something that wouldn't help him in anything if he wanted to find out more about the girl.

Sitting in bed Tom stared at the bare wall in front of him. In the time he had had the girl's bag in his possession he hadn't been able to discover a thing about the owner. The wand was nothing more than a regular wand (even if he felt it felt almost as good as his own in his hand), the camera was also a normal magical camera which meant that he couldn't reveal the photos without using magic. His restriction in practicing magic had of course limited him, but he doubted he would have managed any useful information even if he had been able to use his own wand.

Sighing he laid down staring at the ceiling. If he were to be honest with himself he had been sorely disappointed upon meting the girl. She had acted extremely normal, not giving him one clue about her, except her obvious knowledge of the muggle world – not once had he seen her looking fascinated at any object like many wizards and witches did. That and her dress (most obviously a muggle one) were proof enough that either she was a muggleborn or had at least grown up aware of the muggle world.

The only thing unusual about her was her name – Hermione. And Hermione was a puzzle he intended to solve before school started.

Once again, i'm sorry it's so short (next one is bigger don't worry!) but i needed to cut the story here so that the chapters flow in a more natural way.

Please review! I really want to know your opinions about the story and I really appreciate constructive criticism.

Thank you for reading.

Lady Featherweight