thanks for the many reviews...I had a little bit of time on my hands so I decided to post the next chapter since you all were so eager to read on :)

hope you like it...and I'll try to post the next chapter or two over the weekend...PROMISE :)

thanks again

The next morning Minerva arrived in the Great Hall for an early breakfast since she had to hand out the timetables later. There were only a few students present as well as the other three Head of Houses. One of the students sitting at the Gryffindor table was Hermione, once again a far away look on her face and totally disinterested in the stuff going on around her.

Minerva chose to ignore it for the time being since she would have a chance to talk to the girl later. She headed up to the staff table and sat down next to Severus Snape with whom she secretly had a close friendship. While loading her plate and getting a cup of her favourite tea she kept an eye on Hermione. Like the night before Hermione's plate was barely touched which worried Minerva even more.

More and more students filled into the Great Hall for breakfast, some barely awake yet others excited about the day ahead. Minerva finished her breakfast and headed down to the Gryffindor table to hand out the timetables, starting with the first years. She went down the table handing out timetables left and right, answering questions and explaining to the first years where they had to go first so that they would not turn up late for classes. When she approached the group of third years Hermione had been joined by Harry and Ron but showed no interest to join into their conversation. She handed Ron and Harry their timetables, ignoring Ron's loud complaints about having double potions on a Friday, and then slowly approached Hermione, careful not to startle her.

"Ms Granger." When she got no reaction Minerva tried again a bit louder. "Ms Granger, I have your timetable here." That got her Hermione's attention. "Oh…alright thank you Professor McGonagall." Hermione took the timetable without looking at her professor and went back to stare down at her plate. Minerva remained standing behind Hermione, pondering what to do and finally deciding that now was as good a time as any to talk to her. "Ms Granger, could I have a word please. Say after your last class today which should be Transfiguration anyway." Hermione looked up at her for the first time and Minerva could clearly see the dull eyes that had been so full of life just before the summer holidays. Hermione didn't answer her but instead nodded her head to acknowledge that she had heard the request. "Very well, Ms Granger, kindly stay behind after your last class with me and we shall talk more than. Have a nice day." With that Minerva left Hermione to study her schedule and handed out the remaining timetables to her Gryffindor lions.

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Hermione slowly made her way to her first class which was Ancient Runes. She didn't have to wait for Ron and Harry since that had chosen Divination so she was able to leave early in order to be on time for class. Her ankle still hurt like hell and her body was still covered in bruises that slowly turned a vicious green and purple, hurting like nothing she had ever felt before. She wasn't sure why Professor McGonagall wanted to talk to her after class but she had a really bad feeling about this. If the Professor would ask her about her ankle she had to come up with something better than having fallen down the stairs at home.

Ancient Runes passed with Hermione pondering what she could possibly tell her professor in order to not make her suspicious, something she could not afford to do. But by the time her first class finished she was no closer to an answer than she had been at the start of the class. Knowing that she needed to hurry up in order to be on time for Defense Against the Dark Arts she hurried along the corridors as fast as she could, meeting Harry and Ron outside the classroom. They seemed to argue about something that happened in Divination but Hermione wasn't interested in the problem and quickly resolved to tuning out their voices and thinking about her meeting with her Head of House again.

By the time lunch rolled around she was still not closer to a solution as to what to tell her professor and she definitely wasn't in the mood to have lunch…not that she was hungry anyway. So instead of heading to the Great Hall like the rest of her year, Hermione headed towards the library to start on her homework.

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Minerva was glad that the first two periods of class were over. Teaching the Gryffindor and Slytherin students together was never much fun, no matter which year level they were in. It was fortunate that there had been no incidents in her class and she thanked whatever gods available that she didn't have to give out detentions already and therefore spoiling her first day of classes.

When she arrived at lunch she noticed immediately that Hermione was absent. Sitting down in between Albus and Severus she wondered what would be a reason for her student to miss lunch since she had barely touched her breakfast…one would assume that she must have been starving by now. Hermione didn't show up all throughout lunch and by the time Minerva left she was more than just worried for the well-being of her student. It wasn't like Hermione to miss meals and be totally disinterested in what was going on around her. She had to have a serious talk with the girl later this afternoon and get to the bottom of what was going on.

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Minerva was waiting anxiously for the last class of the day which would be the third year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Once her students had arrived she closed her classroom door and the room immediately went silent. After giving her usual start of the year lecture she set them the task of transfiguring a mouse into a teacup and sat behind her desk observing her class.

As usual Hermione was the first one to master the task and Minerva was glad to see that whatever was going on in Hermione was obviously not affecting her education. But when she went through the rows of students and commented on their work Hermione didn't move a muscle, even though Minerva complimented her on her good work and even gave her a small smile, something she rarely did in class. Hermione, however, didn't even look up to acknowledge her professor, instead she stared intently at her teacup.

When class was finally over Minerva set them all the task of describing the theory of the transfiguration she had just done before dismissing them, asking Hermione to stay behind. When everyone had packed up and left Hermione came up to the front, looking intensely at her shoes and avoiding her teacher's gaze at any cost. Minerva sighed. It was no use to talk around the bush cause she needed to know what was going on. So she choose to be straight forward.

"Ms Granger, what is going on with you?"

*to be continued soon*

let me know what you think...as always