Chapter 11

Hermione peered out the car window at what would be her new home. She was taken aback by what she saw. It was a tall gothic home that looked like something you'd see in a horror movie. It was huge! She tried to count the windows and saw that it had at least three floors. There was even a gargoyle standing at the base of the stairs leading to the porch. She wondered why there was only one, but when she got out, she noticed that the other had been knocked down.

Hermione grabbed her things and stepped out into a pool of sunshine, truly taking in the horrid magnificence of her new home.

Next to her, Mrs. Granger was staring as well. When the company had told her the house was old, she hadn't guessed it was this old. It turned out that they'd been trying to sell the house for ages, and it was considered the 'haunted house' of the neighborhood.

Hermione and her mother exchanged an anxious, yet slightly surprised look before walking into their new home.

Draco watched out the window as a girl stepped out of the back of the car. She was... stunning. Nothing like the girls back at Hogwarts. Course, Draco had dated alot of the girls in his year, but he hadn't really been… interested in them. They were mere toys to him. This girl, she was gorgeous. She had shimmering auburn hair and wore a tasteful, yet -dare he say...sexy?- ensemble. He wondered why she was moving in here. Then, kicked himself when he realized she wasn't suitable. She was probably a muggle, anyway, and he'd never be able to take one seriously. Although... he could have his fun with her. As she disappeared into the house, Draco left the window and went to his room, pondering things to come.

Hermione and her parents took a quick tour around their new home as the movers toiled at getting all of their belongings inside. The house was by far larger than their old, modest home, and Hermione could already tell her mother would have a wonderful time decorating the huge house.

When her parents went out onto the lawn to help sort out the moving situation, Hermione looked around the vast kitchen. It seemed like something out of a medieval castle. She touched the row of pots hanging over the hearth, and they clanged lightly against each other. She ran a hand along the rough brick of the fireplace and around its corner. "Oh," she said, surprised, when her hand caught a tiny latch on the side of the mantle. She pulled the catch and to her left a door swung open clean out of the wooden wall.

She propped open the door with an iron that lay on the hearth, and swept some cobwebs away from the doorway. She realized, after her eyes adjusted, that this was a stairwell. Excited she followed it up and up and up. After about a fifty steps, her head bumped into a trap door. She pushed it open, and her eyes were bombarded with silvery light.

After crawling in, she realized the light was filtering in through five large windows, one on each wall of the pentagonal room. Looking out one that faced her next door neighbors' house, she realized she was in a very large tower. She noticed a ladder in the center of the room and followed it up into a beautifully adorned bedroom! She felt like she had walked into a fairy tale! Smiling, she ran her fingers along the sheer window hangings and over the velveteen bedspread. She had found her bedroom.
She looked out the window in this room, and saw way down below, a flash of silver. There was a boy outside. From the distance between them, she couldn't quite tell, but... it looked as though he was watching her...

"Hermione!" called a voice from down below.

Hermione tore her eyes away from the window as she saw the figure below slip past the tree line at the edge of her property. She scurried down the ladder, then through the trapdoor and down the staircase.

Out of breath, she ended up back in the kitchen just in time for her mother to walk in.

"Darling, I've been looking all over for you," her mother said in a concerned voice. "Your father and I thought maybe you had gotten lost in the house somewhere."

"Don't worry Mum," replied Hermione, chuckling and shaking her head. "I'm a big girl now."

Her mother hugged her tight, and over her shoulder, Hermione noticed that same figure standing just inside the woods. He was quite far away, but she could just barely make it out. She told her mother that she was going to go out and check out the yard, and exited her back door.

When she got outside, however, he was gone. She thought about going after him, to figure out who it was, but instead settled with checking out her back yard. It was massive!

As Hermione walked around her new backyard, she pondered this new life of hers. She'd changed her hairstyle, bought some new clothes and moved closer to London. Would that somehow... change who she was? She doubted that her attitude and personality had much to do with her outward appearance, but Hermione had to admit that she'd been feeling a bit more... daring lately. Maybe it was the little bit of red that was in her hair, or the way she felt emboldened by the new style. Or maybe all those chemicals had gone to her head and she was actually going to keel over from radiation any moment.

As Hermione thought about this last idea, she noticed that there was a large, rectangle pool on the far East corner of their property. As she jogged excitedly over to it, she realized that it was a 'vanishing edge pool,' the kind that looked like it had no end, or went over a waterfall. Inspecting it, she realized that it DID have a waterfall. Sort of. The water that was displaced over the wall went into a sort of containment chamber which sent it back into the pool by jets.

Laughing at the novel invention, she guessed that whoever had come up with that genius idea was sitting pretty right then. Hermione decided to do something even more reckless than she could have imagined. She jumped in the pool, clothes and all.

Hermione dove under the water and splashed and played for a while, overjoyed at the thought of having a pool in her very own yard! Never mind the fact that she was at school ten months a year, and would scarcely use it. It was the fact of the matter that counted.

Draco watched the girl as she went across the yard, and was surprised to see her jump into the swimming pool! She was fully clothed and all! He wondered who she might be.

Suddenly, Draco's sensible side came back to him. She was probably a muggle, unfit for his attentions, other than the utmost hatred. He started back down the tree he was perched in, but suddenly lost his balance. He fell through the branches and landed on the ground with a sickening clunk.

Hermione spun in the water when a sound in the trees drew her attention. Pulling herself onto the side of the pool, she saw the waving branches of a large tree. Something must have fallen out. She debated for a moment, then decided to go on over and check it out.

As she peered around the trees, she wondered who or what would be lurking in the woods. She hadn't her wand on her, but hoped that she'd have no need for it anyway. She pushed passed some large thorny branches, and saw him.

He was sprawled face down in the dirt, and for a moment, Hermione feared the boy she saw was hurt, or worse, dead...