Ch. 13

A/N: You guys are awesome and I hope you keep reviewing! Please let me know your thoughts on this weeks chapter. Oh and check out my profile. I made a banner of sorts to use as my avatar.

This story is mostly compatible with the Harry Potter series, except that the war was more intense. There were far more battles and things Hermione experienced upon entering the magical world. As you will find out in later chapters, her history isn't limited to the adventures written about in the books.

Disclaimer: I unfortunately am not the owner of the Harry Potter series or the Twilight saga, I'm just playing with the characters.

(JPOV)

I hopped into the car with Hermione, chock full of questions to ask her after such an… enlightening blast from her past. I must say, the biting comments she spouted out were very sexy. That strong side of her personality was new and exciting for me to get a glimpse of. It's a side of her I've never gotten to see before since she is usually so…upset and depressed.

We followed Rose and Emmett out of town towards our house. We must live near one another, who knew?

"So, who was that guy?" I attempted to ask her casually.

Her eyes flitted towards me and the look she shot me told me I didn't pull off the casual tone at all.

"Jealous?" She teased.

"No. Well maybe a little. I'm just curious about your past. You rarely say anything specific regarding your time at your magical school and you two obviously have some sort of history together." I answered her truthfully.

She smiled and had this somewhat far off look in her eyes as she drove down the winding country road. "His name is Draco Malfoy. He's the sole heir to the oldest, richest, and purest magical family in Europe. We attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry together, but were in different houses."

School chums then? No, definitely not. Their banter- which borders on being cruel- as well as some of the things said doesn't point to them being friends. Enemies?

"Different houses?" Was the question that somehow left my mouth.

She nodded. "You see, at Hogwarts, they divide the students up into houses based on what qualities you possess. Your house basically decides your magical future. Students who are witty and value intelligence are placed in Ravenclaw; Those who posses unwavering loyalty are placed in Hufflepuff; Intelligent students who are mischievous and extremely brave -sometimes to the point of stupidity- are placed in Gryffindor; The last house, Slytherin, is for the resourceful, cunning, and manipulative-those willing to use any means to achieve their goal."

She paused thoughtfully. "I was in Gryffindor and he was in Slytherin."

"So you two couldn't be friends?" I asked, trying to store away this information about her life as we drove the familiar path towards my house at a much more leisurely speed than I'm accustomed to.

Her tinkling laughter rang around us in the car. I could feel her incredulous amusement. "It's not that we couldn't be friends, its that we chose not to be. In school the names Malfoy and Granger were synonymous with hate and rivalry. We are legends at Hogwarts because there has never been a feud as intense as the one between Malfoy and I. If we weren't exchanging insults we were pulling cruel pranks on one another. As we got older, our fights turned into a twisted battle of wits that we both enjoyed playing. We developed a love/hate relationship. We love to hate one another, but hate that we love one another enough to keep playing."

"I'm not sure if that sounds fun or depressing." I commented.

This time I felt her amusement and a twinge of melancholy. She turned down a driveway about three miles away from my own. "There were far more depressing things in my world than fighting with the Ferret. He was the perfect target for my anger. I think he felt the same way."

I furrowed my brow in confusion. What does she mean there were depressing things in her world that would cause her to be angry? "How so?"

She shrugged and I could see her thinking of a manner in which to answer.

"He was everything I quickly learned to despise in the magical world: A pure-blood snob with a daddy complex who had too much money manipulating anyone and everyone for his own gain. I was everything his father brainwashed him to hate: A know- it-all Gryffindor muggle-born that he was always second best to. I took my anger towards pure-blood supremacists out on him and he took his anger about his entire life out on me."

"That's rather…" I started to comment, but realized I had no words to convey how messed up that sort of dysfunctional relationship is.

"Fucked up? Dysfunctional? I know." She chuckled, finishing my sentence for me with one of my own words. "But it worked for us. It became our way of distracting ourselves from the hell our lives quickly became."

We got out of the car and walked towards the modest two story brick home. Her house, the same one I sat outside of and sent calming vibes to a few weeks ago. Talk about small worlds. At least the pull I felt to come here that night to offer its inhabitants relief is no longer a mystery.

I felt her mood shift from happy to dark and depressing in an instant. Her emotions were nearly like those she experienced during the first week of school. She was walking with me to the door, but something told me she was reliving a bad memory. The topic of conversation obviously needed to be steered away from whatever 'hell' she spoke of.

"Why do you call him 'the ferret'? You did it several times and it really irked him." I asked, sensing the story behind it involved these pranks she spoke of. And hell, I wasn't one to turn down a good story.

My subject change worked like a charm. Her emotions became incredibly amused as she unlocked the door. The mood shift was so sudden I nearly got emotional whiplash. We stepped into a beautifully decorated foyer and she took off her coat, hanging it in the closet. I barely got to glance around the homey bottom story before she grabbed my hand and tugged me up the zigzagging staircase, dropping her keys into a bowl as we passed by.

I was starting to feel rather impatient at her lack of answer, but I figured she was waiting until we got to her room before she told me. She stopped in front of her door and got her wand out. I watched the air shimmer, shift, and subtlety change colors while she waved it in intricate motions and muttered things in another language.

"Sorry. The protection wards are a habit I'll probably never break. Constant vigilance and all that crap Mad-Eye drilled into us."

I shrugged because I honestly have no idea what 'protection wards' are or who 'Mad-Eye' is. She once again took hold of my hand and pulled me through the doorway into her room. I gaped at the sight in front of me. It was like walking into another world. I've never seen a room this unique. Her wrought iron bed was draped in fine silken linens of the deepest purple. Her window seat matched the bedding and near her large, overflowing bookcase was an area made of black, silver, and purple pillows. The walls were a pale, shimmering silver with black diagonal stripes along the walls. Between the stripes were tons and tons of pictures encased in black frames.

I had to fight the urge to run over and start inspecting and asking questions about everything. But if I wanted the story about the ferret I knew I needed to wait to explore.

"Wow."

I felt her pride and excitement. She gracefully fell onto her bed and I hesitantly sat beside her, unsure if she would feel uncomfortable with us both being on her bed. Her emotions didn't shift and she didn't protest, so I relaxed.

"So, about the ferret." I prompted.

She grinned. "Well, it's really a long story, but I'll give you the highlights. In fourth year, Malfoy was upset about a prank Harry and I pulled on him and we got into a bit of a duel in the courtyard. Our defense teacher Moody…"

She paused for a moment then waved her hand in a 'whatever' manner. " Well I guess it would have been the imposter Moody and boy is that a long story…. anyways, Moody was a bit upset about a cheap shot he took and transfigured him into a ferret then bounced him all over the court-yard and into several peoples pants. He has been known as 'The Amazing Bouncing Ferret' ever since. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life…"

I stared at her mouth agape while she giggled like a school-girl. Her entire face was alight with humor, her eyes were dancing. She was absolutely breath-taking when she looked like this. So carefree and innocent. "You're kidding!" I finally exclaimed.

She shook her head and I took the time to analyze her emotions during the story and while there was an underlying humor, she wasn't lying or embellishing at all. I started chuckling. "Wow. So you can turn people into animals?"

She nodded wistfully. "Yeah, that's basic transfiguration…gah I wish I'd thought to turn him into a ferret… it would have been an even better prank then the Ghost of Slytherin because the entire school would have known who was behind it."

"Ghost of Slytherin?" I repeated with a raised eyebrow.

She grinned and laid her head on my shoulder. My arm automatically wrapped around her small form while my hand went to her hair, playing with her curls.

"Oh yeah. At Hogwarts, there are ghosts that inhabit the school - The Bloody Baron, The Gray Lady, The Fat Friar, Nearly Head-less Nick, Peeves, Moaning Myrtle.."

She paused and made a face similar to one Emmett made after deciding to taste skunk blood.

"She is a bloody nuisance that ghost. Lives in the U-Bend of a toilet in the girls bathroom on the second floor where she was murdered. Get's herself in a tizzy at least twice a week and floods the place. Not to mention she told everyone about what happened to me when I added a cat hair to the illegal Polyjuice Potion…"

She stopped speaking abruptly as if she just realized what she was about to say. Her cheeks flushed a red and I felt a ton of embarrassment. Interesting… Something I would have to file away to ask about later when she least expected it.

She hastily cleared her throat.

"Anyways, the point is there are ghosts in the school. Well… my best friend Harry has an invisibility cloak and a map of the school that shows the location of every person and all the secret passageways. You can't even begin to imagine the trouble we got into…Well not the point. So, one night during fourth-year Harry and I were sneaking back inside the Castle from the Forbidden Forest when we saw Malfoy's name right on top of Lavender's. At that moment, I had a brilliant idea for the perfect prank.

Since Harry is a Parslemouth, which means he can speak to snakes like all Slytherin heirs, and we were invisible…well I decided we should create a new ghost of Hogwarts -The Ghost of Slytherin. So Harry and I sneak up on them and I levitate a sword from a suit of armor in front of us while Harry starts speaking in this really deep voice alternating between English and Parseltongue. Oh their faces were priceless. They freaked out… Malfoy took off running naked through the dungeons screaming bloody murder while we chased him with the sword."

She started laughing hysterically from the memory she was reliving in her head while I chuckled, getting a mental picture of my own. "Best prank ever. End of. From that night on, Harry and I kept a lookout on the map for Malfoy. Whenever he was trying to put the moves on a girl we would go interrupt with the Ghost of Slytherin. Two years we pranked him with that - we ruined his sex life for two years! He still doesn't know it was us." She snickered.

I laughed with her, reveling in her good humor. "You were a naughty little witch weren't you?" I teased, tugging on an errant curl.

"Oh you have no idea." She answered with a roll of her eyes. She pulled out her history book, bringing me back to the real reason I was here today. I reclined with my back against the wall and began tutoring her on the subject at hand from memory.

During the lesson, I let my eyes roam her bedroom once more. They were drawn to the many moving photographs on the walls and her desk. They started out on the right side of her bedroom and wound around the wall. The photos seemed to be in some sort of chronological order, as the occupants aged minutely from picture to picture. As soon as we were done, I stood and strode over to the first picture by the door.

Three children are sprawled out on the ground beneath a large tree whose foliage is varying shades of red, orange, yellow, and gold. They are beside a large lake with the turrets of a castle peeking from behind them creating a picturesque scene. The young Hermione with a mass of frizzy curly hair is lying between two boys - one a redhead and the other a raven with startling green eyes- laughing as they toss something between them.

Hermione came up behind me, I could feel the intense waves of nostalgia and longing. "That was taken in first year, just after Ron and Harry saved me from death by Mountain Troll in the loo."

I smiled. "That would have been an interesting way to die."

"Yes, because being clubbed to death by a dirty fifteen foot tall, two ton, scantily clad troll with a serious snot problem would have been the most interesting way to kick the bucket." She retorted sarcastically.

"I see your point." I chuckled as I moved on down the line of photos.

I outright laughed at the next one which caught my eye. There was a young, incredibly angry Hermione punching a young sneering Malfoy with what looks like one hell of a right hook.

She joined my laughter. "That's probably one of my fondest memories. I was already upset and just lost it when he started spouting off at us."

I moved on with a grin, looking at a few of her and her friends or of her friends playing magical games in a circular room decked out in crimson and gold until I came to one where she looked to be at a winter themed ball when she was around fourteen. She looked very pretty with her hair pulled into an elaborate up-do and wearing a modest fuschia gown. Her face was transformed by a radiant smile and twinkling eyes as she was twirled around the dance floor by an older, ruggedly handsome man.

"What about this one?" I asked since she had given me an explanation or story for all of the others.

"That is Viktor and I at the Yule Ball in fourth year." She told me while staring at his smiling face with sad and tormented eyes. I didn't dare pry into why she felt that way. Something told me the answer wasn't something she wanted to talk about.

After that picture I noticed a shift in the people being photographed. Gone were the carefree smiles and laughter of their youth. Instead, the occupants wore half-hearted smiles that didn't reach their eyes. They held themselves as if the fate of the free world rested upon their shoulders. They exuded an air of sadness and wariness… their eyes were haunted, reflecting deep emotional stress and pain.

A group photo containing around thirty smiling faces caught my attention. I scrutinized it carefully noting the same weary, troubled expression on each face hidden beneath a forced smile. I looked back at her with a questioning glance.

"That's a picture of the secret defense club Harry and I formed fifth year when Umbridge took over the school. It's the only existing picture of the DA with all of the members present."

I moved to the next wall where the pictures picked up where the other left off. The emotional turmoil seemed to get progressively worse. I rarely saw one where those being photographed looked genuinely happy.

In fact, the only picture with any sort of positive emotion present was of two people. A man with wolfish features and glowing amber eyes is staring down lovingly at the surprised pregnant woman with spiky bubble-gum pink hair in his arms. Her emotions spiraled into depression, longing, and nostalgia. I could smell the salt of her tears.

"Those are my godson's parents, Tonks and Remus. She was horribly clumsy at the best of times, but being pregnant and waddling like a duck only made it worse. He always caught her before she fell though. She was his everything. She brought light into his life when he felt like he had nothing left to live for."

I pulled her to me in a hug while her tears streaked silently down her cheeks. "It's ok Darlin'" I crooned softly into her hair, placing a kiss on the crown of her head.

The rest of the pictures we looked at silently, ending up at the wall with her over-flowing bookshelf. I sat down on the plethora of pillows, pulling her down beside me. My eyes were immediately drawn to the bottom shelf of her bookcase. On that shelf sat about fifteen large, leather bound books with 'Year one, year two…etc.' embossed on the spine until year six after which they aren't titled. Beside each was a sketch pad.

I ran my fingers over the supple spines. "What are these?"

"Sometimes I feel like my life in the magical world has been one grand fantastical adventure…I've been keeping journals and illustrations about it since my first year. "

"So what type of stuff is in there?" I asked, eyeing the journals hungrily…wanting to know all of the secrets contained within their pages. I wanted to know the reason why the people in her photos changed so drastically after her fourth year.

She smiled at them fondly. "Pretty much my entire life story, the good and the bad, since I was eleven. Within those books are tales of my adventures as one third of 'The Golden Trio' and as a member of The Order of the Phoenix."

Ok, This sounds hella cool. I want to read them! "So is this bank-robbing tryst Malfoy spoke of that you apparently received no punishment for in them?" I teased her, still quite amused that a girl who seems so wholesome and good on the outside could actually resort to robbing a bank.

She sighed heavily. "Yeah, it's in the one I'm currently writing in about my last few months in England."

"Well your life sounds interesting. I'd love to read about it." I told her sincerely hoping she would offer to let me read the journals.

Her emotions immediately went haywire. Apprehension, sadness, hesitancy, wariness, and a few others I couldn't identify quickly enough. "I… I just…I can't part with them yet. It's all too raw… too recent… too complicated. I promise you can read them someday, but just not now. I would rather get to the point where I can openly discuss it before I let you read them."

I nodded in understanding because there are parts of my past that I wasn't ready to share either. I still felt rather disappointed. I want to read them.

"That's understandable. There are parts about my life that I still have trouble talking about, but when your ready, I'll be ready." I reassured her.

She smiled and I grabbed a random tome off of another shelf to look at. I glanced at the cover. "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." How ironic. Hermione looked at the book to see why I was laughing and joined in. Then she inspected it closer with a wrinkled brow.

"Bloody hell. That's Harry's copy… I must have accidentally grabbed his instead of mine when I was packing up my things at Headquarters."

I shrugged and flipped it open, curious about what sort of Fantastic Beasts this book could point me to. Writing caught my eye on the title page and I snickered.

"What!?" Hermione asked, sitting up so she could see what was so funny. I pointed to the inside the cover.

"This book belongs to: Harry Potter" Was at the top.

Beneath it was the following conversation.

"Shared by Ron Weasley because his fell apart."
"Why don't you buy a new one then?"
"Write on your own book Hermione."
"You bought all those dungbombs on Saturday, you should have bought a new book instead."
"Dungbombs rule."

Hermione joined me in laughing. "I was such a bossy swot when we were little. I can't believe I forgot about the uh…modifications we made to Harry's copy throughout the years."

I lifted an eyebrow in question and she flipped a few pages. We were on the page of Ministry classifications. It stated that the creatures were rated with X's. The most dangerous creatures had an XXXXX rating beside which "or anything Hagrid likes" Was scrawled in messy writing.

"Who is Hagrid?" I asked bemused.

"The Groundskeeper and Care of Magical Creatures Professor. He's half giant and an absolute sweetheart, but well… he was always cross-breeding dangerous creatures and I won't even get started on the things he thought were cute and kept as pets."

At the last part she visibly shuddered.

"They couldn't have been that bad." I laughed.

She spluttered. "Yeah, that's what you think. You didn't nearly get eaten by a twenty foot tall vicious three headed dog he named Fluffy. Of all things…he named it Fluffy… There was nothing fluffy about that beast. And that was one of the tamer things he kept as a pet."

A three headed dog? Those things exist? What the hell! I guess I would be upset if one tried to eat me too. I'm sort of noticing a pattern here in her life…nearly being clubbed to death by a mountain troll, nearly being eaten by a three-headed dog… she nearly gets killed quite often by the weirdest shit.

"Point taken." I conceded.

She smirked at me. "Anyways, your more than welcome to borrow and read this if you want. I'm sure you will find our additional comments we've added about the creature's we've encountered throughout the years incredibly interesting and enlightening."

"Thanks sweetheart. I can't wait to start." I said, looking at the book in interest.

"We can discuss it as soon as your done, though I imagine the rest of your family will want to read it as well. Now, are you interested in experiencing how I travel?"

I nodded eagerly and an evil little smirk spread across her face as she grabbed my arm. " It's going to be quite uncomfortable and disorienting, but do not let go. If you do, you're likely to splinch one of us and that's rather painful."

She looked at me thoughtfully.

"Well, from what I've witnessed I can claim that it's painful. I've personally never done it, but Ron left part of his hand somewhere in the Forest of Dean last year. Took us ages to find and reattach it."

"Umm…OK." I agreed, wondering how she could speak of such a thing so casually. She acted as if losing part of your body during travel was an every-day occurrence.

Once again, that smirk flitted across her face as she turned on the spot and we were sucked through an extremely tight tube.

Once again, Thanks to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/alerted this fic. so far. Your reviews inspire me to write!