"You've changed."
The statement was just that…a statement. Harry was looking at Hermione intently, taking in her new look. On the other side of the compartment, Hermione was also looking closely at her best friend.
"Like you haven't, Ri?" she challenged softly, noting that his hair was tamer, his skin paler, and his eyes burning a brighter luminous green than before. Even the way his lips curved into a small wry smile had something off about it.
Hermione was instantly suspicious as she noted even further that he wasn't wearing those ugly rags the Dursley's had always given him. Smart and understatedly elegant robes had replaced the tattered old hand-me downs from his horrendously fat cousin, Dudley.
"Touché," he quipped. "Well…I'll tell mine if you tell yours, how about that?"
An eyebrow rose at his proposition. "Interesting. How Slytherin of you. Who are you and what have you done to my best friend?" Her pink lips quirked up into a smile even as Harry dissolved into gales of laughter.
"Glad to see you haven't changed THAT much, Mione," he teased when he'd finally gotten his laughter under control. Hermione's teeth flashed a pearly white as she reached across to smack him on the arm.
"Prat!" she exclaimed, giggling. They spent the next hour or so chattering away about their own respective summers.
Unknown to them, icy pale cold gray eyes watched and sensitive ears listened to every word.
