So, I started a new long fic in a new fandom. I hope you like it. If you're new to my writing, I'm a fan of taking ugly, impossible situations and transforming them into mostly wholesome redemption stories that remain fairly true to the original characters.

I finish my fics. This will not be abandoned. I'll update this weekly on Fridays.

The M rating is a precaution. I have no idea what will happen in that regard.

Chapter 1: A Year Later

Hermione hated her impossibly frizzy hair. She hated how she needed over an hour to tame it into anything other than a wild mane. However, she hated the idea of not making Ron regret ignoring her more. It wasn't that they were fighting, exactly… but he also wasn't really keeping in touch even though they were dating. At least, she assumed they were still dating.

"Hermione, we're heading down for breakfast. Are you coming?" Ginny asked, popping her head into the Hogwarts lavatory. "Oh wow! You look gorgeous! Shame it's wasted on Ron."

Hermione scrunched her nose and looked to Ginny, who looked the same as always. Harry wrote her nearly every day and visited at least once a month. Hermione's shoulders sank. She envied Ginny's casual confidence. "He's your brother. Shouldn't you be rooting for him?"

Ginny snorted. "He's a git, and you're my friend. You deserve to be with someone who makes you feel happy, not someone who… well, writes so rarely you can't even greet him without trying to look your absolute best."

Hermione glared at Ginny. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to look nice."

Ginny offered her a wry smile. "And the right guy will think you're beautiful even at your worst. You taught me that, you know."

She gave Hermione a quick hug. "Don't spend all morning in here, k? Harry will want to see you too, even if Ron is being an idiot. The others will too. Everyone will be there, you know. One year anniversary of the big battle and all."

Hermione swallowed hard and nodded. Only a year had passed since the battle of Hogwarts, when Harry had saved them all from Voldemort… with help, of course. Even Narcissa Malfoy had helped in the final battle, which still confused Hermione to this day, much like her son's reluctance to identify them at Malfoy Manor when they had been caught.

Malfoy had returned to Hogwarts to repeat his 7th year, just like Hermione and several others had. He no longer went out of his way to torment her, but he also avoided her like the plague. This suited her just fine, but she did wonder about what he was going through.

The Daily Prophet said his father had avoided Azkaban so far by cooperating with the Ministry in selling out the other Death Eaters. Rumors said that Lucius would enter Azkaban shortly after Draco graduated from Hogwarts, a concession made to prevent the Malfoy household from lacking a face.

Hermione frowned and gave up on her hair. It was not as smooth as she wanted, but it would be enough. She had better things to do than spend all day hiding in a lavatory while ruminating on the Malfoy family to avoid thinking about her own troubles.

"Right," she said. She eyed herself one more time. The Gryffindor uniform didn't allow for much variation, but at least her hair was quite pretty. She wondered if she might put on some earrings or a necklace to help herself stand out. She didn't have much, but she did have a few things.

Hermione went into the dormitory she shared with the 7th year girls and considered her options. The other girls were gone, but they had loaned her jewelry and such before for going to Hogsmeade and other special events. Hermione bit her lip, considering whether she should borrow something without permission or let it go. She was sure they wouldn't mind, but the principle of the issue…

She sighed. After all the things she had done, including breaking into Gringotts, she still didn't feel comfortable taking something without permission that she didn't actually need.

Hermione slumped onto her bed, wondering if she was only dressing up to be dumped. The idea of Ron cutting things off with her felt preposterous… she was the smart one, the capable one, the one he had depended on for years, but…

"He hasn't written in a month," Hermione moaned, and her last letter to him had been to admonish him for not trusting the ministry's decision to retroactively put him through basic auror training… despite not doing the same for Harry. Harry was simply better at those sorts of things than Ron, after all, and they had both skipped their 7th year and the usual recruitment process… "I wasn't wrong," she muttered, but she knew that didn't matter to Ron. She frowned and sat back up. She would simply have to go downstairs as is.

Something metallic and musical skittered toward where her hand pressed on the bed. Hermione looked down with wide eyes to find a small chain-link bracelet with tiny metal bell balls resting against her hand. She flinched away, recalling the cursed necklace Katie Bell had received years back, but she had already touched it without feeling any ill effects.

"What are you?" she whispered. "Wingardium leviosa," she added, twirling her wand to lift the bracelet in the air without physically touching it again. The bracelet seemed innocent enough. It was pretty, and though Hermione didn't normally wear things that jingled, she rather liked the gentle tinkling noises the small metal bells made, and the chain design with the latch meant it could be easily adjusted for size. The corners of her mouth quirked up as she carefully rotated it with magic to hear more of the music. "Where did you come from?" she asked it. It didn't answer, which was at least a little reassuring. She had learned a powerful lesson second year through Ginny about objects that were sentient.

Hermione set the bracelet back down on her bed and looked around for any kind of note or other indication of…

There. A small slip of paper on the bed with very familiar handwriting on it. Hermione smiled as her heart melted at recognizing Ron's scrawl. "With love, Ron," Hermione read out loud. It was his usual signature, but the meaning was clear, he had somehow snuck the bracelet in to surprise her. It was just like him not to give it in person, too. "Oh, Ron," she said and slipped the bracelet on without further thought. He probably felt bad for not writing too.

Filled with fresh confidence, Hermione made her way out of the dormitory and into the Gryffindor common room. It was fairly empty, though some third years sat by the fire playing wizard's chess. Hermione waved at them to be friendly, but they didn't look up at her. Hermione shrugged and went out the Fat Lady's portrait to head down to the Great Hall.

The halls were emptier than usual, but there were odd groups of students chattering here and there. Hermione didn't know everyone at the school, having always stuck fairly close to Ron, Harry, and Ginny, but she was used to people knowing her and acknowledging her when they saw her. She wondered how they would react to her hair and smiled in anticipation of their shocked faces when she passed close by the first group.

They didn't react to her. In fact, Hermione suspected they didn't even see her. She frowned, feeling slightly put-off, but not too vain to get worked up over not being noticed. Perhaps, without her hair flying all over the place, they simply hadn't realized who she was.

However, when Hermione had passed by several other groups without drawing a single eye, even when intentionally shaking her wrist a bit more to make noise, she began to worry.

Therefore, it was almost a relief when she arrived at the double doors to the Great Hall at the exact same moment as Draco Malfoy, and he looked directly at her with astonishment in his eyes.

"Granger!?" he blurted out, his jaw a torn slant between shock and disgust as his eyes roamed her hair and face.

She raised both eyebrows, put her hands on her hips, and looked down at him despite being nearly half a foot shorter. "Malfoy. You're in the way of the doors."

He glanced at the doors, as if surprised, then frowned back at her before opening the door for them both and glaring at her as she passed through, as if angry for her for forcing him to use his manners. Hermione rolled her eyes. She would never understand that prejudiced twit.

Once inside, Hermione paused a moment to take in the festive theme of the Grand Hall. Muffled conversations hit her like a wall of noise from the combined students, staff, and visiting witches and wizards. The ceiling had been enchanted to be a montage to the Hogwarts students and staff who had lost their lives in the battle at Hogwarts. Hermione's eyes watered slightly as she found the faces of Colin Creevey and Lavender Brown in the mix.

Hermione saw Malfoy greet his parents off to the side. She was surprised to see that Draco greeted his mother far more warmly than his father. Then again, Narcissa Malfoy had never taken the mark and had saved Harry's life. She was probably far more likely to inspire warm feelings than her husband.

Hermione ignored the sharp pang of longing she felt for her own parents on seeing the scene and looked for the next best thing: Harry and the Weasleys. It took her some time to find them through the crowds, but she eventually spotted them up near the staff table speaking with Professor McGonagall while several cameras were flashing. Biting back a big grin, she began to weave her way across the crowded Great Hall.

"Excuse me, pardon me!" Hermione repeated many times as she ducked and dived between people. People were being uncommonly rude today, not bothering to make room for her at all, but she supposed it was only natural with all the fuss over the one year anniversary of the battle, and it was rather loud in the room. Still, Hermione felt like she was having to use every bit of her finesse to avoid bumping into people.

Then Neville stepped back suddenly into Hermione's way...

...and Hermione stumbled and fell straight through him.

Hermione hit the ground hard on the other side and gaped. She turned her head to see that Neville had not even noticed her fall. In fact, he was still standing in the same space her legs occupied… as if she were a ghost.

Hermione scrambled to her feet, but not before Professor Sprout walked straight through Hermione to greet Neville. A 5th year leaned back in her seat and into Hermione's abdomen while stretching. If Hermione had to guess, the girl's hands were somewhere in Hermione's chest cavity.

Hermione felt her heart racing and thought furiously. She was either dead, or she was under some sort of spell.

This morning, Ginny had interacted with her, then Hermione had put on the bracelet… Could Ron have given her a cursed bracelet? Then again, Draco Malfoy had greeted her just before entering the hall… still…

Hermione looked down at her wrist, and went to yank it off when she realized her body was still overlapped with several others nearby. She grimaced and ran for the nearest clear spot in the hall, ignoring that she was literally running through people. If she happened to hit someone in the process, she could at least let that person know what was going on.

She hit no one.

Once Hermione was clear, she reached down and tried to unfasten the bracelet, but the fastening mechanism appeared to be missing. She tried pulling the chain off, but when it got to her wrist, it burned the hand touching it. Hissing, Hermione pulled her hand back. So, there was something wrong with the bracelet. At least that reduced the likelihood she was dead, unless all clothing was stuck once dead. She groaned and leaned against the wall, then wondered what held her up to begin with. If she could go through people, why not walls?

Hermione started falling backwards, and she jumped back up quickly. Shuddering, she concluded that it was only her willpower keeping her from sinking through the floor. She had to talk to a ghost and see if this was death. After all, ghosts could see each other, right?

Hermione had no idea, to be honest.

She searched for Nearly Headless Nick in the crowd, but couldn't find him or the other common ghosts of Hogwarts. Groaning, she headed back to the doors to the Great Hall on her way to the library. As she pushed on the solid door, she recalled that Malfoy had greeted her on the way in.

After she had been cursed or killed or whatever this was.

"Malfoy," she whispered. She turned around and searched the Great Hall for his pale, white hair, but he and his parents were nowhere to be found.

But if he could see and hear her, maybe others could too? Maybe other Slytherins?

Hermione turned and faced the Great Hall once more, sucked in a deep breath, and screamed as loudly as she could.

No response, not even from the Slytherin table.

But screaming gave her an idea. If she could walk on the ground and open doors, then she should be able to write to the boys and explain her dilemma.

She almost turned around right there and marched back to write in pumpkin juice with her finger or whatever else was around, but the last thing Hogwarts needed were more mysterious messages on the walls. Pen on parchment would be far more sensible and discreet.

And if she found Draco Malfoy on the way, they could have a nice little chat about why he was the only one who could see and hear her.

I hope you enjoyed it! Please review!

Extra note:

There is now a derivative work of this fanfic by imranramji1 called Darker Fic: Cursed Bracelet (rated M) that is intended to be a darker, more sexual version of this story. You can check it out by searching for it or going to the link from my profile.