Chapter 4 - The Return of Friendly Faces

Disclaimer : I don't own the Harry Potter series (etc) [forgot to put this at the start]

A/N: I have brought some people back, as you will discover in this chapter, I know that they're meant to be dead but it's my FanFic so I thought I'd do it anyway.

"Ugh!" Pansy huffed and folded her arms, looking over at the Gryffindor table where Colin Creevey had just been taking her picture. Of all people, he chose to take pictures of the mudblood! "Ugh." She huffed again.

"What are you huffing about now!" Draco said to Pansy in an irritated voice. "Seriously, all I can hear is you huffing and complaining. Just shut up already."

"I just don't under-" Pansy started, but she was cut off.

"We know! We know! You've repeated it 67 times! As Draco rightly said, SHUT UP!" Blaise Zabini said, clearly fed up with Pansy's moaning.

"But-"

"SHUT UP!" Came the reply from all the Slytherins near by, which made Pansy stand up and storm out of the Great Hall. No one even bothered looking round, they were all grateful that she'd left.

"Thank God for that." Blaise said to Draco, without looking up from his plate of food. "I thought she'd never leave." Draco snorted in agreement.

When the bell rang for first period, Hermione stood up and got ready to leave - checking she had everything she needed for the day in her bag. She slung her school bag onto one shoulder and waited impatiently for Harry and Ron. Their first lesson of the day was defence against the dark arts; which all three of them - Harry, Ron and Hermione - enjoyed with a passion. While she stood waiting, she wondered who their new teacher would be (for defence against the dark arts). When the 2 boys were finally ready the 3 of them walked to the lesson.

Their DADA lesson was with the Hufflepuffs, 'not too bad' thought Hermione when she checked this on her timetable. They approached the classroom and lined up outside of the door like the others. The door swung open and familiar face walked out.

"LUPIN!" Hermione half yelled over the babble of noise that came from the other students. "You're back!"

Lupin smiled at her. "Yes, Mcgonagall decided that I would be the best defence against the dark arts teacher, well right now anyway. So," He said now turning to the rest of the class, "in you go." He gestured to the classroom door and the class filed in. Harry, Ron and Hermione were the last ones to enter. They walked in whilst talking non-stop to Lupin.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Harry asked.

"Well, for 2 reasons. 1, I wasn't 100% sure that I would be getting the job until a few weeks ago. And 2, because I thought it would be a nice surprise."

"I'm- I mean we're so happy that you're here, Lupin." Hermione said, walking up to the desk at the front of the class - it was the only one left. Lupin smiled at her again.

"Right everyone, I'm sure you can all still remember me from your 3rd year, but just in case you can't - I'm Professor Remus Lupin. I am a werewolf, but I'm not about to transform into my werewolf form and eat you ok Miss Brown?" Lupin looked directly at Lavender who had flinched when he mentioned that he was in fact a werewolf. She stopped blubbering at this address, however. "Ok, let's get started then. I trust you all have teamed correct textbook." They all began to get out the required book.

"Now, before you begin reading, I'd like to do a quick test just to see what you can remember. I'll ask you about 20 or so questions, there's no need to worry about it. This test is simply to see what I need to go over first."

So the lesson went on quite calmly and when the bell rang for the end of 1st period and beginning of break time, the 'Golden Trio' stayed back to speak to Lupin.

"So, how is my godson?" Harry asked.

"Oh, Teddy is great. Been sleeping well recently which is good."

"How's Tons?" Hermione asked next.

"She's getting on fine, actually she is coming to visit with Teddy at the weekend. You can all catch up then, and Harry you can get to know your godson a bit more." Lupin said with a smile. "But more importantly, how are you 3 doing? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, for once in I don't know how long our lives are pretty normal. Well as normal as they can get." Harry laughed.

"But I bet that won't last long, mate." Ron grinned.

"You're probably right Ron. But all you can do is hope for the best. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the bathroom." Lupin left the room, and the other 3 left after him.

"Well, we're do you want to go?" Ron asked his friends.

"We haven't been to see Hagrid yet we could-" Hermione started saying, but she was cut off by Harry.

"I actually need to put up the list for quidditch team tryouts in the common room."

"I'll come with you, bye Mione." Ron said.

"Oh, well bye then." She decided to pay Hagrid a visit, so she set off down the corridors towards the big oak front doors which lead put onto the Hogwarts grounds.

On her way to see Hagrid, she tripped over Malfoy - literally. He had been kneeling on the pathway, re-tying his shoe lace, when Hermione had come along. She hadn't been watching where she was going and had literally tripped over him. But it wasn't like a little stumble. No, she'd tripped on him and landed flat on her front.

"Hey, watch where you're going," Draco stopped to see who had fallen over him. He spotted Hermione on the path just behind him, face down. "Mudblood." Hermione started to try to pick herself back up, but with great difficulty. Malfoy just stood watching her with a gormless expression on his face.

"Thanks for helping." She whinged, cradling a scrapped arm.

"Oh my god, you are so pathetic. It isn't that bad." He looked at her arm. From what he could see, she was fine. Then Hermione moved her hand and revealed a deep looking cut. When Hermione too saw it her face went deathly pale.

"Um, Granger? Are you ok?"

"Y-yeah, of course I am." She was clearly lying. There was a deep cut on her arm, she had a gnash on her knee and there were scratches and scrapes all over her face, arms and legs.

"Come on, we're going to the hospital wing."

"What do you mean 'we' ?"

"You obviously won't be able to get up the stairs - let alone moving ones - so kinda don't have a choice here, do I." Hermione thought for a moment, then nodded. He let her lean on him, so she could walk without falling.

All of a sudden, Hermione noticed that there was no one else outside but her and Draco. She turned to him and said, "Hey fetret, where did everyone go?"

"Um, to lessons? Didn't you hear the bell go?"

"No…"

"And another thing, is it really q good idea to call me ferret right now. Seeing as you are currently using me to balance?" Hermione just smirked at him. Intriguing he thought. Wait, what? No! He quickly cleared that from his mind