Miss me?

I'm back! My holiday was amazing, and now I return to dreary everyday life. Sort of kidding, but I miss meeting at least 5 exciting new people every day that surprise me. Some have been horrible, some have been amazing.

Reread the story to get back to the flow of it, realized a major mistake I needed to amend. Evan Rosier has blue eyes! His look is dark black hair, sparkling blue eyes, the way I imagined him from the beginning! Went back and amended it, on the other hand Benjy has green eyes and brown hair.

As always, thanks to purple breeze and AliceEnchanted for reviews! Special shout out to the Guest reviwer sending several "UPDATE " reviews, they made me smile and sped up me going back to writing. Also huge thanks to everyone who has started following or favoritism this story, you are all amazing!

Also, Halloween chapter will be up that is inspired by the great books and television series Goosebumps! So look forward to that. A bit of a shorter chapter but wanted to update quickly, so I'll try and write another chapter this week too!

Enjoy this chapter and leave me a review telling me what you thought, or general thoughts about life or what you did this summer, I love to hear from you and I'm curious about what kind of people read this story

Xxx

Friends?

Lorry was sorted into Slytherin, to no one's surprise. So was Regulus Black, but the only one surprised was a very angry Gryffindor that looked a lot like him.

Other than that the welcoming feast was surprising to Hermione. Some of the new Ravenclaws had actually spoken to her, as the older years had yet to warn them away from her. She found herself speaking a lot to a very cute blue eyed blond girl that spent the entire time questioning Hermione about everything she could possibly think of asking.

Headache aside, Hermione loved talking to the girl because she had no qualms about speaking to her, even after hearing her name. A few of the others had also joined in to ask about classes and other stuff about Hogwarts, happy to find an older year that smiled and answered their questions readily.

Her smile faltered as Leanne 5th year and newly appointed prefect came over at the end of the feast. She smiled brightly at the new members of their house after sending a glare at Hermione.

"Hi Y'all! I'm Leanne Muster, I'm one of the Prefects in Ravenclaw. If y'all are done we can head on up to the tower and get you's settled in!"

"I'm done I guess." Blondie said, followed by the grumbles of the others meaning they were done too. "Hermione it was nice to meet you, I'm Emily."

Before Hermione could reach out and grasp her extended arm in greeting and friendship, Leanne pushed it down. "We'd better get going, chop chop." And dragged Emily after her while the rest of the firsties followed suite.

Well that lasted long, she thought.

Sighing she got up and started making her way up to the Ravenclaw tower after the firsties. There was no rush as the dorm had no password, only riddles. Unnoticed by her at first, four boys started following her. A fifth rushing to finish his meal and scramble after them.

She took her sweet time walking up, absentmindedly stepping over the trick step. Her pursuers doing the same, except for the last one. Unbeknowst to the others, this would prove very troublesome for him as four Gryffindors would be going up to their dorm. He saw it as a depressing foresight into his next six years at Hogwarts before he was free of his older brother at last.

The Gryffindors on the other hand saw this as a sign of great luck and many opportunities to come.

Hermione finally caught on that she was again under the watchful eyes of the Slytherins as she turned a corner and saw a flicker of green at the corner of her eye. Groaning she quickly escaped into an abandoned classroom to her left before they could spot her.

Leaning back against one of the many broken desks in the abandoned classroom she pondered when this would all be over. If at all this would stop, it most likely would be because of her transitioning into something else. Like for example, becoming a wife to one of the dumb dumbs her father thought so highly off.

As the shadows of her pursuers flickered through the slight crack in the door, she knew she was free for now. Problem was, she didn't know what to do with her freedom. She never really did think too much on what she could do if she was free, the pursuit of freedom being her only quest except for the quest for knowledge.

She moved into the corridor, taking a defensive stance for when her stalkers would return.

As the first one rounded the corner in a run, a simple tripping hex had him face down on the floor in no time. The four other following, landing in a heap on top of the blond headed idiot.

Four quick expelliarmus as they were falling over each other quickly had her gaining the upper hand, the blush on blondies face showing his embarrassment. Sonny boy looked a bit scared, while the henchmen looked about ready to murder her.

She put the wands in her robe pocket while she tapped her own against her lip. "No what to do with you..." when the henchmen moved, she quickly petrified both of them, their glower intensifying when they hit the ground again.

"Stay still, I wanna savour this moment." She murmured to them, her pride once again getting the best of her. She didn't notice that Lucius had collected his feet under himself. As he launched himself at her, She was too slow to react, and they both tumbled to the floor. The wands fell out of her pocket and clattered on the floor, landing out of reach from them both. Hermione had managed to wedge her wand between them somehow, and she yelled out to petrify him as well. But he covered her mouth when she was halfway through the spell.

Unlucky for him, Hermione had become quite accustomed to fighting like a muggles over the summer, her attempts to get away from the gruesome trio did leave her with some important lessons.

Her last thought before utilizing that knowledge was;

Sorry Narcissa.

The groan as her knee connected with something soft told of her success, in the corner of her eye she could see The Son cringe as he crept closer to the abandoned wands. This time she managed to petrify Lucius as his hand had dropped away from her mouth. While she tried to wriggle away from under Lucius the son had managed to get a hold of one of the wands.

Both stood up, wands raised at each other, three pairs of eyes flicking back and forth between the two. Hermione smirked as he intoned with a trembling voice "Expelliarmus!"

A tiny fizzle and a groaning sound came from the wand, Hermione snickered as he looked at it in surprise and betrayal. "Petrificus totalus" and he joined the others on the floor.

After a few sticking charms Hermione made her way up to the dorm with a happy smile on her face, even knowing she had probably yet again lost a friend at Hogwarts because of Leanne couldn't stop her from smiling.

The next morning her smile returned as the population noticed that Slytherin had started the year off with negative points, a feat no one had thought possible. The disgruntled faces of 4 Slytherins sitting closest to the door, ready to bolt if need be told everyone who the culprits were.

After last night she was now sure Leanna had warned off the firsties as even they gave her a wide berth that morning. She had a wide space unoccupied around here as the rest of the house Sat almost on top of each other. Who knew the Ravenclaws were so dramatic?

"I guess you heard the good news?" A voice close to her startled her back into the present.

"Huh?" She was mortified by her ineloquent response when she saw the mirthful green eyes of Benjy staring back at her.

"The Slytherins are already behind." He smirked at her as he grabbed a plate and started buttering his muffin. "Why else are you smiling like that?"

She shook her head, wondering if she was perchance dreaming that the handsome Benjy Fenwick had sat down to spend his morning chatting with her.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, making her blush and look over to the 4 angry Slytherins glaring daggers at her and the Gryffindor. "Maybe it's because you are the cause of losing said points?"

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and she was quick to splitter out a "n-n-n-No! Of-f c-course not!" Breathing out heavy afterwards to collect herself before continuing "why would you think that?"

He smugly took a bite off his muffin as he replied, crumbs falling out of his mouth "I've seen you in action, and I know they never get in trouble if it isn't because of you."

She bit her lip, chewing nervously on it. "Shouldn't you be over there?" She motioned towards the Gryffindor table behind them.

He laughed "kicking me to the curb already?"

"No I was just-"

"Relax, I'm only yanking your wand."

She angrily drank some of her tea, glaring at him while he seemed to not notice it. An expression so feared by many others was weird to not have an effect on him. She was always thrown for a loop with this guy, he was so unlike any of the others.

"Besides, from the way they are staring over here." He nodded towards the guys. "I'd say they won't do anything to hurt me today. Any other day maybe, but if they lose more points the other Slytherins will burn them at the stake."

"But-" She breathed reply again, as he looked over at her curiously. "Why are you here?"

"We're friends remember?"

"Why do you wanna be friends with me?" Her question was meek, fearful and would have made most people want to hug her and rattle her hair to reassure her. That's what she read in books at least. But all he did was shrug take another bite of his muffin and say "haven't thought about it."

They continued eating and making small chit chat before class, only departing when he had potions in his first class, while Hermione had DADA.

As the weeks went by, she found that not only would Benjy occasionally talk to her, but Narcissa (after she had gotten over her kneeing her would be fiance in the balls) would exchange pleasantries as well. Cissa was forced conversation, while talking to Benjy meant she was a mess of nerves and insecurities.

Two lower year girls had taken to talking to her too. Turns out Emily was way too chatty and curious for some of the people her own year, they found her annoying and boring. They said that even for a Ravenclaw she studied too much. Hermione being starved for friends, didn't mind her chatty presence and constant questions.

The other first year was Lorry, who spent the entire time staring wistfully at "Evan Rosier" aka The Son who Hermione loathed so much. When she wasn't googly eyed over him, She spent hours going over how amazing he was because of so many things Hermione found vapid or unappealing. His name being brought up every 5 minutes was why she now knew his name.

Her Slytherin side did see the advantage of a friend like Lorry. Sometimes she could use her to escape Rosier for a while, pushing her into him making them both fall over was her favorite thing. Mostly because of the pleading look he sent her and the horror he clearly felt over being stuck with this insane giggling girl again.

Also Lorry, the big gossiper she was, knew everybody's name and secrets, but she was not smart enough to keep the information to herself, filling Hermiones head with so much possible blackmail material she had started keeping a journal to keep track of it.

A few weeks in she was surprised how often she found herself next to somebody that considered her a friend. Even if she didn't return the sentiment, it was nice to be popular.

Maybe this year wouldn't be so terrible after all.