The girl from Beauxbatons

Chapter One

Ron Weasley knew he was in trouble. Even with the note from McGonagall explaining his tardiness, he knew Snape would give him grief for showing up late to class. Especially since it was the first day of classes of his fifth year and it was potions with Ravenclaw. Ron knew this was OWL year and he needed to do well in potions if he had hope of having good enough NEWTs to get into the Aurors. Being late the first day, even with a decent excuse from his head of house would not endear him to the potions professor and based on the last four years he knew he was already on shaky ground with Snape.

He tried to enter the classroom as discretely as possible. He was only three minutes late, maybe Snape wouldn't even notice him. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

"Ah, Mr. Weasley," Snape spat out. "So glad you could join us. 10 points from Gryffindor for your utter lack of respect."

"But I have a note from McGonagall," Ron replied.

"I care not what other professors do, Mr. Weasley. Find a seat and quickly." Snape turned his back and continued to write on the board.

Ron looked to his normal seat next to Harry but to his dismay he found it occupied by Neville. Ron glared at his roommates, but all Neville did was give a small grimace and a shrug of his shoulders.

"Thanks, mate," Ron whispered to Harry as sarcastically as he could as he walked toward the only empty seat in the room. Normally Harry and he always saved each other's seats. Ron wasn't sure what had happened this time and he wasn't happy. The only empty seat was in the front row and Ron hated the front row. Only know-it-alls and teacher's pets sat in the front row. Ron frowned as he looked at the person that he'd be sitting with. All he saw was a completely unfamiliar mass of curly brown hair on a girl who was busy writing on a piece of parchment.

He sat down with a huff and dropped his book bag on the ground. He looked at his partner for the day and realized he had never seen her before. Her robes were Ravenclaw, but surely he must have run into her sometime in the last four years, but he had no clue who she was.

Ron cleared his throat and was just about to ask her name when Snape turned around and addressed the class.

"This year is your OWL year," Snape said in his normal slow droll voice. "Therefore it is paramount that you pay attention and perform well. I don't want any silly distractions to get in the way. One such distraction can be working with someone unfamiliar. Therefore, all fifth year students will be partnered with the same person for the whole year. I expect this consistency will allow you to perform unencumbered by unfamiliarity. Therefore, you will be partnered this whole year with whomever it is you are sitting with now. I trust you are sitting with someone you are comfortable with."

Ron looked up incredulously. 'What?' he thought to himself. 'I've always worked with Harry, I don't know this person next to me. They may be worse at potions than I am!'

Ron looked at the Professor and started to protest "But sir…"

Snape interrupted him and replied with a slight grin, "Ah, Mr. Weasley, I see you have the privilege of sitting next to and being partnered with our newest student. Consider yourself lucky, Mr. Weasley, anyone would be a better partner than your normal cohort Mr. Potter, or even worse Mr. Longbottom. I'm sure our transfer from Beauxbatons will be the one suffering in this arrangement."

Everyone except Ron, Harry and Neville chuckled at Snape's response. Ron heard his new partner just groan and then he heard her whisper to herself, "oh great, I get the idiot." Ron looked over at the girl, leaned over and held out his hand.

"Hi, I'm Ron Weasley."

The girl looked up and stared at Ron for just a moment. "Are you really that bad at potions?" she asked. "I want you to know that I'm not going to do all the work for both of us. You need to pull your own weight, and I don't suffer laziness and stupidity from anyone. Are we clear?"

Ron was stunned and put off by her response. 'Who the hell was she to come off like that to me? She doesn't even know me and she's giving me grief as well.'

Ron leaned back and pulled back his hand. "I think you'll find me to be an adequate partner and I'm sure I'll do my part, Miss….?"

"Granger. I'm Hermione Granger, and yes I just transferred from Beauxbatons, and no, you don't get to ask me why. I'm here and we're going to be partners and nothing more, so you better listen to what I say and do exactly what I ask you to, understand? I can't afford to not do well in this class."

Ron frowned at this strange and pompous girl. He didn't know what to say so he just looked at her for a moment. She was pretty, but not beautiful in the classic sense. He noticed again her bushy brunette hair and that she had the most beautiful chocolate brown eyes with just a bit of sadness behind them. 'I wonder what her story is?' he thought. For some unknown reason, he wanted to know why she was here and who she was. She certainly wasn't like anyone he knew.

Shaking his head he grimaced at her and replied simply, "I also need to do well and I can only hope that you can back up your dismissive attitude with actual results. We have to work together for the next nine months so we might as well get along. I hope we can help each other out, and maybe I might even surprise you. So why don't we start again."

Ron held out his hand once more and smiled as he said. "Hi, I'm Ron Weasley, Gryffindor."

Hermione stared back at the tall red-headed boy sitting next to her and noticed his freckles and his deep blue eyes. She was surprised that he had replied with as much fortitude as he had. Most everyone backed down from her bossy over-the-top attitude, but this boy just stood his ground and gave back as much sass as she had. 'This could be interesting,' she thought as she shook Ron's hand.

"I'm Hermione Granger, Ravenclaw, pleased to meet you."