A/N : This is my first fic, and none of those characters are mine. I just borrowed them to JKR for the occasion. Thanks to my great beta-readers, Ellster and Delster, my sidekicks and lobsters sisters, and Shantal, my long lost twin.
Chapitre 1 : The First Day
Hermione Granger was looking through the window of the train, eyes passing across the landscape that she knew too well. It was the seventh time that she was taking the Hogwarts Express to the best wizardry school in the world –and it would also be the last time. Seventh year already… She remembered how enthusiastic and cheerful she had been the first time she took it, how wonderful it had been to get to platform 9 and ¾ for the very first time. She had been feeling unique, leaving her boring Muggle existence for an extraordinary magic life. She had always felt the same way every time she took the Hogwarts Express to reach the school. Until her fourth year…
That year should have been one of the best of her time at Hogwarts because of events such as the triwizard tournament and her very first ball, but it had turned out to be a nightmare : the triwizard tournament ended up with the second rising of the most powerful dark wizard in the world, Lord Voldemort, and the Yule Ball… well, the ball was a disaster.
Hermione closed her eyes. How could she have been thinking of such small things as the ball when so many people have had died? If she did the analysis of her years at Hogwarts, the obtaining was that most of the time had been dangerous and painful. During the first year she had been almost killed by a troll and eaten by a three-headed dog. The second year wasn't safer : she had been petrified for weeks. Let's not forget the third year, when a certain rat was revealed to be a dangerous criminal. The infamous fourth year: Cedric Diggory died during the tournament and Voldemort came back to life physically. Not long after that, in the fifth year came the first attack on Hogwarts, where Susan Bones, Lee Jordan, Frank Delanoe were killed and five other students were badly injured; one of them, Cynthia Payne, was still in a coma. During the sixth year was the battle between the Death Eaters and the Aurors, that left twelve casualties, and the second attack on Hogwarts partly destroyed the Ravenclaw tower. Carl McGraw and Kessie Loin died in the explosion. Five students died, a part of the school has had been destroyed, so many were wounded. Those successions of disasters and tragedies made Hermione think that her Muggle existence wasn't boring at all but peaceful. And all she longed for was peace.
'What will happen this year?' she wondered. It seemed to her that now that chaos and fear ruled this world again, the present was a gift.
"Oi, Hermione!"
Hermione was snapped out of her thoughts by the familiar voice. She looked up and she saw Ron Weasley, with all his freckles that she knew by heart and his red hair that she would recognize among thousands of people, grinning at her. "You looked like you were in Binn's class, 'Mione. Looked very bored," he giggled devilishly.
"She looked rather worried," Harry said. She looked at him. Harry Potter had the same green eyes behind the small pair of round glasses, the same messy hair with the scar on the forehead as the first time she met him. The only slight difference in him was the blurry shade of gloom in his eyes, barely noticeable for everyone who met him but undeniable for those who knew him by heart.
"I'm OK Harry," Hermione replied softly. "There's nothing to worry about. I was just… reminiscing the past. I was thinking about the first time I took the Hogwarts Express and how I met you guys in it."
"You were in it?" Ron said. "Ooooh, so YOU were that annoying long-teethed and bushy-haired girl that said my spell was crappy?" He laughed hysterically and Harry followed him in his laughter. Hermione tried to look outraged but couldn't help smiling.
"You prat." She punched him in the arm and Ron pretended to be wounded.
"Harry! Help! No, run, she's gone mad again! Come on, let's apparate to Hogwarts!"
"Ron! How many times do I have to tell you that no one can…"
"…APPARATE IN OR OUT OF HOGWARTS!" shouted the two boys together, laughing hard.
"It's written in chapter 6, paragraph 3…" Ron started, trying to recover from his laughing.
"… of Hogwarts, a History, third edition!" Harry finished. Both burst into a new wave of laughter, almost rolling on the floor.
"Ouch! Cramp! Cramp!" Harry said between laughs.
Hermione looked at them, smiling. Ron and Harry were her two best friends in the world. They were even more than her friends, they were everything for her. Her greatest fear was to lose them, so she wouldn't let anything happen to them.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
She watched them laugh.
Today is a gift…
"Here we go. Hogwarts."
They got off of the train and went their way to the school by the lake. Harry saw Hagrid waving to him from his group of first years. They all expected the number of new students to be very low this year, with all the dramatic events –it would have been natural for the parents to fear for their children's lives after the death of five students during the past two years. But it seemed like the number of new students didn't drop at all. The parents, after a period when they were influenced by Cornelius Fudge, were distrusting Hogwarts and Dumbledore. But the recent attacks and death of families of wizards all over England made the parents believe that maybe their children were safer in a fortress like Hogwarts.
The trio arrived soon at the Castle, and joined their Gryffindor companions at the Gryffindor table. There were all the familiar faces that had become dear to them through the years and the battles : Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom, Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, Colin and Dennis Creevey. And Ginny Weasley.
She stood up when she saw them coming and waved.
"Hey guys! You're so slow. We took the same train and you guys are fifteen minutes late."
"That wasn't a race, Gin," Ron replied, grumbling.
"And that was fortunate for you, 'cause I would have beaten you easily."
"You wouldn't even dare think about it, little girl."
"You wanna bet, giant prat?"
"What do you think we are doing, Ginger?"
Ginny smiled at her brother. Unlike Hermione, she didn't have a passion for those banters with Ron, though she adored him. She knew exactly when to stop before it would turn into a fight where one of the Weasleys might lose all his or her hair.
"You know I love you Ron, and that you're my favorite brother?" she said, with her brightest smile. Ron suddenly stopped laughing and looked shocked.
"Erm…thanks. I like you…too" he managed to mutter, his face turning as red as his hair.
Ginny grinned at Hermione and winked at Harry before turning her attention back to her sixth-year classmates at the table. Ron was still very red and Hermione was laughing softly, she turned to Ron and said some soft words that Harry couldn't hear. But Harry wasn't paying attention to them anyway. He was looking at Ginny thoughtfully.
It had been months since they last saw each other and she had grown up a lot since. The blushing and giggling little girl whom he had met on platform 9 and ¾ six years earlier became had become a beautiful girl with poise and self-confidence. She never blushed in his presence anymore, and seemed to consider him a friend and not as a hero to worship anymore. Her hair was long and perfectly curly to the tips. Harry knew that he wasn't the only one who noticed her physical changes because most of the boys were turning on her way. Darn. It was stupid to feel weird about Ginny growing up, everyone has had to get older sooner or later.
Harry shook his head and decided to look another way, and his glance fell on the Slytherin table. Since the rising of Voldermort, a lot of Slytherin students' parents became Death Eaters again and took their children off out of Hogwarts. There were empty places here and there at the Slytherin table and they were very quiet. Suddenly Harry realized that someone was missing at that table.
Draco Malfoy.
A/N : the credit for the sentence about the present being a gift goes to Ashlie who wrote it in her wonderful fic Brief Interlude