A/N- Hey everyone! This is my first fic that I wrote because I was bored. I am American, but I tend to use British spellings (I lived there for a bit) and British phrases, but not punctuation, so that's why that is if anyone notices. This is kind of an old plot, but I put my own flair into itso read and let me knew if it's any good! : -)

Chapter One- Meeting

Hermione was sitting in her apartment with a cup of tea in her hand, reading the Daily Prophet.

Hearing a loud bang, Hermione's head shot up, only to find her roommate looking at her, wand pointed into the air.

"Wa was that for?" Hermione was still a little groggy from waking up, and a slow news day didn't help much.

"I said, are you planning on going down to the Club tonight?" Kristi was a very nice person and friend, but a crazy party animal. She went to The Club nearly every Friday and Saturday night, whether Hermione came or not.

"I dunno, depends on what work we get from the professors, I guess," Hermione stood on her fuzzy, blue slippered feet. "I am going to take a shower," she announced, abruptly leaving the room and heading for her bedroom to get her clothes.

The apartment Hermione shared with Kristi was with in walking distance of their school grounds. It had two bedrooms, one bath, a kitchen/ breakfast area, and a living room. It was on the twelfth floor, and overlooked the park, in which her school was concealed.

She walked past the window, into her room, picked up her bathrobe, and headed to the shower.

The hot water felt good on Hermione's back, and was starting wake her up more. Feeling a bit more alert, she went over her schedule in her mind. Rosefin's classthen Jade's, lunch, Duberry, and lastly Lotier. She should be able to go clubbing tonight. Getting out of the shower, she dried her hair, pulled on her bathrobe, and walked back to her room.

Upon entering, she looked around, and found a pair of jeans and a light pink T-shirt. She pulled them on, and then a light gray zip up sweater over it, it gets chilly on Hartford mornings, even if it was spring.

She waved good bye to Kristi as she left, casually strolling down the road. She arrived at her first class, and sat down.

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The bell had finally rung, signaling the end of Lotier's class. As she packed up her bags, the professor called her up to the front.

"Ms. Granger I have a favour to ask of you."

"What is it I can do for you, Professor Lotier?" Hermione smiled, she loved it when she could feel useful.

"Well, there is someone from a British advertising agency coming over to the school tomorrow morning. He is taking shots of the school, and other places around Hartford, to use as in the US marketing of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. I was wondering if you could show him around the campus, and take him where he needs to go, both here and around the city." The Professor grinned at her. He knew that she would never be able to say no to something like this; she was just that type of person.

"Of course, Professor, I would be glad to show him around! Do you know his name?" She didn't expect him to, but she figured she'd ask.

"No, I'm sorry, I don't. The office doesn't know who will be sent over."

"Thank you very much." She didn't mind doing something like this on a Saturday. It just meant she couldn't stay out too late at The Club though.

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"Herm, let's get going! You don't want to get there last, do you?" Kristi was anxiously waiting by the door.

"What's the big deal? People don't stop arriving until two AM anyway!" Hermione was putting on a dash of eyeshadow, as quickly as she could without mussing it up.

"Heeeeeeeerm! Come on!"

"Sheesh, alright! Here I come!" Hermione stepped into the living room, wearing a light foam blue dress. It came down to just above her knee, and was a tank top; cut not so low it was revealing, but low enough to be worth wearing to a club. Her white shoes were about two inches tall, and were the kind with a few straps just across the top and toes to make sure they stay on. Her lips had just some lip-gloss, and some very light pink blush was brushed across her face. She had on a bit of dark mascara, and glittery, white eye shadow, she never like too much make-up.

"You ready now?" Kristi was for some reason very impatient.

"Yes! Are you meeting a new boyfriend there or something? The way you are pushing me out makes me a bit suspicious." Hermione narrowed her eyes teasingly. She knew very well that Kristi always told when she had a boyfriend, she couldn't keep her mouth shut.

"Ha, ha," and with that they were out the door.

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Ron was sitting at the bar of some club he had found when walking around town. He was bored, with nothing to do, and no one he knew here, he decided to come in and meet some people. If, at nothing else, he could at least have something to drink.

"What'll it be, hon?" the very tall lady behind the bar asked. She had long straight black hair, and was wearing tight black pants and a very low cut gold shirt.

"Umma beer, I guess," he wasn't really a beer person, but what the hell, he'd go for it.

"Oh, a British man! There's a lady who comes here quite often, she's also from England, somewheres outside London, I believe. She's sweet, you should talk to her if she comes in, the two of you may have somethin' in common. Oh! Look, there she come now!" The bartender waved her hands over her head, to get the woman's attention over the loud music. She looked over and saw the woman at the bar waving, and started to walk casually over. Ron couldn't tell what she looked like yet, but she was wearing a light blue dress, that came to just above her knee, and made her look very nice, at least from what he could tell.

As she drew closer, her saw she had slightly bushy chestnut brown hair. No, it can't be, he thought. I haven't seen her for ages! Yet, as she drew closer, he was sure who it was. "Hermione?" he whispered, but no one heard over the din. As the distance closed between them, he no longer had any question in his mind who that person in the blue dress wasHermione Granger.

He stood up as she approached, and she squealed, "Oh my God! Ron?" She ran the last few steps and threw her arms around him. Then she seemed to realize who she was hugging, and stepped back, her eyes wide. The bartender and the friend that she had come in with were staring at her.

"Hello, Hermione, long time, no see." Ron had a small smile on his face, clearly laughing on the inside at the look on Hermione's face.

They were still standing there staring at each other, when the bar tender cut in, "Care to introduce us Hermione?"

"Oh, yes! Celene, this is Ron Weasly. Kristi, this is Ron." Hermione never took her eyes from his face as she made introductions. My, my, he had changed. He was still tall, still as red haired as ever, but he waswow! He had his hair cut so it was short and kind of spiky on the top. His body had filled out quite a bit, and he had a smattering of freckles across his nose.

"Oh, so you're Ron! I've heard so much about you from Hermione, she goes on and on about you and Harry Potter and your days at Hogwarts. I wish I could have gone to Hogwarts that would have been so much fun. And—" Hermione elbowed her, she was babbling as she always did when she met a guy she thought was hot. She would start talking, and never stop. Making the guy think she was some kind of stupid, talkative, ditz.

"Yeah, Hogwarts was great!" He had not pried his eyes away from Hermione, and was looking at the girl he was addressing. "We had a lot of fun, and got into a lot of trouble for it as well." He looked back at Hermione. "So, how did you end up here?"

"Me?" she inquired stupidly. "Oh, I go to school here actually. Didn't I tell you before I left?"

"No, you simply said that you were going away to college, not where, not when, you just said I'm going to leave for college!' and then you did." Ron was looking at Hermione now, clearly wanting to know why she had told no one where she was going.

"Oh, really, ummare you sure?" He could tell that she didn't want to say anything about it in front of her friends.

He walked up to her, leaned over and whispered, would you rather talk about this outside?" She nodded her ascent, and Ron turned to her friends. "Sorry, but we're going to step outside for a moment." He took Hermione's arm and felt a shiver run up his hand as he lightly grasped her arm.

He led her out the door and onto the street outside, the usually busy street was deserted. "So, do you want to tell me why you never told anyone, not even your parents, where you were going?" He was looking down at her, and she was gazing fixedly at the ground. She started to whisper, but he couldn't hear a word she was saying. He gently placed a hand under her chin, and tilted her head upwards, so he could see her face. "The only one who can hear when you talk that way is the ground." Smiling slightly to encourage her, he waited for her to speak.

"II left because, because I wanted to get away." She tried to look down again, but his hand wouldn't let her. He looked straight into her eyes, willing her to tell him more, the real reason, or at least the rest of it.

"And, you left to get away from what?" She knew he wasn't going to let her get out of answering his questions that easily.

"I wanted to get away from everything"Ron led them over to a bench that was sitting outside against the wall of the building. "I didn't want so much pressure from people, I wanted to be alone, and figure out what I really wanted. I knew I wanted to go to school some more, hell, I'm still there. I knew that for sure, but I didn't know if that was all I wanted, or if I wanted more. I wanted to come here so that I could figure out if what I thought was true, or if I was fooling myself." She was being very careful not to look at him, to look anywhere but at Ron. His intense blue eyes shimmering in the darkness, red hair standing out in the night.

"So what you are saying is that you ran away." He was still looking at her, with the same expression, which quickly changed when her head sprang up and she had an angry fire in her eyes.

"I did not run away!" She was nearly yelling in his ear, and her shouting voice hadn't changed since he'd last heard it, he was prepared to fight back this time though.

"Yes you did," he spoke clearly, not raising his voice. "You were scared. What I said that night made you think. It made you think that maybe you were wrong. Maybe, just maybe you hadn't thought your life through enough. That, perfect Hermione Granger may still have some things to sort out." He never took his eyes from her face, seeing clearly he had hit a nerve, and that couldn't be good for him. All he could hope was that it would make her think some more.

"You're wrong, what you said had nothing to do with me coming here, nothing." Her eyes were still on fire, but even though she knew he was wrong, she couldn't find a way to argue her point.

"Really?" was all he said, and then he stood up, so did she.

"I don't run from my problems, and I never have. If I did, then I would have been out of here a long time ago!" She turned away and walked up the street to a back alley where Ron heard a faint pop as she disapperated.

"Herm, why can't you just admit you were wrong? Why can't I?" he whispered to the silent night. Looking up at the starry sky he disapperated back to his hotel from right where he was standing, not caring who saw.