Chapter 1- Hermione's Ponderings

~*~ Oh no this is one of those chapters that are pretty boring but which have to be read to understand the rest of the story. It's the dreaded explanation chapter!!! Never mind the explanation doesn't go for too long and there is a little bit of action at the end. Enjoy…

'-': Thoughts

AN=Authors notes.

Disclaimer: Hmm almost forgot…not mine.

~*~

***

Hermione Granger lay on her bed and stared up at the canopy of her four poster. She smiled to herself as she listened to the beautiful sound that surrounded her. Silence. Perfect unbroken silence. Silence was not something she had come to expect at Hogwarts; there had always been someone somewhere blowing something up or laughing or talking or fighting. She grimaced as she remembered that usually the people doing the last thing on her list were Ron Weasley and herself. The reason for the unaccustomed lack of noise was that it was the start of the Christmas holidays and nearly everyone at Hogwarts had gone home. There were only fifteen people left and out of those fifteen the only Gryffindors were Harry, Ron, Neville and herself which meant, naturally, that Hermione had the entire girls' dormitory at her disposal. Hermione thought over the students that she would be spending the next two weeks with. 'It could be worse' she thought. Ravenclaw had only three students stay while the other houses had four staying on. There were 8 sixth years and 7 seventh years which was a welcome change from having all the younger grades running around and disturbing Hermione while she was trying to do homework. Because there were so few of them only two tables remained in the great hall, one for the teachers and one for the students. The seating arrangements on the students table had taken some time to settle on; eventually they had decided on the following: Jeremy Sharp (7th year) of Ravenclaw at the head of the table because he was head boy, his girlfriend Harriet Bishop (7th year) also of Ravenclaw sat to his right and the last Ravenclaw, Cho Chang (7th year) sat to his left. Next to Cho was Jonathon Pilkington (7th year) of Hufflepuff and next to him was his girlfriend Mory Hague (7th year) of Hufflepuff, next to her (and not looking too happy about his seat) was one of Malfoy's hulks, Goyle of Slytherin (6th year). Harry Potter was next (6th year) and then Hermione (6th year) followed by Ron (6th year); all three from Gryffindor. Next to Harriet was Casey Hopkins (7th year) of Hufflepuff who was next to the last Hufflepuff, Ronan Tompkinson (7th year). Neville Longbottom (6th year) sat nervously in between Ronan and Pansy Parkinson (6th year) from Slytherin. She was half sitting on Draco (6th year) from Slytherin and the last person on the table was the second hulk, Crabbe (6th year) also from Slytherin. Unfortunately for Hermione this meant she was sitting directly opposite Draco Malfoy and she found it difficult even to take a sip of pumpkin without him making some snide comment. Every time he did make a joke, usually about her parentage, Pansy would give a high pitch shriek, Crabbe and Goyle would snort and Hermione would feel Ron and Harry bristling on either side of her.

***

As Hermione thought about Draco memories of that afternoon flooded back. Harry, Ron and herself had gone out after lunch for a snowball fight. The sky was a crisp blue and the snow was a sparkling white. They had spent a fast and furious couple of hours pelting each other with snow when Hermione decided to take the upper hand. She had climbed up a tree and lain in wait until the boys had walked under the branches she was hiding in. With a great shake she had sent a cascade of snow down on her two best friends who had yelped when the frozen water had slipped down their backs. Hermione had jumped out of the tree and pelted back towards Hogwarts hoping that the boys wouldn't dare upset Filch so much by finishing their fight indoors. She had been wrong however and they cornered her outside the great hall, a tickling match had ensued. They had been so happy; it was typical that it was the dreaded Malfoy that had spoiled things. Hermione was sick of having to prevent fights between the three of them. 'One of these days I'm just going to let Ron and Harry beat Malfoy into a pulp!' Even as she thought it Hermione knew it wasn't true. There was no way she was going to let that smug bastard get her two best friends expelled. Her meandering thoughts were cut off as there was a loud bang and Ron half walked, half fell into the room. He tripped on the edge of a rug and collapsed on the floor. Hermione sat up and laughed exasperatedly.

"Hmmm, that doesn't even need a comment." She jumped off her bed and helped him up. After scowling for a second he joined her laughter.

"Just making sure things didn't get too quiet up here."

"Actually, I was just thinking how nice it was to have a bit of calm for once." Seeing Ron's crestfallen face she added, "Don't worry, I didn't expect it to last or anything."

The tall boy placed his hand over his heart in a patriotic fashion.

"I am a Weasley and I must live up to my name, let there by no more silence in the Gryffindor dormitories!" so saying he swept Hermione up in his arms preparing to carry her down to dinner. He got as far as to the landing before striding back inside and dumping her onto her bed.

"Hermione!" he complained, "you haven't changed since the snowball fight, now I'm all wet!" she looked and saw it was true, there was a wet spot on his clean shirt. "Now I have to go and change again, hurry up and Harry and I will meet you in the great hall."

She giggled, saying:

"Sure Ron, sorry!" and slamming the door behind him. Hermione couldn't believe that she hadn't changed her clothes, she didn't realise she had been wrapped up in her thoughts for so long. She wriggled out of her clothes and threw them into the dirty clothes basket. Hurrying over to her wardrobe she pulled out a pair of button up jeans and a warm light blue sweater with little strings of silver woven through it. She released her damp hair from the hair tie, brushed it and twisted it into a bun to keep the wet tendrils off her neck. Pulling on her sneakers she bolted out through the common room and down the many stairs to the great hall.

***

Everyone looked up as she arrived, panting, for dinner. She ignored the annoyed look Jeremy gave her because of her tardiness and instead slid into her seat between Harry and Ron.

"You took your time." Harry commented between mouthfuls.

"I got held up." Hermione laughed looking at Ron who blushed. Harry entirely missed the exchange but somebody else didn't. Draco.

"Aw how sweet, Weasley and the mudblood have finally had a shag. Were you gentle, mudblood? You know he was a virgin, I hope you didn't scare him. Then again," he very obviously looked her up and down making Hermione turn red, "that isn't a body that scares."

Hermione turned an even deeper scarlet but was more worried about the reactions of her two friends. They had both stood up, throwing down their knives and forks and glaring at Malfoy with raging fury.

"Alright Malfoy, that's enough!" Ron yelled, "You and me outside, NOW!

***

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Hmm, I'm sensing a little tension! I hope you enjoy. Now I would like to thank my first reviewers. Yeah, I love you all you are seriously stupendous (I use this word a lot!) and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you personally:

Glimmermaid: My first ever reviewer for this story so I owe you a special thanks. And you were right, that prologue was just to show that things hadn't changed except Harry, Ron and Hermione have become even closer friends! Thankyou again for reviewing my fic.

VenusDeMilo: I'm sorry to disappoint because it might not be a love rectangle anymore…we'll just have to see! Thankyou for your lovely comments, though, it was really nice of you to say it made sense!

Gaille: Hello, dear friend! I'm sorry my ferrety companion but I don't know how to turn you back from a ferret I'm just really happy that your paws still work fine on a keyboard! Thankyou for reviewing my new story.

Sucker For Romance: Hello again! Fancy meeting you here! Thankyou for saying it was great and this is up moderately quickly so I hope it suffices!

CC Montgomery: Yes this is going to be very fluffy…eventually! Everyone needs a bit of fluff in their life. Thankyou for reviewing, old pal!

DarkAngelchick: I'm glad you liked my other story and I'm really going to endeavour to have Hermione cry a lot less in this one. Hmm I didn't do too well with that in the prologue did I?! I did check out your stories and I liked them very much, I especially liked your character Kat Potter.

Flaky ballerina: Yes this is going to be fluffy, it is just going to take a while to get there! Thankyou so much for saying you liked it and here is the first chapter!

Thankyou all and goodnight!

Jess