A/N – This chapter will start off as the Hermione after graduation but it will turn into a flashback and I think that my future chapters for this story will be like that as well.


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Chapter Two: Recollections

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"Why not
Take a crazy chance
Why not
Take a crazy chance" –Hilary Duff, Why Not

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"Hermione, honey, it's dinner time!"

Hermione picked herself off her bed and ambled slowly towards her bedroom door. As she passed the bathroom on the way to the kitchen, she saw her reflection. Her brown, bushy hair which reached half-way down her back looked even more bushy than before and she had dark circles under her eyes.

As she sat down at the dining table, politely listening to her parents talk about their day, she couldn't help but let her mind wonder off …

~*~ FLASHBACK~*~

A sixteen, soon to be seventeen, year old Hermione walked to her parent's car as her father loaded her trunk in the boot. She stepped gingerly in the car and tried to calm down all the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. It wasn't because she was starting her last year at Hogwarts but because of the fact the she wasn't the same Hermione she was.

During the holidays, her cousin, Sarah Granger, twenty-three year old law student currently studying in Harvard, came to visit. She helped Hermione discover a new way to dress, to act and most importantly, to live. Hermione plopped a CD into her discman as her father started up the car and reared out.

"Think you're going nowhere
When you're walking down the street
Acting like you just don't care
When life could be so sweet"

Hermione started scribbling the lyrics of her favorite song onto a piece of paper.

"There may never be a sign
No flashing neon light
Telling you to make your move
When the time is right"

She smiled to herself. Whenever she heard this song, she would all of a sudden feel better and have this renewed strength that gave her the courage and willingness to do something.

"Why not (why not)
Take a crazy chance
Why not (why not)
Do a crazy dance
If you lose a moment
You might lose a lot
So why not
Why not"

As the song finished, she folded the lyrics up and stuffed them in her pocket. Since Hogwarts didn't allow any muggle technologies in its boundaries, she wouldn't be able to hear 'Why Not?' for a long time and therefore needed the lyrics at hand whenever she felt she wasn't sure about something.

As her dad pulled up to the front of King's Cross Station, she took the earphones out of her ears and placed her discman carefully on the seat next to her.

One more year and then I'll be able to listen it whenever I want.

She hopped out as her father loaded a trolley with her trunk and helped her push it all the way to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.

"Well, this is it, honey. This is the last time you'll be entering the barrier as a student," he said, pulling her into a hug.

"Time passes so quickly," she murmured into his back.

They let go and as she slid in, he called in after her, "Don't let a boy get the better of you!"

She giggled. Hermione Granger fall in love??? Yeah right!

~*~END OF FLASHBACK~*~

Hermione sighed. She was so young and stupid then … she didn't know that a certain blonde, grey-eyed Slytherin would be playing such an important part of her last year at Hogwarts … and her life.

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A/N- sighz My chapters are just getting worse … argh … oh wells … peoples … REVIEW!!! I hope I haven't made some people lose interest in this story because it doesn't make sense or it's too boring or whatever. From now on, I'll try hard to make time pass quicker and get them together soon.

Thanks to my reviewers:

tomfelton-luver – Thanks for saying that! And I think I can manage to read it if I have enough time.

Banana Flavored Eskimo – Yeah, I guess 'Why Not' is a bit of a happy song.

iLoVeDrAcO15 – Well I hope the story makes more sense.

Ellie (XxSweetAngelz@aol.com) – Yeah, when I thought of the idea to use this song for this sort of romance fic, it sounded great. But now that I'm writing it, it's harder than I thought.