A/N I don't own any of these characters. J.K. Rowling invented them.



The next morning the school was buzzing with tales of Hermione's curse. Hermione's friends sent her flowers and candies, along with cards and letters.

The day had begun with an assembly in the school's theatre. Professor Dumbledor took control and soon was addressing the entire school on the effects of the curse and just how serious it was. "We will get to the bottom of this," he said. "We have methods of figuring out who was responsible for this, in fact we have already narrowed it down to 3 suspects." Dumbledor seemed to glare at the Slytherin section. Again Harry felt the cold creeping feeling shooting up his spine. Immediately he stood up and dismissed himself from large room.

As soon as he got outside he collapsed to the ground. He began to shake and the pain was shooting like bolts of lightning all over his body. It was unbearable. Then the pain was gone again.

He hadn't heard it while he was on the floor, but as soon as he stood up he realized someone had been screaming. He turned around and saw Hermione standing behind a suit of armor peaking out at him. Only it didn't look like Hermione. Her bushy eyebrows had been plucked and her frizzy hair was now smooth and hung loosely on her shoulders. Her face had been splashed with make-up. "Hermione!" his voice shook while he said her name.

She slowly stepped out from behind the suit of armor. "Are-are you okay?" she asked timidly. "Yeah-yeah, I'm fine!" He grinned, forgetting all about the searing pain that had just enveloped his entire body. She stepped forward, "I'm Hermione!" she grinned holding out her hand "But I suppose you already knew that!" Harry was confused. Hesitantly he shook it, and said to her "Of course I knew that! Why wouldn't I?" Now Hermione was confused. "How do you know me? I've never see you before!" Harry shook his head, and looked at her, "It's me! Harry! You old codger!" he laughed. "Harry? I'm pretty sure I've never met you, I've never seen you before in my life!"

Hermione had begun to back away; she was looking at him like he was insane. Every step forward Harry took, Hermione took a step back, and this went on until Hermione backed into the suit of armor and it clattered to the tiled floor. "Look," she said, "I don't know you, but you're really freaking me out!" She had ignored the screaming crash that the suit took, falling to the floor. Harry noticed she was very pale. So he began to back away as well. Just then the assembly let out.

A herd of students came rushing out. "Out of my way Pot---while, whose this?" It was Draco; he gave Hermione a flirtatious wink. "I haven't seen you around here.you new?" He smiled and took her hand in his. Hermione grinned back at him as Harry tried to bite back a laugh, "Draco, that's Hermione!" he guffawed. Draco immediately dropped her hand as though it were on fire, and snarled, "I should have recognized you, mudblood! Your teeth are still more crooked than-than-than," he couldn't think of a word, as Hermione was about to burst into tears. "Harry immediately felt bad for blowing her cover, and ignored a perfect opportunity to ridicule Malfoy about his vocabulary. He reached out and put his hand on Hermione's shoulder, she shrugged it off and ran towards the Gryffindor towers. "Oh no, the princess doesn't want her lovers hands all over her?" Draco sneered; he spun on his heel and stalked off towards the Slytherin dungeons.

Harry stood by himself in the great hall, very confused. "She's has some sort of amnesia." He thought to himself, "She doesn't know who I am!" still thinking, Harry wandered up the stairs and found himself standing before the portrait of the fat lady.

She was giving him a very stern look. "Well?" she said, jarring him awake. "Uh, philanthrias" he said, still wondering about how he could convince Hermione they were friends. Just as the portrait swung open and Harry stepped in, Ron was running out, the two boys collided and fell to the floor.

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed, "I was looking for you! We have to go back up to the infirmary, Hermione will be there and so will Malfoy and his goons, it's pretty important I guess, since the entire board of Hogwarts will be there too." The two boys stood up and brushed themselves off. Ron gave Harry a worried look, "I haven't even seen Hermione yet, I hope she's feeling better!" He raked a hand through his unruly hair, which he had decided to grow out, retiring the original bowl cut he had. Harry chuckled nervously, "Yeah," he said "I bet we won't even recognize her!" Ron gave him a puzzled look, and Harry scurried away towards the stairs leading up to Madame Pomfrey's little office. Ron followed him up the winding stairs that led to the infirmary.

"Okay, now that the boys are here, we can begin!" A large man was speaking, he had white hair and a beard, and he was very fat. He reminded Harry of Father Christmas. "As you know, a very serious curse was used on Miss Granger. Through our methods of tracing the scar origins, we found it led to one of you three boys." He pointed at Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. All three attempted to look surprised. The man went on. "Now Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, you two were our first suspects because you were the first ones to her, but we no for sure that it wasn't you, without you boys, Miss Granger would have died. You will both be awarded a cash prize and 100 points each to your house." The man smiled at Harry and Ron as they gave each other a high five. "Now, onto more serious matters, you boys," he said nodding at Draco and his friends, "After much deliberation, we have decided that Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle will be removed from the Hogwarts institution. Mr. Malfoy, you will be moved into the Gryffindor house." The boys all tried to argue with him, including Harry; Ron was too busy staring at Hermione as if he had never seen her before. "That's it! We've made our decision! No changes will be made!" The man stood and closed his book with a thud; the other board members followed suit. "You are all dismissed!" Professor Dumbledor said, before following the other members out the door.

Immediately everyone jumped out of their seats, except Draco and Ron, "That's not fair!" Crabbe complained. "Draco doesn't have to leave!" "Yeah! Why does Mr. Rich boy get to stay here!" Goyle joined in. "I think you just answered your own question stupid!" Hermione growled. "Hermione!" Harry said in surprise. "Look" she said, "I don't know any of you, I don't know why you'd curse me! But it's obvious the sulking rat boy over there has a lot of money, so his parents must support the school! You guys are just two lardies who are here because they think you're smart enough to use magic!" The three boys were stunned; this wasn't the Hermione they knew! Hermione was weak and ugly and she couldn't think of an insult if it would save her life! This girl was gorgeous, she was tough, and she looked as though she could kill them if she wanted to. "That's what I thought!" Hermione grinned. "Now this one who calls himself Harry seems to know me, and I think I trust him, so if you don't mind Harry and I will leave!" She linked arms with him and they stalked off down the stone stairway.

Ron quivered in his red and gold chair, the two people had forgotten about him; they'd left him alone with the three worst guys in school! Just then, Vera stepped out from the small room she and Madame Pomfrey shared. The four boys stood up and watched her enter, she was beautiful, and she mesmerized the boys! She turned and gave them a puzzled look. "Do you boys need help?" she said. "No ma'am." Ron said quietly in a dreamy voice. "Well ok then, you can go now" she sounded kind of creeped out. The boys quickly left and scurried down the stairs. When they all reached the bottom, Dumbledor appeared. Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle, you have 3 days to get your stuff moved out of my school, Mr. Malfoy, you have to get your stuff moved into your new dorm in the next hour, chop-chop boys! Lets go!" Ron floated away back toward the Gryffindor towers, while Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle skulked away toward their own Slytherin dungeons.