Author's Note: Hello there! I'm sorry I haven't updated any of my stories last weekend. We just came from the beach, that's why…
Anyway, thanks to all those who have when I was away! As a thank you, here's chapter three!
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A LOVE NOT FORGOTTEN
By Rage
CHAPTER THREE: FAMILIAR ALL OF A SUDDEN
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September first had already come. Students filed in Platform Nine and Three Quarters and parents bid their children goodbye. At exactly eleven o'clock, the Hogwarts Express departed from King's Cross Station and headed off to Hogwarts.
Hermione had already met up with her two best friends, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. Ron had obviously grown much taller over the summer, and Harry had had a tan. Usually, she would have joined them in the same compartment, but since she was made a prefect this year, she was supposed to be in the prefects' compartment.
"You're going to the prefect's compartment?" Ron asked. "But why?"
"Obviously, I'm a prefect." Hermione showed them her new badge. "That's why."
"From what I've heard, it's really boring there," Harry said, unwrapping a Chocolate Frog. Ron nodded along and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Please, you two!" She opened the door and looked at them. "I'm just going to be gone for a few hours! We'll be able to see each other in the castle, okay?"
"Okay." The two replied glumly.
Hermione smiled. They're like children, she thought, closing the door behind her. "Oh, well." She stood confidently and proceeded to the prefect's compartment.
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"Er…" Hermione had opened the door to the prefects' compartment. Inside were three other students from the other Houses. One was a Hufflepuff girl with thick glasses and really frizzy hair, the other was a handsome Ravenclaw boy, and finally, the last one was a blonde boy obviously from Slytherin.
All three looked at her. She looked at each of them shyly for at least a second. "Hi there," she started. "Hello. How do you—"
She stopped. She was staring back at the Slytherin boy. "You??"
It was Draco Malfoy.
He was staring back at her. "Tch." He made an indignant sound and looked back down at the parchments he was holding. Hermione rolled her eyes and sat down beside him.
She sighed. Harry was right. It was boring here. Even Malfoy was keeping quiet! I should've stayed in the other compartment, she thought, looking around. The other girl was eating quite noisily and the boy was already dozing off. Malfoy meanwhile was just reading.
"You're awfully silent," she muttered to him, taking out her book.
He grunted in reply.
"You're a prefect?"
"Problem?"
"It's just very unlikely."
"And why is that, Miss Know-it-All?"
"You're a git, that's why."
He kept silent. Hermione opened her book and started reading. However, she just couldn't concentrate. It was just too quiet in the small compartment and the small noises the people were doing were annoying. The girl was munching quite noisily, the boy was snoring, and the paper Malfoy was holding kept crumpling. It was driving Hermione crazy.
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A few hours passed. Hermione had already finished her book and she was starting to get bored. The other three were still doing the same things they were doing; the girl hadn't stopped eating, the boy was already drooling, and Malfoy still hadn't finished reading whatever it was he was holding.
Hermione was already driven insane. "Are you people incapable of making any noise??" she exclaimed in frustration, waving her hands impatiently. "Crickets make a whole lot more noise than you!"
"I-is that a problem?" the girl trembled, looking fearfully at her.
"Don't mind her. She's got problems."
Hermione turned to Malfoy. "Look who's talking."
"Whatever, Granger." He stood up, pocketed the parchment and left the compartment.
Hermione sat back down. The girl had began eating again, and Hermione sighed heavily. Her first day back didn't go so well, and she was getting moody.
She looked around and spotted a small, faded piece of parchment on the floor. She blinked and picked it up.
"Is this yours?" Hermione asked the girl. She shook her head in reply.
"Oh." Hermione opened it and looked at what was inside. What's this? She thought, scanning the whole paper. Wait a minute…
Something was wrong. She studied the handwriting carefully and found that there was something strange about it.
"That's not right…"
Hermione's eyes grew wide.
The handwriting was almost exactly like hers.
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"Prefects!"
The four spun around and came face to face with the Gryffindor Head, Professor McGonagall. She was wearing her usual bottle green robes and black hat.
"Good evening, professor," they chorused.
"By the end of the Welcoming Feast, you will lead your Houses to your Common Room, clear?" she said imperiously.
All nodded in reply.
"Every night, you will patrol all floors of the castle, including the grounds below. You will be partnered up so that it will be a much easier task for the four of you. Now—" she started to pair them off. "Miss Wall and Mr. Flopdeck, and Mr. Malfoy with Miss Granger—"
"What??" Draco and Hermione exclaimed.
"Is there a problem?"
"Professor, it's just that—"
"You know our history—"
Professor McGonagall held her hand up to silence them. "You will have to put your differences aside then."
Draco gaped at her. Was she joking?
"Off you go to the Great Hall. Now, shoo!"
The other two prefects started walking, but Draco, as well as Hermione, had not. He turned to her. "This is not my day," he muttered.
"For once, I agree." Hermione turned to face him. She reached inside her pocket and took out a piece of paper. "You forgot something in the train, by the way."
She handed it to him and his heart skipped a beat. He had left one of the letters! He grabbed it and glared at her. "Did you read it?" he asked sharply.
She jumped. "Er—no."
Draco pocketed it and looked at her. "Not so nosy, are you?"
"I guess so."
"Good. A trait I would never have thought could be found in a Mudblood." He smirked. He turned and started walking away. "See you."
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Draco opened the letter he had retrieved from Hermione. He was fortunate that she wasn't curious enough to read it, because if she had, he knew that his reputation was ruined.
However, something was wrong. When he had made eye contact with her, he had seen something different… something that felt unusually familiar. But he didn't know what it was.
He felt himself drown in her brown eyes, and a part of him had wanted to stare at them forever. He couldn't explain why, though…
And an unexpected thought came across his mind.
For once in his life, he had considered Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor bookworm, very pretty.
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Author's Note: How'd you like it? Tell me please! I need your reviews very badly! Thanks!
I'm sorry if it's really not well-written! I highly apologize!
