Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter Characters, J.K. Rowling does.

Chapter 3

All Floo transportation was cut off from the Manor because it might give away the whereabouts of the Order. So they had cars provided by the ministry.

Hermione was quiet the whole way to London thinking about her powers. Nothing new had happened to her. No voices in her head, no bad feelings, no pain, and she hadn't made anything fly across the room lately either. She hadn't even tried to. She wondered if her powers still worked, because nothing has happened to her for so long.

Hermione's thoughts were interrupted with the car coming to a stop. They got out a couple of blocks away from The Leaky Cauldron, and walked the rest. Hermione and Ginny lagged behind. Everyone was already inside when Hermione saw a group of people a few feet away. "Oh no."

"What?" Ginny asked.

"You see those people......oh no there walking over here. Hurry, let's go." But it was too late. They were already spotted.

"OH, look you guys its Hermione."

Hermione reluctantly turned around. "Hey Melinda." She smiled bitterly. "What are you doing here," she asked.

Melinda was the usual rich, perky, blond girl, not to mention popular, who always had a group of girls following her around everywhere. She was the makings for a real snob.

"My mom decided to take me and the girls to London, shopping. Isn't it great?"

"Yeah—

"So what are you doing here" she interrupted looking at the brick wall next to them.

"Oh," said Hermione glancing at the 'wall', Muggles couldn't see the shop that Hermione and Ginny were really looking at. "Just passing through"

"Oh...well who is she?" she nodded her head behind Hermione.

"Right," said Hermione just remembering Ginny was next to her, "This is my friend—

Melinda interrupted with a laugh. "You mean you actually have friends." She smiled.

"Who would want to hang out with you." Said a small voice from the crowd. Hermione recognized it as Angelina, Melinda's sister. Melinda smirked at her sister's remark.

Hermione had had enough. She thought they could get through this without the usually snide remarks that Melinda threw towards her, but some people never change. "You know what— "she exploded, gathering up her courage.

"No, I don't really care" Melinda interrupted. "Sorry," she said shrugging her shoulders, "We really have to get going, right girls? "

"Yeah" they all murmured back.

"See you later freak" Melinda added with a smirk and she left with her posse trailing behind her.

Hermione glared at all of them. She wanted so much just to take her wand out and hex them all right there and now. She could imagine all of them screaming there heads off as Melinda started to sprout boils. She almost thought it was worth being expelled for...almost.

"Who were they?" asked Ginny a little put off.

"Those are the people from my neighborhood that I went to school with before I went to Hogwarts. They hate me....and I hate them." She said sighing, looking in the direction they had left. "They use to make fun of me, because I was, what you call weird. Back then I didn't know I was a witch."

"Are you guys coming or not?"

Ginny and Hermione whipped around to Harry coming out of the Leaky Cauldron.

"Sorry, Lets go"

"Okay we need 3 new text books." Said Hermione reading her list while walking through the large crowds of Diagon Alley. They had just finished replenishing there supply of potions and were headed to the bookstore next. Hermione was too busy looking at her list and didn't notice the person in front of her.

"Watch it!"

"Oh, sorry—Malfoy??"

"What, are you blind Granger?"

"No," she scowled and started to walk away. She thought it was just better to ignore him.

"Hey! Granger!" he called back to her.

Hermione and Ginny both wheeled around to face Malfoy again. I guess ignoring him wasn't going to work.

"You know the Prefect meeting on the train has been canceled."

"How do you know?"

"Someone told me, but you don't have to listen." He shrugged.

"I wont then"

"Okay, then, say "hi" to Weasly for me," he said with a mocking in his voice. "I heard about his brothers," he directed his gaze towards Ginny, " you must be thrilled that you can actually afford a textbook without having the Ministry take away your house"

Ginny opened her mouth to protest but someone else spoke up first.

"Watch it Malfoy" came Ron's voice from the crowd with Harry and Wood standing next to him.

Malfoy glanced around. "Fine," he muttered seeing he was clearly out numbered. "Then tell your little mudblood here to stay out of my way," and he left with his usual smirk before anyone could say anything.

"Ugh! I hate him."

"Are you guys okay?" said Harry coming closer.

"Were fine, we should probably get back to shopping."

"Kay, meet us at the ice cream shop when you're done"

"Okay!" Ginny called out being dragged away by Hermione.

After a moment Hermione slowed down and they returned to a walking pace.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked, wondering why the brown haired witch dragged her away.

"Sorry, I saw Cho coming around the corner, and wanted to avoid another run- in, you know with everything that happened last year."

"Well shouldn't you have warned Harry?" she asked.

"Probaly, but I think she hates me more." Hermione answered with a smile.

After they were all done shopping they met in the ice cream shop across the pet store.

Later they all went to look at quidditch 'stuff' as Hermione had put it. Ginny left after a while to buy a birthday gift for a friend, she just remembered, which left Hermione alone, while the guys were googling over the new version of the Firebolt. So Hermione left and decided to wait at the ice cream shop. She was just about to go window shopping when Harry sat down next to her.

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked wondering why Harry wasn't with the rest of the guys.

"Well," he started "I saw my best friend out here all alone and decided to come out and keep her company." He finished with a smile.

"Really?" Hermione rose an eyebrow.

"No, it got too crowded"

"Shut up" she said hitting him on the arm.

"Ow, I was kidding." He laughed. He paused before starting to speak again. "So I heard you had a run-in with...what's her name...Melinda"

"What? Oh, Ginny told you huh?"

"Yeah"

"It's nothing really, she's just a, a..." Hermione fumbled around for the right word, before she said "miserable hag."

Harry laughed. "Well she did make my life miserable" Hermione said in protest.

She was silent for awhile before she started again. "I remember, because that's when I didn't know I was a witch, she would call me a freak, and I believed her. I didn't know what else to think. So I went through life thinking there was something wrong with me. So eventually, I thought I would always be different," she paused, "And then I came to Hogwarts. But now" she added not looking at Harry, "I'll always be different." She finished in almost a whisper, thinking about her powers.

"What are you talking about Hermione? You're not different."

Hermione suddenly came back to reality. "You're right," she said shifting her eyes, "I don't know what I'm talking about." She gave a nervous laugh and tried not to look directly at Harry. She could tell he was staring at her. "We better get the guys, it's about time to go." Hermione got up from her chair and went in search for everyone with Harry following behind her.

After everyone was rounded up they all went back to the Manor. They would leave for Kingscross station tomorrow morning.

The next day Hermione woke up at 9:08 to find Ginny had already gone down stairs. Hermione got up and took a shower, and 20 minutes later she was fully dressed and dry. She went down stairs to breakfast to find that she was the last one up because everyone else was already at the table. Hermione sat down next to Harry.

"Why is everyone so quiet?" she asked

"No reason," Ron shrugged.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Harry.

"No, everything's fine," Hermione answered, "Why would you think something's wrong?"

"So everything's Okay?"

"Yes, Harry what are you talking about?"

"Are you sure there's nothing you want to share?" he continued ignoring her question.

"No," she said a little confused, "Why?"

"Okay, then would you mind explaining this," he said slapping the Daily Prophet on the table.

"What? That they got a new judge at the ministry?" she said taking the paper.

"No," Said Ron flipping to the sports section. There was a whole article on Victor Krum. He was being traded to a team in the East, but Hermione didn't bother to read the name. "Sixth paragraph" Harry continued.

Hermione gulped...

...Now that Krum has broken up with his former Girlfriend Hermione Granger, he is now dating a young witch named Gloria Jenssen of the Jenssen Estate in...

"Oh, no...I can explain—"

"Really? Okay then would you mind explaining why the whole world knew about your break up before we do?"

"Uhh, I think we should go" Wood said uncomfortably

"No way" said Fred "I wanna see this"

"Me too" added George taking another bite of his eggs.

"I swear I was going to tell you, you have to believe me."

"When? Hmm? Next year? Or how about after he got married? Oh, yeah by the way we broke up two years ago."

"Harry you're completely over exaggerating, I was going to tell you both, I promise. I just forgot."

"Forgot?" asked Ron, "Then how come Ginny knew?"

Hermione froze.

"Apparently while you were in the shower we all found out that Ginny also knew before us." Harry added.

"Oh, I get it, so you're all just talking about me when I wasn't here? Is that right?"

"Hermione, why didn't you just tell us? Is it because were not girls? You don't think we'll understand?" he added a little sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah that's it Harry" Hermione said"I forgot, how could you possibly understand, because neither of you have ever had girlfriends!"

Fred and George were trying to stifle their laughter while Wood shifted in his seat.

"And Ginny's younger than you and she's already had two, so what's your excuse? Cooties?" Hermione continued without pausing.

At this statement Wood looked like he was trying to hide a smile when Fred spit out all the pumpkin juice that was formerly in his mouth and George was about to choke on his bacon.

"What?" he asked. "Two??"

"How come she didn't tell us?" George asked.

"Because she said you would either prank them or hurt them." Hermione answered quickly.

"Oh, right," said George. Fred shrugged and they went back to eating.

"Why didn't you just tell us Hemrione?" Ron repeated Harry's question like there was no interruption.

"I don't know," she didn't really have a reason. "Why are you making such a big deal out of this?"

"Because," Harry continued, "You kept a secret from..." Harry hesitated. "Because" he started again slowly, "were your best...friends and you didn't even..." Again Harry couldn't finish his sentence. He wasn't even looking at Hermione anymore.

"Harry, What's wrong?" Hermione asked. He seemed distracted, like her not telling him about Victor didn't matter anymore.

"I have to go," he said making for the staircase his eyes darting back and forth.

"Hey! Where ya goin?" Ron yelled at him as he climbed the staircase."

Once Harry was in his room, he sat down on the bed. He needed to think. So what if he didn't tell them about the Prophecy. It was different. He was doing it for there protection. And Hermione didn't tell them, because, well Harry didn't know why she didn't tell them, but it was still different. Right? It was for there own good. So keeping it a secret was a good thing.

Knock, Knock

"Who is it?"

"It's me" came Hermione's voice from the other side of the door. "Can I come in?

"It's open" Harry responded.

Hermione came in and made her way slowly to Harry and sat down.

"I really am sorry"

"I know"

"And I'm sorry about the girlfriend crack too."

"Oh, yeah, that was nice."

Hermione smiled. "So are you sure your okay?"

"Yeah, I guess I just realized it wasn't a big deal"

"Really?" Hermione asked. "Because I could understand why you were mad, and you had every right to be. Friends shouldn't keep secrets from eachother." Hermione almost didn't get the last part out. She felt bad about not telling them about her powers, but she wasn't ready, not yet.

"Right, they shouldn't" Harry agreed with a little guilt in his voice.

"So your sure everything's alright?"

"It's great" he answered dully.

"Okay, then were leaving for the station in 20 minutes."

Thank you for all of you who reviewed. Yay! There really dating! Thanks for confirming it. They make the perfect couple. I'm really glad you all like my story, I'm so happy! And I'm sorry if this chapter is too short. Also it might not seem like were getting into Hermione's powers now, but it will later I promise!! Also, yes the Charmed Ones will make an appearance. You guessed right. Okay, I was also wondering if any of you like Angel, because I'm still debating if I should put them in the story or not, because I'm not even sure if you guys watch, or should I say "watched" the show, So please tell me!!! And Review!!! I promise I'll update soon.