Chosen: First Year
Ch. 1- Back to School…
A/N: I came up with this idea for ever ago and then started but never finished, so now I'm finishing. Slightly Buffy and Angel baseline of plot and some chapters, hopefully you all enjoy. And as always R/R!!!
Hermione turned around quickly vampires were everywhere and she'd lost sight of Harry. The cavern wall to her right had some sort of hieroglyphics but when she got close to them another vampire minion pulled her away, he pinned her left arm with his body and moved her head to the side to bite her neck. Her savior that time was Ginny who'd stabbed the vampire through the back before he got to close to her neck.
She shot up in bed and looked around in a daze, she started recognizing her room and relaxed.
"It was just a nightmare, you've probably been reading to much." Hermione told herself, smiling about how silly she'd been.
Ginny moved about her room placing various objects into her trunk. She at last placed the box with her clothing in it into the last open spot of her trunk. She looked about her room when she'd finished and sighed. She'd been having such a good summer and she'd met a lot of fun people, she really didn't want to go back to Hogwarts.
"Ginny! Hurry up dear, don't want to miss the train do you?" Her mother yelled to her from the kitchen.
Ginny sighs and looks at her trunk with disdain,
"No wouldn't want that, would we."
She pulled at the hem of her white shirt and looked in the mirror.
"Your fine Gin. You've got loads of friends at school, you don't need the people at the diner…" Yeah, she'd be fine.
Platform 9 ¾
Ginny, Ron and Harry stood next to Mrs. Weasley who was instilling in her children a need to stay in line.
"And I don't want any of you to get kicked out! Goodbye Harry dear; keep safe. Ron, you take care of your sister and no running off to save the world." She looked at him sternly and then moved to Ginny, "Be good sweetheart, be safe, and make good choices all right?"
Ginny hugged her mother and smiled at her,
"Of course mum, I'm not Fred or George!"
"Yes, I know your not, now run along, you'd best to find a compartment." Molly said sadly sending her children off to Hogwarts.
"Don't worry Mum, we'll be home for Christmas," Ron said as the three of them gathered their stuff and headed for the train.
They slowly maneuvered through the crowd, looking back and forth for Hermione. Ron suddenly stopped and gaped at something in front of him. Harry pushed up along side him and stopped to stare as well.
"What are you two doing…"Ginny started to ask angrily but then saw the reason for the boys immobility and her eyes widened.
"What's he doing out of Azkaban?" Ron said angrily and looked to Harry who's jaw tightened and he glared fully at the senior Malfoy who stood with his wife, talking to another couple.
"Come on, he's not worth a fuss over, just ignore him!" Ginny said and they started for the train again. They stepped onto the train and started looking for a compartment, as they were they ran into Hermione.
"Hello, where have you been?" Harry asked.
Hermione hugged him quickly and then turned and beckoned them to follow.
"I have been finding us a compartment and putting Crookshanks in it because he's been in a bad mood all day."
"He's always in a bad mood," Ron grumbled from behind Harry. Ginny 'accidentally' stepped on the back of his shoe for that.
Hermione led them to a compartment near the back and they all settled in, waiting for the long trip to school. Harry and Ron took seats across from the girls and immediately Ron smiled at Hermione in a fashion that clearly stated he wanted something.
"So, Hermione, you're so very much the person that I wanted to see!" Ron exclaimed to the girl sitting in front of him.
Ginny turned herself upside down in her seat, so that her head was hanging down over the edge. Harry gave her a strange look then turned back to the conversation.
"Oh?" Hermione asked him slightly amused and a little apprehensive.
He grinned sheepishly at her and nodded,
"Yeah, I sort of had a problem with the potions…"
"Which part?"
"The Potions, all of the Potions. Please help me out? Be my study buddy?" Ron asked grinning at her.
Hermione rolled her eyes at him and Harry snorted with laughter. Ron glared playfully at Harry.
"What's in it for me?" Hermione asks him looking superior.
"A shiny knut," Ron says and looks to Harry, "Which I'd loan from Harry of course."
"Okay, but you're going to need Flowers and Their Uses, you should check it out."
Ron looks at her incredulously,
"Check it out?"
"You know, from the library, where the books live?" She says and rolls her eyes at him again. Ginny giggles and pulls a magazine out of her bag.
"Right, well, I will do that first thing tomorrow morning. See I want to change! I'm asking for help, I'm not asking to copy!"
Harry laughed and leaned back against the seat trying to get comfortable. A shudder from the train signaled the start of the trip. Ron and Hermione bickered for a couple of minutes until Hermione pulled out her Hogwarts: A History and ended the argument. That miffed Ron but he recovered and started talking about Quidditch with Harry.
Luna Lovegood showed up couple of minutes later, sliding into the compartment like she was floating.
"Hello all," she said in that misty voice of hers.
"Hello Luna, how did that trip go with her dad?" Ginny asked, turning herself right side up and putting her magazine to the side.
"Fine, we've got all sorts of artifacts. I've got them in my trunk, I'll get them out and show you when we get to school." She placed herself in the seat next to Ginny's and curled up. "Plus we found large bones on our dig on an island. Dad's sent them away to be checked so we can find out if they're Cyclops or not."
"But, Cyclops aren't real!" Hermione burst out though she was still looking at her book.
"They're extinct, at least that's what my dad and I are trying to prove."
"I hope you succeed, Luna. Just so that for once Hermione could be wrong." Ron said nastily and ruffled more feathers than he meant to.
Harry frowned at him and said harshly,
"That was nasty, and Hermione didn't mean it in a know-it-all way, she was trying to ask Luna something. So lay off."
Hermione looked at Harry in amazement and puzzlement. Ron sulked and turned his head to the window.
The compartment was thick with tension and silence for several moments before Ron relaxed.
"I'm sorry Hermione, I spoke before I thought and I didn't mean it."
Ginny gaped at her brother; he'd never apologized to anyone before with out threat of bodily harm from a third party. She didn't know what to think or say to him, but she wasn't alone, everyone else was just as stunned.
"It's okay Ron. I know I can be a little… know-it-allish." Hermione replied once she could speak.
They smiled at each other and the other three breathed a little easier. They all chatted friendly till the end of the trip.
As they were stepping off the train in Hogsmeade a younger girl walked into Ginny, sending her shoulder bag off and spilling the contents all over.
"Oh, sorry." Ginny said though she'd been the one pushed.
The girl glared at Ginny and said contemptuously,
"You'd better be, Merlin, you don't own the platform!" and with that she stomped off leaving Ginny to pick up her own stuff.
"Yes, your excused, no it was all my fault you walked into me." Ginny grumbled as she gathered her various little things.
Someone walking by bent down and picked up several things for her.
"Thanks, I hate when this happ…." Ginny stopped mid-sentence when she looked up and into the steel gray eyes of her helper.
"Just be careful, Weasley. I almost tripped over your junk," Draco Malfoy said coldly and shoved her things at her and then stood and strode away.
Hermione stooped down to help her as well and handed her some more of her stuff.
"Hey, are you ok? That was really rude of that girl!"
"I'm fine, but did you see… Malfoy, he… helped me?"
"Yeah, but don't leave it at what he said it was, check your backpack. Just to be sure he didn't slip anything into it." Hermione hissed at her softly.
Ginny nodded as they both stood up but she didn't know what to think of the blonde's help or the look in his eye when he was speaking to her. She could have sworn he wanted to devour her.