Chapter Four

Coffee and Carriages

Today was Tuesday September first, 1997. Hermione was already awake, dressed and ready to head to King's Cross Station. Today was extremely gloomy and cloudy. There was a definite possibility of rain.

'I can't believe that this will be my last year at Hogwarts,'' Hermione thought, glancing at her watch. It was a quarter to eight so she had over an hour to get to the station. She decided to leave right there and then so she could stop for some coffee on the way. Her hair was back to its usual mocha-colour. For the first time in about a month, she had left her hair slightly wavy, not the usual massive bush of curls that occupied her scalp, but small waves that gently fell below her shoulders. Today, she was wearing a gorgeous blood red, silver and black dress from the Victorian Era. It made her look like a pop-culture vampire from the modern day television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

She walked out of her house with her trunk towards the carriage that was disguised as a car.

The Malfoy Manor

Draco was sitting in the dining room eating breakfast with Narcissa, waiting to apparate over to King's Cross Station. He had never bothered to figure out who the head girl was. At this point in time, he was more confused by girls than he'd ever been in his life. First, Granger turned out to be a pureblood, then, there was that girl at the dance club. 'I probably won't ever see her again, so it doesn't matter. Although, I really wish I had gotten her real name. I might have been able to write to her.'

"I'm finished, Mum. I'm going to leave. I'll write to you tomorrow, I promise," Draco said as he stood up, gave Narcissa a peck on the cheek and left the room to finish gathering his things so he'd be able to leave.

"I have a feeling that this will be a very interesting year," he said to himself ten minutes later. With a small pop, he disapparated to the alleyway beside a small coffee shop near the station.

A Small Coffee Shop

Hermione sat at a coffee shop near King's Cross, drinking a mint expresso and snacking on canoli. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was 8:15. There were still 45 minutes until she needed to be at the station. As soon as she had looked up, she noticed that a boy with longish blonde hair had appeared at the door. He had a few things with him- a trunk, a school bag and something that looked suspiciously like and owl cage. He looked like he was a Hogwarts student, even though she couldn't place him. He saw that there were no empty tables, but decided to sit with Hermione. As she had Crookshanks with her, it wasn't hard for him to tell that she went to Hogwarts as well.

He walked over to Hermione, said, "Hello, would you mind if I sat down?" and when there was no reply, sat down. He looked her up and down and thought to himself, 'I know this girl, but I can't put name and face together.'

"So, what's up?" Hermione asked, so as to break the ice.

"Uh, not much. I hope you don't mind me sitting here. Everywhere else was full and you look like you attend that same school as I do," he responded, gazing straight into her hazel eyes.

"I don't mind at all. You know, it is likely that we go to the same school, I could kind of tell because I'm pretty sure that's an owl that you've got there." She paused there for a moment before adding, "But, I have to leave earlier so I can be at the platform at nine. I'll give you a ride if you'd like."

"Yeah, that'd be great. I always go early anyway."

"Good, we have about 20 minutes until we should leave. We'll take my carria- err, car- to the station and we can hang out."

"Why don't we just leave now?" Draco asked and got up.

"I don't see why we shouldn't. C'mon, let's go." She too stood up and grabbed her things. She escorted him out to carriage for the ride to the station.

Finally! Chapter four is complete at last. Thank you for being so patient with me. I love you all! Please Review!

Much love and gratitude,

Lillith Draconis

P.S. Sorry about how short the chapter is. I promise, the next chapter will be much longer. The more reviews I get, the better the story will be.

::PEACE OUT::