I sat in the firelit room, taking in my surroundings and thoughtfully munching a chocolate eclair, one of my most favorite desserts. How in the world did Malfoy, whom I despised and surprisingly misjudged, fall for me, someone smarter than he, and more importantly, a "Mudblood"? The subject of my thoughts was two feet away, with his back to the fireplace, studying my face intently. He broke the silence first.

"Well Gra-- Hermione," He fidgeted, his fingers playing nervously with the scarlet tassels on the armrest. I nearly smiled to see the all confident Draco Malfoy acting like a nervous little boy who had done something wrong. "What'd you think? I had to ask to find the kinds of things you liked...Dobby told. It was crazy, keeping people from knowing..." He babbled on until I smiled and said,

"I liked it very much. Thank you. This is as good as a restaurant dinner." His voice trailed off, his mouth hanging open. I grinned and commented, "You know dust will begin to collect in your mouth if you keep doing that. It wouldn't be the greatest thing either...imagine dust balls. Then you'd have to spit it out...and it'd probably be like Mrs. Norris and her hair balls. Have you ever seen that?" He grimaced and then smiled. A real smile, not a smug smile, or even a smirk. This was the first time I saw him, as an individual and as a true teenager struggling with who he was. There was a flash of panic in his eyes, he sat up, and he smirked. It was enough of a change that I dropped my eclair on the plate in front of me.

"What are you doing here Granger? I thought I told you to leave. Or are you admiring what you'd never have?" What? Hmmm...

"I also happen to remember you told me where to find the book I was looking for Malfoy. I needed it for ancient runes." I snapped partially from my anger and frustration that Malfoy, out of all people, wasn't open to civility with me among strangers, and partially to play along. Standing up abruptly, and promptly knocking down my high-backed chair (making his smirk get wider), I turned, nearly running into the house elf that I had seen earlier in the Gryffindor Common Room, Mite. She was in front of the librarian, Madame Pince, as if leading her to a crime scene.

"What is going on in here? Why are these chairs and tables rearranged?" demanded Madame Pince. I was afraid of answering her next question. However, there was none. I heard another small voice squeak,
"Sir, mister sir, you are in my way! You were working on the project, and Dobby missed a spot! Now Dobby must also rearrange the chairs and tables sir! Please move sir!" I spun around and gaped. The table was spotless and Dobby was dusting Malfoy, as well as the chair he sat on. To my delight, he looked less than pleased. Scowling, he stood up, nearly upsetting Dobby, and glowered. The room suddenly seemed a few degrees colder as his eyes narrowed hiding his ice blue eyes. He swept out of it, and with a last glance, looked at me. There was a plea in his eyes for me to understand why. I smiled coldly at him. Spinning around, I followed his lead grabbing the alleged book I was looking for as I passed the bookshelf by the door.

The next few days, we avoided each other. I struggled with my feelings, of regret, and confusion. Did I like Malfoy? My silence and lack of cheerfulness caught the notice of my dearest friends...Harry and Ron both. They were convinced that I had gotten a bad grade or was struggling to keep up with my notes. Or just plain exasperated. But they were mostly convinced that the upcoming NEWTS were causing me to be over my head in parchment...resulting in their manhandling me all the way down to Hogsmeade the very next weekend.

I'd made an excuse, which I thought was pretty convincing, "Guys, I'm busy. Headgirl stuff...you know the trip?" They just had looked at each other, and at some hidden signal, grabbed my arms, and dragged me to my dorm.

"Okay Herms, you've got 5 minutes to get your gold, cloak, and something to carry everything in. We're paying a trip to Honeydukes and more importantly, Zonko's..." That last comment was Ron's.† I almost was tempted to just mention, "What about Madame Ros..." My thoughts were interrupted by an arrival of a very familiar owl. My family's owl...I'd take care of the letter later...only that another owl hopped in. It was a small owl, a little bigger than Pig, and it bore a little note. There's only one person who would be so bold...

"Hey what's taking so long? You're time is up!" Quickly, I grabbed the note, shoved the owl out of the window (following came a long hoot of surprise and the owl shot up past my window) and turned around quickly, just pausing to grab my coat, a bag, and some sickles. THEY came barging in, grabbed me, dragged me down the steps, and manhandled me to the Great Hall.

"Okay guys! Lemme go...I'm coming. I got an owl from my parents, and I had to get it. Talk about impatient..." Still muttering I again, as I had done at the train station, walked right into Malfoy. He whirled around, took one look, his glance sliding past me as insignificant, and rested on Harry and Ron.

"What, couldn't bring your dear owl Weasel? Oh wait, you must loan off of Potty to get some candy...poor ickle Weasely can't even get his own chocolate!" Ron swung, low, and hard. Where I was: I got caught in between. So, for the third or fourth time in my life, I hit Malfoy. And kicked Ron. Needless to say, they backed off eyeing me. They assumed innocent expressions as Professor McGonagall swept past, raising her eyebrows skeptically and as she hurried to break up a fight between two third years halfway down the line from us, I gave Malfoy a 'back off mister' look. Malfoy, avoiding me, slipped past, passed Ron (who gave a sound in between a mad bull snort and an exhalation causing me to giggle...uh oh a glare) and got in line next to Pansy Parkinson. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

Soon, we were entering the outskirts of Hogsmeade, and the sun on the snow became blinding. "Blinducos" I muttered. The sun became less blinding and I rode in comfort as Ron and Harry crammed into the darkest corner.

Time to uphold my reputation as a know it all. Though why these guys stuck by me through it all I can't guess why..."You two. I swear. This is a good charm. Why aren't you using it?" The two clueless guys across from me in the rocking carriage shrugged. "Honestly. Is it the same thing as why guys don't or Won't ask for directions?" More shrugs. Oh well. I surveyed the view, visibly turning my attention away from a soon to be chattering Ron and a silent pale Harry. We had just passed the lake, which I could see fairies giggling about, swooping and tickling the giant squid. Occasional splashes from the merpeople caught my attention, and I saw their leader speaking, once in a while glancing at the carriages. Was he talking about us? I wonder if Dumbledore...The rocking of the carriage combined with the warm sunlight was soporific.

I woke up later as the carriages were coming to a halt outside The Three Broomsticks. Students, scrambled out of the carriages, some slipping and sliding on the melting ice, and others, more dignified with their steps. Harry, usually the one to hop out and hold the door open for me, let Ron beat him, and just slid out and looked. Bother, this probably brought back more memories of Sirius. Hmmmm. "Ron, didn't you say that your brothers extended their business out to Hogsmeade? Is it possible that they could be here just to er, how do you put it nicely, torture us?" Ron grinned and said,

"Well if you hadn't been snoring in the carriage, you would have heard me mention that I got an owl from them just this morning doling out their autumn greetings and then having the flyers in my envelope fly around the school for the rest of breakfast." Oh. So that's what the flyers that had been dipping in and out of the syrup were doing. "Speaking of which, Harry, there's a new trick item the twins want you to test on Dudley..." Harry grinned, remembering the fateful visit of Mr. Weasely, during which the ton-tongue toffee was tested.

"Lead on Ron. I can't wait to see what it is. Hey Hermione, after..." Then again, maybe the twins would be the perfect shrinks for Harry. Their motto, "Keep 'em laughing, keep 'em happy." was proving right. Now no one saw anyone who didn't own a FRED&GEORGEW product. I still had one of what turned out to be a limited edition of a parrot. It squawked out obscenities everytime you touched the wing. Apparently the, "Cornelius Fudge fudged everything up You-Know-What!" wasn't approved by the ministry, actually the Minister. And countless other new items like the fly-zipper which never closed. Oh it did, but it didn't stay that way. Or the classic dribble glass which somehow instead of a dribble it was a downpour.

As we wove through the throngs of students and strangers, Harry's face showed an ever widening grin of anticipation. Zonko's was crowded as always, but then when wasn't it. But there was a line to enter the shop across the street- Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. An occasional customer walking out of the shop was biting into a product, where shortly thereafter, bursting into a multicolored bird. Apparently, the twins had figured a way to improve their canary creams. It was now a Guess What Bird? Cream. The closer we got, the more chickens, parrots, ducks, and canaries we had to dodge.

Luckily for us, the greeters weren't just any old greeters. They were accomplices of Fred and George. They recognized us, and shooed us in among remarks of, "Hey you Harry." and "Looking as gorgeous as always Hermione." Smooth talkers.

"Harry!" Two identical grins spread across their faces as if a true brother came home. In a way, it was like that. The past summer the twins had somewhat adopted Harry as their newfound best brother. They treated him like their sponsor, which Harry had confessed, he was. And they also treated him like there was nothing wrong, always cracking jokes but tactfully, not about Sirius. It proved to be an effective method of cheering Harry up. But as they attended to business, he sat dejected, on the foot of the grand staircase of their office building, and staring out the glass doors into the crowded Diagon Alley's streets. There we would often find him, and then drag him into the experiment rooms, where we'd see what was assured by the twins, well-paid volunteers trying out the new products. The Doxies the twins had taken were turned into wind-up doxies, where they were wound up, and placed somewhere, where someone would eventually get bitten.

"Mate how's it been?" Fred came up and clapped Harry on the back while George was dealing with a no-return policy returnee. Apparently, the Can-what-you-wish vanishing snack can wasn't working properly, and the snacks, instead of vanishing, were multiplying. The skinny witch was waving the can around, spouting Bertie Bott's every flavor beans all around. Fred shook his head. "Dratted blasted lady. She comes everyday waving around a what did she call it? Oh yes, a 'freaking out not properly done product'. It strikes us as funny because it only happens to her. We believe she's trying to change our products to suit her needs, but..." Harry grinned and I smiled weakly. "So, on to business. No, Ron you don't want to touch those." Ron took his hands away from the pile of feathers. "Butober pus feathers...lend them to your enemies and don't worry about being caught." Fred grinned slightly. "Popular among ministry workers...we've had ten shiploads sent to a certain Skeeter in the department of..." He was interrupted when Pigwideon flew into his head. Ron groaned. "Honestly Ron, haven't you trained your owl to fly better? What happened to those treats we sent Pig that were supposedly supposed to fix his (as we had found out also that summer) vertigo?" Ron looked a little annoyed.

"Dratted Percy. He took the treats saying they were for Hermes, and that since he had er, how had he put it? Oh yes, come to realize his mistakes, but was unfortunately, still the son who had the most going for him, the treats were for him, despite my repeated attempts to get him to read the, 'To the owl who can't fly and when he does, can't land.'. I should have asked if Hermes could fly." Fred grinned. I had a vague feeling he knew that was going to happen. "Hmmm. Canary creams were tucked into there as well. We cough extended the effect so I guess Mr. Percy sir would have had a canary to deliver his messages instead of an owl." We all looked at each other's faces. Only Ron was really having a kick out of this. Speaking of which.

"Ron, why is Pig here?" Ron pulled the parchment from Pig's leg and glanced at the address.

"Fred. It's for you and George. From Percy." Fred grinned and pocketed the letter, 'for laughs' later.

"Now, I was starting to lead you three to the ultimate new invention by yours truly." his bravado amused me, though, as we walked into the back of the shop, and through a couple of aisles of stacked crates, it became less amusing as we approached a large covered object. Fred whipped off the covering to reveal...a stack of comic books?

"Honestly Fred, what's this about?" Harry stepped forward and grabbed one. "Oh no...Fred if this goes on sale, you'll be so dead." I grabbed the comic from Harry and grinned. On the cover was, 'The adventures of Sir Harry, Lord Ron, and the villain...Count M.' Oh who could Count M be. I didn't need to glance at the rest of the comics to see what the stories were about. "Fred, before you give a subscription out, I think we need to pass them out among the school, as an advertisement..." Fred glanced at Harry surprised. Harry nodded slowly, his face cracking into a grin. "Yes, this is what we need exactly." I sighed and surprised them by saying,

"When?"

The view from the hidden cave was a spectacular one. The village of Hogsmeade shown in the morning light, and a brave sunray stabbed at the carriages piling into the already awake village.

"Milord?" Wormtail's head poked through the adjoining cavern. "We've received word. Our spy has laid the first trap for the Granger girl in her chest. It will no doubtedly attract Potter's attention."

There came the sound of laughter, sinister and silent, but soon filling the network of caverns, as Lord Voldemort celebrated the end to the long wait.

It's been a while. I apologize. Poor Hermione. She doesn't know what's planned for her. Maybe an introduction of a hero? A soon to be boyfriend maybe... R&R please?

whereintheworldaremyshoes