CHAPTER FIVE: A New Year

Harry was the second last person that their large party was waiting for, which consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, who had taken the morning off work, Tonks, Lupin, and Moody. Two cars were waiting outside to take them to the train station, and if they didn't hurry they were going to miss their train to Hogwarts altogether.

Harry had done a frantic last minute search for his missing Potions book and had been lucky enough to find it under a pile of Ron's clothes. Any longer and he would have just had to buy a new one. They were cutting it close as it was, and now only had thirty minutes to get to the train station and board the Hogwarts Express before it departed at exactly eleven o'clock.

As he bounded down the stairs, Mrs. Weasley asked him, "where's Ron?"

"Er, he's having some difficulties with his tie."

Mrs. Weasley shook her head in exasperation. "That boy has no sense of punctuality. I wonder sometimes how he managed to become a prefect."

"I'll go get him," Hermione offered, knowing she would be saving Ron from a nagging lecture from his mother. That didn't mean she won't a have a few choice words planned for him. She expected a snicker from Ginny, but the other girl had forgone her teasing for the time being, and was getting as impatient as the rest of them.

She bounded the stairs quickly, coming to a halt just outside Ron's room. Through his open door she could see him struggling to get his tie done the right way, getting more frustrated by the second. The abnoxious laughter from his mirror was only serving to irritate him further.

"Bloody stupid tie," she heard him mutter under his breath.

He caught her standing there and turned a glowering look on her. "Whoever suggested that the prefects should board the train already in uniform was mad out of their mind."

He already knew she was the one who had made the suggestion to Dumbledore last year. "It's easier for the first years to recognize us this way," she explained to him.

He grunted in response and went back to his struggles.

She wanted to chide him for leaving getting ready to the last minute, but she restrained herself. "Do you want a hand? If we don't get going soon we'll miss the train."

He halted his efforts and with an exaggerated gesture let his hands fall to his sides.

She grabbed both ends of the tie and put them at an appropriate length around his neck. "I would have thought by now you could do one properly."

"Mum's not expecting a properly done tie, she's expecting a spit and polish prefect one. Otherwise I'll get some lecture about not being a good role model or whatever."

She put the first end through once, saying, "There's supposed to by quite a few first year students this year. More than usual."

"Great, a whole lot of extra brats for me to boss around."

"Ron, you can't call them that. Honestly, don't you remember what it was like to be eleven?"

"Yeah, well, I was never that bad. These kids get worse every year."

"As I recall," she said, a smile tugging on her lips, "you were an arrogant and insensitive prat. Still are, as a matter of fact."

"You're still a bossy, know-it-all, so it's good to see some things never change," he retorted.

She stopped her work and looked up to see him smirking at her. Then something happened and his expression changed and suddenly nothing seemed to be funny anymore. Standing in such close proximity, with her hands still on the front of his tie, he had that same look in his eyes that had been present when they had been in the water together. She hadn't understood what it had meant then, but she knew now. Desire and lust. Two things she never thought she would associate with Ron and being directed at her.

The silence was unbearable, and she thought he would look away, but instead he lowered his face closer to hers. On instinct, since she seemed to be incapable of moving of her own accord, she found herself doing the same, moving her face up to meet his, until their lips connected for the first time.

It was as tentative and unsure as first kisses go. As the kiss progressed, their exploration of each other's mouths deepened. Her tongue mingled with Ron's and he groaned into her mouth, pushing her back against the wall. Encouraged when she didn't protest, he let his hands wander down to her sides, but her robe was obstructing his movement. Stupid cloak, he thought to himself. Without moving his lips from hers, he somehow managed to unfasten it and it fell uselessly to the floor. The fact that everything was happening so fast didn't factor in for Ron. He could care less that might miss the train to school. This felt too good to stop. Hermione was pressed up against him, her hands tangled through his hair, and the way she kept grazing her tongue against his teeth was driving him insane. This was so much better then all the times he had imagined what kissing her would be like.

"Hermione! Ron! We don't have much time. Hurry up, please."

The sound of Ron's mum brought them back to the present and they pulled apart instantly. The door to Ron's room was wide open, and a look of panic rose on both their faces at the prospect of being caught. A lot of uncomfortable explanations were avoided when they realized Mrs. Weasley wasn't upstairs, she was simply calling up to them from the floor below.

"We're coming, mum!" Ron yelled to make sure his mother stayed downstairs.

They fumbled to make themselves look presentable and not like two people who had been snogging each other senselessly. Hermione snatched her robe off the floor and fastened it quickly, and used the mirror to try and straighten her hair, which was laughing at her in much the same way it had to Ron minutes earlier. She couldn't go down there with her cheeks as flushed as they were, but she didn't have much choice. Ron was patting down his own hair, and they were trying very hard not to look at each other.

Once downstairs, Mrs. Weasley was too busy ushering them out to the waiting cars where everyone else already was to notice anything about their appearances. No one asked about Ron's tie, which still hung untied around his neck.

The train ride back to Hogwarts normally served as a sense of relief for Harry, mainly because he was going back to the place that had been more of a home to him in the last five years then the fifteen he had spent locked up at the Dursley's. He could look forward to Quidditch again and although he would have to continue his Occlumency lessons, it would be with Lupin and that was a million times better than having Snape as an instructor. But if he stopped being so thick and mastered the subject already he wouldn't need lessons at all.

After having spent a half an hour listening to Dean and Ginny catch up and watch Hermione and Ron be forcefully polite to one another – the way they always sounded after a row – he needed to get some air. No one paid him any real attention as he excused himself and exited the cart.

Being on a train, he didn't have many options of where to go. He began strolling down the long corridor, occasionally passing by other students or an open cart door where the noise filled out into the hallway. He was considering going back to his own cart and toughing out the rest of the journey when he spotted a familiar face emerging from a cart not too far in front of him. Now he really wished he had turned around, but it was too late she had already spotted him.

Cho Chang was approaching him, wearing a nervous smile. She hadn't spoken to him since she had decided that things weren't going to work between them. That was over three months ago, so he wasn't quite sure why she suddenly had the urge to talk to him.

"Hi Harry."

"Hello Cho."

"How was your summer?"

"I've had better," he replied. This was so awkward and horrible he would have given anything for an interruption or an excuse to go back to his friends.

"I know what you mean."

Harry had to fight down the urge to tell her she had no idea the kind of hell his summer had been. He said instead, "How's Michael?" He knew his tone was harsh, but he didn't care. She had gone straight for Michael Corner before he even had a chance to try and work things out with her.

"He's fine," she answered, not meeting his gaze. "He spent most of the summer in Scotland visiting family."

So her summer had been dismal because her boyfriend hadn't been around. He didn't feel sorry for her one bit.

"I wanted to write you," she said suddenly. "I really hated the way we left things."

"So what stopped you?"

She gave a small sort of shrug, but didn't answer.

"It's probably a good thing you didn't. Michael might get jealous. I'll see you at school," he said and started to walk off.

She grabbed a hold of his hand, forcing him to stop and look at her.

"I missed you," she said in a voice so low Harry was sure his ears had deceived him.

"Well, well, well, look what we have hear," a smug voice sauntered. "Should I take off points for snogging in the hall or for snogging someone else's girlfriend?"

"Don't you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk, Malfoy?" Harry shot back.

"Not really," he said off handedly, taking a step closer to Harry, which was surprising considering Crabbe and Goyle weren't by his side. "Besides I'm the one with the power to give you a month full of detentions for your complete lack of respect towards a prefect."

"That's bollocks," Cho said in outrage. "You don't have the authority to do that."

Malfoy smirked at Harry. "You want to see if I'm bluffing, Potter?"

As tempted as Harry was to call Malfoy's bluff and prove that he was a lying bastard, he didn't on the off chance that he wasn't. Hermione had gone on about a bunch of new Prefect rules but he hadn't really been paying attention when she had told him. Now he really wished he had.

"Shouldn't you be off babysitting first years?" A new voice said from behind Harry.

"I thought I smelled a weasel," Malfoy said with a chuckle.

"I followed the scent of a smug arrogant bastard and look where it led me," said Ron, coming to stand beside Harry. Hermione was with him, looking torn between telling Ron off and agreeing with him.

"Why don't you take your little Prefect badge and go back to Crabbe and Goyle. You must miss them terribly, not having them at your beck and call," Ron taunted.

Malfoy moved so he was directly in front of Ron. "You might want to show a little respect, Weasley. Some of us take our duties more seriously then others."

Ron took a dangerous step closer to Malfoy. "Some of us got to be prefects without daddy's help. That was before he got sent to Azkaban for breaking into the ministry as a Death Eater and trying to kill us, right?"

Instead of taking the bait, Malfoy straightened. "It's only a matter of time before he's out," he said coolly. "He's not likely to forget who sent him there – neither will I," he said, shooting Harry a venomous look.

"He'll never get out of there," Ron said confidently. "And it's only a matter of time before you're rotting away there with him."

"Don't threaten me, Weasley," said Malfoy in a dangerous voice. "I can make your existence more pathetic then it already is."

Hermione could sense how close Ron was to losing his temper. "Let's go," she urged him.

Malfoy laughed at this. "You know what's even more pathetic? You let a woman tell you what to do. You can't think for yourself if Granger's not around."

Ron's fists were clenched at his sides, and Hermione knew she had to get them both out of there. "Ron, he's not worth losing your prefect badge over. Let's get out of here." She looked over at Harry for help but he was staring at Malfoy in a look similar to Ron's.

"She sounds just like that god awful mother of yours," Malfoy continued to provoke him. "Speaking of mothers, how's yours, mudblood?

"Shut your mouth, Malfoy," Ron warned, sensing Hermione tensing beside him. How Malfoy could have found out about what happened seemed unlikely, unless he had known the attack was going to take place. That thought made him want to cause Malfoy the same pain he had put her parents through,

"How are they doing?" He persisted. "I heard it must have been quite painful what they went through."

Ron's fist connected with Malfoy's nose a split second after he spoke the last word. Even after he had the satisfaction of hearing it crack, he wasn't about to let him walk away after that. If he had anything to do with what happened to Hermione's parents he was going to wish he had never been born.

"You bloody wanker," Malfoy spat, holding his nose. "You broke my nose!"

"That's not all I'm going to break." He took a step towards the injured Slytherin, but Harry stepped in front of him.

"Ron, let's get out of here, now." If Ron didn't get a handle on his temper, Harry had no doubt Malfoy would end up with much more than a broken nose.

"You wait 'til I report this," Malfoy was saying. "They'll take more than just your badge for this if I have anything to stay about it." He walked away, still holding his nose with both hands.

Hermione turned on Ron. "Why did you hit him?"

Ron was already furious and that question did not make him any less angry. "Don't tell me you actually feel sorry for that bastard!"

"He's right, you're going to get in so much trouble for this. Ron, they could – "

"You know what, stop right there. I don't need a lecture from you right now. I hit him because he deserved it for what he said."

"I think I'm going to head back to my cart now," Cho said from beside Harry. "If Malfoy says anything, I'll tell McGonagall that Ron was provoked." Then she was gone and Harry was left with his two friends – actually it was just Ron. Hermione was walking away from them.

Ron turned to Harry in utter disbelief "Can you believe her? I was defending her and now she's angry with me. How messed up is that?" He shook his head. "Whatever, I'm not apologizing for this."

Harry didn't think he should. If he hadn't punched Malfoy when he had, he probably would have done it.

"So what's going on with you and Cho?" Ron asked him, forgetting about Hermione and Malfoy for the time being.

"Nothing, she just wanted to talk and then Malfoy showed up."

They started walking and Ron asked, "you still fancy her, don't you?"

"She's dating Michael Corner, remember?" He said, carefully skirting around the question.

"Yeah, that git Ginny was with. What did she see him anyways?" He looked at Harry. "But there's nothing wrong with still fancying her. Maybe she's just with Corner to forget about you."

Harry considered that but it didn't seem likely. "She said she wanted to write me over the summer," Harry told him as they approached their designated cart.

"See, maybe she does still like you," Ron reasoned.

Harry gave an indifferent shrug, trying to make it seem like he didn't care one way or the other. He had acted bitter towards Cho to cover up his feelings. It was the first actual conversation they had since their argument over Cho's friend Marietta, who had sold the entire DA out to Umbridge. After that, she had moved right on to Michael Corner, and he had been too wrapped up with O.W.L.'s and Sirius's death to bother with her. He had thought being away from her the whole summer he would be over her. He was, at least he had been until he had seen her again.

They entered their cart to find it completely empty, save for Hermione. Her nose was buried in a book and she didn't look up as they entered. He and Ron sat at the opposite end of the cart, conversing amongst themselves. Hermione ignored them both for the remainder of the train ride. If this was any indication of what the school year was going to be like, it was going be a long year for everyone.