Chapter 1: Back to Hogwarts
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It was a bright September morning, and Hermione Granger had never been happier to go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. All summer her parents had been fighting and blaming all of their problems on Hermione, saying that if she wasn't born they wouldn't have so many problems. They continuously made fun of her being a witch and while drunk tried to force her to do magic to entertain them. She wished all summer for the Weasley's to write to her and tell her she could spend the rest of the summer with them, but she never got a letter about it. She got one from Ginny saying how bored she was at home, and one from Harry saying how evil the Dursley's were being, but other than that she never got a single letter.
'Maybe they just don't like me anymore.' Hermione thought to herself. She continued packing her things and then took her trunk downstairs and set it by the door.
"Bye Mom and Dad. Ill write to you soon." Hermione said, as she heard her parents upstairs screaming at each other. "I guess Ill see you later then." Hermione mumbled sadly, wishing things were like they used to be. The taxi she had called honked the horn, and she picked up her trunk and left.
On her way to King's Cross she thought about how great its going to be to see all of her friends again, and not have to put up with all of her parents crap. She made it to King's Cross five minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. She ran to platform 9 ¾, and barely made it onto the train before the whistle blew and the train began to move. She looked in each compartment until she found Ginny, Harry and Neville in the very last compartment.
"Hey guys! What's up? I haven't heard from you all summer, what have you been up to?" She asked excitedly hugging Ginny and Harry.
"Well, my whole family went to France for the summer. We would have asked you to come, but we didn't think your parents would let you." Ginny said apologetically.
"The whole summer I was being tortured as usual by the Dursley's. No fun in that." Harry said as he yawned. He looked like he hadn't slept in a few nights.
"Are you all right Harry? You look like you haven't slept in awhile." Hermione asked.
"I'm fine. Just wasn't tired the last few nights. But I am now for some reason." He asked then leaned his head back on the seat and dozed off.
"Well, he lasted long." Ginny giggled. "So what about you, how did your summer go?"
"Same as usual. Nothing to write in my diary about." Hermione laughed. At the word 'diary' though Ginny paled and looked like she was about to be sick. "Oh Ginny! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that! I just meant my summer wasn't that eventful."
"oh, its all right. I'm fine" Ginny said trying to smile, but Hermione could tell she still wasn't over the whole Tom Riddle thing. She could still hear Ginny mumble in her sleep, and when Ginny would wake up she would begin to cry and tell Hermione it was just a nightmare. But Hermione knew that it was about what happened Ginny's first year. The door slid open and in walked Remus Lupin unexpectedly.
"OMIGOSH!" Hermione yelled as she got up to hug the missed werewolf.
"I missed you too, Hermione." Remus said as he laughed, and patted her on the back. Harry woke up from all the commotion, but Neville's sleeping figure didn't seem fazed at all.
"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked, finally recovering from the word 'diary'.
"Didn't Dumbledore tell you? I'm the DADA teacher this year. I thought he would have owled you and told you."
"Well, he didn't, but we're glad to know that we have another fun filled year ahead of us!" Hermione said grinning at Remus.
The rest of the train ride was spent talking about the Order, their summers, and playing pranks on Malfoy and his cronies. They finally got to Hogwarts just as the sun was setting. They rode the carriages to the school and went into the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table awaiting the arrival of the first years. After the Sorting, Dumbledore stood to make his speech.
"Welcome first years, and welcome back everyone else! Mr. Filch the caretaker has asked me yet again to mention that the Forbidden Forest is, as its name states, forbidden. You aren't allowed in unless escorted by a teacher or myself. As for new additions to the teaching staff, Remus Lupin is back to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts." There was a massive break out of applause and cheers at this. "Settle down, yes, Professor Lupin is a great teacher. As most of you know, Sirius Black's name was cleared, so he will be taking over the job Charms since Professor Flitwick retired." Silence. Hermione, Harry and Ginny didn't even know Sirius's name had been cleared. They jumped up and started clapping wildly and started cheering, and soon the other tables began to cheer as well. "Well, that's all the announcements for now. TUCK IN!" And with that, huge amounts of amazing smelling food appeared. The first years 'oooh's and 'ahh's were heard as usual, then everyone began to eat.
After 3 helpings of dinner and 2 helping of dessert, it was time for bed. Ginny and Harry lead the first years to the Gryffindor Common Room and told them were their dormitories are. Hermione followed them so she could say 'good night' to them before she went to Head Girl ad Boy's tower.
"Good night, Hermione. See you tomorrow." Ginny said hugging Hermione. They were both kind of sad because they had slept in the same dormitory for the last 6 years and they were going to miss each other. Hermione had told Ginny where the Head Girl and Boy's tower was if Ginny needed anything, but it was still depressing to be on the opposite sides of the school. She hugged Harry as well and then set off for the tower.
"Constellation." Hermione said to the picture of a beautiful fairy sitting on a rock at dusk. The picture swung open to reveal the Common Room. It was big, and beautiful. Whoever had decorated it did a good job. One side of the room was red and gold for Gryffindor, and the other side was…………….green and silver.
'Who is Head Boy? Please let it be any other Slytherin except for Malfoy!" Hermione thought to herself. But as soon as she said that, out comes Malfoy with a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair dripping. 'Whoa.' Hermione thought staring at his toned chest and stomach. 'Must be from Quidditch.' He noticed her stare and did a little dance move to show off his muscles and then continued on his way to the Head Boy's room. She went up to the Head Girl's room and put on a tank top and shorts and crawled into her king size bed and slowly drifted off to sleep with thoughts of her secret crush in her head.