In the days leading up to our departure Ron and I didn't talk much, if he wanted to blame me for what his sister had done I couldn't do anything about it. Well, maybe I could, but I really didn't care.

Finally, the day that we would leave arrived. I checked to make sure I had packed everything I'd need. We would be staying with some friends of Dumbledore's that had moved from England to New York, a state in America.

The night before we left I couldn't sleep. I was so excited, but also worried; what if they didn't join our side? Or what if they didn't want to listen to us? Finally I had fallen asleep. The next morning I was the first to wake. I got up and double-checked my trunk, before going to breakfast.

There was, of course, no airport near Hogwarts so we had to take the train to Kings Cross Station. When we got off the train, a car was waiting for us. Snape was in an extremely bad mood. I think it was because on the train Tonks had been keen to give him tips on his hair care. It had went a little like this:

"Severus, why don't you wash your hair? It would look so much better." Snape had only curled his lip and glared, Tonks had tried again, "Well change the colour and cut it."

This conversation I guessed, had put Snape in a particularly bad mood. Ron had sat as far away as possible from me everywhere we went; this was fine by me.

At the airport we ran into a small problem. We had to walk through a scanner so they could make sure none of us had weapons, but we all had wands hidden under our Muggle clothing. The scanner picked up everything. When we were asked about them we hurriedly stated that we were running late for our flight and had raced for our gate. Lame? I know, but it was true! We were running late and nothing happened accept the security guard looked at us like we were weirdoes.

On the long flight I read a Muggle book and talked to Harry. I had even talk to Malfoy a bit, for I had decided to give him a chance. I slept for a while and woke when a flight attendant came around with a menu of drinks and snacks. I ordered a coke and got a mars bar.

The twelve hours seemed to last forever and I thought I'd go crazy if we didn't land soon. When we did, another car was waiting for us. It took us to a house, where we got out; the house, of the friends, of Dumbledore. They were really nice. They were older people with no kids. They showed us to our rooms and then we had dinner, a very late one. Snape seemed to lose some of his bad mood while we ate and Tonks kept changing her hair colour while we ate- one minute it was orange, then green, then she changed it to black with pink streaks and left it that way.

The Goodmans, the people we were staying with, asked lots of questions about what was happening back in our wizarding world and what the Order was doing. I had a question of my own. "Why did you pick New York when you moved from England?"

Mrs Goodman answered, "Because it's so busy and we could live here with out being noticed with all that goes on."

"Yes, but you don't live in hiding so…"

"We don't live in hiding if you walked out to the street, now don't do that the way the taxi's fly by but if you did you couldn't see our house."

"Well I didn't know, sorry." She just smiled and said to ask questions about anything. This was quite different compared to our world, that I had to agree with. When dinner was over I went upstairs to bed, but I was just about to blow out my lantern when someone knocked softly at the door. I was surprised to open it and find Malfoy outside.

"Um… Can't you find your room?"

"Yeah, I just can't sleep and wanted to talk to you." I shrugged and let him in.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"What do you think they're going to do when we try talking to them about Voldemort?" he asked. I didn't have a clue; after all, I'd been wondering the same thing.

"I don't know. Tonks said there's a big meeting tomorrow, here. We're going to try to talk to them." The Goodmans had invited some of their friends and their family to a meeting, they just told them they needed to talk to them about something important. While we talked I started noticing that Malfoy didn't look so bad after all but then I scolded myself for the thought. I had Harry.

The next morning after breakfast people started arriving, they crowded in to the living room to talk. Tonks came in to the kitchen where Ron, Harry, Malfoy and I were playing chess.

She pulled out a chair and sat, "OK, you four, it's time to get serious. Now we're going to talk to the adults but you get the people closer to your own age. That's what you're here for. They're more likely to believe you than us, so tell them about You-Know-Who."

I wouldn't even know where to start but I didn't say anything. I guess when the time came I would. Tonks left and started showing kids around our age, in. One girl came in and sat next to me. "Hello, I'm Nadia Marlyn," she announced. I told her my name and I was about to tell her where I was from, but she cut me off. "Oh, I already know about you. My mum is friends with Mrs Goodman." I shut my mouth, Nadia had long, silk black hair, and beautiful round green eyes and skin that looked perfect flawless. I asked her how old she was and she, like us, was sixteen. She told me that she'd lived in New York for five years but she missed London terribly. She'd gone to a wizarding school here in New York but she'd wanted to go to Hogwarts. I noticed Harry looking at her and felt slightly hurt, it was clear that Nadia was much prettier than me, with my bushy hair. I had the feeling that Harry would be finding some reason to break up with me.

When the room was full, Tonks closed the door and the room fell quiet. Harry started to address the group and told them what he and Tonks had discussed before the meeting had started. I just sat twisting and untwisting a lock of hair around my finger, fretting that they wouldn't want to take our side. When Harry was done Malfoy and Ron had something else to say. But I had stopped listening. Nadia was looking very curious and asked many questions along with the others. When they were done talking Nadia said, "Well I'm not going to take the dark side."

Sadly not all the others felt as strongly as she did. Some didn't believe us and some asked how did they know if we were telling the truth. I had expected that. Before the meeting ended out of thirty sixteen year olds, we had convinced twenty, which was better than nothing. The others were still talking in the living room with the door shut tightly, most of the others went out to wait for there parents but Nadia stayed with me and kept talking. I liked her a lot, she was really nice and when she left, wrote down her address on a piece of paper. "Come over sometime." She left and I had a headache from lack of sleep, probably because I had slept only for five hours.

I climbed the stairs, shut and locked my door and lay down for a nap it was now 3:00. I looked at the clock again and then remembered we had a five hour difference with New York. I fell asleep and woke to someone knocking at my door. I groaned and got up to see who it was. Tonks entered, "Well you all did pretty good in there this morning."

"How did it go for you?" I asked.

Tonks didn't answer for a few seconds then said: "Well… It's not that good. Some are taking Voldemort's side, a lot are on our side, but there's bad news."

"What is it?"

"I just got an owl. Voldemort and his Death Eaters are getting closer to us." I sat on the bed, fear coursing through me. We had just got here and had barely affected on these witches and wizards. We were running out of time. Tonks sat down next to me "Don't worry, Hermione. You tried, all of you did. We still have some time to try to make them see things our way." But she didn't sound convincing. "Where are the others?"

"Downstairs." I didn't feel like being around them, so I asked can I go over to Nadia's.

"Who?" Tonks looked confused, so I told her who Nadia was. "Oh. Well, I don't really want you walking around by yourself."

"Please Tonks! I really don't want to be around here!"

She bit her lip, looking unsure and finally said, "Alright you can go, but not alone Mr Malfoy wants to go look in the wizarding shops. If you two walk together and meet before coming back, I'll let you go." I sighed to myself. What if the shops weren't anywhere near where Nadia lived? Though I didn't argue.

"OK," I agreed.

I went down stairs and found Harry in the living room. I sat across from him on the couch. "So, err, did Tonks tell you about Voldemort?"

"Yeah. I guess coming here was pointless."

"No it wasn't!" I said. "If we hadn't come it would have been worse! So what did you think of Nadia?" I asked, changing the subject and not truly wanting to hear his answer but wanting to get this over with.

"She's pretty." I hadn't expected him to answer like that, knowing we were still going out, how could he? I felt tears behind my eyelids but held them back.

"Fine then! If she's so damn pretty, ask her out!"

"But- Hermione! I only meant that-"

"Save it. I don't care." I stormed out the front door, not knowing where I was going but I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. They fell fast, dripping on to my robes. I had liked him for so long and now Nadia had come along, just when things were great. I sat on a brick wall in the backyard and lay my head on my folded arms in my lap. It looked weird I guess, but I didn't care.

I had stopped sobbing but was still sitting like that when someone sat down next to me. I didn't look up; I didn't care who it was. I sat up; my hair hanging tangled in my face. I didn't bother to brush it back I probably looked awful I knew my eyes were red and swollen. "Hemione?" I was once again surprised to find Malfoy somewhere I was. Then I remembered what Tonks and I had agreed and remembered I was supposed to be going to Nadia's.

"What?"

"You OK?"

"Fine. What's it to you?" I snapped, I didn't want anyone around. I got up and started walking to the busy street, where taxies were flying by. I started in the direction of Nadia's she'd given me directions as well as her address.

"Um Hermione?" I spun round.

"It's Granger to you!" I said. Why was I being like that he hadn't done anything to me. "Sorry," I said. Soon, I found myself telling him everything and when I was done I started crying again. You're really a baby I told myself, it hurt though. I took a deep breath and stopped crying. I kept walking but stopped to check the signs to see which street was Nadia's and Malfoy stopped next to me and pushed back my wet tangled hair.

"It's OK, just forget about it." I couldn't believe this! Just weeks ago I'd been nothing but a Mudblood to him and now he was trying to comfort me. I pulled away, said see you later and turned down Nadia's street.

A/N Thanks to all who have reviewed, and to everyone who has given me ideas.