Splits

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Or his mates. Or his school. Or…

Chapter One

"Mm, sixth year!" Hermione exclaimed, sinking into a seat in their usual compartment right at the end of the Hogwarts Express. "And this year we have no difficult exams or anything. A year of freedom before we start preparing for our NEWTS!"

"And you're happy? I'd have thought you'd be heartbroken over that," said Ron casually, poking Harry in the side. "Budge over, mate."

Hermione shot her boyfriend a contemptuous look and then dug her Standard Book of Spells, grade Six out of her backpack. She started to flick through it, looking for a spell to turn Ron into a frog. Ron, blissfully unaware of this, started filling Harry in on what they'd heard in the Prefects' Compartment.

"The new Prefects are a lot of duffers, if you ask me… Ginny might be good, I don't know, but guess who the other Prefect from Gryffindor is? Our own little Snaparazzi, your fan Colin Creevey. That snotty idiot Zacharias Smith is one of the Prefects for Hufflepuff, and the rest are of no particular interest, no one we know.

"You know, with Fred and George out of school I think I might dare to do a bit more as a Prefect. It was harder with them around, when they were always teasing me… I think they were pissed off by mum's "that's everyone in the family" when I got made Prefect… you should have seen the look on their faces when Ginny got the badge, too. I think they're feeling as if they were switched at birth or something…" Ron prattled on for a while and Hermione tuned out, becoming deeply absorbed in a chapter about a new complicated kind of Switching Spells and forgetting all about frogs. Suddenly however, something Ron said caught her attention again.

"…oh, and Pansy Parkinson saw a mouse in the compartment and screamed so loud that Seamus – he was next door – fainted. He thought it was a Banshee."

"Stupid cow," said Hermione vehemently. She had never forgiven Pansy for the continuous "chipmunk!"/ "squirrel!"/ "rodent!" comments she had had to endure before her teeth shrunk. Hermione's teeth was the one feature she had really hated about herself, and then Pansy had to go and make it worse by taunting her about them loud enough for the entire school to hear.

"Ah, don't worry about her," said Ron soothingly, probably guessing some of what Hermione was thinking. "You know she hasn't got enough brains to fill an eggcup."

"Pugface and her kennel of lapdogs," said Harry with a crooked grin. "Yip yip, oh Pansy, you're so funny! Ti-hi! They make me sick."

"Uh, excuse me?" said a voice by the door. Hermione looked up to see one of the just mentioned lapdogs standing in front of them. She had never bothered to find out the girl's name and didn't care either – it wasn't as if they'd ever be friends, was it?

She was small and skinny, her dark hair and eyes a huge contrast to her pale skin. Hermione looked closer and saw that the pallor was distinctly unhealthy. There were shadows under her eyes. She had that sunken-in look that comes when you haven't had a decent meal for some time.

"What?" snapped Harry, looking at her with distaste. "What's one of the herd doing in this part of the train?"

"Yip yip," said Ron quietly, with the trace of a smile. Harry, however, was not smiling.

"Shoo," he said viciously. "If you came here to bring me any message from Malfoy or something you can just tell him to stuff it up his – "

"Harry," said Hermione.

"Well, why else would she be here?" asked Harry angrily, acting as if the girl wasn't standing right in front of him. "There are no Slytherin nests in this part of the train."

The girl stood silently in the doorway. For some reason she suddenly reminded Hermione of some wild animal – a wolf – caught in the headlights of a car. She looked trapped, scared, angry and defiant, all at the same time. She glared at them for a brief second, then without another word she left, slamming the door hard behind her and making the glass crack.

"Reparo," said Hermione automatically, before turning to Harry. "Honestly, don't you think you went a little too far? She was all alone and you just attacked her. I think she was really hurt by what you said."

"So?" said Harry disdainfully. "She would do the same to you or me any day if she had the chance. That's the speciality of Slytherin – effective bullying."

"That's no reason – " Hermione began hotly, but stopped when she heard someone laugh softly. The door had slid open again, and someone was leaning against the frame, his blond hair falling into his eyes, arms crossed over his chest.

"What's this?" asked Draco Malfoy, with an air of great surprise. "One of the kind and noble Gryffindors is actually sticking up for a filthy, unworthy Slytherin? What brings us this honour? I assure you, my eyes would have been filled with tears of gratitude if it weren't for my complete inability to feel emotions, due to being a cold-hearted bastard. May I kiss your shoes?"

Ron's eyes blazed and Harry jumped to his feet, but Hermione merely frowned, looking searchingly at Malfoy. There was a bitterness to his sarcasm she had never noticed before.

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" asked Harry tightly, his hand in his back pocket where Hermione knew he kept his wand, despite the danger of losing buttocks.

"Tradition, Potter," came the answer languidly. "Every year when we've taken the Hogwarts Express I've come in to taunt you, and I wouldn't want to disappoint you by not showing up."

"Thoughtful. I'm impressed you dare to come without your bodyguards though."

Hermione caught Ron's eye and they both sighed inaudibly. This looked like developing into the usual Harry vs. Draco Test of Power – meaning they'd insult each other until one of them cracked. It could go on for a while. Ron sat down and started setting up the board for a solitary chess game, and Hermione buried her nose in the book again, keeping one ear on the conversation in case Harry ran out of witty replies and needed backing-up.

"Well, when I'm just in for a few verbal insults Crabbe and Goyle aren't of much help," Malfoy said matter-of-factly, inspecting a nail. "And I guessed you wouldn't dare to attack me, seeing as last time we faced off you had to outnumber us... what was it? Nine against three?... to beat us."

"This is coming from the guy who tried to ambush me on the way from the toilets. Didn't your mother tell you it's bad manners to attack from behind?"

Hermione sighed again and put her book down, carefully marking the page. The argument had gotten out of hand quicker than usual – if they were already insulting each other's mothers then curses and hexes wouldn't be far off. She threw Ron a quick look and reached into her bag.

Harry and Draco had meanwhile gotten tired off talking and pulled out their wands. There was a double shout of "Expelliarmus!" and two wands flew out of the hands of their owners. Harry and Draco stared, shocked, at the other two people in the compartment who both had their wands out, Ron's pointing at Harry, Hermione's at Draco.

"Impedimenta," said Ron lazily and Harry froze in midstep, halfway to his wand, just as Draco toppled over, hit by Hermione's Full Body Bind. She turned him over gently and smiled when she saw his eyes glaring up at her.

"I wonder why the eyes are still movable, and not affected by the Bind?" she pondered. "Maybe so others can see that the person hasn't been Stunned or Petrified. What happens if you Enervate a person who is already conscious? That could have serious consequences, I guess."

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Are you out of your mind!" snarled Harry, struggling against the bonds of the Jinx. Ron looked wary.

"Take it easy, Harry. I don't want to Bind you like Malfoy too."

"We promised Lupin we wouldn't let you and Malfoy get at each other's throats," Hermione explained. "Impedimenta." Harry glared daggers at her as she renewed the Jinx, but she didn't seem to even notice, gazing at Ron.

"Will you help me carry Malfoy back to his carriage?" she asked. "I think that would be best."

"Yeah, let's go," Ron answered, lifting Draco's shoulders while Hermione grabbed his legs. "And you're staying here," Ron added to Harry, picked up his and Draco's wands on the way out and then locked the door behind him. "Alohomora."

The Jinx on Harry wore off when they had gone about halfway down the corridor. They could hear him cursing and banging on the door all the way into the next carriage.

"You know when we get back we are going to get so seriously yelled at," panted Hermione, feeling that Draco certainly was heavier than he looked. "I hope no one unlocks the door while we are gone."

"Whatever," said Ron. "He deserves some punishment for the way he's been behaving this summer. I know he's had a hard time, but Sirius was our friend too and you don't see me hexing Ginny for giggling too loudly. He needs to learn how to behave with people."

Two carriages down they decided to Unbind Draco – they couldn't be bothered to carry him further. They leaned him against a wall and Hermione performed the countercurse. He fell to the floor and raised himself up instantly, glaring at them both.

"We're not kidding about promising Lupin to keep you two away from each other. We'll be keeping an eye on you," said Hermione, smiling slightly.

"Here's your wand. Now scram, git," Ron added, throwing the wand to Draco, who caught it easily and stowed it in his pocket, but made no sign of leaving.

"You two are sickening," he spat suddenly. "Think you're so good, don't you? Did you ever, just once, in all your Gryffindor-glory, stop for a minute and think about whether you might be wrong in anything you do?" He spat on the floor in front of them and walked off.

"Whoa," said Ron after a short pause, looking surprised. "What was that all about? What's this about our Gryffindor glory and stuff all of a sudden?"

Hermione didn't answer. She was deep in thought about a lot of things – the unknown girl, what had she wanted? Why was Malfoy suddenly so bitter? Why was Harry being an idiot? How would they be able to keep their promise to Lupin when Harry was picking fights like some kind of Blast-ended Screwt with a morning temper?

………………………………………

It was the beginning of summer and Harry was home at Privet Drive. Hermione and Ron were staying together at the Burrow. They had become a couple just before the end of term, and were trying to think of a good way to tell Harry. (It later turned out they didn't have to – he heard all about it from Ginny.)

Lupin was over for dinner one night and wanted to speak with the two of them.

"Does Harry have any serious enemy at Hogwarts?" he asked, making them smile.

"Yes, I guess you could say that," Hermione answered, grinning broadly. "He and Draco Malfoy practically try to kill each other when they have the chance."

Lupin did not smile.

"That is bad," he said, a worried frown creasing his face. "I was afraid of that. You see, Harry has such a lot of fury inside right now, and I think that Draco will be – in his eyes – the perfect target to vent his anger on. It could get really nasty – no one knows what he might do. And just imagine what would happen when the Daily Prophet found out. Field day."

"So what do you want us to do?" grinned Ron, who was having difficulty seeing the whole thing as serious. "Lock Harry in a cupboard and only let him out for lessons?"

"No," Lupin answered, "but I'd like you to break up every fight between him and Draco Malfoy."

"WHAT!" Ron exclaimed. "Do you know how hard that'll be!"

"Lupin, they fight all the time!" said Hermione. "It would be impossible!"

"I just want you to make sure they don't hurt each other," Lupin said seriously. "Let them bicker, let them insult each other, let them fight as long as they stick to words. But don't let them pull a wand on each other. Harry has a lot of power, but it makes itself known through hexes and curses. He's not a Charmworker, he's not a Healer or a Transfiguration expert, he's terrible at Potions and judging from the state of his room – Tonks told me about it – he hasn't grasped the household spells too well either. But he's extremely good at Defence Against the Dark Arts. That's good in one way, but at the same time not. He has a lot of power to hurt others. For the sake of Draco Malfoy, and for Harry's own sake, too, please keep an eye on him."

…………………………………………

"Well, Lupin couldn't have made it harder for us," Ron grumbled as they walked back down to the last carriage. "Keep Harry and Malfoy from fighting… he could just as well have told us to stop Hagrid being fond of big hairy things that can… wait, he makes it sound so good when he says it… oh yeah, creatures that can take care of themselves. I wonder how Grawp is doing now? Taking care of himself, no doubt…"

"I wonder what that Slytherin girl wanted?" pondered Hermione. "She looked like she wanted to ask us a favour or something… but that's stupid. Why would she go to us?"

"No idea," Ron shrugged. "Fancy explaining to Harry, by the way?"

"Isn't it your turn?"

"I tackled him about not being allowed to stomp around in the house during the middle of the night."

"You had help from your mum. And anyway, I talked to him last time he threatened to curse us because they wouldn't let him into the Order of the Phoenix meetings."

"You know, I've wondered for a while why he's angry at us about that. Where did his sense of logic go?"

"Nobody knows," sighed Hermione. "Well, he's had a lot to cope with and I guess since Sirius was actually the closest he had to a dad, now that you think about it, it hit him even harder than we thought. It's been tough, of course, and we have to accept that... it's still your turn to talk to him."

"Do I have to?"

"I'll go and look for that Slytherin girl, OK? I'll come back in a while."

"He'll have skinned me alive by then."

"Good luck." She kissed him on the cheek and went back the way she had come, wondering what on earth she would say if she against all odds found the girl. On her way through the train she was hailed by several different people, all of whom wanted to know how Harry was doing. It irritated her a little.

When he started school he was a celebrity, she thought, then he was the most hated guy in school for losing all those points and then hero for winning them back. In his second year he was the heir of Slytherin, killing muggle-borns, then that passed, too. A year ago he was a lunatic. Now everyone wants to be his friend. Well, it's not weird he cracked.

In the fourth carriage from her own she ran into Blaise Zabini, who almost absent-mindedly stuck out his foot and tripped her on her way past. She straightened up and glared at him, wishing they were already at school so she could put him in detention. (Being a Prefect simply rocked sometimes.)

What am I doing? she asked herself suddenly. I'm going looking for Slytherins, the last people I want to talk to. She turned to go back to her own carriage, set on forgetting about the girl who had visited them earlier, no matter how lost and hurt and sick she had looked… wait, where did that thought come from...

There was a shrill giggle in the compartment just behind her and she spun around immediately. Only one person laughed like that. And where Pansy was, there were also all her girlfriends…

Feeling that she might as well talk to the girl now that she had stumbled over them, Hermione took a deep breath and pulled the door to the compartment open.

Pansy's reaction was unexpected and very disturbing. As soon as she became aware of Hermione she opened her mouth and let out a terrified scream of about seventy decibel, jumped onto her seat and stood there trembling. All in the compartment stared at her as her agitated breathing slowed down and she sat back down, clutching a hand to her heart.

"Oh, thank God," she sighed. "For a horrible second I thought it was that mouse again."

The compartment exploded with giggles and Hermione rolled her eyes. The comment stung, but she'd be damned if she'd let it show. She knew very well that her teeth were nowadays perfectly straight and normal and that they indeed looked considerably better than Pansy's own. But the taunt raked up memories she spent her days trying to forget: memories of the time at Hogwarts before she got to know Ron and Harry. The time when she was sneered at for her looks and for being good at school, the time when she had no one to turn to, the loneliness. They had all despised her… especially Ron… and it was something she was not happy over being reminded of.

"You know, that could be quite funny if I hadn't heard it twice a week for about three and a half years," she said, with a sarcastic smile that showed off her now perfect teeth nicely. "Don't you have anything new to come with?"

"Can we help you?" asked Pansy sweetly, ignoring the question.

"I want to talk to you," said Hermione, turning to the girl she'd seen earlier, who was sitting right next to the window, a sneer on her face.

"Talk," she answered with a haughty stare. There was none of the wild animal's fear in her now, but some of the wolf still lingered in her eyes – something proud and defiant.

"Firstly, what's your name?" asked Hermione just for something to say, feeling a bit unnerved by the stare of those eyes. I was wrong, she thought, her eyes aren't dark… they're yellow… I didn't even know you could have eyes of that colour. "And what were you doing down our end? Did you want to ask something? I don't know why, but it looked like you did."

"You're right, I did," the girl answered in an off-hand sort of voice. "I wanted to know how you got through the door to your compartment with those swollen heads of yours still stuck on your shoulders."

Once more laughter filled the small space. Hermione could see Millicent Bulstrode guffawing along, while still trying to work out the joke, and grit her teeth. She told herself off for believing anyone in this gang could ever have anything serious to say to her. She felt suddenly weary.

"Oh yeah," the girl added with a smirk to her friends, "my name's Rachel, Rachel Nott. I think that takes care of all the questions? Or did you want to ask me something else?"

Driven by a sudden impulse, Hermione answered with the truth.

"Yeah, I did. I wanted to ask how you're feeling. If you're OK." The laughter died away instantly and she saw Rachel's sneer falter. She felt a sudden, unexplainable sense of triumph. Then she realized what she had just done. She had been honest with a gang of Slytherin girls. Baaad move.

"Of course, that was a stupid question," she said hastily, her tone cold. "You look fine, as Slytherins go."

Hermione turned on her heel, but hesitated with her hand on the door handle. She turned back slowly, drawing her wand from the pocket of her jeans and grinning broadly.

"Hey Pansy?" she said. "Just for a point of interest, did you know a mouse's heart beats 150 times per minute?" Without waiting for an answer she raised her wand and said two words: "Arrius Souris".

The screams of Pansy and her friends followed her through two carriages, as they fought to escape the crawling mass of mice covering the floor, their seats and their clothes. Pocketing her wand with a satisfied smile, Hermione waltzed down the corridor, humming happily to herself.

……………………………………………

Hello! Been a while since I showed up here, so I thought I'd do that now – with A NEW STORY. (Cool huh.) Actually, this is something I've been working on for a long time, and the only reason I haven't put it before is that… uh… I, er, haven't dared. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it work.

But then I realized that in about a month, the sixth Harry Potter book is going to come out and then everything I've written in this fic (which is taking place in Harry, Ron and Hermione's sixth year, bless them) will be proven very wrong.

In other words, my fic would be kind of pointless. (It might be pretty pointless even now but…)

So here it is:) See you again in the next chapter…