A/N: Anything italicized is a thought from the person who was just talking or being discussed.

Hermonie was walking down Diagon Alley, doing some of her school shopping when she ran into Harry and Ron. What are they doing here? She asked herself.

"Hey, Harry, Ron. I thought you guys wouldn't be able to come here today…"

"Well, we made it work out so we could be here when you were hear. We didn't tell you about it because we wanted to surprise you," Ron replied

"Correction, Ron wanted to surprise you. I wanted to tell you immediately!" Harry retorted.

"And why did you want to surprise me, Ron?"

"Well, I just thought it would be more fun…"

"Okay…"

"Hi, Parvati" Harry interrupted with a hint of disgust. Hermonie turned and Parvati walked up

"Howdy, y'all!" Parvati said as she greeted them.

"Howdy, y'all?" Ron looked puzzled.

"Ronnie, didn't I tell you about the time I spent in Texas over the summer? That's how they speak down there! I still haven't gotten rid of this accent"

"Ronnie?" This time it was Hermonie who was confused. Ron blushed scarlet and Parvati began to explain the pet name.

"Well, ya see. I've been writing back and forth with Ronnie here and we've become pretty good friends and the nickname just happened on our last date."

"DATE!" Harry and Hermonie said in perfect unison.

"Ron, I knew you two were writing each other but why haven't I heard about these dates?" Harry questioned.

"Well…" Ron said as the disappearing blush began to reappear. "We're just dating casually, nothing serious you know!"

"That's right," Parvati said in a rueful manor.

End Flashback

Hermonie continued to contemplate her short time spent with her friends in Diagon Alley…

Hermonie was rushing to reach the train, she had woken up late and to make matters worse she had gotten stuck in traffic. Hermonie practically had to run through the station and jump on the train as it was leaving. As Hermonie made her way through the train toward their usual compartment she literally ran into her least favorite person, Malfoy

"Watch where you're going, Mudblood!"

"Well…I…uh…" Hermonie was caught in a daze, she hadn't been paying attention, and the cherry on top, the one person she loathed most had become drop dead gorgeous!

"Well, you, uh what Granger?" At this point Malfoy noticed se was staring and he smirked. "If you like what you see ten why not take a picture? I don't know if it'll last longer but I have others to torment" and with that he left, a huge grin plastered on his face.

Once Hermonie regained her wits and gathered her things she realized what Malfoy had said and she became livid. She was so upset she barged into their usual compartment without looking first. As she barged in, tears began streaming down her cheeks. She slammed the door behind her and slouched against it. Suddenly she realized she was not accompanied by Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville, like she expected, but Su Li, Cho Chang, Susan Bones, Lisa Turpin and Mandy Brocklehurst.

"Hermonie, is that you? What's wrong?" Cho asked with a concerned look on her face. Before she knew what she was doing, Hermonie confessed everything- her depressing summer, not seeing her friends, her parents constantly watching her every move, her stressing morning, running into Malfoy on the train, Malfoy's insults, the daze she was in, thinking Malfoy was hot.

"Aww, you poor thing," Su Li said once Hermonie had finished explaining.

"Wait, hot!" Susan bones questioned at the end of Hermonie's explanation.

"Have you seen him recently? He's not just hot, he's FOIN! Damn Zexy!" Mandy Brocklehurst retorted.

"But he's a Slytherin…Oh wait, Blaise Zambini is pretty cute…" Su Li replied.

"Su!" Cho exclaimed as she playfully punched her friend before saying, "don't feel too bad, I still have a thing for Harry." Hermonie blushed as a twinge of jealousy ran through her body followed closely by a rush of guilt. Hermonie had been crushing on Harry for quite some time now but hadn't ever acted upon it because he was her friend, he liked Ginny, and he still had feelings for Cho.

Draco had very little trouble finding the compartment containing his friends, seeing as how his personal lugs were standing outside "guarding" the door and tormenting the passing first and second years. As Draco entered, all eyes turned toward him. He saw Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zambini, Millicent Bulstrode, and another face which he didn't recognize. Draco sat down and Crabbe and Goyle waddled in, sitting in the limited space available. Millicent ended up sitting on Draco's lap in order to avoid being squished by Goyle. Draco noticed Pansy giving the both of them a malicious glare.

"So, Draco, how was your summer," Blaise said wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

"It was fine but I'm hoping for a challenge this school year, muggle girls are much too easy…" Even though I only had sex with one muggle. I desperately need to get laid… "Blaise. Guess who literally ran into me in the corridor on my way here?"

"I don't know. Who?"

That scatter-brained, bookworm of a mudblood – Granger." She does look better this year, she changed a bit over the summer. Why do I have a thing for Granger? What thing for Granger? Come to think of it I've liked her for quite some time.

"You're kidding! I knew she could be scatter-brained at times but dang. What happened?"

"There I was strolling along, minding my business and all of a sudden somebody runs into me. I turn and there's Granger. I tell her to watch what she's doin' and all she can do is stutter. That's when I realized she was staring at me! So I tell her 'If you like what you see then why not take a picture? I don't know if it'll last longer but I have others to torment' and then I walked off, but boy oh boy was the look on her face PRICELESS! She looked as if she were about to burst into tears." Oh man I hope I didn't make her cry! What am I thinking? I'm a Malfoy! I always make people cry and I've never cared before! I can't be going soft!

"Nice!" Blaise replied as he held up his hand for a high five.

"What are you doing?" Draco looked confused, and Blaise remembered that "high fives" were something that muggles did and he had seen it on a movie "Nothin' man, I'm just stretching," and with that Blaise put his arm around Pansy and winked at Draco.

"Where did Nott and Moon get off to?" Draco asked in attempt to keep Pansy distracted long enough for Blaise to non-chelantely remove his arm without Pansy blowing up.

"Apparently, the compartment wasn't large enough for them so they left to find an empty one," Millicent replied, nudging Draco slightly.

"…Maybe we should do the same," Draco said, understanding her nudges. Or not.

"Absolutely…er, I mean sure, why not?" And with that they left.

Meanwhile Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood were sitting in a near by compartment discussing their summer.

"I spent my summer cleaning and organizing my room to minimize my forgetfulness. What did you do Harry?" Neville said as Trevor squirmed out of his hands once again. "Trevor!" Harry jumped up.

"Harry…?" Ginny said with a puzzled look.

Harry had been thinking about Hermonie and realized she still wasn't there. He had become nervous. "Has anyone seen Herms? She should have been here a while ago," without any warning Harry ran out in search of Hermonie, leaving everyone else stunned.

After a few minutes Ron stood up to go in search of Hermonie and the others followed. After searching the train multiple times they still hadn't found Hermonie and everyone was beginning to think she hadn't boarded the train. Sorrowfully they returned to their compartment only to find Hermonie sitting there, already in her school robes, reading the latest copy of Hogwarts, A History. She didn't even bother to look up to announce that they needed to change into their school robes. Everyone stood there in shock until Ron broke the silence

"Hermonie! We've been looking for you for almost two hours, where have you been?"

"Well, I was on my way here when I ran into some people, so I stopped for a bit to chat and I lost track of time. I got here about an hour ago," Hermonie explained

"But, how did you find the compartment without any of us in here and without running into any of us?" Ron inquired.

"I don't know how I got here without running into any of you, from the sounds of it you searched everywhere for me except this compartment. And finding the compartment wasn't difficult, I just looked in and saw Hedwig. Oh, by the way, Neville, Here's Trevor."

"TREVOR!" Neville squealed.

"Honestly, Neville, you need to learn to keep track of your pet!" Luna said with a hint of disgust in her voice.

"Are you guys going to get dressed or not?" Hermonie interjected in an impatient tone.