Author's Note : Ahh, I felt like I was in a writing mood, so I wrote three new chapters for three out of the four of my multi-chaptered fics (I'm working on Taking Risks Chapter 9 right now) and I'm thinking of making another song-one-shot (no, not the sequel to Just the Girl if you were wondering XD) and can you believe that I wrote all three chapters in two days?

Chapter Three
Arriving at Hogwarts

"Hermione! Hermione! We're here!" Draco nudged my shoulder excitedly, trying to wake me up. My body went into alert mode and I sat up straight, looking out the window. My breath fogged the window up as I was exhaling deeply. There it was: Hogwarts.

Before I even had the time to look over the magnificent castle, Draco detached himself from the window and I followed suit. We both grabbed our heavy trunks from under the seats. My trunk was very heavy; it was amazing how I managed to carry it with me throughout Kings Cross all by myself. Behind me, Draco was muttering something on the lines of "servants" and "me." I did not really think over what he said, because I was so excited, that I was about to wet my knickers.

Draco and I managed to get our big trunks out of the compartment. We both went down the hall and into the cold fresh air. I sighed a breath of relief.

Here I am. Goodbye old Hermione. Hello super powers.

"Firs' years, firs' years, this way!" A man, who looked far too enormous to look like a regular wizard, yelled out. I wasn't sure whether or not he was talking to us, but looking at the other students around me seemed to be walking up to him, although some looked unsure. More excitement swept through me. These people must probably be my future classmates.

Hoping to make a good impression on everyone, I raised my chin, relaxed my shoulders, and walked towards the big man with Draco following right behind me. I did not walk very fast though, because my luggage was far too heavy to get in the front of the crowd. Behind me, Draco seemed to be doing the same thing; except smugness was written all over his face and he seemed to be glaring at everyone who he seemed to set sight on. What ever happened to the Draco that she saw a while ago? I sighed quietly. Oh, well. It must be a boy thing.

"Do we 'ave everyone here?" The big man asked, clapping his hands together as he looked over everyone's heads.

"Welcome to 'ogwarts! My name is Profess'r Rubeus Hagrid. I am yer Care o' Magical Creatures teacher, and yer guide for tha' evening."

Right next to me, Draco was sniggering softly. I didn't really need to wonder why he was laughing because ever since Professor Hagrid opened his mouth and started talking, Draco started to laugh. I thought it was funny too, but he's our teacher and I wanted to be on his good side. First impressions are always important because if they see me laughing at a teacher, I would probably land in detention. And Hermione Granger does not do detention.

"Let's head on to tha' castle now, shall we?" I nodded as little as possible. Hagrid smiled through his big thick beard and led the first years towards a gate. I huffed as I realized that I had to carry my luggage again. Right when I was about to reach for the handle, the clouds rumbled. I slowly looked up and saw that the clouds were dark and it looked like it was going to rain.

"Come on, Hermione! I want to get a good seat!" Draco motioned for her to hurry up. I grabbed my luggage and tried to catch up to Draco, who was trying to cut through everyone. I frowned, as I recalled her old school days. The moment everyone found out that I loved reading, I was classified as a nerd. Everyone was always pushing me, bumping into me, knocking my stuff to the floor, and cutting me in line. But since Draco is my friend, I guess he expects me to be like him too.

Cutting through everyone to catch up to him---and muttering apologies along the way---I finally reached Draco who was near the front of the line. Soon, Hagrid took their luggage and put them behind the carriage and made sure that they were securely fastened. The next thing I knew, I was being helped into one of the carriages by Hagrid. Once I sat down, I looked out the carriage to see what was going to pull it.

I wonder if unicorns are real! I've always fancied seeing one.

But to my disappointment, I saw nothing. I shook my head and blinked a few times before putting my head back in. I wondered if there was an invisible unicorn pulling the carriage because there were puffs of smoke coming out of no where, which, I think, came out of the unicorn's nostrils.

I turned my attention to Draco, but saw something (or someone) else next to him. Next to him was a round-faced boy who was clutching a small toad in his hands. Looking at his face and how he seemed to squirm away from Draco, must mean that the boy was quite shy and is not very good at making friends. I smiled inwardly because I myself am not good at making friends either (it was Draco that approached me in the first place).

The carriage started to move and I clutched the handle tightly; though as the journey went on, I loosened my grip on the handle. I looked at the boy next to Draco and saw him gripping the handle tightly as well, with his toad in his other hand.

"It's okay, you'll get used to it. Besides, there might be some sort of spell that will make sure that we wouldn't fall off of the carriage or anything," I said comfortingly to the other boy. The boy looked at me for a minute, before muttering "it's better to be safe than sorry." But just like me, as the journey went on, the boy slowly released the pressure of his grip on the handle.

"Hello. I'm Hermione, and that is Draco." I introduced myself, then made a hand gesture towards Draco who nodded his head at the boy before looking out the carriage with a slightly bored expression on his face.

"H-hello," the boy stuttered.

"What's your name?" I asked nicely.

"N-Neville," Neville said. I smiled reassuringly at him. They were making progress.

"So what do you think Hogwarts will be like?" I asked conversationally. Neville looked at me with surprise on his face. Poor Neville, I thought. He looks like the type of person who no one asks what his opinion is.

"Well…it might be scary, I guess. Gran told me that I better have good grades or the teachers would get mad at me." I gulped. If I failed, then would they expel me? Would I be hated by all of the teachers? Or worse…how will I even pass the introductory class, if I know nothing about magic?

As Neville spoke, little by little he seemed much more at ease; as though talking of his grandmother (she seemed like a horrid person, expecting so much from her grandson; so why doesn't he talk about his parents?) was like talking to his toad.

"…but Gran said that I am nothing like my father," Neville said and sighed sadly.

"Who are your parents anyway?" Draco asked. This unexpected question took both Neville and me by surprise. Draco hasn't said a word throughout this whole trip except now. Neville, suddenly all nervous again, stared at the floor.

"What's your last name?" Draco said in a forcing tone. To me, it seemed more of a demand than a question. I looked at Neville, who, surprisingly, seemed to fidget and (from the looks of it) looked like he was very uncomfortable with the question. He seemed keen to not answer it, but Draco pushed Neville on who his parents were and what his last name was. If I hadn't looked at Neville, I would have thought that Draco was finally getting the idea to "loosen up" and decrease the awkwardness since, after all, they were going to be classmates soon.

Seeing on the look of Neville's face, he seemed almost…ashamed of what he was going to say.

The next thing they knew, the carriage stopped. Neville breathed out a small sigh of relief and he looked determined to get away from Draco and his awkward questions. I looked outside and saw the biggest (and first) castle she has ever seen. The towers were high with big windows just like what I imagined. Around the castle, there was a big lake, just like a moat to keep away the bad guys. I smiled widely as I took all of this in.

"Hermione!" Draco called. "Hurry up! I'm starving." I jogged up to Draco and linked my arm around his. Draco really didn't seem to mind, so he didn't pull away. I turned around (without even thinking why) and I saw Neville. He smiled at me (which seemed like a thank you during the ride in the carriage), which made me have another reason to be happier.

I now have two friends.

Hogwarts hasn't even started, and I have two friends! I was so excited, that I felt like jumping up and down in joy.

Draco and I went through two really big wooden doors and were hit by the sudden warmth from the indoors. Draco, she, and almost everyone else took off their coats and hung it on a floating coat rack. I gasped once I saw the coat rack float in mid-air. There really was no turning back now, no need for anymore proof that she wasn't imagining things…

I, Hermione Granger, really am a witch. No denying, no more convincing.

"Okay. Now when we go through these here doors," Professor Hagrid began and continued walking before stopping in front of two more big wooden doors facing everyone. "You lot 'ave to pair up in two lines; like these two here." Professor Hagrid pointed at Draco and me, who were at the front of the line, arms still linked together. Hagrid smiled at both of them, which made me smile back at him. I seemed to take a quick liking to Professor Hagrid.

"This is called tha' Great 'all. This is where you lot will be eating yer food and all that. Dumbledore (that's Professor Dumbledore to yeh) makes most of his announcements here. You can also visit yer classmates from the diff'rent houses." Many of my fellow classmates and I looked at Professor Hagrid confusedly.

Houses? There are houses in a castle? So that's what's really inside them!

Professor Hagrid saw the confused looks on his (future) students' faces, and explained immediately. "Since most of yeh don't know what I'm taking 'bout, yer Professor McGonagall will 'xplain it to yeh soon."

Professor Hagrid grinned at everyone and turned around to open the doors. I unlinked my arm from Draco's the moment Professor Hagrid turned around. I looked at Draco nervously, who still seemed to be chuckling softly at the professor's way of speaking. But I really didn't care at the moment.

I'm nervous, excited, impatient…and most definitely not prepared to face the world of magic. For every day that passed, Hermione still wakes up wondering if everything was just a dream.

But this definitely is not a dream.

Professor Hagrid managed to open the doors and walked forward. Hermione closed her eyes momentarily, took a deep breath, and began following the giant professor and into the Great Hall.

Author's Note : Sorry at my lame attempt to try and write Hagrid (looks down). It's just that no one can write Hagrid's way of talking other than JK Rowling herself!

Nemorosa Knopp (from Chapter 1)- It is weird, now that I think about it. But not all of them are muggle-borns, really. Some are even pureblood (Draco doesn't really count) because their parents want them to experience the magic (haha that sounded so lame) or they just wanted to send them away after spending eleven years at home.

Noticed anything familiar?

1. Neville (obviously..he'll sort-of be important at the very end)
2. Thestrals (not really something familiar, but thestrals can only be seen by people who have seen death. Hermione, who hasn't actually seen someone die as we all know in the fifth book, can't see them so she though they were magical unicorns hehehe..)

Please review!