Disclaimer: Honestly! If I owned Harry Potter I wouldn't be publishing it for free! I'd be in a lovely home with my multi millions and writing thesevemth book already. And most of the stuff that I am describing about Phoenixes I get from Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them. Some of the other stuff I have heard or read from other sources.

Well, that last chapter was a little bit dull no? I promise that that is the last major shopping chapter in the whole story. Well, I must say, I'm pleased with all of you who have been reviewing my story! Okay, now I want more reviews! Well, please read and enjoy.

Chapter 5 - Hogwarts Express

Hermione walked through King's Cross Station. She was running a bit late seeing as she had to find a safe way to the station.

She saw many people from Hogwarts all making their way to Platform 9 3/4 , Malfoy was also amongst the people making their way to the train.

'Oh perfect! Malfoy!' Hermione thought disgustedly as she eyed him in dislike.

Hermione quickened her pace towards the train.

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'Who is that? I've never seen anyone so gorgeous before!' Draco Malfoy thought as he eyed the girl rushing past.

She wore white hip huggers and a tan backless shirt revealing what looked to be a henna tattoo of a fiery bird. . . a phoenix he assumed. To complete the look, she was wearing tan high heels, a white cowboy hat, and hoop earrings. She looked about 167 centimeters tall (I think that is 5 foot 6 inches in non-metric measure) with the heels. She was slightly muscular and had a great body at that. She looked really tan and had shoulder length brown hair, with red and blonde highlights, that was slightly layered and slightly flipped outward giving her a very American look. She was lugging magical things on her trolley towards the platform, so he figured she was a witch bound for Hogwarts.

He caught up to her and said, "Would you like some help with that?"

The girl stopped and turned to him and he saw that she had the most unusual blue-violet eyes. She looked at him with mistrust.

"No thanks," she said curtly in an American accent, Southern at that.

"Are you sure?" he pressed.

"Quite sure, now if you'll excuse me," she said agitated as she resumed walking.

She pushed the cart into Platform 93/4 and he followed immediately after her.

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Hermione was beginning to get annoyed with Malfoy as he constantly followed after her around like a love-sick puppy.

"My name is Draco. What's yours?"

Hermione breathed out in a huff. She turned to him, eyes flashing, "I know who you are. And my name ain't important. What is important is that you stop bothering me cause I'm getting real irritated with you. And trust me, that ain't a good thing." Hermione noticed four people come up behind Malfoy.

"Can't you just leave people alone Malfoy? It's obvious that she doesn't like you, so can you like sod off or something?" said a voice Hermione recognized as none other than her old best friend Ron Weasley.

"You know what Weasel? You shouldn't butt in because it's obvious she's pretty disgusted with you too!" he said seeing Hermione's look of disgust.

Ron looked at her and noted her hateful gaze which was directed not at him or Lavender, and not at Malfoy, but at Harry and his girlfriend of the week, Parvati Patil. Ron smirked at Malfoy. "Oh, does the amazing albino ferret boy need glasses? Cause if you'll notice, she's not looking at me either."

Malfoy stalked off muttering colorful little phrases and obscenities under his breath.

Harry looked at Hermione, having taken the hint and seeing that the girl in question seemed to be glaring daggers at Parvati and him.

Ron cleared his throat and said, "Oh, by the way I'm Ron Weasley and this is my good friend-"

"Lavender Brown. I know, Hermione told me all about you two being really good friends since sixth year. . . even though everyone thinks you two are an item. You are Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, Hermione's old boyfriend," Hermione waved her hands in mock praise at the stupid nick-name. "And this must be Hermione's other old room mate Parvati Patil right?" They all nodded dumbly.

"You know Hermione?" asked Ron in astonishment.

"Of course I know her; she and I were best friends!"

"Were?" asked Harry skeptically.

"Yes, were, you moronic infidel, do you want me to spell it out for you! She died nearly two months ago in the United States! She only had me send you guys those letters after much begging saying that she needed to give you a reason for her disappearance when she only died two hours later . . . she thought that you were her friend and didn't want me to tell you what was really going on because she didn't want you hurt! But obviously you took that as leave to just go and get yourself a new girlfriend pretty quick. . . mighty impressive Potter," she said the last part to herself spitefully.

"Dead? You've got to be joking! She only said she was leaving and never going to come back! Hermione would never lie about that kind of thing!" said Harry as though that were proof enough against her word and that he was indeed free of Hermione and perfectly okay to move on.

"Hello, you idiot, it's called tryin to be sensitive and honoring her last wishes on her death bed, but I guess you couldn't wait to get with Parvati am I right? Learn to read between the lines you moron! Whad'ya want a death certificate? Or maybe a description of what happened? Okay, well she was shot three times and was too damn proud to tell you that she wasn't even strong enough to survive! Bastard!" she yelled as she slapped him hard. Then she ran onto the train.

As the four remaining on the platform got on the train after her, intending on confronting her once they found her, the whistle blew and they were leaving for Hogwarts.

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Hermione slammed the door of the first compartment closed behind her. Then she saw who was in there. 'Not again!' she shouted in her mind.

She was just opening the door as a voice said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. They're going to be looking for you to ask you about Granger."

Hermione sighed in defeat and punched the wall as hard as she could, which put a hole in it, which only showed an empty closet on the other side. "DAMN IT!" she yelled as she saw the blood coming from her knuckles. She could feel her eyes beginning to tear up from the recent change of events and the slight sting of her open knuckles.

Draco got up and put a hand on her shoulder trying to get her to turn around so he could give her a handkerchief to wrap around her knuckles.

Although, his hand didn't stay there for very long because she immediately grabbed his hand and pushed him aside. He cried out in pain as he felt the flesh of his hand burning where she had grabbed.

"Oh, I didn't mean to do that! I'm sorry I burnt you," she said taking his hand in hers to examine the damage she'd caused as a single tear fell to his hand.

"It's fine. . . wait did you just say? That you burnt me?" he asked incredulously not even noticing the burn was gone.

"When I'm angry or scared. . . it just happens and I can't control it that well. Just like I can't control my tears. . . see?" she said indicating his hand. Then she wiped her eyes with her injured hand and took the proffered kerchief to clean the blood off her face.

"Do you know what this means? No one could do that kind of stuff unless they are a-"

"Phoenix? Yeah well thanks for the reminder," she said sarcastically.

"I don't think you're a freak or anything like that. . . I just meant that it's cool that you're a phoenix. I've never met one still in human form before. . . all the ones I met were already transformed into the bird form," he said in admiration.

"Don't you dare do that! Don't you dare start looking at me like everyone looks at Harry -bloody - Potter. I'm not some freak show to be admired and stared and gawked at. And I really don't appreciate it at all. Now if you'll excuse me; I'm going to explore the train and don't come after me unless you like the burnt and blistered look," Hermione said indignantly opening the door and walking out into the train corridor.

She just walked to the end of the train and went outside to get fresh air. The wind hit her face and whipped her hair about wildly. She took off her hat feeling that it would fly off at any given moment.

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The country side passed by in a blur of colors. The cool air stung against her cheeks but she liked the feeling of complete and total peace. Finally, she could be alone without bother.

She leaned over the railing, staring absently at the caboose and thinking about things.

'I can't believe it . . . after a really horrible summer, it only gets worse for me. My enemy is hitting on me because I look 'hot' by most guys standards . . . God how degrading to be called or thought of as 'hot' . . . I'd assume I would have been used to it by now with all those jerks in Dallas, but I guess not. Wait . . . I'm supposed to be giving him another chance like I'd promised myself! But then there's Harry and Parvati . . . those damn traitors!' Hermione laughed bitterly as she thought of the fact that she'd burnt him when she slapped him, she was sure of it. 'At least Ron and Lavender are still the same. God, why did this have to happen to me? I can't possibly start over in my last year of school, it's impossible. It's just not fair.'

At that moment the door slid open revealing Lavender Brown and Ron & Ginny Weasley.

"Excuse us, but we just wanted to apologize for what happened. We know how much it hurts . . ." said Lavender.

Hermione sighed and said as calmly as she could, "Do you really? You think you know how I feel? That's almost laughable. Hermione was like family to me. I was adopted by her parents when I was only six. Hermione and I grew up together. Then we received our school letters. Hermione got one from one from my school, and I got one from my school, which was in Phoenix, Arizona. That was a year before she received her Hogwarts letter, but Dumbledore came to explain to Hermione that she had a choice in starting school later and staying with her parents or going to school in America. She went to Arizona for the year on a trial basis, but didn't like it. The following summer she got the Hogwarts letter. To this day, I still don't know why I didn't get a letter from Hogwarts and Hermione got one from each, but that's beside the point. Hermione didn't want to leave her parents and I didn't want to be separated from Hermione, but that was the way things happened. As I got used the idea, I didn't mind as much, but I still didn't like the idea of leaving Hermione because I really don't take too well to many people so I don't make friends easily. But I think that you found that quite obvious. But that school was perhaps the best school I could ever have heard of. It is a prestigious all girls school that has an accelerated learning program. During school Hermione and I wrote to each other constantly . . . though you wouldn't know it because we sent the letters constantly through our parents. I graduated from there last year and so I was going to come here this year so I could go to school with Hermione. As you can already tell though, we're not going to go to school together. I'm falling off track though; fast-forward to this summer, all the Grangers are killed by gun shot. Her dad was shot twice, her mom once, and Hermione had a broken wrist from the guy who killed her and was shot three times and she survived for a while. She was shot very near the lung and the other two shots weren't near any vital organs. She died that night and when I visited her in the hospital, she told me to write all of you and say that she was just going to leave and not come back because she thought that would be the least painful for you guys."

Hermione took a shaky breath, "But I knew, and this is far worse to have to rectify what she told you. I don't know if anyone could understand how painful it is to lose the only family you have all in one day and then being told to lie to your sister's best friends because it would be less painful for them. Not to mention the fact that it kills me to see that Potter didn't even give her memory decent time to pass and mourn her loss. Hermione loved him . . . true it wasn't the romantic kind of love, but she really did love him and wanted to be happy. But the reason I'm mad about that is because Potter doesn't even care, he lied to her, he lied to everyone that believed that he was in love with her. That's just like slapping her in the face when she's already dead and it makes me so angry that she was being lied to for all of her life even by her parents. Of course, so was I . . ."

"I'm sorry we didn't know. Hermione never told us about you. I would never want to imagine my whole family dying either," said Ginny sympathetically.

"I told her not to talk about me because I didn't want her to have to think of me instead of focusing on school."

"Oh. We never did find out your name," Ron said suddenly after a long moment of silence.

"Oh. . . well my name is Phoenix, Phoenix Turoe, but folks back in Phoenix call me Dallas cause that's where I'm originally from and people always said I sounded like I was from Texas anyway, more specifically Dallas," said Hermione.

"Nice to finally be introduced. I'm assuming you already know Ginny."

"You assume correctly."

Ginny looked at Hermione, and then looked as though she had just suddenly remembered something and smiled mischievously at her, "By the way. . . do you know how that lovely burn came to be on Harry's face?"

Hermione sheepishly replied, "That was an accident. . . well not really, he deserved it, but I did that. It just happens sometimes when I'm really scared or pissed off."

"How on earth do you do that?" asked Ron befuddled.

"My name should give you some clue as to how that works, but I'm afraid I must be going, and please don't tell anyone about anything that I've just told you, including my name and especially that I caused that burn, in fact, just don't mention that you ever talked to me . . . or saw me please," she said walking back into the train.

She saw Harry walking in her direction distractedly checking the compartments so she quickly ran into the compartment next to her.

Ron, Ginny and Lavender walked back in and Harry stopped by the door, which Hermione expected to open very soon, and it did. Hermione didn't notice though that as she heard the door open she disappeared and reappeared right outside of the now closed door.

'Oh my God, what just happened?' she thought. 'Oh that's right, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them mentioned that Phoenixes can disappear and reappear anywhere at will.'

She pressed herself up to the wall (in case the door opened without warning) to listen in on the conversation the four of them were having. She could hear someone pacing briskly and irritatedly, 'Probably Harry - wait no, not Harry - Potter.'

"Have you guys seen her since she got on the train?"

"No, we haven't Harry," said all three in agitated unison.

"Seriously, what a bitch. She comes here like she owns the place, and slapped me because I'm going out with Parvati. Hermione's the one that left me, and I was crushed, but I had to move on. Not only that but she's dead, am I not allowed to on or something? I mean, what the hell is her problem? I didn't do anything to her."

"Come on Harry, how would you react in the same situation?" asked Lavender trying to calm him down.

"Well I wouldn't bitch slap myself over someone that's for sure. I mean she reacts as though it hurt her more than it hurt me when Hermione just left me without warning! Does she think that it didn't hurt because my girlfriend broke things off with me in a letter because she had to leave? Why wouldn't she have told me before hand? She was the one stable thing in my life! True, we didn't love each other, but that doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things!"

"Maybe it hurts her, more deeply than you realize that Hermione is dead. We don't know exactly how close they were. . . for all we know, they could have been like family, just like you and I are and the three of us were. I mean, how much did we really know about Hermione's life outside of school?"

"That doesn't justify it even if that little theory is true Ron. Look at what happened to my face! What did she do?" asked Harry in outrage.

"Well, it looks like a burn Harry, so you tell us," said Ginny huffily.

"I know that Ginny, but how did my face get burnt like this? What did she do to my face?"

"How do you expect us to know Harry?" Lavender asked as she and Ginny hastily slammed opened the door and stalked off down the corridor.

Hermione disappeared and reappeared in the same spot just in time. The door slammed shut as quickly as it had opened.

"Women!" said Harry jokingly to Ron.

"Harry why don't you lay off of that girl for now? Gin and Lav got pretty mad that you kept picking on her and I don't like seeing those two mad. You know that. And besides, I don't want to keep talking about her when we don't even know her."

"Gee, Ron that's really noble of you," said Harry sarcastically, but seeing the serious look Ron gave him added, "All right! I'll lay off for now. . . but if she does anything else I swear -"

"Harry!" Ron cut him impatiently.

"Fine I'll lay off Ron. Let's go now," said Harry defensively.

"All right," said Ron as they opened the door.

Hermione disappeared and reappeared next the compartment she went in the first time and gave out the sigh of relief she didn't know she'd been holding in. 'God, when did Harry become such a prick?' She sighed and opened the door. 'It's sad that I'm willing to put up with Malfoy over Har - no - Potter,' she thought to herself.

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She stepped into the compartment and saw that Malfoy was reading and he was wearing - glasses?

'He's kind of cute with glasses. . . wait what? Where the hell did that come from? I hope that isn't the Phoenix in me. . . or I'm screwed,' Hermione thought to herself.

His eyes were on her as she walked in.

"So it seems that Ron Weasley was right for once. . ." she began with a smirk, "You did need glasses."

Malfoy blushed slightly and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. . . so what? I wear glasses. . . it's not like there's something wrong with it is there? I only wear them for reading, usually I wear contacts, but my eyes were too sore today. And besides, look at Harry-bloody-Potter-the-boy-who-lived-to-be-a-royal-pain-in-my-ass. . . he wears glasses," he ranted.

Hermione flinched at the mention of Potter. "Please don't say that name, to me that's the same as me saying Voldemort to you," she said satisfied with the very slight flinch he gave, and then continued, "Look, I never said anything bad about you wearing glasses. I don't know why I'm about to say this, but in all honesty I think it looks kind of. . . cute."

"Not hot?" he asked.

"No. . . I think it's degrading to call a person hot," she stated matter-of-factly.

"Really. . ."

"No shit Sherlock, I just said so. . ." she replied flatly.

"No, that's not what I meant. . . I was just thinking that it's funny because that's exactly how I feel. It's insulting to call or be called hot; it's like treating someone like property or a piece of meat."

"It's odd how much you and I are alike in some ways. I never expected that."

"What, from the heartless, arrogant, Slytherin ferret? I'm assuming Granger told you about that incident?"

"Yeah, I know everyone in the school however well Hermione knew them, and I know everything that happened that Hermione knew about."

"You might be surprised then to find out that you already know more about me now than anyone else does."

"Seriously? Why do you hide your real self from everyone? Cause from what I know now, you seem relatively human."

"Well I don't like other people to know me for a few reasons; one, I would lose my reputation. Two, there's no one I would consider wanting to tell. And three, you don't know who you can trust anymore when you've grown up as I have.

Hermione was caught off guard by that. "So are you saying that you trust me?" he nodded, "But why? You don't even know me!"

"Whether you know it or not, you would know or admit it, you trust me enough to tell me about you, even when you already had an impression about me before we met. No one I know has ever trusted me that much. . . so I figure you deserve the same level of trust."

"You're a very honorable person then. That's surprising."

"Yes, unlike my parents I am very bound to my honor. I'm not as shallow as everyone assumes."

"I can see that. It's funny, but you're the last person I expected to have a pleasant conversation with and yet. . . here I am. . ." said Hermione looking him in the eye to judge his sincerity. But those misty gray eyes were very hard to read.

"I can't say I agree with that sentiment, but that's just because I didn't know you before."

"Yeah. . ." there was an uncomfortable silence in the air then she looked at her watch, "Don't you have a prefect meeting to go to right now or something?"

Draco looked at his watch too, "Oh, yeah I totally forgot about that!" With that he left.

'If only you knew who I truly was you wouldn't be talking to me like you have been, you'd hate me just as much as you always have. . .' she thought.

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A/N: REVIEW! I won't update unless I get some!