Disclaimer: I do not own anything. It all belongs to J.K. Rowling.

I'm sorry for not updating but I was at my Dad's and his computer seems not to like me ;-( Anyway, here you go with the second chapter!

Chapter 2

During the next few days Hermione didn't notice much of a reintegration into the clique of the most popular Gryffindors around Harry Potter. But the weekend would come and so would the chance for Hermione to show that she was able to do more than just study for school. She had absolutely no idea how to go about it though. After all she did neither share their passion for Quidditch nor agreed with their (negative) attitude towards school.

The preparations for the Quidditchmatch next Friday between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were already under way. After Mischa Villow had left Hogwarts last year Ron had become team captain of the Gryffindors. The last match against Ravenclaw had been really hard to win so Ron had been changing tactics and now freaked out for minor reasons. This year a lot of the best Quidditch players were not in Hogwarts anymore so a new team had been set up.

Ginny was in goal and Neville was one of the beaters. Anybody who thinks that Neville is the wrong man for this job is not up to date – The boy spent nearly the whole summer in a special hospital which had just opened up. They experimented with his brain and through various operations, especially rare herbs and novel potions they got him better reactions. They tried to find a cure for his forgetfulness too but they were not very sucessful in this field.

Anyway, in the end everybody seemed to be involved in the preparations for Friday. Even if they were only sitting on the stand, squealing with amazement, like Viviane did, rather disturbing the training than supporting the team.

So Hermione was one of the few people who were sitting in the library this rainy Wednesday evening, struggling with eighteenth-century history. But though Hermione had already read page seventy from "Witchcraft now and then" for the umpteenth time she couldn't remember its essence. That was when she finally realized that it was time to stop studying and start relaxing a bit. So the witch stuffed her textbooks into her black shoulder bag and put the books which were still piled up in front of her back into their bookshelves.

She saw Ron, who was on his way to the Gryffindor's common room. He was drenched with rain, cursing silently to himself. Hermione had to get in his way and gesticulate wildly in front of his face to make him notice her. He blushed immediately, looked to the ground in embarrassement and tried to brush his wet hair out of his face.

"I guess the training is already over?", Hermione asked.

Ron's reply was merely a short "Yes".

"So how did the new tactics work out today?", Hermione added after an awkward moment of silence. But when "Not really" was the only answer she got, Hermione said goodbye to Ron with the words : "Well, I'm off to the owlery. See you!"

Of course that was a lie but Hermione couldn't stand that Ron was so inhibited. She didn't know if it was her fault or if Ron was generally shy but it was a fact that this year she hadn't been able to have a single serious conversation with her "friend" yet.

It was too late to avoid meeting him when Hermione saw Draco Malfoy who was coming around the corner, carrying an elegant leather suitcase. He seemed to be absent-minded and didn't notice Hermione. He uttered a short shriek of panic and dropped his suitcase when he bumped into Hermione. She held her aching head and cursed.

"Watch out where you're going, mudblood!", Draco hissed at her while he picked up his suitcase. In order to defend herself Hermione replied :

"It was YOU who bumped into me! I was about to apologize but you're obviously still the same old slimy idiot! I should've known that you can't get rid of such a trait!"

It was only when Draco stared at her in confusion that she realized what she had just said. She looked down ashamed and whispered :

"Just ignore what I said! I didn't mean it that way. It wasn't supposed to mean anything!"

With these words Hermione turned away from Draco, who stared after her in disbelief. He shook his head and set off to the dungeons. He had a mission, there was no time to pay attention to such weird incidents like the one with Granger.

Author's Note: I know that it's too short again, nevertheless I hope that you get over yourselves and review ;-) Oh, and by the way thanks to Andilou for reviewing for chapter one... I don't think I would've continued writing without you o.O ... Oh and, doesn't anyone want to be my beta-reader?

°°°°° Walnut Tree °°°°°