I step out onto platform 9 3/4 with an air of dignity surrounding me.
Last year was chaotic to say the least and I prayed to whoever would listen that I just wanted a normal year this time around, I swear if this year is as chaotic and event filled as last year I was going to drop out of school and live on the mountain side by myself for the rest of my life.
After the final task and Harry, Cedric and I arrived out of the graveyard and back to the school; I had avoided Hermione with a certain persistence that scared me.
I hadn't talked to her all summer despite all of her concerned letters.
People had been asking me what happened, I haven't talked about what happened in the graveyard so they only have the version of the story that the famous and now declared crazy Harry Potter told them.
Each time someone would approach me I left the room ignoring their pleads and calls for me to explain, Skeeter had been fired from the Daily Prophet for the better and was now in hiding.
I wasn't much better; I rarely talked to people over the summer, I was terrified to receive the same response that Potter had when he told the truth to everyone, its not that it wasn't true, because every single word of it was true-how Cedric died-how Voldemort came back to life-Peter Pettigrew-...the death eaters.
If the truth came out my fate would be determined;I'd be sentenced to a life of torture for something that I wasn't.
I drag my trunk behind me up the stairs to an empty cabin; shutting the door behind me the window shining with curious eyes as they realize who is inside of the compartment.
I gave Harry the prize money even though he insisted persistently that I was to take it-but i wouldn't take the prize that should have been Cedrics since Harry and I were flukes in the system; more like intentional flukes.
I pull out my DADA textbook and begin reading the incredibly boring intro of the basics, 'approved by the ministry' says on the inside, in the foreword.
I hear a knock on the window and see Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott.
I reluctantly stand up to allow them inside of the cabin.
They take a seat in front of me and smile almost reluctantly.
"Look...I know you put me through hell last year-but this one we have to stick together Abby," Draco starts out just as I close the door.
"Why's that Draco?" I ask him sighing as I sat back down.
"I have a feeling someone is going to let out the truth about our families and you know what that will do to us-we will be cast aside like used house elf's, we need to stay together otherwise-we are all dead," Draco says a scared tone to his voice.
"If you mean someone as in Potter-he doesn't have any source to tell anyone about our families," I sigh. "Nott-what is your opinion on this?"
"Well...I hate to admit this but I think that Malfoy is right, we need to stick together, your father, his father, my father-they are all in the same situation and one day that might be us," Theodore extends his thoughts to me.
"I guess your right, but Draco are you sure you want to be 'friends' with me after all of the bullshit that I put you through?"
"I understand why you did it so yeah-I guess I am, besides we are only friends and I know that's all we will ever be, anyways we used to always get along didn't we?" He asks me curiously.
I think about it realizing he was right.
"Alright...I'll bite," I reluctantly agree to his absurdity. "But I will not put up with any of your bullshit towards Hermione,okay?"
"I didn't figure you would," he grins.
I roll my eyes and pull out the prefect letter that I had received.
"I have to go to the prefect cabin, I received the badge this summer so I have to deal with that but I will be back," I sigh seeing that the train was about to take off.
"Oh you're the other prefect?" Draco asks me surprised.
"Yeah?"
"I'm the other one, I'm going to come with you," He says almost excitedly.
I sigh reluctantly allowing him to go in front of me to lead the way to the Prefects cabin at the front of the train car, we were the second to last ones to arrive for instruction; the last ones who did arrive inside of the cabin were Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.
Hermione P.O.V
"I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that Abby was one of the prefects of Slytherin and that the other was none other then Draco Malfoy," I go on to Ron as we sit down after an exhausting day of leading the first years around the castle, and to the Gryffindor common room.
"I guess not-aren't you still mad at her for not answering any of your letters this summer? Or ever actually talking to you?" He asks me.
"I-I am still upset but, I'm sure she had her reasons-," I stutter until he cuts me off.
"Or being a death eater-," He growls at me.
"She isn't even of age yet Ron," I say standing up. "And besides she would never want to join such a criminalized organization that murdered hundreds if not thousands of people."
"Did she even tell you what happened in the graveyard 'Mione?" He asks me.
"That is none of your concern," I roll my eyes. "And besides its not like you know what happened-were you there?"
"Well no."
"Then keep that out of your mouth because you have no idea what you are talking about Ron," I growl. "I'm going to sleep and you should to-classes start early tomorrow and we need to lead the first years to their first lessons."
Without wishing him goodnight I turn around and trudge up the stairs to the girls dormitory where a letter waited on my pillow, engraved with gold calligraphy, I almost thought it was another ridiculous letter from Krum until I looked at it closer and realized whose handwriting it was.
Abby sent me a letter.
Hermione,
Meet me in the Astronomy tower tonight at 3 am when everyone is asleep, I'll explain everything that you need to know when you get there.
~Love Abby
I sigh sitting on my bed grabbing my trunk carefully dragging it across the floor making sure to not wake up the other girls that were sound asleep beside me.
Opening my trunk I dig through it and pull out my potions notebook and tuck the letter inside a middle page, closing it yet again and burying it beneath the pile of clothing inside of my trunk.
Three am comes fairly quickly when you can't sleep.
My anxious body was waiting for her to touch it, to kiss my lips, I've been starved of her touch for a whole summer.
Soon enough I arrive in the Astronomy tower the journey familiar as I had been there dozens of nights with her voice and presence keeping me company, no matter how late it was we would find a way to get there.
I see her sitting on the bench in front of the planetarium where we had spent hours of almost every night so that we could talk about anything and everything under the secrecy of the room no one even thought that we would be in.
"Hey..."
"Hey," She says looking up at me.
"So what did you need to explain to me- I'm guessing that it's something that you can't explain to me over letters," I say sitting beside the person I called the love of my life.
"It's a long story 'Mione..."
"Well I'm willing to stay here for however long you need me to be here," I say placing my hand on top of hers.
"The secrets that I've kept from you will all come out tonight...I promise," She says looking concerned.
"The reason I lived through the second task and understood the egg is because I had help-from Moaning Myrtle...she said that if I told her my deepest darkest secret then she would help me open the egg..."
"What's your deepest darkest secret Abby?"
"I'm was terrified that Voldemort was going to come back and my father would go back to the death eaters...and with my annoying luck...it happened every thing that I was terrified of came to life and now that fear is only slightly modified."
She looks at me a scared expression on her face as she observed me to see what my reaction to her secret.
"In the maze my father was there-he joined back with the death eaters...now I have to deal with that and we were traveling a shit ton over the summer holidays and I received your letters but I was terrified that my letters would be tracked or intercepted and you would be harmed...I don't want you to get hurt...I love you Hermione and I-I'm not good for you..."
"Abby..."
"No-Hermione listen to me, your a muggleborn and my father is crazy about me dating anyone who is not a pureblood not to mention a girl, he doesn't even know about us somehow...or if he does he's just ignoring it...I never brought it up because I was scared what he would do to you and we should probably end us because its going to blow up in our faces and your going to get hurt or worse..."
"Abby do you really think that it is so easy to kill me off? Trust me it is going to be a lot of work to get rid of me...And we'll get through everything together...okay? We will I promise because you know what we are?"
"Incompatible?"
I laugh.
"No we are a team and we both love each other so that means we can work hard to get out of this mess...I know we are young but one day...Abby I want to spend the rest of forever with you and I can only do that if you want to keep this together...you know we can Abby one day we will make it out of here whether with a arm missing or unscathed; we will make it out, we will figure out your father together and we will survive together no matter what I'm here for you..."
She starts crying, tears streaking down her worn, tired face, thousands of tears that she should have shed a year ago when I opened my arms to her for the first time.
She suddenly grabs my face and kisses me harshly but passionately on the lips.
"I love you and I need to realize that I can't shake you off that simply...not that I want to." She murmurs against my lips.
I laugh and continue to kiss the woman of my dreams.
