A/N:

Hey Fanfic readers! Well as many of you know I haven't written anything in a while but I'm trying to get back my grove and conquer the writer's block. But I have worked really hard on this and managed to spit out a chappie for all the loyal readers. Actually I really happen to like this chappie. I think it all worked out really well.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but if I did I would most certainly release the next book and stop with the angst.

Well I hope you like it.

The Forgotten

Chapter 3

"Hermione!" Ron and Harry screamed together. But the boy standing in front of me just looked amused, slightly confused, and surprised. He really was a good-looking person. I don't know, there was just something about him that made me want him. Hmmm… I wonder why I never made a move on him. I mean from the looks on the boys' faces this really surprised them so if I made a move on this boy in the past they really would have no reason to be surprised. Could memory really affect a person so much? Did this change my taste? Is that why I find this boy really attractive whereas my past self didn't? I don't know, this is really starting to make my head ache though.

"What do you think your doing Hermione!" Ron whispered into my ear as he pulled me back toward him. Harry on the other hand was already grabbing Draco by his collar fronts.

"What do you guys think your doing?" I asked as I pulled myself away from Ron. Ron only answered by pulling me back toward him. There was silence then finally Ron gave me an answer.

"Stay out of this Hermione, you don't know him. You don't know what an ass he is. We don't want him to take advantage of your situation. Which is just the kind of thing he would do."

"Ron I'm not a kid I can decide things for myself. Just because I lost some memory does not mean that I lost all common sense. I can mostly definitely assure you that I can be the judge of whom I may talk to and when I choose to talk to them. You may be my friend but you are not my keeper."

"Chill Hermione. You don't understand; we will explain in the common room." He pulled out of the great hall and I assumed on a path to the Gryffindor common rooms.

Meanwhile in the Great Hall Harry and that boy are probably butting heads. Well I suppose if they do that must mean to some existent that he, I mean that boy, not Harry, must like me a little bit. Because if he didn't care about me then why even bother with Harry. At least something good might come of the boys' little fit. I mean that when Harry comes back he will have to tell us, in gloat or just to fulfill our curiosity, what was said between the boys. That was the only little good thing that is going to come of this whole tirade.

We made it to a portrait of a fat lady, which, I was told was the entrance to the common room and all you had to say was the password and she would let you in the room. He pulled me in and sat me in a chair. "We'll sit here and wait for Harry so we can explain it to you."

"The explanation better be good, but I don't know what you could tell me that wouldn't piss me off right at this moment. Whatever the reason you guys have no right to do to me what you just did." Ron didn't say anything until Harry returned.

"Hey Harry how did it go with old, Ferret Face?" Harry didn't say anything in returned but looked pretty angry. He sat down with a loud thump in the chair facing mine. He grabbed the arms of my chair and pulled me toward him, so we were face to face.

"Okay Hermione you're going to have to listen to me. Stay away from Malfoy. Okay? I can fight with Malfoy if he tries anything with you but I won't let it be in vain, and if you keep flirting with him then it really doesn't do any good to fight with him. Plus that boy has been nothing but a prick to us since we started this school. You hate him. We hate him. It's how its always has been, and that is how it always will be. Do you understand me?" The whole time I listened stony faced the anger building inside.

"How dare you! Who do you think you are? You are my friend. Not my father! You two have no right to try and make my choices. I will do, as I want to do, when I want to do it. I will make the calls on how I live my life. And how are you going to tell me how it was? I don't remember. Those are not my memories. I have to figure this out myself. I have to find out who I like and whom I want to hang out with. Okay? Do you understand?"

"You changed. You're not our Hermione anymore." Harry said.

"Newsflash Harry! I never was yours from what you have told me. You probably just used me as a homework helpline. How can I just start to go with everything you tell me about myself and start being that person? I'm not an actor and I don't want to be. I'm going to learn to be the person that I am. And if that isn't the old me then I don't want to be her!" I stood up, my chair falling backwards as I did. "If you ever decide you want to be friends and that you can except that I may never be her again then come and find me." I turned and walked but a voice stopped me at the foot of the stairs.

"But Hermione…" Harry voiced.

"I understand Harry. You guys want to protect me. But I don't need protectors I need friends and people that will help me find myself. I need to be free to make the choices that I want to make. It is really important to me. And I think I may have to be on my own for a while to figure it out. Thanks for the sentiments but I really don't need that right now." I continued up the stairs and nobody tried to stop me. I went to my room and dressed for bed. That night sleep came quick, I barely had time to think about the things that happened to me today.

The next morning I went down to breakfast alone. My solo entrance didn't go unnoticed through as I took my seat the whispers started. In fact the whole teacher's table was a buzz with whispers. I didn't really care though it didn't matter what these people thought happened. They weren't anyone to me and I really didn't care whether they liked me or not. I said that I was going to do what I was going to do nobody will stop me, not Harry or Ron and not this damn crowd of wizards and witches. (Umm… and giants, which I think one of the teachers might be, ghost, which are floating about the room, and umm… I think one of the teachers might be a vampire, oh and that one might be a midget…or something. Well I think I got everything in here. Cough, cough excuse me everyone,)

For the rest of the day I got a lot of looks from people. You know the thing, pointed fingers and glances, and whispering that started whenever someone spotted me. The only two that talked to me were two girls, who told me that they were in my year and house, named Lavender and Pavarti. The said that they had heard the whole story from a third year girl who happened to be in the Common Room when Ron dragged me in and when Harry and I got in the argument. They said that they totally agreed that the boy from the great hall, ("Oh his name?" Lavender asked after I asked who he was. "Well that's Draco Malfoy, heir to a totally huge amount of money and those incredible looks of his.") was super sexy and that they were proud that a girl from another house, ("…and a Gryffindor!") besides Slytherin finally had the guts to get out and say something about him. ("It's like totally cliché for someone to say that they like a Slytherin especially if they're from our house. But I know they can't be all bad.")

Just about everything went about that way the next week. And in what seemed like no time Dumbledore was calling me up to the front of the room to be sorted into a house, what would be my permanent house until graduation or if the found my memories and I felt a house change was needed. I really wasn't as nervous as I was excited. I didn't feel like I was the same Hermione. I didn't want to fill her niche anymore. I wanted to make my own path.

I went and sat on a stool next to Dumbledore and he lowered the hat, which he held in his right hand, over my head. "Hmmm…" I heard the hat say in my head. "A lot of potential. You have some brains in there, I see. A lot of courage too. Hmmm… where to put you, where to put you? I t seems that Gryffindor would know longer be able to assist in your growth. You're loyal but Hufflepuff is more of a neutral ground and they wouldn't know what to do with you. You want to do so much, and you have the means to achieve those goals… Smart but to put you in Ravenclaw would cause jealousy among some of your mates… Best put you in…" The hat opened its mouth and spoke aloud for the first time. "Slytherin!"

Dumbledore smiled and clapped me on the back. But when I looked back toward my peers I saw confusion on their faces. In the Gryffindor's though you could see betrayal mixed with the confusion. I just stood and shook Professor Dumbledore's hand before turning and taking a seat at the Slytherin table. The whole room watched me as if they were waiting for some negative reaction. But I didn't give them anything I just filled my plate and began to eat. The room continued to stare until I put down my fork and looked at them pointedly and asked, "Am I really that entertaining?" Then the room was once again a buzz. I finished my small dinner quickly and sat there waiting for someone from my table to leave so I could follow them to the common room and get the password. I looked up at the table in the front were Snape, my new head of house, was sitting. In askance of what I should do. But he ignored me and so I continued to wait.

It wasn't until the boy, Draco Malfoy was his name, tapped me on the shoulder that I broke my glare toward the ill-tempered teacher. "Come on Granger, I'll show you the way to the common room."

"Oh. Thanks." I held my hand out to him after me exited the great hall. "My name is Hermione Granger." He stared for a second before he grasped my hand.

"I know who you are Granger."

"Yes but technically in my memory I haven't been introduced to you yet. Plus I wasn't sure if you knew my first name since you keep calling me Granger." I laughed a little. "Are you always this formal?"

"No, but you and I aren't exactly friends. Well that's my memory anyway, I don't know what is going on in yours."

"I don't remember not liking you. And if I say so myself my first impression of you went rather well. Maybe if I knew I wasn't supposed to like you before I saw you, maybe then I could have prepared myself."

"I don't know Granger. You seem different since you came back. I don't know more laid back. Not so…not so much thinking about how to be perfect all the time. And you seem like you don't care what anyone thinks, but before I think you tried to please everyone around you."

"It seems everyone has been saying that lately. That I'm not enough like her. Well it's really hard to try to be like someone you have never even met." We walked the rest of the way in silence. We reached the stairs he showed me a lever on the sixth stair down that when pulled revealed a door at the bottom of the stairs. When the door was knocked three times in quick secession the door opened into the Slytherin common rooms. He told me that Snape moved the space after he suspected someone of a different house entering it his second year.

When we went inside he showed me that the girls dorm was up the stairs on the right. It was all sort of made the same way as the Gryffindor rooms, except with a whole lot of silver and greens since they were their house colors. Well I guess now they're my house colors too. But after all this couldn't end out that bad. I think for now I'll just go to my rooms and sleep. I'll just worry about everything in the morning. "I think for right now I'll just go to bed. Good night Draco." I turned and got half way up the stairs before his voice stopped me.

"How did you know my name, Granger? If you forgot everything how do you know my name? I didn't say my name when you introduced yourself earlier."

"Well…" I said. "When I like something that I see, I will learn a little about it before I face it." My smile increased, as his mouth dropped. "Come on Draco. It's not like you didn't know that. I believe I voiced my opinion already." I turned and continued walking but called over my shoulder. "And by the way? Call me Hermione. 'Night Draco." I lifted my hand and gave a little wave over my shoulder.

It wasn't long after I got upstairs that I was asleep. I was tired and plus it's so much more fun to live in dreams than face a bleak reality. One that I still didn't know whether I fit into. A place where I couldn't find my space. But then again things seem to be looking up.

Another A/N:

Well hope you all like this story. But how will I know? 

Hmmm… I have an idea!

Review!

Byes!

Patia