Disclaimer: As said before, I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or places in it. The only things I truly own in this story, that I didn't say before are the frantic little ideas that are floating around in my over-active imagination.

Chapter 2: School

"Everyone…everyone! I would like you all to welcome Miss Hermione Granger…Her-my-oh-knee, correct?" Her mousy algebra teacher asked.

"Yes."

"Hermione Granger here has just moved to Roseburg from England!"

There was a momentary pause, where the assembled students turned to their partners, mumbling about 'that new girl'.

"Now everyone, I want you all to welcome her and make her feel at home because she is 4000 miles away from home." VanDyk squeaked to the class, his small frame moving violently as his arms started waving around vigorously to regain the class's attention. "Now Miss Granger, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself…"

Five minutes before the end of her lesson, the boy who sat in front of her turned around to talk to her, revealing a very tan complexion, wavy ebony locks and intense, indigo eyes.

"Hi, my name is Blaise Zabini. I just wanted to welcome you to Roseburg High." He said, holding out his hand to shake hers. Slowly she extended her hand to meet his strong-looking palm. In those few moments of contact, she felt a tingle spread all through her body, shocking her senses.

"It…it's nice to meet you, and thank you for the greeting." 'One could get lost in those eyes' she thought to herself, not even realizing that she was, in fact, getting lost and was still shaking his hand, even after the bell rang.

"Well, um," he said hurriedly, sliding his hand out of hers, "I'll, um... see you around." Getting up from his seat, he turned on his heel, quickly removing himself from the classroom.

"Don't go falling for that one," came the voice of her new friend, Molly. "He likes to keep to himself when at all possible. From what I've heard, he's been like that since his girlfriend of a year and a half, broke up with him because she was about to go on a date with another guy and didn't want loose ends."

"She ended a year and a half relationship just like that? Poor Blaise." Hermione said, watching his quickly retreating back with a sympathetic look covering her face.

Through out the morning, Hermione continued meeting new people, finding that the students at Roseburg High were very nice, but never forgetting what had happened that morning.

During lunch, she decided to go back to the library to explore, since she hadn't been able to do so during her study period earlier that day.

The library was very large. Shelves upon shelves covered the floor and walls, save a few doorways leading to rooms for computers. It was a good thing that there were shelves covering almost every single wall and space, because, as far as Hermione could tell, the room was very old, and had a particularly horrid paint job. Light blue and a brownish red were not the right colors for a library. The room looked like it came straight from the sixties, she decided. But that's not what really caught her interest. Having always had a secret love for fantasy, she set her stuff upon a table out in the middle of the room and moved to where the fiction of her fancy resided.

"There's too many to choose from!" she whispered to herself excitedly as she stared at the multitude of titles bathing the walls, finally deciding on a book she had never read before. Something about a girl who gets sucked into a land outside of time, then has to go through different time decades so as to save time itself.

She was starting to turn to check the book out, when she ran head-long into something very solid, but soft.

"Oh, excuse me…" she started to say as she stumbled backwards. Looking up from reading the description of the book in her hands, she faltered when she saw who it was she had run into.

"My bad, I wasn't watching where I was goin'." Whispered the smooth, masculine voice of Blaise Zabini as he looked down at her, clutching his single-strap Adidas backpack that crossed his broad chest.

Turning to leave quickly, her face coloring in embarrassment, Hermione thought she had heard him call her name. When she turned back around to see if he had, he was gone, disappearing into the shadows.

"Strange." She said to herself

"Strange is right!" Said Molly when Hermione told her what had happened in the library after school that day. "I haven't heard of him talking to anyone that much at this school. Ever. If it had happened, I would have known."

For the rest of the day, all Hermione could think about was what Molly had told her: 'I haven't heard of him talking to anyone that much at this school. Ever.'

During math the next day, while they were working in groups, Hermione decided to strike up a conversation with the man who was working studiously in a corner alone.

"May I work with you Blaise? You seem to be the only one, other than the teacher, that is any good at this."

She noticed that, as he looked up, his eyes became momentarily large at being addressed, then calmed when she'd asked her question.

"Oh. Um…sure." He managed to get out, flushing slightly as she smiled and sat down across from him at his table. As she worked in front of him, she could tell that he was still red because of the heat that was radiating off his body as he worked, causing her to smile.

"So, you like reading fantasy?" Hermione said, trying to start a conversation.

"Wha?...Oh, yes. I like reading about magic and things that are impossible for us, like spells or science fiction. My favorite T.V show right now is called 'Firefly'. It's kind of a space age, western. Everything looks like it's from the 1800s, except for the space ships. The reason the show is called 'Firefly' is because that is the type of space ship that the characters fly around in." He said, putting his pencil down, looking up into her chocolate colored eyes. Hermione smirked inside when she saw him shudder under her gaze.

"Are you alright, Blaise?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little cold I guess."

She knew this to be untrue because it was very very warm. According to Mr. VanDyk, the heater valve was stuck at 75˚, unable to be shut off for the past three days.

"Who's your favorite author?" He asked.

"Ooh, that's a tough one. I think that my top two would have to be Diana Waynnes Jones and K.J Bowling."

"K.J Bowling is my favorite, too!"

"No way! Which one was your favorite?"

"I'd have to say that I like the third one, because that's when he finds out that he had an older sister that he could live with instead of his aunt and uncle and their two kids."

"That's a good one; I liked the fourth one personally. It's so exciting. But I can't say much, I've read them all seven times each." Hermione admitted, bowing her head to avoid his detecting her blush.

"Don't feel bad, I've read them more. I couldn't put them down." He said, chuckling.

"Oh, I know. It's like there's a spell that the book puts on you. Like the cursed tome in the second book. You know…the one you couldn't put down until you finished the book, always walking around with your nose in the book, doing everything one handed."

"Oh, yeah! I remember that one. That was funny."

They chuckled and talked and laughed for the rest of the period. Before the bell rang, Hermione grabbed a spare piece of notebook paper.

"Call me sometime, I like talking to you. We have enough in common to keep a conversation going for an extend amount of time, compared to many of the other guys at this school, I've come to find." She said while writing down her phone number.

"Okay."

"Okay then." She agreed, treating him to yet another one of her bright smiles.

The book mentioned about the city out side of time is called "A Tale of Time City" by Diana Wynne Jones; I recommend you all read it! Same with the show 'Firefly'. It was a real show by Joss Wendon that was unfortunately cancelled because FOX thought that it was "too intelligent for our viewers." BAH HUMBUG YOU MORONS! Sorry folks, a little rage in the morning… REVIEW!!! Please?