Hermione stared and opened her mouth as if to say something.

"Well, what is it?"

"Never mind, Professor," Hermione walked in and sat down at her respective seat. Snape walked over to her and whispered,

"Why are you late?"

"I'll tell you after class," she responded. Neville was ordered to tell Hermione what they were doing. Luckily, she did not need her potions book at all. Bianca sat on her shoulder and helped Neville silently. Hermione worked on her own. Snape was surprised that Neville managed to make a perfect potion without the aide of Hermione. He still took points from Gryffindor. Accusing Hermione of cheating (though he knew they did not) and because Hermione was late. All together, Gryffindor lost 20 points in potions that evening. As the bell rang, Snape requested Hermione to stay.

"Did Draco. . . ?" he asked.

"Yes! Why didn't you stop him!" Hermione asked rather angrily.

"Oh, I'm sure I have all the options in the world. I don't have to fear going against Lord Voldemort, since I'm one of his Death Eaters," he said in a sarcastic voice. Hermione glared.

"Why is he mad at me? He KNOWS I am the Hermione he loved. Why is he threatening ME?"

"He does not want to accept the fact that you had gone back in time. He thinks you hated him and just left him."

"Hmph. He is so stubborn. He KNEW I was going back to the future, I told him! He did not try to stop me!" Hermione broke down. She still remembered leaving. She remembered talking to Riddle. Saying he would love his new home. Telling him she loved him. How could she have been so stupid? She also remembered that she did not make eye contact with Tom. Could that have caused some of the problem?

"I think he thought you and Lily sent it up so she could leave, while she had the daughter and called her Hermione, but we both know that isn't true. You don't look anything like Lily or I, and you belong to muggles. I don't understand why he isn't mad at me, though."

"Oh my. . . That's right. . . I wouldn't let him read the letters!"

"What letters?"

"The ones I got from Lily. That's the reason I know about you and Lily."

"I thought Tom told you. . ." Snape looked at her confusedly. Hermione shook her head. "Well, that explains just about everything. That's probably why he also figured Harry would be the one to defeat him."

"I give up. If he did not believe me, he is not worth the time. I'll figure out a way to deal with him later," Hermione said. "I need to leave. I have to clean up my dorm, as you know." She abruptly turned around and left the classroom.

"Bianca, mind helping some?" Hermione asked as she knelt on the floor picking up random objects. Bianca got to work right away and began cleaning things at a godly pace. Hermione was surprised but kept working. "Draco is so annoying, you know? Stupid Tom giving him orders to wreak havoc on my life." Hermione muttered and continued putting things back to their original state.

Luckily for Hermione, none of the girls came in until after dinner. By that time, she had everything back in perfect order, except some of her belongings were missing. No doubt Draco stole them. She just hoped that he only stole from her. She did not keep a list of everything in the dormitory.

The next day, Harry and Ron decided to talk to Hermione.

"HERMIONE!" Ron shouted. Hermione was farther up the hall. Harry and Ron shouted her name, ran, and shoved to catch up to her. She walked over to a wall and they followed.

"What?" she asked.

"Someone trashed our room!" Ron said. Hermione stared.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she muttered. "I should've known," she continued.

"Known what?" Harry asked.

"He did the same to my room. Can you use a spell to clean it?"

"No," Harry said.

"Grab a brush and start scrubbing," she said, turned, and began walking. The two boys followed her again.

"You're joking, right?" Ron asked.

"No. I had to clean my room. I suggest you do it before your roommates find out. That's what I did. Didn't you wonder why you did not see me until Potions class?"

"No. . ." Ron said then Harry elbowed him in the stomach. "HEY! What was that for??" Harry ignored Ron and continued to follow Hermione. They had herbology next.

"We are sorry, Hermione," Harry said. Hermione was not sure what to do. She continued walking in silence for a few moments.

"You are forgiven," she said then began walking faster. She could hear Ron, though, who whispered to Harry, irritated: "I'm not. She was being a selfish jerk." She also knew Harry hurt him again when he began yelling. Ron had become even more ill-tempered than usual. Small tears trickled down Hermione's face. She began jogging down the hall.

"You have the biggest mouth, Ron," Harry said.

"Welcome class," Professor Sprout said. Hermione made sure that neither Ron nor Harry could work near her. She worked with some Hufflepuffs and with Neville. "Today we are going over muggle plants." Hermione found that rather interesting. Learning about muggle things in magic school. . . How odd. . .

"This is a birch tree," Professor Sprout pointed to a tree with white bark, similar to an aspen tree. Hermione could tell the trees had been grown using magic. She listened to Sprout drone on and on. There was not much important. They were taught how to make some remedies from various plants. They had to grow mint leaves with magic during that class period. At least it had something to do with magic. Hermione had a feeling that it would be a long month. She could not wait until the first snow crystal dropped to the ground. It would be so pretty.