Hermione felt like she was in Hell; as an endless swarm of people offered her their sympathy. She didn't want to hug them, she wanted to run away.

She didn't know half these people, and didn't want to. She had gotten over her tears, and while it still hit her sometimes that she would never get to see her grandmother again, the tears weren't a continuous flow.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice who was hugging her mother.

"Hermione dear, I'd like you to meet Vernon and Petunia Dursley. And this is their son Dudley."

"Oh you poor dear, I am so sorry for your loss. I never met her, but Vernon has told me such stories of when he was young and would visit her." Said Petunia

"Of course, your father hadn't been born yet. My mother was a friend of hers, they would constantly be visiting, and I remember she always had a plate full of cookies waiting," added Vernon.

It was obvious that they didn't recognize her, it shocked her that they could care so little about Harry's life.

She couldn't help but embarrass them "Yes, I'm just sorry she never got to meet Harry. Or Ron for that matter, I'm sure they would have loved visiting her as much as you did."

"Harry..... Our Harry??" asked Petunia stunned.

"Yes, I go to school with Harry, he's a very bright boy."

"You go to school with Harry?!" it was the first thing Dudley had said, and while he had looked bored before, he now looked scared.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley took a different approach, their expressions quickly turned form sympathy to loathing.

"Well, we must be going now, we are truly sorry for your loss." And with that they turned and walked away, but as Hermione hugged the next person she could have sworn she heard Mr. Dursley mumble "They always ruin the good families."

For the rest of the day Hermione just pretended to listen to the endless people saying "I'm sorry", like that did anything, oh, yeah because they're sorry she died everything was all better again.

The funeral was an ordeal, having people stand up and talk about her grandmother almost proved to be Hermione's undoing; it ended before she could run however, and she was forced to get in a car and drive down to a graveyard. She then had to make her way through everyone else to get out of the graveyard. Next she had to go home and listen to people talk to her, telling her it would be ok, why wouldn't they just leave her alone.

How did they know if everything would be okay or not, were they her? No, and at this point Hermione didn't even know what she was feeling anymore.

When the gathering was over Hermione went into her bedroom, put on her pajamas and crawled under the covers. She then proceeded to cry herself to sleep.

Ron and Harry couldn't stop thinking about Hermione. They felt terrible about her grandmother. But most of all they had come to realize they didn't know all that much about her family. Sure they had seen her parents a couple of times, but neither of them had known she had a grandmother, and they didn't know how close she was to her either.

Needless to say they had a pretty hard time paying attention in class. Since the Veritaserum was now simmering there was no risk to their health, except Snape.

They figured that they needed to get out of the castle for a while. So during the first Hogsmeade weekend Harry, Ron, and Neville set of down the road. None of them realized what they were about to run into.

They were just passing through the shadow of the hill upon which sat the shrieking shack when they first heard the voice they would never forget.

"Watch out!!!"

Ron and Harry turned at the same instant, but they weren't fast enough to get out of the way before a run-away trunk slammed into them, knocking them to the ground. It was the choice moment for the owner to lift the levitation spell so that it landed with a thud in their stomachs.

The owner took a different approach. As they ran down the hill to fetch their trunk they stumbled and rolled the rest of the way down, right into Neville. In fact, they didn't stop there; they kept right on going, right into the brick wall of a building.

"Are you all right?" asked Neville who was the first to get up. Ron and Harry were still struggling with the trunk which now didn't seem to want to move at all.

"Yes, I hate to admit it but it happens all the time, I am rather clumsy."

"Hey, can you two maybe give us a hand? We're kind of stuck." The comment, made by Ron, came out as a hoarse whisper, because the trunk now seemed eager to get to the ground, through Harry and Ron.

"Oh, my. My spells do tend to get mixed up. Here, let me try this..."

As the owner began the spell the ground beneath the boys seemed to shake and in the end the trunk gave up the battle, Ron and Harry promptly shoved it off of them and sat up coughing. As soon as they caught their breath they stood up and got their first good look at their attacker.

The owner of the trunk turned out to be a young girl about their age with blond hair cut above the shoulder, actually that was the only way to tell her apart from Neville except for her eyes, which were a bluish-violet.

They were her most striking feature. They were amazingly different. But at the same time Harry sensed something familiar in them.

"I'm sorry about that; sometimes it's as if I have no magic left in me."

"Yeah, and other times your just bursting with it, that whole earthquake thing was pretty freaky." Ron commented.

"Yes, well... could you please tell me how to get to Hogwarts, I'm late as it is with that whole trunk fiasco, which I am truly sorry about."

"It's fine, don't worry, here, I'll show you the way, I was just on my way back." As soon as Neville said this Harry and Ron exchanged a comical look.

"Oh, thank you so much, my name is Sarah Ponyan."

"I'm Neville" then almost as an afterthought "Longbottom"

"Ron Weasley"

"Harry... Potter"

"Nice to meet yo........." she trailed off, which they were all used to in Harry's presence, but she wasn't staring at Harry, she was staring at Ron. "Oh, my, you're THE Ron Weasley!"

"Umm..... well I'm the only one I know about so yeah, I guess so."

"Oh, my, I never actually thought I would get o meet you! I saw your picture in the daily Prophet three years ago, and I have to admit, I had a bit of a crush on you." By the end of her speech Ron was as red as a cherry.

"Well... thank you."

"Oh, goodness, I've just done something stupid, haven't I."

"No, no, I'm flattered, really." Harry could tell from Ron's tone of voice that he was uncomfortable.

"Oh, well it is nice to meet you all even though it is because my trunk tried to kill you."

"Well, you don't want to be any later than you Already Are, so let's get going, shall we?" Neville said this just before he offered her his arm.

As they walked away, dragging her trunk behind them, Ron turned back to Harry, "Can you believe that! I was recognized! Wow! Wait a minute...." He paused to ponder something "She didn't even seem to recognize you!"

But Harry wasn't listening, he was still trying t figure out what I was about her eyes that was so familiar to him.

NoteI am so sorry that it took me so long to update, but I do have a lot more chapters written, and I just need to type them up. Plus I am writing like crazy now that summer is here. Thanks for reading, and if you have been checking this fic to see if I have updated (unlikely) thanks a lot. You guys rock. I know I said it before but this time I mean it, installments are coming soon!