The Great Hall was alive with students packed into the four long tables representing Hogwart's four houses. The smell of a warm breakfast drifted over their heads and out the door to where Hermione Granger stood in the shadows.

'Okay, you can do this,' she thought. 'Just go in there and sit with them. Act normal. Act happy. You can do this.'

Hermione pushed open one of the large doors and made her way down to the Gryffindor table. Half way down she reached the spot where Harry, Ron, and Ginny were sitting. The three of them were laughing at something Ginny had said and were examining the time tables McGonagall had handed out earlier. Hermione saw an open seat to the left of Harry. Next to the open seat was Ron, across was Ginny. On the empty plate was her time table. At least they saved her a spot.

She took a steady breath before swiftly grabbing her time table and squeezing herself in between Harry and Ron before either could be too surprised.

"How is everyone? Gosh this all looks so good. What's everyone's schedule look like?" She asked smiling around the table.

There was a silence that seemed to fill their small area as well as the Ravenclaw's section of the table directly across from them. Everyone knew Hermione's parents had died over the summer. It was common knowledge as it had been in the Daily Prophet, the headline reading: Death Eaters Kill Muggles in Their Home, Harry Potter's friend Hermione Granger Escapes with Help from Silver Eyed Savior. The rest of the student body hadn't realized how depressed and melancholy she had been over the summer and were curious at her outright happiness given the situation had occurred within the past two months. Her friends were shocked by her behavior given how she had acted over the summer and were surprised at seeing her come out of her depression so suddenly.

It took awhile for them all to recover and when they did, Ginny was the first who bravely spoke.

"I've got potions first thing with the Ravenclaws. Slughorn isn't bad and I never mind partnering with Luna, but potions are just not a good area for me." Ginny shrugged, and grabbed more bacon wanting to appear that Hermione's sudden change in mood hadn't affected her.

"Of course, we know you'd rather be in Defense Against the Dark Arts working on that Bat Boogey Hex." Hermione smiled and grabbed an apple off the table wanting to appear as normal as possible.

The boys lightened at the gesture, and were happy to see her eating breakfast even if it was only an apple. They had been coaxing her all summer to eat more, as her appetite had slowly diminished with the newfound depression she developed.

"What about you Mione? What have you got?" Ron said, smiling her way.

"Let's see," She said picking up her time table and examining it. "Looks like I've got too much as always, but I've got all the basics plus a few more so I'll be in at least all of you boys' classes. First is Transfiguration with Hufflepuff, right?"

Harry examined his time table and nodded with a wary smile. He was happy Hermione was trying today, it was an improvement from the past few months, but he was afraid to make any sudden movements towards her or be overly friendly in case she shut down. He couldn't help but wonder what had brought about her sudden change in mood, and hoped he hadn't hurt her feelings by suggesting he and Ron set their own wake up calls that morning instead of having Hermione come in per usual on the first day of the term.

"Well that shouldn't be too bad," Hermione said, her smile faltering at Harry's gesture. "I'm going to go to the library…you know…want to read up on some stuff…before…" Her last words were hardly heard by the three, for she had stood so abruptly and mumbled a bit before heading out of the hall.

"Harry!" Ginny said indignantly, smacking him on the shoulder after Hermione made her exit. "What's wrong with you!?"

Harry rubbed the spot where her hand made contact, looking weary. "I just didn't want to scare her off by acting like everything was normal! No one comes out of a depression like that so quickly Gin, you know that. I'm still used to the Hermione we have to walk around on eggshells for."

"I know Harry, but she was trying! For once since her parents died she was trying! Trying to be normal Hermione for us and it's like you just threw it back in her face by rejecting her attempts!"

Harry sat in silence for a moment, watching Ron pour an ungodly amount of syrup on his waffles.

"Oh." He finally said starting at his hands as they traced the wood lining on the table.

"'Oh' is right! Go AFTER her, Harry. Tell her you're sorry." Ginny said, her face turning a bit pink.

"Oh. Oh yeah! Okay, I'm going." He stood up grabbing his bag off the ground.

"Oh, and Harry. If you can, try to figure out why her sudden change in mood? Without being a complete obvious idiot." Ginny rolled her eyes and looked back down at the Prophet.

"Right. Ron, see you in class, fifteen minutes."

Ron made a choking noise through his food, which Harry took as confirmation at him having heard.

Ginny watched him leave, thinking her boyfriend, as sweet as he was, could still be such a…well, a boy, sometimes. No one noticed that a pair of dark silver eyes had watched the entire conversation unfold from a distance.

...

...

Hermione was browsing the large leather bound books towards the back of the library, hardly examining their titles.

Why had she even bothered? It was as if they really had given up on her after a few months of silence. Did they expect her to get over the deaths of her parents so quickly?

She sighed, fingering a worn copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It was her first official day back and by all means it was a disaster already.

Her friends had all but given up on her returning to normal. To deal with the pain over the past few months, she hid herself away in zombie land, a land where Hermione merely nodded and forced smiles when confronted with reality. She had all but given up on eating a healthy portion of three meals a day. Food just didn't appeal to her anymore, most foods just reminded her of times spent with her parents.

Not to mention, she was sharing Head duties and living quarters with none other than Draco Malfoy, the boy who had tried and failed to kill Dumbledore last year. The boy whose parent was responsible for killer her parents. She realized Malfoy had been chosen for the position so that she could keep an eye on him, but that was just something else she had to worry about now. How did McGonagall even begin to think that she was prepared for all this so soon? She had a suspicious feeling that a new portrait in the headmasters office might have made some suggestions. Hermione could imagine Dumbledore telling McGonagall that the best way for Hermione to return to normal is to pretend as if everything was. As if she was the same person she had been before her parent's deaths. As if that was even possible.

No, Hermione had changed. She cursed her 'savior' with the silver eyes. He might have saved her life, but he also destroyed any hope her parents may have had of survival by being held back. Even though he had said it was too late, that they were already dead, maybe if she hadn't been held back she could have sought some revenge on the Death Eaters that destroyed her life. It would have been an honor to die trying to avenge her parents, rather than live this nightmare of them being gone forever. Now she might never get the chance for revenge. Not to mention she had to live with the constant numbing pain in the aftermath. The only emotion she seemed to ever show since their deaths was whenever she thought about those silver eyes. She felt confused, but she also felt curiosity and gratefulness, along with anger and hatred. If only she knew who those eyes belonged to...it would be a start at least.

A set of footsteps brought her back to her present reality. She removed her hand from the bookcases and swiftly turned to see who joined her.

Her eyes met bright green. The green eyes held no mystery like those of her silver eyed savior. They were familiar though, and she had missed them.

"Why are you here Harry?" She asked, moving a few feet away to lean on an empty study carol.

Harry shuffled his feet, looking down at the floorboards. Words and emotions were never his forte.

"I missed you Hermione. We all have."

She didn't say anything, but looked out one of the long windows to her right. The Hogwarts grounds sprawled out before her in all their beauty. When she made no comment, Harry continued.

"Today…well, today you caught me by surprise. It wasn't that I wasn't happy you were speaking to us. I just saw through it." Harry looked up to see tears threatening to fall on his friends face. He walked over and leaned on the carol opposite her.

"You know that I never knew my parents. I only know what people tell me. I miss them. I miss what I never had. But Hermione, you HAD them. I know I can't really relate perfectly to your situation but I was hoping that after the first shock had worn off, you might have considered coming to talk to me. I know you love me, Ron and Ginny. Ron isn't really the easiest to talk about serious emotions. Ginny and I both aren't good with them either but she's had a rather charmed family upbringing and it'd be hard for her to relate. I was just…a bit put out that you never considered coming to me."

Hermione's tears were flowing freely now, she made a choking sound to speak, but Harry continued.

"I realize now that it was pretty unfair of me to assume you'd be thinking at all rationally after such a tragedy. I should have come to you. I should have kept coming to you. Even after you said you wanted us to all leave you alone. I should have known you'd need someone to try harder, to break through walls you had put up. Good friends keep pushing and trying, and well, it hurts me to admit it Mione but I gave up on you. Something I never should have done."

"Oh, Harry." Hermione reached over and hugged him fiercely wetting the patch of his robes that touched his shoulder.

"Hermione, we were so stupid." Hermione looked up to see Ginny standing a few feet away with Ron behind her.

Hermione let out a sob filled laugh and wiped her face.

"Yes. You all were. But, I wasn't fair to any of you. I shouldn't have assumed that you'd all know how I felt after…after it happened. I just assumed you'd all given up on me."

"No!" Ron said suddenly. "We took what you said too literally. We should have known you'd never really want us to…what was it you said 'go away, and leave you alone forever'?"

"Ha, something like that yes." Hermione said. They all stood awkwardly for a bit. No one was sure where they went from here.

"I'm glad you're back, Mione." Ginny said finally, walking over to hug her friend.

"Me too." Harry said hugging her again, but not before whispering so only she could hear. "And I know you're not really back 100% to your old self or anything, so you know I'm always here to talk."

Ron was the last to come over. He grabbed her right hand and kissed it softly. "I'm happy you're letting us in again."

Hermione blushed and added another problem to her list of ever growing ones: Tell Ron you want to be 'just friends'.

"Me too," Hermione said, setting her new problem to the back of her mind to deal with later. She looked down at her watch…speaking of problems. "Oh my gosh, we're going to be late for class!"

"Ah there's the Hermione we all know and love, never late to a class! We better get going. See you at lunch Gin!" Harry said, swiftly giving his girlfriend a goodbye peck on the cheek.

After that the day passed normally. Hermione was happy she had her friends at her side. Ron and Harry had taken to pretending as if everything was normal, as if she hadn't been a zombie the past two months. Hermione preferred this to being ignored. She knew that at least Harry wasn't under the impression that all was magically well again. It was comforting to know that he at least was there to talk to when she felt ready to open up.

Ron on the other hand was a little slower on the uptake. He felt that one day of 'old Hermione' meant that everything was back to normal. Hermione loved both of her friend's very much but she was frustrated by Ron's inability to pick up on any emotion that wasn't 'hungry'.

Hermione rushed through Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, Ancient Runes with only ten N.E.W.T level students, Arithmancy with only four N.E.W.T students, herself, Ernie, Hannah, and Malfoy (who didn't acknowledge any of them), and then onto charms with Ravenclaw, which was a full class size.

Hermione had taken detailed notes and managed to earn Gryffindor 30 house points throughout the day. It was a good day. There were no classes with all of Slytherin until tomorrow, Malfoy only called her a know-it-all once in Arithmancy, and most importantly she now knew that her friends loved and cared about her once again. She even managed to have dinner with Harry, Ron, and Ginny while eating a decent portion herself.

It was a successful first day back, one in which she hardly thought of her parents for once, or the boy with silver eyes. So it was with a content sigh that Hermione reached her Head dormitories, muttered the password, and threw her messenger bag down, followed quickly by herself, on the shared couch in front of the roaring fire.

"Exhausting day being a know-it-all, Granger?" A drawling voice came from the small eating table that rested about ten feet behind the couch. She must have completely missed him on her way in. Now Malfoy had called her a know-it-all twice today. Still, she wasn't going to let it bother her.

"Shove it, Malfoy." Hermione said tiredly without turning around.

"And exactly where would you like to me to shove it?" He retorted and ruffled what sounded like a newspaper.

"You can take your pathetic attempts at annoying me and shove them right up your ass. I don't really feel like hearing it."

"Oh I hardly call my attempts pathetic , Granger. In asking me to stop you clearly have shown that my attempts are working magic on your nerves."

Hermione could practically hear the smirk in his words.

"Well it's clear I won't be doing homework by the fire tonight, not with a bunch of scum taking up the entire room." Hermione retorted, grabbing up her bag once more and heading to the red side of the room with her private quarters waiting.

"I am NOT scum Granger."

Hermione stopped in her tracks, fed up with the name calling and bickering. The stress of the past few months that had built up was at the tipping point. One more insult and she was going to lose it. She took a deep breathe and just as she decided to let it go, Malfoy spoke again.

"Go ahead, go up to your safe little room, mudblood."

That was the last straw. Hermione turned around, threw her bag back on the floor, and pulled out her wand. Malfoy was already standing with his out.

"You're not scum? Is that what you said? Oh please. Your Mum is too ashamed to show her face out in public in the wizarding world! Not to mention Daddy is out torturing and killing innocent people, muggle blood, mud blood, half blood, pure blood. It's all blood. Blood on his hands and everyone knows. Everyone knows your father kills people Malfoy, he's a Death Eater. And you think you're so much better? Attempting to kill the headmaster, sending Death Eaters into Hogwarts to kill innocent kids, and hiding behind childish insults to make yourself feel better. People might see something else on the outside but you're still just a scared little boy hiding in a Death Eater's body. Pathetic. Scum."

Malfoy's face was red. All the normal paleness had flooded from his features. His cold face twisted and contorted into rage. Hermione didn't fail to notice the wand still pointed at her from across the common room.

"You got my father spot on mudblood, good for you. He is a killer. He spills the blood of anyone who defies the Dark Lord's wishes. He even spills the blood of muggles, because really who gives a shit about a dead muggle…or two. Who gives a shit about two muggle parents of a stupid fucking mudblood? My father certainly didn't care when he murdered your parents. And if you hadn't been hiding behind a fence like a coward he wouldn't have given a damn if he killed a worthless bitch like you."

Hermione was speechless. He hit her where it hurt. She always assumed he had been there that night, being a Death Eater and all. She even had an inkling feeling that it was Lucius Malfoy who had sent the curses that killed her parents. That news wasn't surprising, but still he had confirmed it. What hurt her the most is that he knew. He somehow knew she was behind that fence like a coward, watching it all happen.

"I-I wasn't hiding." Hermione faltered, unaware of her wand lowering a few inches. Her face was suddenly wet with tears, her eyes wide with pain in being reminded of that night.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

Hermione's wand flew out of her hand, landing in Draco's upturned palm.

She was in too much emotional pain to care that she had just been disarmed by a Death Eater. She stumbled back into the nearest wall at the edge of the steps leading up to her room. All of her carefully hidden pieces were coming apart, the pieces she tucked away in zombie land. The pieces she stored deep in her memory to make her forget the pain.

She was openly sobbing and shaking now. Draco was striding toward her purposefully, his face a sneer. He held both wands in one hand which he placed behind his back, the other hand he laid on the wall, dangerously close to Hermione's face. They were nearly nose and nose now.

"So why didn't you go into that house after those big bad Death Eaters? After all the things the famous Granger girl has done out of dumb bravery, why did your courage fail you that night?" Malfoy spit at her.

Hermione was speechless with fear. She wordlessly shook her head back and forth wanting him gone.

"I heard them all talking you know. Your 'friends'. They think you're crazy, they think you made it all up. They know like I know…like you know that no one saved you that night. You hid behind that fence like a coward, and after those Death Eaters left, you apparated yourself to Weasel's house. When they found you, you made up some bullshit story to please the Prophet into thinking you were 'saved' and tricking your friends into seeing a poor girl who tried to save her parent's but couldn't because someone stopped her from getting there in time. You made it. All. Up."

Hermione sobbed harder, shaking, her knees felt weak. Her mind was in a fog. Maybe she had made it all up. Maybe her Gryffindor courage failed her and she was too ashamed to even admit it so she even convinced herself that she was held back by some idiot with 'silver eyes'. Hermione felt doubt in her memory for the first time since that night.

"You made it all up Granger." He spoke each word slowly, in a deep dark voice.

Her mind felt weak, as if all blocks in her mind were crashing down. As if…as if they were being forced down and rebuilt with something else. As if someone was tampering with her memory.

She gained up the last bit of strength she had and shoved Draco Malfoy as hard as she could away from her. Immediately her mind was clear. Hermione ran up the few stairs to her room, quickly whispering her password. She wretched her door open and locked herself inside, just barely missing a stupefy spell from Malfoy on the other side.

She had no wand, but she felt confident that her password would keep Malfoy out. She quickly did the lock on her side of the bathroom door hoping there were charms in place to keep it secure. Hermione was shaking uncontrollably. She stumbled the few feet to her bed and fell down upon it. The handle of the door to the bathroom shook with the effort of someone trying to pry it open, but after a few tries it stopped.

Malfoy had just attacked her. He had just attacked her inside of Hogwarts. She was wandless, having dropped it just outside the door in shock. Hermione was scared. Who in their right mind would let Malfoy back into this school?! She knew Voldemort had recently taken over the ministry, and she had an inkling feeling that McGonagall's days as Headmistress were coming to their end. She was sure Voldemort would intervene at Hogwarts soon enough. For now, Hogwarts spells were keeping Harry, Ron, and Hermione safe, but they wouldn't for long.

Malfoy obviously knew this, and was trying to bend the boundaries and rules early. He attacked her. She wasn't even safe at Hogwarts inside her own room.

What really surprised her was that Malfoy wanted to change her memories. He tried to make her forget, to doubt herself. Draco Malfoy wanted Hermione Granger to forget about the Silver Eyed Savior.

A/N: Please Review :)