A/N: Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews and everyone who has favourited and followed my story so far! This chapter starts off through Hermione's point of view to give you a look into the Gryffindors (definitely bashing!) lives... since Harry is now in Slytherin but Hermione is still in Gryffindor:( Remember to give me feedback on your favourite parts, thank you again... Enjoy Chapter 3 of Another Chance - Savage Lions!

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Previously

His eyelids drifted down and soon all he could hear was the distant boom as someone started up some music, maybe everything was just some stupid dream he had come up with because the spell Potter had fired at him had made him delirious. Maybe. When Hermione Granger opened her eyes it was only just getting light and all her roommates were still tucked away and fast asleep in their beds, just the way she liked it.

...

You see, Hermione preferred to get up early and get dressed before the girls in her room awoke so she could avoid the constant abuse and torture she received from them each morning just because her two best friends were Slytherins. Surely it didn't matter who her friends were; it should matter who she was, but they didn't seem to like that either.

The worst of the group was the tall girly girl that was Lavender Brown, ever since she started dating Ron Weasley she was the cruellest she had ever been to Hermione, yet the muggleborn witch had no idea why. She thought that after getting the boy she had fancied for two years, Lavender would be over the moon and that her attitude towards Hermione would change and become kinder but no, she still decided that her favourite part of the day was making her roommate's life a misery.

Her best friend Pavarti was no better but it wasn't because she was mean to Hermione, in fact Pavarti had always been the civil one of the pair. No, the reason Pavarti was just as bad was because she sat and watched as Lavender tormented her and didn't do anything about it, which in Hermione's books was just the same as /She and Lavender were also the gossip duo of the school so even if Hermione did tolerate them she would still steer clear of the girls, she did not need her personal life spread around the school like the plague. She, unlike others, preferred the secrets of her personal life to be kept just that, a secret.

Last year an extremely nasty rumour had turned up about her and luckily the Slytherin's had managed to set it straight, but it still reminded her of the horrid things Lavender Brown could come up with.

She quietly flung her covers off and yanked her uniform down from where it was tossed over her canopy, she always put it there so nobody would hear her when as she rummaged through her trunk in order to find her uniform since her trunk was fall to the brim with heavy books and they did not move quietly. She pulled on her uniform as carefully as she could so no sudden noise or movement would wake up an unwanted guest, if Lavender saw her in her underwear or worse she would have a whale of a time telling the whole school that Hermione Granger still wore briefs and not bikini knickers or thongs.

According to Lavender she already broke the feminist rule because her skirt wasn't high than her knee, Hermione had simply replied with a simple 'it's the school's policy,' at which Lavender had just laughed in her face and hitched her baggy skirt up a tad higher. Hermione had silently thought that even if her skirt reached her knee, she had still been asked out by way more people than Lavender, she just turned them all down, or at least Harry and Draco did. She wasn't able to date anyone they thought would hurt her so that practically meant nobody. Even when Theodore Nott, their own roommate and friend, asked her out in third year they refused to let her go to Hogsmeade with him because apparently he was too close to them? She still didn't understand that and she was supposed to be the smartest witch of her age?

Despite her friends strange antics with her dating people she still loved them and she wasn't lying when she said she had a crush on both of them throughout her time at Hogwarts. When she first met Harry on the train he was so nice she immediately liked him, and then when they became friends in first year her crush grew. It wasn't until third year when the two boys began to hit puberty that she went off Harry and started to develop feelings for Draco, they still hadn't completely bypassed now but she knew she wouldn't stand a chance with him. His father simply wouldn't allow it because she was a muggleborn; he didn't even know that Draco was friends with the her since he only invited Pansy, Blaise and Theo over during the holidays. Occasionally, Harry was welcome over as well, in order to escape the cruelty of the Dursley's, however Draco had announced that his father found it strangely awkward to be in the same room as Harry Potter, for some reason or another. If the three of them did meet up it would be in Diagon Alley or at Hermione's house. For the most part, Hermione's family went on holiday during the summer which left Harry to live out his summer at Malfoy Manor, in the presence of Draco's frightening father, or wait to see Draco in Diagon Alley. Unfortunately, because Harry's Aunt and Uncle treated him like a slave and locked him away at night, he couldn't just pick up the floo and go to Diagon Alley. The three of them couldn't wait until they could apparate so that they could just pop into Diagon Alley whenever they felt like it during the holidays.

Hermione pulled her extremely bushy hair into a low lazy ponytail with an overstretched hair band that had been living on her wrist since the beginning of year five, she always used the same one because she knew how it felt, plus, since this year her hair had gotten rather long so if she didn't tie it up, something always seemed to end up tangled in it. The other day she came back to find a load of twigs in it but she wasn't sure whether they landed there at their own accord or whether someone threw them in there when the three of them had been relaxing over by the lake during their free lesson.

Hermione heard a moan from beside her and shot her head around to see Fay Dunbar sitting up and rubbing her eyes tiredly, Hermione let out a sigh of relief, Fay didn't really talk to her much but at least it wasn't Lavender or Pavarti who had woken up, they would have called her cowardly and pathetic for getting up so early.

"Hermione is that you?" Fay groaned.

"Shush," she hissed back, she didn't want Fay's stupidity to get her caught by Lavender. "Yes it's me, what do you want?"

"Why are you up so early?" Fay asked her voice still quite loud even though she was trying to whisper.

Hermione bit her lip, thinking of an answer for Fay's ridiculous question, why her roommates couldn't make her life that little bit easier by leaving her be she'll never know. "I needed to study,"

"It's half past six in the morning,"

"So? I start early," Hermione growled before throwing her muggle novel into her satchel and flinging the bag over her shoulder. She walked out of the dorm leaving a very confused Fay behind her.

Hermione had to admit that she did feel kind of bad for Fay, the girl always tried to be nice to her when the others were cruel but she always turned away her advances of a friendship; it wasn't that she didn't like her, she just didn't want the girl to be tormented as she was and Hermione knew that if Fay became her friend she would become as out casted as she was by the other girls in her dorm.

Finding her favourite seat by the fireplace that had a high back so nobody could see her sat there, Hermione sat down and began to read. She did this every morning which was why she ended up getting through so many books in the school year. Every day she would wake up at half past six, then she would get dressed and come downstairs to read, then at precisely half past seven she would head off to breakfast before anyone else managed to get down to the common room. Obviously it didn't always work and sometimes she ended up being teased by the group of six Gryffindor's who made her life a misery, she always thought that she would be best friends with people in her own house and that they would get up and go down to breakfast together, talking and gossiping about teachers and homework. But things didn't go her way because that perfect morning turned into her hiding until half past seven when she could go and get her breakfast with her friends. Nobody seemed to like her in this house which upset her slightly, she thought that maybe if she was in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff things would be different but even they blanked her sometimes, the only person who didn't was Luna Lovegood but she was borderline crazy in Hermione's opinion, going on about Wratspurts and Crumple-horned thingys, so Hermione didn't really think of her as an acquaintance.

After she had read two long chapters she checked the huge grandfather clock in the corner to see that it was nearly half past, she was just getting back into her book when a loud bang from the staircase shocked her. She peered around the side of the armchair to see six people emerge from the stairs, six people she really didn't want to see this early in the morning. Fay followed behind, seeing Hermione's head immediately and sending her an apologetic look, Hermione glared before slouching down deeper into the chair; she could hear their voices now.

"Can you believe her, she actually gets up early so she doesn't have to see us in the morning?!" That was Lavender's annoying high-pitched squeal. The loud booming chorus of laughs was torture to Hermione's eyes.

"No way, how pathetic,"

"I wonder where she is now,"

"Probably sat in the library studying,"

"No she's not, the library isn't open yet, she might still be in here."

Hermione shuddered as she heard the taunting voice of Ronald Weasley, if anyone was to blame for her friendship with Draco and Harry then he was the one. Even though he bullied her he still had the cheek to ask her out last year to which she turned him down, after that he had started dating Lavender and the pair had become increasingly meaner to her.

"Let's find her then," a shrill voice cried and Hermione gulped when she heard the other Weasley voice of Gryffindor. Ron's sister Ginny was one of the biggest get-arounds ever and also one of the cruellest people in their little group, last year she and Lavender had managed to sneak a hair removal potion into her shampoo which sent her straight into the hospital wing after use because she was bald, the two girls even had the cheek to say that it was an improvement because it meant that she didn't have that nest she called hair lying atop her head anymore.

She tried to think of a way to escape whilst she heard the group wander around looking for her, in the end she decided it would be easier to just make a run for it so throwing her bag over her shoulder she pushed her chair aside and ran as fast as she could out of the portrait hole.

"You must be hungry," the fat lady called after her as she raced down the stairs, hearing the group behind her. It was obvious they would have spotted her, how could they not when she pushed a chair aside to do so. She kept running until she reached the fourth floor where she was sure she had lost them. She decided it was probably around half past seven now and that Harry and Draco would be waiting for her. Stopping to catch her breath she slid down the wall and tucked her knees under her chin, she couldn't wait until she got out of this place and she wouldn't have to see any of the horrid Gryffindor's ever again.

"...And then she said that if I don't hand in my essay by tomorrow I'll get a week's worth of lunchtime detentions… are you even listening to me mate?"

Draco's head shot up as Blaise directed something from his long rant at him. He paused for a moment before deciding that saying yes would probably be the best way to get out of this, he nodded slowly but Blaise's raised brow proved he didn't believe him.

"What was I talking about then?" he asked testily and Draco frowned.

When he had woken up this morning, Draco had thought it had just been a normal day, he forgot all about the fact that he seemed to be in an alternate universe where he was best friends with Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. Well, that was until he woke up with Harry Potter fast asleep in the bed next to him, covered in a Slytherin green quilt, with Slytherin school robes hanging off the end of his bed. He had gotten dressed as quickly as possible and had sprinted out of the dormitory only to crash into Blaise who seemed slightly surprised by Draco's freaked out demeanour, he offered to accompany him down to breakfast which at first Draco thought was a great idea, that was until he started moaning about some Transfiguration homework Draco had no clue about, now he was bored and slightly worried because if he had no idea about the homework he began to think that McGonagall's punishment for Blaise might end up exactly the same for him.

"Okay Blaise, I wasn't listening, are you happy now?"

Blaise shrugged as the pair of Slytherin's turned a corner and ended up at the grand staircase which opened onto the large oak doors of the Great Hall. Blaise was just entering the hall for his breakfast, Draco following, when the blonde heard a kind of jeering. He spun around to see Hermione Granger struggling down the staircase, a book clutched to her chest and a satchel swinging on her shoulder, her face looked pained though and when Draco looked behind her he could see why.

Six Gryffindor's were following closely behind her, giving her shoves and shouting abuse at her. Draco was most surprised to see the scummy little rodent Weasley at the front of the pack, cheering on and encouraging the bullying.

Draco had never seen Gryffindor's act like this, ganging up on a single person and then bullying them, they didn't even do that to Slytherin's so why were they doing it to Hermione.

"Go on then traitor, hurry up and get your pathetic fat ass to breakfast so we can have some too, you're blocking up the staircase."

Draco turned and glared at Lavender Brown, who was the one who had shrilled out the cruel words. Everyone on the staircase was now looking at the group but none of the six seemed to care. Weasley's annoying little sister, Weaslette, giggled spitefully as she sent a tickling jinx Hermione's way, luckily the Weaslette couldn't do silent spells so Hermione just answered with a simple 'protego' and the tickling jinx bounced off the shield created, landing on an unsuspecting first year who started laughing hysterically.

As Hermione reached the bottom steps Draco thought she might soon be safe but unfortunately, however dumb he was, Weasley emcould/em produce a silent tripping charm and Hermione was sent flying forwards. Draco did the only thing he could do as she tumbled down the final steps, he could either save her or she would end up with a broken nose, or worse.

He rushed forward and caught her around the waist just before she touched the ground; she looked up and hugged him when she saw who it was.

"Thanks Draco, that could've been nasty," she said before pulling away and brushing herself off. She turned to face the Gryffindors.

"Real mature,"

"Ooo, so you're all tough now that your boyfriend's here to protect you."

Draco gulped at Brown's words, surely Potter and Granger would've told him if he was actually dating Granger, however that would explain the hugging and the crying yesterday. No, Potter said you were their best friend, not Granger's boyfriend!

That was true; Potter would have surely said something. Maybe it's just a rumour.

That would be a terrible rumour though; you and Granger just wouldn't work out, even in an alternate universe. Hang on, why am I even thinking about dating Granger? Yuck.

"He is not my boyfriend," Hermione growled through clenched teeth. She was glaring but her cheeks were slightly tinged pink.

"Really, what about when you snogged him last year?"

Wait what? I snogged Granger? No way.

"I just did that to make Weasley keep away from me and look it worked, he also threw in a dumb bimbo girlfriend as well so I suppose everyone wins."

Ding ding ding, point to Granger.

Brown frowned and hooked her arm through Weasley's before dragging him off, her nose high in the air as she stalked past Draco and Hermione, their gang following behind obediently, Ginny actually spat in Hermione's direction but it landed at her feet.

"Sorry," Draco apologised quickly, not quite knowing why he was doing so. Granger's shocked face showed him that she also didn't know why he was apologising.

"What? Why are you saying sorry? It wasn't your fault."

"Draco shrugged and a small smiled graced her lips, Draco thought she had a very nice smile, as smiles go that is, after the incident with Pansy during fourth year her teeth had gotten straighter though he began to wonder if the incident had ever happened because the two girls seemed very close nowadays. Maybe Weaslette had been the one who had sent the teeth engorging charm since she had always been good at spells and Draco had heard she sent an impressive bat-bogey hex during the beginning of this year.

"Are you having breakfast then, or are you just going to stand around out here because I don't know about you but I'm hungry?"

Draco stood in silence for a moment until he faced Granger and realised she was talking to him. He nodded mutely before following her into the Great Hall.

The room was already crowded as many students had snuck in whilst the battle between Hermione and the other Gryffindor's had been commencing. Draco spotted Blaise sat next to Theo; they seemed to be having a heated conversation. He was just about to walk over when a heavy hand clapped him on the shoulder. His head peered around to see the messy black hair and rounded glasses of Harry Potter.

"You were up early mate,"

Draco didn't know what to do so just played along, edging towards Granger slowly so Potter's hand wasn't on his shoulder anymore. Despite him catching Granger earlier, he still didn't like any kind of body contact with either of them.

"Uh yeah, I was really hungry,"

"Well at least you saw Hermione; I thought you might miss her in your hurry."

Draco didn't know what he was talking about; the three of them obviously met up outside the Great Hall every morning, but shook his head.

"Nope, she was here, shall we grab some breakfast before lessons start?"

"Sure," the three of them walked into the Great Hall where Hermione said goodbye to them and walked off to the Gryffindor table. Harry sat down next to Pansy, taking a roll from the basket opposite him as he snuck a look at Hermione. The witch was now sat right at the end of the long table, alone with a book open on the table beside her. She shovelled cereal into her mouth, not tearing her eyes away from the book.

"I don't like her being sat on that table with Weasley and his clan, I tried to talk to McGonagall about her moving to sit with us but she said that it's school rules to sit at your house table during all meals and if she let Hermione move everyone else would want to move so they could sit with their friends from other houses."

"That's stupid," Pansy stated, taking a gulp of pumpkin juice. "We're Hermione's friends and she deserves to sit with us, no one else on that table welcomes her." She angrily tore a piece of bread apart and shoved it in her mouth. Blaise and Theo just stared at her with their mouths agape; shoving food into your mouth was not something a proud pureblood should do. Harry however was looking at her with some kind of newfound respect as he watched her stuff her face with bread.

"Oh you should have seen what Weasley and his gang did to Hermione this morning, if it wasn't for Draco she could've broken various body parts and…" but Blaise cut off at the look on Potter's face, his skin was going red and his fist was whitening from the tight clasp he had on his fork.

"What did they do?" he hissed, his mouth turned upright into a disgusted sneer.

"Well…" Blaise started and suddenly fell into the story of what happened early, Draco didn't even know he had been watching so was surprised by how much he knew. At the end of the story, breakfast was nearly over and Potter looked as if he was going to blow a fuse.

"That little prick, just wait until I get my hands on him." He looked at Draco who blinked before nodding.

"Uh yeah… me too,"

When Dumbledore stood up to tell the school that lessons were to start in fifteen minutes, Harry jumped up from his seat and stalked Weasley and Brown out of the hall. Blaise and Theo followed with amused faces whilst Pansy joined Hermione and led her out into the entrance hall.

When Draco arrived there was already a circle forming and he could hear Potter's voice.

"How dare you use a silent tripping jinx on Hermione when her back was turned, that's just cowardly!"

Draco pushed a few people out of the way to see Weasley pushed up against the wall with Potter's wand at his throat, Potter was shouting abuse in his face whilst Blaise and Theo snickered nearby, he shuffled over to join them and watch the scene.

"You dare do that again and I'll be sending worse than a tripping jinx your way, understand?"

"What are you going to do about it Potter? I'm not scared of you."

"Don't doubt me Weasley,"

"I don't, there's nothing to doubt, you're a coward, what are you going to do? Set your friends Death Eater father's on me?"

Theo drew his wand as Draco did the same, it felt weird defending Potter but everything had been weird since he got here so there was no change there.

"Get out of here Weasley, before I get nasty."

Weasley was just about to reply with a cutting remark when Brown grabbed his arm and pulled him away, mumbling something about how he wasn't worth it.

"Thanks Harry," Hermione said, giving him a brief hug. Draco noticed it wasn't quite a long as the hug she had given him but Potter still seemed happy with the embrace.

"At least we have Charms with the Ravenclaws next and not the Lions," Blaise growled and everyone agreed. Hermione said goodbye to the group and Harry and Pansy offered to walk her to her next class, she declined but thanked them anyway before turning on her heel and marching away. Her head held high as she pushed passed a raging Weasley.

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A/N (2): Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and if so, make sure to tell others about it, spread the word! Although the support so far has been astonishing for me:) Next chapter is a little bit different as after every three chapters I will throw in an interlude that shows a certain event from the alternate world Draco is in now... next week is Year One Halloween:)

Also next week, all my exams are over forever! No more school for me so I'll be so excited I might even post it earlier;) Thank you so much! Review, favourite, follow! See you next week x