4As her foot touched the ground, Hermione realised how much her life had changed in the past three years. Before Hogwarts she was always a miss fit. Things never seemed to go right for her. Whether it was blowing up a Cola volcano with shear frustration or turning the class pet blue, something was always going wrong in her life and for some reason, she always felt responsible. That was impossible though. How could she be responsible for things like that? When she received her Hogwarts letter everything seemed to fit together. All of the little jigsaw pieces in her life, which had never quite fit together, suddenly fell into place.
Now she set out on her fourth year at Hogwarts and she could only guess what this year had in store for the 'Golden Trio'. Join first year a powerful magical stone with many powers, including the ability to create a potion that can give you immortality, had been hidden in the school. One of the teacher tried to get past the challenges that protected the stone. It was later discovered that he was in fact possessed by the spirit of the darkest wizard ever. This wizard, Lord Voldemort, had killed her best friend Harry's parents and attempted to kill Harry, when he was just a baby. The spell didn't work though and instead Voldemort was killed. The strange thing is, nobody knows why. Harry still remains, to this day, the only wizard ever known to have survived the killing curse. Anyway, Harry, her other friend Ron and herself, went to try and retrieve the stone before he could get it. It ended up with a huge battle between Harry and Voldemort, which Harry won, using the powers of the stone to help him.
Second year went about as well. They had found writing in blood on a corridor wall while walking through the castle towards dinner. It had told them that a legendary chamber, called the Chamber of Secrets had been opened under the school. Soon after, students started to become mysteriously petrified. All of the attacks were blamed on Harry by the other students because he could speak Parceltoung (the language of snakes). Around halfway through the year, another message was left on the wall. It said 'Her body will lay in the chamber forever'. It was quickly worked out that one of the students had been taken into the chamber itself. Ginny Weasely. She was the sister of Ron Weasely, one of Hermione's best friends. Hermione didn't know exactly what happened because she herself had been petrified but she knew that they had defeated the monster of the chamber.
Last year was… Interesting. A mass murderer had escaped form Azkaban (the wizard prison) and was after Harry. Not much happened for the rest of the year (except for Draco being over dramatic and putting a death sentence on a Hippogriff) until they found out that Ron's pet rat was the real criminal and that the prisoner, Sirius Black, wasn't after Harry, he was after the rat, looking for revenge. Then the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher turned into a Werewolf and the rat escaped. Then Harry and Hermione were forced to go back in time to make sure that Sirius was not given the Demeter's Kiss (didn't get his soul sucked out through his mouth.
Hermione was determined that this year would be different. There was no way that they could have another terrible year. Not considering how bad the last three were.
Getting off of the train, she glanced around taking in the extravagance of Hogwarts. Rising above the trees, the ancient turrets stood, seaming to reaching high into the clouds. Gamps through trees reviled the tracks which lead to the castle, now coated with leafs. The carts, as usual pushed themselves up the road, not needing horses.
As she glanced up the train she recognised a few people that she knew. Nevil, the round faced, pink cheeked boy, from her year, gave her a mad wave and a huge grin. Seamus, a sandy haired boy, smiled at her and made a minimal effort in lifting a hand. She followed the length of the train with her gaze, until it met with a pair of icy silver eyes at the opposite end of the train. His eyes seemed to be a window to his soul. Swirling patterns danced in his irises, the mixture of shades played tricks on the mind. Although his eyes looked grey at first, the closer she looked the more colours she could see. Blue, green, purple, black, white and, of course, grey. She stayed there holding his glance for a second, mesmerised by the twisting patterns, before she realise who it was. A clump of white blond hair fell in front of one of his beautiful eyes and a smirk played on his face. She broke away from the stare Draco Malfoy had her trapped in.
What was going on? Had she really just got lost in the eyes of Malfoy? Had she really just thought that his eyes were beautiful?
It was Draco Malfoy! The boy who had made her life a living hell for three years. The boy who had never even called her anything but Mudblood. The boy who she had always thought was going to follow in his father's footsteps as a supporter of Voldemort. The boy who-
"Hey!" called Harry. "What are you looking at?"
His question bought her back to reality and she realise that she was staring into space and must have looked like an idiot. "Nothing," she sighed, taking her bags away from Harry and lugging them down the pathway, towards the carts, trying to block her resent thoughts from her head.
As she moved towards an empty cart, she could feel Harry's eyes watching her curiously form behind. She straightened up and tried to ignore it. Wanting to disappear, she threw her bags into the back of the carriage and hopped into the seats of the cart, closely followed by Harry and Ron.
"Anything up, Hermione?" asked Ron wearily. She blinked at this. Could he not see how awkward the situation already was without him asking questions?
Shuffling her feet, she looked down as she mumbled a reply. "No, nothings 'up'."
"You sure?" This time it was Harry. Were all boys blind to awkward situations? It couldn't just be them.
"Yes, I'm sure!" she said, exasperated by her best friend's blindness. They stopped talking for the rest of the gurney. When they finally reached the castle, after what seemed like forever, she stepped out silently, grabbed her bags and walked to the entrance of the crumbling castle that was her second home. She didn't even wait for the boys to catch up, even though they did.
After dumping their bags in the entrance hall, they wandered over to the main hall, for dinner. Even before they reached the door, Hermione could hear the chattering of hundreds of students. As the doors opened, the sight was as over whelming as ever. Four hundred students, seated at four tables according to their house. The houses were Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Her, Harry and Ron were in Gryffindor. She knew people from the other houses. Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang and Padma Patel were in Ravenclaw. Cedric Diggery and Hannah Ballard were in Hufflepuff. And in Slytherin was… Draco Malfoy. She smiled at the name. Stop that now! She thought sternly. Don't smile at that! He's a bully! He's made your life hell! It doesn't matter if he has perfect light hair, or incredible eyes or muscles like steel or a smile that can light up a whole room or- She cut herself off mid thought. What was happening?!
She followed her friends to the table, trying to work out what was going on. It must be a spell or a potion. Yes, a potion! Maybe a second year tried to give her a love potion and… it went wrong! That must be it! But when would they have given her it. She scowled. Why did she have to be so logical! It was obvious what was going on. She liked him. She, Hermione Granger, had a crush. A crush on Draco Malfoy.
She snook a look at the Slytherin table, looking for the Slytherin Prince. Almost immediately her eyes found those of a pale skinned boy with white-blonde hair, swirling grey eyes and a scowl pressed on his dark pink lips. His perfect lips. A wave of emotion hit her, so strong that she was tempted to stand up, walk across the hall, take his face in her hands and kiss his tempting, gorgeous lips until she couldn't breathe. The pull was so strong that she had to hold onto the table to stop herself from doing it.
She'd never felt that way before. Especially not about him. He was always Malfoy, the cruel bully who had teased her about her smartness, taunted her about her teeth and said horrible things about her hair. He was always Malfoy, the boy who had caused a Hippogriff to be sentenced to death and laughed at it, leading to a good punch in the face, which she was quite ashamed of now. He had never been Draco. Draco, the overwhelmingly perfect, tempting, kissable boy, who she was slightly mad about.
By the time she had gotten her thoughts in order all of the first years had been sorted into their houses and Professor Dumbledore was casting the charm to begin the feast. Suddenly food appeared on the table. Every food you could think of. Next to her, Ron was pilling food onto his plate and Harry was snatching a few items from the bowls around them. She decided to tuck in.
An hour later, Hermione, Harry and Ron were huddled around the fire with Fred and George (Ron's older brothers) and Ginny (his younger sister) chatting and playing chess. It took her mind off of things a bit but her thoughts kept skipping back so Draco. She decided she had to tell someone, but who? Harry and Ron would think she was a traitor to them, crushing on their enemy was betrayal. However, there was one person she could tell. Ginny.
Certain that this was the only option, Hermione tapped Ginny on the shoulder and whispered "Can I talk to you for a second?"
Looking slightly confused, Ginny replied "Of course." Reluctantly she stood up and motioned towards the dormitories. Hermione headed for her bed room.
When she got there, Hermione sat down on her bed. Cautiously she patted the bed next to her.
Sitting down, Ginny asked "So, what's up?"
Unsure how to start Hermione bit her lip. "I'm… worried."
"Why?" asked Ginny, confused.
"I think I'm crushing on someone."
"So?" asked Ginny, even more confused.
"Someone, who I shouldn't be crushing on."
Ginny gasped and then giggled. "I knew it!"
Hermione's eyes widened. "You did?"
"Don't worry! Ron feels exactly the same way!" At the look of discussed on Hermione's face she froze. "It is Ron, right?" Hermione shook her head fast. "Oh. Well then… who is it?"
Looking down, Hermione felt herself blushing. "Well… um… it's sort of…" She trailed off.
"Oh come on! Tell me! You know you can tell me anything!"
Her voice lowered to a faint whisper. "Draco."
Ginny's mouth fell open. "Draco? As in Malfoy?" She nodded, blushing even redder. "OH MY GOD!"
"I know. But I can't stop thinking about him. His eyes. His smile. His laugh. Him." Saying the words out loud made them sound so much more official. Wow. She was in love with him.
"That is the best news I've heard in… I don't even know how long!"
"It is?"
"Of course! When did it start?"
"When we were getting off of the train. He caught my eye and… I got lost in his. I haven't been able to get him out of my head since! And then in the main hall. I saw him and I just wanted to walk over and kiss him. I had to hold onto the table to stop myself from doing it." She recalled, thinking about the events of the past few hours. Looking over at Ginny she saw her jaw drop.
"Oh, Hermione! You're mad about him! It's so sweet!" She said, almost proud.
"Thanks. Now you have to promise not to say a word of this to the boys!"
"Why not?" she asked, confused.
"Do you think that they'll be happy that I have a crush of their worst enemy?"
"Oh, right. Okay, I promise that I won't breathe a word of this to Harry or Ron or anyone else."
"Thank you so much Ginny!" she squeaked, overjoyed, pulling Ginny into a huge bear hug. Suddenly, she froze. "Wait. Ron likes me?"
"Oh. Um… yeah. It's kind of obvious, really." At this, Hermione burst into laughter.
"Oh my god! Ron!?" By now, they were both laughing.
"Hey, come on. Let's go back down." Said Ginny, standing up. She started to walk and Hermione followed her down. Wow! It felt so good to share how she was feeling with her best girlfriend.
At the bottom of the stared, Ron turned around and smiled at them. This made Hermione laugh so hard she had to use Ginny for support. The boys looked at her like she was crazy, which, she decided, she might well be.