Dirty secret

Chapter 1

All in all, though her boys were doing as well as they could, and considering Hermione herself was currently losing her mind over her anxiety she concluded they were doing better than her at the moment. She found herself staring into the abyss that was the ugly carpet lining the bottom of the train car when Harry finally noticed her apparent distress.

"Hermione, are you alright?" she heard as Harry's head leaned down to catch her eyes from burning a hole into the ground.

She shook her head, coming out of the trance she was apparently in. "Oh yes, quite. Just thinking I suppose."

"Well do indulge, what is going on in that big brain of yours?" He smiled back at her reassuringly.

"Just this whole Tournament thing. Don't you think it is quite strange that they decided to bring it back? I mean it was banned because of the student deaths. Just seems odd to me." she eyed him imploringly.

"Not sure, but the article did say something about there being new rules in place. I'm sure Dumbledore has got it all ironed out. I wouldn't worry." he stated with a lopsided grin in her direction, easing her discomfort. Harry always had a way of doing that for her. She wasn't sure what it was that he did that calmed her but she always appreciated his grounding presence.

She smiled back at him and melted into her seat. As she listened to Harry and Ron prattle on about the Quidditch match and the apparent 'amazingness' as Ron puts it of Viktor Krum and something called a Wronski Feint, she caught herself watching the highlands fly past her window. All the greens and blues melt together to create a peaceful environment, perfect for her to open up her favorite copy of Hogwarts: A History to finish on their journey to the castle.

The castle always amazed Hermione. She had visited castles in Scotland before for muggle school trips but Hogwarts was quite literally, magical. Nothing compared to the feeling of walking into the Great Hall at the start of term. The charmed sky always depicting the actual sky outside. This evening it was a dark blue with twinkling lights and only a few wispy clouds that floated by in the wind.

Walking down the isles of the House tables, the room erupted in the sound of friends reuniting for the beginning of term. Smiling faces could be seen all around and raucous laughter was always heard throughout the various tables.

Harry and Ron had already made it to the Gryffindor table, engrossed in what she was sure was a heated discussion of the Quidditch World Cup with Dean and Seamus. Hermione was still looking around for one of the few Gryffindor girls she could stand. Ginny. The two had grown closer over the Summer after spending so much time together at the burrow and then being the only women on the Quidditch trip. She quite enjoyed the younger girl's friendship.

Hermione always struggled to make friends in the muggle world because she was different and that continued into the magical world with some wizarding families like the Malfoy's thinking less of her for her muggle parents. Although people like Draco Malfoy liked to belittle her at every turn, Hermione decided that this year she wouldn't let it get to her. After throwing that brilliant punch last year in the smug Slytherin's face, she felt much less affected by him.

The thought of the boy made her glance over in the direction of the Slytherin table on the opposite side of the hall. She could spot him easily with his signature white blonde hair. The only one aside from maybe Luna Lovegood who sported the color.

He was of course flanked on either side by his Slytherin cronies. Crabbe and Goyle chatted away on his right and Pansy Parkinson sat on his left with her arm interlaced with his, a sickly sweet expression she had yet to see on the pug-faced girl before adorned her face as she batted her spidery lashes at him.