Just A Dream

Back to School

A light breeze whisked through the air around Hermione as she got off the Hogwarts Express. Another year, and most likely another drama, just waiting to unfold. Harry and Ron both followed her off the train as they nudged her to keep walking. Hermione couldn't help but stare in wonder at the forest that surrounded the path from the station to the school, even after 5 years she knew she would never get used to it's serene, natural beauty. She stayed a couple steps behind Harry and Ron, letting them chatter about Quidditch, despite having already done so for most of the day. Hermione couldn't help but smile at this though, it was so typical of them and once the boredom of listening to them drone on about things like who should've really won the last match, it was quite amusing to listen to them bicker. Just being in their company was something Hermione enjoyed. It relaxed her, to know she had two of the greatest friends by her side.

However, as she was daydreaming of some of the good times she'd spent with them over the summer, a certain tall blond pushed into her, causing her to drop her bag as he strutted by her. Hermione sighed in disgust as she bent down to pick it up.

"What were you looking so pleased about Granger? Thinking about your boyfriends?" he asked, smirking at his Slytherin friends that practically swarmed around him. This made Harry and Ron turn around and attempt to stand up for her, despite being totally outnumbered.

"Ah Weasel, Scarhead," greeted Malfoy rather spitefully. "first day back and you're already rushing to help your damsel in distress."
"Oh shove off Ferret, just leave her alone for once," Ron murmured, clearly quite intimidated.
Malfoy sneered at him, "how dare you talk to me like that," he took in a breath but paused, as if he was going to say something and then thought better of it.
He turned to Blaise, "come on, let's leave these pathetic nitwits to battle over their mudblood."

Hermione winced, that one word still hurt a little; and with that he sped ahead with his gang close behind him.
After the radiating blush on Ron's cheeks had died down a little, he said calmly, "just don't listen to him Hermione, honestly you'd have thought by now he'd be slightly less of a git, but no, he's still just as bloody big headed as usual." Hermione giggled a little, but quickly stopped.
"That was a little odd don't you think?" she thought aloud.
"What, that Malfoy just came and tried to insult us all? Surprisingly no, not at all..." replied Harry sarcastically.
"No not that bit, we're all used to that by now. But didn't you notice? He paused, he stopped himself saying something."
Harry and Ron looked thoughtful. "Maybe he's in a generous mood today," Harry offered weakly, "I wouldn't bother concerning yourself with trying to figure out what's up with him."
"No but, there's something..." She trailed off slightly trying to remember the scene, playing it out in her head. When she'd looked at him, he didn't look as sharp as usual, not as... Malfoy-ish. His misty eyes were weary and tired, and he just seemed as if not half the amount of effort as normal was going into his insults. "...different," continued Hermione, but then she shrugged and they continued walking to the carriages. He was still a prat.

They managed to get a good carriage on the way back, having caught up with Ginny, Neville and Luna. Forgetting her recent interaction with Malfoy, she had a feeling sixth year was going to be good. Obviously she couldn't stay optimistic forever, something was bound to go wrong, especially with the reality of a war going on around them. But she pushed those feelings of doubt deep inside her and lifted her chin in hope that she wasn't wrong.

The carriage ride was peaceful and she caught up a bit with Neville and Luna, who had become a couple over the summer. The sweet couple vibes they were emitting must have effected her a lot more than she thought as Hermione found she could not stop smiling, and that made her want to keep smiling. These were the happy moments.

Draco on the other hand, was not having a happy moment. Pansy had squished herself between Blaise and himself on one side of the carriage and was currently rubbing little circles on his back with her finger. Draco used to like the attention he got from her, obviously he got attention from all the girls but Pansy had a certain way with him that he found amusing to play along with. But now it was just annoying. He leaned round and flicked her hand off of his robes, then glared at her slightly hoping she would get the message to move away. Unfortunately, Pansy didn't take the hint and stayed exactly where she was, however did look down at the carriage floor looking rather disheartened. She was pretty, but when she acted like a miserable cow, she often looked like one too.

Cringing slightly at the thought, Draco made no attempt at making conversation with his friends. Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini and Parkinson all sat rather awkwardly in silence, as if waiting for him to make some sort of snide remark that they could all latch on to and natter about for as long as possible. But no remark came, Draco just sat and stared into the forest surrounding them on their journey. He'd never really appreciated, or even looked, at Hogwarts surroundings.
Very beautiful, he thought to himself.
He closed his eyes for a moment but immediately opened them again almost with a jump. He bit his lip with worry. Well, he wasn't going to get any sleep this year if that's all he was gonna see every time he shut his eyes.
Blaise, being the smartest in the group, other than Draco himself, was the only one who noticed his friends sudden moment of weakness but said nothing of it. He figured he ought to keep a close eye on Draco this year.

Draco's mind flitted to the golden trio he'd unfortunately ended up coming into contact with earlier. Of course, it was no accident, he did this to Hermione pretty much every year for two reasons. 1) He liked to annoy her as soon as possible, and 2) He usually wanted to see how she'd changed from last year. He was in for a rather unpleasant surprise upon seeing her this year though. She'd gotten quite pretty. Draco hated to admit this but she'd never been ugly in the first place, but now, her hair was a little less manic and her facial features had matured a little. She just looked nicer.
Potter and Weasley had also grown a bit, obviously not prettier, but he was sad to say the Weasel was now taller than him; not that that made him any less easy to intimidate.

He was sitting on one of the last carriages after Pansy had insisted that she'd heard from a friend that the last carriage was the most luxuriously large one. She'd been wrong of course, and had apologised profusely to her love, who didn't even give more than a second glance at her. But now they approached the front gate of Hogwarts and got off to walk the rest of the way. He was walking rather briskly ahead of his gang and took a deep breath. This year was gonna be a long one.
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A/N; so here's first chapter, I hope you guys like it. I know it's not very focused on Dramione but stay with me on this one, I'll update hopefully asap for you :) remember to R&R!