New Hermione

'Oh, mum, are you sure?' Hermione asked as she sat down in the chair.

'Of course darling, Melissa won't hurt you, I promise,' Hermione's mother replied.

'Just stay still doll,' Melissa said. 'What do you want?'

'Anything,' Hermione replied weakly.

'Great.'

***

'So they changed the rules this year?' Harry said as he and Ron stood outside the Hogwarts Express.

'Yeah, now everyone has assigned seats, you know, to stop fights,' Ron replied.

'Dumbledore said that we would probably be near the end of the train,' Harry said as he reread the letter. 'We have you, me, Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, Dean, Neville and Seamus.'

'All us sixth years,' Ron said. 'Hermione will be there already, and if she isn't, Neville will.'

Harry and Rom lifted their trunks onto the train and walked down it, looking through windows. Eventually they saw Neville.

'Have you seen Hermione?' Harry asked Neville once he had stored his trunk.

'No, but I have seen Lavender,' Neville replied. He looked back at the book he was reading. It looked like a normal Muggle book.

'What is that?' Harry asked.

'I have no idea, I found it in a book I bought at Diagon Ally,' Neville said. 'It's about, I don't know. But the main character is kind of like you.'

'Yeah, ok,' Harry replied.

'Did you understand that homework Snape set?' Neville asked as he placed a bookmark in his book.

'What homework Snape set?' Harry asked. He couldn't remember any homework from Snape.

'Yeah, it took me about three days to do,' Neville replied.

'Ron, did you do the homework Snape set?' Harry asked.

'Yeah, I had to ask Hermione, even she had problems with it, she took two days to do it,' Ron said. He had got a Chocolate Frog out of his pocket.

'Oh shit,' Harry muttered under his breath. He lunged for his trunk and pulled out his Potions book, a quill and a piece of parchment.

'Why does Harry look like Hermione when she does homework?' a female voice asked from the compartment door. Harry glanced up and saw Lavender and Parvati.

'Ron, could you help me please? I'm too short,' Lavender said as she tried to put her trunk in storage. Ron got up and lifted it with ease and slipped it in place.

'Harry looks like that because he just realised he had that homework for Snape,' Ron said when Neville didn't say anything.

'I took almost three days to do that,' Lavender said. 'Have any of you seen Dean?'

'What's that about me?' Dean said as he stepped into the compartment with Seamus at his heals.

'Just wondering where you were,' Lavender replied as she shifted over so he could sit down.

'Harry looks like Hermione doing--' Seamus was about to continue but Harry had thrown a piece of parchment at him.

'Yeah, you weren't here two minutes ago when Parvati said that,' Ron said as he shifted so Seamus could squeeze in.

'Are we all hear?' Parvati asked.

'Yes - no, we're missing Hermione,' Dean said.

'She'd better hurry up, she going to miss the train,' Dean said. He looked out the window to the platform. 'Who is that girl on the platform?'

Everyone but Harry crowded by the window to look.

'Can you get a good look at her?' Ron asked as he peered past Lavender.

'No, but from what I see I don't recognise her,' Parvati said, as she squinted for a better look. 'Actually, she does look familiar.'

She disappeared from view.

'Oh well, she's gone,' Seamus said. As one the six who had got up sat down.

'Sorry I'm late, guys,' Hermione's voice called from the hall as she fumbled with the compartment door. 'My hairdryer broke!'

'What is a hair dryer?' Ron asked. He was about to say something else but stopped suddenly.

Hermione had walked in, but she looked different.

She was cute.