Love at Last

As Hermione was searching for the compartment that Harry and Ron were in, she stopped quickly to say hello to Lavender, Parvati, and Ginny in their compartment. As she entered the next part of the train, she heard Harry talking and Ron laughing.

"Hey guys! Hi Harry," she said as she turned the corner.

"Hey Hermione!" Ron said back as he gave her a friendly hug.

"Hey," answered Harry as he gave her a warm smile.

'Aww!' She thought to herself as she immediately fell in love with that look. Harry and Ron were sitting next to each other, so she sat across from them. She started a conversation with, "How have you been?" and the usual, but that ended fairly quickly. Hermione got bored fast and took out a book.

"That's our Hermione!" Harry joked.

'OUR Hermione...' she thought, 'Not MY Hermione' as she would have liked to have heard. 'My Hermione...' she kept thinking, not aware of Harry's stares from across the compartment as he talked to Ron about quidditch.

"Makeup," Harry mumbled, interrupting Hermione's reading.

"What?" she asked.

"You're wearing makeup Hermione!"

"Oh, yea, I guess I am. Why, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, it just looks different, that's all," replied Harry.

'Different how so? Different as in good, or different as in bad?' she wondered to herself. The boys kept talking about quidditch, and Hermione went back to her book.

"We're going to go change into our robes now, before it gets too crowded," Ron said ten minutes later.

"Ok, I think I'll change here while you're gone," said Hermione.

"Just pull down the window shade, ok? Or else the whole train will be lining up to watch you!" replied Ron. As they turned to leave, Hermione heard Ron mumble to Harry, "Including me."

That left Hermione thinking,

'What was that all about? Could Ron possibly like ME? I hope not. Because all I see him as is a very good friend. Nothing more.' She left it at that, pulled down the shade, and changed. When she was done, she sat looking out the window, thinking of Harry, as always. A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

"Hermione! Are you done yet? What's taking you so long?" she heard Ron yell from in the hallway.

Hermione thought, 'Wow, Ron's becoming a loudmouth. He probably spends so much time with Fred and George that it just kind of happened. He's much louder than Harry. But Harry is quiet in a cute sort of way. It's not too loud, not too quiet. He's perfect.'

"Oh yea! Sorry guys!" she yelled back as she opened the door and let them in. She sat back down, and, to her surprise Harry sat next to her. Actually it was pretty close. They had the whole bench to themselves and he had lots of room. Why was he this close? Ron sat down across from them. He didn't seem to notice just how close they actually were.

'That's ok with me! I'm not complaining! Harry and me, this close, it's amazing!' she said to herself.

Just then, ruining the perfect moment, Draco Malfoy had to come in with his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Oh! Are Potter and Granger in love?" He said and smirked.

"No!" they both said and moved away from each other quickly.

"Beat it Malfoy," Hermione snarled at him.

"No, I think I'll stay," he said and put his arm around her.

"You get the fuck away from her!" yelled Ron as he punched Malfoy in the face.

"You bastard!" Malfoy yelled back. Just then, the new DADA teacher walked up to their compartment.

"Is there a problem here boys?" she asked.

"No professor!" Hermione immediately answered, before the boys could tattle on each other and make things worse.

"All right then," she replied with a nod and walked off.

"Like I would ever want to even touch the Mudblood," replied Malfoy.

"Too bad, you already did so fuck off!" Hermione yelled at him.

"My, my. I didn't know you had it in you, Granger," he said. Crabbe and Goyle just stood there, dumbstruck and clueless, as usual.

"You too!" she yelled at them. "Get out!" and with that, she pushed all three of them into the hallway. She pushed them right into the lady with the food trolley. They spilled food all over the place and were made to clean it all up and pay for it.

"I'll get you three for this! Wait till my father hears about it!" Yelled Malfoy as he stormed off.

"Wow Hermione! I've never heard you talk like that before!" said Harry. He sounded impressed.

"Well I'm sick of Malfoy's bullshit. I don't want to put up with it anymore! I'm not going to take it from him!"