Untitled Part 1

34

~A few days later~

Third Person POV:

"I can't believe we've all made it through 'till seventh year." Sighed Hermione as the three of them settled down in their compartment—it took them ages to find an empty one. Both Ron and Harry looked extremely drowsy and worn out since they arrived an hour early like usual due to 'Mione's anxiousness. When she noticed there was no response, she glanced at the two weary boys who sat opposing her seat and rolled her eyes visibly. She also took it as a chance to keep popping her head up off the compartment as if she was looking for a certain someone—and she was indeed. Hermione had told herself that this year she's going to look out for Harry—it's not that she didn't used to do so, but it's obvious that this year he's going to obtain a severe distraction, even worse than sixth year.

Now that Voldemort's dead, Harry doesn't have to fear for his life every single day at Hogwarts like his past seven years—and that gave Hermione a great feeling of comfort. However, she isn't going to disregard what has happened last month of course, since it basically changed everything between her best friend and his so called 'enemy'. She was just going to make sure that it wouldn't have such a huge effect on his following time at school.

The trio sat in comfortable silence for the next thirty minutes or so, waiting for the train to start moving, until a loud creak coming from the compartment door shook Ron awake. He jolted on his seat, sighing in frustration. Meanwhile Harry was still racked down, eyes completely shut.

"Blood hell" Groaned the red-haired boy attempting to open his drowsy eyes. "What happened? Who's there?" His face was still tucked in his palms, rubbing his orbs forcefully.

"What in the name of Salazar are you three doing in here?" Ron almost jumped from his seat the moment he heard the familiar voice of Pansy Parkinson. He immediately looked up to see her, Zabini, and a not-so-well-looking Malfoy, standing still beside the door frame. He was going to spit out something vile at the three Slytherins until Hermione stepped in and cut him off. "I could ask you the same question." She muttered, fixing her glare at them, but mainly on Draco—who looked a bit shocking to say the least. The blond silky hair on his head was severely messy, extreme dark circles below his worn out grey eyes were pretty visible, countable scratches and scars were noticeable on the surface of his pale skin, there were some on his left cheek, many on his neck and what appeared to be his collarbone, but these were the only detectable ones—there's probably even more. At this point, Hermione was beyond thankful that Harry was dozed off and unable to see Malfoy in the state that he's in right now.

"Well if I'm not mistaken, this is our compartment, Granger. It's in the back of the train, where us, the Slytherins, usually sit." Spoke Pansy in a low tone. Hermione found it quite weird as to why Parkinson had called her 'Granger' and not 'Mudblood', but she only furrowed her brows in confusion. She had mistaken the compartments.
"Oh. I must have thought this was ours then." She uttered, taking a pause. "Well I suppose you could join us, as there aren't any empty places left."

"Are you mental?" Shrieked Ron, then proceeded to wince as Hermione nudged him in the leg.

"Alright fine. No funny business Weasley." Replied Pansy as she looked back at the other two Slytherins beside her, waiting for consent. Blaise only shrugged and nodded while Malfoy stood still, not uttering a word. He looked as if he was trying to look in every other direction except for Potter's. Parkinson took that as a yes—they all stepped in and took a seat, there was plenty of empty space in the compartment so they managed to fit in comfortably. Ron shifted further onto the window allowing Pansy to settle beside him, and Draco next to her. While opposing them were Hermione, Blaise, and Harry. The dark-skinned boy sat close to the other window, while Granger was in the middle, and Harry remained in his same position since he was still sleeping somehow, which was directly the seat facing Malfoy.