Lost: Dramione Story

Chapter 1: Home

"Are you sure this is what you want my dear?" Professor McGonagall asked for the fifth time.

"I understand your concern professor, but I started my education here at Hogwarts when I was twelve and I intend on completing it with my NEWTS included" I sighed. I had decided to come home, back to Hogwarts to complete my final year. Harry and Ron hadn't. They were training to become Aurors for the Ministry. Kingsley had offered me the position, but I knew it wasn't what I wanted. To be frankly honest, for the first time in my life I hadn't a clue what I wanted. So, I came back to Hogwarts.

"hopefully this year will be much quieter than those in the past" she chuckled. Headmistress McGonagall, the woman fully deserving of the title. "certainly, with those ragamuffins out from under my feet"

"I assure headmistress" I smiled "that Harry and Ron won't survive long before coming home. Even if it's just to visit"

"well, please do tell them to leave their magic maps and invisibility cloaks behind them when they do" she stood from behind the great oak desk "they may be hero's of this school, but I certainly won't have them setting an even worse example than they already have" there was no anger in her tone. Merely pride. Her students, her boys.

"thank you for seeing me" I stood walking to the door.

"Ms. Granger" McGonagall cleared her throat. I turned to find her face full of concern "should you need anything. Please do let me know". I nodded, swallowing slightly, before opening the door and descending the moving staircase. The castle was busy. The first week of term had everyone all over the place with timetabling, new books and Qudditch trials.

"Hermione!" a familiar voice called over the crowd. Ginny's bright red hair appeared in the throng of students, "how did it go?"

"fine, just fine" I said as we pushed through the black mob of students "she just wanted to see how I was getting on"

"What do you have first class? I haven't had a chance to ask about your timetable yet"

"Potions and then Transfiguration"

"lucky you" she chuckled "I have a meeting about Quidditch before dinner, but we can talk later. Okay?". With that her red hair disappeared towards Trawlaney's tower and I was left pushing through the crowds towards Slughorn's classroom alone.

*********

Dinner time came in a flash. I had expected to feel the time, considering I hadn't seen the inside of a classroom since the end of fifth year. I had so much catching up to do, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed the familiar feeling of the books in my hand and the answers in my head. Slughorn, Madame Pomfrey and Professor Sprout had all been delighted to see me, but did seem sad at the lack of the two troublemakers at my side. Walking the halls without Ron and Harry was like wearing a coat with two missing buttons. It just didn't feel complete. We had spent the summer in the Burrow. I didn't have anywhere else to go. Things between Ron and I were good, fantastic even. But it was different and had certainly taken a little bit of getting used to. I wasn't an especially open person and I had hidden the way I had felt for so long that finally having it out in the open felt more suffocating than anything else. Molly and Arthur of course were delighted. Joy was running quite short in the Weasley family at the moment so, to see Molly smile everytime she saw s was enough to put my unease to rest. George had disappeared. I had only seen him once or twice over the break, when Fleur and Bill had announced they were having a baby he had come home. He was a shadow of his former self. Of everyone who we had lost. Fred had left the deepest mark on all of us. His hand fell from the clock Molly had kept in the kitchen for years to keep track of the family just days after they returned home. Nobody had mentioned it. Ginny simply took it and gave it to an owl to send to George wherever he was. Ron hadn't wanted to talk about it. He didn't really want to talk about anything that happened since Bill and Fleur's wedding. But I missed him none the less. It was then that I noticed him, sitting two tables across the bustling Great Hall. Draco Malfoy had returned to Hogwarts. He wasn't as thin as I remembered him, and his face had more colour than his usual grey gaunt expression. He was smiling, something I had never seen him do. A real true smile to Blaise who sat across from him. He too had returned to Hogwarts after the battle. It looked like I wasn't the only one who had chosen to come home. "hello there" Luna Lovegood floated down onto the bench beside me.