New Ways To A New Start

By: Raynacch Silvermoon

Changing Tide

"Another year at Hogwarts." Said a now 16-year-old Hermione Granger as she stepped onto platform 9 ¾. "I wonder how much Harry and Ron have changed?" Since she herself had changed a great deal this summer. She had filled out into her maturity graciously, as her mother had put it. Her eyes were even more of a darker chocolate brown making them warmer and soulful. Hermione figured it was just a huge growth spurt, so she didn't pay attention to the fact that she had pretty much gone to bed one way and woken up another.

She now wore more feminine clothes has she put it. She felt oddly out of place when she wore her old clothing. Feeling torn between wanting to be the same old Hermione and wanting to be more outrageous she felt like she was being pushed in two different directions. Only she mistakenly thought it was she who was doing the pushing.

As she looked around the station she didn't see any of her friends. Not that they would have recognized her in her new outfit. She was wearing a white tank top and a pair of black hip huggers that had silver flames on them. She had bought them on an impulse with some of her muggle friends. 'I seem to be doing a lot of things on a whim lately.' She thought. Although something seemed to push it away as her focus was brought else where. 'Now off to find my friends.'

She made her way on to the train and found an empty compartment to wait for them in. She decided that since no one recognized her on the platform that she would change back into the old Hermione that everyone knew. But not only had her looks changed she had also. She no longer spent endless nights reading books, she went out and socialized. She still did all of the next years studying over summer. Although every time she sat down to do it she would get a minor headache. Actually ever time she did something she normally did she would get a headache.

Snapping out of her train of thought she got into her school robes and sat down waiting for her friends to come and find her. As soon as that thought passed through her mind Ron and Harry came in and sat down.

"Hello Hermione! How was your summer?" Asked Ron.

"Not to awful. How abut you? Get into a lot of trouble as usual?" She accused them playfully. Hermione felt a head ache come on her quickly but ignored it. 'I should get that checked out as soon as we get to the castle.' A male voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"If only you knew." Harry answered her prior question. At this they all started to laugh. They talked about their summers for the whole train ride up until an uninvited person happened to come upon them.

"Oh look I found a poor red head, a freak with a scar and a mudblood. I should inform the conductor that he left a pile of shit in this capartment." Hissed Draco from the car door.

"Shove it Malfoy!" Hermione hissed back with venom lacing her already dangerous tone. She was not going to take this from him any longer. I was time she started fighting her own battles.

"You Wish." Was the last thing you heard before a large crashing sound.

By now a Ron and Harry were pressed to their seats with their mouths hanging open. The only thought running through their heads were 'When did she learn to do that'. What she had done was jump up and kick Malfoy square in the stomach.

"I said SOD OFF!" She then slammed the door, took her seat and looked out the window. "Look we're almost arrived." Then turning to Ron and Harry she found them staring at her like she had suddenly grown a third head.

"What?" She demanded of them. Laughing at the shocked expressions that they still wore.

"1. When did you get a back bone? 2. Where did you learn that? 3. What are you going to do when Malfoy comes back to get you?" Harry snapped. His scar was tingling and he couldn't shake this odd feeling that had come over him since they had joined Hermione in the compartment. He brushed it offto be his memories of the train from third year.

"To answer your very rude questions 1. I believe it was always there I just never thought to use it. 2. Over summer I had this sudden urge to take martial arts and 3. He won't be coming back after that." She announced with a lot more confidence than the old Hermione would have. She was changing so much and so fast and she couldn't control it. A sudden calm came over her slowly edging those thoughts out of her mind.

AN: Hey! I read over some of the ACTUAL reviews and found that some of them mentioned stuff that I was already thinking. I'm going over the chapters and fixing them. Not changing the plot of the story but I am putting things in that I forgot when I first wrote the story. Bare with me since this was the first Fic I ever wrote.

Thanx to all my loyal Reviewers. Can't wait for the great and the trashy feed back!

Luv Raynacch Silvermoon.

P.S. That racial shit is so childish. In order for her to be related to Salazar Slytherin she had to be a pureblood, that is the only reason that I changed it. I know it changes a theme in the books but this is not the books.