She met Harry in a valley beside the store. He was still on the phone, sounding very aggravated and stressed. She cautiously stood a few feet away- not wanting to intrude on his privacy while he was on the phone. They did not know each other well enough yet to be so comfortable. Also, the British had a way about them which the Americans didn't. Like the man inside, for being British he did seem to stare at her quite rudely, now that she thought about it.

Harry raised a finger once he saw her, gesturing he would be a minute more. She smiled and nodded, checking her own phone meanwhile. She did call her mother today before leaving her room. Her mother was awake early since she set an alarm to wish her daughter the best of luck. Hermione was touched. Her father had spoken to her as well, telling her he was so proud of her and that they missed her already. She smiled in recall, her heart filled with joy. Once he was done, Harry huffed and approached her.

"Sorry about that, my mother gets worried sometimes- a lot of the time, actually," he sheepishly admitted. "Being an only child and all, I s'pose."

She nodded in understanding. "I'm an only child too. I just spoke to my mother today morning and she said she wished I were back home because it's so lonely there for her all by herself until I reminded her that she has a husband."

He laughed and they chatted lightly all the way back to the campus, only stopping on the way by a candy store to buy chocolates. While she maintained casual and light conversation, in the back of her mind, Hermione kept thinking about that blonde man at the shop. She had a feeling in her gut that bothered her- like she had seen him before. It struck her much later when they were walking by the lake once again. That there was something about him- besides his devastating good looks- that caused him to be on her mind. His gray eyes forced her to ask herself the question- do I know him from somewhere? There wasn't a lack of good-looking individuals that pranced around New York nor was this the first time she was being acquainted with a member of the opposite sex who was so physically gifted. It was the simple fact that the way he looked at her- which she did not realize that very moment since she rather preoccupied by the striking and fashionable way his hair looked, causing a handsome contrast between his mildly tanned skin and pale hair.

Maybe I saw him once somewhere.

As she walked along the cobbled pathway back to Hogwarts with Harry, the sunlight was brilliantly reflected by the lake, casting a blinding shine around the landscape. The light reflected off of Harry's glasses as they chatted. The trees gave of a floral smell in the air indicating the beginning of Spring. Minuscule flowers budded in thick bushed surround the periphery of the lake, birds chirping noisily in the distance as if they were a gathering of women during tea and the soft, scented and gentle breeze that rustled the leaves of magnificent trees in the forest around them. She heard that were deers, rabbits, puffins, adders and many more that dwell within its mysterious depths.

Hogwarts was beautiful. As are the men that go here, a voice in the back of her smugly commented.

She flushed.

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.

.

By lunch, around ninety percent of the entire student population had arrived. The halls were crowded with people from every corner of the world and music was flowing from every classroom she walked past. She did not see the blonde man during lunch in the castle which made her wonder maybe he had decided to have lunch in Hogsmeade. Perhaps with a lady friend of his...

She shook her head, dismissing that girlish thought. Silly Hermione. As promised, Harry had introduced her to a few of friends from his days in school. They weren't many, like had assumed here would be, but regardless it caused her feel self conscious about her hair. She kept fiddling with the ends of the strands, twirling them around her finger like a besotted schoolgirl when he introduced her to a tall redheaded boy. He politely extended his hand to her, his gaze wandering around her face before resting on her eyes.

"Ronald Weasley," he said, a friendly smile on his face. He played the trumpet, something she wasn't surprised considering his great height as he towered above her and his broad chest.

She shook his hands which were surprisingly large and drowned her own tiny ones in his strong grip. "Hermione Granger. I play the violin."

He raised his dark red eyebrows. "Wait a moment...didn't you attend Juillaird? I saw your performance with the orchestra at Central Park for the Spring Concerto. Bloody hell, you're talented aren't you? Quite a feisty player. I loved it."

She flushed under his gaze. He had lovely blue eyes. "Oh, it was nothing. I worked with a very good composer. He was the reason behind everything, I really can't say I would have performed well if it wasn't for him, really- why are you laughing?"

"You're so modest!" Ron did not bother hiding his wide grin at her words. He was impressed by how soft-spoken and grounded she seemed- compared to her stunning performance he saw that spring. He was charmed by her personality. She seemed quite bossy at first look.

"O-oh...Uh..hehe, well,' she weakly smiled, trying to hide her blush behind her large hair. "Really, you're too kind. But I will still insist it was my composer."

"Have it your way then, but I'm pretty sure everybody here knows you're definitely very talented. Better watch out, eh Harry?" he jokingly elbowed Harry beside him, ruffling his hair. "Don't let her smallness make you overconfident, now. We know there's going to be a run for Dumbledore's favorite this year. Although none of us will ever be able to surpass Riddle. Being the star pupil and all. I won't even bother trying."

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. Harry gasped beside her.

"Whoa. What did you say? Riddle goes here?!"

Ron looked at the both of them like they had gone silly in the head.

"Y-yeah...didn't you know? He's a third year now..."

Hermione's mind tuned him out. She felt so stupid. So ridiculously stupid. Tom Marvolo Riddle. A man she had admired, who's compositions she listened to tirelessly every night in Juilliard when she needed inspiration. The greatest mind in the 21st century. She felt her hands get clammy. She had always wanted to meet him. She never knew...she never knew he still went to school! Oh, this was a dream come true! She had heard stories about him. How his very presence made music flow through the room, how hearing him play in person was like witnessing a miracle come to life in front of ones eyes. She had always imagined him to be much older, but hearing that he went to school shrouded this man in more mystery than her blonde haired man.

"Neither of you knew?" Ron asked, incredulous.

Harry shook his head. "I thought he was in Vienna. I didn't know he was back in England. And I thought he graduated an year early...but I never knew he was still here. But he hardly ever is though, right? I mean, he's always traveling for his concertos. So even if he is here, it's hardly likely that we'll be seeing a lot of him. We may not even see him until New Years. And that's if we're lucky."

Ron nodded solemnly at those words. But Hermione's heart was already sinking deeper than the Titanic. After New Years? That was almost never. She might never see him. He was known to be a recluse. But he was a world famous celebrity after all so it made sense that he would want time to himself here in the middle of nowhere in Scotland. In Hogwarts. Where she went to school as well. She sighed, feeling forlorn. Ron sensed that.

"Hey, maybe you can see him today at dinner, don't give up just yet."

That raised her hopes once again and she brightly smiled.

She spent a few minutes down near the Entrance Hall talking to Harry and Ron before she excused herself to head upstairs and arrange her newly purchased groceries into small drawers in her room. Her trip to her dorm involved her being slapped in the face by a distressed harpist instrument, yelling at an trombone player who emptied his spit valve on her boots and snapping at someone who asked her where the lavatory was located because her temper was running short. Hermione passed a group of girls who were excitedly tittering about their good fortune of being blessed that Hogwarts had co-ed dorms. She discreetly rolled her eyes at that. She trip to her room after stepping inside the dorm entrance was almost a run with her large bag. She did not want to talk to anybody just yet.

She wanted to practice the violin. Her chest felt odd, a feeling that always alleviated after playing the violin.

She stepped into her room, walked to her bed where the violin lay and began to play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. She poured her heart into the violin, striking each note with a heaviness in her heart she couldn't describe. Why I am suddenly so sad? Was it fear? Did the music in the halls as she walked back strike envy through her heart? She felt doubt in her talent as a violinist. As a person. That her being selected here was a huge mistake. She did not belong here.

She can't play nearly as well as some of the students here. Hermione swam deeper into these thoughts, her heart become heavier which each note. The violin portrayed that emotion. It sung about the sadness in her heart, how lonely she felt her whole life. That finding friends had always been difficult for her. She played out her sadness until none of it was left inside her. She played about her emotions and her violin listened to her cry with a patient and empathetic smile. It absorbed her sorrow and gave her warmth. She did not realize how long she had been playing until she opened her eyes and looked out the window. The sun was setting in the horizon. And her heart felt light again.

.

.

.

The start of term banquet began at half past seven. All students assembled down in the Great Hall where she and Harry had been having their meals for the past week. Hermione, Harry and Ron found themselves seat in one of the four large tables arranged parallel to each other in the Great Hall. Up in the hall, another table facing the four large tables was for teaching faculty only. She saw Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall talking to each other as she sat down between Ron and Harry. Their dinner was already present on their tables when they arrived. She was pleasantly surprised about this. She absentmindedly wondered about who made this food but then felt stupid when she realized of course Hogwarts would have a cooking staff. She grabbed a juicy looking green apple and bit into it. Perhaps it was because it had been a long time since but this was the delicious apple she had eve eaten her whole life. Within a few minutes, students filled the room.

Hermione leaned to the side to ask Ron if he had seen Tom Riddle when suddenly, the sound of a chair being pulled back in front of her halted the words out of her mouth midway and she looked up. That blonde man from the grocery store just sat down in front of her. Hermione's face began to turn an alarming shade of red as she shuffled in her seat and tried to hide her face behind her hair. She adjusted the lapels of her coat such that it covered the lower half of her face.

"Cold, are you?" Ron asked, staring at her face hidden behind thick brown hair.

She blushed harder when she realized that the man in front turned to stare. She deliberately tried to ignore him even though she felt his stare burn through her.

Oh dear, why does he have to pick this seat above all others? She wailed in her mind. Hermione had an inkling that he would soon become a major distraction for her while she's in Hogwarts.

Her mind was fortunately diverted as Albus Dumbledore stood up from his eat and addressed the hall of students who were string at him.

"Good evening and Welcome! Welcome to a the start-of-term banquet at Hogwarts. Welcome back to our older students of course and I heartily hope that you had a great summer. But now lets get down to a few important notices that I have been asked to inform you by our caretaker Argus Filch. Students are notified that the third floor corridor on the right is strictly for orchestra practice for selected members only. Those found loitering will face punishable consequences. Classes for all first year students will commence on the fifth floor and your timetables will be handed out to you at breakfast tomorrow. Bon appetite!"

Every student in the hall broke the silence with eager chatter and the sound of clicking spoons and forks soon followed. Hermione began eating her dinner, determinedly avoiding catching the eye on someone in front of her. Ron was talking to her and Harry with his mouth full of food.

"I'll have practice in the morning that's for sure. I just hope we get once class together. That'll be nice don't you think? We can even auditions for the orchestra together. Won't it be really amazing if we all got in?"

Orchestra try outs?

That piqued Hermione's interest. She quietly nodded along, slowly eating her food. The man in front of her had struck up conversation with his neighbor seating beside him.

"I didn't know Riddle was back so soon," said a dark skinned man beside him.

"He came in today afternoon."

"I heard he's in your dorm."

There was a pause before he answered. "Yeah he is."

Hermione felt jealous. She wanted to be in the same dorm as Tom Riddle. She turned to ask Harry to pass some lamb chops whens he saw he was eavesdropping on the conversation as well. Both of them shared a mischievous smile. She inwardly wished the man did not remember her from the grocery store. She tried her hardest to not him catch a sight of her. Hermione ruffled her hair so that it was impossible to see her entire face. Halfway through dinner, she stopped listening into the conversation the blonde man across from her was having and started to observe the students around her. There were many well known faces around the hall. She recognized Luna Lovegood, the flutist who had her audition before Hermione. She wasn't surprised to find her here. She played excellently.

Soon, dinner came to an end and Hermione stood up from her chair, waiting for Harry and Ron to clear up the last of their remaining dessert when Harry called out rather loudly, "Hermione, would you mind if I borrowed your rosin wax? I forgot to buy mine today."

From the corner of her eye she saw the blonde haired man sharply look up from his plate and stare at her as she blushed behind all her hair. She gave a brisk affirmative answer and said she would wait for them at the Entrance Hall outside once they were done and quickly turned on her heel to leave. She heard a chair scrape as it was roughly pushed behind as she rushed out.

He's not coming after you, no. He probably has to go to the loo or something. He's definitely not following, don't be silly, she kept reminding herself.

She had just walked past the doors out into the Entrance Hall away from everyone when she heard her name being called out in that sinfully deep, velvety voice she had been silently listening to all dinner. She reluctantly stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath before turning around to look at the blonde man. He was as devastatingly gorgeous as he had been today morning. His hair were slightly ruffled because of how he kept running his hands through it all dinner. When he saw her face, he exhaled heavily.

"Hermione," he said, sounding relieved.

"Do I know you?" she said, trying to sound indifferent and a tad bit suspicious.

"I thought it was you today morning but you had changed so much I thought I was imagining you," he said. "Can't imagine you'll remember me, of course. I was very different back then. A big git and a bully."

Her heart skipped a beat.

It struck her like a ton of bricks. All at once, Hermione remembered a certain boy from her childhood. A time when she was barely eleven and went to school in London, a few months before her family immigrated to the States. There had been a boy in her class. A boy she hated. A boy who bullied her for her bushy hair and her teeth. For the way she dressed and talked to the way she acted in class. Draco Malfoy. While she had hated him, she wished she was as talented as him. Someone who came from such an affluent family, who was everything with music she wasn't. Who always received the same amount of praise for his music as her-if not more. She never thought she would see him again. the last time she had saw Malfoy was the day he told her he liked her as a man liked a woman.

"Malfoy," she breathed. "You-I...I never thought I'd see you again."

He gave a weak laugh. "Me neither, although I never stopped wishing that someday we would meet again."

If her face had been pink before, it was certainly a beetroot now. He thought about me for ten years. Ten years. He remembers me.

"It's...It's nice to see you here," she said lamely. She wanted to hear him say it. She needed to hear the words directly to believe it.

"I-yeah. Yeah it is. I never thought I would get the chance to say this but...you look beautiful, Granger. You've changed so much from the last time we saw each other and I've always wanted to apologize for what a git I was to you back then-"

"Oh, it's alright," she smiled through her madly thumping heart. "We were children-it hardly matters now. It was ten years ago, Malfoy. We all makes mistakes. And you look really good too, I mean you always looked exceptionally great but perhaps that was because I had a enormous crush on you but you're very handsome, Malfoy-" her eyes widened in horror when she realized the words that were tumbling out of her mouth without any filter whatsoever. Did I just say that I had a crush on him? Did I just call him exceptionally handsome? Someone shoot me now, please.

She wanted to die right there.

Malfoy was staring at her wide shocked, wide gray eyes like she had given birth to a litter of kittens in front of him. Hermione hastened to correct herself but she was interrupted by him. He had a small, satisfied smile on his handsome face.

"I really liked you too."

A/N: Hey, sorry for the late update! Editing this chapter took quite some time and I kept adding some things along the way which seemed to be missing. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm beating around the bush before introducing Tom into the story. I want there to be a mild love triangle situation here that affects Hermione's music before I bring in Tom. Not to mention writing has become so difficult since I've read Root Of Desire by Megii of Mysteri OusStranger. You guys, go check the story out on . It is so beautifully written and I've always wanted to write something like that. Maybe once I finish this story I'll write a Time Travel fic. Heck I might just start writing one now since the idea isn't leaving me alone. Anyway, drop a review! Love hearing from you all!