They sat at the breakfast table, much like they had for the past six years. Ron was shoveling food into his mouth as if his stomach was a bottomless pit. Thankfully, in the last couple of years he learned to at least swallow before talking. Harry was eating quietly. Staring straight at his plate, trying not to drawl any unnecessary attention from any unwanted persons. His appetite had finally returned last year. The affects of Sirius' death were slowly fading, but everyone knew they would never go away. The sadness was still in his eyes. Hermione wasn't eating, talking, or even studying. She was staring at Harry.

Since first year Hermione always had a crush on Harry. No one knew, and as far as Hermione was concerned it was going to stay that way. As the years continued she grew to love the skinny, dark haired boy that only considered her a sister. She knew if she ever told him it would completely destroy their friendship and everything they had. Hermione knew she needed to be content with that, but as time worn on she was getting uncontrollably annoyed with 'just being friends'.

Hermione had won the title of Head Girl. It was a perk that she was quite enjoying. A large comfortable room all to herself, her bathroom was larger than the ones the Prefects used, a common room that was quiet for studying, and unrestricted use of the library. There was one downfall to being Head Girl. Draco Malfoy was Head Boy. He completely destroyed all of Hermione's plans for seventh year. Harry should have been Head Boy. Harry should have been the one to spend all that time with her.

But Draco was Head Boy.

Living with Malfoy wasn't that bad. Since Dumbledore's defeat of Voldemort the hostilities had slowed down for the most part. Malfoy in all sense has become almost nice. He and Harry and Ron still fought over stupid things, such as quidditich, but Malfoy and Hermione were civil. True they had only been there for a week, but everyone has to start somewhere.

Hermione pushed her plate away, gathered her things and stood to leave.

"You didn't eat anything," Ron stated with concern.

Hermione shrugged, "I wasn't that hungry, I'll make up for it at lunch. I'll see you guys in class." With that she picked up the last of her books and walked away.

"Be careful." Was all Harry said.

Hermione huffed and kept walking. She was truly aggravated. She that Harry was pretty much drooling over Cho. Hermione was incredibly pissed that he never noticed her. She wasn't pretty like Cho, but she wasn't a toad either. She checked her watch and she still had an hour before class. Deciding that she could use this time to prepare for class a little more, she made her way to the library.

As she approached the entrance she met Malfoy. He opened the door, she waited for him to walk past her and go in, like her always did. But he didn't. Instead, he motioned for her to go ahead. She looked at him in shock.

"You're not going to close the door on me, are you?"

He smiled, "Only if you want me to."

As she walked past him she whispered a meek, "Thank you." Hermione always felt uncomfortable around him, even more so when she was alone. But he was different from last year, everyone was.

Hermione made her way to the back and sat on one of the windowsill. She thought back to this summer. She remembered the final battle, the court hearings, the executions, and the funerals. Slowly, she pulled out her wallet. Flipping through the pictured, she stopped at the one of Ginny. Tears began to form in her eyes. The images of Ginny lying broken on the floor, with blood coming from her mouth flooded Hermione's mind. She remembered the blood spilling out on the floor underneath her.

Now, tears were freely flowing. Hermione remembered how cold she had felt when she found Ginny's body. It should have been a happy, carefree day. They were all at Diagon Alley. Ginny and Hermione were in the bookstore. She recalled Ginny telling her she had to go to the ladies room, but Hermione was too absorbed in her search for new books to go with her. After about thirty minutes Hermione realized that Ginny wasn't anywhere to be found. Deciding that she probably stopped to talk to someone or look at something, Hermione went to the lavatory looking for her.

She would never forget that day. She would never forget the look on Ron's face when she told him what happened. She couldn't forget how angry Ron and Harry were because she wouldn't let them see the body. And the funeral was horrible. Mrs. Weasley was a wreck, as were the rest of the Weasley's, but Mrs. Weasley was the worst.

From that day, June 10th, Dumbledore decided enough was enough. It was time to take the offensive. Dumbledore, with the Ministry's approval, went after every known Death Eater and every thought to be Death Eater. Slowly, they were all captured, save a few. A little over a month ago Dumbledore discover Voldemort's location. It didn't take long for him to take action; it took him even less time to make Voldemort a thing of the past. In the end, they discovered it was Bellatrix that stabbed Ginny. In a way the closer helped, but that only helped so much.

The bell on her watch chimed letting her know that she had ten minutes to get to Potions. She wiped her eyes quickly and picked her things. She quickly stopped at the bathroom to splash water on her face. The she hurried off to the dungeons. She made it to class before Harry or Ron; she hoped they weren't still eating. Snape would deduct so many points if they were late.

As if they were reading her mind they walked into class, just in time. Ron sat on one side of her and Harry on the other. She took a glance at Ron. He was doing really well the past month. But like Harry he would never be the same carefree kid he used to be.

None of them would be.

They were sitting quietly at their table. Hermione was reading the text that she had meant to read in the library, but forgot about. She was hoping Snape wouldn't ask too many questions because she was unprepared. Ron and Harry were talking across her about Quidditch. Snape came strolling into the classroom with a different air than usual. He didn't seem angry or upset, he almost seemed happy.

"Shut it!" See, almost happy. "Ladies and gentlemen today we will be working on the Polyjuice Potion." The Golden Trio snapped their heads to attention almost immediately. All three had the same memory running through their heads. Hermione did well in hiding her smile and covering her laughter, but the other two didn't have the same kind of control.

"Weasley, Potter is there something you'd like to share?"

A collective, "No sir."

"Ten points from Gryffindor, now please be quiet."

Hermione shook her head. Snape was such a snarky bastard it was almost sickening. Knowingly, Hermione kept her thoughts to herself. She took notes as long as possible, but eventually she got bored with it. Soon after Snape stopped lecturing. He announced that they would get to pick their own lab partners, no groups of three. Hermione turned to Harry. But before she could ask, Snape told them it had to be with a member of the opposite house. No one moved.

Slytherin and Gryffindor didn't get along, everyone and their mother knows that. Every one remained absolutely still in their seats, waiting for someone else to make the first move. It never came.

"Fine, I'll make the pairs." The class groaned, but was quickly silenced by a glare from Snape. He called of the names of students. Hermione and Harry's names were never called. They looked at each other confused.

"Granger, Potter. You two are left over in Gryffindor. So you'll be working together." Hermione was smiling from ear to ear. She turned to Ron and rubbed his back in a comforting way. We he heard he was paired with Malfoy he slammed his head on the desk. She continued to comfort him, silently praying nothing would go wrong.

"Let's go, Weasley. Some needs to do the work here." Malfoy said.

"What don't want to ruin your manicure?" Harry shot back. He stood as if he was going to fight. Hermione stood, pushing him back into his seat, "It's not worth it." She whispered in his ear. Ron stood and walked over to where Malfoy was sitting. After Ginny's death, he really did try to avoid all confrontations, but not always. Harry, however, was ready to fight at the drop of dime. Hermione tried her best to keep them both out of trouble. But you never know what's going to happen.