Falling in Reverse

The Train

Hermione Granger woke up on September 1st with a headache, and this headache sucked. She swore as she walked downstairs to see her trunk waiting at the door. Hogwarts was her home, yet why was she so against going? She carried on getting herself ready for the day- had a measly bowl of porridge for her breakfast and then had her last amazing shower. She brushed her teeth in her towel, checking out her face for spots at the same time.  She put on a pair of black leggings with a too big purple jumper and did her simple makeup again. She combed her hair and smiled in the mirror. Lets go, she thought. She grabbed Crookshanks and put him into his cage before grabbing her wand out of the cutlery draw. She cast a cleaning charm before placing her wand in her pocket. She locked up and walked to next house over. Mr Matthews, or Dave as he had told her to call him, was driving to London for work and had offered to drive her.

Their journey passed quickly with idle chit chat breaking up the expanses of awkward silence. They arrived at Kings Cross Station and Hermione thanked him as he got her trunk out. He wished her a good school term and then drove off. Hermione sighed and then turned around to see Vince, but it wasn’t Vince, it was Draco Malfoy. He saw her and walked over to her.

“Hello Veronica,” he said with a wink, “what are you doing here?” Hermione looked at him with surprise. He was wearing jeans and trainers, the newest kind but still. Draco Malfoy was wearing trainers. He laughed at her silence and grabbed her trunk for her.

They walked in silence to the barrier and entered separately. Hermione found the silence comfortable.

“Nice hair.” He said, Hermione just nodded, she wasn’t used to Draco Malfoy being nice, especially to her.

They got aboard the Hogwarts express and sat in a compartment together. Nothing was said apart from a few pleasantries. Hermione was glad that the Wizarding World had adapted meaning she could buy things through a courier service, she hadn’t been able to visit Diagon Alley and so had used the Wizard Courier Service to get everything for the upcoming term.  Draco just sat and watched the short haired witch. She really was fascinating. They had arrived early and he hoped that they would be alone for the entire journey. He had known it was Granger working at the shop since he had begun. She hadn’t really seen him often but he had seen her.  Hermione pulled out a book, removed her book mark and began to read.

“How’s Peter Robinson’s Watching the Dark?” Draco asked, wanting conversation.

Hermione closed her book, keeping her thumb in place and looked at him.

“My book is fine, however what is not fine is how you are acting” Draco looked at her in surprise, “be mean to me or whatever, just not this.”

Draco did not understand, he thought that being nice would help them become friends.

“Well, what would you have me do? I thought we were friends. We’ve spent so much time together at the shop,” he paused, taking a chance to look at her. Hermione was staring at him, her brown eyes gleamed like jewels, but this gleam was from tears. “What’s wrong?” He turned to see where she had been looking just moments before.

Standing on the platform, just outside their window were the Weasley’s and Harry Potter. They were all huddled together around Molly Weasley. Draco didn’t feel bad for them; people were lost in wars- Potter had lost his parents in the first war. However, Draco felt bad that Hermione was upset.

“Want to talk about him?” Draco asked, getting himself comfortable in the train’s seat. Hermione just looked at him, as though she would curse him that very moment.

“Do. I. Want. To. Talk. About. Him?” She was scaring Draco now. “His name was Ronald Bilius Weasley, he had the emotional range of a teaspoon but I loved him. Had is the big word in this conversation. He’s gone. It is all my fault” Draco went to stop her, “don’t you dare say it wasn’t. If I had not been a mud blood then Crazy Aunt Bella would not have come after me. If he hadn’t loved me, he would still be alive. So no, I do not want to talk about him.” Hermione glared at Draco, venom dripping off every word before reaching into her bag and pulling out an mp3 player and stuck her large headphones over her ears. Draco didn’t know what to do so he got up and walked put the compartment.

He walked past a few compartments before happening across the compartment with Harry Potter inside. He took note off all their appearances. They all looked relatively healthy but he noticed the dark circles under the Weaslettes eyes, the frazzled appearance of Potter and how Longbottom and Loony Lovegood both looked down, which was surprising for Loony. He was about to walk off when Longbottom told him to fuck off.

He grimaced before turning around and becoming Draco Malfoy.

“Longbottom finally learnt the big boy language, well done you. Oh look, Potter and Weaslette, being loved up like always, didn’t she fancy you in first year? Oh and Loony...”

“Malfoy, bugger off.” Harry interrupted him, inside Draco was happy but he had to be the moody git they all knew. Draco put his hands up before walking back to the compartment.

Harry and Ginny just sighed.

“Complacent fuck.” Neville said. “Can he not see we want to be alone, without twats like him? If Ron were here, he’d punch him in the nose.” Ginny burst into tears at the mention of Ron’s name and Neville’s cheeks flushed.  He grabbed Luna’s hand and pulled her out the compartment.

“Too many Utispots. I have a cream for them.” Luna chatted happily as she was pulled out the compartment.

Author's Note- This is a short chapter becuse I wasn't really focused when I wrote this, the next chapter will be more interesting. Message me if you have any questions.