Short Change Hero

Chapter 2: Welcome To the New Age

Chapter Two

Welcome To the New Age

"This is it,

The apocalypse,

I'm waking up,

I feel it in my bones,

Enough to make my system blow,

Welcome to the new age..."

Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

Monday August 26th, 1996

Night Time

After a long extremely relaxing warm bath, Hermione slowly made her way back to the guest room, with thoughts of a certain Blonde Slytherin still lingering in her mind. Shutting the door behind her softly, she tried to push the pestering thoughts away, but failed as his familiar cold steel gray eyes flashed in her mind, probably from a memory of him. With a loud groan, she tossed her dirty clothing from today into the hamper beside her, and then plopped onto her bed. Finally deciding she needed some sort of distraction, she reached for the neglected book from earlier today.

'Reading is always a good choice...' She smiled lightly to herself, opening the book to her next chapter. The Dungeons of Hogwarts... Hermione scoffed loudly at the irony there, and continued where she left off.

After five minutes of a feeble attempt at reading, she absent mindedly began to chew upon her bottom lip in deep thought. Questions began clouding all of her concentration, as she twirled a loose curl from her ponytail around her pointer finger.

'What did he think of me? Even with my dirty blood, did he find me at all attractive?' She shook her head at the idea, and sighed. 'Why must he bother me outside of school, when I see him more than enough when I'm there? It is extremely irritating for him to intrude upon my thoughts. He's nothing more than a lowly ferret, he is.' She huffed, sharply closing her book, reaching for her toothbrush. Hermione then opened her door, outside her room she shuffled her way into the loo, towards the sink.

'Stupid Malfoy... Stupid thoughts...' She started to brush her teeth, wondering faintly what flavor of toothpaste he used. Spitting out her toothpaste she groaned, yet again, trying to ignore her thoughts.

The sudden voices from the stairs followed shortly by a familiar owl pulled her from the loo, toothbrush still in hand. Leaning against the railing that over looked the many flights of stairs, she noticed Molly, Ron, and Ginny talking.

"Is that an owl I heard?" Hermione asked somewhat curious, watching Ginny nod with a grin.

"You haven't seen him have you?" She asked Hermione, who heard the owl again, which she decided was Hedwig. "Apparently he's wondering about the house."

"Really?" Hermione asked, and another voice laughed.

"Really." He called out, and Hermione smiled running down the stairs quickly towards her best friend.

"Harry!" Molly called out with a laugh as Hermione walked past Ron and her. Once Ginny pulled away from Harry, Hermione dove into his welcoming arms, which held her tightly. Harry always gave the best hugs she decided, inhaling his unique and familiar scent of peppermint and soap. Letting him go with a smile, she watched Molly tug him into a proper embrace.

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming?" She asked pulling away to see his face.

"I didn't know. Dumbledore." He chuckled fixing his glasses, pushing them back upon the bridge of his nose.