Year One: Ties of Destiny

Warning: Mention of self injury.

Chapter Four

Hermione looks around as the train comes to a halt. “Looks like we’re here,” says Neville, she looks at him; she is now less tense, feeling calmer around the boys. She has a feeling that they will not hurt her. She then looks out the window at the town that she had been in days before, it is now blanketed in night, and only a few lanterns keep the consuming darkness at bay. She stands and follows the boys off the train.

“Fir yers over hir!” She hears, as she comes off the train. Her eyes grow wide and her body shakes as she sees the giant of a man. He is at least three times taller than the average man, and four times as wide. She grabs onto Draco’s robes.

Draco looks down at her hand; he opens his mouth to speak but stops when he sees the look of fear on her face. Her eyes are wide and her body shakes, her appearance makes him have flash backs of the nights he had spent with Her. He follows Hermione’s line of sight to see that she is looking at Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundkeeper. “Don’t worry about that oaf, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.” He then yanks his arm from her grasp, “Let go of me, I don’t like to be touched.” This is not a lie. She looks up at him with her big brown eye; the other is being covered by her bushy hair. His heart skips a beat she looks so innocent. “C’mon, let’s get into the one of the boats.”

Hermione gets into a boat that has Ron and Neville occupying it, she sits next to Ron while Draco once again sits next to Neville. Ron stares down into the black water they sit on “It’s like a black abyss. I feel like it going to swallow me any second. The faster the better I say.” The boats begin to move.

Hermione looks at Ron, her head slightly bowed as she looks at him with her big brown eye. “W-why do you s-say t-that?” She stutters, she bites her lip feeling embarrassed because of it. The boys look at her with slightly stunned looks on their faces. For the first time in the few hours they had known her, she spoke without having to be spoken too.

Ron looks at her before shrugging his shoulders, “Meet my family, and you will know why. The bloody bastards, I hate them all.”

The rest of the ride is surrounded by silence before the boats make it to the shore. Ron helps Hermione out of the boat. “T-thank you.” She says.

“Sure.” He then begins to follow his other classmates into the castle.

There are oooos and ahhhhs as the first years are lead into the entrance hall, where they are to wait for professor McGonagall. Hermione stands by herself towards the front of the group, but off to the side. Unknown to her, a boy with the same colored eyes as her father is watching her. He steps towards her with a cocky smile on his face; his friends Seamus and a blond haired boy follow him. He has no doubt in his mind that this girl will like him, all girls like him. “Hello there cutie, I’m Harry Potter,” he says, holding out his hand, his voice dripping with pure arrogance.

Hermione looks at his face; his emerald green eyes and his messy hair remind her to much of her father. She quickly moves away from him and over to the boys who she had been associating with on the train and boat. This action catches their attention and they turn to look at her. Harry moves over to where she is, not giving up. “Don’t be that way love; I just want to know your name.” He touches her chin, and she flinches away from him. “You know, you would be even cuter if you didn’t hide your pretty face with your bushy hair.”

He goes to move her hair out of her face with his finger; she stumbles away from him, bumping into Neville’s chest. He balances her on her feet before stepping in front of her so that she is now in a small circle formed by Draco, Ron and himself. “Leave her alone, she obviously doesn’t want to be touched by you.”

Harry looks at him with an arched eyebrow, “I was just having some fun. The ladies can never resist me.” He looks at Hermione, “C’mon out of there love, I won’t bite you.” Hermione body begins to shake again. She does not like this boy, he reminds her way to much of her father.

“Back off,” warns Neville, stepping closer to Harry.

Harry holds out his hand to him, “You’re Neville Longbottom right?” whispers break out in the group; everyone has stopped what they are doing to see the scene unfold, “I’m Harry Potter, I look forward to associating with you and so does my family.”

Neville sneers at him and does not shake his hand, instead he crosses his arms over his chest in a domineering way, and “I don’t associate with arrogant pricks. Now get away from me and Hermione before I send you to the hospital wing on the first night here.”

“Is there a problem here?” asks McGonagall, the students turn to look at her having not even heard her walk up.

Neville drops his arms and turns to look at her, “No professor, there is no problem here,” he says. Harry moves away from him.

“Welcome to Hogwarts. Soon you will walk through these doors to the Great Hall. There you will be sorted into your house. Your house will become like your family, and it is where you will stay for the next seven years. You cannot change your house. The houses are: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now, follow me and we will get you all sorted.” The massive doors to the Great Hall open and McGonagall leads them through and down the center isle between the impressively long tables. She stands next to the hat that sits on the stool; she lifts it and takes out a list from beneath it.

The hat seems to come alive, “Welcome to Hogwarts,” it says gruffly, sounding like a smoker. “I’m the sorting hat; I’ll be placing you into your house. Let’s get this show on the road, I don’t have all night.”

McGonagall rolls her eyes, and opens the scroll with the names of the first years on it. She blinks her eyes and holds the scroll up to her face. She then looks back at Dumbledore, “This child has no last name.” Dumbledore nods and waves his hand for her to continue with the ceremony. She glares at him, before turning back to the group “Hermione?” she calls out.

Hermione stiffens, she has to go first, why her? Ron pushes her forward gently; “Go on,” he whispers to her. She walks up the small steps to the stool. McGonagall lifts the hat off the stool and Hermione sits down, the hat is placed on her head, she gasps when she hears a voice speak in her head.

‘Well, what do we have here? You are the girl from the prophecy, the muggleborn of the snake. There is only one place you can go, may Merlin be kind to your soul.’ The hat then calls out “Slytherin!” a table to Hermione’s left cheers and claps. The hat is taken off her head and McGonagall scowls down at her, making her shiver.

“Go over to your table,” says McGonagall, pointing to the table off to the left. Hermione gets off the stool and walks over to the table, sitting down at the end of the table away from the other students. The Slytherins seem miffed by her loner like body language. The ceremony continues and the two boys who were with Harry are placed into Gryffindor along with the price of arrogance himself, making the girls already at the table squeal.

“Neville Longbottom!” McGonagall calls out with almost a sense of pride, as if she thought he was going to be in her house. The whole room goes completely quiet as if the room is holding its breath.

Neville sits down on the stool and the hat is placed on his head. ‘Ah…the chosen one has arrived for me to sort….hmmmm….but where to place you? You are not kind enough for Hufflepuff or arrogantly smart for Ravenclaw. That leaves either Gryffindor or Slytherin. Your soul is too cold for Gryffindor; you seek revenge for your parents. That only leaves one logical choice then.’ “Slytherin!” a collective gasp fills the room, the chosen one, the savor of the wizarding world… had been placed in Slytherin. Neville just smiles, before getting off the stool and going over to the Slytherin table, he chooses to sit with Hermione, since he is not in the mood to be fawned over by his peers.

A few more children were sorted and two more were placed into Slytherin, both are girls and they choose to sit with their elder peers.

“Draco Malfoy!” calls McGonagall, the name sounding like it left a bad taste in her mouth.

Draco sits down on the stool, with an arrogant smirk on his face; the hat barely touches his head before it yells out “Slytherin!” getting off the chair, Draco walks over to his table and sits down next to one of the two other girls that had been placed in Slytherin. Immediately the girl with a brown bob like haircut, squeals, and practically wraps herself around his arm, he scowls and pulls his arm from her grasp and scoots away from her, choosing to sit on the other side of Hermione instead. The girl glares at Hermione an almost murderous look in her eyes. Hermione does not notice, she is silently watching the sorting with keen interest.

“Ronald Weasley!”

Ron walks up and sits on the stool and the hat is placed on his head. ‘A Weasley huh? Well this should be easy…wait…you don’t want to be placed in Gryffindor? But why? Ah, I see, well this certainly is turning out to be an interesting night. May you gain the respect you deserve Mr. Weasley.’ “Slytherin!” The red heads at Gryffindor table gasp, Ron just became the first Weasley in over a hundred years to not be placed in Gryffindor. He gets off the stool and walks over to the table choosing to sit opposite the three other children he met on the train. They all look at each other, it is as if they are supposed to be with each other, they kept being put together, and it felt as if there was an invisible rope tying them together.

Dumbledore stands and the room goes silent. “Welcome Everyone! I hope this year will be a wondrous one, full of joy and mystery…I would have liked to introduce our new Dark Arts professor, but it appears they have had some trouble traveling here and will be here within a few days, so I will wait before I announce who they are. On another note, please stay away from the nightmare forest, it is not meant for wizards who do not know how to deal with its inner dwellings. Students found disobeying this rule face possible expulsion from Hogwarts. Thank you. Enjoy the feast!” He claps his hands and a feast appears on every table.

Ron immediately sets on filling his plate; he has never had so much food at his disposable in all his life. He could actually go to sleep with a full stomach tonight. Draco and Neville also set to work filling their plates and eating their fill. Hermione, however, does not touch the food. She has never seen so much food in all her life, but even though her stomach growls in hunger, she feels like she will be doing something wrong by eating it. She feels like her father will appear at any moment and rip the food from her hands the minute she touches. That is what he did at home, whenever she tried to sneak more food than she normally got.

Neville sighs, and spoons some mash potatoes and places a chicken breast on to her plate. “Eat up Hermione; you’re nothing but skin and bones.” She looks at him with horror in her eyes, as if he had just asked her to commit a mortal sin. She shakes her head no.

“It’s not poisoned,” says Ron as he swallows a piece of his third rib.

Hermione shakes her head no again, while staring down at her lap. “Why don’t you want to eat?” asks Neville. Draco is silent through the small conversation, but it is apparent he is listening for her response.

“B-because if he sees t-that I have eaten w-without his p-permission I will be in a-a lot of trouble.” A shudder runs over her body at the thought of what her father might do.

Draco sets down his fork and knife and turns his head to look at her; she is once again looking down at her lap. “While you are inside this castle no one can hurt you. The old kook sitting at the head table would never allow it, nor would our head of house. Now eat, or I will force feed you, you look like you are going to die from hunger any second.” He then goes back to eating his food.

Hermione cautiously picks up her fork and picks up some of the mash potatoes before sticking it into her mouth and swallowing thickly. When her father did not jump out from anywhere, she takes another bite of mashed potatoes and relaxes slightly, but fear is still in her body language. Picking up a knife, she cuts in to the chicken breast and takes a small bite. Her mouth begins to water; she has never had food that is as delicious as this chicken. She closed her eyes, enjoying the taste.

The boys look at her; two of them show happiness on their faces while Draco hides a smirk. These feelings were new to all of them, none of them has ever experienced true friendship before, and they had hardly experienced the feelings they brought.

Soon the feast is over and Ron looks like he is the happiest boy in the entire world, his stomach felt like it would explode at any moment, but that does not matter to him, he has a full stomach. Hermione also looks content having eaten all that was on her plate along with a piece of warm chocolate cake with fudge drizzle for desert.

Dumbledore stands again and claps his hands, clearing the table. “I do hope everyone has enjoyed their meal. You can now leave for your houses, first years please follow your house prefect, and they will show you where to go. Classes will start on Monday. Have a good day off before school starts. Good night and rest well.” He then turns and leaves the great hall.

“First year Slytherin follow me!” Calls a girl with long blonde hair and a prefect badge on. The four children stood and walk over to the girl, the two other girls also joined the group, but they keep a few steps behind. “The Slytherin house is located in the dungeons of the castle, it is nine feet below the Lost lake and thankfully is secluded from any mudblood on lookers who try to get in, there are charms to detects the filthy things” Hermione tenses, she knew what mudblood meant; Professor Snape had explained it to her that very morning. She is a muggleborn, how is she going to get into the common room? Quicker than she would have liked, the small group stood in front of a portrait of a man sitting on a throne a boa constrictor draped over his body. “Remember this password, vox. The password is changed every two months.” The portrait slides to the side to reveal a hole that leads into a room. The girl goes in and the others follow. Hermione stops just before she is about to go through, she gulps.

“Hurry up Hermione,” says Draco as he walks into the room.

Hermione closes her eyes and quickly walks through the hole into the room. She opens them slowly and looks down at herself, she is not in pain or a funny color and none of the students are looking at her weird, maybe the guarding against mudbloods thing is a rumor?

“The girls dorms are on the left and the boys are on the right. First years are in the room marked one, next year you will be in the room marked two and so on until your seventh year. Bathrooms are down that hallway with a full set of showers, the boys bathroom is on the right and the girls is on the left, do not think about sneaking into either bathroom if you are not of that gender there are spells that forbid it. Any questions?” asks the blonde prefect. When she does receive any questions she sniffs arrogantly and walks over to her friends by the fire.

Ron sighs and stretches “Thank Merlin I am not in Gryffindor, I think I would have jumped from one of the towers if I would have been stuck there.”

Hermione stares in the amazement around the room; it is covered in forest greens and sparkling silver. The furniture looks expensive being made of rich dark mahogany and covered with soft green and grey velvets. The glows of the torches give the room a dark but welcoming look. “T-this room is amaz-zing !”

Draco crosses his arms and wrinkles his nose, “Malfoy Manor has much better taste than this place, but I guess it will do.”

“I-I’ve never b-been in a place like t-this.”

“Are you from a poor pureblood family?” he asks her as he glances at Ron.

Ron holds up his hands in front of him, “Hey, don’t compare me with poor families. As far as I am concerned, I have no family. I am my own person and I will be wealthy beyond any of their dreams one day.”

Hermione fidgeted under Draco’s calculating stare, “Y-you could s-say s-something like t-that.”

“I don’t care if a person is rich or poor, as long as they don’t stand in the way of what I want,” says Neville, finally joining in on the conversation. He stretches his arms above his head, “Well, I’m exhausted, I am going to go check out the dorm. Good night.” He then turns and walks up the curved staircase to where the dorms are located.

“He has the right idea; I am going to head up too. Good night you two.” He then follows in Neville’s footsteps.

Draco stares at Hermione, who continues to fidget and look down at her feet, feeling uncomfortable under his scrutinizing stare. “You are a strange girl Hermione without a last name.”

“I-I’m s-sorry.”

“It’s nothing to be sorry for, it’s just curious.” He sniffs and looks away from her.” I should be getting some rest as well. Good night Hermione.”

“G-good night D-d-draco.”

He leaves her. Hermione looks around the room deciding she does not want to be in the common room any longer. She makes her way up the curved stairs. It leads to a landing, which overlooks the common room. The landing leads to a hallway, which is lined with doors on either side, there are seven total. Hermione walks off the landing to the hallway and the first door on her right, which is marked with a silver number one, in the shape of a snake.

Slowly, she opens the door and walks in. She feels like crying, this room, as plain as it is, is a thousand time better than her room at her house. Three four-poster beds, with emerald green velvet drapes line the far left wall of the room, the occupants’ trunks sit at the bottom of them.

Suddenly, she is pushed hard into the room. She stumbles and falls to the ground, for a split second she thinks it is her mother who is behind her but then remembers that it is impossible for her to be there at Hogwarts. She turns to see the two other girls that had been sorted into Slytherin that night.

One of the girls has a short bob like haircut, her hair is as black as ebony, her nose is turned up, and her small eyes are a pale washed out blue. She could be considered cute, if she did not have such a sour look on her face. The other girl looks rough a boyish; her blonde hair is shorter than the other girl’s, her body thicker and wider also, and she her eyes close together, smaller and black like bug eyes. Simply put, she has a face only a mother could love. The girl with the bob haircut steps over to Hermione and looks down at her. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you stay away from my Drakie poo. He is mine, and we are destined to be married, it is our parents wish. I am Pansy Parkinson, and over there is Daphne Crabgrass. If you go near him again you will have us to deal with, is that understood?”

Hermione nods her head, well; it is now obvious that she will not be making friends with her new roommates that would last for seven years. She stands up and walks over to her trunk, which is at the end of the bed closet to the window. She takes out a pair of pajamas that Professor Snape had bought her along with her new robes. She then crawls onto the bed and closes the curtains, on all three sides showing. She does not feel like changing in front of her new roommates, nor did she feel like traveling downstairs to the girl bathrooms.

Slowly, she takes of the black wizarding robes and then the white under shirt, she bites her lip to keep her from hissing in pain as the shirt runs along a new bruise that her father had kicked into her that morning. She then removes the pleated skirt that went along with the Hogwarts required uniform. She looks down at her arms, they are covered in cuts and scars, but these are not from her parents, no not from them at all. They are of her own doing, the pain, the blood, helped her release, drift away from her body and mind. She would become numb, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours. It got her through the nights her father came into her room and it helped forget the hell she is stuck in.

Suddenly, a fear strikes her, how is she going to bath if the showers are public? If the others girls saw her, saw her arms, they would turn her into the Headmaster and he would surely expel her would he not? Of course he would, she would deserve it after all. These thoughts go through her mind, seeming perfectly rational to her. There is only one thing she could do, she will have to get up early, while all the other girls are still asleep and then she will have to sneak down to the bathroom and take a shower than, this way, there would be very little chance of one of the girls seeing her.

Now in her plain white pajamas, Hermione lays her uniform at the end of the bed; she will put them away after her early shower in the morning. Her eyes feel heavy, her mind is worn out, and with little energy left, she pulls back the covers and crawls underneath them, immediately going to sleep.

I know this story isn’t doing as well on her as it is other sites, and that is probably because it has ‘No Sex’ as a warning and its in general, but eventually in the 4th or 5th year there will be sex, lots of it and it will be moved to a different category. The years should not take that long to go by, these will not be as long as the original Hp books. I hope you like it :D