Year One: Ties of Destiny

After this chapter, I will begin to write it in past tense. It is getting hard for me to stay in present tense. Back when I started this I was doing a lot of script writing so present tense came out more naturally, but now I have been writing in past tense and it gets difficult to remember that this story is set in present tense. I hope you guys aren’t angry because of this.

Chapter Five

Neville

It is very early in the morning, as Neville sits in front of the common room fire, it being the only source of light since the torches were put out. He stares into the fire his brown eyes seeming glazed over with thought. The silence of the room let his thoughts run wild. He is thinking about the students he had met the day before; his parents and what life would be like now that he is away from his grandmother influence and how she will take it when she finds out that he is in Slytherin instead of her prestigious old house Gryffindor.

He hears a door shut from somewhere behind him and it stirs him from becoming lost in his thought. He turns around to peer around the chair he is sitting to see Hermione come out of the hall that leads to the bathrooms, fully dressed in the Hogwarts uniform. ‘Why is she up so early, and already dressed?’ he thinks. “Hello Hermione,” he says, standing.

Hermione jumps, before she sees Neville next to the fire, almost hidden in shadow. “H-hello N-Neville,” she stutters and walks over to him.

“Please sit down.” He gestures to the overstuffed loveseat couch that sits next to his armchair. Hermione sits down, fidgeting once again with her hands. Neville sits back down and looks at her, she is fascinating to him, a complete enigma just waiting for him to figure out. “So why are you up so early this morning? I thought I was the only one awake.”

“I-I couldn’t s-sleep any l-longer, so I d-decided to just get ready f-for the d-day.” She runs her hand over the side of her hair that is covering her face, as if making sure that it is still covering the nasty scar that lay on her cheek.

“Would you like me to heal that for you? I know a basic healing sleep that would make it better. My Grandmother taught it to me just a few days ago.

Hermione stares at him wide eyed, “Y-you want to d-do s-something like that f-for me?”

“Sure, it is no problem.” He gets on to the floor and kneels down in from of her, he then takes he wand from his sleeve. Gently, he moves her hair from her face. She flinches slightly, and forces herself to stay calm, even though her mind told her to run. He places his wand tip to her face and mutters the spell that his grandmother had taught him. Immediately skin grew over the jagged scar and it fades away as if it had never been there.

Hermione touches her cheek and no longer feels the smooth bump of scar tissue on her face. “It’s gone!” she says with astonishment. A hint of a smile appears on her face and goes to her eyes. “T-thank you.”

Neville smiles, “You’re welcome.” He pushes the hair that had fallen back into her face behind her ear. “You are very cute Hermione.” She moves away from him quickly, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable and cornered.

She scrambles off the couch. “T-thank you for h-healing me. I-I’m g-going to g-go ex-explore n-now.” She then leaves the common room and goes out into the castle hall.

Neville sighs and sits back in his chair, he had not meant to say that, it just came out; she is pretty after all. He will have to apologize later when he sees her at breakfast. Looking at the small clock on the mantle of the fireplace, he sees that it is almost five thirty. Sighing again, he stands and makes his way up the stairs to the boys’ dorms to get his clothes and take a shower before the day began for everyone else.

Hermione

Hermione is making her way out of the dungeons when Professor Snape walks up to her, he seems surprised that she is up this early in the day. “Good morning Miss Gr—” he stops himself, remembering that her identity must remain a secret. “Hermione,” he finally says.

“G-good morning P-professor Snape.”

“I was just about to owl you a note, the Headmaster requested that you come see him as soon as you were awake and dressed. Come with me.” He then leads the way to the headmaster’s office, Hermione walking at his side. “How was your first night?”

“W-wonderful, s-so much b-better than at h-home,” she frowns. “B-but my r-room-mates don’t l-like me.”

Snape looks at her with an arched eyebrow, “And why is that?”

“I w-was talking to D-Draco.”

“Draco Malfoy? I am guessing that Pansy Parkinson is one of your roommates?” Hermione nods. Snape stops in front of the statue that blocks passage to Dumbledore’s office. Snape says the password “Gum drop buttons” The statue slides aside and the two move up the revolving stairs. Once inside the office, Snape leaves the door open.

Dumbledore looks up from his work seeming surprised to see Hermione up this early and ready to speak to him. “Good Morning Hermione. Please sit down.”

Hermione sits down in the chair across from him and looks at him, still seeming unsure of what to think of the old man. “G-good morning s-sir.”

He opens one of the drawers of his mahogany desk and pulls out a small square wooden box; he then places it on his desk and sliding it over to her. “Please open this,” he says. Reaching for the box, she picks it up and carefully opens it. Inside lays, a teardrop shaped emerald pendent that attaches to a long silver chain. She looks at Dumbledore, being unsure of what she is supposed to do with the necklace. “Go ahead, take it out, and put it on.”

Carefully she sets the box on her lap before taking the necklace out of the box and slipping it over her head. The chain seems to shrink until it fit her neck like a loose choker; two clasps appear at the back of it. “W-what is i-it for?” she asks. The old man did not seem like the type to give out random gifts to her.

“It will allow you to move freely in and out of the Slytherin common room, which is protected by ancient spells that keep muggleborns out. Last night after you were placed into Slytherin, Professor Snape cast a temporary spell that would allow you to bypass the spells for that one night. This necklace does the same thing, except it is longer term.”

“W-what h-happens if I d-do not have the n-necklace on a-and I enter the c-common r-room?”

“Then most unbearable pain will be fall you and the Slytherins will know that you are a muggleborn, because an alarm will sound. This is why you must never remove the necklace is that understood?”

Hermione nods her head, last night she had woken up in the middle of the night and decided to read more of her Hogwarts A History copy and found out why muggleborns were not allowed in the Slytherin house. It had to do with one of the founders Salazar Slytherin who thought that muggleborns should not be taught alongside the purebloods, because they were inferior. Thus, she now understood why there were no other muggleborns in the house with her and that she would have to be careful. “I unders-stand p-professor,”


Snape moves somewhere behind her, “If anyone asks you about where you got the necklace, just say that your father gave it to you.” Hermione nods again.

Dumbledore looks at the clock on his desk, “It appears it is almost time for breakfast, if you go now you will reach the great hall in time to get the good pieces of bacon.” He smiles at her with a twinkle in his ice blue eyes.

She just looks at him, as if he is strange for smiling at her. She stands from chair “T-thank you f-for the neckl-lace professor.” She nods to Snape and then walks out of the office.

Snape turns towards Dumbledore, “Do you think she will be okay staying in Slytherin?”

“I’m not sure Severus, only time will tell. However, I think she will make her place inside that house, even if they do not know that she is not a pureblood.”

~*~

Neville sits at the Slytherin, both Draco and Ron are with him, surprisingly his roommates are early risers too, but Neville has a feeling that Ron only got up early for the food, the kid could put it away, he had already had two helpings and was working on his third at a steady pace. Both Neville and Draco are watching the great hall entrance for Hermione; Neville is waiting for her so he can apologize to her about what he said that morning. Draco is waiting for her because put simply, she fascinates him and he is not sure why.

Finally, Hermione walks through the great hall doors. She looks around, as if deciding where she should sit. Ron is the one to stand and beckon her over to sit with them. Hermione looks uneasily at both Draco and Neville, before going to the other side of the table to sit next to Ron. She fixes herself a small portion of scrambled eggs and bacon, Ron looks at her as if she is mad, “Is that all you are going to eat?” he asks.

Hermione nods her head and chooses to stare at her plate, so she does not have to make eye contact with any of the boys; she is still getting use to being around so many people who acknowledge her existence.

Neville takes the silence that surrounds the group as a chance to speak. “Listen, Hermione, I am sorry for what I said this morning. I was out of line and I am also sorry for making you feel uncomfortable.” He looks at her with hope in his eyes that she will look up, but she continues to look at her plate, before she picks up a fork and picks at a bit of egg with it.

“Y-you don’t h-have to say s-sorry I over-r-rreacted.” She continues not to look at any of them. Draco looks at her; he notices that she is wearing what appears to be an expensive emerald necklace.

“Where did you get that necklace? It looks too expensive for a family you say is poor, to be able to afford.”

She looks quickly up at Draco before back down at the necklace; she lifts with two fingers too look at it better. “My f-father gave it to me. It u-used to b-be my grandmother’s.” She is glad they cannot easily see her face, or they could have seen the look of shock pass over it quickly. She is surprised at how easily she lied about it being her grandmother’s. Dumbledore never told her to say that.

There is the sound of a girl clearing her throat to Hermione’s left and Hermione looks up to see Pansy Parkinson sit down next to her, a look of murderous jealousy in her eyes. Hermione panics and quickly gets up from the table and makes a hasty dash out of the great hall.


“Where are you going Hermione?” Asks Neville, as he stands and watches her flee.

Pansy smiles stupidly at Draco, She seems either unaffected, or unaware, of the angry glare that he is giving her. He knows she had spoken to Hermione about her being around him, he could feel it and he knows how jealous Pansy can get; since she still believed that they will destined to be in a love filled arrange marriage in six years time. He will have to have a chat with her later and tell her where to stick her love-filled fantasy. He wants Hermione as a friend and no one is going to stop that.

Hermione


Hermione is running down the hall not looking where she is going and suddenly slams into some one. She falls to the ground before looking up at the person she has run into. It is a tall pale woman, wearing tight black robes. Her eyes are almost black in color and her dirty blonde hair is pulled back in a tight ponytail. There is something about the woman that does not seem right to Hermione. The woman puts out a hand to offer Hermione help up off the cold granite ground. Hermione takes it and the hair on the back of her neck stands on end, she does not like this woman at all.

“Are you alright dear? You should watch where you are going.” Her voice is high pitched and soft.

“I’m f-fine. I’m sor-ry”

“It’s fine dear. I am Ursula Goldstein. I am the new Dark Arts professor here at Hogwarts.”

“Hermione.”

“Nice to meet you dear. I need to be leaving now; I have to check in with your headmaster.” She then walks past Hermione. Hermione watches her until she goes around the corner. She shivers; there is something about that woman that makes her feel ill. She continues walking and decides to go to the Slytherin common room; so that she can wash her hands and rid herself of the gruesome feeling, that, that woman had left behind on her skin.

The reason I decided to put this on this site is because it does have adult themes in it and the children are mature for their age. There might be a sexual-magic based ritual (not with the children) in later chapters, at which time the warnings will change. The later sequels will have sex. I think it is nice if everyone can access the series on one site, instead of having to bounce around from site to site. With that all being said, however, a story does not need to have smut in it in order for it to be considered adult, this site is not solely for smut, even though there is a lot of it here XD More chapters will be coming soon.