Chapter Five: Summer Before Fourth Year

"Captain, get over here this instant!" I grumbled, following the gray duck down the stairs. I was home alone and someone was at the door, so obviously I was the one the that needed to answer it. Flinging the door open I was greeted by the most unusual sight. "Darren?!" I jumped a mile in surprise. "Darren?" My best friend, from when I was younger, was standing at my door, and his side was bleeding. "DARREN!"

"Hey Hermione." He said casually, smiling. My mouth was hanging open as I stared at him, he was BLEEDING on MY doorstep. "I wanted to tell you that-" Before he could finish speaking he collapsed to the ground.

First I flung my hand over my mouth and masked my scream and then with my other hand, I grabbed my wand and levitated Darren into the house, upstairs and onto the couch in my bedroom. I would have put him on the couch in the living room but my parents might suspect something if there was blood all over that couch. After tending to his wound I sat down on my bed to stare at him until he woke up on his own will, I felt like a creepy stalker.

Finally, after what seemed endless hours, and probably was, because the sun was already beginning to go down, leaving everything with a nice reddish orange glow, Darren began to stir slightly and then his eyes opened. "Where am I?" He mumbled, staring at the ceiling and the walls, which were a dark midnight blue, and then he rolled over, wincing in pain, onto his uninjured side and saw, me. "Hermione? How did I get here? Where is here?"

"Yes, I'm Hermione, and uh, you showed up at my house, and that's here." I responded meekly, not sure if I should laugh or cry, at the moment it felt as if I was about to do both. But then I would look like an insane maniac and I'd creep Darren out even more.

"Hermione," He started then stopped, and he kept staring at me in shock. I was at the point of strangling him unless he spoke up again, when he finally opened his mouth. "Hermione, you've grown up." Well, yippee, smartest sentence of the year goes to Darren, not. "You've grown up a lot, you're so different now."

"And you haven't aged a day, your still that strange, wacko, nine year old." I laughed a little bit, to mask my tears, hopefully.

"I heard what happened to your parents, I'm sorry for your loss." Darren said softly, and my smile died down immediately, he had to mention my parents? That insensitive git, oh great I'm sobbing now. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean to." He jumped up, winced slightly and sat down next to me. "I, I shouldn't have said that Hermione, I'm so sorry, please, forgive me."

I nodded, not able to speak at the moment, so I just sobbed harder onto his shoulder. It was such a cliche moment, that thought made me let out a dry laugh that sounded more like a cough then an actual laugh. Finally I sobered up and hiccuped slightly, meaning I was done crying, thankfully.

"It's not your fault," I mumbled weakly, and I looked him up and down. "You've grown up a lot too." I commented, Darren nodded, accepting my sudden change of subject with a complaint. "By the way, my parents and my sister are out eating at the, er, a small pub in London." I nearly hit myself for my slip up, Darren didn't know anything about magic as far as I knew.

"Ah, what's your sisters name?" Darren asked, with his genuine curiosity that normally got him in trouble, but not today.

"Astoria, she's a little angel. Her sister, Daphne passed away around the time my parents did, and then Astoria's parents replaced Daphne with me, it's horrid." I gulped slightly, wondering what would have happened if my parents survived and I died, would they have replaced me like Mr and Mrs Greengrass did with Daphne?

"Your parents would have never replaced you Hermione." I looked up shocked, I hadn't voiced my thoughts had I, how did Darren know what I was thinking?

"I, uh, what?" I blinked, still shocked.

"I could see what you were thinking on your face, it's alright, it's not like I read your mind." Darren said quickly, and I nodded my head slightly.

"Yea, that makes sense, I guess." I muttered, and then got up. "You need to take a shower, you smell disgusting and your covered in blood. Let me get some spare clothes for you, one second." I headed over to my closet, took out a backpack laying in the back and then tossed it to Darren. "Those are Amadeus's, they should fit you, you can use my bathroom it's right over there, and I'll be downstairs."

I began to cook up some fish, I remembered that when we were young, Darren and I would always beg our parents for fish, we were obsessed with it when we were kids. Right after I closed the oven after I placed the fish inside of it, someone tapped on my shoulder. Jumping in surprise I quickly covered my mouth to muffle my scream.

"Git!" I hit Darren with the oven mitt I was holding. "You scared me, don't ever do that again." I nearly hit him again, but I noticed from the look on his face that he didn't intend to scare me. "Ugh, sorry about that, but you really freaked me out."

"Yea, sorry, my fault." He muttered, rolling his eyes at me. "You're so jumpy, I forgot that."

"Ha, yup." I chuckled a little bit, and then my cellphone rang (don't ask me how long it took for me to persuade my "parents" to get me a cellphone). "One sec, let me answer this." I quickly said to Darren. "Hello?"

"HI!" Oh dear Merlin no, this is impossible.

"Um, hi?" I squeezed my eyes shut hoping this was a nightmare.

"Sorry, I'm not even sure really how to use this stupid muggle thing." Yup, that was definitely Draco, but how the HECK did he get a phone?

"Um, Draco, how did you...?" I trailed off not wanting to say much more.

"You know how my dad is, and um, he thinks it's brilliant that Harry and I are friends so I told him I wanted to hang with Harry tonight and he was like whatever and the Dursley's were out for his fat uncles birthday so I dropped by to see Harry." Draco said, sounding super excited.

"So then you two decided to call me?" I sighed, knowing something like that was bound to happen eventually.

"YEA! Aren't I brilliant?" Draco exclaimed, and then I heard a clatter. "Er, sorry, dropped the phone, anyway."

"Can I speak with Harry please?" I asked in the most polite and patient voice I could.

"Hi Hermione," thank you Merlin, someone with at least half a brain.

"Why did you two call me?"

"Draco wanted to go swimming."

"Swimming?"

"Yea, swimming, he's insane."

"Swimming?" He's got to be insane, all of them, my friends are insane.

"Um, Hermione, you're just repeating 'swimming' over and over again, are you alright?" And that included Darren as well.

"Oh shut up Darren!" I snapped at him, forgetting I was on the phone with Harry.

"Who's Darren?" Harry immediately queried.

"Who's Darren?" I heard Draco echo in the background.

"He's a friend, and fine we'll go swimming, but I'm going to eat first. Also, where are we going swimming?" I could hardly believe that I was giving into this stupid, stupid, stupid idea.

"Hey Draco, she agreed!" I barely heard Harry say and then he put the phone back up to his mouth. "We won't be going there for about another two hours, but go to the local beach and say your there for the private party."

"Yea, what ever." I mumbled and then hung up. "Um Darren, you want to go swimming in two hours with two, maybe more friends of mine?"

"I'm not going to actually go swimming, but I'll tag along for sure, it would be great to meet some of your new friends." Darren laughed a little bit. "Is that salmon I smell?"

"Yea, it should be done right about now." I ran over to the oven (things cook faster in wizard ovens) and took out the fish, yum.

The two of us ate in semi silence and then two hours after the call happened, I quickly changed into my bathing suit, and scribbled a note for my parents explaining that I was going swimming with Harry and Draco (made sure not to mention anything about Darren, they'd freak out if they knew about him). I grabbed my trench coat (for when it got colder) and my pink camera, stuffing that stuff and more into my bag, which had been magically enlarged on the inside, I was all set.

"You ready Darren?" I asked arriving at the bottom of the stairs and slinging my bag over my shoulder.

"Yup, are you?" He responded with his own rather joking question.

"Haha, come on let's go, we're gonna walk to the beach." I told him and we began our way there, it took about fifteen-twenty minutes and the whole entire time Darren and I were talking about our childhood, it was kind of fun, you know, getting to know my best friend all over again. And then we found someone in charge and told them that we were there for the private party.

"Name?" The man asked, sounding a bit bored.

"Uh, Hermione Greengrass?" I mumbled, he nodded in response and told me where to go, it didn't take long to get there thankfully, and when we did, I saw Harry, Draco and Ginny I think, wait, what was Ginny doing here? Well anyway, other then them, the beach was empty.

"HERMIONE!" Ouch, I just literally got tackled to the ground by Draco. "You made it!"

“Um, heya Drake, can you get off me please?” I squeaked, and Draco nodded, mumbling an apology. “Hey Draco this is Darren, Darren this is-” I was half surprisingly cut off, but for the reason I least expected.

“DARREN GRATE!” Draco yelped jumping onto his feet, I blinked in shock. I saw the two of them hug and that was the final line for me.

“You two know each other?” I could maybe get Darren and Harry, but Draco? He doesn't consort with muggles, wait that meant. “WAIT YOUR A WIZARD?” Freak out moment for me. “We've been friends for the past thirteen years and you never happened to mention that you can use magic!”

“I, uh, I didn't know that you could know. Uh, sorry?” Darren mumbled, slightly confused.

“Wait, how did Darren not know that you were a witch?” Draco blurted out, “you are a Greengrass after all, one of the most known wizarding families.”

“I-” I trailed off, my eyes widening, I had no idea what to say to them, it wasn't like I could tell them I was adopted, it wasn't like I couldn't. I bit my tongue and was quiet for about two minutes, finally I decided I couldn't lie to my friends anymore about me. “My real parents died almost four years ago, I'm adopted, I'm a muggleborn and my real last name is Granger.” The three other wizards stared at me in shock and disbelief.

“You're a muggleborn?” Draco's mouth was still gaping, after all I said there, that's all he got out of it? Stupid, obnoxious, idiotic git.

“Draco shut your mouth, Hermione, I'm so sorry, I never knew.” Harry slapped Draco upside the head, but didn't put any force into it, he stared at me with pitying eyes as well.

“I can't say that I didn't know.” Ginny said in a quiet voice, and all of us turned to face her. “My first year, I overheard you talking to Tori, and I wrote to the diary and that's why the basilisk attacked you, I'm so sorry Hermione, please, please, please forgive me.”

“I thought you knew.” I gave her a warm smile, letting her know I wouldn't hold a grudge.

“YOU'RE A MUGGLEBORN?” Draco blurted out once again. “I can't believe it, my bestfriend is a muggleborn, you are a muggleborn, this isn't good, imagine what my dad would say, oh Merlin, I can't be friends with a muggleborn.” He continued on muttering to himself, I should have thought this is what would have happened when he found out, it wasn't as if I could keep it as a secret from them forever.

“Draco shut your mouth, the rest of the Weasley's are here.” Harry snapped under his breath, waving slightly to the new arrivals. “It took me awhile to persuade him to let them come, I promised him that no one would see him in public with them and he didn't need to really mingle with them at all.”

“Ah, by the way, Astoria might be dropping by later.” I said, now partly understanding why Ginny was here.

“HEY! Harry!” Ron yelled running over and hugging Harry, I shook his hand briefly not sure what to say. “Who's the guy arguing with Malfoy?”

“Huh?” I spun around and noticing that Darren and Draco seemed to be having a heated discussion. “Oh that's my best friend from when I was a kid, Darren Grate.”

“Oh, he's cool.” Ron said offhandedly.

“Your only saying that because he's biting off Draco's head.” Harry chuckled and I couldn't help but join in.

“Hey Hermione,” I looked around and saw Charlie, ooh, the creeper Charlie, er, never mind.

“Heya Charlie! Congratulations, I never actually got to say that, it must be great, graduating Hogwarts and all.” I grinned at him.

“Yeah, it's all so surreal, also, did you hear, I got a job in Romania with dragons.” My jaw dropped at that.

“CONGRATULATIONS!” Flying tackle hug, whoops, I heard laughter coming from all around me. “Ha ha, sorry about that, so excited for you.” I blushed a little bit, and Draco was staring at me in shock. “So, who's going swimming?” Change the subject time.

“ME!” Shouted Ron excitedly, and then he dashes into the water.

“Well, that settles it, I'm going swimming.” There was an evil glint in Draco's eye when he announced that.

“Have you ever gone swimming Draco?” Harry asked in all seriousness. “I mean, it is a muggle thing after all, isn't it?”

“Oh shut up Harry, wizards swim too, it's like a second nature to me, just like quidditch.” I laughed so hard at Draco's response, and then I joined him, Ron and Harry in the water.

Soon more of the Weasley's joined us and we were having lots of fun, that was until and Draco grabbed my arm and dragged me off away from the rest of the group. “Hermione, I need to talk to you.”

“Draco, what the heck!” I yelped in shock when he finally took his hand off my mouth.

“Why didn't you trust me?” He said angrily, I should have known this was coming.

“Draco, I didn't tell anyone, no one knew.” I spoke pleadingly, hoping that maybe he wouldn't hate me forever.

“You're a muggleborn, you knew that you were, you betrayed me!” Draco snapped.

“Draco that's not fair!” I tried to hide my tears that were beginning to come. “That's not fair, I was told to not let anyone know, no one knew.”

“Ginny knew,” Draco pointed out, oh my gosh, he is an idiot.

“Ginny knew by overhearing Tori and I talking! It wasn't like I told her!” I wanted to slap him so hard right about now.

“But she still knew!” Draco nearly yelled.

“It wasn't my fault, I didn't even know that she knew until TODAY!” I almost screamed back at him.

“So?” I slapped him right then and there.

“What do you mean by “so” Draco? I couldn't have controlled that at all. And you know what else, my supposed parents forced me to not tell anyone, they'd murder me if they found out that anyone else knew that I was a muggleborn.” I was now starting to cry, stupid, stupid tears.

“What is it with you slapping me over and over again?”

“Maybe because you deserve it. I can't believe that after all these years of being friends, you'd stop being mine just because I'm not a pureblood, just because my parents weren't wizards.”

“I never said I wouldn't be your friend.”

“Well that's what you've made it sound like.”

"I didn't mean to make it sound like that."

"So we are still friends?"

"Yes, but things will be different between us for quite some time."

"Drake, I'm so sorry, I know I should have told you."

"Damn right you should have."

"Let's just go back to the rest of the group." I mumbled, couldn't he have just accepted my apology? Ugh, he is so hard to deal with at times.