The weeks passed faster than they expected. There was little time left for the Hogwarts Express to arrive with all the new students who, if they were lucky, were not going to live a life as crazy as the inseparable trio. Harry, Ron and Hermione were together laughing in a hallway when Professor Slughorn arrived,

"Miss Granger, I need you in my classroom in less than half an hour. The prefects will be there and I need you to give them directions. Do you know where I can find Mr. Malfoy?"

"Yes, I know where he is. If you'll allow me, I'm going to go find Dr.… Mr. Malfoy and I will arrive at the potions classroom together. Don't worry, Professor." She gave him a kind smile and Professor Slughorn continued on his way.

"Really, Hermione? Draco, is that what you call him now?" Ron asked Hermione- "So we went from surname to first name? You know, it feels weird."

“Umm, well I… I umm” if it wasn’t for Ginny appearing behind Harry and hugging him, Hermione wouldn’t have been able to escape from that awkward conversation.- “I have to go to… potions class. See you later” She ran as fast as her legs would let her as she climbed stairs after stairs. She calmed down a bit when she was on the third floor and collided with Luna.

“I’m sorry Luna, I threw away all of The Quibbler’s magazines.”

“Oh no problem Hermione. These were going to the trash anyway, they’re old memories from the past. Why are you running?” She said in her unique tone of speech.- “It seems you saw a dementor”

“No, it’s nothing. I have to get to the caretaker’s common room to go get Draco”

“Malfoy?” She laughed a little and then said- “I just passed by down there. He’s looking for you in the library. From what I see you’re great friends already, and I’m not just saying that because you call each other by your first name.” Luna picked up each paper with a wave of her wand and continued on her way while humming a very peculiar melody that pulsed down each step.

Hermione went down quite fast (although she had already slowed down) and headed for the large library. She saw Draco passing from corridor to corridor while looking around. She approached him,

"Draco, you are..." Malfoy jumped into the air while almost screaming in fright.

"Merlin's beard! Hermione, what a scare!" She laughed and he got the laugh. "I've been looking for you for almost an hour, where were you Hermione?"

"Looking for you too. I thought you were in the common room but Luna told me you were here. Professor Slughorn wants us in potions class in... Good heavens, we have to get there in five minutes!" She took Draco's arm and started running through different secret passages. Within three minutes they reached Professor Slughorn's classroom and he entered.

"Oh, I see you got here before me. How long have you been there?"

"Umm..." Hermione was hot from all the running.

"A few minutes Professor. Not long." Malfoy replied. Then he looked at her right wrist, Hermione still hadn't let go. "Hermione, my... hand" he whispered. She looked sharply at his hands and let go while blushing like never before. Slughorn sat them down on two silver chairs and gave them both a notebook.

"I'm going to give you a few classes to prepare the new perfects. You're also going to need to go to the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I want you to take notes on everything you consider important and practice your potion making skills as I highly doubt you've been studying for the last year."

Slughorn's class began. The two were very focused on taking notes, but when it was time to make a potion, they both showed that they needed the practice. Hermione's cauldron began to boil as if it were furious and if it hadn't been for Draco remembering how to fix a potion, it would have exploded all over the floor. But the problem was with the cauldron that Malfoy used. He forgot to turn down the heat and the cauldron melted with a huge mess. Slughorn laughed for a moment and then cleaned everything up with magic.

"Well, I ask that you please practice more and I'll see you next week at this same time. Go have lunch."

They both ran out of that place. Never in their lives had they forgotten how to do something, they felt somewhat embarrassed but at the same time they laughed a lot.

"I can't believe it, how could we go so wrong! I've never forgotten how to do magic in my entire life!" Draco said with his hand on Hermione's shoulder and laughed.

"That was SO embarrassing" she replied laughing to Draco. The two ran to the Great Hall to eat their lunch. At lunch, Hermione invited Draco to sit next to her and Ginny but he refused because of the presence of Ron and Harry.

"No... I don't think it's a good idea for me to sit next to you, you know? Maybe we'll see each other later." He walked away and sat at the Slytherin table. Hermione saw Ginny and Harry but not Ron.

"Hi, hey guys, where's Ronald?"

"Hi Hermione, I haven't seen you since morning. Ron's with McGonagall. She asked him to be captain of the Quidditch team this year." Harry replied calmly. "By the way, how did it go with Professor Slughorn?"

"It was awful! We forgot how to make potions, the cauldron melted, we made a big mess!" She laughed a little as she told the story.

Finally Ron had arrived and it was obvious that he was over the moon.

"McGonagall made me this year's Quidditch Captain!" he said enthusiastically over and over again almost yelling. There were only a few hours left until the rest of the students came.