Thanks Connie!! I always do appreciate you comments

The train was already relatively crowded with people, but thanks to Hermione's weaving skills through people and Ron's death stare at two first years near by that were looking to go into the same compartment as us, we managed to get one alone. Hermione shot Ron a look of disbelief as she sat down, pulling out a textbook from her little bag and plopping it open.

"Honestly Ronald, you don't have to be so cruel to them!"

"I'm not being cruel, I'm just letting them know how the food chain works: we are at the top, and they are at the way bottom."

I couldn't help but let out a chuckle at Ron who looked at me with a bashful smile like "what did I do?" before reaching down into own bag and pulling out the latest issue of the Daily Prophet. Sadly, muggles and witches were being killed already in this newly formed war between us and Voldemort, and the Ministry was doing everything in its powers to catch as many Death Eaters as possible before things really got rolling. Every week I would look in the Apprehended section to see if either my mom's or father's names were there, but each week I was sadly disappointed. It wasn't so much that I wanted them to be caught, but if they were caught that would mean they were out of Voldemorts' clutches and that I would have access to them.

"Anyone we know?" asked Harry, taking hold of my hand as I closed the paper and set it down on the seat next to me.

"No," I said with a gentle shrug before shifting my gaze out towards the countryside view through our window.

"I'm sure Dumbledore is going to do everything in his power to get them back for you Abby," Hermione said with her own encouraging smile.

I was about to respond when I caught a whiff of a thought that I couldn't help but turn my head to.

He's just so perfect and just so...everything! I. Must. Talk. To. Him.!

I couldn't stop my eyebrows from going up when I spotted the source of the thought: Lavender Brown. Most people didn't know much about her since she kept quietly to herself most of the time, but given my special means I was well aware of why it was that Lavender would keep to herself most of the time. She was a stalker, and while she in her head rationalized her actions with euphemisms, that in fact was what she was. On several occasions I had caught thoughts of her thinking about a Hufflepuff boy whom I did not know that if anyone had heard they probably would have distanced themselves from her. It was that the girl was dangerous, she was just single-minded and when she got an idea in her head that she liked someone boy did she like someone!

Instinctively and perhaps irrationally over protective I tightened my lock on Harry's hand, causing him to turn and look at me with a "what was that for?" expression. With just the slightest nod of my head, I pointed to Lavender who was standing just outside our compartment, using the food trolley in front of the compartment next to us as a reasonable excuse to be able to stand there and stare into our compartment.

"Who is that?" Harry asked me.

"Whose who?" asked Hermione, leaning around Ron to see who we were looking at.

Not normally I enjoyed a kind of subtlety when talking about someone who was within earshot, but to be quite honest I was sure a Death Eater could have appeared right in front of her and all she would have done was ask him to move because he was blocking her view. Lavender's eyes were so fixated on Ron that I didn't think, in fact I knew, she hadn't even noticed Harry and I looking at her.

"That's Lavender Brown," Hermione said with a little shrug. "She's a Gryffindor in our year."

"And why is she staring at us?" asked Harry, reaching up and itching the back of his neck in the way he usually does whenever he's feeling uncomfortable.

"It's not us she's starring at Harry, it's Ron," I said, shooting Hermione a little glance. Instinctively Hermione looked up, not at Ron, but me.

"She is?" said Ron, completely taken aback. Turning around and looking over his shoulder, Ron made direct eye contact with Lavender. Lavender, so taken aback by the unexpected eye contact, let out a little squeak, waving her hand at him in a short and quick motion. Her squeak had startled a little first year who jumped, sending a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans souring through the air, crashing down the woman who ran the trolley, her thick, curly hair now decoratively highlighted with beans.

Ron, so perplexed by the amount of enthusiasm merely gave her an awkward half smile of uncertainty before turning back around.

"Interesting one, isn't she?" said Ron.

"You can say that again," said Hermione, glaring over at Lavender. Ron hadn't picked up on the tone in Hermione's voice but Harry and I had, and I could just tell that she was going to be a problem this year.

Hermione adjusted slightly in her seat, which conveniently allowed herself to be sitting closer to Ron, before reopening her book and beginning to read again. I was about to ask them something when my mind was sidetracked by Draco, Pansy, and his two goones Crabbe and Goyle walking by the compartment.

"Wonder what they're up to," I mumbled more to myself than anyone else.

"Finding somewhere to sit?" said Hermione slightly exasperated.

I turned to look Hermione head on. "Listen Hermione, you're entitled to your opinion about the situation and I am entitled to mine, and I am telling you that something is going on there."

"You just don't have enough proof of your claims is all," said Hermione.

"Well what if we got more proof?" asked Harry, leaning forward in his seat slightly.

"No, Harry, we are not going to stalk Malfoy."

"I'm not talking about stalking him, just getting a little listen into his conversation is all," said Harry with a little shrug of the shoulders.

"Might not be a horrible idea Hermione," said Ron with a shrug of his own.

Hermione shook her head. "We need to be concentrating on bigger matters than Draco and his family. Besides, it's not safe to be getting near Draco right now. We did cause his father to be placed in Azkaban you know, and needless to say that does not make us his favorite people in the world.

Harry slumped back into his seat, shooting a glance at me before a glare at Hermione.

"Listen, I'm not saying I'm completely opposed, I'm just saying that I don't think we should invest a lot of time in a hunch."

"I'm going to go and get some air," Harry said, standing up, grabbing his duffel bag, and heading out of the compartment.

Hermione let out a noise of protest, but it was pointless because the door had already closed shut. I had heard Harry's thought and I was okay with what he was doing.

I'm going to listen to Draco under the invisibility cloak. I'll meet you once the train has stopped.