Today is a pleasantly warm day in contrast to the rest over the past month of being here at Hogwarts, and due to this, Hermione and I are sat outside today and reading. The courtyards were quite full when we tried finding a place to sit earlier, and so we're a little further away from the castle, just a little bit away from Hagrid's hut, sitting beneath some trees and enjoying the lovely weather.

There are clouds gently covering the sky, but nothing that's stopping the sun from warming us and the ground that's becoming progressively more chilled due to the cooling temperatures of early September. There are sun speckles dancing through the leaves, that are beginning to brown, and casting themselves against Hermione and her book, where she's sat just a few paces from me.

Today she's studying Transfiguration. I'm guessing it's due to all of the compliments she gets from Professor McGonagall during that class. She seems driven by positive reinforcement, where I'm more driven by people assuming I can't do something, rather than people acknowledging I can.

I'm not studying this afternoon, unlike Mione. Seeing as we've just come from our last class for a Friday, I'm opting to read one of the books I brought along with me. Today's is a Muggle story called The Secret Garden. It's absolutely brilliant so far, and I'm entranced by the entirety of it. It's about an orphaned girl who discovers a hidden garden within her strict uncles estate. I'm about half way through, and I can't seem to want to put it down.

My attention is pulled from the story when movement catches me from the corner of my eye. I'm quick to turn to see what's moved, to find a small, wild, grey rabbit sniffing around near the trees close to the Forbidden Forest.

"Mione," I nudge the girl with my foot. "Look over there."

Hermione looks up from her studies to where I'm gesturing, and a smile finds her face when she spots it as well. I mark my book with my schedule, as I'm now accustomed, and place it down next to me. I then stand and slowly creep closer to the creature, watching the way it shifts from nibbling at the grass, to watching around itself cautiously.

Once I'm close enough that I might frighten it if I get any closer, I sit on the ground before it and watch it more closely.

I see rabbits quite often back home. They were my mums favourite animal, which means that whilst we often saw wild ones, we also had a tame on she raised from a baby that would hop around the yard, though never leave. His name is Wilfred, and he can still be found hopping around the yard from time to time, though since mum left, his presence is quite rare. When I do see him however, I'll often throw him a carrot.

After a moment of munching on the grass, the rabbit sits up to take another look about, and when he does, he spies me sitting not too far away. At first he looks startled, but then after assessing me, he must decide I'm no treat, and goes on with his lunch.

I smile and shuffle a little closer to the creature before I hear a voice, and so does he, and he rushes off back into the forest.

"Oi, what are you doing over there, Y/N?" Ron's voice breaks the nice silence.

I huff and turn to face the boy finding him to be stood with Harry, the both of them looking at me strangely.

"Well nothing now you've scared him off," I reply curtly.

"Scared who off?"

"That rabbit of course, Ron. Have you no eyes?"

"Jeez... What's got you in such a mood then?"

"I am not in a mood!" I call before catching myself raising my voice and sighing. "Okay, so it seems like I am, but I'm really not. Anyway," I change the subject whilst standing and brushing myself off, "what are the two of you doing down here?"

"Hagrid's asked us to come around," Harry replies with a smile. "Would you like to come?"

"I would, but Mione and I are reading this afternoon. Did you see her by the trees?"

Both Ron and Harry look to where I'm gesturing, and once they see her, Ron scoffs before turning away.

"Careful with that one. Surprised you haven't left her yet. She's bonkers sometimes," he mutters.

I look at him with a frown before shaking my head and walking away from the two of them. Hermione is my friend, and I won't listen to someone talking about her that way, whether they're my friends or not, I don't want to listen to it.

"Not in a mood," I hear Ron repeat to Harry as I'm leaving. "What's her problem?"

"I think you've upset her," Harry replies, correctly might I add, before they're both out of hearing range and I can't listen to whatever Ron has to reply with.

I reach Mione and sit back in my place, smiling to her before taking my book back up and opening it to my page. I hate it when Ron talks about her like that, as if she's no feelings and is nothing more than something to complain about. If he'd take the time to get to know her, I'm sure he'd find the side of her I've found to be extremely worthwhile.

I glance back to where the boys are, seeing them both get let in by Hagrid, before turning back once more, letting one of our last warm days lull me back into my reading state, and so I read.

There are clouds gently covering the sky, but nothing that's stopping the sun from warming us and the ground that's becoming progressively more chilled due to the cooling temperatures of early September. There are sun speckles dancing through the leaves, that are beginning to brown, and casting themselves against Hermione and her book, where she's sat just a few paces from me.

~~~{...Ӂ...}~~~

The next month seems to fly just as quickly as the first, and before anyone can even grasp it, it's October, and the leaves have all-but-few steadily fallen from the trees, except for the evergreens, of course. It's all been wonderful, though, between spending time with Hermione and then Ron and Harry, classes and such, as well as pretty much everything else, I can't imagine going home... In fact, whether Connie will be right next door or not, this is my first time being away from that house since mum, and I can't seem to want to go back. After spending so much time away from that place with new people and within new environments, going back makes me almost... sad. I've been trying not to think about it, but ever now and again I won't be able to help myself, and a pit of self-pity will form within my belly and I wont be able to stop thinking about it.

Today is not a day to be sad though, as it's Halloween morning, and this morning both Hermione and I have woken to the spell of baked pumpkin floating around the castle. It caused me to wake with a rumble in my stomach. I love pumpkin. Connie bakes it for us every Halloween. I'll need to send her an owl today.

The most interesting thing to come of today so far though, is Professor Flitwick's exclamation that'll today in Charms, we'll be learning to make things levitate! Ron is particularly happy about the news by the look in his eyes. He's looking at the professor like he'd like to kiss his shoes. That mood all changes though when our professor declares that he and Hermione will be working together. As far as she's told me, she hasn't spoken to either of them since Harry received his broomstick just about two months ago.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" calls our Professor from his place at the front of the room, atop a very large book. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too – never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

I look to Neville, who I'm partnered with, and smile to him gently.

"You ready for this one, Neville? Would you like to review the words again?"

Neville smiles and nods his head. It's nice seeing him happy rather than in a worry. I try my best to include him within class as much as I can, which can't be said for a lot of our other class mates sadly enough. I suppose they find him strange, or perhaps too clumsy to work with. I don't mind him. I think he's lovely company when he comes out of his shell a little.

"It's Wingardium Leviosa," I remind, correctly pronouncing the incantation as to help him along with it. It seems pronunciation is a common misplacement in this class, as Seamus, who's working with Harry, has just set his feather on fire, and Hermione is looking rather frustrated with a confused Ron.

"Oh, well done!" claps Professor Flitwick looking Hermione's way. I give her a warm smile as well when I see she's preformed the charm with next to no trouble. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

"Wingardium Leviosa," I enchant as I give the appropriate swish and flick, and in a matter of moments after Hermione, my feather, too, is floating above me, and Hermione looks just as pleased as I was with her. We both smile at each other happily, but I can't help but catch Ron rolling his eyes to Harry.

"Well done, Miss Amethyst! Well done indeed! Many very bright witches and wizards in our first-year this year!" Flitwick cries happily.

"Come on, Neville, your turn," I smile to the boy.

I spend the remainder of the lesson helping Neville with his charm, and by the end of it, he has the feather floating. I clap him on the back and he beams proudly.

As we're walking out I match-pace with the boys, finding them first after leaving the room. I catch Harry's eyes and he smiles with a wave, but Ron simply huffs. Obviously our last lesson has him in a mood.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he says to Harry as we're pushing our way through the crowded corridor. "She's a nightmare, honestly."

I take his arm and pull him to a stop, Harry stopping when he notices.

"I happen to like her very much! I don't see the reason for you being this way to her. The only thing around here that's a 'nightmare', Ronald Weasley, is your attitude!" I reprimand him with an angry look.

"Go spend your time with her then if you're such best friends. Don't think I haven't noticed you hanging around us to get away from her," he accuses. Wrongfully, I might add.

I'm about to retort when suddenly we're each pushed apart by a girl with a familiar head of hair, and upon realising who it is, and what she's most likely heard, I feel completely terrible for her.

"How dare you!" I shout at Ron before taking off after my best friend.

I chase Hermione down, having to ask a few others in the halls which way she's gone, before I finally come across one of the girls bathrooms, which a third-year Ravenclaw nicely pointed me towards.

"Mione," I whisper upon entering the lavatories. "Are you in here?"

I'm not met with a coherent answer, but the sounds of crying is as good a confirmation as any. I move deeper into the bathroom and push at the locked door, not knowing it's locked, and then hear shuffling from the other side.

"It's true, isn't it?" I hear her ask in a defeated voice. "You do hang around them to get away from me." I feel my heart break with her tone.

"Of course not, Mione. You are my best friend, and I wouldn't trade you or what your like for anyone, I swear it's true," I try and convince her, but she simply continues to cry.

"You know," I say gently as I sit down, "when I went to my first school, a Muggle school, that is, I was bullied. The other kids used to tease me for loving to learn so much, as if wanting to know things, to understand things was something to be made fun of... During my time in that place, I longed to find a friend like you... and I swear to you, I mean it."

Hermione is quiet for a little while, only sniffles and breathing can be heard, until she finally speaks up again.

"Thank you... I believe you. I guess, just hearing Ron say it like that – am I... Am I really that much of a know it all?"

"Of course not! He's just being stupid! I don't know why he said what he said, but it isn't true. I'm glad to be your friend."

"Thank you, N/N. I'm glad we're friends as well... but you should get to class. You'll miss it if you hang around," she whispers through another sniffle.

"Are you going to class?"

"No... I think I'll stay in here for a while longer."

"Well then I'll stay in her with you. I'm not going to leave you in here by yourself to cry, Hermione. That's not who I was brought up to be. Did you ever find out why my family name is known?"

"You don't have to stay if it's a bother, I don't want you getting in trouble because of me... and no, I never did find anything."

"Well no, that'll be Ron's fault if I get in trouble, not yours," I start. "My family, or more specifically, the witches in my family – the Amethyst gene carriers – our magic is suppose to go back a very long time. We're supposed to be able to use healing magic without any sort of incantation, or wand, just our hands and minds."

"What do you mean 'supposed', can you not?"

"Well, it's traditional for a mother to show her daughter how to tap into these abilities when they come of age, and as you know, my mum isn't around anymore, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to... but that's beside the point.

"What I'm trying to say is that I'm an Amethyst, and Amethyst's are born to help people. We're born to heal, and help. So I'm not going to leave you here by yourself... I'll stay here with you until you're good and ready to leave here, and then I'll stay with you out there as well, both because I'm an Amethyst, and because you are my best friend."

I hear the stall unlock, and after a few more seconds I'm met with a tear-stained Mione with a sorrowful smile on her face. I smile sadly to her before pulling her into a hag, and she begins to cry once again.

"Why do people think of me like they do? It isn't fair," she sobs on my shoulder.

"Because they're jealous. They're jealous that you're so brilliant and they're not."

Hermione and I stay in the bathroom for the rest of the afternoon, and by the time it's evening, I think she's finally coming right and ready to head down to the Great Hall for a meal and then upstairs where I suggested we trade Potions notes and study a little for the coming week.

Whilst being in here, I've had to ask a few different people to leave, a couple girls, though they seemed fine with it once they accessed the situation, and I'm grateful for them. I just think Hermione needed some time with a friend and a little silence to come right.

"You ready?" I ask as we stand, and I take her hand as we begin our way to the door.

"Yeah," she sighs. "I am hungry."

I'm shocked from the silence as we're turning to leave by Mione's shrill scream, and once I turn to see what she's screaming about, I, too, let out a loud yell of fright. Standing there, just within the girl's bathroom door, stands a monstrous troll with a disgruntled, disgusting face, a huge stomach, a roar, and a large, wooden club.

"Move!" I scream as it swings at us both, the club making contact with the wooden stall and shattering it to pieces, the shards and splinters falling atop where we're crouched against the floor by the back wall.

I suddenly see someone else enter the room, or more, I see two people enter the room. Ron and Harry. I don't have much time to see their reactions to our current predicament because the troll is now swinging his club and shattering the porcelain sinks, smashing them, too, to pieces that are now littering the floor alongside us both.

"Confuse it!" I hear Harry call to Ron before picking up one of the dismantled taps and throwing it at the beast, the metal clonking the troll on the back of the head causing it to look about all confused. I sigh a sigh of relief now that it's attention is off of Hermione and I, though if we can't find a way past it, then it'll all be for naught. The troll hesitates briefly before finally narrowing its gaze on the boys and making its way, lumbering towards them instead.

"Oi, pea brain!" yells Ron suddenly from the other side of the chamber before throwing and hitting it with a metal pipe, distracting it again. His gives Harry time to run around it.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry calls to us both as he tries pushing us towards the door. Hermione, however, is stuck still in absolute shock and can't seem to move at all.

I take her shoulders and shake her to get her attention.

"Mione! We've gotta go! Come on! We need to get out of here!"

It's no help though. She's stuck still.

I see Harry move again from the corner of my eye, and have to hold back another scream, this one in protestation, when I see him throw himself at the troll, his arms wrapping around it's large neck, and his feet kicked into its lumpy back. He'll get himself killed!

"Harry! What the bloody world are you doing?" I scream at him, but he doesn't answer. He takes his wand and shoves it right up the oblivious trolls nose! It definitely noticed that.

The troll starts roaring in pain, thrashing its body around in an attempt to both remove Harry and dislodge the wand. If they keep this up, he's going to get killed! Any second now the troll is going to get the upper hand and whack him into a wall, toss him off like a simple doll, or smack him with it's club.

I see it looking around and it's eyes land back on Hermione and I where she's sat, and I'm trying quickly to get her to move. I remove my wand from my robes and shout the first spell that comes to mind.

"Lumos!" In yell, causing my wand to erupt with light and briefly blind the beast.

I rip Hermione from her place just as the troll throws his club out randomly in hopes of hitting one of us and remove her from that exact place just in time for another sink to shatter, and the club to miss us by inches.

"Ron!" I yell to the stuck boy. "Do something!"

He seems to snap out of his fright with my voice, and suddenly it's as if he has an idea whilst looking to Mione. I have no idea what he's thinking, but it better be good or else we're dead meat.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he chants just as Hermione had told him too in Charms earlier today. I'd smile at the irony of it if I weren't so scared right now.

The club flies from the trolls hand, confusing the creature, and then it drops again, right on top of it's head, causing it to sway for a moment, before falling with a terrible thump. I think he's knocked out out!

"Terrific, Ron!" I call happily as he stares at what he's achieved in awe of his own abilities.

Harry stands to his feet, and feverishly, Hermione lets me help her to hers as well. I smile to her and keep her hand clasped in mind as she shakes a little, mine doing the same. This is a lot, after all, being bundled up in a small room by a mountain troll of all things.

"Is it – dead?" Hermione is the first to speak after a few silent moments of nothing more than heavy breathing.

"I don't think so," replies Harry. "I think it's just been knocked out."

Harry bends down to retrieve his wand, and I grimace at the line of snot that follows it out, as do the rest if us. Harry wipes it on the troll's trousers.

"Urgh – troll bogies."