Chapter 4

After we got the gold, I looked around and spotted a family with muggle parents and a girl holding a small bag with the logo for the Hogwarts Muggle-Born Fund, heading towards Madam Malkins.

I smiled. This was time to enact Phase One of my plan: Introduce myself to muggle-born. Now I just had to convince my dad to let me go to Madam Malkins alone…

I glanced up at my dad, who was looking longingly at HoneyDukes, and smiling sweetly, I said, “Dad, how about I go to Madam Malkins alone? You can get some Cauldrons Cakes from HoneyDukes in the meantime.”

“Oh, I don’t know…” My dad said, torn between the desire to go HoneyDukes and to show me around. However, after I assured him that I’d be fine and we really needed to get some more sweets around the house to balance out mum’s dieting, He headed out to HoneyDukes and I excitedly entered Madam Malkins.

“Hogwarts, dear?” Madam Malkin asked kindly. I nodded, and I approached the girl, who had bushy brown hair, and was looking at a rack of school robes.

“Hi. I’m Juliet.” I blurted out. The girl started to turn and said, “ Hi! I’m Hermione-” And she suddenly gasped.

Hermione’s POV

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have screamed in the girl’s face, but she looked exactly like Bellatrix Lestrange, right down to the heavy-lidded eyes. As soon as I shrieked, the girl seemed to fall back and looked at me in surprise. “Who are you?” I asked. As she got up, she looked at me with curiosity and a hint of resignation.” Juliet.” she sighed.” Juliet Lestrange.”

I looked at her with fear, but then I noticed her anxious eyes, and, I slowly said, “Nice to meet you, Juliet. Are you a first-year? I haven’t seen you before.” “No.” She blurted. “ I was supposed to go last year, but I couldn’t because of dragon pox. I’ll be going into second year, though.” I smiled.”Maybe we’ll be in the same house then.”

Juliet’s POV

We kept on talking about school, our Hogwarts houses (“I’m hoping for Gryffindor, but I’m honestly fine with any house”), and after Hermione finished arguing with Madam Malkins (“They’re the same robes, dear-”No they’re not! One has silver fastening and the other has white!”) We went out of the shop, promising to meet each other at Flourish and Blotts. And even though I don’t know much about friendship, and even though our first impressions weren’t spectacular, I don’t think she came out of that encounter hating me, which is a start, I suppose.