Disclaimer: I do not own any characters in this story, that privilege goes to the amazing J.K Rowling. I do not benefit in any way from this story.
It was a year after the war and Hogwarts was finally restored from the mass of Rubble it had been the previous year with Voldemort at their doorsteps. Many students had returned to the school to finish their 7th year, this including the likes of many Slytherins who were previously Death eaters in the service of the dark lord. And who had previously made the lives of the students able to remain and Hogwarts during that hellish year a living nightmare.
Needless to say these Slytherin students were more hated than ever before by the entire school. Most people wondered how professor McGonagall was okay with even letting these monsters back into the school. These returning Slytherin students included Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, Zabini Blaise and Theodore Nott.
Other returning students consisted of Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, the Patil twins and Seamus Finnigan. Harry and Ron, while never finishing their last year at Hogwarts decided they wanted to go straight into Auror training, and quite honestly they'd gone through enough already that their seventh year was not really necessary. Hermoine had however returned to Hogwarts to graduate, not out of necessity but out of the need to return some normality to her life.
It had not worked out between her and Ron after all, and she figured they were better off friends anyway. He agreed with her after the many arguments they had over the summer about stupid things, his personality stubborn to the point of absolute aggravation.
Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table having a conversation with Neville when her eyes were drawn to the table where an indignant "Ouch!" had just erupted from. It was Pansy who was cradling the side of her head with a flabbergasted expression on her face. While Pansy was not a death eater, the previous year she had been in favour of turning Harry over to Voldemort. Needless to say she was not very well liked for it. A rolled up ball of paper had been magically launched into the side of her face and while she read it the colour drained from her face.
It was obvious that the letter contained something horrible that she no doubt deserved. But even so a frown adorned her soft features.
"That was horrible," Hermione whispered to Neville, her frown deepening.
"But can you really blame them?" Neville replied back, his eyes leaving the Slytherin table to give her a knowing look.
"Well, I understand where they're coming from but we were all scared during that dark time," Hermione said trying to imagine it from the perspective of those returning Slytherin students, especially as those who became death eaters.
"I could only imagine it being so much worse for them," Hermione paused, taking notice of Neville's shocked expression, "Well… Imagine it this way. You were born into a family whose ties were already deeply connected with Voldemort. A family of Death Eaters, and you were raised to believe that you are above families with "impure" wizard bloodlines. And when the dark lord decides that you are to become a death eater, what choice do you have when your whole family is at risk?" She concluded, the rest of her table had paused to listen to her explanation. A few from other houses had also turned to look at her.
After that silence engulfed the Great Hall and she could only assume people were thinking over what she had said. She glanced over at the Slytherin table only to have her chocolate eyes collide with stormy grey ones that somehow held her in place. It was Draco and Hermione wondered how long he'd been staring at her. Had he been listening to what she just said? She assumed so as pretty much the entire Slytherin table was either looking at her or their laps.
Draco's face held no expression and it was hard to tell what he was thinking when he looked at her, however when he noticed her staring back at him his lips turned up into a signature Malfoy smirk and she tore her eyes away from his.
What was up with him?
She was distracted from her thoughts by Professor McGonagall starting her speech.
"Welcome back to Hogwarts returning students and welcome to all new students joining us this year. As you well know, there are many students returning this year to repeat or in some cases start their seventh year." She paused for a second, glancing at Hermione who had spent the year hunting for horcruxes with Harry and Ron and had not actually attended any of her 7th year prior to this.
"As some of you may not yet know, our head girl and head boy are both in this group of returning students." Hermione gasped at this news. 'Both?' she thought. She knew that McGonagall had chosen her as head girl, as she had informed her on her arrival to Hogwarts but who was the head boy?
She looked over to Neville, who was really her only guess but he just shrugged in response, just as clueless as herself.
"These students being; Miss Hermione Granger and Mister Draco Malfoy." Professor McGonagall finished. The hall immediately filled with shocked whispers.
"Malfoy? As head boy? Is McGonagall nuts?!" Neville exclaimed besides her.
"He should be in Azkaban, not leading our school!" Seamus spat out hatefully.
"Need I remind you that if it weren't for Draco and the lies he told for Ron, Harry and myself none of us would even be here." Hermione's hard words silenced the great hall once again.
Draco's eyes widened, had that mudblood Gryffindor princess really just defended him for a second time? To say he was speechless was an understatement. Secretly however he appreciated it as he was starting to believe that a full on fight was about to take place between the Slytherin house and the rest of the school at any moment with the amount of threats being quite literally thrown at them.
The war was indeed over but the prejudices were not entirely eradicated, as was to be expected.
"While some of our returning students fought on the other side of the war," Her eyes roamed over to the Slytherin table "As Hermione already mentioned, there was little choice given to them to decide that."
"I would like you all to keep an open heart and mind and be accepting of these students regardless of their past actions. Need I remind you that none of them would be here if they had committed any truly inexcusable acts."
With that the assembly ended and the students returned to their houses. Hermione habitually started heading towards the Gryffindor common room before remembering that the head boy and girl have their own joint quarters.
Living with Draco? Now that was going to be interesting. She was entirely sure he hated her guts just for being born into a muggle family.
Draco lounged on the couch in the joined head boy and girl quarters, still thinking over what that insufferable witch had said in the great hall just earlier. He pondered over how much of it was actually true. He was always attracted to the dark side and he had chosen to become a death eater.
But then again, had he not, would his family have accepted him? He knew the answer to that, he would have either been disowned or killed. He had not entirely had a choice in the matter, but the things he had seen in the service of Voldemort constantly haunted him.
The portrait opened with a soft sliding noise and the witch causing him to dwell on these dark things entered the room. His eyes moved over to where she was standing, stormy grey clashed with golden brown eyes. After a few seconds of staring, which undoubtedly felt like a lifetime, a blush crawled onto her cheeks and she broke the eye contact.
"Do you have to stare?" she asked in obvious discomfort.
He smirked the signature Malfoy smirk and replied, "I can do whatever I like, princess."
She huffed indignantly at the nickname and decided she would be better off just ignoring him. She walked over to the door she knew to be hers, due to the "Granger" that was finely carved into the silver plaque that graced the mahogany door, and moved to open it.
Her hand was pinned near the door handle and dragged above her head. Due to her reaching out with her left hand she was now facing the towering form of Draco above her. Her other hand subconsciously reached for her wand and was pinned with the other one above her head.
"What are you doing Malfoy?" she snapped, feeling very uncomfortable and the close proximity. She struggled to get her arms free to no avail. Physically he was much stronger than herself.
A hand traced her neck and she stiffened, her struggling stopping instantly. What the hell did he think he was doing? He had no right to touch her like this, what was his problem. His frame was pressed against hers and it was near suffocating. The scent of his, admittedly attractive, cologne filled her senses and she couldn't bear this position any longer.
Fiery brown eyes locked with his grey ones in time to catch an indescribable flash of emotion.
"Get off me!" She cried again, this time a smirk came back to his cold features.
"No," He replied, his smirk stretching into a grin at her speechless expression. He didn't know why he was doing this. Why it was, when she acted like he didn't exist and walked past him it caused a seething ball of rage to form inside him.
Or why his body seemed to move of its own accord to follow on behind her. He had pinned her to the door. What the hell was he doing?
With another flash of emotions he released her hands and stepped away, turning to storm into his own room across from hers.
Hermione stood there in shock for a few moments longer before she opened the door and pressed it close behind her, sliding down it until she was sitting on the ground in a near fetal position.
Draco had said many horrible things to her in their time together at school, but never once had he actually touched her before now. And never had she realised how much strength he held in that lean frame of his.
She pulled herself off the floor and recomposed herself. She would not let him get to her. She had dealt with much worse than the likes of him and she was not going to let him think he can do anything he wants to her.
Meanwhile Draco questioned his own motives behind his closed door. Finally coming to the conclusion that that he had absolutely no clue what his problem was. He had no reason to be enraged by her ignoring him, in fact he should be pleased at not having to deal with arguing with her.
He sighed, heading to his bed. All his bags had already been brought to his room and he slid the large suitcase under his bed. He'd unpack in the morning. Not bothering to get dressed into pyjamas, he stripped down to his boxers and slid under the thick covers of his king sized bed.
He slowly drifted to sleep, the Gryffindor in the other room following suit.
I'm going to end the chapter there, I hope you lovelies enjoyed it :) I just recently found this pairing and I'm super obsessed with it.
I haven't written in such a long time it's crazy, had so much going on in my life recently. I'll try to update as soon as possible.
Thanks so much for reading, please leave a review if you enjoyed it, it really does inspire me to continue writing 3
Any ideas or constructive criticism is also welcome.