Title: Survivors Stick Together

Author: Wondertitch

Summary: After the battle ends, Hermione has to learn to live with Malfoy

Rating: PG13 for mild bad language

Pairing: Hermione/Malfoy

WARNING: Heterosexual love, slashers are warned to take a deep breath before reading.

Disclaimer: Don't tell J K Rowling I stole her characters, and I won't tell the police what you did last summer.

Where's the silence?

Hermione looked around at platform 9 and ¾. She couldn't believe how loud it was, she could barely hear herself think; it wasn't what she expected. She expected silence, at least a sense of melancholy, in memory of the dead. She slowly walked passed the Daily Prophet on the floor, the headline was probably about Voldemort, the fact that he was dead, calling Harry a Hero, the usual. Nothing about the pain, the tears, the nightmares. Nothing about Lupin, Mad Eye, Tonks or Ron.

Hermione looked around the crowd for a desperate glimpse of the Weasleys, but all she saw was Harriet's purple hair rather than the Weasley's red. It wasn't as though she expected it; if it had been her brother she probably couldn't face it either. Harry wasn't going to be here either; the boy had lost the love of his life, not that he'd say anything, but she knew.

Slowly she entered the first carriage and headed for the Head's compartment. In her left hand she still held the letter telling her the 'wonderful' news of Head Girl-ship (if that was even a word). Sure, it was great, but now everything had little joy in it. She was half her wizarding family down, how was she supposed to see the bright side? She was alone in a compartment that would otherwise be as noisy and crowded as the rest of the train.

Lifting her suitcase onto the seat beside her, she did her best to seem her normal calm, yet responsible, self, so as not to be caught off guard by the Head Boy.

That's when Draco Malfoy walked in, rolled his eyes and dropped his suitcase. "Should have fuckin' know it'd be you Granger."

"Because I'm so ecstatic!" She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

The grey-eyed boy picked up his suitcase and threw it, with incredible ease, onto the seat. Hermione watched him carefully, it had been less then two months ago he had help attack the school, now he was allowed on the train back… As the bloody Head Boy!

"How on earth did you manage to get Head Boy?" she spat bitterly.

"I guess they noticed when I tried to curse the Dark L- Voldemort." He said, matter-of-factly, but the line was ruined by his clumsy correction.

Hermione went to retort, but found her mouth couldn't form the words.

It had happened suddenly, she wouldn't have seen it if she hadn't been fighting the Death Eater. One moment Harry was shouting at Voldemort, tears falling down his face, trying to get a decent aim and in the next Malfoy turned from his fight with Ginny and green light flew from his wand straight at Voldemort. He counter-attacked it, but it left Harry to get a better aim.

So instead she sat down, and the two spent the next half an hour in silence.

"Thanks for that." She mumbled after she had decided the silence needed ending.

Malfoy sneered. "You think I did it on behalf of dirty Mudbloods like you? I did it because he was a lair. I did it because he killed my mother and I did it because he's a hypocrite. And if I hate one thing more than a Mudblood it's a hypocrite, and he was both."

"You still did it." Hermione said, "And you're here now."

He stood up sharply and opened his mouth to speak, when a woman neither of the two recognised opened the door of the carriage. "Well, isn't this exciting?" She was a bespectacled woman, with short mouse brow/greying hair, a red scar running down the side of her face and bore an uncanny resemblance to Professor McGonagall.

The pair looked at her in a daze. "Sorry, introductions are in order I suppose. I'm Professor McGonagall's cousin, and new Headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor Juniper Pixlily. Don't ask; a weird ancestry and parents with an obsession with flowers."

The pair continued to stare blankly at the woman, barely blinking. A war had just ended, both of the people she was talking to were witnesses to terrible pain and death and this woman was talking about her parents? No, worse, joking about them. And she was the new headmistress? Hermione was finding it hard to believe.

"Now, unless there is something funny about the two of you, I would believe it was a correct assumption that you are Mr Malfoy and you are Miss Granger?" She said, pointing to them in order.

"That would correct." The bushy haired girl just managed.

"Fantastic. Now, Slytherin and Gryffindor, the two extremes of the School. You're both 17 now, so I won't need to go over petty squabbling and bias, you're adults. I just wanted to show my face, you both came highly recommended by my cousin. Not only for school work, but well… you know." Pixlily swallowed uncomfortably and smiled again. "Now if you excuse me, I'll be heading back to the teacher's compartment." And with that the short, thin woman was gone.

Malfoy realised he was in exactly the same position he had been when the strange woman had entered their compartment, and shuffled about a bit before turning to Hermione and saying "She's the new Headmistress?" sitting down casually, adding "I almost miss Dumbledore," as he put his feet up on the seat opposite him.

"You should have thought about that before you helped to kill him." Hermione spat venomously.

The blond stood up again in an instant, but this time he was the one to lose his voice. Quietly, he managed "I didn't do it, I didn't want..." Suddenly he turned to his suitcase and opened it quickly. "Get out Granger; I want to change before we get to Hogwarts."

"We've got hours." She started.

"I want to change now, whether you're here or not. I'd rather not…" Almost artistically, Malfoy quickly removed his t-shirt, revealing what looked like deep, painful scars covering his torso, stomach, back and shoulders, reaching half-way down his arms.

Scars weren't uncommon with survivors, Hermione had a good collection herself, but this was ridiculous. She let out a slight gasp, before grabbing her bag with her uniform in it and heading for the door.

"Granger," She paused just ouside the door at the sound of his voice, "Don't say a word."

Hermione nodded silently and slide the door behind her.