Chapter 1
The students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry climbed off of the Hogwarts Express. They saw the same horseless carriages, the same half giant groundskeeper, the same lake, the same forbidden forest. All of these things formed the familiar, safe home to all of these students. Everything only seemed brighter now that Lord Voldemort was dead. Everything was back to normal. Or so they all thought.
Among the students was an ecstatic 17 yr old bushy haired brunette. She was about to begin her best year, her final year at this school. Surrounding her was her circle of friends. Two boys, one red haired, freckled boy was holding her hand. The brunette grinned up at her boyfriend of six months, Ronald Weasley. The second boy was a raven haired, green-eyed hero. His name was Harry Potter. There were also two other girls. One was holding Harry's hand. She had red hair and an amazing smile. She was Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister and Harry's girlfriend. The fifth member of their group was a blond girl. She was wearing a string of bottle caps around her neck and her earrings of the day were mini dragons that actually spit fire. Her hand was normally attached to Neville Longbottom, her boyfriend, but he was nowhere in sight. This girl was Luna Lovegood.
The brunette turned her gaze to the mass of moving students before giving a start. "Oh my god!" She pulled her hand from Ron's and turned to face the group. "I completely forgot. I have to get the first years to the boats and the other years to carriages. I'll catch a ride in the last one with the Head Boy and meet up with you guys in the Great Hall." With that she rushed over to the other students.
Hermione was mentally slapping herself. How could she have already forgotten her Head Girl duties? Instead she had been obsessing over her boyfriend Ron.
"First years follow Hagrid, the large man over to the side! Second years head for the carriages!" She began to shout. She continued until she heard another voice shouting along with her, with a few slight variations.
"Midgets follow the half-giant. Slightly bigger midgets up to the carriages. NOW!" She glared at her bleach-blonde partner for the whole year. Her mouth only slightly twitched when she noticed that after he said "now," all of the students around him scrambled to their places either with Hagrid or in the carriages. She forced herself to storm up to the blonde.
"MALFOY!" the boy turned to her with a smirk.
"Yes Granger? As you can see I'm trying to finish my duties before I fraternize with my girlfriend."
He had seen? This was not going to be good. Draco Malfoy used everything possible against her. She was a "mudblood," her parents had no magic; whereas he was a "pureblood," his family was a long line of purely magical members. In his mind this made her as good as dirt. It probably didn't help that she had slapped him in third year. He was going to be her partner all year? She sighed.
"Malfoy, let's not argue already but please don't call the younger students midgets. You are supposed to be a role model, not a bully."
"Granger, as much as I would love to listen to you blather on, I want things done quickly. You obviously need the break from your boyfriend Weasel. Are you finally realizing that even you deserve better?"
She raised her hand, attempting to slap him but he caught her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. She glanced at the hand before glaring up at him angrily. She made to raise the other one but was already too late. He had intertwined her fingers again. He smirked again.
"You know Granger, I think I can help you with your boyfriend problem. You see your boyfriend should trust you and I highly doubt Weasel trusts you; Weaselette maybe, but the others? Hah yeah right."
By now all of the students were in their carriages and glancing out the doors to see what the hold up was. Upon spotting the two rivals holding hands there were quite a few students that fell out of their carriages. All they saw was Malfoy's face, and he wasn't frowning. Had they seen Hermione's face, they would have known that this wasn't what it seemed.
Hermione was furious. How dare he insult Ron? What did he know? Of course Ron trusted her. Didn't he?
Draco watched her eyes go from angry to kind to confused. He knew exactly what was running through her mind. Then he decided to take a chance.
"Do you want to find out?"
"Find out what?" she asked coldly.
"If he trusts you." He watched her come to her decision. He knew she was curious enough to want to find out.
"How can you help me?"
"Like this." He whispered. Her eyes widened in shock as he leaned forward and his lips touched hers. She gasped and closed her eyes. This kiss was amazing, like none she had ever received before. His lips moved with hers perfectly. Little did she know that Draco Malfoy felt exactly the same way.
Most of the remaining students in the carriages that were watching fell out at this point. They had watched the entire thing. They had seen the two students go from arguing to snogging in a matter of moments. Unfortunately Ron had also seen. He was staring in shock.
Malfoy's hands found their way to her waist as hers went to his neck. The kiss slowly deepened as they moved closer together. Once their legs touched, Hermione's eyes flew open. She quickly stepped away.
"I just- I- um- I- Oh My GOD!" she said.
"You know Granger that was a pretty good kiss for someone with only Weasley as practice."
"It was mostly Viktor." She mumbled.
Malfoy's eyes widened. "You kissed him too? Wow, any others?" he said, meaning to embarrass her, this actually gave him some very interesting information.
She stared at the ground. "A few- a bit- ok, a lot."
Malfoy smirked. "Really. So Gryffindor's Princess isn't as sweet and innocent as everyone says." He glanced over her shoulder and his smirk grew. "I guess we surprised a few people." Hermione flew around and gasped as she saw everyone looking at her in shock. A few were even on the ground. "Well I do have a reputation to uphold." He continued.
Suddenly his whole demeanor changed. "Merlin Granger could you please hold off from throwing yourself at me! I mean we all know I'm hot but please control yourself. You do have a boyfriend." He said this loud enough so that everyone in the carriages could hear him. There was a collective gasp.
Then Hermione's temper flared back into life. "How dare you!" she screamed. "I threw myself at you? I am disgusted at the very thought. You vile little PIG! You- you- you…" she trailed off. Her mind was saying 'bloody awesome kisser.' But she knew that she couldn't yell that. He winked at her as if he knew what she was thinking. She shrieked in anger and ran over to the nearest carriage.
She fell on to the seat and began to sob. "Hermione what is your bloody problem?" she moaned.
"That's what I would like to know." An angry voice said. She glanced up and came face-to-face with a very upset boyfriend.
"Oh Ron!" She flew over to him expecting him to hold her and tell her everything was all right. Instead he pushed her to the floor.
"I don't want the Ferret's leftovers."
"No Ron listen!"
"No Hermione. You listen. You lied. You cheated on me. We are through!"
"Ron!" she sobbed.
By now the carriages had arrived at the school. Ron stormed out the door and up the steps into the school. The rest of her friends silently filed out, showing her that they believed every word that Ron had said.
"Hermione?" she looked up and saw Ginny kneeling in front of her. "Good, now please tell me what the whole Malfoy thing was about."
Hermione sniffed a few times before starting to explain. "Well I- sniff- went to yell at him for something- sniff- then he insulted Ron- I tried to slap him- he grabbed my h- hand and said that a boyfriend should trust me- sniff- then he said that you- and- and Luna probably did but Ron didn't-" Hermione took a shuddering breath. "I- I asked how he could pr- prove it and then- then he ki- kissed me." Hermione once again had tears running down her face.
"But what about you? You put your arms around his neck 'mione."
Hermione sniffed again. "I- I'm telling the truth by saying that- that the ki- kiss was the most amaz- sniff- amazing I have ever had. I didn't mean to kiss- sniff- kiss him. It just happened. The- then I remembered who he was and- and pushed away."
"Oh 'mione, I'm sorry for doubting you. I have to agree with Malfoy. Ron doesn't and didn't trust you, plus this gave him a reason…"
"What do you mean?"
"Well Hermione, do you remember- oh I don't want to tell you this- do you remember how before he went out with you he snogged Lavender a lot?"
"Yes…" Hermione was unsure of where this was going.
"Well, he never really stopped."
"Stopped what?" Hermione knew already, but she didn't want to believe it.
"Hermione, Ron cheated on you. Even when he was going out with you he went for midnight snog sessions with Lavender." Hermione broke down again. She sobbed and rocked back and forth. Nothing had prepared her for this. Ginny hugged Hermione for a few minutes. Finally the door slid open. The person that came through the door was the last that they had expected.
"Hey have you guys seen Trevor?" Neville asked, not having noticed that anything was wrong.
Ginny answered him. "No, I'm sorry Neville, we haven't."
"Thanks Gin. Talk to you later."
"See ya Neville."
"Bye." Neville quickly ran to the next carriage to continue his search.
Hermione remained crying for quite a while and Ginny just sat there hugging her. Finally Hermione cried herself to sleep and Ginny sat there waiting for Dumbledore to send someone to find the Head Girl. After what seemed like forever the carriage door slid open again. In walked Draco Malfoy. At first his face showed annoyance, but it quickly changed to one of concern.
"Weaselette, what happened here?"
Ginny looked up at him with anger. "What happened? You happened, you dumb ass. You and Ron."
Malfoy became confused at the hostility he was receiving from this fiery-haired girl. "What the hell are you talking about Weaslette?"
"Ron saw your stunt, so he broke up with her. He says she lied and cheated on him. The rest of the school believes it too. Her reputation is shot and now she finds out that Ron was cheating on her for snog sessions with Lavender. Now let me ask you, what is wrong?" Ginny whispered fiercely.
"I don't see why…" Malfoy mumbled.
"Why what Ferret?"
"Why he would need those extra sessions with Brown, I mean Granger is a bloody awesome kisser." Then realizing what he had said and whom he had said it to he glared. "If you repeat that to-"
Ginny cut him off. "Chill Malfoy. I won't hold a compliment to Hermione against you." She gave him a small smirk. "Though I must express my shock that Draco Malfoy kissed a 'mudblood,'" she spat that word out like dirt. "in the first place. 'Cause I know that you kissed her, not the other way around."
Malfoy smirked back. "You know Weaselette, you've got some definite Slytherin in you. If you weren't a Weasley and if you weren't attached to Pothead then I would definitely be interested in you." He then became more serious. "Now for your question. I honestly at the time wasn't really thinking about who or why, though now I think it was to see if she really was the innocent princess that everyone said. I also wanted to prove to myself that my deceased father was wrong about the contact of a mudblood."
"And what did that delightful man say on that subject?" Ginny asked sarcastically.
"He said that I would melt. Though there was the one time that he said that our pure blood would burn their unclean blood right through their skin. It turns out that he was wrong. How interesting." Ginny nearly laughed at the idiocy of those beliefs. Then she noticed that he was smiling. She giggled. He gave her a funny look and it only made her laugh harder. Finally he started laughing too and then continued laughing for a while. When Ginny finally stopped laughing she realized that his face was now in the shadows. She gave a start at seeing how dark it had become.
"Dr- Draco?" Ginny began uncertainly. Malfoy gave a start at hearing his first name come from her lips. It seemed that he had made a good impression on the youngest Weasley. "I was wondering if you could carry Hermione to the Heads dorm. She's a bit heavy for me, and I don't really want to wake her at the moment."
"Sure Ginevera." She scowled at him.
"Draco, listen, if you call me Ginevera again then you might find yourself sadly lacking a very important aspect of your manhood." Her face then brightened. "Call me Ginny or Gin if that's your fancy."
"Wow! Low blow Gin. VERY low." Ginny laughed.
"What can I say? It's part of my charm." They both laughed as Draco leaned down and easily lifted Hermione. They slowly walked up to the castle chatting about this or that, careful to avoid a few controversial issues. Once in a while one of them would laugh. To anyone else it would seem as though they had always been friends.
They were walking through the halls in comfortable silence when Draco stopped short. Ginny looked at him questioningly. "What'd you stop for?"
"I just remembered that Granger and I have to go meet Dumbledore before we go to our dorms. I guess I'd better wake her up." He gentle laid her on the floor and was about to poke Hermione when Ginny grabbed his hand.
"Draco, I'd better do that. Unless you forgot, you and Herm didn't really leave in the best of circumstances." Ginny proceeded to try to wake up Hermione. Hermione merely moaned and said, "Gin, leave me alone, can't you see that I'm busy?" Draco raised an eyebrow and mouthed the question, "busy?"
Ginny carefully leaned down over Hermione afraid of falling on her. "Herm, whatever you're busy doing must wait. Dumbledore wants to see you and Draco."
Hermione jumped to her feet. "Crap! Ok I'd better get th- did you just call him Draco?"