Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Other citations will be made where necessary.

Chapter 1

"Draco Malfoy, you sleazy bastard!" yelled Hermione as she launched forward towards the smirking, yet soon terrified Draco. Knocking him off his feet, she landed on top of him and immediately started assaulting the Slytherin with all her might; slapping, punching, pushing, scratching… Shortly, beating the wits out of him.

With the whole school watching.

Most of the students surrounding them were really enjoying themselves; others looked worried. The prefects were looking troubled, as if they didn't know how should they act: call for a teacher or grab a bowl of popcorn and join the others' cheering. No one dared to interfere though. This was a fight between two of the rivalry houses, which meant it was rough, vicious and left no place for mercy. And the look on Hermione's face when she continued to invade Draco proved it all the more.

"Gr… Aghh! No Grang-.. Ouch!" he tried to say something, yell at her, but she wouldn't stop kicking and slapping him in all the vulnerable places (..which was everywhere!). Finally, he snatched her wrists and started pushing her away from him to the side, squeezing them painfully with his hands. He felt her legs loosening their grip on his waist and quickly rolled on top of her, holding her wrists over her head and pressing her firmly to the ground. She started twitching underneath him and kicking violently with her legs, but she couldn't reach him.

"Granger! Calm the fuck down!" he roared at her. She scowled at him and only started twitching more frantically. Draco kept pressing his weight onto her and held on her wrists as if his life depended on it… which was probably the case.

"Excuse me, please step back and let me see what…" Draco heard the voice of Professor McGonagall making her way through the crowd of excited students. When they finally parted, she stopped in her tracks, staring in shock at the scene before her. Draco Malfoy, was sitting on top of her favorite student, Hermione Granger, who was struggling to get out of his firm grip on her wrists. Both badly disheveled, bleeding and dirty from the ground they were wrestling on. She quickly withdrew her wand and pointed it sharply on the two students, making them separate abruptly from each other and fly in different directions. They stood up and looked at the teacher in front of them, who was eyeing them irately.

"Both of you, to the Headmasters' office, this instant!" she snapped, making them flinch.

They swiftly followed behind her, both feeling panicked and fuming at each other. This couldn't be good…

And to think of how it all started! Harry, Ron and Hermione were on their way to Hagrid's, when they met - surprise surprise - Malfoy with his gang of Slytherins. So of course, he had to throw some nasty comment in their direction, which they decided to ignore. Sure Malfoy was far from satisfied with being ignored, so he continued with his insults, bitching on and on about the Weasley's financial crisis, Potter The-Boy-Who-Won't-Die, Granger being a filthy Mudblood and having no right to be in this school and the Gryffindors in general. Pretty much nothing new, really, but there's a limit to how much one can ignore constant insults, especially when they come from someone like Malfoy. So at that moment, something snapped in Hermione and she stopped walking, making her friends stop as well. She turned around and faced him with a disgusted look on her face. He only sneered and continued provoking her, arousing her temper. Next thing you know, Hermione is spitting horrific insults in Malfoy's face, her own face the colour of a tomato. Though Draco would never admit it, or worse show it, she actually scared the crap out of him. Draco was familiar with Hermione's temper, and he also knew that she could come up with very… unpleasant hexes if he pushed her too much, but backing off was never an option. So he immediately recovered and stood up to himself and to his Housemates, who Hermione was insulting tremendously. At first, Potty and Weasel actually tried to interfere and calm her down, but gave up when they were assaulted themselves.

Soon the whole school gathered on the school grounds, watching the fight of the two enemies. Finally, it seemed as if she yelled out all she had to say, and just stood there, glaring at him breathlessly. Slowly, she begun turning around, keeping her eyes on him all the while. When she turned her whole back on him and started moving away towards her shocked and speechless friends, he smirked:

"Psychotic Gryffindor bitch… Must be the muddy blood's effect."

Big mistake.

She turned abruptly on her heels, facing him again with a furious expression on her face and launched towards him knocking him off his feet. After that, the memories became too painful, as he still felt his whole body sore from all her beating.

And now, they were on their way to the Headmaster's office. Honestly, he had had enough of her. She's changed. It was that simple, she has just changed. There used to be a time when she would ignore him, or only throw an angry comment at him if he was being extremely obnoxious to her or to her best friends. Now, however, he felt that at times, she was being even worse than him, and that sure said something. Not only did she talk back at him when he was insulting Potter or Weasely, sometimes she was the one to start it. He would be walking innocently down the hallway, when she would turn a corner and greet him with some nasty comment about him, or his whole House, causing him and all the Slytherins hate her even more than before, hate her almost more than Potter. And Draco couldn't help but wonder what has brought this change about.

Whatever it was, it made them now go to the Headmaster's office, because of having a violent fistfight on the Hogwarts grounds, drawing the attention of all the students. His father would definitely be hearing about this, if the old coot decided to give him some sort of punishment for something that wasn't even his fault.

…

Okay, so maybe it was. It wasn't like he going to admit that aloud, especially not in front of that Mudblood, or Dumbledore.

At last, they reached the Headmaster's office, McGonagall knocked on Dumbledore's door and after a faint "come in" they entered the round office.

"Ah, Minerva, what brings you here…" he stopped when he spotted the two disheveled students entering his office. Suddenly he had a very amused expression on his face and the corners of his mouth twitched a little. Draco could have sworn the old man was going to burst out laughing any second now, but the laughter never came. Instead, he continued watching them with that same look on his face, when Professor McGonagall spoke up:

"Professor Dumbledore, I must say I am most certainly shocked and very disappointed with the behavior of Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Granger. They were the last students I ever expected such behavior from. I've noticed a quite large and loud gathering of pupils outside the castle, and when I went to see what it was, I found these two," she motioned to Hermione who looked abashed and to Draco who just looked annoyed, "having a fistfight right there, on the school lawn, like some two five-year-old children!" she exclaimed, waving her hands indignantly. This time, Dumbledore actually smiled, and just when McGonagall was about to continue her speech, he raised his palm and smiled at her.

"Thank you, Professor McGonagall, I will take it from here if you don't mind. Now I would like to speak with Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy alone," he said.

"Of course, Professor," she nodded and excused herself from the office.

"Well, please take your seats," he smiled at them and motioned for the chairs in front of his desk. Both slowly took their seats. Draco expected Granger to instantly start apologizing to the Headmaster for her behavior, being the famous teacher's-pet, promising that she acknowledges her actions and this would never happen again, but she kept silent.

"Well, I must say this is quite… unexpected," said the Headmaster at last. "May I ask what led to this situation?" Draco decided to tell his side of the story first, before the mudblood could speak and put all the blame on him.

"Well, you see Professor, my friends and I were just enjoying our free time outside on the school grounds, when Granger approached us with her two friends, Potter and Weasley, and started insulting us out of the blue," he said with pretended indignation. Hermione turned to look at him in shock with her jaw hanging, as he continued. "So we decided to ignore her, as to avoid the current situation," he gave her an emphasizing glare which only made her arch her brows. "Apparently, she got very annoyed when we didn't respond to her abuses, so she started yelling at me and humiliating me in front of the entire school!" Hermione snorted. "So… when I tried to ask her to stop it, she completely lost control and launched at me. Next thing I know, I'm laying completely defenseless on the ground, being beaten up by her! Thank Merlin Professor McGonagall came then and separated her from me." He finished his story struggling to keep an offended face all the while. Then he looked up at Dumbledore who was listening to his story with a very amused expression, his elbow on the table and resting his chin in his palm.

"Are you finished now with your little spectacle?" asked Hermione, leaning a bit in his direction and smiling sweetly. He scowled at her, then looked at Dumbledore and nodded once. "Good. Now," she said more loudly this time, drawing the Headmasters' attention, "what actually happened Professor, is that Harry and Ron and I were on our way to visit Hagrid, when Malfoy spotted us and threw a nasty comment at our direction. Nothing new there, so we decided to ignore him. Then, he got pretty annoyed when we ignored him and continued insulting us. Us, and the whole Gryffindor house for that matter," she said giving him a haughty look. Then she sighed. "I admit that I snapped and I couldn't just keep myself quite in this situation, so I started yelling at him as well, but Professor, you should've heard the way he was speaking of me and my friends. He completely provoked me!" she exclaimed.

"Don't forget the part when you jumped on me like an eloped psychopath," Draco stung, leaning casually in his chair.

Hermione gave him a dirty look and snapped, "Oh you mean the part when you nearly crashed me with your weight?"

He straightened up in his seat and spat, "Yeah, the part when you started slapping and scratching me to oblivion!"

"You-,"

"And then," he cut her, "started kicking me while insulting me, my whole family tree and all the Slytherin generations starting with Salazar himself!" he shouted, completely forgetting about the Headmaster sitting in front of them.

"Well, excuse me Malfoy, for insulting your big and happy Death Eater's family, I sure hope you're okay!" she yelled sarcastically back, also forgetting the Professor watching them.

"Take that back, you filthy Mudblood! You have no right to speak of my family!" he roared.

"And what the hell makes you think you have the right to constantly insult me and my friends and make our lives miserable the way you did for the past six years?"

There was a faint cough in the background. They snapped their heads in the Headmasters' direction at the same time, looking furious as ever. Dumbledore was looking at them with a calm expression, and motioned them to sit down. Only now did they notice they were both on their feet, facing each other. Hermione cleared her throat and sat down, feeling slightly embarrassed with how she exploded in front of the Headmaster. When Draco sat down as well, the Professor sighed.

"Yes, I can see we have a problem here… a problem, of great dislike that is. I wouldn't like to say 'hate'. Hate is too strong of a word in my opinion, even if you seem to disagree with me," he smiled. He didn't look the slightest bit angry. Draco seriously started wondering if there was anything at all, that could make him angry, because he just seemed to accept everything so easily.

Draco huffed in annoyance when the Professor didn't continue. "So, when is our detention?"

"Detention? Oh, no my boy, I will not give you detention."

"You won't? But I thought…" Hermione started stopping when Dumbledore lifted his palm and continued, "I will not give you detention, because I want you to do something else," he said, his eyes twinkling.

'Oh, joy. Old coot has a crazy idea for his own entertainment,' thought Draco bitterly.

"What you will do instead," he made a dramatic pause, "is trade Houses."

…

WHAT? Draco and Hermione froze and stared wide-eyed at the Headmaster as if he gone mad. It was a mad idea. They couldn't trade houses, no way! Because that would mean Hermione would have to be in Slytherin, and he… He'd have to be in Gryffindor. The thought of that made him nauseous. His father was definitely going to be hearing about this.

"I will use this shocked silence to explain everything, so you won't have to explode," he smiled. "You won't be trading Houses permanently, of course. Just for a week, each." Draco let out a sigh of relief. Well, at least it's just a week. Wait, no. It's not just a week – it's a whole week! Dumbledore continued, "On the near Sunday, you Ms. Granger, will trade Houses to Slytherin. You will receive Slytherin robes and the password to the Slytherin common room. Your schedule will stay the same, and you will already have a bed by then. You will sit at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, and during classes, you will also be sitting with the rest of you new Housemates. You will not be allowed inside the Gryffindor common room until next Sunday."

Hermione nodded nervously. 'Jesus,' she thought. 'A whole week with the Slytherins! And all because of that bloody ferret.'

"Now, you Mr. Malfoy will trade Houses to Gryffindor next Sunday, when Ms. Granger returns to her own House. All the same rules go to you as well. You will receive your Gryffindor robes Sunday morning as well as the password to the Gryffindor common room, and trade the House as soon as you can." Draco shuddered. A whole week in the company of Gryffindors… being a Gryffindor! This was going to be hell.

"Now, one more thing." There's more? "There is a purpose behind the fact that I didn't make you trade your Houses at the same time. You see, trading your Houses is actually something that comes along with the main idea. During these two weeks, I want the two of you to spend as much time in each other's company as possible. I would've put magical chains on your wrists to make sure you don't have a choice in acting differently, but I believe there is no need in that, since I will be able to know whether you are following my request or not anyway." What? Spending time with the Mudblood? Yeah, right.

"Now, if I happen to find out you are not fulfilling my request, I'm afraid it will leave me no choice but to chain you, and believe me that magical chains are not the most pleasant experience. So, basically this… assignment of yours, I wouldn't want to call it 'punishment' you see, is an assignment of two weeks, and as a bonus to improving your relationship, you will also gain some respect for the other House."

Okay. That man is officially a nut case. Pure and simple.

"Professor," Draco started. "I'm afraid the… mutual time-spending will not do any good in our attitude towards each other. In fact, I'm afraid it will only make everything worse. I mean, we'll be lucky if we don't kill each other by the end of the first week! I'll be damn lucky if I survive the week I have to spend in Gryffindor! As to her," he smirked, "I'm sure she won't last a day in Slytherin, let alone a week."

"Excuse me?" she rose from her seat. "I can handle being a Slytherin for a week, Malfoy, and be sure I'll handle it just fine. You, on the other hand, will probably won't make it through half a day being a Gryffindor, let alone a week. Besides," she crossed her arms, and faced Dumbledore. "I bet he wouldn't be able to bear spending two entire weeks in my company. Just that would simply kill him, wouldn't it, Malfoy?"

He fixed his gaze on her and slowly approached her, with a scowl on his handsome features.

"Is that a challenge, Mudb- Granger?" he couldn't use the term 'Mudblood' with a Professor in the room. She arched one brow. "Because, personally, I wouldn't mind watching you being destroyed by an army of Slytherins. And if you don't mind that either…" he sneered, "Well, watch out then, Granger."

She narrowed her eyes. "Same goes to you, Malfoy."

"Wonderful!" Dumbledore clapped his hands together. "Then there we have it. Ms. Granger, you will move to Slytherin first thing on Sunday morning, and I expect you two to not leave each other's side since that very minute. You are dismissed," he smiled at them. They nodded and exited the Headmaster's office.

"Well, Granger, you might as well enjoy these two days you have left until Hell starts," he smirked. She just scowled at him and quickened her pace, marching towards the Gryffindor common, sub-consciously intending to follow Draco's advice.