A/N: Ahhh this plot would not leave me alone … Heehee :) originally I had no idea which pairing from HP to use but of course this plot was subconsciously made for DM/HG.

EDIT: story edited for grammar and spelling. No major plot changes but now I have the entire story planned out so I redo some details

Disclaimer.

Story takes place in sixth year, Voldy was defeated by HP in the summer between fifth and sixth year.

NOTE: Ginny is a central character to this story but she doesn't appear until the next chapter. See endnote

OCTOBER

Professor Flitwick levitated himself to a towering block of books as his seventh year Charms students entered. He internally winced, teaching both Slytherins and Gryffindors was not the easiest task. Finally the students had settled down into their respective seats, a clear division between the two houses.

"Mr. Zambini, Mr. Malfoy" he began "please sit down." He rose his voice so that the two students he was trying to talk to would listen to him, "Malfoy, Zambini sit down!
Finally the two boys smirked and sat down, Malfoy slowly brushing his long-ish blond hair from his face while Zambini stared holes into the wall behind the professor. Flitwick continued on. "Because of the first Quidditch match which starts in three hours (most of the people in the room shifted uncomfortably. Only three more hours until Slytherin would play Gryffindor. "Therefore" Flitwick continued "tonight's homework will be a project which you can time when to work on accordingly. I will also put you into groups of three to ease the workload." All the students smirked and Flitwick coughed "All right the groups will be: Potter, Weasley, and Miss Brown; (Hermione looked up startled but quickly put her head down when she noticed that both Harry and Ron were not unhappy by Lavender taking over her customary spot.) Nott, Parkinson and Goyle; Crabbe, Finnigan and Patil…" he kept listing off names until "Malfoy, Granger and Zambini."

Both boys sighed at hearing their names put together with the Gryffindor Princess and Hermione groaned while scowling at her desk. "You have the rest of the class to work with your members on the assignment I handed you before class. Good luck and remember! This is due tomorrow and is worth about 10% of your terms grade." Groans were heard from every corner of the classroom, but people quickly shuffled around to find their team members. Hermione was left alone at her table when Harry and Ron left to go find Lavender and she was feeling rather dismal. Maybe she killed butterflies in her previous life? Draco and Blaise were not moving from their table so she gathered her books and walked over to them. Draco was lazily throwing a piece of parchment up and transforming it into a rock, then catching it, all without a wand. He did it with incredible ease, actually looking bored. Blaise was un-impressed by his friends skills so he was looking through the assignment page feeling just as bored as Draco. Hermione reached them and made Draco's piece of parchment shrivel up into flames and ashes midair, without using her wand or looking up. The not so bushy haired girl (her hair was long and wavy by now) ignored the ashes as they silently snowed onto the table and she grabbed a chair to sit on.

"That wasn't very nice, mudblood." Draco intoned coolly, still looking bored. Blaise noticed the ashes on the desk.

"You did that without a wand?" he asked looking somewhat pleased. "You are good for a piece of scum." Hermione ignored them both and grabbed the assignment sheet.

"So" she began, her voice sounding incredibly tired. "The project is to research a magical creature, ours is the WindyStream. We are supposed to write a sixteen feet long essay on it and we are given one hint to help us research." She yawned and then looked back to the assignment. "Blue."

"Why so tired, Granger? Worried that you won't reach your goal of reading every book in the library before the end of the year?" the blonde boy asked. Hermione looked at him as if appraising a new broomstick.

"Why do you care, Malfoy?" Despite her cold words, Hermione leaned back in her chair looking utterly exhausted. "Either of you know what a WindyStream is?"

"Never heard of them before." answered Blaise "but of course you do…" he meant the last words as a cross between an insult and a compliment. Hermione smiled slightly and closed her eyes.

"Not a clue." When she re-opened her eyes both Draco and Blaise were looking at her incredulously.

"The bookworm …" Malfoy paused trying to make a normal sounding sentence "doesn't know?"

"Do you?" Hermione asked. Malfoy smirked

"No idea. But Mudblood, you've let us down." He brushed his hair out of his eyes. "What will you be useful for then?" Blaise ignored his taunting tone and turned to Hermione.

"Are you going to the match?" he asked calmly.

"I was going to…" she sighed, shaking her head. "I guess I won't though since both of you are playing. I'll do the research since obviously that's all mudbloods are useful for" Both Draco and Blaise cringed slightly at Hermiones tone, but once again she ignored them "and you two can help me later." Blaise looked uncertain.

"Maybe you should go … sleep or something. So that you don't pass out while doing research and make us do all the work." He commented, seeming as uncaring as ever. Hermione lifted her eyebrows ever so slightly.

"You heard Flitwick. This is huge amount of our grade and …" she yawned "I can sleep tomorrow." She stood up realizing there was only ten seconds left in class. "Meet me in the library after the match?" Both boys nodded. "Don't fly into a tree or something, we would have to forfeit the assignment." Draco smirked

"We are ever so slightly better than flying into trees, Granger. If I were you I would be worried about Potter and Weasley."

"Well, they're not doing the assignment with me, are they?" and she walked out of the classroom. Blaise and Malfoy faced each other.

"Potty and the Weasel got Granger mad." Malfoy drawled. Blaise agreed

"Wouldn't want her out to get me." At Malfoys inquisitive stare Blaise rolled his eyes. "Everyone knows that she's probably the most powerful witch in Hogwarts. She hardly ever uses her wand anymore and doesn't even have to say the incantations. Us three, were probably the only sixth years to be able to do that." Both Slytherins stood up, and accio'd their books over to them using a simple twitch of their fingers without uttering a syllable.

Library 9.50 PM

Hermione was quietly poring over a large tome in the empty library. She had positioned her self at one of the large tables near the back, near an open window. A large cheer erupted and she looked up, out the window and to the Quidditch pitch. Stretching her arms behind her, she tried to make out Luna's magically amplified voice from the mass of noise.

"In a fantastic last turn around, Malfoy (that is his name, right Professor?) grabbed the Snitch which leaves Slytherin with 260 points and Gryffindor with 70." Hermione grimaced slightly and closed the window as cheers erupted again. Looking through all the books on her table she had only found three with any mention of a WindyStream. Of course, there was a plethora of information on blue magical creatures ("great hint Flitwick" she thought bitterly) but she could not discern helpful information from non-helpful information. "At least it was a Quidditch night" Hermione thought to herself. Dumbledore made a new rule that allowed students to wear clothes of their choice. She opted for baggy sweatpants and a red tank top. Waving her hand vaguely, a mug of coffee appeared next to her, Madame Pince was out for the week so the library currently had no supervision. She stood up after drinking most of the coffee and found several more encyclopedias. Hermione was fully emerged in one when Draco and Blaise suddenly appeared next to her. Draco spoke first

"Find anything good, Granger?" He thought for a moment, taking in all the books "written the paper?" he asked hopefully. Hermione shook her head wearily.

"I found out basically nothing. And where have you guys been, it has been two hours since the end of the match." Blaise grimaced.

"Hospital wing." Hermione looked up

"did you fly into a tree?"

"Bludger" was Malfoys short response for both Blaise and himself. Hermione took in the large bruise on Dracos forearm and noticed how Blaise had gingerly positioned his leg on a chair.

"Slytherin won though?" she asked, looking back down to her books. Malfoy actually laughed.

"You should have seen Weasels face, that was priceless." He grinned at the memory and surprisingly Hermione smiled.

"Good job." Then she looked up "But I was serious, the only thing I could find about these WindyStream things is that a Scottish wizard called Grenald Jennings first sighted one on his travels in the 17th century, I couldn't find out what exactly he saw or even where he was." She sighed "I don't even know what they look like."

Blaise frowned slightly and pulled some of the encyclopedias towards him to look through.

"What about the clue?" Malfoy asked. "Blue or whatever?"

The witch stared at him. "Great clue that was. Blue. It could be the color, a name, a place or an adjective for anything in this world. Really narrows it down." She added so much sarcasm to the last sentence Malfoy could practically taste it.

For the hours the three didn't talk to each other, they all looked through countless books and databases, never finding anything. Finally a 12 A.M. Blaise slammed his book down, cursing.

"This. Is. Impossible." He muttered. Draco and Hermione nodded their heads, each looking dead.

"If you don't mind I haven't eaten for" Hermione checked her watch. "Um wow. Since before Charms."

Draco stared blankly at her. "Its been seven hours since then." Hermione simply shrugged.

"I guess I forgot." She said weakly. "Anyways I need a break, so I'm going down to the kitchens." Blaise pushed his books away.

"I'm coming" he agreed quickly. Noticing Hermiones look he explained. "I'm hungry, tired and this library is beginning to feel suffocating." Draco rolled his eyes

"I'm coming too then" and he stood up as well. Hermione winced at how hungry she was and led the way out of the library."

"Oi! Hermione! Wait up" shouted Draco. The brunette witch was speeding her way towards the kitchen at an inhumane speed. Hermione started.

"Hermione?"

"That's your name isn't it?" he answered, wondering himself why he referred to her by her first name. She shrugged.

"I guess I'm just used to you calling me Granger or Mudblood, Draco." She knocked on the painting and it opened. They traipsed in.

A house elf came running to them almost immediately. "Miss. Mr.'s. What can Twinky do for you?"

Hermione looked at it kindly. "Um, were kind of hungry so could you get us some dinner?" The house elf consented happily and ran off. Blaise pulled up a chair at a table and Draco and Hermione joined him.

Hermione practically fell on the wooden surface of the table she was so hungry and tired. Draco and Blaise stared at her.

" … guess Gryffindors aren't used to partying all night."

"This is hardly a party." Twinky came up to the table and food of all sorts quickly appeared on it. There was a large pot of sweet and sour soup and a huge loaf of French bread. Lamb chops and spare ribs appeared too, accompanied by a large flask of pumpkin juice. Blaise stared at the pumpkin juice for a moment and closed his eyes quickly. The juice transformed into three different flasks, one with Butterbeer, one with Firewhisky and one with juice. Smirking at Blaises actions, Draco started eating immediately. Hermione thanked Twinky and slowly started taking bites of her own food. Halfway through the meal, Hermione was falling asleep again.

"Oi!" said Blaise. "WAKE UP!" Hermione jumped in her seat and realized that she was falling asleep.

"God, do Potter and Weasel keep you up all night cleaning or something?" Draco laughed. Blaise smirked but Hermione glared at him.

"Actually I've been studying." Both boys rolled their eyes.

"Hate to point it out" Blaise said coolly. "But sadly you have the highest grades in out year." Hermione laughed without humor.

"Like you two so kindly point out everytime I see you, I am a mudblood. The Dark Lord is gone but the prejudice is still there. If I'm not good at something, I won't be able to use family connections and money to get me into a job."

Draco looked away and Blaise conceded:

"Touché, although I think you're over exaggerating." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Back to the real problem" Hermione restarted the now tense conversation "what is a WindyStream?" Draco had to sigh dramatically.

"Have you asked Looney Lovegood? She's the weird type to know this type of --- whatever this is." Hermione scowled at Dracos name for Luna.

"Not yet …"

TBC

A/N: next time Hermione, Draco and Blaise need to finish this project. Somehow. And will working with her not so favorite people from Slytherin actually benefit Hermione? What will happen when Hermione realizes exactly how powerful she and Ginny could be with the help of two boys. Sorry this chapter was more like a teaser to the actual story. I meant this to be a one shot by the third page I realized that this is going to be much longer. Real plot comes in the next chapter, which should be out soon. Also I know researching magical creatures in Charms class doesn't make sense right now, but soon it will. Ginny becomes a major character next chapter.