Something Rare
Hermione is a prefect in her fifth year at Hogwarts or rather say that she is starting her fifth year at Hogwarts. Hermione was in the prefect carriage with all the other new prefects, the prefect carriage wasn't anything like the other carriages this one was divided in three large compartments one for the eight new fifth year prefects one for the prefects from the sixth year and one for the ones from the seventh year. The compartment Hermione was in looked very large but had barely enough room to put in a table (that was pushed against the window to allow the door to close properly) and four chairs on each side, for every house there were two chairs decorated in their house colours.
Ron and Hermione were the first in the compartment Ron took one of the chairs next to the window with Hermione opposite him. The other prefects came in all at the same time, Hermione noticed that the chair next to her was decorated in green and silver and we all know where that leads. The seat next to that one was in stripes of black and yellow making it look like a bee. The last one on the row was painted in the wrong shade of blue and wasn't even finished on the bottom like someone was too lazy to fix it.
Even though Hermione hated Malfoy she didn't mind sitting next to him (mainly because he hadn't tried to insult her yet). Clearly you could see that Ron wasn't really happy when Pansy Parkinson sat down next to him. Next to Malfoy was Ernie Macmillan and opposite him was Hannah Abbott. Next to Hannah was Anthony Goldstein and opposite him was Padma Patil.
In the middle of the table there was a golden plate nobody knew what it was for and they didn't mind to find out soon. After a few minutes of silence (except Anthony's annoying tapping on the table with his fingers)
"What are we supposed to do here." Hannah Abbott asked.
"I don't know maybe we have to wait for someone to give us instructions." Padma suggested.
"I don't care what we've got to do as long as we all soon can go back, I'm starving and I don't think the lady with the trolley is going to pass this carriage. I'd do anything for a chocolate frog right now." Said Ernie.
Crack
There were eight chocolate frogs on the golden plate and a little note attached to one of them. Hermione took off the note and read it out loud
To all new prefects,
Congratulations and please forgive me for being late,
I will be joining you in your carriage to inform you
about your duties and your privileges.
Yours sincerely Professor Minerva McGonagall
When Hermione placed the note back on the plate she saw that the Chocolate Frogs were gone. Two reasons, first one is because Ernie had eaten half of them and secondly because the remaining half was covered underneath many other different types of sweets.
They divided all the sweets between each other but barely anyone ate from their own sweets except for Ernie of course.
Crack
Hermione thought the plate had refilled itself but when she looked at it the plate was empty. Soon she realised what had made the noise. The chairs of both Padma and Anthony had broken with the result of them lying unconscious on the floor. A few prefects from the sixth year had heard the noise and came to look what had happened. Minutes later they were carrying them to the seventh year's compartment where the apparently the new Head Girl was an excellent healer.
When they went back (without the Ravenclaw prefects though) Hermione saw that the chairs that were broken were really old and should have been replaced years ago. The remaining six kept waiting but it wasn't until Ron fell asleep leaning against Pansy Parkinson's shoulder and Pansy hit him really hard to wake him up Hermione didn't interfere nobody did, because it was really funny to watch.
Eventually Ernie and Hannah were talking about something related to the Hufflepuff common room and Ron was staring lazily out the window. Hermione stood up she wanted to go back to see how Harry, Ginny, Neville and Luna were doing. Hermione had left the compartment but didn't manage to get out of the carriage because she was stopped by Draco Malfoy pulling her arm.
In a reflex she had pulled her wand but didn't do anything.
"Please, put you wand away." Malfoy whispered so nobody could hear it "I just want to talk."
Hermione saw Malfoy's wand in his back pocket where he usually kept it and placed her wand back in her own pocket still holding on to it.
"What do you want to 'talk' about?"Hermione whispered.
He leaned forward "I don't want us to be enemies anymore." He said in her ear.
"You want us to be friends." Hermione said quietly "I don't like you, why should I?"
Malfoy was standing closer to her ear so he could talk easier.
"No, not friends at least not if you don't want to but just not enemies."
Hermione was standing close enough to him to see he was shaking a bit.
"Why couldn't you tell me in front of my friends or in front of yours." Hermione asked.
"They'd think it's a joke or that I'm being sarcastic but I'm not."
Hermione nodded to say that she agrees with him, then she saw something rare one of Draco Malfoy's genuine smiles. A smile of relief.
Malfoy came very close and whispered in her ear: "Thank you" and gave her a small kiss on the cheek, then went back to the compartment. Hermione turned around and decided not to go back to look for Harry or Ginny. She went to the compartment of the seventh years to see how Padma and Anthony were doing and maybe to bring them back.
Later Professor McGonagall came in the compartment and told everyone all the things they have to do during the year, all their privileges and gave them all a copy of the Hogwarts rules and read all of them twice before she told them they could go.
Ron and Hermione joined Harry, Ginny, Neville and Luna in their compartment. Moments later Malfoy passed by followed by Crabbe and Goyle. They stopped for a moment and Malfoy stuck his head between the doors and said "See you in school Potter." Instead of the usual insults when he turned away from the compartment Hermione saw something rare again, a genuine smile again and she couldn't believe it, he had winked at her and only she could see it.
A/N: This story is supposed to be a oneshot but I don't feel comfortable with it ending like this. What do you think?