A/N: This is an AU fic about Hermione's 7th year in Hogwarts – Dumbldore didn't die, Harry, Ron and Hermione are still in Hogwarts.

Chapter 1

Hermione was bored out of her mind. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Ron and Harry were determined to leave Hogwarts and go Horcrux-hunting, but with Molly and Hermione's combined disagreements and Dumbledore not taking a stand, Ron and Harry were forced to stay for their 7th year.

Naturally, as the year started, the duo was more than a little angry with her, but she held her stand. If they wanted to give her the silent treatment, she could do that, and better.

An upside was that, as one of the Head Prefects (naturally) she got her own private room in the Head's Common Room. But the situation looked a lot grimmer, considering that Malfoy was the other Head.

After managing to get into four verbal spurs within an argument, Hermione was desperate to try and at least fake getting along – the heads had to give a good impression. Malfoy reluctantly agreed, and so Hermione cast the spell. From the day on, they had to be civil to one another, and call each other by their first name, but she spell could be broken by either of them upon will.

Hermione was especially proud of thinking of the spell, a good start to the second day of school.

After finishing her homework within a few hours, she had headed over to the Gryffindor common room to hang out with her friends… and maybe try and patch up the situation with Ron and Harry. They would fail their lessons without her, she sighed mentally, but with a hint of nostalgia too.

She really was close to Ron and Harry.

As she climbed into the portrait, she immediately spotted Ron and Harry, doing their homework by the coveted seats in front of the fire, probably offered to them due to seniority and popularity. Ginny sat directly opposite Harry, constantly looking up to glance at him, and Ron looked ill at ease without a partner himself.

Because his partner was no longer in the Gryffindor common room, and instead in the Head's common room, and he had resolved to ignore her, just to get a little bit of revenge.

Hermione smiled at how easy Ron was easy to read as she sneaked up behind me and quietly settled down next to him. But Ron had shrugged her off at once. Hermione stood up, confused. Harry didn't respond, and Ginny threw her a shrug. Neville avoided her gaze and no one else seemed to care.

What was going on? Were they still angry?

If there one thing Hermione knew from years of trying to read people, it was that the common saying was right – it was all the eyes. Looking at Ron's, she saw what looked like… an accusation?

Bewildered but not willing to push it, Hermione climbed out of the common room and into her own.

And now, here she was, confused (that's a pretty new one) and bored. Draco (gah, she couldn't call him Malfoy and she was beginning to resent it) walked by once, sneered at her as politely as he could manage and made a (polite) snide joke about how she clearly had no friends.

And at that moment, Hermione couldn't help but agree. Finally, after going through about a hundred different convoluted reasons as to Ron's reaction to her, she gave it up and decided he was just being immature.

As she had almost convinced herself of that, there was a knock on her door. It was Neville. Draco (not Malfoy) rolled his eyes and willingly backed from the common room into his own room, and Hermione let Neville in.

Neville looked more uneasy than usual, and Hermione remembered the look he had given her in the common room. Cutting straight to the obvious issues, Hermione narrowed her eyes and asked directly, "Neville, do you know something about Ron and Harry?"

Neville's eyes displayed a moment of shock, before steadying himself and mumbling, "Don't know how to tell you this, Hermione, but… there's a rumour that…. Because you didn't allow Ron and Harry to go help the order…" Neville stopped there, losing his nerve.

Hermione edged him on, more interested than ever, "Go on, Neville."

"Because you didn't allow them to go help the Order," Neville blurted out, "there's a rumour that you're against the Order. Plus the fact that you're now in a common room with Malfoy, they think that he's making you a death eater. But I don't believe the rumour, that's why I came to tell you."

Hermione was, for once, struck. She could not even begin to point out all the wrong premises in the argument, which lead to this ultimately flawed conclusion. There was literally, almost no truth behind it, for goodness sakes! How could people believe it! More importantly, did Ron and Harry believe it.

Neville quickly mumbled, "I've gotta go." And with that he ran out of the room while the implications ran through Hermione's mind.

Idiots! Idiots who spread stupid rumours about her!

At the wrong moment, Draco stepped out of his room, and from the look on his face, it was obvious he had been eavesdropping.

"So unbelievably stupid. Not just the fact that I'd never try to recruit a mudblood, especially not you, but that there is about one ounce of truth in the whole thing, and the stupid Gryffindors still believe it. Figures, I guess."

Hermione noticed that he hadn't denied the part about him being a death eater, but she simply stored that fact away. A larger majority of her mind was further stunned with the fact that Draco had the same train of thought as her… maybe there weren't as different as she thought. After all, he was admittedly probably the smartest student of their year, after her of course.

Hermione immediately decided that if Ron and Harry were going to be that stupid and immature, and not trust her, then Draco might make a good friend. They were the Heads after all, and this might get rid of the ridiculous inter-house hatred.

Draco, on the other hand, clearly wasn't thinking of such optimistic things. He muttered something that sounded like, "does she know… protectors… tell father…"

Hermione looked up, but Draco blinked a few times, realized he had been speaking out loud and smiled wrly.

"So you're still on the Order's side then?" Draco smiled, or was it smirked?

Hermione nodded. Draco leant in just a little and asked, "Then why, may I ask you, does your dear Dumbledore never do anything to protect his beloved muggles? Oh, is Dumbledore discriminating muggles, now, favouring the wizards…. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Yes, just like a certain Dark Lord…"

With that convoluted sentence, Draco retreated into his own room.

After a sudden flare of anger, Hermione looked past her emotions and to what Draco had said. Like she had said, if there was one thing she knew, it was all in the eyes.

And in Draco's, she had seen nothing but shadows.

A/N: Visit .com/pages/SSFanfic-You-choose-I-write/101007143333284 to be part of this story and decide how it might turn out!