Chapter one
Head Boy and Girl
No. Not Malfoy…Anyone but Malfoy…
Those had been Hermione's exact thoughts when she had found out that the Malfoy git would be Head Boy. After receiving the Head Girl badge herself, she had been ecstatic; rereading Hogwarts: A History for the forty-sixth time, (Just in case), highlighting anything and everything about Head Boys and Girls in it, getting irritated because she couldn't talk to Percy about the Hogwart's position, locking herself in her room at number twelve, Grimmald Place for one and a half days to memorize the one-inch thick rulebook and the list of banned items at Hogwarts, reminding Ginny, Harry, Fred, George, and Ron that if she caught them breaking those rules then she would be lenient on them but still turn them in, (Blimey, what has Dumbledore turned loose?" Ron wondered aloud when Hermione told him off for taking the badge off of her bed) and unpacking then repacking her entire trunk so she could put the Head Girl badge in a small locked box at the bottom so she wouldn't lose it. After the excitement had worn off, though, she became worried about being able to do a good job with the new requirement, snapping at everyone and jumping at little sounds. But once everyone had lavishly complimented her at her ability to keep to the book and avoiding her when she was tired and grumpy, she became happier and more confident, making everyone's last few days of summer much more enjoyable. The journey to King's Cross was uneventful, the ride on the Hogwarts Express happy and jam-packed with Cauldron Cakes and Pumpkin Pasties, and then they were finally at the actual Hogwarts castle, watching the sorting, listening to the welcome-back speech by Dumbledore, applauding the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor McKesson, eating treacle pudding and chicken roast. At the end of the feast, however, the happiness had slid out of Harry, Ron, Ginny, and, most of all, Hermione when Dumbledore had announced who the new Head Boy would be.
"Our new Head Girl for this year will be none other than Miss Hermione Granger, of Gryffindor," There was loud applause from the Gryffindor table, "While the new Head Boy will be Draco Malfoy, of the Slytherin house." Professor Dumbledore smiled towards the mutterings at the Gryffindor table, and then sat down.
Ron looked mutinous. "Can you believe it? Malfoy! The Malfoy that we hate! And you," he pointed a finger at Hermione, "Will have to share a dormitory with him! What was Dumbledore thinking? He knows how much we loathe him! What it up that?!" He stabbed a piece of treacle, but it flew out from under his fork, went through Nearly-Headless Nick, and hit Neville in the head, making the chubby boy look around in surprise. Hermione suppressed a giggle, and went back to verbally abusing Malfoy with the others.
Dumbledore stood up, clapped his hands, and then the students and teachers stood up as well, the prefects ordering their house to the stairs. But Hermione remained miserably behind, shuffling her feet from side to side, waiting for everyone to leave so she could go up to her new dormitory with Malfoy. As Dumbledore glided along at the back of the throng of people, he winked at her. She was suddenly seized with a desire to plead and beg him to give the badge to some other girl, so she wouldn't end up having to kill Malfoy later, as she knew that she would. But she fought down the urge, and slowly went out the door behind the table that the teachers sat at. After telling the suit of armor the password, (Jumping merfish) she lowered herself into the chute that the suit of armor had been standing on, slid down it, and came out into a huge room.