AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello dear readers, if any of you are left. I profusely apologize for my long long looooong lapse in updating/uploading anything at all here. I have much guilty feels about it. But I present to you my very first Dramione fanfiction, in the hopes that it is good enough to make up (a teensy bit) for my fanfiction holiday period. Please take note that this story is rated M for future chapters (in a citrus-y way)! I hope you may have noticed the slight pun I slipped into the story title. Seeing as both Draco and Hermione will be acting hotheaded towards each other in this story, but they are also hot heads. I know, I make terrible jokes. Indulge me.

Another thing: although I love writing in English and consider myself to be quite good at it, being raised bilingually and all, I too am human and therefor make mistakes. Feel free to point them out to me in a review if you wish, as I am my own bèta and might not have noticed them. Now that I have mentioned reviews: I love them. They make my heart glow with warmth and my fingers type faster. So if anyone reads this and wants to know how the story continues... You know what to do ;)

Now I shall stop blabbing and let you read the (sadly reasonably short) opening chapter to this new story:

Chapter 1 - The Mystery Boy

Hermione

The Burrow was a whirlwind of red as Ron, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley scurried around collecting final necessities that had not yet been packed. Hermione sat on a bench outside, waiting patiently and reading the Hogwarts booklet that had been sent to her earlier this summer.
To no one's surprise, Hermione had been offered the position of Head Girl during her seventh year. She had of course accepted, and thereupon received a shiny badge and an information booklet about the privileges and restrictions that being a Head brought with it. Hermione had already read through it multiple times, not really plucking anything from it she didn't already know; the two heads had their own common room with adjoining living facilities and were allowed access to the restricted section of the library at all times. They were allowed to dock and award house points and give out detentions. The list of restrictions - although as long as the list of privileges - had not caught Hermione's attention so much. She wasn't worried about not being a good example to students; Dumbledore wouldn't have offered her the position if he thought she wasn't.

Hermione slapped the booklet shut and stuffed it in her bag, just as the door of the Burrow flew open and Harry, Ron, Ginny and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley hurried out, their trunks following behind floating several feet above the ground.
'Quickly now, come on, in you get!' Mrs. Weasley said, as she all but pushed the teenagers into the car. Hermione hastily flicked her wand at her trunk and sent it zooming into the boot, already being allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts. As everyone slowly settled down and caught their breath, Hermione's brow scrunched together as she stared out of the window at the landscape rushing past. There was one thing that nobody had been able to tell her, and that was who the Head Boy was going to be. She had expected it would be Harry, or if not Harry then surely Ron, but it had been neither of them. She thought it must have something to do with Dumbledore not wanting to appoint two Gryffindors, but it did make her wonder who he had picked...

The closer they got to King's Cross, the more nervous Hermione grew. Everybody in the car kept chatting away, eating chocolate frogs or freshly baked cookies. Ron kept poking his elbow in her ribs by accident - at least Hermione presumed it wasn't on purpose, but with the way Ron had been trying to catch her attention lately it might as well have been. She desperately wanted to get out of the crammed vehicle, desperately wanted to climb onto the Hogwarts Express and yank open the door of the Heads compartment and find out who would be in there. She just couldn't stand not knowing.

'Mione, wassumattor?' Ron asked, his mouth full of food and his attempt to speak blowing crumbs all over her jeans.

'Nothing,' Hermione mumbled, brushing the crumbs off and fixing a small smile on her face.

'I wonder who the head boy will be,' Harry muttered, looking at Hermione with a hint of worry in his expression.

'Me too,' Ron said, 'What if it's a Slytherin?'

Ginny snorted. 'Really Ron? A Slytherin as Head Boy? Who d'you think Dumbledore appointed, Crabbe?'

They shared a laugh at the thought of Crabbe having to lecture students on their bad behaviour, but Hermione only joined in half-heartedly. What if Dumbledore, for some strange reason, had chosen a Slytherin? What if he chose... No, she refused to give in to that thought. Dumbledore knew perfectly well which Slytherins Hermione didn't get along with, surely being Harry's friend would influence Dumbledore enough that he wouldn't pair her up with someone horrible? Hermione crossed her fingers, and her toes too for good measure, and hoped to God that she wouldn't be stuck with a horrible blood-purity zealot for an entire year.

The Hogwarts Express stood gleaming and steaming in front of Hermione as she said her final goodbyes to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and levitated her trunk onto the train and into the luggage rack. Harry, Ron and Ginny sat in the compartment closest to the Heads', but Hermione still felt a pang of loneliness at not being able to get on the train with them. She could go and sit with them later on, of course, after she had met with the other head and the prefects and they had discussed their views on how to divide the workload for the coming year - but it sounded to Hermione as though that could take quite a while. She remembered the first time she had taken the Hogwarts Express, not knowing where it would take her. To think that this was the last time she would be riding it to Hogwarts was so strange, it almost made her tear up. Hermione shook her head and rubbed her eyes with her sleeves. Now was not a time to be emotionally unstable, she berated herself. It was time to find out who else was in the heads compartment. She took a deep breath to calm herself and slid open the compartment door, only to find it empty.

'Hello?' Hermione called out, stepping inside and looking round. The compartment was rather luxurious, she thought, with two doors at the right side. She knocked on both of them to check if the Head Boy might be in there, but found them both empty. Upon inspection, one door led into a small bathroom with a full length mirror, a toilet and wash basin, the other door opened up on a little changing room. Hermione huffed, her body still filled with tension. She opened the window and poked her head out of the train to see who came heading towards her. Just as she turned her head to the left, however, she caught a flash of black trouser leg stepping onto the train and into the heads compartment. Hermione immediately pulled her head back into the train and stood straight opposite the compartment door, her heart thumping in her throat and her head spinning as she chanted not him, not him, not him to herself like it was a mantra.
The compartment door slid open and Hermione saw an impeccable black suit, pale skin and a comparatively rather untidy mop of shiny platinum hair. Her legs buckled and she let herself fall back onto the lush seating, a huff escaping her lips from the impact. At that sound, Draco Malfoy looked up, his eyes locking with her and his brow furrowing.

'Oh for fuck's sake.'

AUTHOR'S NOTE : Soooooooo... Let me know what you think of this style of writing. Is it working out? Does Hermione seem in character? The Harry Potter books are so vastly detailed and worked out that I am terrified of writing fanfiction about them because I might get the characters wrong :/

'T would be good to get some reassurance... Ah, I shall see. The next chapter will be up on tuesday, I hope :)