A/N I do not own any characters they belong to J.K. Thank you to The-Dragons-Secret for Beta reading my stories and putting up with my Dyslexia :)
Chapter One
Hermione Granger. She had always been an outstanding student, so it made sense that she became Head Girl. Her seventh and final year at Hogwarts was going to be a busy one
She was once again taking more classes than possible. The ministry's time turner stock had been destroyed by Dumbledore's Army's escapade. But somehow Hermione had managed to find her old one to help her through the chaotic day. Returning to the head girl's dorm after a long nights patrol, she sighed in exhaustion. She entered the common room she shared with the head boy. The head boy himself was sitting in front of the fire surrounded by books and screwed up parchment.
Hermione had covered his patrol after he had begged her to. As this in itself was a rarity, Hermione felt as though she owed it to him to help him.
According to what he had said to her, he was way behind on his Potions coursework. If Snape had been teaching Potions, perhaps it would not have mattered. As it was, Slughorn was on his back about it.
It was only when he turned to look at her that she realized she was still standing in the open portrait hole staring.
"What? Think it's funny?"He snapped.
"No, sorry, I was just…half asleep. Long night." She mumbled tiredly, walking towards her door. She felt no need to get into an argument; she just needed some sleep.
"Well, I won't be getting any sleep unless I get this done. I just can't do it!" He said, running his hands through his platinum blond hair. His ego was falling as he stared at the books and tried to make sense of them.
"Dr…Malfoy, I'll make you a deal." Hermione said, watching the blond screw up yet another piece of parchment. She looked at him curiously as if contemplating something.
"What's that, then?" He stopped, considering what to address her by."…Granger." He finally settled on Granger, before looking up inquisitively.
"I'll help you with your potions if…"She paused, deciding on what to demand."If you cover my patrol on Saturday."
Walking over to the sofa, she tentatively extended a hand for him to shake.
"Ok." He said, glad for the assistance even if it was from a bossy, buck-toothed know-it-all. It wasn't as if anyone had to know.
"Fine, let me change and I'll be back down." She said, heading to her room.
By the time Hermione returned to the common room, Draco had cleaned up the parchment that had been thrown around the floor and set his books up on the table.
"Granger, why Saturday?" Draco asked.
"If you must know, I have a date." Hermione said, taking the seat beside Draco.
"With the Weasel?" Draco said, wrinkling his nose, in disgust.
"Not that it is any of your business, but yes, it is with Ron. Now do you want my help or do you want to insult my boyfriend some more?" She asked.
"Sorry." Draco mumbled.
Hermione had never heard Draco apologize. She simply shrugged it off, knowing full well that he would insult her or Ron again. The two of them worked through Draco's essay for the next hour. They had done over half the essay.
"Thank you." Draco said, taking a gulp of Pumpkin juice.
Hermione stared wide-eyed at him.
"Did you just thank me?" Hermione said, in shock. "Hell just froze over; Malfoy just said thank you to a mudblood." Hermione said.
"Shut up Granger, I mean it. I need to pass this class or I'll have to go work for my dad…Not something I desire to do." He sighed, a look of vulnerability passing over him.
"Now that does surprise me. You always came across as a Daddy's boy." Hermione said, flipping through the potions book and passing it to Draco.
"That's the last bit." She said, pointing to a paragraph.
"Thanks, and I'm not a Daddy's boy. I hate my father, but he scares me. I play the part of the loving spoilt son just the way he wants me to…in public. In private, it's a whole different story. Anyway, I think I've got this last bit. No point in both of us staying up."Draco said,, quite obviously feeling uncomfortable.
"It's ok. I like learning and right now, I'm learning a lot about the Slytherin Prince." She said
"I'm really not that interesting." Draco mumbled, scribbling a few more lines onto his parchment.
"Well, for the last six years the only thing I have know about you is that you are a spoilt, self-centred, Daddy's boy who would do anything to be better than Harry Potter and his Gryffindor friends…and any other house that isn't Slytherin." Hermione said watching him finish the essay.
"I'm not like that…well obviously I am but…But that's not who I want to be, it's just if I act as whom I want to be I would lose everything and no matter how much I hate my father, I love my mother and he knows that.
"Would he really be that cruel?" Hermione said in shock.
"You've met my father; he would put a cursed diary in a young girls cauldron just to spite her family." Draco sighed.
"All done." He said putting his quill down and rolling his wrist.
"At least your father is still there for you." Hermione whispered, regretting it almost straight away.
"I'd rather he wasn't." Draco said, rolling up his parchment."Where's your father?" He asked after a few minutes silence.
"Prison." Hermione mumbled, not even sure if she wanted her enemy to know the fact her father was in jail.
"Oh, sorry." Draco mumbled. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but it sure wasn't that.
"Don't be, he belongs there after what he did to those girls, but he's still my dad and he never treated me wrong…But maybe, at the time, I was too young, didn't peak his interest if you know what I mean." Hermione was staring into the fire burning in the fireplace and the way she spoke was contemplative.
Draco didn't know how to respond, he silently packed his school bag for the next morning.
"Granger….Hermione, I think I had you all wrong, listen if you need someone to talk to or even just to rant at, I'm here for you." He smiled.
"You know what. Maybe I had you wrong, as well." Hermione smiled.
"Good night, Draco." Hermione said, as she headed up the stairs.
One thing was for sure, this year was going to be different.