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A/N: (set the year Hermione returns to Hogwarts after the war)

Half the Battle

The Bloody Baron- Born: 982 Died:

Hermione stared daggers at her nearly blank parchment. "Bloody Baron, my eye." She mumbled under her breath to her research partner. They had been through two hours of research and still only come up with 'The Bloody Baron- Born: 982 Died:'

She huffed. "Leave it to Professor Binns to give us a whole bloody project on a Hogwarts ghost. I'd sooner write it on him if I thought he actually knew."

Ginny snorted from across the table, it didn't really matter to her that they would most likely be getting a D on this assignment. She slammed a dusty leather book shut loudly.

"Girls!" Madam Pince hissed, bringing a long, wrinkled finger to her lips and offering a dangerous glare. "Quiet!"

They both muttered apologies to the librarian and continued on their empty search. After a little while longer, Ginny heaved a dramatic sigh.

"Oh, why don't you just ask him?"

Hermione quickly glanced at the boy sitting one table to the left and then back to Ginny. Her eyebrows crept up her forehead in an attempt to ask, 'him?' Despite the fact she had been eying him all evening.

Ginny nodded, leaning closer to Hermione. "He's in Slytherin. He ought to know."

"No." Hermione shook her head furiously. She'd die before she admitted defeat in front of him-Draco Malfoy. "No. Absolutely not."

Ginny sighed again and leant back in her chair. "Fine," she said with a nonchalant air, picking at her fingernails. "I'm going to the great hall for dinner, then. It's not so hard for me to give up."

"But-"

Ginny stood, slinging her back and sweater over her shoulder. "You don't have to put my name on it, 'Mione." She teased and made her way out of the library.

"Very well, then, Ginny." She thought determinedly. "We'll just have to see."

It was a whole hour later when she finally groaned and set her eyes fixedly on a window opposite.

"If," she began loudly, watching him out of the tail of her eye. "there was anybody but a slimy git in this library, I'd be asking them if they knew anything about The Bloody Baron."

Draco looked up from the third volume of 'Practical Potions' and looked around the room, a smile pulling at the corner of his lips as he did.

"If the person asking anybody but the slimy git, was anybody other than an insufferable know-it-all, he'd tell them that he actually does know rather a lot about the Bloody Baron."

"If the person wasn't my arch enemy, I'd be very much obliged to hear it."

"Well, if that person was not the know-it-all's enemy, he'd be very much obliged to tell it."

She threw the other an annoyed glance. "Too bad, then."

"I suppose so."

They lapsed back into silence for a while longer before Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Oh for fucks sake, Malfoy, will you just help me already?"

"All you had to do was ask, Granger."

Draco held back a chuckle as he slid over to the seat next her. He began to tell all he knew, starting with the fact that Bloody Baron had died in 1003, in Albania and ending with the tragic love tell of him and Helena Ravenclaw. Hermione's quill scratched away violently and before she knew it, she had a whole parchment full of information on this particular ghost.

After it was done, she cleared her throat grudgingly. "If I had just been helped, I would be thanking that person but as there is nobody in this library that I would ever consider talking to, my words would have been wasted."

"If someone the know-it-all would talk to was here, he'd say you're welcome."

Hermione huffed humoredly and began to pack her things away. She had actually just accepted help from Malfoy. What the hell was the world coming to?

"Granger?" He asked timidly. "Would it make any difference if I said I'm sorry- for everything?"

Hermione had thrown her bag over her shoulder, and started out the door when she paused. "I don't know. Maybe. It may take more than that."

"Naturally." He visibly gulped. "And for you?"

She bit her lip, eyes plastered on his face with deep thought. "It's one thing to forgive but another to forget."

He nodded and when she had gone smiled slightly. That was Hermione's way of saying she forgave him and to Draco, that was half the battle.

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