Vibrations from the train massaged her head, which was laying against the window of the train compartment. The makeshift room was empty, except for herself, her luggage, and a very hungry Ronald Weasley, who was currently shoveling several varieties of sweets that would appall her parents into his mouth. Something must have been laying against the metal of the luggage rack because a persistent rattling filled the room, just barely louder than the animalistic sounds coming from her hungry friend.
"Dis is da best batch o' br'wnies I've e'er eaten, 'Mione." He holds out a hand with a single misshapen brownie in it.
"No thanks, you have it." She nodded at him in permission.
"Oh. Thanks." He looks at it for a moment before shrugging and sticking the entire brownie in his mouth. "Mmm. Tha's good. I hope Harry ge's more o' dese."
Speaking of Harry, He opened the compartment door with his arms full of candies and sweets. Ron's eyes lit up when he saw a package of the brownies wedged between a soda and four chocolate frogs in Harry's left arm.
"Sorry..." Harry said with red cheeks as he dumped his stash next to Ron. "I uh, I ran into Cho...and she couldn't find her money and then I told her I'd pay, but then she couldn't decide what she wanted, and I told her she could choose anything, and she said that she didn't want to take advantage, and I said she wouldn't be, and she said she would be, and I said I wanted to help, and she said..." When Ron traded his mum's sandwiches with the brownies on Harry's pile, he realized that neither of them really cared what she has said. "S-sorry..."
"Ooh! I forgot to get Berty Botts Every Flavor Beans!" Ron snatched them from Harry's pile and held them up to his chest in a defensive position.
Harry shook his head and sat back.
"What? You dun wanna share your food with your best mate?"
"Take whatever you want, Ron." Harry was still shaking his head when Ron began picking the pile clean until all that was left was a package of graham crackers, a bottle of water, some pumpkin juice, and three galleons in change.
"So have you seen Malfoy yet?" Harry asked as a conversation starter.
"No, I'm not sure where he is, I thought I might run into him before we got on the train but...I don't know, I haven't seen him."
"Mm. I'm sure he'll show up."
"The little git's probably messing with some first years again." Ron said with a roll of his eyes.
"Ron! He only did that once..." Hermione defended weakly.
"Yeah, whatever..."
Harry had given up on hating Draco last year when he had given Sirius the key he and the rest of the Slytherin team had to the Quidditch Shack, which gave him access to a variety of broomsticks. Before then, the three of them, Harry, Ron, and Draco, had kept up a fairly persistent hatred of each other. Once Draco pulled that key out and put it in Sirius' hand, Hermione could tell something had changed between Harry and Draco. It happened in an instant, while Ron still managed to sustain a seemingly limitless hatred towards him, Hermione felt a small bit of triumph at the progress. In the meantime, Ron still did not fail to remind the other two that A) He shouldn't have been out after dark with no reason, B) The Slytherin team had no right to have that key, and it was obvious that they were using it for secret Quidditch practice, and C) Draco had stepped on his rat's tail, causing Scabbers to run away. They had not seen the rat since that moment, and Ron would most likely resent him forever.
"You know what, I'm going to go find him." Hermione stood up in a huff and slid outside into the narrow hallways. She walked through the halls, peering in through each glass door, searching for those familiar silver eyes.
"Hey, Granger." She heard from behind. When said by him, it sounded less like a something a teacher would call her, and more like a pet name. And that is what it was. It was his pet name for her. Hermione whipped around and found herself against the wall. Draco stood a respectful few feet away.
His shining silver eyes were lit up in greeting. The small smirking smile she was so used to by now looked down at her in the same way they had three years ago, when they first met. She still remembered it, seeing as it was their only truly simple memory. Every moment spent together since then had always had a complication, whether it was Harry, Ron, her friends in Gryffindor, his friends in Slytherin, her parents, his mum, it was still an absolute shock that they had managed to become as close as they had. The sound of a bell signaled that another customer had just walked into the store. She ignored it. "It is a very rare and very sad thing for a wand to break. It should be with you for life." "Is there a warranty?" A blonde boy snickered behind Hermione and she whiped her head around to see him. He had silvery eyes and a smirking smile upon his young face. "What's a warranty?" He asked curiously. "Well, if something goes wrong then I don't want it to cost me anything..." She held her nose high in the air, proud of standing her ground. "I assure you miss...?" Ollivander twirled his fingers through the air as if trying to remember her name. "Granger." "Granger! I assure you, Miss Granger, that you will have no problems with this wand. They say the wand chooses the wizard you know? And they're usually right." "Witch." The blonde boy added while he flourished a thick little brown wand in the air. "The wand would choose the witch in this case." Hermione looked between the two and nodded. "Okay well, I'll...I'll take it." "Wonderful." Ollivander placed the thin wand into its box and wrapped a small gray bow around it. "And for you, young man?" The blonde boy flourished yet another wand and it's box flew up and came in sharp contact with the side of his face. "Bloody hell..." He muttered. "Language, boy." Ollivander warned. "That hurt..." He set the wand down and picked up another. Hermione pulled out her change purse full of strange looking coins that she still had not grown accustomed to. As she unzipped it, another flourish of the boy's wand sent it flying out of her hand and onto the ground with a small gust of wind. The coins spilled out and scattered across the floor loudly. "Oh! I'm sorry..." The boy bent over immediately and began gathering her coins. "These bloody wands, I tell you..." She smiled and picked up the other half of her coins. "It's okay. I suggest you pick another shelf to work on, those wands don't seem to like you." She joked. "What are you talking about, everything likes me." He stated confidently. "Those wands are just grumpy." She giggled and stood up alongside him. "Well, thank you. Now I just have to figure out what all these little coins mean." Hermione shuffled through her purse with furrowed eyebrows. "I'll tell you what. Stick around until I find a wand and then they're on me, the both of them." "Oh, don't be silly. You don't need to do that." "It's no problem, really." "But..why?" "I guess I'm just in a good mood today. My mother gave me a fairly large lot of money this morning, and I suppose it would be best if I spend it on something useful. Either that or else I'll just go spend it all in the Quidditch shop." He looked at Hermione with a smug look as if she should be impressed, but she was only confused. "Right, of course." She pretended she completely understood. He moved to another shelf as she had suggested and picked up a wand. He flourished it proudly and confidently, as if he knew it would work. It didn't. In fact it did not do anything. No gust of wind, no flying boxes, and no, as it had been in Hermione's case, random bursts of toxic smelling concoctions that you would expect to come from an experimental chemist's lab. The wand just stayed firmly grasped in his hand, dead as a piece of wood. "This one's broken." He said simply. He tossed the wand to Ollivander and added on, rather rudely, "You should take a look at it." As obnoxious as the act was, there was something about it that Hermione found rather funny about the whole thing. He had finally settled on a wand about ten minutes later. It was the first wand that did not make him frown in frustration, much less unwillingly hurl something at the three of them. Just as he had taken her wand in his hand, Ollivander picked up the blonde boy's wand and held it in the air. "Yes, Eleven inches, black mahogany, Dragon Heartstring core. Just like Miss Granger's. A very sturdy wand. It should serve you well, boy." The boy paid for the wands and we had walked out of the shop together. "Thank you uh..." "Draco. Draco Malfoy." He held out his hand, and the look that told her she should be impressed returned. "Nice to meet you." She took his hand in hers. "Same to you, Granger." They had walked around together and shopped for the rest of their supplies, most of which he insisted on paying for. Their discussions consisted of Hogwarts, for they had discovered that they would both be students there the following year, which type of animal was best as a pet, which flavor of ice cream was the best, and a million other trivial things. Somehow, they had managed to completely avoid the topic of their families, a subject they would only breach the next time they saw each other on the train to Hogwarts.
"Ah, I thought so...Dragon Heartstring. Ten and three quarters inches. A very good wand." Ollivander's slender fingers ran up the shaft of the long piece of wood. "For a very good witch."
"And you're sure it will work? How often does a wand break?" She asked nervously.
"Where we're you? I didn't see you board the train." Hermione asked.
"My mum wanted to see me off. I thought..."
"Oh. Right." She understood immediately. Anything to keep their parents from officially knowing about their friendship. She talked about Draco all the time with her parents, but they had no idea how much weight the name "Malfoy" held in her world. And she was sure that her name was not spoken in his household.
"Yeah. Sorry. But they're gone now. How've you been since the Cup?"
They had seen each other at the Quidditch Cup, a memory she actually found herself treasuring more than she should. Over the summer, she had begun to transform into more and more of a woman, something she was very proud of now. And at the cup, she had been significantly more curvy than than Draco had ever seen before.
He had noticed.
Hermione supposed all girls felt like this when they grew up and became noticed more often. She could tell that he had grown as well over the summer. It wasn't as noticeable at the Cup, but she could see it now. His blonde hair hung a tad longer than usual, still as pale as ever. He had grown about four inches since their third year, and now towered over her more than usual. The strong muscles in his arms were more prominent than usual, and she was sure there were more underneath his shines green and silver school robes. Not that she cared.
"I've been good. I thought I'd come for a walk. Ronald is in my compartment stuffing his face. He is literally my parents' worst nightmare with those sweets."
"I can imagine. You know if they were in Gryffindor, Crabbe, Goyle and he would be pretty good mates, don't you think?"
"Maybe. But Crabbe and Goyle could never be in Gryffindor. We're the brave at heart, not the hungry, greedy, and quite frankly unclean at heart." Hermione joked.
Draco laughed at her joke for a moment and then silenced as he leans against the wall next to her. "I could have been in Gryffindor, I think."
"You could have been. But you asked for Slytherin, didn't you?" This was a common topic between the two of them.
"Yeah, I did."
"I can't imagine what your dad would think of his son actually thinking of what it would be like to be a Gryffindor."
"Yeah, well he's not exactly around to tell me what to think anymore, is he?"
"Nope..." She sighed and looked up at him as she always did when they discussed his dad. As always, she searched for any signs of hurt, but never found any.
"Sometimes I wish I had asked for Gryffindor."
"But your Dad-"
"Was a sick bastard who was murdered in our second year, Hermione. Murdered by the Ministry. And I can't even imagine what sick things he did to get there, things we don't even know about. And in Slytherin, I'm surrounded by a bunch of other sick bastards who are going to be just like him."
"Draco, come on. You don't need to be in Gryffindor to be brave or loyal. Just because you're in Slytherin doesn't mean you'll become him. Trust me."
"I hope you're right."
"I am."
"You should get your robes on. We'll be at Hogwarts soon."
"Hey c'mon, don't start off your year in a bad mood." She whined.
"Okay, cheer me up, Granger."
"Hmm, how about you imagine Professor Snape concocting an elaborate love potion and giving it to Ron, causing him to fall in love with Crookshanks." A smile crept on her face at the thought while Draco burst out laughing.
"Thank you." He said as he pulled her in for a quick hug. "Now that's an image to start our fourth year with."
"Exactly."
[Authors Note] For anyone wondering WTF MALFOY ISN'T THAT CHILL, take a moment to realize that he is not OOC, he is actually kinda sorta in character for the situation. You guys obviously picked up on the fact that Lucius Malfoy died sometime in their second year. To keep a long story short, Lucius was on some sort of mission for Voldemort and it went badly, which means that Voldemort will not be returning any time soon. Or so we think ;) So basically, with Lucius gone, and as Hermione's friend (who flipped out at that?) Draco has changed. He still has a dark side because of who he is afraid he is, but he is not a rude little bitch as usual. Even though we love him as a rude little bitch XD Now here's my question for you. With Voldemort no longer on the rise, if I were to have the Triwizard Tournament, Harry would not be a part of it. But would you guys still like me to have it? Because it would add sort of a background plot to the story, the Yule ball, and also Mr. Krum would have some fun jealous times with Mr. Malfoy :D so whattaya think? Worth it? Let me know please! Clickety click on the pretty little blue button :)