Draco Malfoy walked into the Slytherin common room, exhausted from practicing occlumency with Severus Snape. It was almost midnight, and he had barely made it to the common room without being caught by Filtch for defying dungeons seemed especially eerie and quiet for a Friday night. Draco could barely keep his eyes open, occlumency drained a lot of energy from the person using it, and Snape wanted to be one hundred percent sure that Draco had no weakness in his wall around his mind.

He glanced around him. No one was awake in the common room, which was a good thing. Slytherins tended to ask more personal questions to the members of its house. If anyone had seen Draco walk in after curfew, unanswerable, and un avoidable questions would be asked to him, and he would probably get punished some how by the others for not answering. The paintings on the wall were sound asleep, as was the snake in a cage in the corner. The green chairs and couches that could be seen as you entered the common room were all empty. Draco slowly made his way to the corridor to go to the dormitories.

He was almost too tired to even notice the sleeping Hermione Granger, who had passed out on the couch in the hallway after a late night of studying in the library. It was Hermiones' second night in Slytherin, after she had been resorted by the Sorting Hat. She had returned to Hogwarts at the beginning of the week, when Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had dropped her off, and taken her wand with them so that she couldn't use magic to leave. Snape, who was now Headmaster, had called an emergency faculty meeting, and had even called the Dark Lord to see his input on the situation. After she had been tested with veritaserum, to make sure that she indeed had no idea where Potter was, or no way to contact them, she was allowed to remain at Hogwarts on a probationary status. She wasn't allowed to carry a wand of her own, she had to use a school wand when in classes, and also had to serve a detention for starting late in the semester. Snape had the sorting hat resort her, this time placing her in Slytherin, which caused a huge upraise with the Gryffindors, that the Carrows put a stop to.

He saw her laying on the couch sound asleep and was tempted to leave her there. But then he thought about his experience, when he was a first year, and what the Slytherins did to him. He quickly pushed away the thought, knowing well that as much as he would love to see it happen to her, he couldn't possibly do that to anyone, especially not Hermione. He tried to shake her awake in vain. He sighed, lifting her into his arms. "You'll owe me for this Granger..." He said to himself as he carried her down deeper into the dungeons towards the girls' dormitory. He nearly walked into the boundary line separating the girls' dorm from the boys. No boy was able to cross the line. If they tried the stairs would turn into a slide, and there was no way he could carry Hermione up a slide. Softly cursing to himself for forgetting about the boundary, he carried her to the only other place she'd be safe, his room.

He was chosen as head boy so he had his own private room. It was away from all the other rooms, and it was completely isolated. No one was allowed in or out without Dracos' permission. No one else knew the password, not even Crabbe or Goyle. No one would know that Hermione had ever been there. He said his password, one he got to pick himself, and carried Hermione to his bed. He carefully laid her down on the sheets, pulled the blankets over her and tucked her in. "Goodnight Hermione." He found himself whispering, not even believing that he said it himself. "keep this up, Draco, You'll be put in Gryffindor." he scolded himself.

The room was big, but it only had one bed, and since it was currently occupied, and Draco wasn't going to share a bed with a girl, let alone Granger, Draco decided to sleep in the lazy chair on the other side of the room. It wasn't nearly as comfortable, but it would have to do. He grabbed a blanket from the closet and snuggled up in the lazy chair. "This is going to be a long light..." he thought to himself. Soon after, he was fast asleep. He started dreaming.

"Draco's in love with Hermione Granger!" A high pitched yell was thrown across the Slytherin common room.

"Draco's in love with a mudblood!" A low, grumbly sneer came from another person in the room. "Draco Malfoy has gone soft!"

"Draco Malfoy deserves to be a Gryffindor, loving a Mudblood... Who the heck does he think he is?"

"HAHAHA! I knew that he wasn't the perfect Pureblood he always bragged about being, wait until his father hears this,"

"Even better, wait until the Dark Lord finds out..."

Draco was staring down at the common room from his bed. Below him, the whole house was spreading the news, that Draco was in love with Hermione Granger. The common room was a mix of laughter and shock. Draco was shocked. "how did they find out?" He screamed at himself. "Wait, Guys, it's a joke. A joke that Pansy decided to play on me." He tried to tell the people gathered in the common room. His words didn't reach them and they started talking again.

" I think we should send his father an owl... let it slip that his perfect son has a soft spot for mudbloods." there was murmuring agreement throughout the commons. "Some one get a piece of parchment... this is going to be good."

"NOO!" Draco screamed, trying toget up and stop them, but he couldn't. He was stuck on the bed. " Please, don't. I'll do anything!" But they still couldn't hear him.

The guy with the parchment had finished his letter and had summoned his owl to send the note. Draco was in tears, afraid of what his father would do. The owl appeared and the guy attached the letter and sent the bird off. Within minutes, Draco's Father was there.

"DRACO MALFOY! If I hear one more thing about you and that pathetic little mudblood, i will kill you here and now. Now tell me this is all a joke, and I'll leave happier than i am now."

Draco tried to tell his father that it was all a lie, but he couldn't say anything. Draco tried to look at his father with a pleading face,willing him to believe him.

Lucius Malfoy looked disgusted with his son. He raised his wand and pointed it at Draco's chest. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" He screamed. Draco saw the jet of green light coming at him and then all was black.

Draco awoke with a jolt. He looked around, panicking, until he realized it was just a dream. He relaxed, and looked at his alarm clock. It was four am, and there was no way Draco was going to go back to bed. Draco got out of his lazy chair and stretched himself out. He threw a quick glance at the bed where the sleeping Hermione laid. "She looks like an angel" his soft side whispered. He sighed, knowing that she would never be his. He looked away and rummaged through his trunk for clean clothes. He grabbed a white shirt and khakis and stepped inside his private bathroom for a shower.