Hermione Granger sat in her room on a hot August day reading her favorite book. One that she had read nearly sixteen times now. It was none other than Hogwarts: A History whose pages had been worn out and its edges dulled from being handled so much. She heard a faint tapping and looked away to see what had caused this disturbance. On the windowsill, sat a beautiful tawny owl. She walked to the window, unlatched it and took the letter off the patient owl. It took flight as soon as Hermione released the ribbon bound to its leg. Hermione sat on the edge of her bed and examined the letter. On the back, the Hogwarts crest sealed it shut.

"My Hogwarts letter," she whispered to herself.

School was always Hermione's favorite time of year. It was when she was granted as much access as she wanted to Madam Prince's library but the thing she missed most about school was not her best friends, Harry and Ron, or the homework she was thrilled to do but her most hated enemy, Draco Malfoy. Though she would never admit it to anyone, she secretly enjoyed it when Draco was calling her names or showing his legendary smirk or giving her any attention for that matter. Draco, over the summers was becoming quite a handsome man. Yes, a man is what Draco now was. He no longer was just a boy with slicked back platinum blond hair, it now hung down to cover his beautiful silver eyes, that were quite captivating in themselves. She often wished she could tell Draco how she truly felt about him and stop pretending like she wanted nothing more than to see him brutally murdered.

As Hermione began to open the letter, she noticed how it felt heavier than it usually did. Once it was open, Hermione found the reason to this question. It was dew to the gold badge with the letters "HG" inscribed on the face of it. A smile spread across Hermione's face as she jumped off of her bed and ran to her door. She flung it open and ran to the top of the stairs and yelled down.

"Mum, Dad. Guess what! I was made Head Girl!"

From the kitchen she heard her mom and dad yell in unison, "Honey, that's great!"

Hermione ran back to her room and spent the rest of the afternoon wondering who the Head Boy might be and reminiscing on all her memories of school and the wizarding world to which she belonged.

Meanwhile, miles away, a blond haired boy sat on his bed in a cold, dark room alone. Draco sat staring at the roof of his four-poster bed in the west wing of the Malfoy Manor. While his mind was wandering from one subject to the next he heard a loud knock coming from the other side of his door.

"Oh bloody hell mum. I told you, I'm not hungry!" Draco yelled without even moving from he bed. His mother had already been up to his room three times that afternoon to make sure he was okay and to see if he needed anything to eat. The door steadily began to open and Draco's father, Lucius, walked in with a trace of annoyance is his cold, gray eyes.

"Oh, father," Draco said as he jumped out of bed with his eyes glued to the floor.

"Sorry."

"Draco, you are to watch your tone when speaking to your mother. That kind of talk is only for muggle and mudblood filth. Got it?" Lucius finished with an air of disgust.

"Yes sir."

"Here," Lucius said as he thrust a tan envelope into Draco's hand. "Your Hogwarts letter has arrived."

Draco opened the letter with his father still in the room. Once he broke the seal and folded the flap back, a heavy, gold object fell to the floor. It was the size of a galleon and when Draco picked it up for further inspection, he realized that the letters "HB" were on the front of it.

"I'm Head Boy," he began as he looked to his father for praise.

"I would have excepted nothing less," and with that he turned and strode out of the room.

'Of course' Draco thought to himself as he rolled his eyes. He lied back down on his bed and read through the letter. 'Same as last year and the year before that' he thought. 'Wonder when mum will take me to Diagon Alley. Maybe she'll just get a house elf to do it. I really hate shopping.'

He sat pondering who the Head Girl might be because the letter did not tell him and one face flashed in his mind.

"Granger," he said out loud to himself. "This is going to be long year."

Draco spent the rest of the afternoon in his room, as he always does. He had no desire to be around his parents, who in his opinion should not have been allowed to have children. He sometimes pondered why there was not already a law prohibiting some from having kids, a death eater and his faithful yet terrified wife would have fallen under this category. It's not like he totally despised them, but they had very different views on blood status which kept them from having a close relationship. His father and mother were followers of the dark lord, Voldemort, while Draco wanted nothing to do with the dark arts. Yes, he was very gifted in potions and the favorite of the meanest teachers, but he never in his wildest dreams did he ever believe that he would end up like his father and hew never wanted to. He wanted to be the man that Hermione Granger would run to, someone who she could fall madly in love with and then marry him. He knew how absurd it would it sound if he told her any of this, seeing as though she loathed him down to the very last hair on his head. He also knew they could never be together as long as his father was alive. If he ever got wind that Draco, the last heir to the Malfoy Mansion and a pureblood, was associating with a half-blood or even that he had feelings for her, he was likely to strangle Draco.

Back in Hermione's bedroom, she swiftly wrote two letters to her best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, inquiring about who might be the Head Boy. An image flashed in her head of Draco being the Head Boy and them actually getting along. She knew, though, it was only a fantasy and that it would probably never come true. Still she dreamed of the day her blond prince would come and sweep her off her feet and they would ride into the distance and live happily ever after. She tied the two letters to her new owl (complements of her parents for how well she did on her exams last year). Once James had the letters securely tired to his legs, he flew off. Even though James was a very unusual name for an owl, Hermione fell in love with it from the moment she heard it. Of course it could have had something to do with the fact the Draco's middle name is James.

The rest of the summer had passed uneventfully. Once Harry and Ron's letters were delivered to Hermione, an uneasy and curious weight had settled itself in her stomach because the boys had no idea who the new Head Boy might be. She hoped that she would have to share duties with a person she could at least have a decent conversation with since they would have to share a common room and most other necessities. They were guaranteed, though, separate bedrooms, but would have to share a bathroom and a kitchen, which the main house dorms did not get.

September first dawned a dreary day. The sky was a murky gray and the rain was steadily coming down. Hermione's trunk was at the foot of the stairs, waiting, as Hermione was in her bedroom making sure, for the umpteenth time that she had all the books and materials she would need for this year.

"Mum, mum, MUM!" Hermione yelled as she came thundering down the stairs.

"What?" Jane, her mother yelled back.

"I can't find Crookshanks!" she screamed hysterically.

Jane grabbed her shoulders and turned her to look at her slightly red daughters face.

"Crookshanks is in the living room in his cage, so just calm down and take a deep breath," she said before she turned and walked to the kitchen. As soon as Hermione saw the heel of her mothers shoe round the corner, she sped off in the direction of the living room where, just as her mother had said, found her furry yellow cat asleep in his metal cage. The clock in the dining room struck ten o'clock and Hermione jumped as though a loud gong went off in her head that she never knew was there. She grabbed the handle and hoisted the cage and the now awoken and grumpy Crookshanks, to the front hall where her father, Alan, was holding her trunk getting ready to leave the house for the drive to Kings Cross Station where she would, for one final time, board the Hogwarts Express.

Rain-Soaked Revelations

Draco stood near the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ waiting for his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, to show up so they could begin their usual first year taunting, but someone caught his eye that made him forget about the first years. Hermione Granger was standing on her tiptoes to see over the heads of the people now crowding onto the platform.

"Wow," Draco said to himself.

Hermione had changed quite a bit since he last saw her. Her once frizzy hair had now tamed and was somewhat manageable. She wore a pair of tight jeans, a simple pair of sneakers, a white shirt, and a light black jacket. Hermione's eyes traveled over the crowd and for a brief second, stopped on Draco's. It took a moment for her to register who she was staring at till she threw him a look of much loathing. He returned a smile, a simple smile, no mean thoughts or cruel intentions were meant by it. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened as she stared in disbelief. He laughed to himself as he led Goyle and Crabbe to the train to find a compartment.

"Always keep them guessing." He said to no one in particular.

Hermione was too shocked at having Draco be somewhat nice that she didn't notice the head boys badge pinned to the left side of his dark gray sweater.

Once the initial shock had worn off, Hermione went back to searching the crowd for her friends. After only a minute or two of looking, she saw two red heads and unruly black hair make their way over to where she was standing. Once in plain sight, Ginny came bounding over to her and gave her a huge hug. Ginny hadn't changed a bit since last time Hermione saw her. Although she had grown nearly three inches over the summer, she still had freckles dotted all over her face. She was begging to look like the twins but with a little Mrs. Weasley in her eyes, stern but loving.

After she released Ginny, she turned to look at Harry and Ron whom she though were waiting patiently for girls to end their reunion since she never heard either of them say a word to her. But when she turned to talk to the boys, they had other things on their mind. Each one had his back turned to Hermione and was talking to a different girl. She felt she was getting the cold shoulder for something, but could not think of anything she could have possible done to upset them. Ginny noticed Hermione frown and took her hand and led her away to the train to find a compartment. Most were full but they thankfully found any empty one at the back of the train.

"What's with the boys?" Hermione asked sitting down.

"Oh, well, you see…" Ginny began nervously but was cut off by Ron and Harry who came barging in the door a second too soon for Hermione's liking. They were chatting quite happily about something. Hermione thought they were talking in a different language, but after hearing them talk for a few seconds longer, she realized that it was just Quidditch. They sat down opposite Ginny and Hermione and kept talking, taking no notice to Hermione yet again.

"Hi guys!" Hermione began, trying to get one of her best friends to at least look at her. She sat staring at them for a moment longer and then something clicked in her mind. She had two minutes to get to the Head's compartment on the other side of the train, where she would finally meet the Head Boy. She had almost forgotten because of all the drama going on with her friends.

She stood up and said good bye to everyone and told them she would be right back, but before she walked out of the door, she heard Ron say to her, "It's not like we care, Granger."

Hermione walked the rest of the way out of the door and into the hallway where she was on the verge of tears. 'What did I do?' she thought to herself.