"What the bloody hell do you need to go back to school for?" Ron demanded as he jutted out his lower jaw. "You're not going to need a bloody diploma if all you're going to do is stay home and tend to babies anyway."

"Stay home and tend to babies?" Hermione repeated, blinking twice. "Who said all I would be doing was staying home tending to babies?"

"Well, that's what wives do, isn't it?" he asked, looking confused himself now. "That's what my Mum does."

"My mother didn't stay home and tend to me, Ron," said Hermione reasonably. "She worked the whole time I grew up, and I was perfectly fine being looked after by the sitter."

"Well, that explains it, doesn't it?" he scoffed.

"Explains what, Ronald?" Hermione asked in a deadly calm voice.

"Why you're such a bloody, unloving prude," he said meanly. "Bet the damn sitter didn't spend any time hugging you or telling you how special you were or anything. Just set you off in some corner with a book all the time, didn't they? Life's not just about books and learning, Hermione."

"That's it, Ronald," Hermione told him. "We're just too different, this just isn't going to work. I'm tired of arguing all the time."

"Yeah, well so am I, Hermione," he huffed. "I want a mother for my kids, not a damned librarian!"

"Well, then it's settled," she said. "I'll just get my books and be on my way. I'll write to your sister to tell her I've arrived safely at Hogwarts."

"Good, then, enjoy your seventh year."

"I shall."

"Well, good."

"Good-bye."

"Yes, good-bye."

Hermione stalked off uncertainly and grabbed her bottomless sac, then ran off into the Burrow to say good-bye to Ginny and the others, and when she'd finished she Apparated away from the place. She wanted to put as much distance between herself and Ron as humanly possible before she had a good, long cry and figured out what to do with the rest of her life, now that she wouldn't be spending it with him.

OOO

"Welcome back, Miss Granger," said Headmistress McGonagall as Hermione stepped off the Hogwarts Express a few days later. "Don't look so surprised to see me here, my dear. I received your owl saying you were returning, and I wanted to meet you myself. We have a few things we need to discuss. You see, Miss Granger, I've decided upon making you the Head Girl this year, if you are agreeable, and as such you would get to have your own room, but you will, of course, share your dorm with the Head Boy."

The woman looked hesitant at this point, so Hermione was incited to ask, "And who is the Head Boy?"

"That was the point I wished to discuss, my dear," she explained. "You see, it is customary for the Head Boy and Head Girl to be chosen based on the people who scored best in the prior years, and as you know, that boy is—"

"Draco Malfoy," Hermione finished for her.

"Yes, Miss Granger, Draco Malfoy," she answered.

"So he's decided to finish school this year as well, then?" she asked, somewhat dejectedly.

"Well, yes," she said. "He's not likely to get a good job without his degree, even with the Malfoy name, considering the role his father played in current events. He's lucky the man was pardoned for his most recent crimes, or he might not get a job even then."

"Yes, Draco has been through a great deal, to be sure," Hermione sniffed. "But that doesn't make up for all the years he's been a total arse to me, does it?"

"You will try to get on with the lad, I hope, Miss Granger?" asked McGonagall hopefully. "The two of you will be sharing a dorm all year, you know."

"Yes, of course I'll try," Hermione agreed. "The real question is, will he?"

"He's given me his word that he will try as well," McGonagall reassured her. "If nothing else, Miss Granger, you can be sure this will prove to be a most interesting year. A most interesting year, indeed."

OOO

Hermione stepped off the boat and took three steps towards the school before she spotted the one person she'd been hoping to avoid as long as humanly possible. Draco was sort of leaning on a tree watching her, and she could tell that he was waiting for her specifically when he straightened his shoulders as she approached and fell into step beside her as she reached him.

"Did you get your class schedule yet, Granger?" he asked casually, as if the pair of them talked to each other every day.

"Um, no, I thought I'd get settled in first," she said, swallowing nervously as she tried to decide whether or not to look at him or look at the castle. Her eyes were on her hands, which subsequently meant his own came into view, and she spotted the tiniest bit of black at the bottom edge of his sleeve, realizing that his Dark Mark must stretch down near the bottom of his wrist. Seeing the direction her eyes had wandered, Draco surreptitiously buttoned the sleeve as if nothing had happened and continued to amble along beside her.

"Would you like to go together to get them?" he asked. "It's on the way to our dorm, after all. Give us a chance to stretch our legs before we go in and decide how we want to arrange the furniture in our living room."

"Do you know how weird that sounds?" Hermione mentioned abruptly as she looked up at him, the shadow of a smile forming on her lips. As their eyes met the two began to laugh, and the tension between them seemed to ease up, if only for a moment.

"Yeah, ain't that the truth," he agreed.

"Sure, I'll go," she agreed. "And we can stop off and get something to eat, too. I didn't get anything off the trolley earlier. I'm famished."

"No need," Draco told her. "I brought along some contraband. Head Boy perks."

"Stash?" Hermione inquired. "What did you get?"

"Chocolate frogs, and about three gallons of ice cream," he answered, wiggling his brows at the very thought.

"Yum!"

"What's your favorite ice cream, Granger?" Draco asked her.

"Chocolate Fudge Ripple."

"Ha, I was right," he chuckled. "My Dad thought you would like vanilla."

"What, why?" asked Hermione curiously.

"Don't ask," he said cryptically.

"No, really."

"It's some stupid game he played as a kid, the kind of ice cream shows the kind of person, and vanilla means you're a prude," he explained, blushing a little.

"Okay, so why did you say mine?"

"Um, I don't want to say," he answered.

"Come on, Draco, you started it."

"Um, yeah," he blushed, looking up at her, then turning his head away as he answered, "You like it deep, dark and dirty?"

"What?" Hermione gasped, stopping in her tracks to glare at him.

"Well, that's what it means," he answered.

"Yeah, but how would you know?" she demanded.

"Careful observation, Granger," he teased as he grinned at her. "I know for a fact you like to play rough—even hit, sometimes."

"Well, I admit I did hit you, but—"

"And you seem to need a bit of danger to get you going—"

"I don't—"

"And the Weasel can't possibly have been very satisfactory, or you wouldn't be here, so—"

"So you get from this that I like—that, why?"

"I don't know, I just like to fantasize, I suppose," he admitted. "After all, we're going to be sharing a dorm all year, aren't we? Maybe I wouldn't mind it you'd like to shag me at midnight sometimes."

Hermione's jaw literally dropped open as she stared at Draco Malfoy, her childhood nemesis, as he stood blatantly inviting her to share his ice cream and his bed right here in the middle of the hallway of Hogwarts. She resisted the urge to pinch herself, just to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

"Just out of idle curiosity, what flavor ice cream did you happen to bring along, Draco?" she inquired.

"Don't you know, Granger?" he answered with a sly grin. "There's two flavors, actually. One is vanilla, and the other is—"

"Chocolate Fudge Ripple—"

"Yeah, you know, just to see which way the wind blows," he said, looking hopeful.

"Mmm," she said, pretending to consider her answer carefully. "Well, I think I'll go with the chocolate."

"You will?" he asked, supremely satisfied as they started to walk again, a bit closer this time.

"Yeah," she answered. "I always did like to live dangerously."