CHAPTER ONE
(A/N The Deathly Hallows happened BUT Ron didn't kiss Hermione he fell in love with Luna.)
"Hermione!"
"Harry!" I run and pull him into a hug.
"You look great!"
"Thanks. Where's Ron?"
"With Luna. They've been inseparable." I smile at the thought of Ron and Luna together…
"Can you believe it? We're finally back! Aren't you happy? More homework and reading…"
"Yes. Of course I'm happy. But…Harry…are you alright?" I ask him quietly as we lug our trunks to the train. He looks away.
"No. But I will be." I stop and hug him.
"It'll be okay, I promise." I move away and grab our trunks. "We know one thing."
"Oh, what's that?"
"McGonagall will keep everything the way Dumbledore did."
"But it won't be the same Hermione."
"Listen to me, Harry." I stop again and put my hands on his shoulders. "Voldemort is gone. We got him. Okay? The evil is over."
"I just feel like…something's going to happen…"
"Has your scar been hurting?"
"No not since…" I sigh and let go, relived.
"Come on. I know you want to find Ginny." Harry cracks a smile and nods, speeding up. I laugh and follow after him. We find a compartment and set our trunks over head.
"Well…um…" Harry looks down.
"Go. I have to go to the prefect compartment." Harry runs off and I can hear down the hall Ginny yelling "Harry!" and hear Harry bellowing "Ginny!" I laugh and roll my eyes.
"Hello, Hermione!" Neville says walking passed.
"Hey, Neville." I walk to the prefect compartment and sit down. Ron comes in and smiles at me. I stand up and give him a hug. His lips are swollen from kissing Luna. I giggle at the thought of Luna kissing.
"Can you believe this?" Ron whines.
"What?"
"don't you know? Malfoy's head boy." Ron sneers. I gape at him, frozen in my seat.
"Hermione? Are you okay?"
"Ron…I…" I don't answer, instead I grab my bag and pull out my uniform and show him the front.
"Your head girl…" He says weakly. I nod just as the devil walks in.
"Weasel. Mudblood." Ron and I both stand up and point our wands at a smirking Malfoy. "Oh, please, Weaselbee. Lower you wand."
"Don't forget, Malfoy." I snarl. "We saved your life more than once." Malfoy's smirk disappears and he frowns at me. He sits down on the bench as other prefects shuffle in. Professor McGonagall comes in.
"Sit down. Quiet."
"This is an outrage!" Pansy Parkinson screams. "I should be head girl!" I snicker. Malfoy shoots me a look. I wave at him and pull out my robes. His eyes narrow at my badge.
"As some of you may know, Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy are the head girl and boy this year." She pauses to smile at me and glance at Malfoy. "And as some of you may know we have added a few 'Muggle' courses and we decided to let the prefects choose before we get to the rest of the school. Granger, Malfoy, what do you choose." I look at Malfoy, hoping he wouldn't choose the same thing as me. "There is…" She looks at he paper, "Woodshop, Art, Dance class, Music, Physical Ed."
"Dance." Malfoy and I say at the same time. "Damn." I mutter under my breath. McGonagall nods and I pull out a book while the rest choose.
"Herms, you aren't reading The History of Magic again, are you?" Ron asks and I grimace at the nick-name.
"Yes, I am, if you must know, Ron."
"But…you've met the woman who wrote it." I slam the book shut and glare at him.
"That was a snake. Voldemort's snake. Oh, wait, you don't remember…because you weren't there." I growl at him.
"Come on, Hermione. You still aren't mad are you?" As an answer I stand up, pulling my bag with me. "Oh, Hermione!" Ron calls.
"Leave me alone." I sprint down the hallway and all the way to the cargo cars. I push my way to the last one and plop down. I pull my knees up to chest and put my chin on it. everything was falling apart. So many people were still grieving. My parents were so mad at me for sending them away that they had a huge fight and Dad was now somewhere in Scotland. And of course on the month I was home for summer--
"Fancy seeing you here, Granger." My head shoots up and I look into the eyes of Draco Malfoy.
DRACO POV
Granger sits on the ground, her legs tucked into her chest. When she looks at me, her eyes are filled with such sorrow…
"Malfoy!" She stands up and glares at me. "What are you--"
"Can we just…be civil, for a while?" She looks taken aback and then nods.
"We…we, um, should change."
"Yes." I mutter. I turn around and she does the same. I pull off my shirt and then look out of the corner of my eye. Her shirt is off and she's so thin. I pull on my collared shirt, tie, sweeter and robes. I turn around to see her still changing. Her pants are off and she's pulling on her skirt. Her waist is wispy, smaller than the smallest girl at Hogwarts. She pulls her robes on and turns to look at me.
"Um…I'll get back to reading." She sits down and pulls out The History of Magic. I look at her eyes, whisking across the page and suppress a smile. Snap out of it, Draco! It's Granger.
"We will be arriving at Hogwarts within a hour." The conductor says, over the loud speaker.
"God, I wonder how they fixed everything…" I muse out loud. Granger looks up.
"I…I don't know." She whispers, tears filling her eyes. I can almost see the faces of the people that were killed flashing through her eyes. My fault. If I hadn't helped, if I hadn't cornered Dumbledore. He would have killed my family. The more rational part of me says.
"So you dance?' I ask.
"Some." She mutters. "You do?"
"Some." I smile crookedly. She doesn't smile back. I pull out my notebook and start to doodle. I push my sleeves up and start to sketch.
"Can you get that removed?" Granger asks, randomly. I look up to see her staring at my left arm. My dark mark.
"No." I tell her. "I know you wont believe me but I didn't get it willingly." She snorts.
"Sure, Malfoy."
"I didn't. Father had to hold me down." She snorts again and a shoulder shaking cough goes through her. She sighs and then pulls off her robes. She pulls them in a ball and lays them on the floor. She sets her head down on it them closes her eyes. I watch as she coughs again. Her breathing becomes even as she drifts to sleep…
"Sleep tight, Granger." I lean back against a crate and close my eyes.
"No. Please, no…" My eyes shoot open. She is curled into a tiny ball, still dreaming. Tears are streaming down her face and her hands are in fists.
Then she screams
"Please, stop!" She shrieks, "No! No! No!" I sprint over to her.
"Granger, wake up." Sobs rip through her. "Hermione, open your eyes." She uncurls and leans into me. I feel her tears staining my shirt and her shoulders shake as she coughs and sobs. I rub her back awkwardly as she cries.
"We will be arriving at Hogwarts in 5 minutes." the speaker belts out. Her-Granger jumps and pulls away wiping her eyes. She grabs her bag and stands up.
"I have to go…" She runs out of the room, and before the door closes I hear another sob. What could be so horrible? I pick up my bag and walk out of the door.
"Draco!" I hear a high, scratchy voice scream. I turn around, its Pansy Parkinson. I push down a groan and smile at her. She comes up and wraps her arms around me.
"Hello Pansy." I say, tightly. She tilts her head up to kiss me and I do. The train comes to a stop and I climb off, holding her hand. We walk over to the carriages and get one to ourselves. I wrap my arms around Pansy and start to snog her like there's no tomorrow. Screams fill the air and I move away. I pop my head out of the carriage and she people pointing at the Thestrails and screaming. Almost everyone can see them now. I roll my eyes and move back in.
We start to move and Pansy slumps down I look out the window as we get the first glimpse of the castle.
HERMIONE POV
Hogwarts comes into view and the six of us, Neville, Luna, Ron, Harry, Ginny and I stare at it.
"They fixed it." Ron mutters.
"Yeah, I guess they did…" I whisper. The carriages stop at the front doors and we all climb out. We stare up at the castle and I smile.
"We're back…" I say, loudly.
"FINALLY!" Ginny yells. We all laugh and surge forward. We walk into the Great Hall and I try not to remember the dead bodies all over the floor.
"oh, sit down, will you?" McGonagall says over the talking. We all go to our seats. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" We all scream and yell. "The new firsts years will be with our old ones so were going to have more people than usual and the age difference will be strange but, we have it all worked out." As if on cue the first years come in, led by the new Deputy Headmaster -- Professor Flitwick. They all looked scared and tiny.
"Look! That's the Golden Trio!" Everyone is pointing at Harry, Ron and I.
"Well that's Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom!"
"Oh, my gosh! It's Ginny Weasly!"
Luna and Neville grin. Ginny is to busy snogging Harry to notice and Ron wraps his arm around Luna's shoulders. I look around at the first years and a little girl with bleach blonde hair and grey eyes is waving at someone. She's waving at Malfoy. He smiles, widely and waves back. They start calling names but I don't notice; I'm to busy staring at Malfoy and the little girl. Malfoy is making funny face and the little girl giggles.
"Malfoy, Hesper!" The little girl tenses up and Malfoy smiles and mouths "Go on." She walks up to the patched up sorting hat. Flitwick places it on her head and the room falls silent.
"you belong in…GRYFFINDOR!" No one claps. No one moves. And then I stand up.
"Yeah! Go Hesper!" I scream. I start to clap and the Gryffindor table burst into aplusse. I pust Pavarti Patil down the bench to open a seat for Hesper. She sits down next to me.
"Thank you."
"Your welcome. I'm Hermione Granger."
"Hesper. Hesper Malfoy." We shake hands and the rest of the kids are sorted.
"Now!" McGonagall says. "In honor of Dumbledore and all those who were lost I have a few words to say… 'Nitwit!'" She pauses.
"'Blubber!" Ron, Harry, and I yell with her.
"Oddment!" Almost everyone in Gryffindor say.
"TWEAK!" Everyone besides the Slytherin's and the first years scream. Everyone laughs and food appears on our plates.
"So, Draco Malfoy is your brother?" I ask Hesper.
"Yeah, he's great. You know, he's Head Boy!"
"I'm Head Girl." I tell her.
"You have to LIVE with him?" She laughs and puts more food onto her plate.
"Thanks for reminding me." I mutter and roll my eyes. The rest of the feast goes by quickly and McGonagall comes up again.
"Prefects, lead the students to their rooms. Head Boy and Girl follow me."
"I'll see you later." I tell Hesper.
"Bye, Hermione!" I go up to McGonagall and meet just as Malfoy does.
"Granger. Malfoy. Come with me to your rooms." She leads us to the entrance hall and down a dark hallway. A metal door sits with the end with the Hogwarts crest.
"What the password?" I ask.
"Memento Mori." The door opens and we step inside. The common room id decorated in neutral browns. A door to the left has my name written on it, in my handwriting.
"Hermione Jean Granger, Head Girl.,"
And on Malfoy's its written,
"Draco Abraxus Malfoy, Head Boy."
"Now, you can each set passwords to each of your rooms."
"Okay. Thank Professor." I say, moving toward my room. McGonagall leaves and the door closes, leaving us in silence.
"Good night," Malfoy says. "Hermione." I freeze, hearing my first name and relax as he shuts his door.
What's the worst thing that could happen?