A/n- Ah, welcome back loyal and faithful readers of mine, which I still need to gain more of. Few apologies. One, there were meant to be story breaks, but apparently using stars doesn't show up on fan fiction, which I never realized. So, I fixed that in this chapter. Yes, there were minor mistakes, I do realize. But, I wrote that in around 3 hours, and I apparently didn't reread too carefully, so I'm sorry about that. I'll try to do a better job this time around.

Read and review my little buddies. :D

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In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so far
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me
In the end

(In The End, Linkin Park)

Chapter 2- The Devil

Early morning wake-ups were clearly not Draco's thing, per say. After dragging himself out of bed with only a half hour left until his first class, he managed to barely get dressed properly before he dashed off down the hallway.

Today, he was dressed in black robes again, this time with white sneakers. His hair was uncombed; he hadn't had time for that, but it suited him nice. His blue-grey eyes were droopy and sleepy looking; he literally looked like he rolled right out of bed. It didn't reflect him at all, but Draco had always despised the first day of classes. It always caught him completely off guard.

He skidded down the corridor, dodging two confused first years, who tried to hail him down for directions. He ignored them, skirted around a suit of armor and Mrs. Norris, and ducked silently into Defense Against the Dark Arts. The new Professor, Professor Taft, didn't seem to notice or care.

Draco took the last available seat, which was next to Hermione Granger, of all people. Hermione gave him a nasty look and turned her attention back to Harry, who was seated on her other side. Draco took out his book and placed it between himself and Hermione, and took out a quill and ink, beginning to doodle.

"Draco…Malfoy? Present?" the Professor asked, and Draco lazily raised his hand and went back to drawing. The Professor continued to take attendance, and then went on to discuss class aims during the course of the year. Half of the class was in a stupor similar to Draco's, and others, such as Hermione, were paying rapt attention and taking notes.

Glancing over, Draco snorted to himself while he watched Hermione's hand furiously scribble the class aims on a piece of parchment, smudging half her writing in her haste. Harry was reading over her shoulder and shaking his head, which was ignored by Hermione. Draco looked away and back to his drawing, which seemed to be a picture of a cat climbing a tree.

"What the bloody hell is that Malfoy?" Harry asked, peering over his shoulder. Draco leered back at Harry.

"It's a cat Scarhead, was it not obvious? Or do you need new glasses?" Draco retorted, covering his parchment with his hand casually.

"Well I was going to say it was pretty good…"

"I don't care what you have to say about it Potter. Mind your own business."

Harry looked away without saying anything more on the subject, and Draco had a feeling Hermione had stopped him. Well, at least one of the two of the roommates was going to try to be civil. Draco, on the other hand, was all for making Granger's life a living hell this year.

"Mr. Malfoy, are you paying attention back there?" Professor Taft asked over the dull roar of the classroom, and half the class turned to stare at him. Draco feigned innocence and looked up, smiling politely. He slipped the notes Hermione had taken out of her grasp and held them up, as if to prove he had been listening.

"Yes sir, here are my notes." Hermione shot him a glare and as soon as he dropped his hand, she grabbed the parchment back and started muttering curse words under her breath.

"Why, that's marvelous Draco. Ten points to Slytherin. Now, moving on…"

Hermione looked at him in apparent disgust and shock, and raised her hand to tell on Draco. He grabbed her wrist and pulled it down.

"One word Granger, and tonight isn't going to be pretty in our common room, I'll promise you that."

"Is that a threat, Malfoy?" She said in a raised voice, and two boys in the row in front turned to see what was going on.

"I'm glad you caught on so fast, Granger," he finished, just as the bell rang. He gathered up his materials and stormed out of the classroom before Hermione could get another chance to retaliate. He was the first one out of the room, and this time, wasn't late for his next class, which was Advanced Transfiguration.

Of course, Hermione and Harry had to be in the same classes as him. The stomped in angrily about three minutes later and found seats the farthest away from Draco as they could manage, which was perfectly fine by him. A minute later, the bell rang, and Blaise Zabini joined him at the seat next to him. Shortly after, McGonagall stepped in, and the room fell silent immediately.

The first class was always a drag, since they always just reviewed and listened to pointless spiels about up-coming tests, careers, and goals for the class before taking exams. McGonagall was particularly lengthy on her discussion about N.E.W.T.s, and Draco found himself almost nodding off before Blaise poked him with a quill to wake him up.

After the 45 minute explanation on the class this year, and the lecture about final exams for 7th year, McGonagall put them to work practicing simple vanishing spells, which they did in 6th year, and for Draco, were particularly easy. He was awarded 5 points for being the first one in the class to complete the accompanying questions, even before Hermione, who seemed distracted.

"Good job, Mr. Malfoy. No, you cannot be exempt from homework. Take this and pass the rest around."

Draco grumbled and grabbed a sheet of parchment with another set of questions to answer, and passed the pile on to Blaise, who was still trying to figure out why only half his mouse had disappeared, leaving a very unappealing looking half-creature on the table. Draco gave a shudder and turned away from it, and Blaise rolled his eyes, swiping the creature into the rubbish bin, still squirming.

When the bell rang, Blaise and Draco both discovered they had a free period, and decided to hang out in the Slytherin Common Room for awhile. As soon as he entered, Pansy screeched and jumped out of the armchair she was in, striding over to him quickly. Draco embraced her quickly and set his bag onto the floor in front of the fire, kicking out a group of third years.

"Get to class, idiots," he commanded, and they jumped up and ran off towards their dormitories. Pansy giggled and sat on Draco's lap, batting her eyelashes at him.

"Where were you at breakfast, Drakey?" she asked, staring into his deep grey eyes with her rough brown ones. Draco shrugged and told her about his first-day lateness. She played with his long strands of hair and Draco cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.

"Look guys, I'd love to watch, but I want to be able to eat lunch soon," Blaise said, cutting them off from what seemed to be the start of a long snog. Pansy shrieked with laughter, but Draco just shrugged, pulling his bag towards him, intending to start some work.

Pansy, Blaise, and Draco sat on the floor, Indian-style, and started their homework load a bit early. Draco managed to finished the Transfiguration homework easily in twenty minutes, and pulled his DADA book towards him to begin reading the first chapter, which ahd been assigned as homework.

Blaise was still struggling his was through the questions, and Draco pushed his paper towards him, not looking away from the words in the book. Pansy had her quill between her teeth and was tapping her wand against her parchment, trying to make her wand spell check the paper.

"You're going to set the thing on fire, Pansy," Draco commented, fixing the spelling of the words on her paper with a flick of his wand. Pansy huffed and put away the homework, kissing Draco quickly on the lips before getting up.

"Thanks Drakey."

"Don't call me Drakey, how many times have I told you this. Where are you going?"

"You're ignoring me, for homework of all things, so I'm going to go see Melana. See you later at dinner." With that, she swept out of the room angrily. Draco shrugged and smirked at Blaise, and turned back to his boring textbook. With any luck, he'd be able to ignore Pansy tonight at dinner if he went early, and have a nice peaceful evening, just him, a novel, and a blazing fire in the grate.

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"Happy…place," Draco said, sinking back into his comfortable armchair in the Head's Common Room. He sighed a breath of contentment and grabbed his book off the coffee table, glanced at the fire to watch the flames for a second, and opened to his page. His eyes scanned the page, eyes skimming over the words quickly. Occasionally, he flipped the page, settling deeper into his sense of comfort and relaxation as the minutes wore on.

He was about to turn the page when the portrait door slammed open, hit the wall, and slowly shut back onto it's frame. Draco flinched but continued to read, ignoring the angry footsteps coming closer. A large book slammed onto the glass table, making the glass quiver under its apparent weight. He refused to look up.

"Ahem," Hermione coughed, tapping her foot. Draco continued to pretend to read, but in reality, he was staring at the middle of the page.

"Malfoy, please stop pretending to read and look at me."

He looked up slowly, curiously, and then dropped his eyes back to the book, stretching at the same time. "Why would I do that; I just ate you see, and I wouldn't want to dirty these nice soft carpets."

Hermione stood there, like she had been slapped.

"You know, you should get that expression permanently painted on your face. It's a good look for you," he added, as an afterthought, and turned the page of his book. He managed to read the first line of the page before it was violently ripped out his hands and thrown across the room.

"You are a rude, insufferable git, did you know that?" she screamed. Her face was red and her knuckles were white from the fists she was making.

"Did you know that you're invading my happy place?" Draco responded, chuckling to himself. She was speechless after that, and Draco picked up his book and sat back in his chair once again, trying to block out Hermione's annoyed grumbling.

"I don't understand how we're going to live together for 9 months," Hermione stated, and Draco smile at her.

"Whenever you want to move out, just give me notice."

"I give up."

"Oh, so soon? I was hoping to get a bit more abuse in before that. Ah, well, can't have everything in life."

"How are you even Head Boy?" she questioned him.

"Well normally they select the best students from 7th year, Granger."

"I think McGonagall got it wrong."

"My thoughts exactly. And that's how we ended up with you."

"I'm the top stude-"

"Self-proclaimed," Draco cut her off, and finished her sentence. "Now, I'm going to continue to read and ignore you."

She didn't say anything after that, and Draco heard the casual thumping of feet going up the stairs before the thud of a door slamming back against it's frame. Moments later, the water in the shower started. Sighing contently, Draco resumed the reading of his novel.

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The rest of the week passed in a blur for Draco. By Friday, his body was attuned to the early morning wake-up, and he didn't look like a 'cat drowned in water', which were Granger's sweet words towards him Wednesday morning. That had sparked another fight, which helped to add to the total, of which was now 7 fights in 5 days. And the 5th day had barely begun.

"I'm telling you, that woman is in no fit shape to be living with human beings," Draco said hurriedly to Blaise, as they headed to Potions Friday morning. "Everything I goddamn do, she has an issue with it. Then she gives me a twenty minute bloody lecture on being civil. As if, she needs to take her own fucking advice."

Blaise was chuckling to himself, and Draco shot him a look.

"It's not funny. I'd like to see you try living with a mudblood."

"Well, mate, it's only a school year. Then you'll never have to see her again. But, I feel for you Malfoy."

"Yeah, bloody 9 months. If she doesn't kill me by then, I'll be praying for my wand to backfire on me."

Blaise laughed loudly and patted him on the back, and headed into the Potions room, where Professor Slughorn was already taking attendance.

"Sorry Professor," Draco grumbled, and Blaise murmured something along the same lines, and they plopped themselves into two seats in the back of the classroom. Slughorn gave them a disproving look but continued calling out names. Draco adored Potions because he was very good at it, and there was plenty of time to talk, since they always just made potions and did nothing else.

Professor Slughorn set them to work on a difficult potion, with directions on the board, and hobbled out of the room. Draco wondered where he went when he did this, considering he hadn't returned yesterday. Either way, the entire class slowly got up to fetch missing ingredients, or else to get closer to the board, since Slughorn's writing was practically illegible.

Blaise and Draco set to work on the potion together, chopping roots, stirring ingredients in, and taking turns to decipher the script on the board.

"Now… I think that says three times clockwise. Is that a three there Draco?"

"No… I think it's an eight. Yeah, it is."

"So eight times clockwise? Alright."

Draco stirred his potion eight times clockwise, and his potion turned a light purple shade, exactly as it should be. Blaise's, however, turned a deep, murky purple, almost brown-ish. Draco shuddered when he smelled it.

"I think you put the heat too high." Draco peered under the cauldron to the flames, which were a considerable amount bigger than his, and were licking the cauldron fiercely. "A bit too high. Lower it past mine, it should settle out."

With Draco's instructions, Blaise's potion turned out alright, although not as great as Draco's, who received the highest possible grade for his. Draco smirked triumphantly, and packed up his cauldron and supplies, stuffing them back into his backpack. Blaise grumbled the whole time, complaining that there would be no way he was going to pass his Potions N.E.W.T.

Draco adored Fridays, because his schedule was tremendously easy. After lunch, he had no classes and was free for the entire day. He took his time, eating through three plates of steak tips, baked potatoes and fresh corn off the cob. He enjoyed every bite of it, and then headed back up to his dormitory. He smiled to himself as he imagined a long nap before dinner, just him, his bed, and complete relaxation.

He reached the portrait, said the password, and headed into the common room. He climbed his staircase immediately, grabbed a pair of boxers from his trunk and a white t-shirt, and headed into the bathroom. He turned on the hot water, and took a fifteen minute shower, scrubbing off all the stress from his mind.

He got out and shook the water off the tendrils of his hair, combing it through quickly, and used a spell to dry it. He climbed into silver boxers and pulled the shirt over his head, and opened the door to his room.

"Shit!" he said, almost knocking right into Hermione. "W-…What? Get the fuck out of my room Granger!" he screamed, backing up into the bathroom.

"Relax Malfoy."

"What the bloody hell are you doing in there?"

"Oh, I just wanted a tour of the wonderful Malfoy's room. Clearly, I needed to talk to you," she said simply, backing away from the door now, and looking worriedly around his bedroom. She didn't seem comfortable in enemy territory.

"Do I need to lock my door from now on? I don't want small talk with a mudblood anyways, Granger."

She didn't react to his nasty comment, but didn't answer him either. She stared back at him and glared into his eyes, tapping her foot angrily. Draco smirked and walked around her, heading towards his bed.

"It's been good chatting with you. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to spend my afternoon off in relaxation. A solo adventure, just me and my bed."

"Way too much information, Malfoy. But you can't sleep. We need to sit and plan out the schedules for patrolling for the next month, so we can hand them out to the prefects tonight at dinner," Hermione explained, holding up a length of parchment with a box type chart on it. Draco groaned, and put his head in his hands. He did not need this right now.

"You do it. I'm resting," he finally decided.

"You have to help, you're the Head Boy. Don't make me tell Mc-"

"Oh, here we bloody go, ratting me out. Alright, alright, I'm bloody coming.

Draco took a few deep breaths, and went to his trunk to get on more suitable clothing. He pulled out a pair of Muggle jeans, a long sleeve black silk shirt, and a pair of socks. He pulled on these, and then turned to realize Hermione was still watching.

"Staring is impolite Granger. Although I know you enjoy what you see."

"Oh, don't flatter yourself, bighead."

"I don't have to flatter myself, others do it for me. And yes, I do have a big-"

"Please don't finish that sentence," Hermione said, her face horrified, and she shuddered. "Let's just get this over with."

"We finally agree on something," Draco simply stated, leading the way downstairs. They settled on two opposite armchairs in front of the fire, spreading the chart out. Hermione pulled a list of prefects and their extracurricular activities out of her bag, and unrolled that.

The two of them pored over the two parchments, taking turns reading the list and scratching out possible times or notes on a separate parchment. A simple question or statement interrupted the silence every few minutes, but other than that, the two sat quietly. Finally, they both looked up, and Hermione pulled the real chart towards her.

Together, they filled in each block of patrolling for each prefect, double checking to make sure there would be no interruptions from schoolwork, quidditch practice, or any other possible club or group. Draco noticed that he barely had any other hours; Hermione explained that was because the two of them would have to plan other things, taking more time out of their schedules.

After almost two hours of complicated scheduling, Hermione rolled up the scroll and smiled towards Draco, who did not return the smile. He was grumpy because he had spent his nap time doing even more work, on his day off. He sneered back at Hermione before lifting himself up off the ground, where they had ended up.

"Wow, two hours, and no fighting. I'm impressed at your apparent improvement on your social skills Malfoy," Hermione commented.

"We didn't exactly communicate; I barely call that social, Granger. Now, if we are done here…"

"Yes, we are. I'll deliver this to Professor McGonagall tonight so she can have someone copy it by tomorrow. I'm sure you have some whores to catch up with."

Draco was stunned by that comment. He turned on the spot and glared at Hermione.

"What, Granger?" he replied sharply. Hermione smiled coyly and returned her attention to her backpack, which she was loading with her quills and ink they had used.

"Nothing, Malfoy."

"You little bitch," he muttered, and marched up to her. He towered any easy 9 inches over her small body, and she backed away, finding her wand in her pocket feverishly. Draco got to his first and pointed it at her.

"Stop moving." She did. "Don't talk to me like that, ever again. If you want to ever have a chance of getting along with even the smallest sense of peace, you'll keep your mouth shut, especially about my choice in women."

"Then you'll keep your mouth shut about my blood status." Draco contemplated this a moment.

"Fine, you have a deal, Granger."

"I seem to be making deals with the devil more commonly," Hermione replied, snickering.

"Indeed, welcome to hell. Sign with blood, please," Draco said cleverly back, and smiled at Hermione before heading out the door to dinner.

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