Hermione woke up to the sound of tapping outside her window. The sound had been faint, but she was a very light sleeper. It was almost impossible to get a full eight hours when she shared a bed with Ron. Hermione yawned and rolled over and saw her owl, Mags, at her window. Slowly, Hermione sat up in her bed; she rubbed her eyes then got up and let in her owl.

The red wax seal on the envelop had a cursive 'H' printed in the middle of it, which could only mean one thing. She got a letter back from Hogwarts telling her that everything was set up and she would need to come today to get ready for all the students.

Hermione speedily ate her usual breakfast, oatmeal with berries. The girl was so excited that she took a shower in under five minutes. Not wanting to waste time on her difficult hair, she proceeded to put on some light make up and tie her mass of curls on top of her head in a messy bun. In the snap of her fingers all of the things she needed were in her trunk and she grabbed her owl and disapperated to Hogwarts.

Hermione arrived outside the gates to Hogwarts with a huge smile on her face. She walked through the gates and into the castle. McGonagall was waiting there with a smile on her face. "Hello Professor Granger." Hermione grinned, hearing her name with a Professor title had been her dream for quite some time, not that she would have ever told Harry or Ron that.

"Profess- I mean Headmistress McGonagall." She corrected herself quickly, "It's nice to see you again."

"I am keeping myself quite busy, as you can imagine. All of the Professors are meeting in the Great Hall for a before school meeting. We have many new Professors. So go in and make yourself at home."

Hermione nodded and walked into the Great Hall. Neville was there and he waved to Hermione, she smiled back and went to sit down next to him. They talked for a bit, he was teaching Herbology, which wasn't a surprise; he had always had a special sort of skill for that class. Headmistress McGonagall walked in and the room grew quiet. "I wanted to introduce all the professors to each other since there are a lot of new faces."

The doors to the Great hall burst open. There was that smell, the expensive cologne that filled the room. It was toxic and Hermione closed her eyes, please don't let it be him, please. Hermione reopened her eyes and saw him. His almost white hair reflected off of the many candles that were lit, and his overly expensive robes swayed with his body as he sauntered down the rows of tables. "Malfoy…" she grumbled.

His eyes met hers and he winked. She glared at him as he walked over and sat in the empty seat next to her. "Sorry I'm late everyone." He announced, and the rest of the professors mumbled a reply under their breaths before McGonagall restarted what she was saying. "Granger," he whispered to her with a smirk on his face. She looked at McGonagall and tried to ignore Draco, but with his cologne wafting up her nose and with the sound of his breath it was hard to concentrate. McGonagall finally got done what she was saying and excused the professors. The students would arrive tomorrow night so Hermione needed a good night's rest.

Hermione got up from the table and waved goodnight to Neville, she walked out of the doors in the great hall and turned up a stair case to her dormitory in the left wing. She heard a cough and turned to find herself face to face with a blonde Draco. "Granger, I think you're going the wrong way."

Hermione laughed and rolled her eyes, "No Malfoy, I'm not. I know exactly where I'm going." She stood with her hands on her hips and her eyes glaring into his. He was two steps lower then her and she still had to look slightly up, she hadn't ever noticed how tall he was.

Draco mumbled something under his breath, and reached into his cloak and pulled out a piece of parchment. While unfolding it Draco kept grumbling something that Hermione couldn't make out, but she couldn't imagine that they were words of kindness. Once the parchment was unfolded Draco spoke, "As you can see Granger, my dormitory is located right here. You are located in the next one over."

Hermione ripped the piece of parchment from his fingers and studied it closely, "No this must be wrong." She looked up at him and back down to the map, "Your map is wrong, that's the problem."

Draco shook his head and stole the map back from Hermione's grasp. He smoothed out the new wrinkled parchment and slid it back in the pocket of his cloak, "Take yours out Granger."

Hermione stopped for a second and glared down at him. "Fine, but you are going to be very sorry when you find out your wrong." She looked down at the parchment she just took out, and Hermione bit the inside of her lip. "Well I guess… I mean… anyone could have," A large sigh escaped her lips and she quickly stuffed the parchment back into her cloak and pushed past Draco. "Goodnight Malfoy."

Draco chuckled and watched her go down the steps, "Not as smart as you think you are, huh Granger?" A smile grew on his face when he heard her cuss down at the bottom of the stairwell.

Hermione awoke to the best feeling ever. It was just like the feeling she had received for seven years of her life, it was better than waking up on Christmas, it was the first day of school. She rolled out of her bed and got ready for the day, they had to double check everything before all the students came.

Hermione let her curls down today, she didn't have the energy to wrestle with fly-aways what always occurred when she attempted to put her hair up. Next she put on a modest skirt that came to her knee, a button up shirt and her cloak. Hermione had to stop herself from running down the stairs, it was tough but she was able to do so. She was very proud of herself from she made it to the bottom of the stairs without breaking out into dance, and she then opened the door. Hermione stepped out and made the short walk to the Great Hall for breakfast. A pang of sadness hit her at the thought of how much Ron used to love eating here. Placing her hand lightly over her stomach she went and sat down and started working on lesson plans.

Hermione worked all day on plans for the class and soon all the professors had to take their seats at the front table in the Great Hall. It seemed like the world was playing a cruel joke on her as, Hermione unfortunately had to sit next to Draco.

"Potions?" Draco asked as he sat down in the chair next to Hermione.

"Pardon?" She asked flipping her curls over her shoulder and placing her napkin on her lap.

"Are you the new potions professor?" He asked looking over to her, his smile turned into a smirk as he saw her fidget with her dinning placement. "Granger I don't think the students will notice if your napkin is on your lap or not."

Hermione rolled her eyes and kept looking straight ahead. "Yes I am." She turned to him to give him a glare, "and yes some may notice. I always did." Hermione turned and looked to the person who just sat down on the side opposite of Draco. "Hagrid!"

The giant turned and looked down, "Oh, Hermione. Wow, you've grown up! How are Harry and Ron?"

"Harry is doing just fine, he and Ginny are engaged. Uh, Ron is going to be a father." Hermione looked down at her lap and from the corner of her eye she caught Draco looking at her.

"A father? You're pregnant?" Hagrid asked placing his rather large hand on Hermione's back.

Hermione didn't answer; she nervously ran her hand through her hair and kept her eyes down. What was she to tell him? People expected the two of them to be together for forever. Harry, Ron, and her had been some sort of Hoy Trinity. The expectation was that she and Ron had to be a pairing, just like Harry and Ginny needed to be a couple.

"Hagrid is that you? It's been too long!" Draco's voice broke through the silence that Hermione had created.

"Draco? Draco Malfoy, you're a professor?" Hagrid raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "Well, my gosh, I thought I'd seen it all."

A casual conversation full of small talk between Draco and Hagrid went on for a couple of minutes and Hermione was pleased that Draco did that for her. The room silenced as the returning students walked in chattering and took a seat at their house tables.

Hermione looked over the students and recognized some of the 7th, 6th, 5th, and 4th year students from when she was a 6th year student. They had grown up so much; she also knew that those classes were small because many of them participated in what became known as the Battle of Hogwarts. Some of them walked in and their eyes fell instantly to Neville, Draco, and herself.

The doors opened and this time a group of silent kids came walking in the Great Hall. "I remember when you walked through those doors just like that." Hagrid whispered to Hermione.

Hermione nodded and looked over at him smiling. "I'm pretty sure I was reading a book when I walked in," she mumbled back with a soft laugh.

"Yes you were, I remember quiet clearly Granger. I knew right then that you would be a stuck up know- it- all, and bloody hell… I was right." Draco whispered and let out a low chuckle.

Hermione's head flew around to look at him. "I'm sorry Malfoy but was I talking to you? No, I didn't think so." Draco snickered, but they were both silenced by McGonagall's glare.

McGonagall then cleared her throat and began. "Welcome to Hogwarts, or for many of you; Welcome back. This year will be filled with excitement, adventure, and learning. As many of you can see, we have many new professors. For those of you who are new we will introduce them all to you, and then we will start the class sorting.

"We have Professor Binns teaching History of Magic." The professor who is a ghost stood up and nodded at the students. Hermione felt the urge to yawn by just remembering the class. It was very boring; the most exciting part of the class was him entering through the blackboard every day.

"Professor Trelawney teaching Divination," The weird and slightly psycho professor stood up and waved. Hermione couldn't stand that class, it was a waste of time, and she was a fruit loop.

"For Care of Magical Creatures we have Professor Hagrid." Hagrid stood up and smiled at all the new years, some of them looked scared to death. Hermione smiled; if it wasn't for Harry she would have been scared of Hagrid too.

"The head of the Ravenclaw House and the teacher of Charms we have Professor Flitwick." The little man stood up on his chair and nodded to all the students.

"Professor Hooch will be teaching Flying and will be the head of the Hufflepuff House." Hermione looked at the 1st year's faces. There were mixed reactions. Some students looked like they were a deer caught in the headlights; like Hermione had been, and some looked like they had been waiting their whole lives for flying. Very much like how Draco and Harry were.

"Professor Finnigan teaching Transfiguration," Hermione looked up and saw Seamus stand up to wave. She hadn't even known he was a professor here. Then she couldn't help but to chuckle, Seamus blew up everything. How was he going to be a professor?

"The professor of Defense of the Dark Arts is Professor Chang." Draco elbowed Hermione under the table and she looked over. He mouthed the words "Bloody Hell?" Hermione shrugged. She didn't get how Cho Chang got the job either.

"Professor Sinistra will be teaching Astronomy and Professor Vector is teaching Arithmancy." All Hermione remembered about Arithmancy was that Professor Vector gave a ton of homework, not that she had minded.

"The head of the Gryffindor House and teaching Herbology is Professor Longbottom." Hermione smiled as she watched Neville stand and wave.

"Teaching Potions is Professor Granger." Hermione stood up and watched everyone's eyes fall on her. She heard many of whispers that involved Harry's name. Hermione waved and smiled at everyone.

"Last but not least is the head of the Slytherin House and teacher of Muggle Studies, Professor Malfoy." Draco stood up and the room grew extremely silent. All of a sudden hundreds hushed voices all started whispering.

"A Malfoy teaching Muggle Studies?"

"A Slytherin teaching Muggle Studies?"

"Did they make a mistake?"

Hermione looked up at Draco and he just stood there. Hermione slowly started to clap and Neville joined in, soon everyone was clapping. Draco sat back down and Hermione couldn't help but to look at him.

"What's your angle on this Malfoy?" She whispered to him, while looking back at the crowd.

"I don't have one Granger," he replied.

"You're a Malfoy of course you have-," she was cut off by McGonagall who took out the sorting hat.

Kids went through the process of getting sorted. All of them were nervous and scared to get put in a house. The ceremony went by slowly and it was all pretty much the same, but there was one girl who caught Hermione's eye. She was small for a 12 year old girl; she had brown hair that looked like it hadn't been brushed in a while. Her robes looked old, and she had glasses on that took up most of her face. She just sat there reading a spell book that she must have just gotten for school, the binding of the book looked as though it needed to be retired. When her name was called she got up and Hermione noticed a slash scar from the corner of the left side of her moth to her jaw line. That's when Hermione realized that this girl was a mix of her, Harry, and Ron.

Hermione ran her hand through her hair and watched as the sorting hat was trying to make its decision. "Slytherin!" the hat announced and the Slytherin House cheered as she walked over. "Draco too?" she mumbled and shook her head.

The rest of the night passed as a blur. They ate then the students were sent to their dormitories. Hermione stood up and stretched. She said goodnight to Seamus, Neville, Hagrid, and Cho Chang.

Hermione was opening the door to her stairwell that led to her dormitory when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and found herself once again face to face with Draco. "What Malfoy?"

"It changed me. Being a death eater, seeing so many people die. Watching the boy I grew up to hate; do the right thing, watching him sacrifice himself for the good of me… the good of everyone. That's why I'm doing Muggle Studies." Draco ran a hand over his face, and that's when Hermione noticed how much he grew up in the three years she hadn't seen him. "I can't change what my parents did," he continued, "or my aunt. But I can change what I did. I can give back, try to make things right."

"Why are you telling me this?" Hermione asked finally looking back up at his face.

Draco just chuckled, "Goodnight Granger."

So here is chapter two. I've added in to the story, changing it a bit from the original. I'm also planning to combine some chapters in order to get to the new material sooner. Please review!

xoxo~Emi