2

Hermione Granger had to stop to catch her breath when she came face to face with Draco Malfoy in the Head's Compartment. She was in complete shock. This meant they would be living together for goodness sake! Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but choked on her words. She straightened up and put her hand over her mouth and coughed to cover up her obvious failure in attempting to speak. She tucked a brown lock of hair behind her ear and stared straight at Draco. He looked so different than what she remembered, the ending of the war must've really changed him , at least in his appearance, and she hoped in his personality as well. He had broader muscles, toned skin, and without the permanent scowl he usually had on his face he looked surprisingly handsome.

"Hello, Ma- Draco." Hermione stuttered. She had almost called him Malfoy, but for some reason she stopped at the last second and called him by his first name instead. She didn't know if it was because he had called her Hermione instead of Granger, or some other reason. She was very curious as to why he was being so nice to her. She almost scowled and walked away at the thought of sharing anything with him when remembering everything he had put her through the past seven years. Then she looked in his eyes and saw he had truely changed, and she also reminded herself Voldemort was gone and he wasn't sided with him anymore. He looked as though he matured, and everyone deserved a second chance. Trying to smile Hermione spoke, "quite excited actually, can't wait to start Hogwarts back!" As she spoke, Hermione's excitement almost overcame her weariness of Draco. "What about you?" She asked as she walked over the luggage rack and levitated it up on the rack and took a seat across from Draco. Being seventeen had it's advantages with magic.

Hermione had decided to give Draco a chance, of course, but she didn't let her guard drop. She didn't know what to think of him at the moment. She knew Ron wouldn't approve of her being nice to Malfoy, but this was none of Ron's business. She grinned at him and casually crossed her right leg over her knee.

Hermione spotted a stack of papers beside Draco with Dutes of Head Boy and Head Girlwritten in bold, underlined letters on the very top. "Have you already read through this?" She asked as she reached her arm over and grabbed the papers. Hermione skimmed through everything, paying more attention to the main things than the unimportant stuff. Her wavy brown hair fell over her left shoulder and his her left side of her face from view, as it usually did when she was intently reading or writing something.

The dutes were rather simple. Explain the new rules to the returning Prefects, and go over the old rules for the new Prefects. Make sure they enforce the rules, organize patrol schedules, and schedule Hogsmeade weekends. The benefits were as followed; Heads get an hour later curfew, and they share a whole dormitory to theirselves. The dorm included a bedroom to each of them, their own bathrooms, and a small Common Room with a fireplace with rows of bookshelves. The very last thing on the Benefits page was explaining that Heads had patrol every night together. Hermione sighed and put the papers back down. "I can't wait to see the dorm!" She exclaimed. She was mostly excited about the bookshelves. It would be like a whole library to herself! Oh, she really couldn't wait.

...

"Uh, yeah," Draco replied nervously. He wasn't sure which of the questions he was responding to; she had asked quite a few. Well she hadn't actually asked that many but... did she ask any questions? He tried to clear his head, but failed miserably.

How did she expect him to keep up? What with her beautiful smile and gorgeous features, not to mention her almost musical voice, distracting him... preoccupying his mind. She had changed quite a bit since the last time they met, he noticed only too easily. 'She really filled out' he thought vaguely, 'her-'

'Draco!' he mentally reprimanded, 'Get a hold of yourself, you bloody git!' And then dread set in as he recalled what he had said earlier. He had called her by her first name. He had called her by her first name. Something he had always wanted to do, but had never dared to actually do it. He had called her Hermione. He hadn't even said it with any dislike or strain. Merlin knows he always forced it... ever since their fourth year.

"Mmm-hmm" Draco murmured, hoping that she wouldn't think he was ignoring her, "me too." His eyes unwillingly followed her as she moved to the luggage rack, then flew to the window as she came to sit across from him. He forced himself to stay calm, but didn't notice his lips slightly turning down into a scowl. The scowl deepened as Hermione innocently reached for a copy of the Duties of Head Boy and Head Girl manual, and began reading intently.

Scowl still in place, Draco watched as Hermione's silky hair slid over her shoulder and gracefully cascaded over the left side of her face; covering it from his view. His hand unconsciously reached out to tuck her hair behind her ear, but he caught himself before he could follow through. But Merlin's Beard! How he wanted to do so.

Head full of distraught, Draco leaned back into the chair and glared out the window. He ran his hand through his own hair and leaned back in his seat.

"So Granger," he said, reluctantly switching back to calling her formally, "What did you do over the summer?" He prayed that he sounded casual and was slightly stressed that she wasn't affected by him as he was affected so deeply by her. "You probably spent it with Potter and your boyfriend" -he half chocked on the word, "Weasel-bee no doubt."

...

As Hermione listened she noticed Draco's platinum hair had gotten longer and stood out nicely against his toned skin. Tilting her head, she looked into his grey eyes. They were usually very cold and cruel, but it seemed without the usual coldness in them it changed almost his whole appearance. He really was a very handosme boy, she wondered why Pansy Parkinson had always chased after him. Now she realized why, Draco probably didn't look at Pansy as if he wanted to kill her. So of course he looked handsome to Pansy.

Looking down from his eyes, Hermione saw a scowl on Draco's lips, and as this she did flinch. She watched as his gaze switched from her to the window and she turned her gaze to her feet. Hermione actually giggled when she heard Draco call Ron, Weasel-bee. "Weasel-bee, that's new." Hermione giggled, "but no, I spent it with my family. I actually haven't seen Harry and Ron since the beginning of the summer." She said with a nod. "Oh, and Ron isn't my boyfriend." She told him slowly, "it was just too weird dating my bestfriend."

Hermione was really surprised at how not-heartbroken she was about Ron. She had thought she was in love with him since fourth year, but once they tried it out it just didn't work. Her thought were always 'if you were meant to be with someone, you would be with them without any weirdness', and there was weirdness so she knew it wasn't meant to be.

...

He did not envy the git, Weasley, a bit... Except for his relationship with Hermione. Just the thought of her smiling at him; their eyes filled with adoration towards each other, made Draco feel like hexing the clumsy red-headed prat into oblivion.

A smirk graced his lips as he thought of all the things he would like to do to Weasley, but his smirk quickly faded and turned grim as Hermione spoke. 'Hurting the little weasel Weasley would hurt her too.' He glanced from the window, to her beautiful angelic face, then back to the window. 'I'd never do anything to hurt her... Never again.' And even as he thought this, his jealousy still clung to him.

Draco's ears unintentionally picked up what Hermione was saying, even as he struggled to control his outbreak of jealousy and keep it in check.

His face cleared, and his mouth turned to form a lazy lopsided smile, as he heard Hermione say that she spent her summer with her parents. He had heard what she had done in order to keep them safe from harms way and was floored by her strong love and bravery. Draco could not imagine how it must have been for her. She truly was an amazing woman.

Draco's lazy smile unconsciously transformed into a full grin, as Hermione continued on to tell him that she and Weasel-bee no longer had a thing.

Letting out a breath of relief, Draco turned to give Hermione a triumphant and winning smile. Slightly nodding, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"That's true. It does feel weird dating a friend, doesn't it?"

Noting the questioning look Hermione was giving, he continued.

"I was just thinking about Pansy and I," not noticing the small wince the mention of Pansy caused Hermione, Draco went on. "I mean, we were pretty good friends, but she just didn't make me feel anything special."

His head tilted to the right, and he scrunched up his eyebrows thinking. "She also wasn't very bright," he added with a rueful chuckle. "Never thought anything of her own, always following what other people say."

Draco's gaze made it's way to meet Hermione's, his face set in a playful tone, but his eyes were full of intensity.

"She was nothing like you..."

He sat back and softly added, "Weasley was lucky to have gone out with you."

...

Hermione avoided looking Draco in the eyes as he talked about Pansy. If she would just look at his eyes, maybe Hermione would've noticed there was no twinkle in his eyes as he talked about Pansy. Her ears did perk up, however, when she heard him talk about Pansy. "Yes," Hermione said slowly, "it's weird to date friends, just doesn't feel right." Hermione agreed with him.

The frown that had formed on Hermione's lips when Draco was talking about Pansy, quickly changed into a shy smile as she heard him talk about her. Hermione almost gasped with suprise when Draco told her Ron was lucky to have been with her. Her cheeks turned a rosy shade of pink, she she brought her hands up over her slightly open mouth quickly.

Not knowing what to say, Hermione covered her slight gasp with a small cough and averted her gaze to anywhere except Draco. As she thought of the words to come out of her mouth, she fidgetted with a loose string hanging off the seats of the train. "Oh-Uhm, no I do-don't think it was anything special." Hermione stuttered as she took a breath to calm herself.

After she had taken a few more deep breaths to calm herself, she decided to stop before she made herself light headed. Hermione dared to look into Draco's eyes, after all his voice didn't sound very serious, but once her eyes met his and she saw the intensity in his eyes she knew he was telling the truth.

Hermione gave herself a mental shake, and she stared Draco straight in the eye. There was no reason for her to be stuttering like a silly school girl. She was a Gryffindor who helped defeat Voldemort dammit! There was no reason she should be nervous talking to Draco Malfoy, of all people.

The honey brown eyes lingered on the intense gray ones, trying to solve the puzzle that was hidden beneath them. This puzzle was a very difficult one, seeing as it always seemed to change. For seven years they had been easy to de-cipher, they were cold and cruel, but within the past few hours they've changed from confused, to soft and caring, to intense and serious.

"At the time, you and Pansy seemed so," Hermione tilted her head, still staring at him as she thought of the right word. "So, similiar," and at the time they did, but now she saw no trace of that Draco. She had a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach about his new Draco Malfoy, but she hadn't decided if she should be worried or relieved. Hermione decided she would just have to study Draco Malfoy more closely over time.