A/N: hEY GUYS AND GALS LONG TIME NO SEE HAHAHA I am so sorry it has literally been years since I've last updated. I wanna say that there will be more frequent updates now that I've actually started the next chapter and have concrete plans for where this story is and where it will go, but honestly I don't know. However, some reviews would DEFINITELY decrease the likelihood of my supreme negligence.

On that note, shoutout to lakelady8425 for still being the only commenter and thus my most committed fan. lakelady, I want to apologize to you specifically because you have been more committed to this fic than I have tbh.

As soon as Hermione left the room, she quickened her pace, easily getting ahead of Malfoy. She didn't want to spend any more time with him than she had to, and if she got to the Heads Dormitory first, she'd get to choose which room she wanted.

Unfortunately, Malfoy seemed to have the same goal. His longer strides gave him an advantage, and before Hermione could blink, Malfoy was in front of her. She gripped her bag and widened her steps, determined to get there first.

This is childish, some part of Hermione's brain warned her, let it go. But Hermione was not about to let some cheating, lying, racist pureblood beat her, even if it was a trivial competition.

Hermione was broken from her concentration when Malfoy broke into a sprint. He had a considerable lead on her now, and had almost reached the staircase. Hermione put on a small burst of speed and was surprised to once again be in the lead. She raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

At the top of the sixth staircase, Hermione spared a glance behind her. No Malfoy. Good, she smiled to herself, and topped the landing of the seventh floor. She power walked to the portrait of Barnabas and gave him the password without letting him even finish greeting her.

Proud of her win, Hermione unslung her bag from her shoulder and dropped it to the ground. She plopped herself onto the closest couch with a sigh of relief - and froze as she noticed to steely grey eyes following her movements.

Malfoy was leaned against a wall, smiling at Hermione with a raised eyebrow and a cold look in his eyes. Triumph, Hermione realized.

She sprang to her feet. "How -?"

Malfoy laughed. "Came in through the study. Sixth floor entrance. Much faster."

Hermione groaned. That made more sense than her, bookworm extraordinaire, outpacing Draco Malfoy, star Quidditch player. She scooped her bag up and took her first look around the place.

They were in a rather large common room with light yellow walls done up in white trim. The furniture was a nice, comfy-looking black, except for two arm chairs which sat opposite each other next to the fireplace. Those two chairs were each of their house colors.

Directly across the entrance was a spiral staircase leading upstairs. To the bathroom and bedrooms, Hermione assumed. To her right was a set of clouded French windows. she pushed them open to find a sizable study with a large wooden desk, a good number of chairs, and a chalkboard. Large windows let in natural light. Hermione smiled to herself. This will do nicely, she smiled, it's almost perfect.

She turned to Malfoy. Almost. She sighed.

"Have you been upstairs yet?"

For just a moment, he seemed surprised to be addressed directly. He arched a practiced eyebrow.

"Does it matter?"

Hermione smiled. That was a definitive no, which meant that he had only just arrived when she'd come in. She breezed by him and up the stairs.

As it turned out, she needn't have worried about choosing rooms. The staircase reached a landing and split into two diverging sets of stairs. Hermione guessed that it worked in the same way as the Gryffindor dorms - she could go up both staircases, but Malfoy could only go to his.

Hermione glanced up the staircase on the right. There was an elegant "G" painted on the door.

For Gryffindor, Hermione theorized, taking in the cursive letter done up in all red and gold. She turned to the other staircase. The door atop these stairs was adorned with the silver letter, "M," on a green background.

Oh, Hermione realized, G for Granger. M for Malfoy.

She put her foot on the first step towards her room. Suddenly, Hermione's vision was blocked by a blinding red light.

A rogue jinx? Hermione wondered. In an instant, she threw herself backwards onto Malfoy's stairs, head shielded and knees up.

There was a moment's silence.

"Granger, what the hell?" Malfoy called from below.

She looked up. Her staircase was fine. Nothing was broken. Nobody stood at the door, or anywhere else for that matter. Why had there been a red light if nobody had cast a Stupefy?

"Granger?"

Hermione calmly ignored Malfoy. She picked herself up and took a step towards her stairs. She heard Malfoy running up from the common room. He arrived just as she put a finger on her railing. The stairs lit up a soft red.

"Do mine do that?" Malfoy asked. He stretched his hand to reach his rail. Green light raced from the point he made contact all the way up to his door. When it reached, both staircases burnt with a light which moved like fire. Hermione basked in it, taking in the sight. Red and green swirled together, like a volcano taking out a forest.

The flames crept up the wall and arced towards each other. Their path was interrupted by a large window. For a moment, the window and the fire glowed white together. Then, as if a switch had been turned off, the light disappeared.

In its place was an intricate mural. On the right side - Hermione's side - stood a lion. He was calm, poised, majestic. His gaze was cast directly to the green serpent on the left side of the window. The serpent danced for him, gazing back. She seemed to be laughing at the lion, teasing him for his lofty character.

Hermione touched the lion. Her hand was less than half its paw.

"Wow," she whispered, "That was amazing."

"There's a mural like this in the Manor," Malfoy replied, "I never thought about it, but I imagine it must have started out like this one."

Hermione was no longer listening. The Manor. Malfoy Manor. She closed her eyes. Black hair flashed against the back of her eyelids. Dark, maniacal laughter echoed through her mind. Hermione's breath came as short hiccups for air. They were quick, but not one gasp made it to her lungs. The skin on her forearm tickled with warmth. She opened her eyes to stare down at it. Blood ran in rivulets from the letters carved into her. Mudblood.

Hermione's eyes stung, causing her to blinked hard. When she refocused, the scars were dry and the pain was gone. She took longer breaths, but they were still too shallow. Phantom arms cradled her, as if Ron was there, comforting her.

The thought Ron holding her made her stomach churn. During the war, it had made sense to turn to Ron for comfort. He was there, they were alive, and he needed her for the same sort of comfort. They had each other's backs. Now, though, Hermione was sure that there was no way she could possibly want him. Ron was as good as her brother. They hadn't actually talked it out, but Hermione was sure Ron felt the same way about her.

She tore her gaze from her forearm to examine the lion. His mane was thick and long. The mural seemed to have caught him with a wind just catching his hair, and it was blowing towards the serpent just so. Hermione followed the lion's gaze towards the snake's feminine, teasing eyes. She had fixed the lion with an intense, but playful look. Her body corkscrewed downwards in heavily-corded spirals. Hermione followed her muscled coils down, down, down all the way to -

Malfoy's shoulder leaned against the serpent's tail. Hermione met his gaze. His cheekbones were an angry pink and his eyebrows were knit. The look on his face, well, suffice it to say that Hermione knew it all too well. It was the look of curiosity that she got when she was trying to puzzle something out, the look that said, "I know pain. In fact, I know your pain."

But there was more to Malfoy's look. His expression begged the question, "Do you know my pain?"

Hermione turned and flew up to her room.