A/N: I am overwhelmed with the amount of followers, reviews and favorites this story has gotten since I uploaded it and I just want to thank all of you for that. Also once again I do not own Harry Potter that right still lies with jk Rowlings.

Chapter 3

"It's a little strange, riding the train and going to Hogwarts without them," Hermione said to Ginny thoughtfully.

"Whatever will you do Granger? A whole year without Potty and Weasel." the amused voice of Draco Malfoy said. Hermione looked over and seen the blonde Slytherin leaning against the compartment doorframe, smirking at her. Draco had certainly filled out over the summer Hermione thought. Gone was the gauntness of his face and his grey eyes weren't as hollowed. A little color had returned to his skin tone making him porcelain again instead of the dull grey he had sported last year. He had regained the weight he'd lost under Voldemort's reign. He still had the haunted look in his eyes but she supposed they all did after fighting a war. Gone were the robes hanging off his frame to be replaced by the sophisticated ones that fit him quite nicely, Hermione thought. She immediately chastised herself. I should not be looking this closely at Draco Malfoy of all people.

Hermione leveled a glare at Draco, meeting his steel grey eyes with her chocolate brown ones. "Better than you will I would assume," Hermione said smirking back. "Whatever will you do with your spare time now that Harry's not here for you to obsess over?" she finished laughing at him. She saw Ginny's eyes sparkle with amusement before she doubled over in hysterics.

"I think this year will be quite interesting indeed, after all, I will be living with the brains of the golden trio." Draco said smirking back at her. Draco walked forward and sat down on the compartment seat opposite of Hermione. Draco looked Hermione over trying to figure out what the niggling feeling in the back of his head was. He felt as though he knew her as more than Hermione Granger like he knew her on a more personal level. Ridiculous he thought. It is Granger. He leaned back, sighing. The other prefects started filing in. There was Ginny Weasley and Phoenix Griffon for Gryffindor, Lyra Hobbie and Corvus Fallow for Hufflepuff, Vincent Blackworth and Bria Spink for Slytherin, lastly Alayna White and Rigel Gayle for Ravenclaw. Draco hadn't had much interaction with any of them except Ginny. It's a whole new generation. Draco thought suddenly. This is my last year and then I'll be heading into the adult world officially.

"Now that we're all here we can start." Hermione said addressing the prefects. "Your job as prefects will be to help the students in your house with all problems. When a problem arises that you can't handle you will come get either myself or Draco here and we will handle it. Each of you will have routes, the combination will be boy, girl and always be with an opposite house member. For example Ginny and Corvus Fallow you can take the first route tonight, the following nights will be as follows Bria Spink and Rigel Gayle, Alayna White and Phoenix Griffon, lastly Vincent Blackworth and Lyra Hobbie. You may come up with your own schedules after that to be turned into myself or Draco by Friday." Hermione said to the group, turning to Draco Hermione said: "Will you take Slytherin and Hufflepuff while I take Ravenclaw and Gryffindor to give them their passwords?" Draco nodded in affirmative.

"Blackworth and Spink follow me," Draco said walking over to the empty compartment across from the one they were currently in. "The password for Slytherin is Salazar, Remember you will be leading the first years to the common room. Do not lose any of them and keep everybody as orderly as you can."Dismissed." Draco said. As Blackworth was leaving the room Draco hears him mutter something with the words death eater in it. "Actually Blackworth please remain behind. After Bria had left Draco turned to Vincent "Let's hear it." He said snidely, "You obviously have a problem with me so let's get this out of the way."

"Yeah, I do, I don't see why they allowed a death eater turned traitor back let alone as Head Boy." Vincent said venomously. "Let me get this straight." Draco said with an amused look on his face even if his blood was boiling "You think you could've been a death eater that you could have done the assignments the dark lord assigned with no problem? Let me tell you, you have no idea what it's like to be under his reign. All you know is what you've been toldt. You're not even part of the sacred twenty-eight. You wouldn't even be here right now if it hadn't have been for the head girl in there. You have no idea what it's like to live with a monster. I will tell you right now though I will not accept this behavior from a prefect. If you feel you cannot perform your duties than you may let me know now and I will have you replaced. Are we Clear?" Draco almost hissed at him. "Crystal." Vincent said before leaving.

Draco sunk down onto the compartment seat trying to regain his cool before dealing with any other students. A timid knock alerted him to Hermione's presence. "I've finished Hufflepuff for you, I heard your conversation." Draco groaned inwardly, Great. He thought. Just great.

"Come to tell me how I handled that wrong are you?" Draco snapped at her and immediately regretted it. "Damn it, I'm sorry Granger, I'm just on edge." Draco apologized.

Hermione looked at Draco thoughtfully, "No, actually I wasn't. I was actually going to tell you that you're not the monster everyone thinks you are. You are the reason our mission did not fail in the manor, you could have identified Harry, Ron and Me but you didn't. That kid doesn't know what he's on about, we know what it's like living under that madman, Draco." Hermione said softly putting her hand on his shoulder, looking into his eyes for the first time with sincerity.

"Draco, you know better than most what it's like to live in constant fear. We were both children fighting an adults war with no clue on what to do, mistakes were made and both sides lost there was no winner, not with a number of people each side buried.

I know for a fact you have changed. You wouldn't be here if you hadn't, you wouldn't be sharing a room with me if you hadn't nor would you be sitting here allowing me to touch you without springing away in disgust and many snide comments." Hermione said. "Now, get up, dust yourself off and put your Malfoy ego back on and let's get out there, Besides we've arrived at Hogwarts and we have a meeting with McGonagall before the feast." She demanded, pulling Draco to his feet.

Hermione led Draco out of the compartment dropping his hand. Walking towards the exit she disembarked the train, losing Draco almost immediately to the crowd of confused and bewondered first years and the older students who were trying to make their ways towards the thestral drawn carriages. Hermione shook her head feeling a little sad that there weren't any students that could say that they couldn't see the thestrals now, herself included. She noticed the look of bewilderment on many older students faces. Hermione started heading towards the carriages, stopping after hearing the familiar voice of Hagrid.

"Ow ya doin Mione" Hagrid asked her.

"Just great Hagrid, looking forward to this year" She replied.

"Tea N Biscuits sometime yeah?" Hagrid asked hopefully.

"Of course, Hagrid" She said and with that she walked away, listening to Hagrid call all the first years around for their beginning journey to Hogwarts on the boats. She hoped no one fell in this year like the year Dennis Creevey did. Thinking of Dennis made her think of Collin. He would be redoing his sixth year as most of the students were redoing the year that Voldemort had messed up for them. Hermione pushed the thought to the back of her head and finally made it to the carriages. She immediately spotted Draco as he was in a carriage all by himself. She also spotted Ginny but her carriage was already filled with Neville, Luna and Seamus. Hermione waved at them and made her way over to the carriage Draco was in. Draco looked kind of surprised when she got into the carriage. They sat in silence as the thestrals began to pull them towards the Hogwarts entrance. "It's going to be strange this year." Hermione said trying to break the silence. Little did she know how strange things were going to get.

Their carriage pulled up to the doors and Draco stood up opening the carriage door and holding his hand out to Hermione. "Why Draco, you do such nice things for me." She said playfully.

"Don't get used to it, I wouldn't want you to get the idea that I was holding you back from opening the door yourself." He said with his trademark sneer until a few moments later he outright laughed at Hermione's offended face. Hermione grasped his hand and he helped her down. The pair received many strange looks from Gryffindor all the way to Hufflepuff students. These looks went unnoticed as the pair made their way into Hogwarts and hurried towards the Headmistress's office.

Draco and Hermione stopped in front of the stone cats. McGonagall had replaced the gargoyles with cats the moment she had received word she would be the headmistress. She had told Hermione once that she hated the gargoyles.

"Passssword" The stone cat on the right hissed at them.

"Bagpipes." Hermione said cheerfully.

Draco looked at Hermione with a bewildered look on his face "Bagpipes?" Draco asked.

"Yup." Hermione replied, watching the stone cats stretch lazily before bounding out of the way as the spiral staircase to Headmistress McGonagall's office came into view.

"Headmistress McGonagall chose bagpipes because when she was younger she used to accidently magic her muggle father's set to play themselves for her. It is one of her happier memories." Hermione explained to Draco stepping onto one of the staircase swirled them upwards until stopping in front of a large wooden door. Draco being ever the gentleman stepped forward and knocked.

"Enter." came McGonagall's voice almost immediately and the door swung open revealing the room. Minerva had completely redone the office. Gone was the side table full of gidgets and gadgets replaced with a tea table with a waiting teaset. Gone was the white stone looking walls replaced with dark mahogany colored wood walls. The headmistress's desk was neat and orderly just like the woman herself, not a paper out of place. The only thing that remained were the portraits of the previous headmasters hanging from the wall behind the headmistress's desk. Two new portraits caught Hermione's eye as she scanned them. One being Albus Dumbledore who smiled brightly when he caught her eye and the other being Severus Snape whom scowled at her. "Ever so pleasant." She mumbled to herself.

Draco cleared his throat, gaining Mcgonagall's Attention. "You wished to see us Headmistress?" He asked.

"Yes, Mister Malfoy, I did indeed. I need to go over your roles as Head Boy and Girl with you along with tell you where your living arrangements are and the password to get into it." The headmistress said promptly. Draco listened halfheartedly as McGonagall went through the list of things they would now be expected to do as Heads. He watched enamoured as Hermione sat taking in each word eagerly. She's adorable when she does that. Draco absentmindedly thought. McGonagall must have finished because Hermione was starting to stand up so Draco jumped up trying to be nonchalant but Hermione noticed and rolled her eyes at him. "Now let us go join the rest of the castle and bring in the first years, Yes?" Mcgonagall said leading them down the stairs and back to the great hall.