Monday afternoon found Hermione and Ginny running behind for their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, since Ginny had begged to spend their free period down at the Quidditch pitch so she could get some flying practice in. Hermione, ever the one not for flying, had instead elected to sit in the stands and do some light reading and between the two of them they had lost track of time. Now, with only minutes separating them from a tardy, they were flying down the corridors crowded with students as fast as their legs could carry them.

"Hermione!" Ginny pleaded, as she had done since they passed the Great Hall on the way up. They were winding their way through the 2nd floor corridor now, Hermione trying to plot out the fastest way to get to the fifth floor without being delayed.

"Hermione please, stop for a moment!" Ginny implored, as Hermione expertly weaved her way through the mills of people. Sighing in frustration, she finally turned to face her friend, precious seconds flying by until the clock struck one o'clock.

"Yes?" Hermione breathed impatiently, her own exertions causing her to be out of breath.

"I'm starving," Ginny begged, "Can you just tell Professor Stone the circumstances and that I will be up in a few minutes? I'll take the tardy, but I know you won't."

"Fine," Hermione huffed, "I'll talk to her, but please make it fast! You don't want to be too late. I'll try to hold a seat for you."

"Thanks, 'Mione!" Ginny's brightened, wheeling around at lightning speed and flying back down the corridor at lightning speed. "You're the best! I'll get a bite for you!"

Hermione shook her head, turning on her heel as fast as she could and pounding her own way down the corridor as fast as she could. Luckily, she managed to fly into the DADA classroom with only two minutes to spare. The moment she walked in the door she made her way directly to the front of the class to speak with Professor Stone, who nodded her amused understanding of the situation. Thankfully, Professor Stone was one of the more lenient professors that Hogwarts had seen in recent years, and she merely said that she would expect Ginny's arrival. Satisfied, Hermione wheeled around to take her seat when she all of a sudden realized that everyone's seating arrangements were different. There were only two seats available, one next to Theodore Nott, and the other next to Draco Malfoy.

"Ah yes, Miss Granger, I've nearly forgotten." Professor Stone said, turning back to Hermione's direction and smiling. "Today we are beginning the first unit of the inter-house partnerships. Your partner will be Mr. Nott for these next six weeks. Please take your seat next to him. Class will begin momentarily, and these will be your assigned seats for the next six weeks."

The class let out an involuntary groan at that, the rest of the students having come in and sat down wherever their name placard was placed, per the early instructions of Professor Stone. There were a few handshakes, a few smiles, but mostly there were looks of uncertainty and distrust as the students took in who their partners were to be for the next six weeks. "I'm sorry, are those complaints I hear?" Professor Stone wheeled back around in a single, furious motion. In her anger, her Nigerian accent became more pronounced. Her eyes roved over the classroom for any signs of insubordination. "You would do well to remember that these partnerships will not be confined to this course alone. This is a school-wide effort to promote harmony between the houses—" Her eyes narrowed dangerously, "—and if anyone would like to take issue with that or their partner, please see me immediately after class so I can form a list of detentions to serve for the week. Intolerance will not be tolerated in my class." Unsurprisingly, the room was completely silent from then on, and, satisfied, Professor Stone turned back around to continue writing on the board, preparing to begin her lesson.

Hermione steeled herself to not to give a reaction to her partner as she walked over and sat next to Theodore Nott. Calmly and collectedly, she removed her materials for the course and listened for Professor Stone to begin her lecture. Seven minutes into the lecture, Ginny came through the door as quietly and respectfully as she could, taking her seat next to Draco without surprise or complaint. Professor Stone met her humbled expression with a small smile and a nod, before continuing her lecture to the other students as Ginny unpacked her things and began taking notes.

Throughout Professor Stone's lecture, none of the students so much as coughed. Clearly, they had all miscalculated in assuming that her easygoing personality meant leniency. Today's lesson had revealed that the woman was clearly fierce and as strict as McGonagall. Hermione swallowed nervously. She and Ginny must have just been extremely lucky in receiving her good graces today. They would have to take care not to repeat their tardiness.

The lesson today was a repeat lesson about werewolves from fifth year, so she was less concerned about missing content than she would normally be. Still, her eyes flitted around the room when the professor had her back turned to the class to write on the board. She would just have to take care not to get caught.

The 7th years seemed to be getting along for the most part. Some Gryffindor-Slytherin partnerships were met in near total silence, with a few looks of loathing thrown in between for good measure. As usual, the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw pairings seemed to have no issue, as most of the Hufflepuff students loved company and the Ravenclaw students loved learning. They were both in their element, so most of those partners were all smiles. Hannah Abbot, Hermione noted, had been placed in their class with her. Although she was a week behind, she seemed genuinely happy to be back, although surprised at the decision to enforce inter-house partners this year.

Hermione resisted the urge to snort. She wasn't the only one.

Her gaze flickered over to where Ginny sat with—she wrinkled her nose with distain—Draco Malfoy. He seemed to be as determined as ever to avoid interacting with anyone, and this included Ginny. It was obvious that there still seemed to be some bad blood between them. Ginny, for one, was flushed as if she were furious with him about something. Malfoy's back was abnormally stiff from what she could tell. Just two weeks of sitting behind him were already starting to irritate her if she could so easily read his body language. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples again, feeling a headache coming on. She actually missed the days where he always sat behind she, Harry and Ron with his posse. Even if he made fun of them constantly, at least back then she didn't have to deal with becoming infuriated all over again every time she mistakenly glanced his way.

Theodore Nott, Hermione had decided, was a wholly silent partner. By this point in the lesson several other partners had already spoken to one another and had begun working together with their notes, since it was now the allotted partner study period during the lesson. It seemed, though, that both he and Hermione preferred to keep to themselves. At the stolen glances she had been able to sneak his way, she realized that he was taking exceptionally good notes, and they were organized just as well—if not better—than hers were. Clearly, he was intelligent and studious, so at least they had that in common. It helped in some manner to know that her partner wasn't going to just rely on her for an easy grade these next six weeks.

"Why were you late?"

The question came so suddenly and so unexpectedly, that it took Hermione a few seconds to realize that he had even asked a question. "Ex-Excuse me?" Hermione blinked, turning to the man slumped over his notes next to her. His eyes were still on his notes, his quill scribbling furiously.

"Why were you late today? It is unlike you." He stated, his eyes still on his parchment.

Hermione blinked again, utterly confused as to why he was asking about anything even remotely close to her well-being. "I—" she hesitated, unnerved both by a practical stranger's query and the searching expression with which he now held her gaze. Still, she knew she had to answer something in the spirit of not mucking up this new partnership up so soon into the six weeks she'd have to spend with him.

"We were down at the quidditch pitch," Hermione offered simply, meeting his eyes with her own in a soft, challenging stare. "We just lost track of time."

Simply enough, Theo's eyes flicked over her face, before he subtly nodded to himself and turned to focus his attention back on his notes. Still disbelieving his sudden conversation skills, Hermione asked: "Why?"

"Why what?" He turned back to her subtly, keeping his shoulders to the front of the room to appear as if they were still working. Professor Stone had since ended the allotted partner study period, and was back to lecturing. Although his expression was shockingly well-schoooled, she swore she could see a faint glimmer of amusement in his eyes as he fired her own questioning responses back at her. She resisted the urge to jolt backwards in her seat, to press her back against the wooden frame for support. Was Theo Nott teasing her?

Swallowing her surprise and steeling her expression, Hermione decided to meet fire with fire: "Why are you asking about why I was late? Why do you care?" She frowned. She hadn't meant to ask that second question, especially worded in such a way. She was trying her hardest not to be on edge and sound accusing, but her Gryffindor righteous indignation was rising up, and—

Shrugging, Theo rested his chin on folded hands, his elbows resting on their desk, as he once again kept his eyes to the front of the classroom, where Professor Stone was speaking. "Whatever gave you the impression that I didn't?" He asked, simply.

For the first time in her life, Hermione Granger found herself without answer.

The rest of the lesson was spent in resolute silence, with the two determinedly focused exclusively on their studies. When the period finally concluded after the full hour of lecture and the brief period of partner study, and Hermione found herself packing up her things in companionable silence, Theodore next to her doing the same. She was uncertain how to approach this cold, aloof Slytherin, since she had only ever known Slytherins to be combative and horribly hateful toward her. She still didn't want to chance saying anything to anger or offend him in the spirit of their partnership, but she knew she must say something to appear welcoming. She opened and closed her mouth a few different times, fumbling for something to say, when she finally realized that he had spoken to her.

"I'm—I'm sorry?" She blinked, turning to face him again in surprise.

"Are Wednesdays at six o'clock good for you?" Nott turned to face her, his bag slung over his shoulder. His dirty blonde hair was just long enough to partially obscure his blue eyes, and while he was certainly tall enough to dwarf Hermione, she was grateful that his presence was not as ominous as some of the other Slytherins she had known over the years.

"Yes," Hermione responded, mentally running through her study schedule. "I usually spend that time in the library to study."

Nott nodded, holding out a hand to shake hers. "My name is Theodore Nott. Everyone that knows me calls me Theo. I don't mind either way. Whatever you want to call me is fine."

His manner of speech was so simple, so straightforward, and…polite. She didn't quite know what to make of it. "Oh—okay." Hermione nodded slowly, reaching out to shake his proffered hand. "Theo. I did know your name before, by the way." She gave him the smallest of smiles, "They were few in number, but we did have a few classes together before. I remember you from Arithmancy sixth year. I just didn't know much about you then."

He shrugged. "Not many do. Anyway, if you want to meet me in the library at six o'clock on Wednesdays, we can work on our partner work for this class together. I tend to work by myself mostly, but I think we can manage."

Hermione nodded. She still didn't know what to expect from Theo, and she certainly was a long way from trusting him, but she was glad at least that they seemed to have a promising start to their partnership. "Well, I certainly understand that. I think we can manage, too."

For the rest of the day, Hermione threw herself into her studies. It was less so avoiding the issue than she just had absolutely no idea how to react to Theo's unexpected politeness. Slytherins being polite to her? Slytherins not hating her? Everything in her body told her to stay absolutely critically suspicious about every move he would make, and though she knew it was an irrational reaction from the war, her instinct was still to trust it. She had no choice but to watch every move he made in class and during their partner study sessions. Something about it was just so off-putting she had no idea how to process the growing discomfort she was beginning to develop around him. Though since it was only Monday and she had nothing else to do except distract herself from the chaos of her own mind, she buried herself into her school work.

"Hermione!" An exasperated voice loudly exclaimed, breaking Hermione out of her fourth assignment of the day she was nearing completing.

Hermione looked up, clearly annoyed. "What?" She snapped.

"Look, I know you're a bookworm," Ginny started, then gestured around at the bowls and students around them, "but it is dinner time. You need to eat something!" Ginny demanded. Then, leaving no room for argument and reminding Hermione entirely too much of Molly Weasley, Ginny forcibly removed Hermione's plate from in front of her and began piling it high with items she knew Hermione would eat.

"Okay, now really-" Hermione started, genuinely affronted at the thought that Ginny was going to force her to eat. She hated being treated like a child.

"No, 'Mione, you are going to eat this!" Ginny snapped, setting the plate in front of Hermione and her hands on her hips. "I know for a fact you didn't eat lunch today since we were running late, and now you are refusing your dinner. You're going to eat this entire plate, and then you're going to tell me what is bothering you!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, then huffed. "I am not refusing my dinner, Gin! I'm just not hungry, and I'm trying to study!"

"Oh, I know you like to study," Ginny glared, "but even you make time for other things. You made sure to attend Quidditch matches for Ron and Harry when they were here, and leave time open for all of the crazy adventures they dragged you into. And you never," Ginny punctuated the words, "never study at meals unless it is exam time or you are stressed out about something!"

Hermione was taken aback. How dare she say something so ridiculous-! Though now that she thought about it…

Curses. Ginny was completely right.

Angrily, she snapped her book shut and stuffed it in her bag, before wrenching her spoon and fork from the napkin beside her and beginning to eat. Next to her, Ginny adopted a facial expression that reminded her greatly of every time Crookshanks would manage to weasel her out of some milk. Pleased, self-congratulatory, and as mischievous as the Weasley twins ever were with Peeves.

Thankfully Ginny at least sat in silence while Hermione continued to eat. By the time she was nearly finished, Hermione realized they were one of the last ones in the Great Hall. While Ginny occupied herself with a book ('Hypocrite,' Hermione sneered, even though she knew Ginny had already eaten), Hermione allowed her eyes to rove over the remainder of the occupants of the Great Hall. There were a few fifth year Hufflepuffs gathered around at their table, laughing jovially while teasing what appeared to be one of their friends. At the Ravenclaw table, there were two Ravenclaws, each sitting completely by themselves at different ends of the table. One looked like a third year, the other a 7th year. Both were studying. 'I should have let the Sorting Hat put me in Ravenclaw,' Hermione snorted, taking another bite of her mashed potatoes into her mouth. 'At least I wouldn't be judged for studying during meals at their table.' A quick glance over at the Slytherin table revealed it to be nearly completely empty as well. There was a single, solitary first year still eating, though it appeared that they had begun to pack up their things to leave. Down their own table of Gryffindors, there were a couple of groups of students laughing and tossing dessert cakes at one another, though it was evident that they were very nearly finished themselves and just waiting for someone to declare they were returning to the common room.

Now finished, Hermione bid Ginny to leave. As they gathered their things, the other Gryffindors seemed to have finally decided to do the same. They exited the Great Hall as one large crowd, chatting animatedly with one another while Ginny joined in on their Quidditch conversation. This left Hermione to hang back slightly, relieved to get some distance between herself and her demanding friend. She knew Ginny wouldn't let it go, and when they got back to Gryffindor tower, she would continue to press until she found out what was bothering her. Hermione had only a few minutes to craft a worthy tale to lead her friend astray. She was determined not to get any Gryffindors involved with her involvement with the Slytherins this year. It would only start unnecessary fights, and Hermione knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could handle it on her own, if only given time to figure things out-

Then, just as they were about to pass through the Great Hall's large oak doors, Draco bleeding Malfoy walked in.

It was evident that he was trying to sneak some food at the very last minute before the hall closed to avoid the crowd. The bags under his eyes were more prominent than ever, and his cheeks were sallow, sunken. His robes were off and slung over his shoulder, leaving him only in a tailored long sleeve button-down top with some black denim pants. True to his post-war nature, the shirt was also a dark color-black as well to be exact-but as soon as he walked in it was clear luck was not on his side tonight.

"Malfoy!" A burly 7th year Gryffindor laughed, mocking his late entry into the hall. "Thought you were rich enough to afford a watch? The Hall closes in like two minutes."

Like he had been doing since the start of the year, Malfoy set his jaw-Hermione could see the twitch from the effort-and continued walking. He betrayed nothing in his expression or in his walk, he merely kept his eyes forward and his feet moving, but this invited nothing but trouble from the large Gryffindor that targeted him.

"Oi! I'm talking to you, you slimy piece of-" He began, rounding around to charge in Malfoy's direction. Some of the other Gryffindors laughed, including Ginny, although she looked more uncertain than some of the others did. They were big, they were popular, and they were purely enjoying it.

When Malfoy continued to ignore them and the Gryffindors continued baiting him, Hermione knew she had to make a decision. Even though she didn't want to get involved, even though they were doing to Malfoy exactly what he had done to her for years, and even though she knew that he was still the single biggest prat to ever walk the Earth, she knew that she couldn't allow this to continue.

"Mason!" She drew her wand and placed herself between the large Gryffindor boy and Malfoy, who stood in the background stacking food onto a large napkin as rapidly as he could without seeming desperate to get away. "Clear out and go back to the common room." She raised her chin up at the much larger boy, defiantly.

"Whatchu mean, Hermione?" His brows furrowed, looking between her and Malfoy in obvious confusion. "I thought you hated him?"

"Nothing gives you an excuse to hound him like that," She said firmly, avoiding his accusation entirely. She took several insistent steps forward, so that Mason and the other Gryffindors would be forced to continue stepping backwards and out of the Great Hall. Soon enough, they were in the hallway, and the other Gryffindors were very unhappy.

"Blimey, what's your problem, Hermione?" Some of the girls fumed, while the guys stared dumbly at their own house's princess ordering them to stop messing with a Slytherin. It just wasn't done.

"If you treat him like that, what stops them from treating us and everyone else like that?" She asked, her eyes narrowed and wand still at the ready. Everyone went silent. No one seemed to have an adequate answer for her.

"We have to be better than this," Hermione stated, beginning to stow her wand. "You know treating somebody-anybody like that isn't right. Go back to the common room, and make sure you tell the others not to behave in the same way. McGonagall said that the only way to move forward is to erase this prejudice and it starts with the houses. I believe in that. I think you should, too." She took a deep breath, then said firmly, "Don't let me see you or anyone else doing that ever again. Go tell the others, especially the younger ones, what I just told you. I'll be in shortly."

They all gave her curious looks, some mixed with betrayal, before they turned and headed back to the common room. At the time, Hermione didn't realize the implications of what she had just said, but now it hit her full force and she groaned, loudly. She wasn't hanging back to speak with Malfoy, she merely didn't want to walk the long way back to the common room listening to their objections to her actions. It was bad enough listening to it as she had in the moments that she had stood up for him.

Why did she do that, anyway? Hermione stood stock-still in the hallway and frowned, drifting off and staring ahead at nothing in particular. She would need to consider it more, but...she knew. She just knew. As she always had, she had trusted her sense of right and wrong and did what she considered the right thing to do. Was Malfoy deserving of it? Absolutely not. She truly did believe in what McGonagall was trying to do, though, and she knew that she would be no better than the Slytherins that used to pick on her if she had allowed it to continue without interruption.

When Hermione finally did become aware of movement in front of her, she just briefly saw a flash of the blonde-haired form of Draco Malfoy exiting the Great Hall, slinking past as quietly and quickly as possible before he darted out of sight.

A/N:

Hello all,

I apologize for the delayed update. I had had this chapter nearly ready to post, but while I was preparing to finish it up last week my webcam was hacked. In the end, my laptop was completely out of commission there for a while, and I have only recently had it returned to me. I have been working on the next couple of chapters via Google docs, so this should not continue to be an issue.

Please let me know how you all think the story is going. I love and appreciate the responses to the story so far-you are all keeping me going! I can't wait to show you where this is all going...even though this feels slow, it feels like I'm revealing all too fast on my end. Hopefully it doesn't feel that way for you!

-K.