Luna,

As you know, I'm teaching Arithmancy at Hogwarts. Professor Slughorn is still here teaching Potions and still runs his Slug Club. He invited me to the first Slug Club party on Halloween night. I'm not quite sure what time it will start and I know you're very busy with traveling and trying to discover new species of magical creatures, but I would love for you to attend with me. I miss you terribly. I will have to warn you though, since Malfoy is working here now too, he will more than likely be attending. Slughorn invited him too. He has changed for the better. We had a row a few days ago, but it's partially my fault. He isn't very fond of me at the moment, but I can't deny that he isn't a good man now. Or, at least, he's good enough. Wow, that is strange to write. I just don't want you to feel uncomfortable if you choose to come and see him. I do promise he is not the same person that you would remember, though. I hope you've been doing well and I hope to see you.

Love,

Hermione

She finished writing her letter and sealed it, satisfied. She had written and rewritten exactly what she was going to say about ten times, hoping that Luna wouldn't be put off by Malfoy. She marched to the owlery to send it off and watched as the barn owl she chose flew until he got lost in the night sky. After that, she proceeded to go back to her living quarters.

"Amor Vincit Omnia." She whispered to her door. She almost forgot what she had changed her new password to.

Hermione was exhausted as she made some tea in her kitchen. While it cooled, she went to her room to put on night clothes. She made her way her way back to the oak counter top, picked up her tea, and sat on her sofa. Stacks of parchment waited to be graded in front of her. She picked up her grading quill and a piece of parchment off of the coffee table and used the quill to scan her students arithmancy homework.

After grading about twenty of her students homework, she was becoming increasingly happy and almost forgot how tired she was. Granted, it had just been a long day full of classes, but she was proud of her students. Most would be receiving relatively high marks, which left her feeling elated. She knew teaching would be something that she enjoyed, but she was starting to think of her students as her adopted children. She just felt, full. That's all she could come up with to describe it.

"Hi, Hermione!" A dreamy voice exclaimed out of nowhere. Hermione yelped and nearly fell on her bum from being startled.

"L-Luna?" She gazed at the head that appeared in her fireplace. "How did you know where to floo me? You gave me a fright!" She put her hand over her heart and could feel it racing.

"You told me your floo information a couple of letters ago." Luna smiled. "Sorry for frightening you. I figured this was faster than giving you an answer through owl post."

"Well, I suppose you're right." Hermione collected herself.

"Daddy and I are back home until December, so I would love to join you. It could be like old times. Only, I'll be joining you instead of Harry." Luna said in her dreamy way.

"Really? You don't mind about Malfoy?" Hermione asked her.

"Not at all. After all, he wasn't the one who kidnapped me all those years ago. You can choose your friends, Hermione. Which is why I'm so happy to have all of you as friends. But Draco never seemed like he had much choice about his friends and no one can pick their parents or their parents family, you know." Luna was the only person Hermione knew who could sound like she was in the middle of a daydream, yet speak matter of factly.

"Well, I suppose you're right again," was all Hermione could find herself saying. It took a while for her to warm up to Luna, she would admit, maybe not to Luna herself. However, once she did, Luna had become one of her closest friends. Luna had taken to staring at her dormitory, looking around, and barely blinking.

"Hermione, do check for wrackspurts, will you? You seem to be muddled over something. I'm afraid that may be a sign of them." She told her seriously.

Hermione laughed. "I've just been grading homework, that's probably why I may seem frazzled."

Luna stared at her a few seconds before answering. "No, I think it's something else. Does it have to do with your row with Draco?"

Hermione gaped at her friend. "Of course not, Luna. We're hardly even acquaintances."

"I wouldn't say that." Luna shook her head, eyes still wide, but then again, they never weren't wide. "You've known him eleven years, you know. Even when a friendship is just developing, you can still feel hurt when things don't go right, Hermione."

Harry had always said Luna was strangely observant and uncomfortably blunt, but never unkind. Hermione found herself in agreement.

"I wouldn't say I'm hurt, I think I'm just disappointed. I don't want him to think so many people view him as a monster. That's what he said, anyway." Hermione confided.

"Just give him time." Luna remarked.

"It's not that we're friends, Luna. Malfoy and I just work together. I don't want it to be harder than what it needs to be. He's changed incredibly, but he's still a prat." Hermione found herself getting flustered.

"Maybe he needs a friend. There, anyway." Luna said thoughtfully.

"Luna, why do you call him Draco? Everyone else calls him Malfoy." Hermione couldn't help but wonder.

"Well, that is his first given name, isn't it?" Luna asked.

"I mean, yes. It is. Then, you really aren't like anyone else." Hermione told her.

"No, I suppose not. I do have to go though. I can't wait for the party, Hermione. We'll have so much fun!" Luna said excitedly.

"Sounds wonderful. Thank you, Luna." She waved as her friends head disappeared from the fireplace.

"Did everyone read chapter 4?" Draco asked his fifth years on Friday. He looked around the room and they all nodded. "Wonderful, then. Leave your belongings at your desk and follow me to the room down the hall."

He gathered them into the slightly smaller room and looked at the group of Gryffindors and Slytherins. "This is something that I actually learned about in my third year, but I'm going by the curriculum. My Defense Against the Dark Arts professor just kind of did his own thing, I think." A few of his students laughed. Very good.

"Who can tell me what a boggart is?" He asked the class.

One of his Gryffindor boys, Lionell (he had to laugh at the irony), spoke up. "It's a shapeshifter that turns into your biggest fear when it sets sight on you. We don't really know what it looks like when it's not in the sight of anyone, but it's theorized it's just a dark blob."

"Very good! Ten points to Gryffindor!" The Gryffindors looked quite pleased and the Slytherins gave him an odd look. He just smirked at his class.

"Who can guess correctly about what's in that wardrobe over there?" He gestured to the locked wardrobe that had a mirror covering one side of it.

"A boggart." Pansy Parkinsons niece, Peony, supplied.

"And ten points to Slytherin, very good Peony." He told her. Now, the Slytherins looked substantially happier.

"Professor Malfoy, are we going to actually face a boggart?" One of the Slytherin students asked.

"Yes, did you read about the spell in chapter four?" He asked.

The class, once again, nodded.

"Great, so to repel or destroy a boggart, it has to be laughed at. In order to help accomplish this, I want you all to remember that what you're going to see isn't real. No matter how frightening it is, it's not real. Understood?" He looked around to make sure they were all nodding. "The spell," he continued, "is Riddikulus. It's fairly simple. Just point your wand, you don't have to do anything intricate, and be firm when you say the spell. Who would like to volunteer first? Remember, I'm only right here. I will intervene if I need to."

"Hey, Professor Malfoy, isn't dealing with a boggart ridiculous?" The Gryffindor, Lionell, asked. If he didn't have light brown hair, Draco would have mistaken him for one of those Weasley twins given some of his jokes he would make in class. It didn't fail to get a chuckle out of him or the rest of the class, though. Granted, he didn't like the Weasley's, but he did like this kid.

"I'll take that as you volunteering to go first, Lionell. Well done. Open the wardrobe." He smirked at the Gryffindor.

"Erm, okay Professor." He said and walked over to open the wardrobe. "It's locked." His student called out.

"Lionell, are you a wizard?" Draco rolled his eyes.

"Oh, yeah." The kid used Alohamora and opened the wardrobe. Lionell jumped back and the rest of the class screeched. A giant clown with sharp teeth and blood dripping from its mouth was inching closer to Lionell, reaching out its arms as if trying to grab him. He was frozen.

"Lionell, remember what you have to do!" Draco urged him. "You were brave to be the first one to face it. You can do this."

Lionell looked over at his professor and nodded. "Riddikulus!" He shouted.

Hermione heard the commotion after she exited Malfoy's classroom trying to find him after being sent by McGonagall to tell him about a Heads of House meeting later, since she was done with classes for the day. When she walked in, she wasn't expecting to see him encouraging a student the way he was. She was temporarily awed. After Malfoy's urging, the student was able to repel the boggart. The scary clown that was facing him turned into a little clown about eight inches tall saying swear words. The whole class started laughing. He hadn't heard her come in and didn't want to interrupt, so she just watched.

"Ten more points to Gryffindor! Anyone who successfully repels the boggart will earn ten house points, how does that sound to everyone? Good? Okay. Next!" Hermione smiled at him as he said it, even though his back was facing her.

She continued to watch as six more students repelled the boggart. She couldn't help but be impressed. He was very patient with his students and supportive. He was a completely different Malfoy than the one she knew when they were their students ages.

"Peony, go ahead then. Earn some more points for Slytherin." Draco said to a girl with long, black hair.

"Yes, Professor Malfoy." She walked back to the wardrobe and opened it. She screamed and fell when a giant snake, at least ten feet long, slithered beside her and took up a quarter of the room. The other students slowly backed away from it, clearly not thrilled about the creature the boggart turned into.

"Peony, you're a Slytherin for Merlin's sake! You're afraid of snakes? That's pretty funny, don't you think? Use the spell. Come on, Peony. You can do it." He urged, trying to convey that he wasn't laughing at her, but the situation.

"Professor Malfoy, I can't. Please." The girl was still on the ground and starting sobbing.

Draco then ran to her and tried to grab her to pull her away when the boggart started to change. Hermione was frozen because she expected to see the boggart turn into Voldemort and she didn't want the class to see that.

"Malfoy!" She yelled and then the boggart formed, except she was still screaming.

"Please. It's a fake!" She sobbed on the ground as she screamed in agony. Blood was pouring from her head and her body was twitching.

Hermione watched as the boggart showed her being tortured at Malfoy Manor.

Malfoy gaped from her to the boggart pretending to be her and went back and forth before he regained his composure.

"Riddikulus!" He shouted. The spell was so powerful that it sent the boggart back into the wardrobe where he promptly sealed it with a locking spell.

The class looked back and forth between her and Malfoy, confused and shocked. Then, the whispers started among the students as they continued to look bewilderingly between the two professors.

"I think that's enough for today. You are all dismissed." Malfoy told them warily. They all glanced and murmured at Hermione as they left the room.

Malfoy groaned. "What are you doing here, Granger?" He forced his tone to be polite, but she could hear the bite behind his words.

"Minerva sent me to tell you about a Heads of House meeting tonight after dinner." She said quietly.

He just nodded and started to pace inside the room. Hermione felt like her feet were rooted to where she stood. Her breaths were short and she wondered if he was going to say anything. She watched as he ran a hand through his blonde hair and continued to tread along the same four feet of space.

Finally, he spoke after a few minutes of them awkwardly being in the room. "You weren't supposed to see that. I wasn't sure what the boggart would have became for me." He said it calmly, but she could tell he was irritated at best.

"I only shouted back there because I was afraid it would turn into Voldemort and I didn't want the students to see that." She breathed.

He walked towards her and she looked at him curiously. "I don't fear a dead man. I fear the pain he inflicted on not just myself, but others." He told her.

She nodded, not able to really say anything.

He took a deep breath and put a palm against his forehead. "What time is the meeting?"

"It's at eight in McGonagall's office." She answered.

He nodded and slipped out of the room. The door clicked behind him.

Malfoy didn't show up at dinner a few hours later.

"Hermione," McGonagall leaned in, "you did make Mr. Malfoy aware of the meeting tonight, correct?"

"Yes, I did." She answered.

"Do you by any chance know where he is?" McGonagall asked her.

"I'm afraid not. He's probably tired from the, uh, boggart." Hermione said.

"Oh, are the fifth years onto boggarts already? I imagine he is tired." The older woman nodded in understanding.

Draco woke up ten minutes before he was supposed to be at the meeting. Bugger. He collected his wits and put his shoes on, cursing himself for running late. When he had gotten back to his dormitory after the boggart encounter, his mind was racing and he was angry. He hexed his bookshelves then had to repair them and a lot of the books. Then, he had gotten tired and fell into a fitful sleep. Which explained his current predicament. He ran through the halls until he got to the gargoyle that would take him to the Headmistress's office.

"Tabby cat." He said the password and the gargoyle lifted to reveal a spiral stone staircase. He climbed up the stairs until he reached the study area where McGonagall and the other three Heads of Houses were already sitting, including Granger.

"My apologies for being late. It was a long day and I nodded off." Draco looked at McGonagall barely able to speak the words from being out of breath.

"It's quite alright, Professor Malfoy. Have a seat." She gestured to an armchair in between Granger and Professor Trelawney. Lovely.

"Are there any concerns that any of you have regarding the students in your respective houses?" McGonagall asked them.

They all said no in unison.

"Are there any suggestions any of you have as of currently regarding their education or anything of the sort?" McGonagall inquired of the group.

"I do, Minerva." Professor Trelawney spoke up. Draco repressed a snort and made it sound like he was sneezing. It sounded convincing to him. Between her fake "mystical" voice and the glasses that made her look bug eyed, it was hard for him to take her seriously.

"That's surprising, Sybil. I would have expected you to speak up during the last question regarding a student who will surely die." McGonagall told her. Apparently, Trelawney was the only one who missed her sarcasm. Or, she just chose to ignore it. Either way, suppressing a laugh was getting harder for him.

"No, no, Minerva. I don't foresee a student's death this year." Trelawney paused. "At least, not yet anyway." She finished dramatically.

Draco was starting to shake from trying not to laugh at the old fraud. He couldn't help but glance over to Granger, who just looked absolutely annoyed. Her face looked to be made of stone, except her lips that kept thinning every time the woman said something. He tried to settle with a smirk, but the urge to bust out was just getting harder.

"What was your suggestion, Sybil?" McGonagall asked irritably.

"Divination should not be an elective, Minerva. Even those who don't have the gift of sight should learn why it's so important." Trelawney said in her same fake mystic nonsense.

McGonagall gave her an exasperated look. "I am sorry if I have wasted any time on your parts. If there are no more suggestions, you are free to go."

"I knew this would be a short meeting." Trelawney said knowingly.

As Draco walked out of the office, he couldn't contain himself any longer. He laughed all the way down the stairs. He glanced behind him one time to see Granger shaking her head, grinning.