Author's Notes: Hey readers. Here's chapter 9. These are 5 months left until they graduate Hogwarts but I have nothing interesting planned for that period so I was think of just doing two long chapter (Draco's POV and Hermione's POV) of the whole 5 months (includes: welcome back feast, Dumbledore's welcome back speech (P.S. Dumbledore is alive. Explained in chapter 11 or 12.), some lessons, trip to Hogsmeade, some rule breaking activities ;), more characters, gossip, etc, etc, etc.)

Please tell me what you think of above idea of condensing 5 months into 2 chapters so we can get to the partner ceremony by chapter 14 probably.

Anyway. Enjoy x


As usual Draco and Blaise were one of the first students on the train. It was only 9:30am and the train didn't leave until 11am but Draco liked getting there early to get the best compartment which was at the far end of the train. Blaise preferred getting there at 10:45am but since he was travelling with Draco he had no choice. Draco was sat at the window staring into space and thinking about the marriage law. It had been all he could think about over the past two days. He glanced over at the opposite side of the compartment to find Blaise lying on the seat with the Daily Prophet over his face snoring. Draco sighed and went back to staring out the window although at some point he must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew Pansy had flung the compartment door open creating a large bang. The noise caused Draco to jump up and point his wand at Pansy and Blaise to fall off the seat flat on his face mumbling something. Draco looked down at his best friend on the floor and sighed.

"Blaise, get up off the floor. If this had been a real threat you wouldn't have been able to do much from down there."

"I don't want too, it's comfortable down here." Blaise replied but got up anyway to find out what had awoken him from his beauty sleep. "What do you mean 'real threat'; the look on Pansy face is quite threatening." Blaise mumbled causing Draco to smirk.

"Draco, why are you still pointing your wand at me?" Pansy whined. Draco sighed and placed his wand back in his pocket before sitting down in his previous spot. Blaise picked up his paper and sat down next to Draco who had gone back to staring out the window. Pansy sat down opposite them and started babbling on about her holiday and what she got for Christmas, neither Draco nor Blaise were listening to her. When Blaise got bored of reading the paper he tried to gain Draco's attention but he wasn't listening to him. Blaise rolled up the paper and whacked him round the head which finally got his attention.

Draco turned to face Blasie with a scowl on his face. "What was that for?" He questioned his friend.

"What you staring out the window for? Trying to see who your wife will be?" Blaise teased.

"No, I was just thinking." Draco explained with a sigh.

"About your future wife." Blaise suggested laughing.

Pansy wasn't very happy at the change in conversation. "I don't think they should have applied the marriage law to purebloods. It's going to dirty our bloodlines. We could get paired with anyone, even a Mudblood, urgh. I don't even want to think about it..." Pansy continued talking which is why she didn't see Draco flinch at the word 'Mudblood' although Blaise who was sat next to him couldn't help but see it.

"You alright mate." Blaise whispered with concern.

"I'm fine." Draco replied before staring back out the window. Blaise looked out the window as well.

"I wouldn't mind getting married to her." Blaise pointed at a blond haired Ravenclaw in their year. She was very pretty and had curves everywhere there should be.

"Really, I thought you would have preferred her." Draco smirked and pointed to a small Gryffindor the year bellow them. She had greasy hair and spots all over her face. At the exact moment Draco pointed she turned and looked in their direction and smiled showing off her crooked yellowing teeth. They both tried to duck hoping she hadn't seen them but it was obvious to both of them that she had. They both laughed as Pansy stared disapprovingly at them. When they risked sitting up again the girl had gone and the crowed of people saying goodbye had gotten bigger.

"I definitely didn't prefer her." Blaise shuddered.

"Whatever you say, you know she's the love of your life." He laughed.

"Oh, it's on." Blasie said as he pushed his face up against the window trying to find Draco's 'love of his life' when Hermione Granger came through the wall and onto the Platform. A wicked smirk fell on Blaise's face which Draco saw. He quickly cast a gaze around the Platform trying to find who Blaise was going to claim as his future wife. Not seeing anyone extremely unattractive he turned to face Blaise.

"Come on then who is my 'future wife'?" He asked placing emphases on 'future wife'.

"That girl you were following around Diagon Alley on Saturday." This grabbed Pansy's attention.

"Who were you following around on Saturday, Draco?" Pansy asked jealously.

"No one." Draco frowned trying to think about what happened Saturday which is when it hit him in the face. 'Granger' he thought. But he couldn't remember seeing her on the Platform yet. He quickly took another look and saw her stood with the Weasley's and Potter. She was wearing a large cream jumper, a denim skirt and emerald green tights and scarf. He also noticed that get hair wasn't as bushy as usual.

"I was not following her around. I told you she was the one who bumped into me. Twice. Covering me in ice-cream." Draco tried defended himself.

"Who did? Why aren't you telling me?" Pansy glared out the window trying to find out who the girl was.

"Yeah yeah yeah, you said that already." Blaise laughed and Draco glared at him. "Look all I know is that you came home Saturday night whining about her. I mean I don't know man. I got the feeling that you liked her." Blaise tried saying it with a straight face. It was amusing teasing Draco.

"Well I don't so shut up about it, Blaise." Draco threatened knowing if Pansy found out that they were talking about Granger, she would start shouting and cause a commotion.

"Draco, please tell me." Pansy pleaded whiningly causing Draco to roll his eyes and ignore her. After not getting the attention she wanted she glared at the two boys say opposite her. "Who are you talking about?" She asked getting angrier by the second.

"Shut up, Pansy." Draco moaned at the same time Blaise smirked and said "Granger."

Pansy nearly exploded with rage. "Granger. You were following that Mudblood around Diagon Alley?" She asked hoping he would deny it.

"Don't use that word." Draco said through gritted teeth.

"Getting protective of her, are we Draco?" Blaise teased but looked away when Draco glared at him and told him to shut up again.

Draco not wanting to be part of the conversation anymore tried to ignore Pansy by gazing out the window again.

"You like her don't you?" Pansy nearly screamed at him. "Oh Merlin, you want to get paired with her don't you? She asked turning a sickly green colour.

"No I don't." Draco sighed getting bored of this conversation.

"Well I don't believe you." Pansy actual shouted this time causing Draco to look at her.

"Well I'm telling you the truth so if you don't believe me that's your fault." Draco told her as he rested his head on the back wall.

"Come on Pansy." Blaise said calmly. "You can't actually believe that Draco likes Granger." He said defending his best friend.

Pansy huffed. "Of course." She said as if it was obvious. "All the evidence points to Draco liking that Mudblood."

Draco's head snapped forward quickly and the look he gave Pansy scared her into sitting back down.

"I told you not to call her that." Draco growled through gritted teeth as he stood up making him look even more terrifying.

"No. You told me not to say the word 'Mudblood'. Not to stop calling 'her' it." Pansy stood back up after finding some confidence.

Realising his mistake, Draco abruptly turned on his heal and walked straight out the door dodging past Crabbe and Goyle who called after him confused.

He stormed off down the train not stopping. If someone was in his way he just pushed passed quickly. The train had left Platform 9 and 3/4 by now and people were making their own way up the train trying to find an empty compartment but most weren't having much success. He quickly swept in between two people knocking them roughly out the way. He hadn't looked to see who it was so he mumbled an apology and carried on.


The two people he had roughly knocked out the way had been Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Both of whom looked at each other with their mouths gasped open in shock.

"Did Malfoy just... apologise...to us?" Ron asked unsure if he what he heard was true.

"Yes, he did." Harry answered still shocked.

They began looking for an empty compartment again, however, this time in silence as they were still trying to understand what had just happened.


Draco stopped when he reached the front of the train. He had been so deep in thought that he couldn't remember walking this far down the train. He leaned against the wall opposite the first compartment where the trolleylady kept her trolley and sweets. Suddenly her compartment door opened and the trolleylady stepped out with her trolley but jumped when she saw Draco stood against the opposite wall, watching her.

"What are you doing boy?" She snapped at him but before he could answer she snapped again. "Stop loitering around and get back to your compartment."

Draco walked ahead of the trolleylady since she had to stop at every compartment and ask if they wanted anything off the trolley. He walked back slowly; dragging his feet with his head bent forward starting at the ground. He heard the slide of a compartment door ahead of him and looked up to see who it was. However, he didn't look up fast enough because the next thing he knew he was flailing his arms around trying to keep his balance after colliding with someone.

After regaining his balance he looked at whoever it was who had made his day worse and saw none other than Hermione Granger looking up at him through her thick eyelashes confused about what had just happened. He felt like shouting at her but they were only a few feet away from the compartment she had just stepped out of which no doubt had Potter and the Weasels in it. Instead he stepped forward so they were only a foot apart. He then leaned forward so his mouth was only a few inches away from her ears. He saw her freeze. 'Probably in fear', he thought which caused him to smirk.

He then whispered, "Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence but thrice is a habit." Draco then took a step back and smirked at her. "I told you not to make it a habit, Granger." He added roughly before turning away and walking back to his compartment leaving Hermione stood staring after him still frozen to the spot with her mouth slightly open in shock.

'Did Malfoy just kind of quote Ian Fleming?' She thought before walking down to the front of the train to try and find Luna and Neville.


Please Review. X