Ch. 2

Hermione believed as much from Malfoy, of course he would try to sabotage her. She followed the headmistress up the stairs and into the office. It looked nearly the same as when Dumbledore had been headmaster, except that there were two extra portraits on the wall that she hadn't seen before. The portraits of Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape looked upon her as she entered the study.

"Please take a seat," she motioned to the chair in front of her desk as she herself took the seat behind it. "I've asked you here so we can talk about your duties as a new teacher of this school." She began.

"Congratulations are in order Professor Granger," Dumbledore said from his portrait.

"Thank you sir," Hermione replied and focused back on the headmistress who was smiling. It was no secret that Hermione had been her favorite student and she was delighted when she applied for her old post of Transfiguration teacher.

"Your duties will include getting the school ready for incoming students who will be arriving in about two weeks. In addition to teaching I have an extra duty to ask you to take on…how would you feel about being the head of Gryffindor house?"

"Professor, I mean, headmistress, I would love to! It's always been a dream," she began when she was cut off.

"Unfathomable! When Professor Malfoy asked he was told he had to wait until his second year to be head of house, but Granger gets it the first moment she stepped into the school." Severus Snape sneered at the new headmistress.

"Yes yes Severus, thank you for your assessment," she began. "But Professor Granger has experience leading big groups, such as Dumbledore's army, that Professor Malfoy didn't have when he began teaching last year."

"I suppose being a Gryffindor doesn't hurt either." He replied as he turned in his frame so as not to look at the both of them.

Hermione didn't respond even though she wanted to. She continued to focus on the headmistress.

"Wonderful Granger, in the meantime, here's a list of areas that need some work. I'll see you for dinner tonight in the great hall?"

"Certainly, thank you headmistress." Hermione gave a curt bow before she left. As she headed out of the office she thought she heard Snape say "As long as you're not planning on hiring Potter next," to McGonigal, to which she replied that she hadn't thought of that but might take him up on his idea by creating a post specifically for him.

Hermione made a mental note that next time she wrote to Harry she would definitely tell him about this meeting.

Her list had several areas on it and she decided to start from the top down. There was a classroom on the second floor that needed to be set up due to starting new classes in it this coming year. She was to move tables and chairs from one room into the one that needed set up. She moved the furniture and completed the set up, and then moved onto the next task. The room took such a long time that she was only able to complete one more task before dinner time.

Outside the great hall she was to do some cleaning of the oldest paintings and clean the tarnish from the suits of armor and have the bricks in the room scoured clean from top to bottom. "So glad I'm a witch right now," she uttered as she set out to begin what looked to be a long and tedious job.

As she lifted her wand Malfoy came into the area and walked right up to her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked rudely.

"I'm trying to clean, what does it look like?" She replied sarcastically and momentarily lowered her wand.

"But this was a task on my list, are you trying to show me up Granger?" He gave her a hard stare.

"Although that wouldn't be hard to do, no, I'm not." She rolled her eyes as she lifted her wand again to begin the spell. "I have to hand it to you though Malfoy, not giving me the password this morning, really nice."

He ignored her comment as he lifted his wand at the same time and pointed it where she was and began his own spell, trying to force her out of the area. His spell mixed with hers and caused a bit of destruction as the brick blew apart.

"I can fix this," Hermione told Draco, but neither of them budged. When she tried to fix it he did a spell to fix it at the same time and permanently destroyed the bricks.

"What's your problem Malfoy?!" she shouted at him. She didn't want him to ruin her chances of teaching at the school.

"Could you just butt out Granger, this wasn't even your task," he shouted back.

"Yes it is!"

He began trying to clean and ignored her again, and she cast the same spell he had that destroyed the other bricks. Then they began removing pictures from the walls and hitting one another's pictures with each other's frames while bickering back and forth. After a few minutes they heard a sound behind them.

"Ahem,"

Both of them turned around to see the headmistress with a stern look on her face and dropped the pictures they were removing from the wall with innocent expressions on their faces.

"I had hoped that both of you could put the past behind you and work together. I'm very disappointed."

"I'm sorry headmistress, it's just that this room was on my list…" Malfoy began.

"Oh, I see. It was on your list so you and Professor Granger couldn't have worked together to clean it?"

Hermione didn't answer and continued to look strait at the headmistress while Draco tried to answer.

"It's a one person job, really." He faltered at the look on her face.

"And I don't believe you are innocent in this either Professor Granger." McGonigal added.

Hermione looked up, wondering if she would accept an explanation.

"You see professor, we were…" she began when she was cut off.

"I stood here for several minutes and I believe I saw exactly what was going on." McGonigal threw back. "Both of you have to work as a team, if not, your negativity will degrade the entire foundation of this school. Unprofessional behavior like what I had experienced today will not be tolerated."

"It won't happen again," Malfoy replied.

"I'm sure it won't Professor, because in order for your students to respect each of you, you must respect each other."

Hermione nodded her head.

"Oh, you agree then Professor?" she asked Hermione.

"Yes," she replied.

"I agree too professor," Malfoy piped in.

"I'm glad to hear it! Because for the year you both will sit next to each other at the staff table at every meal time."

"What? I have to sit with her?" Malfoy protested, Hermione echoed a look of disgust in his direction.

"And for the remainder of the year you will complete all tasks I give you as a team as well as carrying out evening patrols together. Any more protests? I'm sure I can combine your quarters…" she said with a threat lingering on the air.

They were both silent and looked at the floor angrily.

"Great. Now, it's time for dinner and afterwards you can clean this mess up." She said as she pointed to the pieces of brick and pictures littering the floor.

She turned where she stood and they followed her into the great hall. Malfoy sat at the middle and Hermione wanted to sit up towards the front of the table. She begrudgingly sat next to him and didn't say a word. They were silent all though dinner and she tried to eat as much as she could so that she could skip breakfast in the morning.

"Being a bit of a pig, aren't you?" Malfoy whispered in her direction so only she could hear.

Her mouth was too full of a drumstick she was eating to reply to him.

He got up to leave since he was finished when the headmistress used magic to push his chair in under him, causing him to be seated and pushed back to the table.

"Do join us a little longer Professor, it will be hard to start on the task outside as a team if you don't wait for professor Granger." She said naturally.

The other teachers were unaware that there was any issue between the two of them and many were surprised to see them sitting next to each other and behaving so cordially. Both Hermione and Draco didn't want the other teachers to know that they had been reprimanded, and would prefer for them to think they were getting along rather than know the truth. Both wore fake smiles for the staff and avoided looking at one another.

After the remaining teachers left, the headmistress and Hermione and Draco were alone again.

"I feel like I need something to be made clear for the two of you." She began. "You will not miss any mealtime without my express permission. I've never seen you eat so much Granger so please don't imagine that I don't know what you're up to. You both will escort each other to and from your quarters each day. If you two fail to get along, I will be forced not to renew your posts next school year. That will be all," she dismissed them with a downcast look on her face.

Both Hermione and Draco left the hall feeling dejected. Neither of them could believe that their success would ever rest on the other. To both of them it was a pure nightmare.

Hermione took Draco's lead when picking up because she knew he would never take hers and she was too sad to argue. She was fighting back tears as she copied the spells he tried.

She knew him long enough to know that he could never have any real respect for her because of her muggle born status, and that if she was going to get along with him, it would mean that she had to do things his way or risk losing her job. Had she really worked so hard just to be at Draco Malfoy's mercy?

Draco was furious, he couldn't believe that after all he did to prove himself last year, the headmistress would put him through this. Was it even worth it? He sighed. He had no future beside Hogwarts, it was his attempt at trying to create his own legacy. Out of anyone he would have to work with, why Granger? He was glad she wasn't talking to him at the moment, he couldn't stand one more know it all thing coming out of her mouth.

They both worked around the room in silence until they were finished and Draco turned to head back to the teachers quarters. Hermione followed yet again.

When she got to her quarters she slammed the door and curled up on her couch next to the fire and cried herself to sleep. She wasn't aware that she had even fallen asleep until she heard a knock on her door the next morning.

She got up to answer the door and it was Malfoy. "What," she asked, irritated at his presence.

"Breakfast, or maybe you aren't hungry after all that shoveling last night…" He said in his cold voice.

She slammed the door in his face as she tried to pull herself together and get ready. After 15 minutes she came out and Malfoy wasn't outside her room. She knew they had to accompany each other and thought about knocking on his door. Even the idea of him repulsed her.

She knocked on his door and didn't get an answer so she began to head out when she saw him in the common area in a chair next to the fire, reading a book. He actually didn't look menacing when he read, she had never seen him in that pose before. She coughed loudly to signal that she was ready. He saw her, rolled his eyes, and snapped his book shut. He silently got up and began to walk out of the room.

Instead of trailing behind like she did the day before, she decided he had just as much to lose as she did, and that it wasn't her problem if he couldn't respect her. She wasn't going to be the only one to "try" and she wasn't going to go down without a fight. Who knows, they could end up being colleges for years, and she would have to work with him as he was going to have to work with her. She didn't have to make this easy for him.

When they got to the great hall she sat down towards the front of the table and he sat down in the middle. He kept eyeing her angrily and expecting her to move, but she ignored his stares and stayed put. He begrudgingly got up and moved over to sit next to her.

"Let's get one thing straight Granger," he whispered. "I don't want it circulated to the staff about McGonigal's arrangement."

"Nor do I," she said haughtily as Neville took a seat.

"Surprised to see you two sitting next to each other. I thought last night was a joke or something." He laughed. Both of them looked at each other and back at Neville and forced smiles at him.

"We get along just fine Neville," Hermione stated in a matter of fact voice.

Malfoy merely nodded as he roughly opened his morning paper.

"Oookkaayyy," Neville started in on his food and felt the tension between the both of them. Hagrid came and sat down next to Neville.

"Oi," he said as Hermione looked up and smiled.

Draco looked up too, this was too much. If he sat with Granger he would be with Longbottom, whom he could tolerate, and this blithering idiot. He had never thought too much of Hagrid but worked hard to get to know him better the previous year. He was always going on about different creatures and could be too sensitive for his taste.

"Professor," Hagrid said as he leaned his head towards Malfoy.

"Professor," Malfoy returned the greeting stiffly.

Hermione wasn't very hungry because she ate so much the night before and Malfoy looked over at her when he was finished.

"I'm ready," she answered his look. As he stood up she stood as well. "Bye, see you guys later," she waved to her friends.

"They sure are acting funny if you ask me," Hagrid said to Neville.

"You're not kidding," Neville returned.