Bit of a filler chapter this one i'm afraid, but i promise there will be some serious Dramione action soon! Thanks to everyone for reading, would love to get some reviews to see what you think so far!

He was on his way to the common room after dinner, really not in the mood to see anyone. He wasn't even going to the library; for once he didn't want to see Hermione.

"So it's actually true then?" said a familiar voice behind him. He turned to see Pansy bearing down on him. "You and Granger?"

"What do you want Pansy?" he asked wearily.

"How could you Draco? Sullying yourself with a mudblood like that, I know you have lost your fortune but I didn't think you had sunk that low," She sneered.

"Leave me alone." He said turning away.

"You don't have to make do with her you know," Pansy's voice dropped, and she caught his arm. "My previous offer still stands."

Draco turned back to her, expression and posture dripping with disdain, "I would rather sully myself with a thousand mudbloods before I went anywhere near you again!"

He watched a poisonous grin spread over Pansy's face, and wondered what the hell she was smiling for. Then he heard the slight sound of footsteps hurrying away behind him and knew before he turned who it would be.

"Granger!" he called to her retreating back. "Granger wait!" Without sparing Pansy a second glance he gave chase, finally catching her on the staircase up to the fourth floor, she was probably heading towards the library.

"Granger, will you just stop and speak to me for a minute?"

"Leave me alone Draco!" she cried, starting away from him again.

"Look, I'm sorry. It was a stupid thing to say, I just wanted Pansy to leave me alone." He followed her to the top of the stairs. He caught her arm and turned her to face him, surprised to see tears in her eyes.

"Granger, what is it? Why are you so upset about this?" He had said far worse to her over the years and it never seemed to upset her, only make her angry.

"I would have thought you of all people would know not to call me that!" She snatched her arm out of his grip. "I don't know why I'm surprised really, you are Draco Malfoy and I'm muggle-born scum, but I really thought you had changed!"

"Granger, please, the fact I have followed you to apologise should show you that I've changed!" He glanced around and realised that they had an audience of goggling second years straining to hear their conversation. "In here." He demanded, hustling Granger into a nearby classroom.

She folded her arms across her chest and determinedly looked away from him.

"Granger, what is going on? I have called you a Mudblood a million times before, why has it upset you so much now, when you know it means nothing anymore?"

"You really don't know?" she asked, looking at him suspiciously.

"No, why should I?" Draco was completely fed up with this entire day! How could a day start so promisingly and end up so shit?

Instead of replying, Hermione shrugged her bag off her shoulder and rolled up her right sleeve, displaying the inside of her forearm to him.

Draco stared for a moment, unsure of what he was seeing, then realised the word MUDBLOOD was carved into her flesh in large jagged letters. He knew immediately where it had come from.

"My aunt?" he asked, the image of Granger screaming on the ballroom floor springing vividly to mind.

"I thought you knew," she said. "That you had seen it, that day…" she tailed off and covered her arm again.

"No," he said softly. "There was too much blood to see anything." It was then he realised that he hadn't seen her in anything with short sleeves recently, rather like himself.

"Can it not be removed?" he asked. Surely there was some sort of spell that could get rid of it?

"Not as far as anyone can tell. It had already healed like that by the time I got to anyone with any expertise, and at the time I just threw some dittany on it to stop the bleeding. So I am stuck looking at this disgusting thing now." She looked down at her arm with a mix of loathing and shame in her gaze.

"Listen to me Granger; it is nothing to be ashamed of!" Draco felt a surge of righteous anger; she had no reason to feel humiliated or repugnant, it was not her fault.

"You want to see disgusting? Here!" He yanked up his shirt sleeve to display his dark mark, the black snake and skull contrasting sharply with his pale skin. He saw Hermione's hand rise to cover her mouth in shock, but he was on a roll and not about to stop now.

"This is something to be ashamed of! This is a symbol of every evil, despicable thing I have done, and the most asinine choice I could have made. The scar that you have shows that you are strong, that you survived and fought for what was right. It shows that you made the right decision, whereas mine shows that I made the wrong one."

She appeared to have gotten over her initial shock at seeing it, as was looking at him with an unreadable expression. "Can I see it?" she asked, holding out her hand towards him.

Instead of replying he just extended his arm and she took hold of his wrist, turning his arm first one way then the other. "It almost looks like it should be raised, like there is something under the skin instead of on it." She skated her fingertips lightly over it, causing chills to race up his arm.

"Does it hurt?" she asked him, clearly fascinated by the mechanics of the spell binding it.

"No," he replied, "not anymore, now that he is gone."

"Is there no was to get rid of it?" she asked, releasing his arm.

"Not that I have found. Can't even cut the damn thing off!" he replied with an ironic smirk.

Hermione looked at him sadly. "I'm really hoping that was a joke."

Draco rolled his sleeve down, his silence conformation that it was not a joke.

"Have you seen Madam Pomfrey? Maybe she could try something."

"I really don't think that a school nurse will be able to remove a charm performed by the greatest dark wizard of all time. Besides, most of the people with this mark are either dead or in Azkaban so why would anyone bother to take the time and do the research to find out how to remove it?"

Hermione's brow furrowed. "Can you remember what he said when he marked you? Maybe that could give us a clue to what charms he used? It is obviously an amalgamation of several; protean, maybe some variation of the trace?"

"I can't remember what he said." Draco said quietly.

He couldn't remember what Voldemort had said, all his mind could process at the time was the pain. It had felt like his arm was on fire, then like his head had split open as Voldemort had invaded his mind. He hadn't been trained in Occlumency at that point, and had no defence against Voldemort seeing all his deepest, darkest and most humiliating secrets. As the pain receded he had become aware of the jeering and mocking deatheaters who surrounded them, then looked up to meet the cold expressionless eyes of his father and known he had made a terrible mistake.

Hermione frowned at him. "You can't remember anything?"

"I can remember everything" said Draco bitterly. "Just not what he said."

She studied him for a moment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to badger you. Maybe we can have a look in the library anyway, see if there is anything that could help?"

He was actually quite touched that she wanted to help him; he had been expecting her to recoil from him when she first saw the mark. It made him feel like a shit for upsetting her previously, even though it had been unintentional.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier Granger. I hope you know I truly didn't mean anything by it, it was just something to say to get rid of Pansy."

"It's fine." Said Hermione with a sigh. "It wasn't just what you said. I hadn't seen you look like that since before all this happened, and it just reminded me of things I would rather forget. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I was actually coming to find you to see how things went with your mum?"

"Mother was fine," he said, debating with himself how much to tell her. He decided not to mention the impending arrangement of his marriage; it could only damage his chances if he decided to continue his pursuit of her. "She is back in contact with her sister Andromeda, and was excited to meet her great nephew, Edward."

"She met Teddy?" cried Hermione, enthused. "He is a little sweetie, and the fact that his metamorphosing powers are already manifesting is so exciting!"

"She was quite taken with him. Apparently she plans to help out with his care, although what she plans to do I have no idea; she has never changed a nappy in her life!"

Hermione laughed. "Come on, she must have done! You were a baby once!"

"Nope." He said. "We had house elves remember. All the unpleasant tasks like changing nappies and feeding were done by them."

"Really? That seems awfully cold. I would want to take care of my child myself I think."

That made Draco laugh. "When have the Malfoy family ever been described as warm? We're all cold Granger! Besides, it's not just my family, all the pureblood families are like that."

"I guess it's not that uncommon in the muggle world either." Hermione admitted. "It seems that rich people all have nannies to take care of their kids. I guess even my parents passed off childcare to an extent; I went to nursery so my mother could return to work after a year."

Feeling rather less melancholy, Draco decided he would go to the library for a little while after all. Maybe have a flick through some muggle studies books. He didn't want to admit to himself what he was looking for; muggle marriage customs.

After reading several books he still had no real idea on what muggles felt about arranged marriages. Some muggles had arranged marriages, some thought it archaic and wrong, and some muggles had marriages with several wives. It was all very confusing. He finally decided that he could get away with asking Granger what she thought about it if he posed it as a muggle studies query. Although, he assured himself, he wasn't really considering that Hermione could be a future candidate for his wife.

"Granger," he said, causing her to look up from the Alchemy book she was reading as pre-class research. "Can I ask you something about muggle culture? The books here seem rather contradictory."

"Sure," she said, marking her place. "What do you want to know?"

"It's about muggle marriage customs. Particularly views on arranged marriages."

"O.k. Well, typically in western culture we like to think we marry for love, but there are many cultures and religions that have arranged marriages that are perfectly successful."

"Oh." Said Draco, not really sure that her answer had helped. "What do you mean by 'likes to think you marry for love'?"

"Yes. I suppose I'm being rather cynical really, but it seems to me that in a culture that people can marry whomever they choose, some seem to choose partners not based on mutual affection, but rather on what it can add to their status or material wealth. Not that I would want an arranged marriage myself, I grew up with tales of true love and being swept off my feet, but I can see why a lot of cultures continue to practice it. I guess a good person to ask about it would be Parvati, I know that her family is Hindu, and although she may not have a marriage arranged for her, I would imagine that close members of her family will have."

"I'm sure that will go down well; I know we hate each other, but I have some questions about your family's personal lives!" He said, at his sarcastic best.

"Ungrateful git." Said Hermione primly, turning back to her alchemy book, but Draco thought he could see a ghost of a smile on her downturned face.

So, he had found out what he had wanted to know; arranged marriages weren't uncommon in muggle society, but Granger had never considered it to be something she would be part of.

"I read that the old pureblood families have arranged marriages." she said casually. "I guess there is some perfect pureblood future wife waiting for you to claim her?"

Now this was interesting! "Ha, there was!" he said with feigned amusement. "Do you want to guess who?"

"What!" Hermione's head shot up. "Who?"

"The delightful Miss Parkinson of course!"

"Seriously?" Hermione was aghast. "So is that why the two of you…"

"No, I knew nothing about it until the conversation with my mother this afternoon. Sadly the negotiations fell through when we lost our fortune!"

She fell silent for a moment. "Are you disappointed…" she asked hesitantly.

"That I'm not going to marry Pansy? Not in the slightest!" How could she even ask that?

"Not about marrying Pansy! More about losing your prospects. I bet you were a most sought after bachelor!" she was grinning impishly, but he saw the serious question underneath.

"Yes, it is rubbish to be poor." He said. "But am I sad that my future is no longer mapped out for me? Not really. An ornamental pureblood wife would have been super for my previous life; we would have appeared together at society functions and produced an heir but on the whole had pretty separate lives. What such a lady would do in a two-bed muggle terraced house with me and mother all day I have no idea!"

Hermione laughed. "I guess you're right there. I presume that Malfoy wives do not work?"

"Of course not!" replied Draco, playing along with his most aristocratic manner. Making fun of the whole ridiculous situation was making him feel a little better about it. It just felt surreal that in 18 months' time he would likely be someone's husband and potentially a father.

In fact, he thought, let mother find me a suitable wife. In the meantime he was going to stick with the plan to pursue Granger; she was intelligent, beautiful and made him laugh so he was going to enjoy himself whilst he could before being shackled to a potential stranger. Time to up my game, he decided.

Draco beat Hermione to the transfiguration classroom where they were to have their first Alchemy lesson.

"Come in Mr Malfoy!" called Professor McGonagall, catching sight of him loitering outside the door. She seemed to be in a good mood, and gestured for him to sit directly in front of her desk. She handed him a textbook called "Symbols and Processes in Alchemical Operations" by Cornelius Agrippa.

Opening the first page, Draco speculated on whether Hermione would have read it already, looking up when he heard her arrive.

"Hello professor!" She said, slightly breathlessly. "I'm sorry I'm late!"

"No matter Miss Granger! Take a seat!" The elderly professor seemed enthused to be teaching something other than transfiguration for once.

Hermione sat in the seat next to Draco and started pulling out her quill and parchment, whilst Professor McGonagall started laying out different substances.

"Right, today we are going to perform a 'Salt Volatilisation Experiment' which is how we refine the elements used in many facets of alchemical study!"

The theory wasn't as complicated as Draco thought it would be, although it would take several days of evaporation and distilling until the salts were ready to use. He was pleased to find that Granger was easy and intuitive to work with. They were both intelligent enough to grasp the concepts they were working with and understand when to assist the other. Their hands brushed a few times when handing over equipment and Draco felt a frisson of electricity building between them.

Once they had finished the first stage of the experiment, and their crucible was gently bubbling away, Professor McGonagall dismissed them, telling them that one or the other would need to come back at lunchtime the next day to check on it. Hermione was practically skipping as they walked away from the classroom and suprised him by linking his arm;

"I know that we won't be shown how to distil the Quintessence from Ether to make a Philosophers stone, but just learning the method for volatilization of the Salt, Sulphur and Mercury aspects of the process is very valuable! Just think how useful it will be when creating our own potions!"

Draco smiled at her enthusiasm; he too had enjoyed the lesson. Not just because the principles were fascinating, but working with Granger was enjoyable. In fact, doing anything with Granger was enjoyable, he realised, and found himself wondering if they would be just as compatible in bed.

He offered to check the experiment for her at lunchtime, but she was adamant that she wanted to do it too. Draco was rather pleased about this; maybe their Alchemy project could be his way to take things further between them?