Disclaimer: Harry Potter, names, characters and related indicia are copyright and trademark Warner Bros., 2000Ô . So obviously, I don't own any of them… except maybe for a couple of male Slytherins 'cause JK Rowling didn't write more of those who could speak in straight sentences, and I need some of those.

Pairing: HG/DM

Rating: PG-13

Note: This story sort of resembles the classic DisneyÔ story, The Beauty and the Beast. To see how and why… read on!! R/R please!

Taming of the Lioness

Chapter One:

Silence filled the Hogwarts library in yet another dismal Wednesday afternoon. Classes had just let out and most of the students felt weary and tired after a gruelling day filled with brain numbing lectures. But that didn't stop a certain Gryffindor to be seated at a wooden mahogany chair in the library. Bricks of books were piled on top her table, hiding her bottom half face from the opposite view. Loud voices of laughter from across her interrupted her much concentrated reading on Leprechauns and Little Green Men. Her head bobbed up, her hazel eyes settling on the blond haired Slytherin that was laughing with his group of mates. Her eyes trailed his moving body, anger purely evident. Though it wasn't in her nature to be mad at someone, but this certain person is an exception. He was the one who couldn't last a day without tormenting her, or any of her friends.

From the other table, Draco, sensing her stare, looked up. His steely silver eyes meeting her warm ones. It was filled with mixed emotions, but his face-stayed firm and cold. He smirked and arched an eyebrow at her, causing her to blush furiously. Her eyes darted down; she didn't expect his to see her looking at him. It made her uncomfortable.

Great, he probably thinks I've got a crush on him like those other lovesick students who keep looking at him. Hermione thought. Now his head will swell up like a hot air balloon.

But Draco didn't think of that at all, he knew what Hermione thought. He could easily read what Hermione thought and how she felt. That's why he could always leave her raging mad at him whenever he would insult her or any of her friends.

He smiled a wicked grin; satisfied that he made Hermione uncomfortable. Then his gaze went back to the picture he was laughing at earlier. It was a picture of Professor McGonagall that Blaise had charmed to make her undress; she was wearing an old fashioned brassiere and knickers, her wrinkly skin sagging… and she was dancing a very naughty dance, using a brick column as a dancing pole.

Hermione's cheeks were flushed as ripe as a tomato. She tried to return to her reading, but Draco's conceited face just kept popping into her mind. She read the same line over and over again, until she heard a soft clicking of heels on the marble floor and Madame Pince's figure came to sight. She had a disapproving frown on her face and her unibrow was all bunched up.

"Gentlemen!"

The seven Slytherin boys all jumped up in surprise. They saw the librarian, and so Blaise and Draco scrambled to their feet, pocketing the picture. The boys stood up, forming a line; their heads were cast down on the floor. Madame Pince's face had the same shade as Hermione's, but instead of embarrassment, she was enraged.

The old lady had her arms folded across her chest; her fingers were tapping on her arms, the way Snape did whenever he would lecture. "What is the commotion all about, that all seven of you need to cause such a racket? I will not and do not tolerate disrespecting noise! People are in the library to concentrate, and you troublesome men are a great distraction!"

"We were just joking around with each other, Madam Pince," Kazimir, a 6th year Slytherin, told her. "We won't do it again, we promise."

The other Slytherins nodded in agreement, and wore innocent faces. But Madame Pince wasn't convinced.

"Is that right?" she asked, and received nods from the boys. "Well it better be! Because from now on, all seven of you are banned from this library!"

"Uh… until when, Madame Pince?" questioned Draco.

"Until I say so!"

And with that, she harshly ushered the boys out of the library. A smile crept up to Hermione's lips after the entertaining episode she had witnessed. Then she happily continued reading the book without any more annoying "Draco Distractions" appearing on her head.

~ Slytherin Common Room ~

The boys that had been crudely punished by the librarian were all huddled up at their Common Room, each of them grumbling their anger at Madame Pince.

Draco stood up and started pacing across them, marking a trail of footprints on the plush green carpeting. "Who does she think she is? No one makes a fool of Draco Malfoy, or any other Slytherin for that matter!"

"Darn right!" Blaise agreed.

Draco continued. "Dismissed, publicly humiliated… why it's more than I can bear."

"Butterbeer?" Goyle asked, offering him a bottle of butterbeer.

"No, that wouldn't help."

"Put yourself together Malfoy. Were Slytherins, we don't get mad, we get even." Kazimir said in a sadistic voice, smiling wickedly.

Thursday morning came, and Hermione's head looked up when Draco entered the Great Hall with Crabbe and Goyle following him. The two dummies had smirks on their faces, looking like it had been carbon copied from Draco. This meant that trouble was lurking near. She looked pointedly at him, wondering what it may be.

Why do you care so much, Granger? A small voice in her head asked quite annoyingly. "I don't," she said, shaking her head, trying not to think about Draco.

"What was that you said?" Ron asked who was seated across her.

Hermione looked up surprised, not realising that she had spoken out loud. "Oh, uh.. Nothing. I didn't say anything."

Ron shrugged. "Oh, okay."

Harry on the other hand was seated on her right side and knew that he heard Hermione say something. But he understood that Hermione didn't want to talk about it, so didn't say anything. He just gave Hermione a look that meant he knew he had heard something.

Hermione knew that Harry heard it, but was kind enough not to say anything. Relieved, she continued eating her goulash.

A few feet away in the Slytherin table, Draco was conversing with his mates about the upcoming revenge they had been plotting on Madame Pince. They wanted to do something original, something grave, and something that would make their revenge a legend. A legend that would last for years to come, and witches and wizards everywhere would remember their names. And use "Pince" as a term of humiliation.

"How about making her hair grow green?" Crabbe asked stupidly.

"I don't think so Crabbe," Draco said.

"Why not?"

"Because that's a worthless, old prank that has been done years before the Dark Lord," Draco said, annoyed with his insipid, half-witted friend.

Potions with the Slytherins was the schedule the Gryffindor's had after breakfast that day. Professor Snape entered the Potions dungeon in a stinking bad mood.

"I want complete and total silence. I am making it crystal clear to all of you right now that whosoever mutters a sound shall be sent to Professor Dumbledore's office for some severe punishing. And it's 100 points off your houses."

This sent dread among the Gryffindors, especially to Neville Longbottom who was in a verge of tears. It looked like he would most likely like to spend a day in the branches of the Whomping Willow than to have a session with Professor Snape.

Professor Snape continued speaking. "You will be concocting a growth potion called Minas Tirith. It would be especially hard, since I am not going to give you step-by-step instructions, so I will be pairing you off by two's. The procedure will be found in page 315 of your textbooks."

He then began pairing them off. The Gryffindors began walking to their Slytherin partner, since Snape loved to see Gyrffindors being abused by the Slytherins.

Hermione's eyeballs almost shot out of their sockets when Professor Snape announced that she would be working alongside Draco. But since Professor Snape was mighty cross at the moment, Hermione bit her tongue before loud protests came out her mouth. Instead, she walked warily over to Draco's table. Draco had the look of death in his eyes when Hermione came closer. He quietly spat out a word, which Hermione could decipher as "Mudblood". But for her sake, she didn't speak or do anything violent upon him and just started to formulate the potion. But being with Draco was immensely unbearable. Hermione had to do everything on her own, since Draco refused to touch her or anything she touches because it might soil his hands.

"You're doing it all wrong," he complained after a while, seeing that Hermione couldn't slice the lizard's tail in equal proportions.

She slammed the scalpel down and glared at him. "Well if you would just help – "

"What? And risk touching you? I don't think so."

"It's not like I have leprosy you know."

"I know, you have something worse, you have mud –"

""Will you just shut up with that Mudblood nonsense?" she said, her voice getting dangerously high. The other students started looking at them.

"I will not! And I don't know why I had to be paired with an imbecile like you!" Draco yelled, his voice dripping in venomous anger.

Just then, Professor Snape came closer to them, obviously mad. "Didn't I tell you that I do not want to hear any voice squeak out of your throats? 100 off Gryffindor! And Slytherin. Both of you, out of this class. Go to Professor Dumbledore, and give him this," he said, thrusting a note with a hasty scribble of words to Hermione.

~ Dumbly-dorr's Office ~

"Aah, yes. Mr Malfoy, Mrs Granger. It seems as though you two got into a petty misunderstanding again, hmm?" Professor Dumbledore said, after reading the note Hemione handed to him.

Draco crossed his arms and looked like he didn't care about anything. Even if he had been sent to the Headmaster's office and cause 100 points of his house.

"Please take a seat," Professor Dumbledore said, motioning to the two chairs across his desk.

Draco plopped into the chair with a scowl on his face, making himself comfortable. Hermione on the other hand had a troubled look on her face and refused to take a seat.

"Fret not Ms Granger, nothing bad will happen to you," Professor Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling in delight. "Now please sit down.

Hermione reluctantly obeyed.

Professor Dumbledore continued. "All I'm going to do is cast a simple spell for each of you to respect one another."

Draco gulped. He didn't want to get along well with Hermione, he knew what might happen if he did. "And what spell is that Professor?"

"The Soul Switch. You and Ms Granger would trade bodies temporarily. That way, you would have the chance to understand each other and lessen the conflicts we have here with Gryffindors and Slytherins."

Draco and Hermine shared the same horrified looks. They didn't want this to happen, they were happy living their life hating one another. Especially Draco, he already understood how Hermione's mind worked. Her knew how to tick her off and how she is when she was nervous. No way did he want to know more about her.

"I'd rather serve detention," he said snootily.

"B-b-but.." sputtered Hermione.

Dumbledore ignored them and took out his wand and said, "Hctiws Lous!" And their bodies turned limp and lifeless as blue mist escaped from them, finding it's way to the other person's body.

A/N: did you guys spot the part where I kinda "borrowed'' a couple of lines from Beauty and the Beast? It's not exactly written word for word, I did a bit rearranging to make it suitable for the story. And I got half of the Disclaimer form my HP book. Anyway, hope the first chapter didn't suck too much. Review please, I really want to know what you guys think of this…

Shout-outs: just like to cast out a couple of "hey's" and "hi's" to a couple of my friends who read this chapter while I was still writing it on paper and had fought the urge to tear it into tiny pieces. That would be Aleksey, Cate, Micah, Lara, and Andrea.