A/N: Two Hermione Chapters in a row. Well, reasons are because I like her and I felt as though the Draco business wasn't quite finished. There needed to be more too it and get his character a little more involved. Don't worry Ron fans! He appears in the next chapter for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!




Chapter 3: The Return of Draco Malfoy (Hermione)


"Malfoy!?" She was so shocked to see him standing behind her she didn't even think about shooting a sneer right back at him. She quickly regained herself though and gave him an angry look, "Talked your way out of Azkaban I see."

"I didn't do anything wrong." He shrugged, "My dad made me get involved with those Death Eaters."

"Oh, oh, and the Ministry of Magic fell for that one, eh?" She rolled her eyes.

Draco smirked a little bit, "I may not like your kind, "He said that like it was the most insulting thing he could call her, making her see he hadn't changed very much, "But I certainly didn't want Voldemort killing half the world because he was on some 'Muggle daddy didn't love me' kick."

Hermione laughed at his ludicrous statement, "You're not a convincing liar, Malfoy."

"Where's Potter," Malfoy spat, looking around, "Isn't he usually within five feet of you?"

"He didn't come, I can with my friend."

"Oh, did he finally grow a brain and dump you Granger?" Draco laughed, "I always knew you were dragging him down."

Hermione was ready to say something foul right back to him, but she noticed Ayumi looking at them, and by the look on her face, she was confused about what was going on in front of her.

"Sorry, Ayumi, but you really shouldn't be anywhere near him." Hermione told her.

"Draco?" Ayumi asked, "He was very nice to me when I was lost... You don't like him?"

"No."

Ayumi looked at Draco, "You don't like her?" Draco sneered in response, "Then, I apologize, I didn't know you two knew each other."

"We're leaving now, the subway is going to be here soon." Hermione gave one last look to Draco before grabbing Ayumi's arm and taking off down the street. When they got to the Subway Station, Hermione could finally breath a sigh of relief. She had no idea that he had been set free, she was sure he got sent to Azkaban for what he did. How did he slip threw the cracks?

"Did you two go to school together?" Ayumi asked Hermione suddenly, breaking silence between them.

"Yeah, he doesn't like Harry," Hermione sighed, "and he hates me."

"Why doesn't he like you?" Ayumi began to play with her blond hair.

"Because I'm muggle born." Hermione grumbled, "He hates them. He was even a supposed Death Eater when You-Know-Who came back, don't know how he wormed his way out of prison though..."

"Wow, he seemed like such a nice person to me." Ayumi shrugged, "But I guess that was because I wasn't near you. I'll be sure to be more careful around him when we are all at school."

"Do that because your friends with me so you're an enemy to... he's going to our school?" Hermione exclaimed.

Ayumi smiled, "Yes, I told you that the boy who helped me was a student at Widdlewall. That is what he said anyway."

There had to be some kind of mistake! She couldn't go through four years of having Draco Malfoy around AGAIN! She had thought that she would never see him again, but there he was in all his horrible glory, making rude comments like they were back at Hogwart's. They were adults now, why couldn't he just grow up and at least tolerate her existence. Even worse, why couldn't she tolerate his? It was like she was reduced to a child whenever he was around... how did he get her to sink so low?

When the subway entered the station, Hermione decided not to think anymore on it. There was no use stressing over something she couldn't control, and she really couldn't control Malfoy. Instead she would just warn Harry and Ron that he was back in their lives and hope that everything would work out for the best.


*******


Monday. She had been waiting for Monday since last week and it was finally here. It was a beautiful day outside, the birds were chirping, the sky was a shade of pale blue, and Hermione could only think of one thing: finally, classes were starting. She was so excited that she had gotten ready two hours early and walked around, waiting for her roommate to wake up so they could go find the Advanced Studies building. Walking down the concrete path, she wondered if Harry and Ron were up yet. They had talked yesterday about Malfoy (Harry told her not to worry about it, he was just going to be an annoyance) and they hadn't talked since. Her mind quickly went to Ron, she hadn't spoken to him alone since they had gotten to college, she kind of missed him. Blushing a little bit, she began to remember all the times they have had together, all the conversations they had, and the kiss they shared last summer. It only seemed natural that they would be together, after all they were really good friends. Who else would she end up with? She certainly couldn't think of anyone. Of course, they were young, so they were reluctant to say that they were involved. Not only would it grind on the friendship they had, but they also realized that feelings could change right now. It was fine that Ron didn't proclaim her to be his girlfriend, he didn't need to, it was just assumed really.

She continued to walk down the path and think of different things, not really paying attention to the scenery around her. There were only a few people up, and they looked rather groggy. Not her though, she loved the morning, because that meant another day of learning. After about an hour, she decided to see if someone she knew was up, so she rushed back to the Pheowin Dormitory. It was getting rather boring being by herself and she would have plenty of alone time when she was studying or doing homework. So, she walked up the stairs to the second floor and went to Ron's room first. Maybe he was up and they could talk.

At first she knocked, but no one answered. Then she jiggled the door handle, it was unlocked so that had to mean someone was up. She just sighed and let herself in.

"If one of you is naked, I suggest getting dressed about now." She yelled as she entered. What she came in on was Harry still sleeping in his bed and Ron coming into the room with a toothbrush in his mouth. Ah, the toothbrush, one of the only things that Muggles and Wizards have in common, "Hi, Ron."

Ron blushed a bit and ran toward the bathroom. She heard him spit then say, "What are you doing here!?"

"I'm sorry, if I'm bothering you I can just leave." Hermione began to walk out the door. Ron rushed back into the room with a panicked look on his face.

"No, you don't have to go. I was just wondering." He said quickly, making her smile. That was just the answer she wanted to hear.

"I can't stay long, I promised Ayumi we would look for our first classes together," Hermione looked around the room, taking in all that was Harry and Ron. There were lots of posters of the Chudley Cannons (Ron's favorite Quidditch team) on the walls, a few posters of musicians that she had never seen before, probably Wizard musicians since she really didn't keep up with that, and plates were all over the floor, "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"You saw me yesterday," He looked at her confused, "You know how I'm doing."

"Well, I saw you with Harry yesterday... I wanted to talk to you."Hermione hoped he had gotten the meaning of her words. He must have because soon after he turned crimson.

"Oh..."

After that both of them got rather silent. That happened a lot when they were alone. It was easy to be friends around a lot of other people, but when they were alone they really didn't know how to act around each other. Both looked away from each other and down at the floor, Hermione was almost hoping that Harry would wake up just to break the tension.

"You excited about classes?" Ron asked her, then sighed, "Of course you are, you are Hermione after all."

"Hey, that's quite a stereotype!" She shot back.

"I've known you for nearly eight years Hermione, I don't think I'm stereotyping you anymore." He smiled at her, which made her smile. He did have a point there.

"I guess your right," She said.

Ron began to laugh, "I'm right! Wow, it's rare when I'm right with you around."

"Well, if you would just devote more time to studying like I do than you wouldn't have that problem."She told him a-matter-of-factly.

Ron looked at her with a stern glare, "Are you ever going to stop hounding me about studying more?"

"Only when you start studying more, of course." She smiled and glanced at the clock on the dresser, "Oh, I had better go, Ayumi is probably up by now."

"Ok," Ron stood up to give her a hug, but he chickened out at the last minute and stuck out his hand, "Nice seeing you then."

She sighed, "Ron, honestly." Quickly she gave him a very tight bear hug and then looked at him, "I wonder about you sometimes."

"I..."

"I'll see you later." She chuckled out and then quickly left the room. She wished that he was a little less nervous about everything. He didn't like to talk to her when they were alone and he certainly didn't like touching her either. He needed to be more open, because there was nothing Hermione didn't like more was good conversation and some healthy debate. He always seemed to anxious to try that kind of stuff, like she would beat him up or something. She supposed that she would have to teach him that kind of stuff, after all, no one was perfect for each other. No, each person teach their partner what is expected of them and what they should do, and Hermione figured eventually he would learn that it was okay to talk to her.

It was getting pretty late, so she quickened her pace to her room. When she got there Ayumi was ready and waiting for her. She quickly apologized and both then spent the next half hour looking for their Advanced classes. They finally found them five minutes before their classes were scheduled to start.

Hermione walked into her class very nervously and took a seat in one of the empty desks. Everyone around her looked a lot older than her, she really hoped she had made the right decision by picking this class. She had no idea if she would be able to keep up.

"Welcome Class." A teacher suddenly appeared in front of the class. He was an older man with wild hair and even wilder wardrobe. His glasses were thick, behind them his eyes looked about the size of Bludger balls, "I'm Professor Yullinty, I'll be your Advanced Alchemy teacher. Since you students have chosen this class, I'm sure all of you know the basics of Magical Alchemy. So, with that said, what was the one mistake Muggle's made while trying to preform regular Alchemy?"

A girl to the left of Hermione raised her hand quickly, Professor Yullinty pointed to her, "The process they had perfected would have taken hundreds of years to actually produce something substantial Muggle's can be a little fool hardy at times."

"Very good, miss." He smiled a little bit and did a little jump. That made Hermione smile, this guy was quite the character.

"Now does anybody know how we Magical people came across this Muggle idea?" He asked, but no one raised their hand... except for Hermione. He looked right at her and pointed, like he had down with the other girl.

"A Wizard by the name of Alexander Jansen came across a famous Muggle Alchemist while traveling in Europe. Interested in what the Muggle was doing, he studied him very closely for the next couple of months and found many things that he could fix with Magic. After that he founded the Magical Alchemist's Union around the 1500's." Hermione answered like she was reading straight from a text book. It seemed to make Professor Yullinty happy though, he looked at her squeaked in delight.

"Very good, very good!" He exclaimed. This was how the class was for the rest of the time she was there. She actually ended up answering most of the questions while everyone else just looked at her dumbfounded. She didn't understand why though, everything they needed to know was in the text books for Alcemetic Studies 101 and Intermediate classes. It's not like it's that hard to pick up the copies that were in the library.

The class was more than she could have ever hoped, they were going to start doing experiments next week and they were also doing a lot of reading too. It was a great balance of both and she finally felt like she was going to do just fine in an Advanced class. She looked down at her schedule when Professor Yullinty dismissed them, she had Herbology next. She remembered that class at Hogwart's, it was a rather dirty class, but the idea of learning about potent healing herbs really appealed to her. She already knew where it was too, the greenhouses that were on the other side of the school. Looking at her watch, she realized she only had about 15 minutes in between these two classes and began to quicken her pace. Her schedule was kind of full in the mornings, but her afternoons were practically free, which she did on purpose so she could get an early start to the library. Of course that meant she only had that one class with Ron and Harry, because they practically filled their afternoons up so they could sleep in.

This was around the time the rest of the college was getting to their first class, so the quad area that she had to cut threw was rather crowded. Everyone seemed just as groggy as the people were about 2 hours ago, seemed people were the same no matter what time they got up. It took ten minutes just to cut through the quad so she really had to race to get to get to the greenhouses.

Once she got there though she realized she was 5 minutes early. She didn't know she was that fast of a runner, but it gave her time to get her books in order so she didn't really question it. There were many people surrounding the one large table in the middle of the room, but none of them she recognized. Just like in her last class, she didn't seem to know anyone and they all seemed to be in their own private cliques. That made her miss her own small clique and she wondered what Harry and Ron were doing right about now. She quickly decided she would think about her friends, and she began to pull her hair back to get ready for class.

"Ugh, not you." A voice said next to her. She glanced over with her eyes to see it was Draco Malfoy. That made her panic internally, but she kept her cool outside. What was he doing in this class? He probably picked it on purpose just to bother her all semester. All these horrible thoughts were filling her head, but she didn't even bother to look at him.

"Go away." She said calmly and looked down at her book.

"I can't. This is the only seat left in this stupid class."

"Then don't talk to me." She replied. He didn't say anything after that, that was good, at least he was going to listen to her. Of course, if he wanted to talk he wouldn't have had the time, the teacher came in about 5 seconds after their little conversation.

"Hello class! Hello!" The teacher proclaimed happily. She was a skinny woman with big teeth and ever bigger smile, "I'm Professor Kelsin and I'll be your teacher. Ah, look at all the fresh young faces, I hope you like getting your hands dirty!"

"I know you do Granger, everything is dirty about you." Draco hissed under his breath so she would hear. She just chose to ignore the comment, he was just trying to get under her skin after all.

"I'm letting you know now I'm not the classroom kind of teacher. We will we starting to hike the Mulsen Mountain as soon as possible to find the right medicinal herbs." Professor Kelsin smiled even wider, "This will help you if you should ever find yourself in an emergency. But for now, I will be showing you what you are to look for."

"I already know what to look for, this is going to be easy for me." Draco mumbled, she really didn't know if he was talking to her or himself. Probably himself, he didn't really seem the type to have many friends (Mostly because he was a mean bugger), he was probably used to it.

"Please be quiet, I'm trying listen." She whispered over to him politely, after all he was ruining her concentration.

"Oh, I'm a disturbing the great Granger? Little miss perfect is bothered by ME!?" He snarled at her, making her snap her head in his direction.

"Be quiet!" She hissed between her teeth, still trying to maintain a level of calm.

"What? Don't want me to get you into trouble? Oh, maybe I should so I can watch you get yelled at on the first day." He said in a somewhat louder tone.

"Stop it Malfoy." Hermione rolled her eyes, "Grow up already."

Hermione then noticed the teacher giving them both disapproving looks so she quickly turned her attention back to the front. Draco tried to get her attention again, but she just ignored him.

"Okay, Let's see," Professor Kelsin put a finger to her chin and her brow furrowed, "Why don't I split you up into partners, since I only have enough ingredients for about half of you. I honestly wasn't expecting a lot of people in this class." She said with a smile and began pointing around the room, "You and you, you two will make good partners. The brown haired girl there... and you boy, you will do. And The curly haired girl," She pointed to Hermione, "Why don't you partner with the blond boy next to you. I noticed you to getting along so well before," Hermione noticed the bit of sarcasm in that sentence, "while you were talking during my lecture."

"I'm not working with her." Draco said as he raised his hand, but Professor Kelsin only laughed at him.

"Oh, yes you are." She told him and then went back to picking out partners.

"See what you get for trying to distract me?" Hermione shot at him when the teacher stopped focusing on them, "Now you have to work with a Muggle born."

He only growled at her. In fact, he didn't say a word to her after that, unless it had to do with the project. It wasn't that bad really, and it was nice that Draco's mouth was shut for a change. This would defiantly be an experience that she would have to tell the boys about.


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A/N: I have nothing say here, just thought I'd say thanks for reading. I know my chapters are extremely long and those who get through them deserve to be thanked, don't you think?