A/N: FINALLY, chapter four is up!!! I know you'll be dissapointed because there's not an actual Draco/Hermione scene, but it was really important for me to introduce new characters in this chapter. Hope you like it, remember to review!!

NOTE: This is the 2nd draft of this chapter; I wasn't happy with the last scene so I rewrote it. Hope you still enjoy it!

Disclaimer: (forgot to do this for the last chappy, eek!) I do not own Draco Malfoy or Hermione Granger, they belong to the great JKR. The plot and any new characters came from me.

A Twist of Fate

Chapter Four: Room-Mates

Still fuming, Hermione Granger finally made it to the top of the tall staircase that led to the Wadham dormitory's third floor. For the second time that day, she took a deep breath, willing herself to relax. She pulled at the bottom of her coffee-stained shirt and sighed. Running a hand through her untamed waves, Hermione made her way down the hall, searching for a particular door out of hundreds of identical ones.

After what seemed like hours of intensive searching, Hermione found room 347. She smiled triumphantly to herself and quickly entered the room.

If not for those simple numbers stamped on the door, Hermione wouldn't have recognized it as her own. It appeared that a violent storm had occured while she was visiting the library.

A large ball of scrunched-up sheets and a quilt lay in front of her, two yellowing pillows and a pair of dusty bunny slippers piled on top of them. A half-open exploding suitcase rested against the far wall, several arm-fulls of clothing cascading out of it. More clothes were spread on the floor between the two beds and the dresser nearest to her was covered in books and papers, what appeared to be sheet music. A huge cardboard box laid on the undressed bed.

In the middle of the organizational catastrophe, a slight blond sat cross-legged on the floor, completely oblivious to Hermione's entrance. She was furiously tugging at the zipper of a large knapsack, which was refusing to open.

Hermione began to speak, but was interrupted by the crack of the zipper breaking under the pressure. The girl swore loudly, and threw the bag towards the door in violent frustration. Hermione moved quickly out of the way, a reflex action, and the bag missed her by a foot.

The other girl finally noticed her and, rather than apologizing, she laughed loudly. "You should see the look on your face; you think I'm crackers!" she giggled, her green eyes twinkling. Hermione was immediately aware of her strong Irish accent. "I'm guessing you're my room-mate?" She rose from under the mess she had created and shook Hermione's hand jovially.

"I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione introduced herself, smiling at the petite blond.

"Sheena O'Kelly." She grinned widely. "I'm from Dublin, if you couldn't tell."

Hermione laughed, adding, "And I'm from London, if *you* couldn't tell."

Sheena laughed too, then yawned tiredly, stretching her arms high above her head. She gazed around the room, eyes widening in realization of the mess that was before her. Turning to Hermione, she held up her arms."Sorry about..."

"Quite alright." Hermione took off her jacket and tossed it lightly on to her own made bed.

The other girl rubbed her stomach. "I'm starved. Want to go get some chips or something?"

"Sounds good," Hermione agreed. It was past five o'clock and all she'd had since the morning train ride was a cup of coffee...actually, a few sips of coffee. She quickly grabbed for her coat but, after looking at the state her shirt was in, she rested it back on the bed. "I should..."

"Change your shirt?" Sheena suggested. "I would have said something before, but I was afraid you hadn't noticed. What happened?"

As she picked out a clean shirt and changed, Hermione gave Sheena a detailed recount of her run-in with Draco Malfoy. When she was finished, Sheena sat on her undressed bed silently, as if collecting her thoughts.

"Sounds like a fecking bastard," she concluded bluntly.

Hermione laughed, shaking her head, "You don't know the half of it." Ready at last, the two girls headed out for dinner.

*********

"121," Draco Malfoy whispered into the silence of his empty dormitory room. He rolled over onto his side, checking the small blinking lights of his Muggle alarm clock.

He sighed. The 121 ceiling tiles above him had only taken ten minutes to count and he had the whole night to waste. If this was what he did in his spare-time, he was nuts, Draco realized with a smirk.

Draco could be thankful though, that his room-mate had yet to arrive, and he could spend his last Muggle-free moments in peace. He lay on his back once more, staring dazedly at the plain white of his ceiling.

Alone with his thoughts, he remembered the confrontation with Granger. Draco smirked again. He was so sure that Oxford University, a Muggle school of all places, would be free of anything that would even remind him of the Golden Trio. He frowned: it was unfortunate, indeed, but for some reason he had enjoyed seeing her again.

That know-it-all Granger was the only memory of his old life and it had felt good to argue with her once more, to call her Mudblood, to look down on her. It made him feel powerful. Draco knew that his insults would never effect anyone but her. Granger was the only one in the school who knew that he was pureblood, that he was better.

But she had raised a glimmer of doubt in his mind. 'Look around you, Malfoy," she had said. 'Your last name is no good to you here.' Was she right?

Draco sat up and studied himself in the mirror above his bed, his brow furrowed in thought and his hair slightly matted. He shook his head; he was a Malfoy, and that made him better than Granger, than everyone. His pure blood made him superior. He'd known that since he could talk, since his father had told him so when he was a toddler.

Draco's reflection grimaced, his mouth twisting in regret. His father. His cold-hearted father that he never really knew. And now it was too late. Draco would never follow in his father's footsteps; he would never make his father proud. The skin of his bare forearm gleamed clean and pure, free of the scarring Dark Mark.

A loud noise shook Draco from his thoughts and he stood to face its source, the open door. A tall boy with brown hair and an ugly striped sports shirt (Rugby, Draco thought) was standing in the doorway, holding a large suitcase in either hand.

"Sorry to interrupt, mate," he said, smiling. He dropped the bags with an enormous thud, the weight shaking the bureau nearest them.

"That's alright," was the reply. "You're my room-mate?" The boy nodded.

"Adam Sedgwick, London." He took Draco's hand and shook it in a brisk and professional manner.

"Draco Malfoy, also London," Draco said, attempting a friendly smile, and shoving his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. He stared at Adam, who was concentrating deeply on the floor below him.

"Draco; that's an odd name," said Adam, in an effort to break the uncomfortable silence. "Was it a family name? Like your dad's?"

He shook his head. "No, his name was Lucius."

"Sounds like a name for a cat," the dark-haired lad joked.

Draco looked at him gravely. "My dad's dead," he said quietly. The corners of his mouth twitched as he watched his new room-mate squirm, apparently searching his mind for a solution to this predicament.

Adam finally spoke. "Right," he whistled. "That's just a rotten bit of luck, isn't it?"

Draco smiled at the humor of this statement, and a sound unfamiliar to his own ears erupted from his mouth: laughter.

*********

"So, what's your major?" Sheena asked, slurping loudly on her strawberry milkshake. She and Hermione had settled into the campus' busy restaurant easily and were waiting for their orders to be brought out. The small bright room was crowded with students who had arrived during the day and bustling waiters and waitresses.

Hermione sighed. "Modern History," she said, rolling her eyes slightly.

"Why did you choose it if you don't like it?" Sheena asked sensibly.

"My parents made me. They want me to study something respectable."

Sheena shrugged. "Don't listen to your parents. You're all grown up; do what you want to do."

"And what are you studying that's so great, Miss O'Kelly?" Hermione laughed slightly.

She drew out the word slowly: "Music." Sheena sat back proudly, fiddling again with the straw of her drink.

Hermione was suddenly interested, never having had the chance to study music. "What do you play?"

"Piano," she said simply, humbly adding, "I'm not that great though."

"I'm sure your wonderful," Hermione said encouragingly. "Why are you in Wadham though? I thought it was only for history majors."

Sheena nodded. "It is. But I applied late, and it was the only place that wasn't filled."

"I'm lucky to have you then, aren't I?" Her eyes twinkled with humor.

"Most definitely." Sheena nodded.

A young waiter approached their table, holding a tray that carried Hermione's greek salad and Sheena mozarella burger and chips.

"Thank you," Hermione said warmly, and the other girl followed suit.

As soon as he left, Sheena attacked her humungous burger savagely. After noticing Hermione's raised eyebrow, she asked, "What?" She sputtered slightly, sending a piece of lettuce flying from her mouth and onto Hermione's plate.

Hermione wrinkled her nose and picked it up, tossing it lightly in her direction. Rather than ducking, Sheena snapped her jaws and caught the stray leaf before it hit the table. Hermione snorted, and the customers sitting closeby stared in the direction of the loud laughter.

"Sheena, you have the worst table manners I've ever seen," she said reproachfully, although her smile remained. Hermione speared a tomato daintly with her fork and ate it.

Sheena shrugged in response. "The food tastes better if you really enjoy it. You should give it a try." She squirted ketchup all over her plate of chips.

Hermione stared at her salad and considered. "I don't think so."

"Fine," Sheena said casually. "Your loss." She smirked slightly before returning her attention to her burger.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Hermione shoved a heaping forkful of lettuce and tomato into her mouth and chewed it roughly. Her eyes widened as the young waiter returned to their table.

"Is everything alright?" he asked politely, as Hermione covered her overly-full mouth.

"Simply *wonderful*," Sheena gushed, watching the other girl knowingly.

"Great," Hermione mumbled.

As he left, Sheena exploded into laughter. "*That* was attractive!"

Hermione finished chewing and swallowing before she spoke. "I'm *never* doing that again." She took a long drink of her water.

Sheena smiled mischieviously. "He was cute, too."

Hermione snorted. "Shut up."

*********

A/N: Well hope you all liked it; it was pretty long so I hope it made up for the last chapter which was super short. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the chapters up till now, you're the best! Just a couple of specific reviews I wanted to answer:

Sam8: I'm not insulted at all!!! I take it as a compliment that you think Jillian is an idiot; she's supposed to be. Thank you for all your support!

alyssa: I agree completely with you; this is not an R-rated fic at the moment. I rated it R for safety reasons, because I wasn't sure where it was going.

On that note, the rating of this story WILL BE CHANGING. I've thought long and hard about where the plot is going to go, and, although there will be a certain *ahem* scene later, it will not be graphic enough to qualify as an R. I don't want this fic to be smutty, and full of sex and bad language etc. I think that the plot and especially the characters for this fic deserve more than that. So, by the time CHAPTER 5 comes out, this will be rate PG-13. Ok? So if you're finding this fic through a search on the site, you'll have to change it to PG-13, rather than R. Also, I know it's not angsty enough right now to be considered a Romance/Angst, but that's what I had originally thought it would be. So it MIGHT be changing to Romance/Humor, although there will be a certain amount of angst.

So hope you liked Chapter Four! I apologize that it took longer than usual to update; I'm a busy girl! I'm going to try to stick with a regular weekly update schedule.

If you like this story and are into Lord of the Rings, please check out Fall On Me, a one shot fic I wrote. It's being slightly neglected at the moment; I had almost forgotten about it.

Also, if anyone needs a beta reader, email me. I'd like to get into doing some of that.

Thanks for reading; please REVIEW!!!! And thank you again to all my reviewers; I love you guys!!!

MI