From the way her day was going, Hermione already knew who was going to be in her compartment. It was too perfect-none other than her official nemesis was waiting for her, draped over a chair like a frog waiting for a fly.

"Hello, Draco," greeted Hermione dryly, not bothering to look at him. "I'm going to make this quick and easy." She ignored his obvious anger by this aggressive tone and continued, "Yes, you think I'm a mudblood. You've been telling me for the past five years and now, as we enter our sixth year were we will both be Elite Prefects, let's just cut that formality."

"Formality?" interjected an outraged Draco. "Listen, mudblood-"

"Malfoy, it's getting to be cute," she said playfully. "It's like your little nickname for me. 'Hello, mudblood,'" she mocked. Hermione laughed. "'Move it, mudblood.' It no longer affects me. In fact, it's like an immunity." She turned towards him. "It's like the chicken pox. Hurts like a bitch the first time, the second time you're rather immune. Your blood develops." Her last insult hit him like a slap in the face.

"Well, that's what it's all about, isn't it?" he snapped back. "Blood. And it doesn't matter whether I call you Mudblood or Muggle-born." He smiled denigrating at her. "You're inferior. You became a witch, gifted with the greatest gift a Muggle could hope of receiving-by sheer luck," Draco spat. "Maybe it's a freak mutation of your DNA, or maybe your mother slept around with a wizard-"

"Don't talk about my mum!" shouted Hermione. "At least she's an educated woman and not some stay-at home kiss ass like yours."

Draco's eyes glittered and narrowed. "Leave my mother out of this, filth. As I was saying, all of us-Yes, even Potter. Even that disgusting disgrace to the Wizarding name, Weasley-they are the product of millenniums of war, chaos and fighting. They worked to get here, through their ancestors."

Hermione snarled, "I'm more powerful than any other witch in our school. You've seen the spells I perform. Watch me duel a wizard three times my age and tell my I'm incompetent."

Draco ignored her statement. "You have no right to be here. End of discussion," he closed, leaving Hermione alone with her suppressed insults and arguments.

After several moments of silence, she could not take it anymore. "What of Goyle and Crabb?" she attacked. "Had they no right to be here either?"

Draco looked over his homework and kept his voice expressionless. "Their loyalties lie elsewhere now. Not that it's any of your business, Filth."

Hermione sighed. "Filth. Well, it's a start. How do you like Chaste? As a nickname? Malfoy's getting to predictable." Draco made a noise that sounded like a mix between a snort and a cough. She smiled fiendishly. "Chaste is a synonym for pure, didn't you know? As is the word 'Virgin.' One who is pure, you know."

"And what of you," shot back Draco. "You're not followed by your usual lap dogs. What of Pothead and Weasel?"

"Do their loyalties lie elsewhere, you mean?" questioned Hermione, a smile playing on her face. She shook her head. "It is more of the question of where my loyalties lie."

Surprisingly, Draco abandoned his books and focused his attention on her. "Well, that's a surprise," he mused. "Never thought I'd see the day where Miss Know-It All abandoned the biggest supporters of her idol."

"It has nothing to do with Dumbledore," she snapped. "He's a great wizard, if unethical, but it's Harry and Ron who's ethics I don't agree with."

"So, slime," said Draco brightly. "What are you going to do now? Abandoned by the Gryffindors, alone and friendless.however will you deal with pressure of sharing a common room and dorm with them?"

"I don't have that problem to deal with this year, Virgin," snapped Hermione, loving the wince on his face. "I'm an Elite this year-I share a dorm with another Elite and share a common room with two. So I only have to deal with you, Ernie and I think Padma."

"Ugh," groaned Draco. "I forgot about that. I'll have to share a common room with a mudblood.err, piece of Muggle refuse like you."

"You're too kind," said Hermione dryly. "Not only are you sharing this compartment with me today, but you may share a bathroom with me the whole year." She smiled belligerently at the Slytherin. "Aren't you having a swell day?"

"My father should have killed you when he had the chance," snapped Draco.

"Well now he's in an asylum where psychos like him belong!" attacked Hermione.

"You don't talk about my parents," said Draco softly, gripping his wand. "Let one bad word about my father pass your lips and I'll rip out your tongue."

"Your father has stupid hair," she whispered back. "Ah ha ha!" she reprimanded as he shot a charm at her. "Dissidiumina!" A pink force field wove itself around her. "Duck, you foolish boy."

Awestruck, Draco complied and Hermione sent the spell back over his head. "Don't get me mad this year," she warned. "You see what I just did? I wasn't even angry then."

As the train unloaded, Draco mused over his encounter with the girl. While he analyzed ever queer thing she said, one thing slipped his mind. That last spell?

She hadn't even been holding a wand.

A/N: Here we are, the beginning of the school year. Let me explain the Elite Prefect thing I created. From what I gather, students are prefects for two years and become Prefects. It didn't make sense to me that 6th year prefects have the same priviledges as 5th years. So I shook things up-Elite Prefects are like inferior Head students. It is one student per house, instead of two. For instance, Hermione is a prefect, Ron is now not. Elitists have two separate dorms and one common room for all 4 of them. It is essential to the plot that Hermione have more freedom than the common student. And by the way, this fic is NOT going to be Hermione/Draco. I could never do that, I respect the characters too much.)