They next morning In Defence Against the Dark arts Hermione sits a table away from Harry and Ron to avoid awkwardness. Harry walks over to her "why are you over here 'moine?" She bites her lip not knowing what to say "well¼ you two were distracting me from my studying so I need to sit by myself." Harry shrugs, nothing surprising. He takes his seat just in time for their newest defence against the dark arts teacher comes in. The class turns and notices a tall man in about his late twenties. "G'day" he says. A few people snicker at his strange Australian accent "As you can'll tell. I'm from Austai'ia, so if yo'll 'ave a 'ard time unna stan'in me, just give me a 'olla." A few people nod and others just look around confused. "Oh!" he adds "An' boi the way, me names Professor Greyworth, but oi dun' like oll that fancy shmancy business, so you can call me Byron. Now since I'm new 'ere I need at get at know your names. Let's start in the front." He points to the first girl sitting on the front left hand side of the tables. "Lillian Shween" she says quietly. He goes down the row until he gets to Harry "Harry Potter" he says waiting for a response to his name. Byron looks over to Hermione waiting for her to say her name. "Well? Do you not 'ave a name luv?" He asks. Hermione looks up at him "Well I was expecting a response to Harry's name" she says looking over at Harry then back to the teacher. He raises and eyebrow "Well I'm sorry about that 'arry, you 'ave a lovely name. Now dear your name?" he says looking back at Hermione. "Well well well Potter, looks like your fame has come to an end" says Draco who is sitting in the back row with a smirk across his face. A few people look at Byron as if he was stupid. Harry shoots a look back at Draco and glares. "Are you stupid or something?" Draco said looking at the teacher "the whole wizard world knows who this loser is up here. Apparently defeating Voldemort is a great thing, but really I could have done it with my eyes close and wouldn't have gotten a ridiculous scar" everyone gasps when he says Voldemort's name. "Well, Mr. Smart-ass woi don't you stop talking rubbish and take a seat next to no name girl 'ere" he said pointing to Hermione. After the whole class has finally finished saying their names, the lesson finally starts. "Well now everyone. Look at the person next ta ya. These will be your partners for yer first projects. I hope you are oll 'appy because I wont make any exceptions. First of oll, oi want yo'll to look at the list in front of ya, and research two things of your choice. Then once you 'ave enough information I want an interesting presentation to the class on them. Yo'll can get to work on that now." As the teacher sits down and starts reading a book everyone turns to their partners and starts working on it. Hermione looks at Draco and rolls her eyes "Well I know you don't want to work with me and I really don't want to work with you so lets just get it over with as fast as we can." Malfoy snickers "yeah well you can do it all and I'll just take the A" he says to her as he leans back in his chair putting his hands behind his head. Hermione glares at him "No Malfoy we are going to work on this together, I'm not letting you pass without doing any of the work. It's not right." Malfoy rolls his eyes at her. "Fine fine I'll work. So what three are we going to chose?" he said leaning his chair back down and looking down at the list. Hermione thinks for a moment "well I was hoping to do this one" she said pointing to the last one on the list. Draco reads it out "Patronus¼ isn't that when-"

"It's a spell used against dementors. They are very rare to produce so of course we wont make one to show the class, but I think it would be an interesting topic to talk about." She says cutting him off. He nods slowly. "Do we even need to do any studying? You know everything about them." Draco says slightly honest but ahs a bit of mock in his voice. She rolls her eyes at him again "Knowing it protects people from dementors doesn't make me know everything." She looks at the list. "since we are doing this project together I think you should chose something to talk about." Draco just shrugs "I don't know. I don't care what we do." Hermione gives him a look. "Malfoy, you said you would put effort into it!" Draco lets out a sigh and shrugs "well how about we do¼ " he points to a random one on the list "that one." Hermione looks at it and bites her lip "Death eaters?" Hermione said quietly as she remembered what Harry saw in their fourth year at Hogwarts involving Draco's father Lucius Malfoy. She also remembered how Draco himself was to be a death eater one day. A form of un comfort came upon her "Well I don't know anything about death eaters." she said obviously lying. She had read a 600 page book about Voldemort and his followers. Draco realized what her picked and looked at her "Hermione Granger not knowing something? I don't believe my ears" he says with a smirk. "Shut up Malfoy! Let's just do it then!" she says with a snap. Malfoy laughs "Alright then, if you insist Hermione." Hermione looks up at him. She wasn't used to him using her first name. It sounded sort of¼ nice.

"So how did you and Malfoy do on your project?" Harry asked Hermione as they walked down the corridors to their common room.

"Fine" she mutters

"What two did you choose?"

"Patronus' and Death Eaters"

"Bet Malfoy only picked death eaters because he is one so he knows he can get 100% on that one" Ron said bitterly.

"Shut up Ron, I picked death eaters. Malfoy didn't want to do it but I wanted to take up the challenge." Did I just stand up for Malfoy? Hermione thinks to herself as Ron rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I bet your going to end up doing the whole project. If you want any help Harry and myse-"

"No! I don't want your help! Me and Draco are fine with it on our own. And he is going to do the work, we already discussed that" she said as she speeds up her walking pace angrily. Just at that moment Aria walks up to them. She ignores Ron and Hermione's hello's and goes straight to Harry.

"Hey Harry" she says with a very large smile.

"Hey Aria, how'd you like the new Defence against the dark arts teacher?"

"Good. A little hard to understand. And I thought it was a bit weird that he didn't know who you were"

Harry just looks at her. Why did it always matter to people that everyone knew who he was? Aria notices the look. "I'm sorry Harry. It must be horrible to have people obsesses over you with out getting to know you properly" she said putting her hand on his arm.

"Like you" Ron mutters to himself as he speeds up as well, but keeps his distance from Hermione. Harry doesn't notice his friends trying to avoid Aria, he just shrugs "I guess. At the same time I like being famous, it's sort of like some alternate reality, like when I really think about it it's hard to believe. Especially since at the Dursley's I am such a no one. But at the same time it's creepy when I don't know someone but they know everything about me." he says laughing slightly. Aria grins and takes his hand in hers. Harry stops in his tracks and turns to her. "There's something about you Harry." she says quietly smiling at him a bit. "What?" he asks her not understanding what she meant. "I don't know, when I'm around you I feel different. Like when you smile it makes me happy, and when I'm scared I know that if I'm with you nothing bad could ever happen to me." She looks at the floor then back up to his eyes. "W-well.. Uh.. I.. err.. uh" Harry said becoming tense. He doesn't know what to say to her. There is a moment of awkward silence. The seconds seem to take forever as Harry thought about what to say. Finally he just leaned forward and kissed her. Aria jumped slightly shocked, breaking the kiss. She looks deep into his eyes, and then kisses him back. She wraps her arms around his neck while his go around her waist. Ron and Hermione both look back and scowl. "Gross" Hermione says as she rolls her eyes and storms off to the great hall. Ron puts his finger in his mouth and pretends to gag as he walks into the common room "Muggle's Pyjamas" he says to the picture of a fat lady. She swings open and Ron goes straight up to his dorm, not wanting to spend time in the common room with the two behind him. A few minuets later Harry and Arai walk into the common room, holding hands. Both of them are smiling as they talk to each other.

As Hermione walks into the great hall she sits down and pulls out a book on Patronus' and their uses. She opens it and starts reading. Just then Draco Malfoy storms into the room with Crabbe and Goyle trailing behind him. "that Stupid Potter! He thinks he can get my girl just because of that hideous scar!" He notices Hermione and walks over to her "Crabbe, Goyle, get lost" he says as he sits down nest to her. His fat minions walk away "Hey Crabbe, let's go find potter and make him never be allowed to use his smoocher on Draco's goil again!" Goyle says as they laugh and walk out of the room. Hermione looks at Malfoy "What are you doing here?" He smiles innocently "Why helping you with our project of course." Hermione looks down at the book and doesn't say anything to him. "So are we starting on the Patronus project first?" he asks nicely. She nods her head once then after a few moments of silence she speaks. "Don't hurt Harry"

"What?"

"I'm talking about Aria"

"Oh. Well she was mine first"

"Did Aria tell you that?"

"Well¼ ¼ she told me I was cute once¼ and when I asked her to the Halloween dance she said she will think about it. Not a no."

"Well she asked Harry, and she really likes Harry, and Harry seems to like her so just leave them alone okay?"

"Fine" Draco agrees to Hemrione's surprise.

"Alright then. What do you know about a Patronus?" she asks him.

"Uhhh¼ " he says shrugging slightly. "Alright then you don't know anything. Let's hope you know more about Death Eaters." she says, not realizing it until after she already said it.

"I know a bit, not to much though" Draco says looking down at the ground avoiding eye contact. After a few hours of working on it, they finally notice the time. "Oh no! We missed the Prefect meeting!" She said as she stands up quickly packing her stuff away. Draco pulls her back down "Well it's been over for a long time so there's no use rushing over there right now. Let's just keep working." Hermione sighs "I guess your right. Besides working with you is better then any old prefect meeting" she says before she has time to realize what she said. Quickly she clasps her hands over her mouth. Malfoy looks at her and smirks slightly "Is that so?" she shakes her head, but blushes while doing it. "I think your lying" Draco ads., still smirking. Hermione looks away from him, Draco grabs her and kisses her, feeling her smooth soft lips against his. Hermione pulls away "DRACO!" she squeals. "What are you doing?!" He smiles. "Hermione, ever since we became partners this morning I haven't felt the same as I used to. I don't call you mud blood, or granger, didn't you notice that? And you even call me draco now, not Malfoy. That must mean something. And you are so smart and beautiful an-" Hermione cuts him off before he can finish his sentence "Do it again." she says quietly. "Really?" Draco asks surprised at her. "just shut up and kiss me Draco" she says leaning in. As their lips touch again Hermione feels as if she is floating on a cloud. The way his lips felt against hers, they way his tongue slid past her lips and into her mouth. She had never felt so good in her whole life. But Draco? Why does she feel like this about him?