Authors Note: Hey guys...actually no one is reading this story....oh well, I'm enjoying writing it, so here's another chapter! Haha.

Chapter 3

Hogwarts Again

Draco woke early on the morning of September first, eager to leave the monotony of the last week. He packed his trunk, checked under the bed to see if he had forgotten anything, looked in his closet, yelled at the houselves to check around the house, and then, feeling sure that he had everything, dragged his trunk down the stairs to the main entrance hallway.

There was a large sweeping staircase leading up from the entrance hallway, much like at Hogwarts. One door from the entrance lead to the kitchen, and then the dining room. There was a formal sitting room to the other side, and a large bathroom attached. In the kitchen there was also a bathroom attached, and behind the kitchen were the houselves sleeping quarters and Draco supposed laundry rooms and supply cupboards, he had never actually been back there. There was a back staircase up to Draco's wing, which had a bathroom, and a room that used to have all of his toys and now had a leather couch, a pool table, and a snack bar set up. There was also, of course his bedroom. After that there was his parents room, and then two guest bedrooms. There was a crawl space above that, which contained storage space and other miscellaneous things which Draco did not really know about, as he had never really been to that party of the house much either.

Draco waited at the fireplace for his father or mother to come down. They were going to travel by Floo to Kings Cross platform 9 3/4. It was eight o'clock, and Draco realized that he had not had breakfast, not to mention the train did not leave until ten. Draco marched impatiently into the kitchen and told a houself what he wanted. Waffles with syrup. He then stalked into the dining room and saw, to his amazement, his parents sitting together at the dining room table. All be it at opposite ends, and they weren't talking it was true, but they were in the same room, that was a start.

Draco sat down between them and waited for his food. No one spoke.

"All packed?" Asked Lucious quietly.

"Yes." Replied Draco shortly.

"That's good." Lucious said absently. "What time does the train leave?" He asked.

"Ten." Draco replied.

"Ah. That's good. We've got plenty of time then." Lucious said, fishing for something to say to keep the conversation going. "And you'll see the Potter boy on the train?" He decided on.

"Of course." Draco said, looking away. It always turned to this. Either Potter, Granger's better grades, or Dumbledore's incompetence. Even when Draco had told his father that he had received twelve OWLs, all he had replied was "I'll bet the Granger mud blood got thirteen."

"Perfect." Lucious muttered, going back to his food and ignoring his son. Narcissa looked on the verge of tears again. She was so fragile all the time, it was almost unbearable. Draco took a long time to eat his breakfast. His parents both left, so he was sitting at the table alone, thinking about the upcoming year, and his situation as a death eater.

He couldn't get his arms around the fact that he was a Death Eater. Death Eaters were murderers, did that make Draco himself a sort of murderer by association? He wasn't technically a real Death Eater though, considering he didn't have the mark of a Death Eater, and he wasn't expected to attend meetings, and he had never officially met the Dark Lord, although he had been in the house at the same time as him before. Draco had always been kept as far away as possible from those meetings that the Dark Lord attended.

They arrived at Kings Cross later that morning with ten minutes to spare before the train was scheduled to depart.

"Remember Draco, you're to get positioned on the inside with Potter." Hissed his father in his ear as he made to hug him goodbye. Draco shrugged and turned to the train. He dragged his trunk behind him and shoved it into an overhead rack. He then began to trek through the crowded compartments to the front of the train, where, being a prefect, he had been told to go at the beginning of the train ride.

When Draco entered the front compartment the first thing he saw was Weasly, standing next to Granger. Weasly was looking at her the way he always was, in utter awe of her, and with complete devotion in his eyes. Draco snorted his contempt. Even if they couldn't see it, everyone else could. Ron was totally and completely head over heals for Hermione.

Draco scanned the rest of the room. Pansy Parkinson had not yet arrived, and he recognized some of the other people, although did not know any of them well. Draco gritted his teeth, forcing a smile onto his face, and bearing in mind what his father had said. He walked over to where Granger and Weasly were talking, and stood next to them both, joining their triangle.

"Good summer?" He asked,trying to sound as normal as ever.

"Shove off Malfoy." Ron said angrily, gritting his teeth.

"What do you want with us?" Hermione asked him, her bordem and feigned interest apparent in her tone.

"Nothing, just wanted to ask about your summer." Draco replied innocently, smiling still.

"Yeah right, a git like you never says anything normal, much less friendly, what do you want?" Ron asked, looking slightly confused and more than slightly annoyed.

"I told you, I was just interested in your summers." Draco said. "But if you don't want to talk, I can take a hint." Draco said, turning to walk away. When no one called him back he continued to walk, acting as if he had not been expecting to be called back.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked Hermione as soon as Draco had left.

"I don't know." Hermione replied pensively. "He can't know about the Order, or that we're part of it, can he?" She whispered.

"No, how could he?" Ron said, confidently.

"Yes I suppose, funny though, isn't it? Why would he ask about our summers? Seems odd doesn't it?" Hermione said, absent mindedly running her fingers through her hair.

"The only thing I find odd is that he wasn't mean or nasty, and that he wasn't flanked by an army of Slytherins." Ron said firmly, sitting down on one of the seats and motioning for Hermione to sit beside him.

She sat and gazed pensively at Malfoy, who was being ambushed by Pansy Parkinson. She was peppering him with questions about his summer. He was answering monosyllabically and not returning any questions of his own. Suddenly he looked up and met her eyes. She started a little. She turned back to Ron and smiled. Her Ron. He was kind and good and Hermione did not need to worry about Draco, because Ron was here, and she was safe. She did, however, wish that Harry was here. He would know what to make of this.

Hermione smiled at Ron. It seemed that ever since her parents had finally decided that she could get rid of the braces and magically straighten her teeth she couldn't stop smiling. She ran her tongue over her newly smooth and shiny and most importantly straight teeth.

"You're obsessed by your teeth Hermione." Ron said, laughing.

"I can't help it! They're so smooth! Now I know what I've been missing out on all these years." Hermione laughed a little, the problem of Malfoy still nagging at the back of her mind. Ron tugged on one of her unruly curls.

"Hermy, are you excited to go back to school? No OWLs to study for, no Umbrige, no Grawp, hopefully, and we're prefects too." Ron said.

"Don't call me Hermy, it puts me in mind of centaurs and Umbrige and giants. And don't say no studying! We have to start preparing for the NEWTs! The hard part hasn't even started!" Ron groaned. "Who do you think is going to be out new defense teacher?"

"No idea. But whoever it is is bound to be a step up at least. Are we going on with the DA?" Ron asked hopefully.

"I think we should. I know it helped me on the OWLs." Hermione said.

"Way to sneak that in there Hermione. I thought we weren't talking about them?" Ron said, scowling. Talking about the OWLs still brought back memories of the summer.

Ron had only gotten nine, while Hermione had, of course, gotten all twelve, and Harry had scraped eleven. All but history of magic. Ron had been constantly reminded of Percy and Charlie and Bill, who had all gotten twelve. His mother had never once mentioned that the twins had each gotten something like five a piece.

Percy had come back into the folds of the family just in time to rub in Ron's face that he had gotten twelve. He had not even once apologized for his behavior. He just showed up for dinner one night and Mrs. Weasley had cried all over him.

"Well, it did help me. Besides, you got an O in defense against the dark arts, so it must have helped you too." She declared ruthlessly. "And Ron, nine OWLs is not bad, that's quite good really. Why are you so upset about that?"

"Because, Hermione, I want to be an auror, which means I needed an O in potions and transfiguration and defense, and I only got E in transfiguration and A in potions. Now I'll never be able to become an auror." Ron said remorsefully.

"Of course you will. You'll just work extra hard this year. And also, professor Magonagal lets people who get Es into her class. And I'm sure if you express an interest to Professor Snape he will too." Hermione assured him. Ron snorted doubtfully. "What? He'll have to Ron, now that," Hermione looked around cautiously "now that we're in the Order and all."

"He doesn't have to do anything." Ron said.

"Ron, it'll be fine! You'll see. We'll go to Professor Dumbledore if he says no. It'll work, trust me." Hermione told him.

"Yeah, whatever." Ron said moodily, looking out the window.

"Look on the bright side." Hermione coaxed. "Remember, you're on the team still. Mr. Keeper. And Ginny is a chaser, and Harry is back on the team, no more lifetime ban. He's captain too, you will all have such a good time with Quiddich. Just remember that."

"I s'pose." Ron said determined to stay grumpy, but Hermione could still see the traces of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

"And maybe I'll try out for the team, just to give you a good laugh." Hermione told him, although in her heart she wished she would make the team. Maybe now that Harry was captain he could do something...

Ron burst out laughing. Everyone in the compartment looked at him.

"And maybe Hagrid will have gotten rid of you know who. And we can really get SPEW going again. And maybe-"

"We are not getting SPEW going again." Ron interrupted. Hermione ignored him, aknowleging him only with a scowl.

"Maybe Hagrid will be out of the out with Madame Maxim." hermione finished.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, always a little slow o n the uptake.

"You know, remember how much he likes her? And remember how she was mad at him about the whole...incedent? Well maybe they've made up. Maybe she'll be our new defense teacher!" Hermione thrilled.

"Of course she won't. She's already the headmistress of her own school, why would she come here?" Ron asked practically.

"It was just an idea." Hermione said.

"I do wonder who our new defense teacher is though." Ron said. They then proceeded to speculate on who it could be.

From across the room Draco watched them. How could he make them trust him? It obviously wouldn't be as easy as he had hoped. They weren't going to just forget about years of animosity. So what could he do? Maybe Hermione was the key. It was obvious that she held power over Ron, who held power over Harry, as they had demonstrated in the Triwizard. Ron was the thing Harry cared most about. So maybe, just maybe, she was the answer. Girls tended to be more willing to forgive and forget anyway. Perhaps, just perhaps, he could get Hermione to trust him and then in turn get Potter and Weasley. If he could do that it would be an easy next step to get his dad to love him again. If his dad loved him, then his mom would be happy again. Hermione was the key to everything. So how could he get Hermione to trust him?

Authors Note: Okay, so that chapter was awful. But it's all good, cause the next chapter is amazing...not to mention no one is reading this story, so the fact that is sucks is no big deal, right?