Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, yada, yada, yada, you know the deal. Characters and places to J.K. (except those you don't recognise). Lyrics of the song below to Likin Park (as stated), lyrics from the song 'Here without you', which appear in the chapter, to '3 Doors Down'.

A/N 1: This chapter is dedicated to: Hottennispro88, Confused-Gal, Reb and K.

A/N 2:

Me: sighs "Sorry this took so long, but uni and finals took up most of my time. Today however it's snowing. Yep! Snowing in Barcelona, Spain. Happened before!"

Pansy: looking out of window "It looks pretty!"

Hermione: nods "Very, I like snow!"

Draco: snorts "Typical"

Hermione glares "What's that supposed to mean?"

Draco: throwing uneasy glance in my direction "Uhm, nothing, don't listen to me…"

Me grinning: "As if we would ever consider doing so!"

Pansy: "You look happy."

Me: "I am! This chappy contains two of my favourite songs, quite a feat if you ask me, especially since this is the first chapter with a song at all!"

Hermione: nods "I love 'Here Without You', it's beautiful!"

Draco snorts "It's a girly song!"

Pansy indignantly "It's not!"

Me: shrugging "It could be that it is, but if a guy sings that to a girl she would surely melt… I would!"

Pansy + Mione: nod

Hermione: sweetly Could you bring a girl to melt with a song Draky-poo?"

Draco: mutters something incoherent

Hermione: smug "I thought so!"

Pansy + Me: giggle

Me: "O.K. now, enough of this, on with the story!"

…. Can't you see that you're smothering me
Holding too tightly
Afraid to lose control
'Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you

Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow
Every step that I take is
Another mistake to you
Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow
And every second I waste
Is more than I can take…


…And I know
I may end up failing too
But I know
You were just like me
With someone disappointed in you…

(Numb – Linkin Park Album: Meteora)

Chapter 10: Building a Frienship

Halloween had been a week ago and everything in the castle had returned back to normality, meanwhile the relationship between Hermione and Draco was fast improving and could already be judged as a sort of strange friendship, a fact which still was a clue for her two brother figures and her friend Ginny, Pansy on the other hand couldn't be more happy with the development and Blaise was glad his best friend had started to get along with at least one of his former rivals and was being civil to the other two. Arianne, the portrait woman with the mysterious past however could see the promise of something else in their relationship, something every other person would have deemed impossible, something everybody else wouldn't even have thought of, something she knew all too well…

On that particular Saturday, Mione and Draco were sitting in their common room discussing the date for the next Quidditch match, Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff.

"Let's see;" Hermione started, "Taking into consideration the amount of things we have to fit into this school year and the fact that there are four more matches to go we have to fit it in before Christmas."

"Yeah, I see no other possibility," the blonde agreed, "That leaves only two weekends as and option for there are exams held near all the others."

"So, it's the second to next weekend or the one before the Jule Ball."

"I'd say we take the first, the week before the Jule Ball we'll be too occupied preparing that to concentrate on Quidditch and one of the players is a Prefect."

The brunette girl nodded, "I agree with that, so it is settled then, I say we pass the information to the common rooms now, they'll already be anxious, especially the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs."

"O.K., You take Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, I take Slytherin and Hufflepuff!"

The gathered the pamphlets and left the room through the direct accesses to their house common rooms, returning a few minutes later in order to walk the long way (unfortunately) to the other common rooms.

The news caused a huge commotion in the houses of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, their Quidditch captains immediately running to book the field for some serious practising time.

Hermione and Draco meanwhile sat in their common room talking about their lives and different upbringings.

"So, tell me Hermione, I wanted to ask you this long ago, if you are muggleborn, how come your cousin is also a witch?"

"Well, we wondered ourselves, you know? When I got the letter from Hogwarts they told me in there that my cousin was a witch, too which meant I could tell her, she received a letter from her school stating the same that year. We researched the matter and found out, that our great, great, great, etc. grandmother on our mothers side had been a witch, only the genes skipped a few generations and got out with two people in one generation instead."

"So I get it then that ancestor of yours married a muggle?"

"Exactly, she also left the wizarding world completely, apparently she liked the muggle way of living much better. It is said, that she had a horrible experience, apparently she saw her best friend being murdered by Duke Prophorn when they were only 23 and cut lose with everything reminding her of hat occurrence."

"Duke Prophorn? The dark master before Grindewald?"

"The very same!"

"Wow, your family really has history. Mine also fought in that war. At that time even against him. It was my father who went over to the dark side as you might call it. My grandfather was very disappointed in him, he would say that a Malfoy should never serve anyone, but my father is too blind to see that he is only the puppet of a man who would never share his power, no matter what he promises. I can't believe he really thinks I'm dying to follow in his footsteps."

"So you have no intentions in becoming a Death Eater?"

Draco looked at her as if saying "Are you crazy?"

Hermione smiled, "That's what I thought, at least since I know you better. But won't your father be…. let's just say, a little bit mad?"

"So what? He's in jail, it's not like he could do anything to me. Life has been much more pleasant for my mother and I since he was imprisoned. No one there to smother us, tell us what to think and how to act, what to say. It gave us the opportunity to think rationally about some of his truths. Take for example the purebloods are better than muggleborns thing. Before he was gone I didn't question it, He didn't give me room to do so, constantly poisoning my mind with new hateful paroles. But once he was gone I started thinking, wait a minute, if muggleborns are so lowly, then how come one bests me in every single subject no matter how hard I try? Of course, I had thought of that earlier, my mistake was asking my father. He crucioed me for implying mudbloods, sorry for the word, were better and told me I must be doing something wrong."

"I'm so sorry Draco!"

"Why? It isn't your fault! Although I confess I used to pretend it was. Why did you have to go and be better than I? But then I realised it was unfair of me to blame you, of course that only happened when my father was put away and I was free of his influence, because that's something he would have done, blaming someone else I mean. Fact is, some people are smarter and some people less. I'm smarter than most, but not as smart as you, that's life."

"Well, I'm just glad you don't resent me."

They were silent for a few seconds, each lost in their own thoughts until Draco spoke, his voice a bit hesitant, as if not sure if he should say what he wanted.

"Hermione?"

"Hm hm?" she asked, her thoughts still elsewhere.

"Are we….friends?

This brought her fully back to reality, she hadn't expected such a question, she glanced at the face of the young man sitting beside her on the couch, his expression was serious, but she could see uncertainty and insecurity in his eyes and she realised, that he was afraid of her answer. She pondered his question, were they friends already, was it possible after so little time? Deciding to listen to her heart instead of her brain, just like it should be done with such questions, she arrived at an answer quite quickly.

"I definitely think we are," she said nodding, "What about you?"

He smiled, she noticed, relived, "I think so, too."

"Harry and Ron will probably be shocked, Ginny not surprised and Pansy and Blaise happy, I think they were hoping we would become friends."

"Say, can I come with you when you tell Potter and Weasley? I want to see their faces!" the blonde asked grinning.

"Draco…" Hermione said, warningly.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"You know exactly what!"

"No, I have no idea!"

"You're incorrigible!"

"Yeah!", he grinned playfully, "But you love me anyway.

The brunette simply rolled her eyes and shook her head, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"Talking about Pansy and Blaise," she said, changing the theme, "Do you know if he is going to ask her to the Yule Ball? Pansy is kinda hoping for it."

"He wants to, but is afraid to do so since she turned so many guys down"

"She only did that because she is waiting for him to ask her!"

"Yeah, but he doesn't know that, does he?"

Hermione sighed, "Why don't you talk to him? He's your best friend, tell him she might be waiting for him to ask her, you even wouldn't be lying."

"Oh, I already told him that, his answer was, 'sure, of course, like she would wait precisely for me.'"

"Blaise is not too sure of himself, is he?"

"Usually he is, just not when it comes to Pansy! I'll try to talk to him again, anyway."

"Great, I'll have a chat with Pansy, maybe she can ask him out. That's what Luna intends to do if Neville doesn't ask her."

"Lovegood likes Longbottom?" Draco exclaimed incredulous.

"Yes," Hermione lifted an eyebrow, "Got a problem with that?"

Draco shook his head, "Not at all," he answered, "I just always thought she had the hots for Potter."

"No, they just have a good connection because she lost her mother, they understand each other. Besides, everyone can see Harry and Ginny are MFEO."

"M.F.E.O.? What does that mean? Is it another thing like spew?"

"It's not spew! It's S.P.E.W.! And M.F.E.O. means 'made for each other', of course!"

"Aha," he answered before glancing at his watch, "Look, it's nearly lunchtime, we should head down before we have to fight through the bustle of people thinking they will starve if they don't arrive on time."

"You mean like Crabbe and Goyle?" she asked sweetly.

He merely nodded, "And like Weasley," he added.

"Touché!"

During lunch Hermione informed her three friends about the change in her relationship with Draco. While Ginny stated she had seen it coming, Harry surprised Hermione by not really caring and even Ron said it was OK with him if being friends with Malfoy made her happy (even though he made a sour face while saying so).

Those events had Hermione walking back to the Common Room with a slightly puzzled expression after lunch.

"Everything all right?" Arianne asked upon seeing the girl being in such a daze.

"Yes, Ari, don't worry, I'm just surprised that my friends took the news of Draco and I being friends so well, pleasantly surprised, but still… it's strange, especially for Ron!" she explained.

Ari smiled softly, "Maybe you underestimated your friend's maturity," she suggested wisely.

Hermione had to smile back, "Yeah, that's probably it! Ron is usually so immature about things not going the way he is used to that contrary behaviour surprises me. I'm glad he's growing up though!"

"Everybody does, some earlier then others. But, take my advise, don't want to be an adult before you really have to, the childhood and the youth should be lived and enjoyed to it's fullest, you'll have to be all grown up and face the world soon enough, the times which are coming will force you to do so much to soon for my liking, you shouldn't have to be involved in this, nobody should. Unfortunately wherever there is light there is darkness trying to overcome it, it's the curse of life and mankind, there can be no real peace."

Hermione nodded, "You are right, but sadly people wouldn't appreciate peace if it wasn't for the war. It's the darkness which scares us and makes us yearn the light, but we have to overcome our fear of the darkness to be able to fight it."

"But remember, fear is good in some way, you have to overcome it, that is true, but the absence of fear can lure you into a false sense of security, if one is too sure of himself he can fail and then darkness prevails."

"Then we'll remain level headed and fight it, it shouldn't be a problem, at least not for me, I admit I'm scared witless of Voldemort!" Draco's voice was heard behind Hermione's back, she smiled at him in greeting.

"You heard us?" she asked.

He shrugged, "Just the last part, but I agree with Arianne, not being scared might turn out to be bad."

"I know, so does Harry, we were always scared on our adventures, but that didn't keep us from doing what we thought, and still think, was right… so, you're scared of Voldemort, too? You? The mighty Slytherin prince?" she asked with a smirk.

Draco grinned, "You have no idea how much! Don't tell anyone though, it would be bad for my rep and it's damaged enough, apparently people didn't take it too well that I'm friends with a certain Gryffindor muggle-born witch?"

She grinned, "Don't worry, I'll make sure to pass the news to the Daily Prophet as soon as possible," she teased.

"I knew I could count on you Mione," he retorted sarcastically.

Arianne had to laugh at their exchange, "I'm so glad you two get along now! I was a bit worried when I first saw you, I almost felt the headache that your constant yelling would cause me," she told them.

"I guess we didn't cause a good first impression," Draco admitted, "And I'm sorry that I was so rude on our first meeting," he added, shame creeping into his voice.

Arianne smiled down at him, "Don't worry, that was long ago forgotten, so, what are your plans for today?"

Hermione sighed, "Homework! There's a lot to do and a lot to study!"

Draco nodded in agreement, "I fear we can't stay here much longer, as interesting as this chat was."

Arianne nodded in understanding, "Don't worry, we'll continue another time."

"Count on it! Tibbelupp!" Hermione said and the portrait swung open, "See you later Arianne!"

"Later Ari!" Draco said, following the brown haired witch through the entrance.

"Bye you two! Have fun studying" the woman in the portrait called out to them.

The rest of the afternoon was pleasantly spent going over the immense amount of homework they had received over the weekend and once again they got a confirmation on how well they worked together, they complemented each other perfectly and understood the other without needing to resort to words, if Draco searched for another leaf of parchment Hermione would hand one over to him without him having to ask and without her looking up from her own work, when he stood up at one point and went to the bathroom he came back with two cups of hot cocoa, handing one to her and receiving a thankful smile in return, signifying she had been craving for the beverage but he had beaten her in the point of getting it.

On Sunday Hermione awoke to the sound of a storm raging outside, yawning she got out of bed and stumbled into the Common Room, finding it empty.

"Guess he's still asleep!", she thought, stifling another yawn. Then she proceeded to the bathroom and turned on some of the taps, letting the tub feel with warm water, the smell of jasmines, the essence she had chosen, soon filling her nostrils. Taking a deep breath in she smiled and went back to her room in order to retrieve her clothes for the day, so she could change into them as soon as she came out of the shower. She was almost out of the door when she was stuck by a thought, turned on her heels and went back into her room, straight towards her desk. Once there she opened one of the drawers and took out her discman, she had found a spell which would make it work in Hogwarts over the summer, it put some kind of barrier around it which protected it from all the magic in the air. Hermione had to smile at the irony, she used magic to protect it from the same! After finding the spell she had written to the Headmaster and asked for his allowance, he had conceded it to her, telling her it was his congratulatory present for her becoming Head Girl, besides, after finding the spell she deserved it!

She closed the drawer again and walked over to the shelf on which all of her CDs were stapled, she let one finger run over the spines until it reached the one she had been searching and pulled it out. It was one of her favourites, 'Away from the Sun' by '3 Doors Down'.

Having gathered all she needed she walked back to the bathroom and shut the door behind her, then she laid her neatly folded clothes down on a chair which stood in there for such purposes and sat her discman on top. After she put the CD in and pushed play she tapped the device gently with her wand and muttered 'Sonorus', soon the first chords of 'When I'm Gone' filled the air as Hermione got out of her clothes and let herself sink into the now full tub with a blissful sigh.

Some time later Draco awoke, outside the rain was still pouring heavily, lightning clashed and thunder rolled. He wanted to stay in bed a while longer, but his strict upbringing forbade him to waste the day and it was too deeply rooted into his customs to let go of it from one day to the other like he would have loved to do. Heaving a sigh of resignation he pushed back the covers and got out of bed. After dressing quickly he walked into the Common Room, it was empty, but through the closed bathroom doors filtered the lyrics of a song he didn't know, which surprised him since he was very in the know about the music in the wizarding world and the radios of their world were the only one which worked in Hogwarts. Furrowing his brows he concentrated harder on the lyrics, trying to relate them to any band he knew. However the music was already fading away, signifying the end of the song, another one starting immediately afterwards. Now Draco was even more intrigued, on the radio they usually announced the song they were about to play. He also noticed, that the voice of the singer was the same as the one of the song before, mystified he crept closer to the door in order to hear better."

'A hundred days have made me older
Since the last time that I saw your pretty face
A thousand lies have made me colder
And I don't think I can look at this the same

All the miles that separate
Disappear now when I'm dreamin' of your face
I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind

I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time
I'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight, there's only you and me.

The miles just keep rollin'
As the people leave their way to say hello
I've heard this life is overrated
But I hope that it gets better as we go.'

This was definitely not a song Draco knew, neither did the band sound familiar to him, he had to confess he liked it though, the music got to him, it touched something inside of him and that had never happened before. He often felt himself like life was not what it was cracked up to be, more then once he had found himself wondering why everybody said it was such a great gift and only lately, thanks to recent events, he had started to think that, maybe, life was worth living after all.

'I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time

I'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight girl, there's only you and me.

Everything I know, and anywhere I go
It gets hard but it won't take away my love
And when the last one falls, when it's all said and done.
It gets hard but it won't take away my love.'

Draco had to smirk, that was another lesson he had learned, something first Pansy and then Blaise had shown him. Nothing risked, nothing gained. He knew that he'd have to face many a trial if he wanted to keep his friendship with Hermione, but he knew it was worth it, after all, she had already made him question everything he supposedly knew, he had revised the 'truths' he believed in, finding they were utter crap and he was changing for the better as he thought. He knew however, that he still had a long way to go.

'I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time

I'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight girl, there's only you and me'

The music faded away yet again and the blond Slytherin found himself surprisingly disappointed at the fact. He waited avidly for the next song, but nothing came. Instead the door opened to reveal a freshly bathed Hermione, she smelled of jasmine and held a strange device in her hand.

"Hey Draco! What were you doing there?" she asked, slightly surprised.

Much to his embarrassment he blushed a bit. Busted! "I heard music coming from the bathroom and uh, I wanted to know what it was!" she confessed grinning sheepishly.

Hermione smiled, "Oh, that! I was listening to one of my favourite CDs, but of course you don't know what that is…" she trailed off, then walked over to the couch motioning for him to follow her and sit down on the spot beside her, then she held the CD player in front of him, "This is a portable CD player, and this," she added flipping it open and taking the CD out, "Is a CD. The muggles store music on them. A band usually brings out a CD full of songs by them, many bands bring out more than one CD, depending on how long they last without splitting up and of course on their success. The band you were hearing is called '3 Doors Down'" she said, handing him the CD case after she had put the CD back into it, "And the title of the CD is 'Away from the Sun' as you can see. It's the group's second CD," she explained.

Draco stared at the contraptions in wonderment, who would have thought that muggles were able to create such amazing things?

"This is incredible," he whispered, awe clearly audible in his voice.

Hermione laughed, "If you want we can listen to the whole CD now," she suggested.

Draco gave her his best puppy dog eyes as an answer, making her laugh even harder.

"Very well then!" she said, putting the CD back in and putting the sonorus charm back on her discman (which resulted in her having to tell Draco why it was necessary to do so, which led to a promise on her part to let him listen to the music through the headphones later).

That way they spent their morning, listening to Hermione's CDs and talking about life in general until it was time for lunch. Only then did they notice that they had forgotten about breakfast.

On Monday during Careof Magical Cretures, which they had after Double Potions, Hagrid informed them during his class that the Tibbelupp project was over, however, due to the animals' attachment to their caretakers they were allowed to keep them, if they wanted and their parents agreed. Everybody was happy and relieved about the news, because, even though some didn't want to confess it, they had grown quite fond of their little friends.

"Ye can come an' pick 'em up after yer classes," the friendly half giant told them, "So ye wont haf ter worry about 'em."

The students smiled at him gratefully and went to their DADA class, eager to see what Alex had in store for them now that they had finished Vampires

"Morning Alex!" they greeted their young teacher while filling into the room.

"Good morning you lot!" she answered with a smile, "Did you have a good weekend?" she asked.

"We did! How about you?" Seamus Finnigan asked curiously, they hadn't seen her around like they usually did.

"A wonderful weekend, I went home to visit my fiancé and my friends, and of course start with the arrangements for the wedding."

Most girls in the class sighed dreamily when the 'w' word fell, Hermione just smiled, she would have to tag along when the preparations were more advanced, she was going to be one of the bridesmaids after all, that meant a lot of dress fittings and pre wedding dinners as well as family gatherings. She was looking forward to seeing everybody once again. But first Jeanne and Zack would come to visit during the winter holidays.

"All right! If we are done reviewing the weekend we can start with our new topic… Banshees, a personal favourite of mine. Now, some might think Banshees are women who are constantly PMSing, but that's not all there is to them, they are complex creatures and very interesting. For the rest of the period Alex filled them in on Banshees, how they came to be, how their scream killed people, but only those who were meant to hear it could. The only other beings which could hear them were dogs. She also told him that Banshees lived off of the sadness and the despair of their victims, that's why they killed people who were depressed of scared, leading the police to think they had committed suicide.

When it was time to finish the class Alex smiled at the students who had been eagerly listening to her.

"O.K. As homework read the chapter on Banshees in your books and write down how to protect yourself against them. Such knowledge might very well come in handy some day."

Talking among themselves the students exited the room, heading over the Great Hall for lunch. Hermione and Draco had to run by the Headmasters office first however in order to drop the schedules for that week's patrols and Head/Prefect duties afterwards the two headed to lunch were themselves, were they sat down with their respective friends.

"Hey Mione!" Ginny greeted the brunette as she said down.

"Hey Gin! Hey Guys!"

"Hweimone!" Ron greeted, still chewing. Causing Hermione to scrunch up her nose.

"Honestly Ron," she chided, "That's disgusting!"

Ron gave her a sheepish smile and ate on.

Harry smiled at his friends' usual bickering, "Hey Mione," he greeted the girl, "In case you hadn't heard about it, we have an DA meeting tonight at 19.00h."

"Thanks Harry, I did indeed not know. Was everybody else informed?" she asked, ever the organised person.

"Yup, everybody knows!" Ginny confirmed.

Hermione nodded, "Anything important which needs to be discussed or is this a regular meeting? I mean, usually they are on Wednesdays…" she asked Harry, he was the one in-the-know of these things.

"Just a regular meeting," he answered, "There are a few new curses and counter curses as well as some helpful charms Alex wants to teach us. She just has an to run by the Ministry Wednesday afternoon, that's why it is today."

"Your cousin is really cool Mione," Parvati piped up, "I don't think I've told you this often enough."

Hermione laughed, "Believe me, you did. But I knew that anyway, she's a great person."

"And she has a great fashion sense!" Lavender added, "It's so cool how she combines muggle and magic elements, I wish I knew how to do that!" she sighed a bit enviously.

"Don't worry Lav, you'll figure it out. It took Alex some time, too to find the perfect balance and I'm sure she'd give you a few tips if you asked her."

The Gryffindors chatted on until it was time to leave for their afternoon classes, starting with Arithmancy for Hermione and Divination for the rest. Following that was Transfiguration. After sitting through an exciting lecture on human transfiguration, which was especially helpful for those wanting to become animagi later in life, the students packed their things together and walked to their last class for the day, History of Magic. After listening to Professor Binns drone on and on about Troll wars and Goblin revolutions for an hour again the students left the classroom, fighting a hard battle against the sleep which was stubbornly trying to overcome them. Holding back yawns and stretching languidly they walked to their Common Rooms in order to get their homework done and, in some cases, prepare for that night's DA meeting.

Me: "So, that was it! I can't think of anything else to write for this chapter. The last bit was a bit foced as you might have noticed, I was running out of ideas…"

Pansy: "I'm sure the next one will be better"

Draco: scoffs

Hermione: glaring, hissing (she does that a lot to him huh?) "Do you have a problem Malfoy?"

Draco: frightened "Uhm, no, why?"

Mione: threateningly "Good"

Me: grinning "Let's leave those two arguing! See you next time dear readers!"

Pansy: "Yeah, bye! And don't forget the Crabbe/Goyle poll!"

Mione continues to glare at Draco, oblivious to surroundings

Draco: tries to hide under Magical Soul's desk, also oblivious to surroundings

AND NOW… ANSWERS TO YOUR REVIEWS!

Hottennispro88: Thanks for your review! I'm glad I could transmit the typical guy reaction like I wanted to. I hope you liked the chapter, it isn't one of my best, but I'm a bit under stress…

Confused-Gal: I'm really glad you like the story so far (no-duh, which author wouldn't like that). Thank you for answering to the poll, right now it looks as if they are both going to turn to the dark side eerie Star Wars music .

Reb: No problem about the dedication thing. I think it's only fair if I dedicate the chapter to those who actually take the time off their schedule to review my chapters. I feel really flattered that you preferred reading my chapter to watching the movie you wanted to see! blushes Thank you also for answering to the poll!

K.: Ich hab keine Ahnung was du meinst… mir kam der Buchtitel üüüberhaupt nicht bekannt vor! Der war frei erfunden! Ehrlich! Du bildest dir nur Dinge ein! H.D.L.

Snowy winter greetings from Barcelona,

Magical Soul