Draco sat in the Head Boy/ Head Girl compartment waiting for Granger to arrive. He was happy about returning to Hogwarts although you wouldn't have known it from his emotionless face.

The summer hadn't been entertaining for him at all, even though his father had been sent to Askaban. He was thankful for that because he didn't have to suffer the usual beatings and curses. But his mother had been sent too as an accomplice to his father's crimes. His mother was the only person who loved him and the only person he loved. He missed her dearly.

Last year Draco had become a different person. He had realized that he did not want to be his father's protégé any longer. Instead of insulting people he kept to himself, making studying his main focus. That's how he had become Head Boy, he had always had excellent grades but now his were unrivaled even by Granger's.

That was another change; he no longer cared about blood. Even Granger and himself had formed a sort of truce. After he had fought for the light side in the war and aided in the capture of his own father, tensions between the Golden Trio and himself and lessened greatly. They were by no means friends, but no longer were they all mortal enemies.

Draco was pulled from his thoughts by the opening of the compartment door.

After Hermione had listened to the boys tell her of their summers, she had excused herself to go to the Head's compartment. She had decided not to spoil the first day back with the news of her dead parents.

She opened the door to find Draco Malfoy, she was not surprised he had worked very hard last year and his grades almost matched her own.

"Hey," she said as she took her trunk from her pocket, enlarged it, and began rummaging through it for something to read.

"Hey," he politely replied.

She sat down on the bench and tried to read, but he thoughts kept wondering back to her summer…

-Flashback-

She was wildly dancing around in her room to one of her new CD's. 'One of the best advantages to having to hide in the muggle world! Compact Discs.' She thought to herself. However the music suddenly stopped, Milly stood there after turning it off.

"Miss, some people are at the door to see you." The house elf told Hermione.

"Ok, I'll go down right away."

At the door were two ministry officials. She noticed they looked very solemn.

"Who died?" she asked jokingly.

The two men frowned and looked at each other.

"Oh…" Hermione's voice trailed off.

"We are sorry to report that your parents were killed this morni…"

Hermione didn't hear the end of the sentence she has fainted.

"Hermione? Are you there?" Draco's questions brought her out of the memory.

"Oh sorry,"

"That's ok, but you started crying and I wasn't sure why."

"I'm crying?" She wiped her face to find that she was indeed crying.

"Yeah, whats wrong?" he asked genuinely concerned.

This surprised Hermione even though she knew he had changed it was still hard for her to think of him as a person who actually had feelings.

"I was just thinking about something that happened this summer."

"What happened?"

"I don't want to push all my troubles on you."

"Don't worry about that, just tell me, you'll feel better."

"Well, ok, I guess. At the beginning of summer my parents were killed by some un-captured Death Eaters." She said as before she burst into tears again.

Draco wrapped her in a hug and held her to his chest while he rubbed her back trying to calm her down.

"I'm so sorry."

She looked up into his eyes; she saw how sincere he was. She liked this new Draco, she liked him a lot.

"Don't be."

"I guess we had similar summers, with living on our own."

"Yeah, we did, didn't we?"

"Yeah"

"Thanks for listening to me."

"Don't worry about it, I was glad to."

After that Hermione fell asleep on Draco's shoulder.