Hermione walked through the halls following Professor McGonagall to their rooms. She refused to pay attention to her fellow companion, Malfoy, for he was giving silent sniggers towards her direction. Mcgonagall stopped abruptly in front of a very old door with a picture of a young boy and girl snoozing silently on a very comfortable couch.

"Your password will be 'Sugar Gums'." McGonagall's voice was stern and strict. "You are to make sure no one but yourselves enter these dorms, and patrol the halls on a nightly basis." With that, McGonagall swept away.

"Sugar Gums." Stated Hermione, and waited for the students in the portrait to wake up and let her in.

"Sugar Gums!" Came Malfoy's voice, more demanding then hers. The two students opened their eyes quickly and let the door open. Hermione decided to let Malfoy enter through the hole, for she felt a bit uncomfortable for her enemy to be facing her backside for the whole one and a half metres into the room. After climbing in, she was faced with a magnificent sight. The ceiling was similar to the one in the Great Hall, and stars hovered around the roof, which left an almost dreamy look. Right in front of them was a small waterfall, which the water came from the stars in the corner. To the left and right, there were a door each that let to their rooms. Hermione's room was on the right, for the red and gold colours of her house wrapped around binding each other to represent Gryfindor. Towards the left, green and silver did the same thing. The effect of the room was so calming, Hermione couldn't wait to see her room.

Malfoy looked towards Hermione with an almost bored look on his face. She seemed to think it was amazing at the sight in front of her. He decided to build on this fact.

"Amazed are we?" Malfoy sounded matter-of-factly.

"Not everyone in this whole world is pampered by their mummy and daddy." Hermione dropped her bags on the floor and walked towards the waterfall. A small pond swam on the bottom which held little fishes that seemed to be having the time of their life.

"True true." Draco made himself comfortable on one of the green couches towards his side of the room. It was very comfortable and he let his head rest back, trying to get the annoying ringing voice of Pansy out of his head. He found it impossible, and wondered how someone could talk non stop throughout a whole train journey. He shook his head slightly and decided to change his thoughts. He layed his eyes on what was around him at that moment. Hermione.

"Granger."

"Yes?" Hermione looked away from the waterfall and decided to focus her attention to something other than Malfoy. A small case of books was hidden in the corner, but she held her cry of relief and decided it would be better to read them later. For if she read them now, it would give her a reason to stay down there and be in the presence of the Prince of Slytherin.

Malfoy kept his gaze on Hermione and tried to distinguish exactly was made her so different from the other girls. Was it her hair, eyes, nose or mouth? He paid more attention to her mouth. It looked soft and … He was shot back to reality when Hermione's voice rang through the silence.

"I know I'm beautiful, but if you keep staring at me, I might almost think you like me." Hermione made sure she looked every where else except Malfoy. She picked up the bags she had left on the floor and led herself upstairs. After a couple of flights of stairs, she reached her room. It was absolutely beautiful. A huge window covered one of the walls which looked down towards the huge Lake. A double bed positioned itself across one of the walls and on the other side, a chest of drawers and a mirror looked towards her. She felt so relaxed. She had to admit, that sometimes she liked to be alone. It left her with her thoughts, and let her ponder freely about her opinions on some matters. It's not like she didn't like company, but she also like to have some alone time. She sat by her window for awhile, looking as far as the horizon would let her.

Malfoy climbed his steps slowly. As he entered the room, it came to no surprise to him. He was so use to this kind of stuff by now, and sometimes wished, that when he walked into a beautifully furnished room, he would be surprised at how rich and comfortable it was. He spread himself across his bed, and found himself in a very sticky spot. How was he, Draco Malfoy, the most well known Slytherin at Hogwarts, suppose to bind himself to one, who believes in keeping her distance from him.

"I mean, I wouldn't blame her." Malfoy said to himself. He shut his eyes and let his mind take over. "I need to think of a strategy." He had no idea where to start. His situation reminded him of something from a book. "What would I do, if I was in a book?" he thought to himself. "Book? Books? The library!" Malfoy felt like a genius. "Ron and Harry would rather drop dead than step into a library!" Malfoy smiled to himself. He didn't mind being in libraries. He found himself enough company to be around. Whenever he tried to start a normal conversation with Crabbe and Goyle, it seemed to him, that he would have more of a chance communicating with a Flubberworn. Crabbe and Goyle are some what similar to Ron and Harry. They'd rather clean toilets with a muggle toothbrush than even open a picture book.

"Malfoy!"

Malfoy jolted out of his day dream sleep to hear his name travelling up his staircase. Knowing it would only be one person, he got up and walked down stairs. He walked down to find a pyjama dressed Hermione. She wore a very thick green robe with light green long pants on the bottom.

"That colour suits you, I wonder why you weren't placed in Slytherin." Malfoy grinned to himself. One, it was due to his comment, and two, was the fact that he wasn't used to seeing a girl completely dressed at night. He was so used to seeing the Slytherin girls walking around in their skimpy little silky night dresses in the beginning of Winter. She was just so normal … so lady like…

"My parents don't know about our house colours." Hermione had small black rings under eyes. "Let's get this over and done with, I'm tired."

Malfoy smirked to himself. "I like a woman in charge." He began to take off his shirt.

"No!" Hermione looked away and blocked her eyes. "We've got to patrol the halls".

"I know. I was just joking!" Malfoy gave himself a laugh and walked towards to portrait whole. "Ladies first."

Hermione, finding no harm in walking through first, for she was fully clothed, slid through the portrait hole and stood outside waiting for Malfoy. He seemed to be taking his time. Hermione crossed her arms and tapped her foot loudly on the stone floors of the corridor. He finally stumbled through and stood right beside Hermione. She just realised how tall he had grown, and found herself shrinking at his tallness.

"Have you gone shorter?" asked Malfoy.

Hermione ignored his question once again, and started walking up the corridor.

"Can we get this over and done with?" Hermione's voice was tired, and Malfoy sensed this, and thought it would be quite mean to keep her from her beauty sleep. They walked silently through the halls, leaving the pitter patter of Malfoy's shoes and Hermione's thongs to talk to each other through the echoes. They passed the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw common rooms where there were no problems. When they reached the Gryfindor common room, Hermione began to feel sort of homesick, and was definitely not looking forward to spending the rest of the year with Malfoy. An envious feeling arose in her when she heard silent laughter coming from the inside of the common room. As they kept walking up, Hermione reached unfamiliar halls, but followed Malfoy close behind, for she knew she'd be heading towards the Slytherin common room. They finally reached a very cold part of the castle and Hermione found herself shivering a little. She looked towards Malfoy, but he seemed to be looking very normal, with his neatly gelled back hair, and smooth pale skin. She had always wondered why he was so pale. Maybe it was the food he was eating or something. She was shot out of her reverie by a now familiar voice.

"I know I'm beautiful, but if you keep staring at me, I might almost think you like me." Came Malfoy's voice in a mocking Hermione tone.

Hermione gave a fake laugh and just followed his pace. They stopped in front of a door which seemed to be down towards the dungeons. "Trust the Slytherins to take flight near the dungeons" thought Hermione to herself.

"This is the Slytherin common room. I'm just going to quickly run in and have a little chat to an old friend. Wont be long." Malfoy walked over to the dungeon door and muttered the password.

"Oh great, now I have to wait in this creepy hall, just so you can 'talk to an old friend'". Hermione stifled a yawn and leant herself against the cold stone wall. She was so tired and felt like sleeping then and there. She felt herself sinking to the floor and could no longer keep her sleepy eyes open.
"I'll just close them for five minutes." She told herself. Her eyes gently closed and her mind drifted off. Her dreams contained a wonderful library with a warm roaring fire burning on the side. Books filled the room from end to end and her eyes opened wide in amazement. All of a sudden, a giant book came flying down and started jabbing itself on her shoulder. She thought for a second that it was impossible for a book to do that, and realised she was dreaming, she decided to open her eyes and find the source of annoying pain that was jabbing her on her shoulder. She peeled one eye open and hit splat bottom to reality.

"What are you doing Malfoy?" Hermione held an annoyed tone in her voice, for she had found the source that had been jabbing into her shoulder, and it was Malfoy's finger. She was sleeping so peaceful. Except for the cold, and the very uncomfortable posture she was sitting like. She then realised where she was.

"Wake up you sleepy head."

"Took you bloody long enough!" Came a very irritated voice.

"I was only two minutes."

Malfoy put his hand out to help her up, but Hermione ignored it, and brought her sleepy self up with her own energy. She began to walk ahead, realising all the different hall arches that led in many different directions. She had no idea where to go. Malfoy let out a small laugh. She turned around to face him, and found him leaning so casually against the cold wall.

"Lost now are we?" drawled Draco.

Hermione was fed up with his little games. "Just hurry up and lead us to our dormitory." Hermione was so tired right now, she, herself let her rest against the wall. Her stomach gave out a loud growl, and memories from the feast came flooding back. She had barely eaten anything due to the fact of her nervousness of being introduced to the whole school. She never really liked so much attention drawn to herself. That's one of the main reasons why she never really could be bothered to do anything about her looks. She felt very weak at that moment and let herself slide down to the bottom of the floor once again that night. She shut her eyes slowly and began to feel her head pump a bit.

Realising that she was not acting, Draco strode hastily to her side and felt her forehead. She felt very cold, and he, himself could hear her stomach growling. She being a Gryffindor was probably not use to the cold atmosphere that seemed to penetrate every particle in the air.

He decided that she probably had no strength in her to walk back to their dormitory. So doing what any prince would do when his damsel was in distress, he picked her up and started walking at a leisurely pace. Hermione lay very still in his arms. "She's probably sleeping" he thought to himself. When he reached the entrance to their dorms, he said the password to the portrait and slid slowly through. Assuming she'd feel very uncomfortable and lost if she woke up in the morning on the couch, decided to take her upstairs to her bed. "I could get use to this" he thought to himself. He walked up the stairs and entered her red and gold room. The colours slightly hit him with quite a shock. He was so use to seeing the oh so common colours of green and silver, that the red and gold came to him like he had never seen colour before. He placed her gently on the bed and thought also that her very thick robe would be very uncomfortable to sleep in, he decided to take it off slowly so he wouldn't wake her.. He undid the lightly done knot, to reveal a dark coloured green singlet top underneath. Deciding that she was a proper lady, he closed the dressing gown back up, to not disturb her privacy. With that, he let himself take a quick glimpse of his sleeping beauty and took off slowly down the stairs.

"Amazing" he breathed to himself.