Midnight Strolls

"What took you so long Hermione?" Those green eyes looked like they had been worrying for a long time.

"I had to show the first years the way." She sat on the long wooden bench next to Harry and across from Ron.

"Why? Didn't they pay attention last night? You shouldn't have to hold their hands the whole week you know." Ron was horrified. They had been shown up to the tower once and then left to figure out the rest of the castle on their own. Harry and he had learned the hard way not to be late.

"Well, I kind of got side tracked." She stopped there. Hopefully the two would just ignore it and breakfast would commence as always.

"Side tracked? When does Hermione Jane Granger get side tracked during her duties?" Harry had caught on and he was stating the questions very playfully, with a happy glint in his eyes.

"Well. If you must know, Malfoy ran into me as I was leaving last night, and we got into the first lovely conversation we've had this year, on Hogwarts grounds that is." As she was explaining this to Harry she repeatedly stabbed her poor potatoes.

"Goyle, what classes do I have today?" Draco was sitting in the center of the Slytherin table admired by his fellow housemates. The only one that wasn't afraid of him was Pansy; well Pansy and Millicent, but Millicent didn't really count. She may not have been afraid of him, but she sure was respectful of him and his ruling of Slytherin house. Everyone knew he owned it. Not one Slytherin did anything that Draco didn't at least know about first.

"Advanced Transfiguration and Care of Magical Creatures with those damn Gryffindors." Pansy answered before Goyle could even stop eating. If Draco was the Slytherin King then Pansy was the Slytherin Queen. Although unlike Draco, Pansy wasn't respected by all. She was forced to fight every day to prove she was their Queen.

"Did I ask you Pansy? I believe I asked Goyle so he could try to remember how to read." Draco's mood had just dropped about fifty notches. Pansy should be asking why he didn't make it to their "date" last night any minute now. Just as he was remembering his cover story the mail arrived.

"Ah, Atra you've delivered my candy from mother." Draco untied the large package from the leg of his black eagle owl. The owl stood there for a second as Draco petted his chest softly and fed him a few pieces of his sausage.

The onslaught of owls started to slow as Harry saw his snowy white owl Hedwig fly in and swoop down toward him. She landed softly in the middle of the three best friends.

"Hello girl, did you have a nice night of hunting?" She nipped Harry's finger in answer. Then lifted her leg so Harry could untie the package he had received. "I wonder what could be in here. I never get packages unless it's Christmas." Hedwig began to eat the rest of Harry's bacon. She had become very fond of bacon over the years, and she finished it off in one gulp. Then she flew off to the owlery to enjoy a nice day of sleeping among the rest of Hogwarts' pet owls.

"Hm. Well, you should open it quickly Harry so we can find out." Hermione leaned in to see what was inside. Ron was too busy finishing his fifth helping of the wonderful Hogwarts breakfast to even realize that Harry had gotten mail. Harry inspected the package and found a note attached. He opened that first and realized it was from Remus. Remus was his father and his godfather's best friend; he was also the only person he had left that could be considered "family". That is other than Hermione and the Weasley family of course.

Draco sat there going over the sweets he had and taking inventory. As he counted and made sure he knew what was there Pansy sat right next to him staring and fuming. If she had been looking at anyone else like that they would've been shaking, but Draco ignored it and continued to make sure that if Crabbe or Goyle stole anything he'd know about it.

"Draco…." Pansy had gotten tired of just staring at him when he wasn't even paying attention to her. Draco raised his calculating grey eyes up at Pansy waiting. She got so caught up in staring at his sharpened features that she didn't continue until Draco got tired of waiting and was about to go back to his expensive chocolate.

"Um. As I was saying, why didn't you meet me in the Trophy room? I waited till three in the morning!" She waited for Draco to say he was sorry and he'd make it up to her somehow, but this was Draco not pretty boy Potter.

"If you have to know, I got caught by McGonagall she gave me a detention the old hag." He scowled, not only because he really didn't like Professor McGonagall but also to convince Pansy of the lie even more.

"Why didn't you just say you had prefect duties last night! You could've gotten out of the detention and came to see me." Pansy had used that same excuse when she had gotten caught by Flitwick, so why wouldn't it have worked for Draco.

"I tried that stupid. She knows I have it tonight, actually she knows the whole bloody schedule. That's why I got the detention, for lying to her." If possible he deepened his scowl; his eyes darkened as though they were storm clouds brewing in the far away sky.

"Oh, Malfie…" There was his nickname again. All was well, back to normal, so Draco returned finally to his little chocolate treasures, again ignoring everything Pansy had to say.

"We better get going to Transfiguration you guys." Hermione stood up from the bench and slung her bag on her shoulder. Harry acknowledged her and quickly stuffed the last of his piece of toast in his mouth and joined her standing next to the table to wait for Ron.

"Hey mate, time to go, we don't want to be late." Harry thought that he might be able to separate Ron from his food better than Hermione could, but to no avail.

"If he's not going to listen to us then we might as well leave him." Hermione headed toward the entrance hall at a very brisk pace.

"Ok, I'm coming, wait up will you?" Harry started to run in order to catch up to his speedy girlfriend. He caught up with her just as she was getting to the doors. They weren't the only ones ready to leave though. Standing at the door was Malfoy, and behind him Pansy was running to catch up. As Harry came up to the right side of Hermione, he put his arm around her waist in order to protect her from anything Malfoy might say or do. They stood there as Pansy ran up to Draco's left side and put her arm around his waist even though he still didn't acknowledge her. Then came the conflict; which couple gets to go though the doors first? The lovely head girl and her boyfriend the head boy; or the self proclaimed king and queen of Slytherin house. Both stood there waiting, then at the same time decided that they might as well go. It resulted in the four of them bumping into each other.

"Ah. Malfoy get the bloody hell away from me." Hermione had bumped Draco's blonde head with her own bushy brown one.

"What do you mean by that muggle? You ran into me. You get the bloody hell away from me." Draco was rubbing his head and staring at the cause of all his pain.

"Hey, Malfoy I don't want you talking to Hermione like that. You hear me! I'll dock house points if you're not careful." Harry always the protector tightened his grip on Hermione and ushered her out of the Great Hall before Malfoy had time to pull his wand out.

"Welcome my gifted to Advanced Transfiguration. As you all know I don't accept goofing around in my class. If I catch you doing anything that could harm yourself or any student around you I promise a severe punishment to that person." As Professor McGonagall was saying this, the door at the back of her class room opened very softly. In poked the head of Ronald Wesley. "Ah thank you for joining us Mister Wesley. As I was saying I am much harsher on my advanced students. Ten points from Gryffindor for being late now take your seat Mister Wesley." Ron hung his head, probably being one of the first Gryffindors' to lose house points for the year.

"Good job Weasel. I never knew you wanted to help the better houses win." Pansy commented as he sat down in his assigned seat next to her. Ron did nothing in fear of losing more house points, or worse gaining a detention.

Across the room Harry wasn't paying attention to the professor, instead he was staring at a table in the middle of the room. That table was occupied by his girlfriend and a slimy git. Well, the slimy git was just his personal opinion of the blonde Slytherin. Most of the female and some of the male population would call him one of the 'hottest' guys at Hogwarts. Frankly the contest for the hottest male was down to Harry, and Draco, but Harry didn't care about any of that he had Hermione. Hermione was the person he was trying to help right now actually, she had got stuck sitting next to that prat and there was no telling what he'd do.

Professor McGonagall's voice faded in and out of Draco's subconscious as he glanced around the room trying to see who was "gifted" enough to have this advanced class. He noticed that the class was small, consisting of only about 14 people or so. All four houses were together, that was new. He was used to only having to deal with one stupid house per class. Up in the corner was Finch-Fletchley and one of the Patil twin's he didn't know which. Oh there she moved, it was the Ravenclaw one, Draco vaguely remembered that they had gotten into a heavy snogging session after the Yule Ball but he had been drunk and he didn't remember it very well. To their left sat Blaise and another damn Ravenclaw. Draco moved slightly to further his people spying. He finally recognized her as Brocklehurst. He wasn't sure of her first name, nor did he care what it happened to be. Draco's gaze slowly moved to the last work table in the first row and landed on Hannah Abbott and that Banshee fearing Gryffindor Finnigan.

"Mister Malfoy…." Draco was still focused on the last pair he had been looking at and didn't hear the stern professor talking to him.

"I said, Mister Malfoy!" He slowly turned toward the Scottish accent as its owner walked briskly toward him. "I expect my advanced students to take notes during ever class. You've now missed ten minutes of notes. If you feel as if you don't need to take notes by all means leave my class room." Draco stared up at her. He wanted more than anything to jump up and storm out of her stupid excuse of a class room, but his logical mind kicked in just in time to stop him.

"It won't happen again professor." He slowly took out his quill and parchment as she strolled to the front of the class to again lecture.

Draco sat there trying to pay attention. The only reason he was in this class was to help the Dark Lord when he graduated. Draco's father wanted him to be as advanced as possible, so the minute he graduated Draco could help the Dark Lord with his fight against Potter and the "good" side. Did he really want to help the Dark Lord? Who knows; he certainly didn't.

"I'll see ya later Terry." Harry bid the Ravenclaw a farewell before he was met by his two best friends.

"Time to head to Care of Magical Creatures Harry." Hermione walked up and took Harry's offered arm and the three of them slowly walked to Hagrid's hut.

"I don't know why you're still in this class Hermione. You could have such a worse schedule. Actually Harry and I had bet about if you'd have a terrible course load this term. I guess I lost. You surprised me and actually did what every seventh year should do. You took the term off." Ron was so happy that Hermione was acting like a normal person and didn't have a terrible workload for her last year at Hogwarts.

"Well, that's right Ron. I could've had a worse schedule, but I figured that with N.E.W.T.S. this year that I'd have enough to do. What with studying for my N.E.W.T.S. and making sure that you two study for yours. I figured that would be enough for one year. Also, I'm even gladder that I didn't take a terrible load of classes, since I'm Head Girl now." Hermione looked at Ron as his face fell. He had forgotten about N.E.W.T.S. and about Hermione's promise that they'd pass N.E.W.T.S. if it killed them and her, which it would probably just kill her. Ron shuddered.

Care of Magical Creatures started out with there first scary but in a way cute magical creature. The class went relatively smooth. Hermione personally thought it was because Malfoy wasn't there. She had no clue where he was but it wasn't it class, and the Slytherins' didn't seem to notice.

"That was actually a normal class." Hermione commented as the trio headed up to Gryffindor Tower at the end of the session.

"Yeah, it was. I guess Hagrid has finally gotten the hang of this teaching thing. I'm so happy for him." Harry added to the conversation as he skipped one of the disappearing steps.

"I liked it." Was all Ron contributed to the group discussion. Harry and Hermione got off the stairs and were about to go though the door when they heard a yelp. Both of them turned around to see Ron holding on to a step to stop himself from falling into nothingness. Harry jumped down to him and quickly pulled Ron out of the step that had held him prisoner.

"Ronald Wesley! How could you forget about that step? You know it doesn't allow you to stand on it for more than a few seconds. What in the world could you have been doing!" Hermione was ranting worse than his mother. Ron just stood there though. He knew that if he disturbed Hermione's rant he'd be in for it. Her words seemed to be coming slower and Hermione looked flush in the face from yelling at Ron for so long.

"Hermione, I'm ok. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened I was walking and…."

"And? What were you doing that made you almost die?" Hermione had been very scared for her friend so this little rant was all she could do to not throw herself on Ron and sob that she was glad he was ok.

"Just thinking." Ron wasn't acting right, and both Harry and Hermione noticed. What could Ron be thinking? They looked at each other as if to ask it but then they looked away.

"Well….What were you thinking about mate?" Harry had to know. It must have been something of at least some importance to Ron.

"Nothing. It's nothing. I guess I was just day dreaming about the past." Ron was using the old reminiscing line to get out of explaining things. He wasn't even sure if it needed explaining.

"Oh. You were remembering the good old days huh? That must be fun. Which time I almost died were you remembering? Was it during the chess match? That was great, or maybe when you knocked Lockhart out with a rock. That was the best! I still remember that. 'Do you live here' 'No' Then Bam! I loved that." Harry was staring off into space as he remembered the time Ron hit their old Professor and knocked him out cold.

"Ah, Harry." Hermione was calling him and it was the only thing in the world that would awaken him from his day dream. "Time to go now. We have to get to the common room so we can play that game of Wizards Chess before dinner.

"You're going to play with Ron and I?" Harry was fully aware of things again and didn't understand why his girlfriend would want to play chess. She never had before.

"No, of course not. I hate Wizards Chess and you know it. What I meant was I'll watch while Ron kicks your butt for the ten thousandth time. She chuckled as Harry pretended he was hurt by her joke.

They raced up to the common room and were able to play five rounds before it was time for dinner.

"Wow Harry you really lost terribly today."

"Thanks Hermione. I'll remember that when you do poorly on something."

"What's she going to do poorly on Harry? She's Hermione, practically perfect in every way." Ron chuckled as Hermione basked in pride, and Harry looked like everyone was against him.

"Don't worry I'll make it up to you after dinner." Hermione whispered in Harry's ear as they walked in for dinner.

Author's Notes:

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I wish I did though. I'd be VERY happy if that happened, but it won't so oh well.

This is my first fanfic. It's dedicated to my best friend Aurora Slytherin. She wanted me to write her something, and here it is.

Thanks for the people who reviewed the last chapter. I'm very glad that you liked it.

I know most of you are wondering 'where's the Draco and Hermione'. Well, it's coming sooner or later I promise. This story will not remain Harry and Hermione. Aurora Slytherin would kill me.

I'm not sure what Draco's bird name is. I couldn't find and I got tired of looking. So whatever his birds name is it is now Atra which in Latin means Dark and gloomy. I figured it fit. Oh and if you can't stand that the birds name changed we can pretend he got a new bird or that it's a different bird, because frankly with a family like the Malfoy's they can afford more than ONE bird.

That is all. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!