Midnight Strolls

A lone figure could slightly be seen leaning against a statue in the entrance hall. It was tall and lean, dressed in the finest school robes money could buy. Draco Malfoy held an air of nobility about him. One could only assume he developed through growing up surrounded by important people, and being told he was a prince. Tonight he had a bored look around him, idly moving the green eyed snake necklace that hung around his pale neck. The snake looked annoyed, and kept opening and closing its metal mouth trying to attack the person who kept messing with it.

The Slytherin Prince heard a noise to his left and dropped the snake, letting it rest in the middle of his chest, right on top of his green and gray tie. He straightened up to his full height and put on that scowl that scared the underclassmen and made the girls swoon. Just as he was about to relax again he spotted a ball of red bouncing his way. The red, he realized, stat atop a short girl with blue eye's shoulders and hung down in ringlets. As the girl got closer to him he spotted the Hufflepuff crest on her robes in the left hand corner.

"Hey you!" He might not have liked to give up his nights running around the castle trying to catch people out of bounds, but he sure did like it when he caught someone. "What're you doing out of bed. You were supposed to be in your common room two hours ago." The girl kept walking toward him, but now without the bounce.

"Um..I was in my common room two hours ago." She didn't meet his eyes. Actually she had been staring at the floor since he had started yelling at her.

"Well, what did you think you were doing leaving! That'll be twenty points from Huffle.." Draco stopped in his punishment. The tiny red head had finally gotten to him and he noticed a little silver badge pinned on the opposite side of her robes from her house crest. "Why the hell didn't you just tell me you were a prefect!"

She cringed at the sound of his voice. "I just became a prefect; I'm not used to it." She was talking to the floor, not Draco, but he was used to it not many people actually had the guts to stare him in the face.

"You're a fifth year too? Well, what're you doing out here anyway, just because you're a prefect doesn't mean you can stroll the halls when ever you feel like it." He may not live by what he just said, but if he could take those twenty points from her anyway it would make his night that much better.

"I'm not." She stated in a whisper. "I'm actually supposed to meet my partner in the entrance hall. This is my first night of patrolling." She glanced up for a millisecond and then continued to memorize the lines in the marble on the floor.

Draco just stood there. This was his patrolling partner!

Wait..

This was his patrolling partner?

A duffer of a Hufflepuff fifth year! That bloody Mudblood head girl couldn't have even given him a sixth year Hufflepuff!

"My name is Amy Roberts." Her Irish accent broke through his internal ranting.

"Personally, I don't care." He may have been brought up to treat witches with respect, but with person seemed too muggle-ish for him "Lets just get this over with" He scowled at his luck.

"O-ok" She stammered out. "But what are we supposed to do?" He hated that he had to teach the newbie her job.

"Well, we walk around the damn school looking for people out of bed, and when we find one I yell at him, while you stand there and shake like the pathetic badger that you are." He then abruptly stalked off up the grand staircase, leaving the Hufflepuff to scramble up after him.

Draco kept up his pace. Not too fast, but just fast enough where the short girl couldn't keep up a conversation and keep up with him. He didn't want to talk, especially not to her. They continued off on their exploration of Hogwarts until they got to the fourth floor.

Draco looked around and then abruptly turned and almost ran into Amy scaring her slightly.

He just side stepped her and continued back down toward the Great Hall and his solitude.

"Why are you turning around?" She asked the retreating Slytherin "This is only the fourth floor. We've got four more to cover." Her accent was growing more auditable as she thought he was leaving her to finish the rest of the shift.

He slowed and finally stopped half way down the hall. He gazed at her, wishing he could just turn around and let the ignorant fifth year rummage around the whole damn school all night. If he had been declared Head Boy that's what he would be doing just now. Unfortunately that had not happened. He still wasn't sure how, but never-the-less here he stood just a prefect.

"Well!" He had been staring at her for a few minutes and she was starting to forget who he was, and get mad.

His eyes flashed and his scowl appeared on those pale features of his. He drew himself up to his full height, of about 6'5", a sharp difference from her height of just under 5'.

He walked back down the hall in seconds with his long legs. He stopped mere inches from the young girls face staring into her blue eyes.

"Who the hell are you! That you think you can talk to me like that? I don't remember there being a pure blooded family with the surname of 'Roberts'." His gray orbs looked as icy as if Amy were staring into the artic.

She gathered as much courage as she posed and stared back at him, but couldn't keep it up so she let her eyes drop and responded. "There isn't." She didn't need to explain anymore than that.

Well, if she was half-blood, she would have surly pointed out her wizarding half to the blonde prefect. So that left only one option left.

She was a muggleborn.

A Mudblood.

Well, that was just bloody brilliant!

Not only did their Head Girl give him a Hufflepuff fifth year to train. This Hufflepuff happened to be a damn Mudblood!

His temper rose.

"Well, then Mudblood. You need to learn your place; I don't have to tell you anything. As far as I'm concerned you can wonder this whole damn school and get lost. I'm not going to tell you anything more." He said that in a low deep whisper his eyes narrowing as he spoke.

Draco then stood up and turned away from the frightened girl walking back down the hallway and to the familiarity of the dungeons.

'Well, that was a waste of an evening' thought Draco as he sat in one of the green leather arm chairs staring into the fire. Draco had just gotten back from his first night of patrolling and he was so livid that when he walked into the common room the few Slytherins that had actually still been awake scuttled away to get to their beds before he could take his anger out on them.

Draco liked that. He had power over them, and he liked it. He would have preferred to have power over the whole school, but the golden trio had that now and so out of the dungeons he had to be careful.

Draco sat and stared at the fire for hours, long after the wood was gone and just the embers gleamed.

Soft laughter could be heard from behind a door that isn't usually there. The room of requirement was entertaining two late night guests.

"Oh Ronald." The girl seemed to say between her soft laughing. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time. I don't get out much." She smiled at the red haired young man that she was cuddling with.

"I know what you mean. We haven't had anytime to be alone. With Harry over all summer, we couldn't do a thing! I just hope he didn't notice any of the letters or me sneaking off to send replies." Ron sighed and kissed the top of the girls head. Smoothing out her hair and then returning his hands to rest on top the girl's stomach.

"Does anyone know?" She asked with a hint of fear in her voice. She turned around and looked into the boy's eyes, pleading for him to say 'no'.

"Of course not." He replied. "You wanted to make sure no one knew, and I accepted that. Although we are in seventh year, so we'll be away from the people who wouldget upset soon enough." He looked down at her and brought her now smiling face up to his. They kissed for a while, and when they broke off Ron voiced one of his fears. "I wonder what Harry will say when he finds out." The girl just sat there. Not knowing what to say.

"He sure will be shocked." Ron had a wry smile on his freckled face. Unconsciously he wrapped his arms around the girl tighter. She sighed and relaxed into his embrace. He could hold her as tight as he wanted and she'd just be happier the tighter they held onto each other.

"How're your classes going?" Ron wanted to get off of the depressing subject of their friends finding out about them.

"They are going as well as seventh year classes can go. We're getting a lot of work, but that was to be expected. I love my chosen field. It's so exciting!" She smiled, happy that she knew what she would be doing with the rest of her life. "How about you?" She questioned her secret boyfriend.

"Well, I've got all the same classes as Harry." The girl nodded and then allowed him to continue with his answer. "I'm still hoping to be an auror, but I probably won't make it." He voiced his concern with his carefree attitude that he kept even in the worse of situations.

"I have confidence in you." Her eyes sparkled as he semi-blushed.

They laid together in comfortable silence for the next ten minutes or so. Ron was almost asleep when his secret girlfriend noticed just how late it was.

"I should get going. In order for my excuse to work I better get back to the common room." She sadly untangled herself for him strong arms. Stood up and stretched looking down athis tangled red hair,and his cute freckled face and smiled.

"Why do you have to go?" He was sad that their date was ending. "What was your excuse anyway?" He yawned and gazed up at her.

"I was going to the library to find something about the 13" scroll that's due for History of Magic." She half smiled and helped him up.

"Oh" Was all Ron said as he watched her retreating form leave the room of requirement.

"Anyway" She said as she stopped right before the door "You have to patrol tonight. You should get to that." She blew him one last kiss and slipped out of the door leaving him in the darkened room.

"Fine" Ron said to the empty room "Night, I love you." He wished he could say those last three words to her face, but he hadn't. Tonight he had planned to. It was on the schedule right after making out.

He wondered when he had left the schedule and starting winging it. Oh that was right, the minute she stepped through the door. She just made him tongue tied, he couldn't think straight around him. And yet, she made him think better, if that could even possibly make sense.

He decided that he'd think about his love another time. Right now he was late meeting his trainee. Granted patrolling wasn't a hard job, and he was sure his Ravenclaw fifth year could have figured it out with out his help.

Well, with the thought that Hermione would murder him if he skipped patrolling he strolled toward the door and left. After closing the door it vanished ever waiting for the right people to call on it again.

With a smile on his face he headed off to the fourth floor to meet up with his partner for the year.

As he approached he heard a person with a slight Irish accent yelling at someone.

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.

First of all. I'm pretending the Sixth book has never happened. Half Blood Prince does not exsist. So everything from 1-5th years will be cannon, but since this is 7th year I have my own little 6th year that I can pull from. I'm only doing this because I started the story before the 6th book came out and frankly, it would mess with my story too much to keep it. So I'm pretending it didn't happen. So if you don't like that, I'm sorry stop reading.

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.

I wish I could say that I was happy with my reviews of the last chapter, but as I didn't get any I can't really say that.

I'm sorry that it took sooo long for this update, but I've already been caught with Writers block…plus I live a busy life.

That is all. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!