Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, they are the brilliant works of the marvelous J.K.Rowling. I also do not own Coldplay or To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

CHAPTER 4

Upon entering Muggle Studies, Hermione noticed there were not many people there yet, she was a little early. She did see that Ron and Harry had saved a seat for her and walked towards them, but something intercepted her along the way. Draco jumped in front of her, a look of sarcastic worry on his face.

"Oh my dear!" he said, seeming not to notice the strange looks he was getting from the other students.

"I have heard the most terrible story that you were in the Hospital Wing all last period! Are you ok? You look positively ill!"

Hermione looked at him suspiciously, a grin starting to creep onto her face.

"Thanks, (I think) but I feel fine. Actually I had to take Neville to the Hospital Wing, he was bitten on the face by a Wizardous Venus Fly Trap."

Draco put on a face of mock relief.

"Oh, I'm so pleased, I was worried sick! Still, you should have told me, then I wouldn't have had to worry! If you had simply told me where you were going - as is only fair. It's not even if you know where I am and I have no idea where you've popped off to! You my dear, you have to hold up your end of the bargain." He smiled at this, and moved to Hermione's side to walk with her.

"But I..." she began to say before she was caught off guard by him winding his arm around hers. He walked her to her seat like you might a frail old lady, pulled it out and insisted on helping her sit. He patted her head when she was comfortable and bent down to just above their heads to say,

"Now I'll just be sitting over there. If you need me, just call." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, last year she would have slapped him for being so mocking, but this was different.

Draco sat in his usual spot in the back of the room, leaning back on his chair with a satisfied look on his face. Once Hermione had finished staring back at him in confused amusement, she turned to the front of the room looking totally composed, as if nothing had happened. Harry and Ron had given up asking "WTF?" questions and decided to keep quiet. Though it somewhat disturbed them that these two were supposedly getting along so well, they exchanged silent, 'it's better for them if they're not at each other's throats' looks and moved on with the rest of the class.

A few mornings later, Hermione awoke to the sound of a knocking at her door. She rolled her eyes and got out of bed, making her way to the door. On opening it, she automatically said,

"Ok, I'm sorry for what I said on the first day, but do we really have to continue with this charade?" She looked disgruntled, and tired of being woken up at the crack of dawn every morning by a half naked Malfoy informing her of his plans for the next few hours. After she had said this, she realized that for the first time at this time of the morning, he was not half naked, but fully dressed in his casual robes.

"Actually Granger, I came to tell you that it's Saturday; you've slept in," he motioned to her alarm clock, "and we're supposed to be escorting a group of first years to Hogsmead in 20 minutes"

This took a second to register with Hermione. She spun around to look at her alarm clock, it read 10:10. She quickly let out a small squeak and shut the door to get dressed. After a second of thinking where to start, she realized how rude she'd been and re-opened the door. She was just in time to catch Malfoy turning away and towards the fireplace.

"Malfoy?" she said, and he turned around.

"Yes?" he asked, though he knew what was coming.

"Thanks." He was just within arm's reach, and without thinking, she grabbed his chin lightly between her thumb and forefinger, and pecked him on the cheek. This of course a joke. Mimicking as he had done only a few mornings before, she winked at him before turning into her room and closing the door. She began getting dressed, not stopping to think of the daring thing she had just done.

After dressing, combing her hair and scoffing a muffin for breakfast, she walked to the entrance hall to assemble the first years ready to leave. Surprisingly, she made it there at 10:25. She entered the entrance hall to find lots of bubbling first years ready for their first trip to Hogsmead, a place most of them had heard of, but never been to. Some Hermione knew by name, others she had met informally, but she intended to know each and every one and a little about them before the year was up.

Malfoy was on the other side of the hall, and as she could not make eye contact with him nor make her way through the crowd to him, decided to raise her own voice to get things going. She headed up the nearest set of stairs a little way up, and addressed the first years.

"Good morning all! Welcome to your first trip to Hogsmead. I'm not going to drone on with boring rules...just remember, stay together in groups of two or three and don't wander too far. I trust you will all be able to judge your own boundaries for yourself. Could I have all of you assembling into your houses please, permission forms at the ready." She pointed to four corners of the room for each of the separate houses to group into. Naturally, she made her way to Gryffindor, Malfoy made his way to Slytherin and two representatives also in 7th year made their way to Huffle Puff and Raven Claw.

They all had their permission forms and arrived in the small village without a problem. Once dispersed, Hermione made her way to the book store, and picked up a few novels for 'light reading'. Malfoy had gone off to Quidditch Corner, where he searched for the latest Nimbus, and checked out all the latest equipment. The two met on their ways from one shop to the next. They stopped dead, facing each other, Hermione remembering the fun she'd had since the year had started, and smiled at the ground, occasionally looking up at him to try and read his features.

"Terribly sorry I didn't mention where I was going." she said, playing along with the joke.

"You didn't have to tell me you were going to the bookstore, I could have told you that" he smiled.

They stood there another minute, then out of the blue he said,

"Shall we?" and glided his hand in the direction of the path. Hermione thought for a minute until she realized what he was talking about, the nodded, smiled and began walking with him.

"How are you finding your Head Girl status?" he asked, being the perfect gentleman.

"Actually I'm rather enjoying it. It's been quite a surprising year so far." she raised her eyebrows at this last comment, implying that she had indeed, been rather surprised at events so far.

"Oh? How so?" They turned the corner and headed down a less busy road.

"Oh, Neville being bitten on the face by that plant, having my own lavish dorm, how easy it is to meet people now that they all know who I am, discovering you aren't such a bad person as I thought, and actually having fun even though I have all of these new commitments and responsibilities." she rattled them all off as if they were not a big deal, though one in particular caught his attention.

"No that bad after all, eh? Well I knew you'd warm to me Granger. It just didn't require as much time or punishment as I thought it would." he said with a teasing smile.

"Don't go letting this get to your head Malfoy, I didn't say I liked you, just that you're not quite the ass everyone makes you out to be!" He looked a little hurt at this, but she knew he wasn't serious.

"Thanks...I think." He said, " And anyway, if there ever was a year when we came to actually get along, it would be this year. First of all we have to spend a fair lot of time together, and second of all, we could do it without upsetting Carrot Top and Scar Face" While she did not like him referring to her two best friends like this, he did have a point. It would not look suspicious if they were to spend time together this year, they did have a lot of organizing work to do, and Harry and Ron would just think of it as 'business as usual'. She had for some time now wanted to spend time with someone other than Harry and Ron, and Malfoy didn't seem too bad an option right now. I mean, she wasn't going to use him and throw him away when she'd gotten over the little 'I feel too crowded by Harry and Ron' thing, but he was in actual fact a pretty good guy.