Edited 2/5/2021 by my incredible beta, FalconHonour

The following weeks of school passed by without incident, other than a Prophet headline that claimed a break-in on Gringotts, but that was utter tripe. Everyone knew that you couldn't break into Gringotts, and the Goblins even said that the vault had been emptied out earlier that day, "So even if there was a break-in, the contents of the vault were not there-and no, we're not telling you what was in there!" a Goblin was quoted as saying.

So, everything was relatively peaceful, and the first years started to fall into the rhythm of school. That wasn't to say that it was quiet by any means. It very much wasn't. Hermione was rapidly learning every single spell in the spellbooks for the year without trouble, which she was rather proud of. Pansy was equally as proud of how she had coerced the House Elves into brewing a more concentrated form of coffee for her, so she only had to have one cup of the purest bean coffee rather than the 'diluted and weak' four cups of straight black coffee she normally had. The scent of the drink alone woke Hermione up. Hannah was becoming rather popular in Hufflepuff, and was enjoying having more time to spend with her cousin Susan. Daphne had complained enough to both Uncle Lucius and Father about Professor Binns ruining her favourite subject that Hermione was somewhat confident that they would have a new History of Magic teacher by next year at the latest. Theo and Daphne had had their first kiss-a quick sweet peck on the lips that Daphne spent hours regaling in great detail to Pansy and Hermione in their dorms. Blaise was spending more time with Hermione, Theo, Daphne, Pansy and Draco and they were quickly coming to consider the quick-witted Italian a friend. Neville was getting over his nerves around Professor Snape and was now able to get through Potions without blowing anything up. And Draco? Draco was getting into verbal spars with Ronald Weasley, whom he dubbed 'The Weasel', and Harry Potter, who was 'Scarhead'.

Admittedly, most of the 'fights' were started by Weasley insulting one of the Slytherins, or the house in general, but it didn't get bad until he asked Draco which of his 'slag cousins' he was betrothed to-Daphne or Hermione.

Hermione whipped around. "First of all, if you ever learned anything at all about Pure-blood Society, History, Culture or Families, you would know that the Malfoys and the Greengrasses are not even distantly related. In fact, you would have to go back nine generations before we had a common ancestor, which is much further back than your parents, who are second cousins. Or did you forget that red-hair isn't exactly a common trait? Second, Daphne is betrothed to Theo and it's their own damn choice and it's for a good reason. Draco and I aren't betrothed, but if we were, you could be Merlin-damned sure our parents would've had a good reason to set it up. Third, neither Daphne nor I are slags, thank you very much."

Later that night she had wiped away furious tears, "I don't even know why I'm crying!" she complained to Draco, "I know what he said isn't true and he's just a gormless berk, but it still hurts, and he said it about Daphne too! She's never even said a word to him! And I know what he says about her doesn't bother her, but it bothers me! She's my younger sister, even if it is only by an hour. I ought to be able to protect her!"

A few days later, there was a notice in the Common Room, announcing that Flying Lessons started on Thursday and that they were with the Gryffindors.

Hermione didn't think she had seen so much glee on a person's face when Draco discovered that they had lessons with Gryffindor.

"What are you so happy about?" Hermione asked, "You kind of hate most Gryffindors."

"Exactly!" the blonde had exclaimed, "I'm going to get to see Weasley and Potter fall off their brooms!" He ran to Daphne, who was on the other side of the room, "Daphne, I'm begging you, please, please, please, please, please take your camera to the lessons! I want pictures of Weasley and Potter falling off their brooms!" When Daphne rolled her eyes and nodded her head, he let out a whoop of joy and did a lap of victory around the common room, much to Hermione's amusement.

"Not that I'm going to be so loud about it," chuckled Theo, "But I'm looking forward to flying lessons with the Gryffindors too."

"I mean I get that it's a house rivalry thing and all", Blaise started, wrinkling his nose, "But I still don't completely get it. Why do you guys hate Gryffindors so much?"

The common room went quiet in shock. Draco was the first to begin, "Longbottom's not so bad, he's an exception I suppose, more of a Puff than a Gryffindor, but I don't know how Mia can stand Patil and Brown."

"It's just that they're all so...brash," said a third year.

"And annoying," added another.

"Plus they hate us for no good reason."

"Well, don't they think we hate Muggleborns?" said Hermione, playing devil's advocate, as always.

"Most of us don't. Slytherin hasn't been like that since our parents were here," A fifth year joined the conversation.

"They accuse us of cheating whenever we win anything," said Emmeline, grumbling darkly.

"They think we're evil whenever we mention using blood rituals or even anything remotely grey."

"Not to mention that half of them are Weasleys, and therefore Blood Traitors."

"And if they're not Blood Traitor Weasleys, they're probably Blood Traitors from some other family, or they don't believe in Lady Magic."

"And then they get pissy whenever we try to say that Muggleborns should celebrate Samhain with us instead of Halloween."

"Language," said Carrine, who walked into the common room at that very moment. "What are we talking about?"

"Why Gryffindors suck."

"Two words," the prefect said, "Percy Weasley." Almost everyone groaned. "I'm curious, how many of you has he taken points from so far this school year?"

At least half of the people in the common room raised their hands.

"Ten points to Slytherin for honesty," she smirked, then paused. "Well at least if you're not in his year you don't have to deal with him in classes."

"He's such an ass-licker," said a fourth year boy. Carrine pretended to not hear him.

"Gryffindors literally get away with everything."

"They act like they're always the good guys and we're always the bad guys."

"Even though there's more bullies in Gryffindor than any other house combined, just saying."

"And I know for a fact that there's been dark lords from Gryffindor too. Just cause You-Know-Who was a Slytherin doesn't mean that the Gryffs and the Ravens haven't had their fair share of terrible people too."
"Why not Hufflepuff?"

Hermione laughed, "Honestly, there's no way that there's ever been a Dark Lord or Lady that was a Hufflepuff."

"What even brought this conversation on?" a seventh year asked.

"Draco wants me to take my camera to our flying lessons with the Gryffindor so I can take pictures when Potter and Weasley fail miserably."

"When you develop those photos, can you make a copy for me?" asked Emmeline.

Suddenly there was a great amount of Slytherins wanting photocopies. Hermione ended up starting a list so they could remember to make enough for everyone who wanted pictures.

The next day, Draco was practically vibrating with excitement. Hermione, on the other hand, was a bit nervous. As she poked at her breakfast halfheartedly, Theo looked up from his newspaper. "What's wrong?"

"Everyone says that the school brooms are awful! What if they break and I fall in front of everyone?"

"Well, Draco can probably catch you, I mean he's wicked fast on any broom."

"But if I'm too far away?"

Theo thought for a second, "I can make sure to take my wand holster and keep alert. I'll cast a cushioning charm on the ground if you fall. But I don't think you need to be that worried. I know you think you're not a great flyer, but you're pretty good at the basics. Just because you can't do all the fancy stuff that Draco and Astoria can do doesn't mean you're a bad flyer or that you're going to fall off. I mean I think out of all of us, you're the only one of us who hasn't fallen off a broom."

"Worst case scenario, you break your wrist and Daddy threatens to sue the school unless they get a new History of Magic teacher!" Daphne butted in, before Hermione could think of a retort to that.

"Wow, I'm thrilled to know that my mass humiliation is worth a new teacher in History of Magic."

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Stop being melodramatic. Nobody will care that much if you fall off your broom. You've got enough acquaintances in Gryffindor to make them shut up if they make a big deal out of it. Plus, a broken wrist or ankle lasts for maybe a couple minutes until you get to the infirmary and get it fixed. A new History of Magic teacher on the other hand-"

"Daphne," said Theo in warning.
"I'm serious! If I have to listen to Binns butcher my favourite subject for the next seven years, I'm going to kill myself and take over the position as a ghost."

Hermione buried her head in her hands, "Find somebody else to sue the school."

"Draco?" Daphne said innocently, "You know what I want for my birthday present this year?" Hermione and Theo exchanged a look. "Can you fall off a school broom and break your arm or something so we can get a new History of Magic teacher?"

"That doesn't make any sense," said Draco, and Daphne launched into an explanation. When she was finished he shook his head. "Nah, if I fell off a broom it wouldn't make any sense. Everyone already knows I'm a great flyer."

Daphne looked at Pansy, expectantly. "Hell no."

Daphne looked deterred, but not defeated. Hermione didn't realize why until she saw Daphne start walking over to Tracey and Millie. "Daphne, no!"

"You're such a spoilsport sometimes, Mia."

"We'll find some other way to sue the school if you want to do it that badly. Plus, that's not the only way to get rid of Binns. But we are not falling off brooms on purpose so we hurt ourselves."

"What if I did it?"

Everyone looked up from their breakfast and said in unison, "No, Daphne."

The morning went by fairly smoothly despite Daphne's complaints that they were ruining a perfectly good plan and she had no issue falling off her broom, but if they were all so against it, then she wouldn't do it. By the time they were out on the Quidditch Field, Daphne had admitted defeat.

"Fine, I guess, whatever. I promise I won't fall off of my broom," Daphne sulked, "But if any one of you do it and then try to take credit for my idea..."

When the Gryffindors arrived-"finally" whispered Pansy-Madame Hooch, the flying instructor, came out onto the Quidditch Field.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Hermione got a good look at the broomstick she had stood by, which had twigs at odd angles and it looked to be past the point you would retire a broom at. Draco, who was standing next to her was looking at the broom like it had offended him, and Pansy, who was on her other side was whispering under her breath "I swear to Merlin above if I get a single splinter I will be so damned pissed." She looked up to see Hermione glancing at her. "And you're going to help me get it out."

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"UP!" Shouted everyone.

Hermione's broom flew reluctantly into her hand after a moment's hesitation, unlike Draco's and Potter's, both of whom had brooms that shot up into their hands. Tracey's broom had moved an inch off of the ground and flopped back down. Hermione saw Neville, who was on the other side of the line with the Gryffindors, stare down at his unmoving broom. Eventually, though, everyone's brooms were in hand, after several retries. Luckily, none of the Slytherins took more than three tries, so they didn't look stupid.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. When she corrected Draco's holding, Hermione rolled her eyes at Weasley and Potter's delight. Draco knew how to hold his broom, he had been taught by a professional Quidditch Player, albeit a former one. Just because it wasn't the technique beginners used didn't mean that he was wrong. Draco seemed equally incensed by the two's delight, and murmured to Daphne to keep her camera ready when they got into the skies. He also changed his grip back to the one he'd been using for years the moment Hooch's back was turned.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —"

Hermione turned to see Neville shoot up into the sky perhaps a couple dozen feet. He was about as white as a sheet. He looked down at the ground that was further and further away and slipped off of his broom. With a great crash he slammed into the ground, and Hermione winced.

Madam Hooch leaned over Neville, who was moaning in pain, and inspected his wrist. "Broken wrist. Come on, boy — it's all right, up you get." She turned around to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear." Neville was leaning on her heavily as they hobbled off into the castle.

Draco watched Hermione stare after Neville, who was limping away and saw the moment she bit her lip. Draco grabbed her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. She always bit her lip whenever she was nervous or when she was thinking particularly hard. She squeezed back gratefully and let go, releasing her lip at the same time. She started looking around at the line of Gryffindors. Suddenly, her eyes caught on something . Draco followed her line of vision to a glittering glass ball lying in the grass. It must've been Neville's-Draco had thought he had seen the boy holding it earlier that day.

Making a split second decision, he quickly darted over and scooped the ball up. He retreated to the safety of Slytherins before anybody could react. He just hoped that nobody would make a fuss over it. He was wrong.

"Give that here, Malfoy." It was Potter.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Why? It isn't yours."

"It's Neville's."

"I know that, why do you think I grabbed it?"

"So you can steal it!" chimed in Weasley.

Draco looked at him dumbfounded, "Why would I need a Remembrall? I-" but he was cut off by Potter again.

"You don't. You're just taking it so Neville won't be able to find it later!" he cried out. "Give it here!" Potter lunged at Draco.

In that moment, Draco panicked. He had never exactly had anybody lunge at him before. So he did what any logical person would do: grabbed his broom and took off. He turned around when he was maybe ten feet off of the ground. Potter was rushing towards his broom, apparently ready to follow him into the skies. Hermione was scowling at him. Draco was sure she was going to yell at him in the Common Room later that night, but honestly, it would be worth it. Number one, Hermione cared about Neville for some reason. She was sweet like that, Draco supposed, and it was one of the reasons he liked her so much. But did she always have to go for the most lost of causes? And Gryffindors? Not to mention, Gryffindors whose parents were tortured into insanity by his crazy Aunt? But it didn't matter. If Hermione cared about Neville, which she did, she would want to return his Remembrall to him later and use it as an excuse to make sure he was okay. And Number Two, it wound up the Gryffindors, most importantly, Potter and Weasley.

Draco didn't think he had ever really despised someone before, much less hated them. He was reconsidering that with Weasley and Potter. With Weasley, the hatred was for obvious reasons. Between the Blood Feud, the boy's atrocious manners, and the way that he was just in general an unlikable person, it wasn't easy to guess where the dislike stemmed from. But Potter? Potter was different. Maybe Draco could've gotten over the public rejection of friendship. Even the fact that Potter was an insufferable Gryffindor wasn't what made Draco dislike the Boy-Who-Lived as much as he did. No. It was that Weasley would say whatever he could to hurt Hermione and Boy-Wonder would do nothing. Say nothing. Maybe even laugh. Potter was supposed to be the epitome of goodness and kindness and all that rot. Yet he let his best friend get away with making snide comment after snide comment, insult after insult, blow after blow, all of them aimed at Hermione. Draco wasn't sure why Weasley focused on Hermione. Maybe it was because the two of them were close and he wanted to get at Draco? Maybe it was because she was the nicest out of all of them? Whatever the reason, Draco didn't care. All he cared about was the look of hurt that would flash across Hermione's eyes every time she heard the Weasel say something nasty about her. Potter had to see it too. Mia wasn't that good at hiding her emotions. And yet Potter did nothing. Hermione was innocent. She had never spoken a word to Weasley or Potter before they talked to her. And still, Potter let his best friend drag some innocent girl through the mud. That was why Draco hated Potter. Perhaps even more than he hated Weasley. He hadn't exactly had high expectations for Weasley. That wasn't to say his expectations had been high for Potter either, not after the boy had rejected his overtures so rudely, but Merlin, he had hit rock bottom and kept digging.

Speaking of Potter, he was on his broom-predictable Gryffindor. He glanced down to see that Daphne had her camera out. Good.

"Give it here," Potter called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!" That was it. Draco was not going to back down.

"Oh, yeah?"

Potter, out of nowhere, charged at Draco. Draco was shocked. You were not supposed to charge at someone on a broom! That was like Flying 101, for Merlin's sake!

Draco, caught off guard, turned in a twist to get out of Potter's path. Unfortunately, the Remembrall slipped from his hand.

Potter took a nosedive for it-which was just as stupid, they could reparo the Remembrall or buy Neville a new one if it broke-but Draco guessed the thought never crossed Potter's mind. Somehow, the boy didn't break his neck, and swerved up at the last second after catching the Remembrall, and held it up in the sky over his head. But while Potter was displaying his stupidity for all to see, Draco returned to the ground, next to Hermione, who was glaring at him. A teacher would be out at any moment. A teacher who would give him detention for doing something so ridiculously stupidly Gryffindorish-ly reckless. The last time he had tried to make a move that stupidly reckless in Quidditch, Mother hadn't let him ride his broom for a week and had made him write an essay on the dangers of Quidditch.

"HARRY POTTER!" And there was McGonagall. Good. "Never — in all my time at Hogwarts —" Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "— how dare you — might have broken your neck —"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor —" Patil started to say, before McGonagall fixed her with a glare.

"Be quiet, Miss Patil —"

"But Malfoy —" Weasley started to say, but Draco was pleased to see Professor McGonagall cut him off as well.

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now." McGonagall walked off at a brisk pace, and Potter had to run to keep up. Once they were gone, everyone erupted into speech.

"He's gonna get expelled-" "No he won't, he's Harry Bloody Potter." "He could literally kill someone and he would still be untouchable," and "Swear to Merlin-" were heard from the Slytherin side. The Gryffindor side was bustling with praise. "That was so cool!" "I reckon he could play for England!" "And on a school broom too!"

When Madame Hooch returned a few minutes later, she quieted them all with a harsh gaze. "We're missing someone," she said.

Pansy looked up, "Well Potter decided that he was going to start flying around and Professor McGonagall saw him, and just took him off."

"Twenty points from Gryffindor," the woman said. As Gryffindor protested with "but Malfoy!"s and "that's not fair"s, she looked at them all and said, "and I'll take more if you all don't pipe down right this instant."

Half an hour later, everyone was circling around the pitch, some like Hermione flying around at a lazy pace, others like Draco and Weasley going as fast as they could without getting yelled at by Hooch. Weasley suddenly raced by Hermione and laughed, "Can you not ride a broom? Are you afraid of heights? Blimey, how barmy do you have to be? You have to be absolutely stupid to fall off of a broom!"

"Sod off, Weasley."

He glared at her and turned around, continuing to race through the skies, this time with his hands in the air. Hermione noted that Daphne had her camera out, taking pictures of everyone, but focusing on Weasley. When she turned back around to look, the ginger was flying at probably the fastest you could go on a broom as old as the school brooms were. Suddenly, the broom he was riding on stopped. This might not have necessarily been a problem in normal circumstances, but he hadn't been holding on. He vaulted forward and into the grass about forty feet. The boy had been spared most of the impact with a cushioning charm quickly cast by Madame Hooch, but Hermione could tell his mouth was bloody and that he held a few teeth in his hands.

At the end of the period, Madame Hooch blew her whistle and everyone flew back to the ground. "Alright, I've been taking notes on how all of you can fly and if I think you need help, I'm going to list out your name and you will have to come to the Quidditch field every Thursday at this time for the rest of the year so I can get you to a point where you can ride a broom to my liking. If you fell off at any point during this lesson, were flying in a reckless manner or with horribly improper technique, or you looked scared to death up there, I will probably be calling your name. I don't care if your Great Uncle Steven flies like that, you fell off. With that being said, I look forward to having you in my class for the rest of the year if your name is called." She cleared her throat. "Millicent Bulstrode, Tracey Davis, Fay Dunbar, Neville Longbottom, Parvati Patil, and Ronald Weasley must all continue this course for the rest of the year. Patil, make sure Longbottom knows, will you?." Hermione let out a breath of relief. She did feel bad for everyone who had to continue lessons, but honestly, she was just so happy that she wasn't one of them that she could've cried out in relief. The less time on a shoddy broomstick in the air, the better.

That night at dinner, Hermione pointedly ignored Draco and talked to Pansy instead. She had half considered sitting and eating with Hannah but Pansy had waved her over when she started walking towards the Hufflepuff table. After half an hour of trying - and failing - to get Hermione's attention, Draco went to the Gryffindor table with Greg and Vincent.

"I know you're pissed at Draco for breaking the rules, but do you really have to ignore him?" Daphne said.

"Those school brooms are death traps! And he shouldn't have let Potter get him riled up like that. Honestly, none of you should. Verbal jabs are one thing, but going straight to brawling? What are we, Gryffindors?" Pansy nodded. Hermione continued, "And just why are you guys so mean to Weasley? I mean, like, I despise him, but all of you go out of your way to goad him."

Theo's face darkened, "Well, when he called you and Daphne slags, I decided that he had lived a long enough life."

"Same here," said Daphne.

"I thought you said you didn't care?" Hermione asked.

"I don't care when he says that about me. But you do. And I also don't particularly care for him calling you a slag. He shouldn't say that stuff about you," Daphne glared across the hall.

"In Italy, if a Wizard insults a Witch, to let it go by and not retaliate at some point is the highest form of disrespect," Blaise said. "And you deserve respect."

"Well, he just annoys me," piped up Pansy, "More than anyone else. So I try to annoy him just as much as he annoys me, although I don't quite think that's possible." Daphne rolled her eyes. "And, yeah, okay, maybe I was a bit pissed off about what he said about you guys."

Hermione laughed, "Pansy! Is that emotion that you're showing? That you actually care?"

"Yeah, yeah, sod off everyone. What about you, Draco?"

Hermione turned around to see Draco had returned to his seat. She shot a glare at Pansy, who stuck up her middle finger. Daphne and Blaise burst into laughter, and Theo was smirking. Draco just looked confused.

"What do I think about what?" he asked.

"Mia wanted to know why everyone hates Wealsey so much."

"Well like why everyone goes out of their way to rile him up," Hermione added on, before remembering she was giving Draco the silent treatment.

"He made you cry," said Draco simply.

"The blood feud isn't the motivating factor?" Hermione asked, unable to help herself.

"Do you see me going out of my way to torment the Weasley twins or Prefect Weasley? Granted, I don't see them much, but if I wanted to, I could definitely make their lives less fun," Draco said. "And are you done giving me the silent treatment?"

"Are you going to apologise for letting Potter wind you up enough to break the rules in front of eighteen witnesses and then, oh, I don't know, getting on a school broom without supervision when it's so old, it could break at any second, and you could fall and wind up breaking your neck?"

Draco looked sheepish, "Sorry, Mia. I didn't mean to get you worried," He sat down. "Maybe this isn't the best time but I should probably tell you that well, IkindofchallengedPottertoaduelatmidnight."

"You what?"

"I challenged Potter to a duel, in the trophy room, at midnight. Vince is my second. Weasley is Potter's."

Hermione counted to ten and then back down before responding. "Are you a Gryffindor or a Slytherin?"

Draco looked offended, "Of course I'm a Slytherin!"

"Well you aren't acting like one! Do you want to get caught by Filch?"

Draco flushed, "Well I wasn't actually going to do it. I was hoping you would tell Filch that there'd be people in the Trophy Room at midnight and they'd get caught and have to have detention with Filch and shine all the trophies the muggle way."

"And why do I have to tell Filch?"

"'Cause you're a girl and you look the most innocent out of all of us," he said sheepishly, "And you've got the best grades out of all of us in our year, so if someone finds out you helped set them up, none of the teachers will believe it."

"Fine. But you have to carry all my books the next time we go to Flourish and Blotts."

"Okay," said Draco, pausing for a moment. "Am I forgiven?"

Hermione let out a long sigh, "I guess."