"Do tell." Hermione responded, leaning forward with interest.

"That Nott git…is getting on my last nerve." Draco answered, venom filling his voice.

"No kidding." Hermione was laughing a bit. "Kids make mistakes, we made plenty." She added, seeing how serious his face was.

"He messed with Longbottom too."

"What?" Hermione was shocked. Partly because Draco was so outraged, and partly because Nott seemed so scared of Draco last time.

"Yea…he stole some plant from his greenhouse…ran around the castle with it…taunting him." Draco's words came out slowly, almost a drawl, filled with…sadness.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked, knowing there was more to the story.

"I lost my temper." He shot back, causing Hermione to chuckle.

"You don't say"

"Don't start me Granger" He said through his teeth. "He's a little shit, running around this place like he owns it…like he's…"

"A Slytherin?" Hermione joked, watching Draco's face turn.

"First of all Granger. I was going to say like a Gryffindor, head first into trouble." He retorted, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied look on his face.

"Oh shove off Malfoy." Hermione shot back, her voice lighter than even she expected. Draco raised an eyebrow at his surname being used again. "Old habits…" Draco nodded. "...anyway you are still calling me Granger." She said defiantly.

"That's your name isn't it?" He asked, feigning innocence.

"Malfoy is yours too no?"

"Surname, yes." He was smirking now.

"And Granger is my surname too no?" Hermione asked impatiently.

"You have another name? Ah yes, bookworm!" Draco said sarcastically, causing Hermione to huff.

"Malfoy it is then…or maybe ferret" Hermione chided.

"Not a foul loathsome evil little cockroach?" Draco retorted, his smirk deepening.

"Ooooh a good one…" Hermione made an exaggerated thinking face.

"It was a good right hook…not gonna lie…" Draco said, dramatically touching the spot she hit him so many years ago. Hermione smirked pridefully. "...for a girl." He added, clearly stirring the pot, but it worked.

"Now you WA-" Hermione started, but stopped herself as she realized he was seconds away from laughing. "I hate you." She said sternly, but it was obvious she didn't mean it.

"Oh I don't doubt that." Draco said playfully, pulling himself up so he was sitting more formally. "Anyway…"

"Nott" Hermione said as if reading his mind, he nodded. "What are you going to do about him? I figure he'll be paired with Coyne first, seeing as he already made fun of her today." Hermione pulled out her parchment from her desk drawer, magicked a quill and ink and waved her door shut, all while speaking.

"Yea agreed. Him and his friends should be separated at all times." Hermione nodded, writing it down. "As for what I am going to do about him…I called Blaise, asked him for his pureblood brat insight." Draco said with a laugh, but Hermione wasn't quite sure how to react.

"What did he say?" Hermione inquired carefully.

"He thinks Nott needs to find his roots."

"His….roots?" Hermione questioned, clearly not getting where this was going.

"Yea his roots. Blaise reckons he needs to learn his family history. See that purebloods are very rarely actually pure." Draco answered, glancing at his parchment.

"You think his parents would be okay with that?" Hermione retorted, giving him a knowing stare.

"No" He chuckled. "And I would never tell Blaise this…you know less ammo for him to use against me…" Draco paused and Hermione suddenly realized that he and Blaise were probably very good friends. "...but even though I agree with him, I can't really afford to piss off the parents." Draco finished, folding within himself slightly.

"But his parents are…"

"Death Eaters at worst, blood purest at best. "Draco interjected biterly.

"Right…" Hermione was unsure how to phrase what was on her mind. Surely Nott's parents weren't the ones Draco would have to worry about.

"Who hate me, I'm sure, for switching sides." Draco said slowly, fidgeting with his wand.

"I didn't…."

"Think about it?" Draco questioned, yet again interrupting her. "Both sides hate me, Granger." His voice cut like ice.

"I'm sure that's not t-"

"I know you are trying to be nice, but trust me on this one. Your side hates me because even though I switched and helped, they'll never truly believe I'm one of them. Not that I blame them…I didn't do myself any favors in the friends department." He paused, waiting for a reaction that never came. "And my former side…" He winced, as if the admission caused him great pain. "...thinks I'm a traitor, which isn't entirely false either. So you see…I am not in a position to piss any of the parents off." Draco looked defeated as he finished, putting his wand on the desk.

"It surely is false." Hermione answered after a silent minute had passed. It was obvious that Draco did not know what she meant. "You weren't a traitor, they were never your side to begin with. I can see that now." Hermione reached forward, and rested her hand on his. There was no denying the tiny spark they both felt, they could see it in each other's eyes. "You didn't choose them Draco, they were forced upon you." At this, Draco pulled his hand back aggressively and jumped up from his seat.

"You can't tell me what I've experienced!" He yelled, fire in his eyes.

"I wasn't trying to-"

"I made plenty of horrible choices Granger." His words were harsh and unexpected. "I made a choice to believe everything my father told me. I made a choice to bully you and your friends. Hell, I made a choice to sneak that cabinet into the school. A cabinet I knew very well would lead to terrible things. So don't tell m-"

"Now that's ENOUGH!" Hermione yelled as she stood up from her seat. "You have interrupted me more times than I can count, and you will not be doing it again." She shot venomously at him, causing him to take a step back. "Whatever your complex is with how you lived your life is not my burden to carry, I have enough thank you very much. I am merely showing support that I do not believe any of these things you say people think about you are true." Hermione finished, calming down with every word.

"You're right." He answered. A moment of silence passed and then Draco spoke once more. "Anyway, my point was that I can't afford to be pulling up the family tree and butting into these people's business." Draco's voice was much softer than before.

"Well…you don't have to going digging in their past for Nott to learn about his family tree." Hermione said, looking very pleased with herself.

"Meaning?" Draco retorted, drawing the word out dramatically.

"Well would it be safe to assume you gave him detention for bothering Neville?" Hermione's face was slowly breaking into an evil like grin. Draco nodded. "So you have two detentions with him, and I am sure he'll acquire more. Make his detention be that he has to make his family tree to completion." Hermione seemed so satisfied with herself, folding her arms around her chest.

"That's the same thing, no?" Draco replied.

"No! That's the beauty!" Draco raised an eyebrow at her. "You aren't doing ANY digging, he is." Hermione said patiently.

"Oh I see. Not bad Granger. One problem, I don't know where to even get such material." Draco said, sounding quite impressed.

"Please hold!" She said enthusiastically, waving her wand multiple times. After about three minutes, loads of books came zooming right past Draco's ear, landing softly in front of Hermione. "Here is all the material you'll need." She said grinning.

"How did you….that's not….Irma is going to…." Draco was stumbling to find the words.

"I have an arrangement with Irma, she allows me to do this, and she marks down what I take…not that she ever needs to." Hermione's voice was full of pride.

"So I can take these for two weeks, maybe more?" Draco asked, trying his best to hide his smile.

"Yes. Normally you get them for a month."

"I know how libraries work, Granger." Draco snipped. "These are not normal books though, they are from the restricted section." Draco's voice wavered a bit as he spoke, as if he was still a little kid scared of Madam Pince.

"We aren't students anymore." Hermione chuckled as she spoke. "The restricted section is for staff use." She added matter of factly.

"Fair point Granger. Eh…"

"You are welcome." She said nicely, Draco nodded.

"Anyway…assigning the partners." Draco started and they quickly jumped right in.

The next hour flew by as they spoke strategy. They had set up the partners for each year for the month, leaving room for changes if students had apparent issues that needed to be addressed. They also planned the joint lessons for the month. It seemed rather easy for them to do these things, which was surprising. They were much more alike than they had first realized. Hermione had told Draco that they should still meet daily, just to be up to date on what's going on. She expected the meetings would be much shorter though, now that everything was planned out. She couldn't help but replay their almost argument in her mind. He got so defensive, even though she was defending him. More like, he got defensive because she was defending him. She wondered whether he was mad about her yelling at him, but she stood by the decision. He was acting irrationally, and she needed to snap him out of it. She was pleasantly surprised by how quickly they recovered. Completely opposite of Ron, who would hold onto something like that for days. 'Why am I comparing the two? They aren't in the same category. Snap out of it Granger!' Hermione was fighting with herself internally, also wondering how his detention with Nott was going to go.