It was a silent ride in the carriage to the castle, the wheels rattling along the track, the heads sitting opposite each other. It would seem that they would be spending rather a lot of time in close quarters over the course of the year so why not start now. There were a total of five carriages, one that the heads were in, one containing Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, and Michael Corner, another held Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom and oddly the Slytherin Theodore Nott. The final two carriages were filled with girls, Parvati and Padma Patil, Astoria Greengrass, Tracy Davis, Pansy Parkinson, and Hannah Abbot. As they came to a stop outside the castle Blaise kindly helped Hermione out of the carriage, an action which did not go unseen by others, mainly the gossip queen Patil sisters and a brooding blonde. There was a chorus of screams as the twins, Hannah, Hermione and Luna converged, hugging and complementing each other while the Slytherin girls stood to the side occasionally looking on with a condescending glance. Draco casually made his way over to Blaise as the Gryffindor boys clumped together with Michael and headed towards the girls to greet them after the summer. He saw Michael put his arms around Hannah spinning her around to kiss him, all of the girls letting out an audible sighs and the boys winking towards the couple as the separated and messing around with each other. The pair stayed close with their arms draped over one another, happily chatting with their friends as if they had not just got out of a huge war.
Draco turned back to Blaise, "Disgusting isn't it?" he said with a slight tone of amusement in his voice, "All the screaming and hugging and lovey dovey stuff." Just as Blaise was about to reply Pansy approached them her hand reaching out for Draco's arm, squeezing it gently and leaning up to whisper in his ear.
"Good thing we just cut the crap then isn't it babe." She slowly moved her head back, twisting his face with her hand to face him; his expression however was not what she had expected. Normally this sort of behaviour would have him smirking and pulling her to the nearest bedroom, broom cupboard or dark corner, however his face was dark and steely as he roughly pushed her arms away and looked straight at her. She let out a yelp and the other group of teens turned to watch the scene unfold.
"Parkinson, I don't like you. I never did. Nothing between us was real; I just needed a way to let out stress." Everyone around watched as she looked him in the face as if searching for an answer that she was not finding, but eventually gave up and started walking back towards Astoria. A few paces in she whirled around a sneer settling on her pug-face, she stormed back to him and lifted her arm to slap him. His reflexes were too fast though and he grabbed her hand. She was mumbling incoherently and all he heard was 'jerk', 'die', and 'marriage', while still holding her hand he pulled her closer. A softer tone took over his voice and he spoke directly to her, not to the group around that were still staring at the spectacle. "Look, we were never right for each other, it wasn't going anywhere. I'm just saving you more pain later, it's quite kind of me really, and you should be shaking my hand not slapping me with it. I want to start afresh after the war and maybe you should too." He let go of her hands, letting them drop to her sides, "Oh and Parkinson, tell your mother that I politely decline, I would like a few more years of bachelorhood." She nodded and walked back over to Astoria and Tracey she was putting on a brave face but he knew that he had broken her heart.
Scanning his eyes over to the other group stood outside the newly rebuilt school, he saw one pair of mahogany globes staring back at him, a concerned look on her face and her eyebrows furrowed. When she saw him looking Hermione turned back to the others, starting a conversation with Neville about a new strain of plants she had heard about. In that moment their eyes had locked she had felt as if he was telling the truth, that he really did want to start afresh and put the past behind him, the only problem is she really didn't believe him. She wanted to, who wouldn't want to just push the past back and start again especially after everything that happened during the war. Every time she thought like that though she was split into two, imagining how Harry and especially Ron would feel if she suddenly became friends with these people and another part of her just couldn't let go of all the years of torment. She was going to have a hard enough time persuading them that Blaise was good even if he was head boy; there was no reason to add Draco Malfoy to the equation. Maybe one day they could move forward, but that day would have to wait until he had proven that he wanted to change.
Draco turned back to Blaise just as the grand front doors to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry were flung open and a very flustered looking Professor McGonagall stepped out silencing the crowd around with a single bespectacled glare. Blaise and Hermione stepped forward as she began to speak.