Authors note: All characters and places in this story belong to JK Rowling and only her. I own absolutely nothing!

Trying her best not to focus on the person in front of her, Hermione looked out the window of the train car in silence. After their conversations, she wasn't sure what to say anymore, if anything. As she sat there looking out the window, she saw the silhouette of the castle slowly coming into view.

Registering that they were close to Hogwarts, Hermione sighed inwards, sad that her and Draco's time had come to an end. She didn't want it to end, but it was inevitable with where they were at. Turning her attention away from the window and towards her companion, she sighed again.

"Looks like we're almost there," she said as she stood up. "I suppose I better go."

She stood in front of him for a few moments, unsure if he had heard her. Deciding he might have fallen asleep, she turned on her heels and headed for the door of the compartment they shared. Just as she was about to open the door, Draco spoke up.

"Thanks for the chat... Hermione." he said after he had lifted his head in her direction.

"You're welcome, and same to you, Draco." Hermione replied without turning around to face him. She felt strange using his first name, but after their conversation, calling him Malfoy didn't seem right either. Exiting the compartment, she noticed all of the students in the area looked at her strangely, as if they couldn't believe she had been talking to the outcast. Hermione didn't care, though. She had enjoyed the conversations her and Draco had shared.

As she headed back to the compartment she had shared with Ron, Harry, and Ginny, Hermione watched her feet instead of where she was going. She knew the train well enough that she didn't need to worry about losing her way. Only lifting her head once she found the appropriate compartment, she saw that her three friends had woken up.

Entering the compartment, Hermione masked any worry she had about leaving them when they were sleeping with a smile. It appeared, however, that her worry was unnecessary. They had all woken up just a few minutes before she entered the compartment, so they assumed she had left to use the restroom.

Sitting down in her original place next to Ron, she looked out the window once more and saw the castle was only a few minutes away now. Mentioning that to her companions, they all crowded around the two small windows and looked for themselves.

Excitement soon filled their small, shared compartment as they talked about the coming school year. Ginny was excited for Quidditch and couldn't wait for tryouts; Ron didn't want to take Potions again and wanted out of it somehow where Harry was excited for another Potions class; and Hermione could only talk about the library, her favorite place.

Following the crowd as they headed to the Great Hall, Hermione and her friends all looked forward to the sorting ceremony of first years and their first dinner of the new school year. When they entered the Great Hall, they saw everything was as they had remembered it to be. The bewitched ceiling portrayed a deep blue sky filled with stars and little to no clouds, candles floating a few feet above the tables, each house divided by tables, everything was as it should be. The only difference was McGonagall was now the Headmistress.

Hermione, upon reading their letter for the new year, had imagined most all of the former students would be joining them again for another year at Hogwarts, but she had been wrong. The house tables were a lot shorter than they had been in previous years, showing that many had decided against returning. There also weren't very many new students that year either.

After finding a place big enough for the four of them to sit across from each other at the Gryffindor table, Hermione looked around at the other tables across for theirs. Hufflepuff seemed to be the house with the most returning students, where Slytherin had the least. When she looked at the Slytherin table, she noticed that only 12 seventh year students, including Draco, had returned. There were only 20 sixth and fifth year students and the rest of the small group belonged to second to fourth years, as the first years still had yet to be sorted to their houses.

When her eyes came across Draco, Hermione began thinking about their conversations earlier. Why had he been so nice to me? Why did he decide to stay? Were his answers honest? It wasn't until Draco looked up, directly at her, that she realized she had been staring at him. Quickly returning her attention on McGonagall, she had hoped he didn't see her staring at him or notice the small blush that quickly filled her cheeks.

Thankfully, Harry, Ginny, and Ron had kept their attention on their new Headmistress so they didn't notice her staring at Draco. She didn't know what she would have said if they had caught her. She especially didn't want to think about how Ron would have reacted if he saw her staring at his number one enemy.

Finding her hand on the table, Ron turned his attention away from McGonagall and smiled at her. Her face still held some of the blush from nearly being caught by Draco, but thankfully Ron had thought he was the cause. Squeezing her hand before dropping it again, Ron then turned his attention back to their Headmistress.

Completely exhausted from all of the excitement that day, Hermione decided to turn in early after finishing her small meal. Giving Ron a kiss on the cheek and saying goodnight to the others, Hermione stood up and quickly glanced in Draco's direction. To her surprise, he had been watching her and they made eye contact. Hurt and anger marked Draco and she could feel it pouring into her from his eyes.

Deciding that standing there watching Draco any longer may bring suspicion from her friends, Hermione quickly walked out of the Great Hall, her eyes locked in front of her. It took everything she had to not run out of the room. Turning the corner after she exited the Great Hall, Hermione broke into a run. She wasn't sure what she was running from but she just felt as though she needed to put as much space between her and that room as possible.

Finally making it to the Girls Dorm in Gryffindor Tower, Hermione quickly changed and lied down in bed, still trying to catch her breath. As she lied there, her mind raced around Draco once more. Why was there such a sad look in his eyes? She wondered as she turned to lay on her side. More importantly, why had he been staring at me in the first place?

That last question embarrassed her. After all, she was the one who had purposefully been looking for him after sitting at her table. She had been the one to stare at him in the first place, so why had it bothered her that he did the same?

Putting her mind to rest after deciding she wouldn't know the answer to her questions, Hermione flopped around in bed until she found a comfortable position on her right side. With her legs drawn near her chest and her arms draped between her knees, she drifted off into a peaceful, dreamless slumber.

Author's note: Chapter 5! I hope you guys like this chapter as much as the previous ones! In this chapter, we see a little bit more of Hermione and Draco interacting with each other, and something they talk about changes how they view each other, leading them to use first names rather than their surnames. Seems as though they have found some mutual ground!

As usual, review review review! Thanks for reading everyone, and I hope you guys are in for the long haul! So far, I have nearly 13,000 words written for this book, which is only 9-10 chapters so far. I'm hoping this will be a 30+ chapter story, one that's nice and long, but not too long to where people get bored. Personally, I love what I've written, but it's important that you all do as well.

Again, thanks for reading guys! ~ NinjaDays