Author's Note:
No reviews for the first chapter, but some people have got this on their alert lists and whatnot, so that's encouraging! Thanks for reading everybody! Sorry for the wait. This chapter is kinda lacking in hot Draco/Hermione interaction, but it will get better, I promise!
In front of them was the most opulent room Hermione had ever seen. Granted, the opulence she had been exposed to was all found at Hogwarts, but this was still extremely impressive. By the look on Draco's face, he was impressed, too.
The foyer was not that big, but what it lacked in size it made up for in ornateness. The sitting room was beyond the small entryway. It was done in a Victorian style, with extremely ornate chandeliers and intricately detailed furniture. The carpet was a lush gold and the walls were covered with deep red wallpaper.
Draco seemed to come back to his senses as he said, "Gryffindor theme. If the bedroom isn't green and silver, I'm complaining to Dumbledore."
"Let's check and see," Hermione responded. She fervently hoped that when they opened the door which presumably led to the bedroom, they would find more than one bed. She walked over to the door and opened it.
"It's just the bathroom," Hermione said, surprised. "It looks nice though, and no overt house-colors-theme, that's good."
"Look at that bathtub," Draco said in awe as he stared at the tub, which was comparable in size to the tub in the Prefect's. "Is that solid gold?"
Hermione could tell that all Draco wanted to drool over the bathroom fixtures, which were admittedly the most glorious bathroom fixtures she had ever seen, but she wanted to see the bedroom. "You can check it out later, Draco. I want to see the bedroom. I bet this door will get us there." Hermione pointed at a door that was to their right.
After Draco managed to pull his eyes away from the magnificent faucetry, They approached the door and Hermione opened it. The door did indeed lead to the bedroom, which was every bit as splendrous as the rest of the dorm. There were two king-sized beds with magnificent canopies (as well as Hermione and Draco's trunks at their feet), and the entire room was done in a midnight-blue color scheme that seemed very conducive to sleeping. Hermione suddenly realized how tired she was.
Draco yawned and said, "I'm getting tired just looking at it. It must be what, ten o'clock? Eleven?"
"Actually, it's only 9:26," Hermione answered, consulting her watch. "I wouldn't mind turning in a bit early, though. And I think we've seen all the rooms now."
"I'm disappointed at the lack of kitchenette. We should talk to Dumbledore about having one installed," Draco laughed. The laughter halted suddenly as Draco appeared to recall something important. "Speaking of Dumbledore, didn't he say we would have direct access to our common rooms? I want all my friends to see this place."
Hermione sighed. "Weren't you listening? We're the only ones allowed in here. Anyway, we can find out how to get into the common rooms in the morning. I'm knackered and I need some sleep. You can poke around if you want, but I'm going to bed."
Draco yawned again while nodding his head. "Yeah, it can wait till tomorrow."
Hermione walked over to her trunk and dug out her pyjamas. Sharing a room with Parvati and Lavender, she could just change into her nightclothes with no worries, but what was she supposed to do with Draco present?
Draco didn't seem to have any such qualms, as he had shucked down to boxers and was presently climbing into bed, not having asked her which bed she preferred. "G'night, Granger," he said before yanking the curtains shut on the bed.
"Problem solved," Hermione thought before changing into her pyjamas, extinguishing the lamps, and climbing into her bed.
***********
Draco was up at 6:30, as was his custom. Last year, when he had shared a bathroom with fifty other Slytherins, he had always liked to get up early so he wouldn't have to stand in line for a shower at 7:00 or 7:30. Now he had his own bathroom (well, mostly his own; he liked to think of it as 50% ownership) and didn't strictly need to get up that early, but he had no idea whether Hermione was the type of girl who liked to take hour-long showers. He didn't want to risk having to go to class unbathed because she had been monopolizing the bathroom.
The thought of Hermione in the shower was getting him a little too excited, so he tried to push the thought out of his mind. He quietly slipped out of his bed and walked over to the bathroom.
Fifteen minutes later, Draco emerged from the shower cleansed and refreshed. He left the bathroom to find Hermione still asleep. He pulled on his uniform and walked into the main room (which he thought of as the den), thinking he would find out how to get into the other common rooms. Crabbe and Goyle weren't the most intelligent blokes around, but they were his friends, and he wanted to talk to them. He definitely didn't intend to spend all of his free time with Hermione.
The den looked much smaller now then it did when they first saw it; the grandness of the room had made it seem bigger than it really was. Draco scanned the room and didn't see anything that looked like it would be an entrance to a common room, so he figured he would walk along the perimeter of the room and try out the portraits. In his experience, most portraits at Hogwarts were a lot more than just a pretty picture hanging on the wall.
The occupants of the portraits were all currently asleep, except for one, who was apparently out visiting a friend elsewhere in the castle because his frame was empty. Draco decided to start with the one closest to him, a pudgy man sitting in a chair who looked to be from the 1800's.
"Excuse me? Sir? Uh, hello?" Draco said in his best attempt to be polite, poking the man with his finger. The man started and then glared at Draco angrily, clearly peeved about his sleep being interrupted.
"Who're you and what do you want?"
"I'm Draco Malfoy, sir, I'm the new Head Boy. Dumbledore said I would have access to my common room but I'm afraid I don't know how to proceed." Draco mentally cringed at the tone of his voice. He was really much more used to demanding things and being generally arrogant.
The man in the portrait, who had seemed to lighten considerably at the words "Head Boy," responded, "Head Boy, you say? I was Head Boy myself, a few centuries ago. 1834, I believe. Anyway, to your question. Do you see that portrait over there, with the hippogriff? That will take you to your house's common room."
"Thanks for your help," Draco said, nodding his head in thanks and walking over to the hippogriff. He walked up to it and was prepared to begin speaking to it (as much as he despised hippogriffs, for obvious reasons), but the Hippogriff simply nodded his head and the portrait swung open to reveal the Slytherin Common room. Draco walked through the threshold and walked over to Crabbe and Goyle, who were sitting by themselves and looked utterly lost without Draco's presence. He had a lot to tell them.
* * *
Hermione woke up and, for a moment, was utterly disoriented. After a few moments of dizzying confusion, she remembered where she was and breathed deeply. She hated waking up in new places. She peeked out from the curtains to determine whether Draco was around. Judging by the emptiness of his bed and the lack of sounds emanating from behind the closed bathroom door, Hermione figured it was safe to take a shower herself.
To be safe, Hermione knocked on the door of the bathroom before entering. She didn't want to walk in on Draco in the nude (although there was a part of her brain that wouldn't have minded too much if it did happen). Upon receiving no reply, she walked in and, after closing and locking the doors, disrobed herself and walked into the shower. Draco had been right in trying to get to the shower early; Hermione regularly took over half and hour attempting to thoroughly clean her untamed mass of hair. By the time she was out of the shower, she realized that she only had a few minutes for breakfast before heading to whatever her first class would be.
She quickly changed into her uniform, grabbed her bag, and walked through the living room and out into the hallway. She spent a second outside the door getting oriented, trying to figure out the most efficient way of getting down to the Great Hall. After a few seconds of reasoning she took a left, opposite the direction they had arrived in the night before.
The five-minute walk down to the Great Hall afforded Hermione some time to think about her new living situation. She had no idea if Draco would want to spend a lot of time in the Head Boy/Head Girl quarters or if he would just hang out in the Slytherin common room. She figured that the latter would be more likely. Even if Draco no longer outwardly despised her, they were by no means such good friends that they would want to spend all their time cooped up together. Hermione also pondered Draco's study habits. Would he want help on his homework like Harry and Ron always had? She was looking forward to letting those two fend for themselves this year. She planned to do most of her own studying in the Head Boy/Head Girl room, simply because it would be quiet and peaceful, unlike the chaotic maelstrom of activity that was the Gryffindor common room.
Hermione realized that her feet had taken her to the Great Hall with her barely realizing it. She walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down across from Harry and Ron, pulling a box of cereal towards her as Ron began to ask questions.
"How was it? Was he a jerk? How many times did he call you a mudblood? Did he get grease all over his pillow?"
Hermione smiled a little to herself. She knew that Ron would react in this fashion. "It was just fine. Draco seems a lot more civil this year."
The tips of Ron's ears began to turn pink. "Oh, so he's Draco now? Well, to me, he'll always be slimy, greasy, ferret-boy Malfoy."
Harry seemed about to vocalize a similar sentiment when Professor McGonagall approached them with their schedules.
"Here you are, Miss Granger. Another full load, I see," she said with a hint of pride, handing Hermione her schedule.
Hermione glanced at her schedule. She was taking the same classes as last year, and the first one this morning was Ancient Runes. Draco had been the only Slytherin in that class last year, and she wondered if he was taking it again this year. She had always worked alone due to having no aquaintances in the class, but with Draco being a lot more tolerable this year, she thought she might be able to stomach working with him.
Ron and Harry left the table for their first class, Divination, without saying goodbye. Hermione sniffed. If they weren't willing to accept that she no longer hated Draco on the level that they did, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that they wouldn't be seeing as much of each other this year.
Hermione got up from the Gryffindor table at the same time as Draco got up from the Slytherin table. Consequently, their paths met at the exit of the great hall. Hermione debated whether or not she should strike up a conversation; in the end, she figured that there was nothing to be gained from purposely avoiding contact.
"Sleep well, Draco?" Hermione said in as casual a voice as she could muster.
"Just fine. I got up early and went to the my common room for a while. Everybody there wanted to know how much you had studied or whether you were completely annoying or not."
"What did you say?" Hermione asked, knowing that their budding relationship could easily be destroyed if Draco had the same opinions of her that the rest of the Slytherins had.
"I said you were a lot better this year," he replied.
Hermione felt relief wash over her. "I got some of the same attitude from Ron and Harry. They wanted to know if you'd been a git. I said no, and they didn't like that so much."
Draco scowled but nodded. "I can see where they're coming from. I was a bit of a dick to them for the past six years." Then he smiled. "But they haven't seen the new Draco Malfoy yet!"
Hermione realized that they were almost to the Ancient Runes classroom. She took her chance. "I was wondering if the new Draco Malfoy would be willing to be partners with me in Ancient Runes. It would probably be a lot easier with somebody to work with. How 'bout it?"
"Sure. I would be working with Nott, but he dropped the class, so I guess I need somebody to work with."
* * * *
Draco was getting frustrated. He knew this was a NEWT level class, and that it would be challenging. But he hadn't anticipated being utterly clueless on the first day of class. He assumed that the undone over-the-summer homework was now coming back to haunt him, and cursed himself for being so lazy. Now, during worktime, he was staring blankly at a page of Gaelic runes with no idea how to proceed.
"Hermione, I don't want to seem like I'm taking advantage of your smarts or anything, but I could use your help; I really have no idea what I'm doing here. I guess I spent too much of my summer playing Quidditch and not enough studying," Draco said in what he hoped was a charming manner.
"Sure, I'm just about done anyway. But don't expect this to become a regular occurance." She leaned over to assist him, and he couldn't help but look downwards. Hogwarts uniforms didn't show much in the way of skin, but Draco could see just a hint of cleavage...
Draco forced himself to snap out of it and tried to focus on Hermione's explanations of the Runes. He couldn't believe he was becoming so attracted to Granger this quickly. The fact that they were sharing a bedroom didn't help matters. He didn't know how long he would be able to resist.
