Head Boy, Mudblood, and New Duties

I had no idea where he was taking me. Snape's grip on my robes hadn't faltered since the moment he had barged into our compartment and dragged me off. The laughter and good cheer that echoed throughout the train blurred in my ears, turning into static as the voices welded together.

My eyes wandered past the little stalls that were meant to fit several people in them. Seeing not a single Slytherin in the area, I wondered if everyone had abandoned me with all these Dumbledore lovers, for the comforting tints of green and silver were nowhere to be seen. Glares were continuously sent my way by the Gryffindors, the sensation boring into my back. Figures…the Gryffindors idolized the old twit. Feeling slightly claustrophobic as the waves of red and yellow swarmed at me, I closed my eyes, blocking the unwanted colors from my vision. I realized that Snape no longer had a grip on my arm I let my silver orbs open, blinking as if I had just woken up from a long sleep.

Immediately I regretted my decision, wishing the sight before me to be a mere figment of a nightmare. I glared at the two boys and girl in standing in front of me, the famed Golden Trio. Granger was sending me what I think was supposed to be a glare. Unfortunately for her, her attempt looked more like she was having trouble with her bowel movements rather than anything threatening. Behind her Weasel and Potter hardly looked intimidating. Although both of their wands were drawn and waving in my direction, Weasley's mouth was stuffed with some sort of sweet concoction and the corner of Potter's mouth was smeared with chocolate while his hair looked like a black tumbleweed. The pair looked like four year olds rather than full grown wizards.

Snickering, I turned to Snape and inquired, "Why did you drag me all the way here to see a circus? I think I'll be heading back to my compartment, I'm not quite in the mood to watch clowns."

Snape smirked at me and opened his mouth in response, but before he had a chance to speak Weasley shouted something along the lines of "Mfoy ublyit ugof!"

Pitiful.

"Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, I would advice you two not to pick fights with those in a position of authority. As Mr. Malfoy can deduct house points in his postion of Head Boy." Head Boy…I thought all my chances were lost because of last year. Everyone thought McGonagall would be headmistress, but with Snape…heh.

"Draco, Miss Granger lets go," Snape barked out the command and continued down the aisle. Eyeing Mudblood suspiciously I retorted "Why is it coming with us?"

Still staring ahead Snape spoke slowly and cooly, "Some members of the staff were insistant that I appoint Miss Granger here as Head Girl..."

I glared at her as she averted her gaze, looking straight ahead. Our new headmaster had stopped before a large comartment door. Briefly glancing back, Snape opened the door and slid into the compartment. Quickly, I followed him with Granger lagging behind both of us.

The heads compartment was spectacular. It was roomy, a little smaller than my room at home and while it was nothing compared to the Malfoy Manor, it was far better than those dingy compartments out there. There were two large paned windows which let in a steady stream of sunlight, illuminating the whole room with a warm glow. A lavish silver sofa with yellow pillows covered the whole right side. One would think that such an array of colors would clash horridly, but perhaps it was some magical effect that allowed it all to look perfectly fine.

I stepped into the compartment and I felt the plush maroon and silver rug slightly give underneath my weight. My attention was suddenly turned toward a flutter of activity as I turned my head and saw Snape walking away from a large mahogany door. Curious, that must be the board room Snape was talking about.

"I'll leave you to relax in your new compartments. But, don't get too comfortable, you have duties to assess, prefects to meet, and patrolling to do. You have twenty minutes." Snape's words of farewell were hardly calming, twenty minutes of Granger was hardly relaxing and then off to do a bunch of nonsense on this blasted train. Fabulous, I sighed and stared out the window, aimlessly I started to jingle the knuts in my pocket. I wondered what this year would be like, my last year at Hogwarts, a head, most likely Quidditch captain, and then the Dark Lord. This year surely would not simply come and go.

"Flaunt yourself so," Mudblood's snotty voice distracted me from my thoughts as I glared at her, offering a "What did you say Granger? You're muggle-ness obviously tainted my ears to deafness," in return to her blabbering.

"I said, that it's disgusting how you must flaunt your father's money in such a way. You do realize your Slytherin minions aren't here. There's no one to impress." she spat.

"Oh, dear Mudblood, because she's so poor she's jealous of Mr. Malfoy's money eh? My apologies I don't have money for the filthy muggle, why doesn't she run off to the blood traitor's house and get his mummy to fix up something for her tummy." I smirked at her and the look on her face was priceless as she heard my words. Her face contorted with hate as she was prepared herself for her retort when the compartment door flung open.

Glimpsing at the entrance to the compartment I saw a small crowd of Hogwarts students, and I was about to yell at them to get out of the Head's compartment or else they would get detention for a week when a petite Hufflepuff spoke up, "The letter told us to come see you but the door was locked. We didn't think we should just barge in, but."

I sneered at the Hufflepuff and opened my mouth but Granger beat me to it, "Well okay then, c'mon everyone file in, two at a time, the entrance isn't that large. Goodness! No pushing…you're prefects! Set a good example for your fellow students! The Mudblood's incessant droning continued forever as she ordered the prefects to do this, go here, sit there, wait here…blah blah blah. It was quite futile and while she aimlessly whined on I took to identifying the prefects entering the compartment. Many of them I didn't recognize. However, the horrid thing next to me seemed to know most of them by first name, last name, year, house, and family history. Creepy, that's what she was, just plain creepy.

I'd figure out the little prefects' names later but for now I just wanted to get the train ride over with. Rising from my seat I quickly spotted the door that Snape had referred to as the entrance to the board room. Shoving the prefects out of my way I pushed, pulled, and kicked the door but my efforts had not moved the blasted thing at all.

I glared at the prefects as I yelled, "Shut up you stupid little gits!" Oh how I wanted to push their little heads into the door and smash their skulls into pulp!

"It's obviously under some sort of password or magical protection. This must be our first task or duty, some sort of sick twisted test by Snape or the professors to see if we can work together. If we can work together and lead the prefects," Granger whispered to me and glanced apprehensively back toward the prefects. She had obviously creeped up behind me after hearing my outburst.

With a loud sigh I stared at the prefects, a stupid lot they were. Calling out I yelled, "PREFECTS!" catching their attention immediately. After getting each of the little buggers to be quiet I continued, "Okay you all, the door to the board room is charmed and protected. Our dear headmaster obviously wants to have some house bonding here so we all need to work together and figure how to get in."

The Hufflepuff brat raised called out, "What if we can't get into the board room?"

Turning away from the prefects and toward the door I retorted, "Well then I guess we're screwed. Start working brats!"

Mudblood was glaring venomously at me from her position by the door, hissing she said, "What was that for Malfoy? You could at least show a little more leadership and not be so vain!"

"They deserved it Granger, and have you been working on the door at all or have you just been staring at my ass?"

Blushing, but looking equally enraged Granger hissed, "Shut up ferret! You... you wish I was looking. Not like you have anything to look at except for a bony carcass."

She spun around to face the door again I just rolled my eyes at her comeback; it hardly stung. I knew I was fit; I had a six pack!

The quiet whisper of "alohomora" followed by the rattling or a door handle and a loud "Aaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhh!!" jarred me from my thoughts I turned and immediately snorted in laughter as I saw a sopping wet Granger. Slowly the prefects behind me started giggling and the whole room was soon filled with laughter. The Mudblood looked enraged at all of us and I laughed harder as she sent out silencing charms at a huddle of Ravenclaws. Pleasantly, I noticed that the irritating Hufflepuff had been silenced along with the some other fifth years. Granger was waving her wand threateningly around the room. When all the prefects had been silenced, by force or by personal will, the sopping girl took her rage out on me, not that we were exactly civil before.

"Malfoy! You unbearable, stupid, idiotic, bloody annoying ferret! This ruddy door spewed water at me! It shot water at me when I tried to unlock it! Stupid… umphhh… Bloody… thud…. DOOR!" she screamed at me whilst kicking the door, I really should tell her to stop, the prefects look…"Oww! What the bloody hell was that for Granger? Hitting other students…what would Weasley think, or did he teach you that since he likes it rough?!" I half sneered half shouted as my shoulder throbbed from her hit.

"Shut up! Help me undo the spells on the prefects. Anyways, if you're so interested in Ronald's shagging techniques why don't you ask him." Granger, who was dry, walked away and slowly the prefects around her regained their speech, although some looked thoroughly freaked out by her. Anyways, if I wanted to know how Weasley shagged he'd be begging to tell me. Begging.

Soon the room was filled with conversation as the prefects discussed the little escapade that had occurred before their eyes. I saw what appeared to be the girl Weasley talking with Granger. How odd it would be to be a Weasley, knowing your parents must shag like bunnies… disgusting.

Bored, I stared at the door that was causing us all this trouble. Assessing it I scrutinized it, searching for any damages that could be useful, perhaps we could blast it open, that would be brilliant. Maybe bring in Longbottom and he'll blow up himself and the rest of the Gryffindors.

Something caught my eye at the bottom of the door, near the hinge. A small crack…we could blast water through there or we could funnel air through to make the hole bigger. What other wards does the door have though? Will anything we blast at it fly right back? I glanced over and saw a quill lying on the window sill. Walking over I grabbed the delicate thing and flung it at the door. With a loud 'ping,' it stuck into the door. Curious. I thought it would have deflected. However, that thought had formed too soon, and I quickly grabbed a fifth year Ravenclaw's book as I swatted away two quills flying my way. Quills soon starting flinging themselves from the door, launching themselves like missiles at students.

A few prefects had found cover behind the couch, while the rest of us fended off the quills who thought themselves bludgers. After a minute the quills had called off their attack and a collective sigh of relief was let out. Surprisingly the quill that I had thrown was no longer stuck on the door but had simply disappeared. A small hole where it hit was the only evidence that it had even came in contact with the door.

"Malfoy, what did you do to make those quills do that?" Granger eyed me carefully as she walked up to me.

Glancing at the door once more I muttered, "I threw a quill at the blasted door to see if it would puncture, there's a small hole there where the quill hit. The wards on the door obviously sent that little attack upon us. There's also a small crack at the bottom of the door, by the hinge. Think we could blast something through that hole without getting hurt?"

"I don't know. We don't even know all the wards on this thing. Want to ask the prefects? I think we should ask everyone to introduce themselves as well." Granger whispered to me.

Rolling my eyes, I responded annoyed, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can ask them and whatever. Just make it speedy, Granger."

Fixing me with a glare she turned toward the prefects and began her speech, "Hello everyone! Since we're obviously stuck in this little room and trying to figure out how to get through that door I'd say we should get some simple introductions done. We'll be working together the whole year so let's go around the room; say your name, house, year, and a hobby. I'm Hermione. Currently, I'm a seventh year in Gryffindor. I love to read. My favorite book is Hogwarts: A History. Also, I'm the founder of S.P.E.W. which promotes the rights of house elves and other magical creatures."

Turning toward me she smiled a bit too sweetly and said, "Now why don't you introduce yourself, we'll continue in a counterclockwise motion."

Smirking at her I responded, "Hello. I'm Draco Malfoy. Seventh year, Slytherin. I like Quidditch, shagging, snogging, and I want to try doing all three of those things at the same time. Thank You." I bowed in a melodramatic manner and smirked as Granger cleared her throat, silencing the chorus of snickers echoing throughout the room. Mudblood turned to glare at me, and whispered, "Git! That was totally inappropriate!" Too bad, it was the truth.

I grinned back at her and turning up the charm I stared at the sixth year Ravenclaw on my left, "Let's continue shall we…"

This was horrible. Twenty minutes later we were listening to the last girl, some Ravenclaw named Charlene rattle of her life story, "Oh yes and I have three brothers, Roger, Edmund, and Florence. My older sister, Clarise, works at the Ministry of Magic, I forgot what she does but I'm sure it's very important. My other older sister is married. Her name is Rowaylene and her husband's name is Howard. Odd name don't you think? Ah yes, they have a cute little girl named Pria. Adorable, she's absolutely ador-"

I couldn't bloody take it anymore. "Well that sounds absolutely wonderful Charlotte but-"

Interrupting my interrupting, the talkative Ravenclaw cut in, "It's Charlene, Death Eater." The room turned deathly quite and I could feel the stares, penetrating through my robes. Now I wasn't a Death Eater, I might be considered one and I might have been ruddy close to being one, but no, I didn't have the Dark Mark on my arm, no way in hell.

"Contrary to what appears to be popular belief," I said coolly, "I am not a Death Eater. Why this is anything of your concern I do not know. I do know that a sure way to get through that door would be protego totalum coupled with some quills. Now, shall we subdue our idiotic curiosity and continue with the task at hand."

Clearing her throat, Granger fixed the Ravenclaw Charlene with a look and responded, "That will do, we'll give it a shot.

The next few minutes were filled with a flutter of activity. From my comfortable spot on the couch I watched as the prefects were organized in an orderly line. Holding the quills that were haphazardly given to me, I handed a couple out to the Slytherin prefects to pass around. After a reproachful look from Granger I sighed and clutching my own quill strode up to my designated spot in the middle of the line.

Now that we were all in a line befitting to Granger she spoke up again, "Okay, do you all know how to cast protego totalum? It's a simple motion like so." Granger instructed the prefects to do so, and a chorus of "protego totalum" echoed throughout the room as the spell was cast in front of Granger's watching eye. Once the spells were cast to perfection she dawdled around like a house-elf, making sure we were in perfect position.

I let out an exasperated sigh of frustration and yelled, "Granger stop fussing about, it's rather annoying. I think we're all fine and let's just continue and get into the board room already before we all die of starvation. The lunch cart will be making its way around soon and I don't plan to miss it."

She threw me a look of utter disdain as she slid into the spot between Padma Patil and me. Padma and Granger began an intense discussion of their own and I ignored their hushed whispers as I instructed the other prefects. "Okay, everyone with quills on the count of three I want all of you to launch them at the door, immediately perform protego totalum afterward. All of you without quills cast your spells already."

Granger, Padma, and the others without quills had their spells cast, creating a blue glow around the group. Holding my wand tightly I yelled, "Wands out! Remember on my count of three…One…Two…Three!" At the word a flutter of quills were released, flying at the door, and my grip on my wand loosened as I yelled, "Protego totalum!"

The effect was not immediate and gasps were emitted as a sudden storm was flying straight as us. I winced as they drew closer not sure of the outcome, but I was soon relieved to see the quills bouncing off and laying in a disarrayed heap on the ground in front of us. Placing my wand into my robe I sighed, the quills had been flying at us for a good three minutes and it had been tiring just standing there, wand held erect in case the spell faltered.

Granger cleared the mess of quills on the ground and she quickly removed the fifteen quills stuck in the door with a wave of her wand. There were nine haphazard holes on the door from the eight quills just thrown and my previously thrown quill. As tiny as they were I was surprised that you could actually see the board room through some of them.

"Engorgio!" Turning, he saw that Granger along with a few other Gryffindor and Ravenclaw prefects had enlarged the quills so that they were about 3 feet long. This time the quills were not so light and the students opted to levitating their quills into the door rather than throwing. It was much more intimidating as a parade of large 3 foot quills shot themselves back at them. However, after the process had been repeated several times there was a large gaping hole which you could fit a person through slashed on the left side.

The fifth years went through first, then the sixth years and finally the seventh year prefects. This whole ordeal was orderly done under the scrutinizing eye of Granger herself. She was becoming even more irritating as she needed everything to be perfectly in order. All her barking around was surely to make the prefects think that she was some mad woman, not saying she wasn't…

I stared at her with a look of disgust as she ushered the last prefects through the hole, leaving only us left. A steady stream of conversation and some "ooh's and ah's" could be heard from the other room. How I craved to be back with the other Slytherins, relaxing in the common room with some of the firewhiskey Goyle's father readily supplied him. Well, we weren't exactly sure if his father supplied them or Goyle stole them, nevertheless most of us had acquired a taste for the liquid.

"Are you going to go through or are we going to stand here forever?" Regretfully I withdrew myself from my thoughts and walked toward the hole. As I slipped through the jagged opening I made sure my robes wouldn't get caught and called back, "You're right, purebloods first of course. I mean, Mudbloods before purebloods? Preposterous!"

As I entered the board room I was immediately reminded of the Manor. It looked similar to Father's study in some ways. While I had only been in his office a few times in my life I recall it quite clearly. The walls were of gray stone and the floor was marble, shining from weekly cleaning spells. Similar to Father's desk at home, the large table in front of us was of a rich mahogany coloring, polished to a dazzling extent. Another set of windows filtered in light from outside, except now the sun was directly overhead, the cart was sure to make its rounds soon.

Distracted by bouts of laughter I turned saw one of the fifth year Hufflepuff prefects sprawled on the ground. I couldn't hide a smirk as another boy, sixth year in Gryffindor I think, strode up to a chair and as he was about to sit in it, it moved backwards, landing him on the ground too. Granger, he noticed had entered the room and was admiring the view of the countryside by the window.

Suddenly the door flew open, and there stood Professor McGonagall. The room which had formerly been in total disarray without Granger's close supervision had quieted rapidly once the door opened. With a glance around the room McGonagall spoke, surveying the room, "Well I see that you managed to get past your first challenge all right." She turned her head slightly to look back at the door and continued, "Now remember you are a team, you must work together and operate as one. You all have an extreme responsibility upholding the school and setting a proper example to your fellow classmates and younger students. I think we should all take a seat, now as you might have realized or not, you have assigned seats. This year we are strongly trying to establish a sense of inter-house unity, so you will be seated by someone of the same year but a different house. Now, don't hesitate, go ahead find your seats."

I strode past the seats, and saw the names neatly engraved onto the backs of the chairs. When I reached the end of the table where there were two chairs I found my name engraved on the one on the right. Not surprisingly I saw Granger slide into her seat next to me. Looking around the table there were some expressions of delight and others of total loathing, but before I could really mull over the seating arrangement McGonagall had continued where she had left off.

"Now, you must all know your Heads, Miss. Hermione Granger and Mr. Draco Malfoy," McGonagall gestured toward us and continued, "You will be following their instructions and while you all have a strong word in what happens in your board room, Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy have the final word. The first assignment you have is to patrol the Express. Your Heads will be assigning where you patrol, duties will end precisely 45 minutes before the Express arrives at Hogwarts. There, it will be your duty to escort the first years to the dormitories. I'm sure you all roughly remember the process from when you were just beginning your Hogwarts education. Prefect meetings will be scheduled by the Heads and the board room is on the third floor, look for a large painting of a man drinking while leaning against a tree. Oh, and mind your step when going up, the password is 'knotgrass.' Meanwhile, the prefect bathroom's password is 'hippocampus.' Enjoy! Mr. Malfoy, Miss. Granger, you'll find the pamphlets in front of you will explain the first school event and a list of possible Hogsmeade dates. Thank You." With that she exited, leaving us all slightly stunned, and now in front of me sat a fat black folder engraved with the words 'Draco Malfoy, Head Boy, Hogwarts: A Calendar of Events.'

I tentatively opened my folder up and frowned at the papers in front of me. Granger and I were supposed to set the date of the Hogsmeade trips for September through December in a week and have the dates posted in a fortnight after confirmation with Snape. Also, we're supposed to meet with the prefects at least six times over September and October in order to plan the Halloween event.

Raking my hand through my hair I wasn't paying attention to Granger's rambling about the patrols. I just nodded accordingly and said, "Fitting, Sounds good, Mmmm…Yes" while Granger confirmed with the prefects that their given patrols would work out. After all the prefects had walked out I glanced at the list of prefects that were supposed to attend and my gut seemed to drop as I recalled the faces that showed up. Was I that stupid to realize that hardly any seventh year prefects had shown up...

We were missing one Gryffindor, two Hufflepuffs, one Ravenclaw, and one Slytherin. The question in order though was: Why the hell had Pansy not shown up?! What in the blazes could have --

"If your wondering why we're missing so many prefects it's be --"

I turned toward her and cut off her sentence in annoyance, "I didn't ask for your help, did I filth?"

Granger glared at me as I smirked at the thought of just riling her up. She tossed her hair and haughtily left the room for me to wallow in my own thoughts. Pansy must have some reason for missing this meeting. I'd have to ask her later. Gathering my things I glanced out the window, the sun was setting and an ironically ominous glow seemed to be filling the board room. Without another thought, I turned back toward the direction of the Head compartment.

The door that I was heading to had either mended itself or perhaps McGonagall had done something to it, but it wasn't of much importance, just slightly frustrating that after spending so much energy on blasting it open, it managed to return to it's previous state. As I entered the Head compartment I pointedly avoided Granger as I went to my trunks and dumped the black folder inside of the trunk with my textbooks.

Stifling a yawn, I sat down as far away from Granger as I could. For such a nice compartment it seemed somewhat stupid that there was only one ruddy place to sit. There was a tense silence as we avoided each other, but I suppose it was the familiarity of that feeling that had me feeling more relaxed.

A feeling of drowsiness enveloped me as the natural light from outside dimmed ever so slowly. Closing my eyes I decided today's efforts warranted a good long nap. And as the day's weariness seeprf out of my bones, I felt the warm glow of the ending day envelop me, the tendrils of light twirling around my figure. Ever so slowly the thoughts blurred through my mind, becoming incomprehensible as I drifted off into sleep...