A/N : Sorry about the ridiculous amount of time its taken me to post this chapter, I wrote it a while ago and forgot about it! Hope you guys like it, please read and review as I am struggling to think of new and exciting ways to make this story more readable and original. Thanks!

6. Ambitions

A few weeks after Hermione and Draco's late-night business meeting, they both began to notice changes in the Slytherin house. Younger students who had always avoided, or idolised, Malfoy, the golden boy of the house, now also treated Miss Snape with the same reverence. They moved out of her way in corridors, offered to run errands for her, and sometimes...were genuinely afraid of her. She had learnt to treat them as lower beings, whereas members of other houses she just ignored. To her, the other houses didn't exist. Also, Draco had noticed in the Slytherin Common Room, older students would greet Hermione as an equal, and invite her to join in their conversations. He himself had many friends in the upper years, whose parents were Death-eaters along with his father, and so he also was treated with the same amount of respect, but he had not imagined it would be this way for Hermione so quickly.

The main reason for the change in attitude towards Hermione, Draco pondered, was probably how much she had altered her personality, in some ways, to match those who had been sorted into the Slytherin house. She had always been intelligent and resourceful, but she had been modest about it, and worked far too hard. Now she maintained her level of cleverness, but also demanded that she be rewarded for it, and had a much more ambitious way of going about getting what she wanted. She aimed higher now. She had begun to bully the other houses, whilst also ignoring them. The turning point in her reputation with the Slytherins was when she had suspended Neville Longbottom high in the air next to the lake one afternoon when he had tried to greet her with a hug. She had merely flicked her wand at him, casting a wordless charm, and continued chatting to the seventh-year Slytherins, sat in Draco's lap.

Draco smiled when he realised he had not only wanted Hermione, he harboured much deeper feelings for the newly-reformed girl. She was of (fairly) good blood status, amazingly attractive, ambitious and, most of all, she knew it. She didn't hide behind her friends anymore, she was confident.

He had been dreaming about her for a few hours, it being a Sunday after all, he was allowed a lie-in. After a few minutes, Draco decided it was time to get up and go for his usual 10am Quidditch practise. He leaped out of bed and changed his clothes with a casual flick of his wand, leaving the naked, sleeping, Hermione in her bed, he gathered his broomstick and left her room. He'd spent the past few weeks here, with Hermione, in her room in the Slytherin dormitory. He was rather enjoying the privacy.

Hermione woke up tangled in the dark-green silken sheets that lay on her bed, and stretched, noticing a sheet of parchment on Draco's pillow. She blushed at that – Draco's pillow...he had a pillow in her bed now. She picked up the parchment and read his message.

"Gone out for Quidditch practise – you know I'd prefer to stay in bed with you, but I'm getting behind on my exercise. When I get back, you'd better have my lunch waiting, and we need to talk about the next step. Love, Draco."

Feeling like a housewife, Hermione summoned a house-elf and asked it to bring up a meal for Draco when he was back. Her feelings about under-privileged magical beings (house-elves, Muggle-born wizards etc.) hadn't changed, but in the grand scheme of things they meant little to her. She had bigger fish to fry.

She leapt out of her four-poster bed and pulled on some dark lace underwear she'd ordered from Hogsmeade along with a whole new wardrobe, and new magical items such as a broom, a new cauldron and various potion ingredients, all bought with her newly-discovered father's gold. Snape was a only a teacher, but he still had masses of money in Gringotts. He had started to warm towards his daughter, and had realised he loved spoiling her. He wished his parents had treated him with a little more warmth, so he decided his daughter was going to have everything she wanted.

Hermione spent the morning planning and plotting. She sent many letters by owl, encrypted and cursed in case they were intercepted. She had never dare use some of the incantations she had used in the last few weeks, but now her mind was more open to Dark Magic. One of the letters was addressed to Malfoy Manor, inviting Lucius and Narcissa to Hogsmeade the next weekend for a meeting. She had introduced herself as Draco's girlfriend, and she was sure he would mind a lot, but she could convince him to cheer up – eventually, and with the right underwear.

She had discovered a flair for Potion-making that obviously came from her father, and had begun trying out potions that she had found and memorised from "Moste Potente Potions" in her second year at Hogwarts, when she had made Polyjuice Potion with Harry and Ron. Not only that, but Hermione had started attempting to make her own potions – most of which she was sure would be confiscated by the teachers if they were found. One which had been successful, she had found out, enabled the drinker, in a trance-like state, to enter the minds of all those around them. This would be useful in the future for finding out valuable secrets from many individuals at once – efficient as always, Hermione had noted.

The potion Hermione was attempting today was a particularly difficult one – a powerful, aging-draft which would poison the drinker and bring about premature aging – a horrible death. She was about to add the dragon-scales when there was a loud crack and a house-elf appeared behind her, startling her and causing her to drop far too many scales into the cauldron. The potion seemed to bubble and froth, and suddenly it exploded, catching Hermione's fringe – thankfully she had backed away quickly. She shouted at the house-elf, and sent him away after taking Draco's food from him.

As she carried the silver tray to the bed, she caught a glimpse of herself in the tray. Her fringe seemed to have gone a different colour – it had been dyed blonde, like Draco's. For a minute she was enraged, but the door opened to reveal Draco, drenched with sweat and panting from his Quidditch training.

"Hermione! Your hair! It's...quite sexy actually...it looks like mine! Did the potion back-fire..?"

Draco dropped his broomstick at the foot of the bed and unzipped his green Quidditch jacket, revealing his toned, muscular stomach. He pulled her towards him, one hand wrapped around her waist, while the other ran through the newly-dyed hair. She had changed into a green silk dressing-gown earlier that day, but Draco began to undo the waist-tie, making the material fall to her sides, revealing the new underwear.

"Wow, all this for me, eh?"

"The potion works fine, I think. Obviously I haven't had time to try it – and we need to find someone to try it on. Maybe a simpleton in the countryside, people will never notice. And yes, this is all for you. I'm a one-man-only kinda girl. Unlike you – have you managed to finish things with Parkinson yet, or are you still letting her get some in empty classrooms after lessons?"

Hermione had heard rumours that Parkinson and Draco were still romping around the school together – mostly started by Pansy herself, but since she had become a Slytherin, she had noticed her jealousness becoming more and more prevalent in day-to-day situations.

Draco smirked.

"I wouldn't go near that slut with a broomstick to hit her round the fat, ugly face, never mind have my way with her in Flitwick's classroom after lessons. Hermione, how many times do I have to tell you...when I have this sexy a girl here, why look elsewhere? Now, I need a bath...come join me and tell me our plans."

Draco headed off to her private bathroom, stripping off teasingly on his way, revealing more and more of his toned body.

"Fine. But we're talking about the Parkinson thing again later, you arse! Oh, by the way...we're having lunch with your parents next weekend. And I'm now your girlfriend. Just to let you know."

Hermione giggled, anticipating his reaction to this – but was alarmed when Draco shrugged and smiled.

"Fine by me."