Chapter 1

She's hurrying along the corridor under the invisibility cloak. The library is her destination, of course. It's midnight but she doesn't sleep much these days and she's got an alchemy essay due next week and she might as well verify some of those facts. Madam Pince doesn't usually mind if Hermione is in the library after hours. And the professors all give the eighth years leeway. Probably too much so. But she doesn't feel like explaining herself to some young prefect who might catch her. So she dons the cloak and grabs her essay and sneaks through the castle.

She prefers it this way, actually. Quiet. Dark. Still. Much better than everyone surrounding them everywhere. The younger students who didn't fight in that final battle all gawk at all the eighth years. No matter the house. Obviously she is the biggest target. Being the only one of the golden trio to return to Hogwarts. Harry and Ron took a much earned gap year. All three had been awarded everything that the wizarding world had to award. And offered all of the jobs. But Hermione would have felt incomplete without her NEWTS. She of course opted to return. And the boys, of course, opted to travel. They were off doing a relaxing tour of the world. No cares or responsibilities. Before Harry takes his place in the Auror department and Ron decides which quidditch team he wants to be on. She missed them dearly, but they definitely need some space from each other. They write weekly and she gets bombarded with gifts from exotic birds at the breakfast table. It's been nice.

As she rounds the corner to the library entrance, she runs smack into someone.

"What the fuck?" He shouts. His wand is out pointing around blindly.

She squeaks as she stumbles back, rubbing her nose which she hit the hardest, as she sees that it's Malfoy behind the wand.

Ugh. She should have had the marauders map out. Harry gifted both the cloak and map to her for this final year. But the prefects aren't usually out this late or in this part of the castle. Nobody leaves their dorms at night to go to the library. Nobody except her.

"Granger, I know that's got to be you. No one else would be going to the library right now. Come on. Show yourself. I heard your squeal."

She groans inwardly. McGonagall gave Malfoy his prefect duties again because she thought responsibility would be good for him. He's back at Hogwarts because of ministry mandated reform programs. All of the death eater children are. It's been a month since they've been back at school. So far all the slytherins have kept their heads down stayed out of trouble. She'd almost call it humility. If she didn't know any better.

He shoots a hex off to her left. She gasps at his audacity. He hears her and shoots another straight at her. She blocks it easily. "What on earth are you doing?" She says.

"Knew it was you." He responds. "Take off that bloody cloak, for Merlin's sake. You're ridiculous."

She drops the hood. "I'm being ridiculous?" She snaps. "What are you even doing out here at this hour?"

He pockets his wand. "Trying to catch dumb little lions out of bed after hours. Ten points from gryffindor"

"Oh shove it, Malfoy. I know you don't have point taking privileges. You abused that power too much and now you can't use it. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got work to do."

She moves to walk around him and enter the library but he steps in front of her. She moves the other direction and he steps that way too. She huffs and puts the hood back on and levicorpuses him out of her way. He's wriggling around in midair trying to get his wand back out when she slips under him and opens the library door. She locks it behind her and goes off to the alchemy section.

Keeping their heads down? Hmph. Now that she thinks about it, she's had more interaction with Malfoy this term than she's had her entire school career. It's usually something like this. He bothers her but not his usual cruel jabs at her blood status or looks. Just being generally annoying. Like a pest. And it's never in front of other people. It's passing in the hall when nobody else is around, it's reaching over her in the potions cupboard to grab the ingredient she was reaching for first and chuckling as he goes back to his desk and starts his work before her. It's scoffing and rolling his eyes at Harry and Ron's weekly mail.

Mcgonagall moved the tables around so the slytherins and gryffindors were next to each other in the middle to try and encourage more mingling. It was kind of working. There weren't any fights at least. The slytherins were usually polite and allowed whatever gryff who was walking down the aisle to pass by without incident. Some of the lions, like Seamus, were rude every chance they got. But most everyone else just didn't speak to the slytherins. Hermione always made a point to loudly say "thank you" and "pardon me" kindly to any slytherin who stood by for her to pass. She wanted everyone to see and maybe follow her example. Occasionally it was Malfoy who she thanked. He would nod his head and she would pass by and that was that.

Well, no. That was not that. She found herself intrigued by his seemingly complete change of personality. She couldn't put her finger on what it was. Was he finally able to just be himself without the weight of slytherin prince reputation to uphold? Or was he repressing his usual nature in order to not get into trouble this year? She wasn't sure. And there was no way of knowing anyway, seeing as she wasn't about to befriend him and ask him.

She found the book she needed and sat down at the nearest table and got to work. She heard the door unlock and open and rolled her eyes. She still had the cloak on, so she pulled the book under it with her and got to fact checking.

Malfoy starts whisper-shouting. "Granger!" As he walks through the main aisle of the library. After his second pass through doing this, she whispers back exasperatedly "what??"

He spins around and walks toward her table, she drops the cloak hood. "What are you doing?" She asks.

"Can you take the cloak off? Talking to a bloody floating head is annoying as fuck, Granger" he leans against the far end of the table with both of his hands and she sees he looks… nervous?

She narrows her eyes at him and says "what are you on about?"

"Please, Granger" and now he looks uncomfortable.

She shrugs off the cloak and sits back in her chair and crosses her arms. "Fine. What is it, then?"

He seems to take a deep breath and then looks straight at her. Her brow is furrowed in confusion at his behavior. She's apprehensive. He adjusts his hands on the table and rocks back and forth a minute. Then he blurts out, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For being cruel to you before. And especially for just standing there, you know. When. I'm sorry. For all of it. You didn't deserve any of it. And I was a brainwashed prat and I should've been decent to you and I should have, I should have…"

"Stop" she puts her hand up and ends his rambling. She's stunned by the direction that this conversation has taken. Never expected it in a million years. "Thank you for apologizing. You were a prat in school. Still are. But I don't blame you at all for that day in the manor. There was nothing you could have done. None of it was your fault. Please don't fret over it any longer. I certainly don't. It was an adults war that we were dragged into. It's over now. We're moving on." She sits forward again and opens her book. Glances up at him.

He clears his throat and fists his hands against the table. Knuckles down. Pushes up and stands away. "Right then. Thank you. I just, I needed to say it. And I did,so. I'll be getting back then." He nods a goodbye and then turns.

"Malfoy." She says. He stops and looks at her, face unreadable. "Don't be…" she gestures at him with her hand, "weird, like this again, ok? Otherwise I'll tell Harry you apologized and he'll start sending you exotic South American gifts at breakfast."

Malfoy scoffs and looks affronted. "You wouldn't dare" he says.

She smiles and waves him off, looking down at her book. He grins and turns away, heading back out the door. She stares at the same paragraph for twenty minutes as she contemplates what just happened. Was he waiting there for her specifically to apologize? He must have been preparing that speech for a while now. She can't believe he actually did it. Never would have expected.

Some distant sound echoes through the castle, a door shutting or peeves perhaps, and she's jolted back to the present. She fact checks her essay and packs back up and goes to bed. She doesn't take long to fall asleep this time. And when she does, she dreams about lying on that drawing room floor again, only this time there's no pain, and she looks into Malfoy's eyes as he says "I'm sorry, Granger. I'm sorry"

Dear Hermione,

We've made it to the Grand Canyon. What a site! It's incredible. Nothing like I've ever seen before. I do wish I could share these places with you. Maybe someday, yeah? I miss you terribly. I think about you constantly. I can't tell if it's a good thing that I've left you to go on this trip and give us space, or a bad thing. All I know is that I wish you were here.

Harry seems to be doing well. I don't notice him waking up at night anymore. He enjoys the places we go to. He hasn't talked about anyone though. You know, the ones we lost. I read your letters though and I know, i'll do what you said and I'll be ready to help him open up. I've been mentioning Fred more often. You're right. It does help.

Can't wait to see you at Christmas hols.

I love you.

Ron

Dear Ronald,

Your letter was so sweet to read. I miss you terribly as well. But I do think this break is a good thing. We've basically been around each other nearly everyday since we were 11. I think about you often as well. But I am glad you and Harry can have this time together and be in a different environment. I knew neither of you would come back to hogwarts with me. It's not the same without you. But I knew as soon as we left at the end of sixth year that that was it for the two of you. I'm so happy to be able to come back and finish my newts though. The course load has not been easy. And I'm grateful for the distraction. I haven't a clue what direction I'd like to go for a career. Mcgonagall was talking about apprenticeships opening up for me at St mungo's and gringotts. Curse breaking sounds quite challenging and I do think I'd enjoy it. But would it be too close to the horcrux hunt? Healing would also be challenging and hopefully in a different way. I was never good at healing spells while on the run. It would be good to build up my skill set in that way. I just don't know.

Well, I'm not sure where this will find you next. But have a wonderful time! Looking forward to seeing you at the Burrow for Christmas. Be safe.

Love,

Hermione