Chapter número cinco!

Yay! Things get really good here :D

Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling, I don't the characters, places and some of the background.

Detention

During lunch, Hermione went straight to the library. Since she knew she had detention, she had to finish as much as her homework as possible.

The rest of her classes, Herbology, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy went without incident.

During dinner, Hermione sat next to Ginny, said nothing and started eating.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Ginny asked

"Draco stupid-git-ferret Malfoy. That's what's wrong!"

"Why? What happened?"

Hermione explained what happened in Potions to Ginny

"And now I have detention with him tonight!" Hermione finished infuriated

"Well, maybe it won't be bad. I mean, remember the train? You seemed to have survived him just fine then, maybe you'll be fine this time too" Ginny suggested

"I guess" Hermione said in an uncertain tone. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that the detention would not be as bad as she thought.

She rose from her seat, said goodbye to Ginny and headed towards the exit of the Great Hall. When she reached the double doors, Draco was waiting for her.

They silently walked down to the dungeons, not even acknowledging each other.

When they reached Slughorn's office, Draco opened the door and held it for her. She walked through with a quizzical expression.

Slughorn was sitting at his desk and gestured Hermione and Draco to sit down

"Would you two care to explain to me how both the Head Boy and Girl were misbehaving in such a manner during class, that they got detention on the first day of school?"

Draco knew that Hermione hated him right now; it was his fault this happened after all. But he didn't want her to be mad at him; she was the only person that made him feel alive after so long. He had been a zombie for a really long time and now that was changing, because of her. He needed her to forgive him, and he knew what he had to do

"Professor, it was my entire fault. I transfigured Hermione's paper to say all those things."

Hermione was shocked.

This didn't seem like something Draco would do. But then she thought about it, of course, he wanted to get the blame and then she would be in his debt. Well she was certainly not going to let the happen

"Draco isn't entirely at fault, I transfigured his paper too-"

"To what I had written on it before, I showed her those that's what made her laugh. Then I transfigured her paper and got her in trouble-"

"He only did that because I dyed his hair pink in the morning-"

"Because I was rude and wouldn't let her use the shower-"

"Why are you taking the blame for this?"

"Why are you?"

"ENOUGH" shouted Slughorn.

Draco couldn't understand why Hermione wouldn't let him just take the blame

"Now" Slughorn said in a weary voice "it seems obvious that this whole problem was the fact that you two cannot cooperate. So, as a result, your detention shall teach you two to get along." I hope he added in his head

"You two will brew a potion for me which I will need it for a class in two weeks time. It only takes a few hours to make but if you can't work together, you won't get it right. I know that you two can do this; you are the top two in the year. If I have to, I will make you redo it every night."

Slughorn showed them to the potions classroom. There he set everything out, put the instructions on the board and left. Draco and Hermione worked in silence for a long time. Finally the potion had to rest for two hours before they needed to add the final ingredients.

They sat in silence until Draco broke it

"Why wouldn't you let me take the blame Granger?"

"Why did you want to take the blame Malfoy?" Hermione retorted

"Because I didn't want you to hate me" Draco admitted to her.

Hermione was shocked and so was Draco, both couldn't believe he just admitted that out loud

Hermione quickly covered her shock, hissing at him "you didn't seem to mind all these years"

"Really Granger? We are back to that?"

"Back to what?"

"I am a different person to who I was before the War, I thought you finally understood that on the train"

Hermione was surprised, Draco was right

"I'm sorry Draco. I guess I still can't get my head around the fact that you are different. It's not only that, it's also because during the War I couldn't trust many people, everyone had an ulterior motive"

Hermione bit her tongue, she hadn't meant for the last sentence to come out

"I understand. I guess we made a complete circle. From being mad each other to talking about the War again, just like the train"

Hermione realised the truth in Draco's words and realised that she wanted to talk about it. Usually when someone asked her about it, she avoided it but with Draco, she brings it up.

Almost as if he could read her thoughts, he asked her "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Yes" she admitted

"What do you want to talk about?" Draco asked

"I don't know"

"That's a first, Hermione Granger doesn't know the answer to a question" Draco teased her.

Hermione glared at him but he just laughed. She found his laugh fascinating; she had never heard Draco truly laugh before. For the second time in two days, Hermione found herself analysing Draco.

When he laughed, his eyes sparkled. They didn't hold the cold and emotionless look they usually had; they looked warm and full of life. Hermione had to admit to herself that Draco was actually attractive

"Granger, didn't your parents teach you that it was rude to stare?" Draco asked in an overconfident tone. But inside, his heart was pounding; Hermione had a strange effect on him

"They did, didn't your parents teach you how to be modest?" Hermione retorted.

At the mention of his parents, all traces of laughter left Draco's face

"Hermione, you seem to have forgotten who my father is. My father doesn't know what modesty is, and if he did, it wouldn't go in his lesson plans."

Hermione noted the bitterness in his tone and wondered why it was there

"Draco? What-What happened to your father?" Hermione was scared of what his reaction would be

"Life sentence in Azkaban, I'm happy to finally get away from him"

"What about your mother?"

Draco mentally debated with himself what to say. He wanted to say everything but didn't know he should. Finally he decided.

"My mother saved Potter's life, which saved her from a life in Azkaban. And she never was or wanted to be a Death Eater and she was never marked. She believed in the Dark Lord's cause but didn't like what he was doing. But my father did and he wouldn't hear a word against the Dark Lord. My mother and father were in love when they married, but I think my mother started falling out of love with my father when he joined the Death Eaters. Then when the Dark Lord fell my father changed. He became harsher and the only love in our house was the love my mother and I shared. Even when the Dark Lord came back, it didn't get better, it just got worse. My mother was afraid of my father and acted the way she did because that was the only way to protect herself and me. Even now he is in Azkaban, she is still scared. My father was and still is a monster but, despite what many believe, my mother wasn't, isn't and never will be like him" Draco finished. For the second time that very day, he couldn't believe how much he had revealed without meaning to. Hermione looked at him with pity

"Hermione, what about your parents?" Draco said wanting to switch the focus from him.

Hermione was nervous about her reply. Draco had shared so much, she knew she owed it to him to do the same

"When Harry, Ron and I set off to look for the Horcruxes, I was scared that Voldemort" Draco flinched at the name "would get my parents. I love them more than anything and the thought of him anywhere near them, made me physically ill. So I cast memory charms to make them forget me and believe they were different and wanted to move to Australia. Over the summer I went there and lifted the charms, it was difficult and I actually spent two days trying before I could fix them. They were mad but they still wanted to move back, but it was difficult. It seems that they won't be able to get everything back until next year. I spent the summer at the Burrow and my parents spent it setting up everything for them coming back. I won't be able to visit them and my old house till Christmas break. I'm happy that they are safe but-"

Hermione was about to voice a pain that she hadn't told anyone "-it was so hard when I went to them. They didn't recognise me, they didn't know me. It was so hard, my own parents forgot me"

They sat there in silence, Draco had no idea how to respond to that. After a while they realised they had to finish the potion, they gave it to professor Slughorn, who announced happily that they had done it correctly.

They made their way back to their Common Room. When they entered, Hermione decided something

"Draco?"

"Yes?"

"Can we talk?"

"Uhhh sure"

They both sat on the couch and Hermione turned to face him

"I think that the two of us could be friends"

"What are you playing at Granger?"

"I'm saying that we should try to get along"

"How in Merlin's name is that going to happen?"

"Well, you could try to be a bit nicer?"

"Nicer?"

"Yes Draco nicer"

"I guess, we could try..."

"Really?" Hermione thought he would object and she would have to convince him

"You sound shocked, if you didn't realise we just had a perfectly good detention that required us to get along" and I really want to get to know you better, he added to himself

"Good" Hermione was still shocked at how ready he was to comply with the truce

"But Granger you have to understand that I won't be completely nice. I will still be me"

"I guess that's fair"

"And you need to do something. You need to loosen up and have fun. Not just for me but for you too"

"I guess that wouldn't be too bad. But, like you will do, I will still be me. So don't expect me to do anything too out of line"

"I wouldn't expect any different."

He gave her a small smile and she finally voiced the question lingering at the back of her mind since the train ride.

"Draco, since we're trying to get along, can I ask you something? I don't want to insult but I can't really think of a nicer way to phrase this and well, it's been nagging me for a while."

Draco rolled his eyes at her rambling, deciphering that she wanted to ask him something. He simply raised his eyebrow as if encouraging her to ask her question.

She took a deep breath, hoping she wasn't ruining this friendship already, "How did you get Head Boy? I understand you're smart and they want to keep you safe but they could have just moved you to another dorm room. And... given your history, why would anyone think you should be in such a position of power?"

Draco gave Hermione a bitter smile, "I was wondering how long it would be until you brought that up again."

He sat back and continued, "I wasn't given a letter like you were. I had a personal visit and on that visit, I was told that this was the best course of action for everyone. I would be watched constantly by 'more trusted people'... even if they didn't know they were watching me"

At that he gave Hermione a pointed look.

"What? Oh wait... do you mean to tell me that I'm one of those people watching you?" Hermione said, her voice filled with shock.

Draco let that bitter smile onto his face once more, "you're a third of the Golden Trio. Who better to not only protect a former Death Eater, but also to keep said former Death Eater from any funny business. You, Weasley and Potter have always been more aware than anyone, so they trusted that you would make sure I was safe and, more importantly, on the right side. This," Draco gestured to his badge, "happened to be the best way to make sure you could spend as much time near me as possible"

Hermione sat in silence, finally understanding. She was the reason they made him Head Boy. Heck, she might even go as far as to say that she was the reason they let him back to Hogwarts, with her keeping an eye on him, they knew it was the best way to see if he was trustworthy or not.

"Well I promise I'll keep you safe," she finally said, "I know Dumbledore was big on second chances and I have a feeling his portrait had something to do with this, I wouldn't want to let his faith in me to be for nothing."

They both sat in silence for a minute until Draco finally decided to break it.

"Since you got to ask me a personal question, may I ask if you and Weasel broke up?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I just want to know why anyone would let you go" Draco cursed himself in his mind

"Yes we did break up but I really don't feel like talking about it. I don't think I can fall asleep unless we talk about something light-hearted for a change"

"I know just the thing" Draco ran up to his room and came down with a book about transfiguration, it also happened to be the book Hermione had intended to buy for a very long time. They spent the rest of the night going through the book and discussing topics in the book. At around 1 in the morning, Hermione finally dozed off.

Draco watch her for a while sleeping peacefully. He couldn't help but admire her, she was beautiful and smart and kind and strong and so much more. He knew from the way she talked about her parents that she was very close with them and he knew it really showed how amazing of a person she is by doing what she did for them.

Then he heard his own thoughts.

Suddenly everything made sense, he was falling for Hermione and the weirdest part was the fact that he didn't mind a bit.

He carefully lifted her into his arms and carried her up to her room. He lay her down and made sure she was warm.

As he straightened up, he couldn't help but notice that her room was exactly like his, the only differences being that she had photos that littered the room and the colours, which were Gryffindor as opposed to his Slytherin colours.

Glancing at her peaceful sleeping form one more time, he smiled; he really liked the idea of fancying Hermione Granger.

This was a really really long chapter compared to the others I've posted! I know things are moving pretty fast but please remember that this is a silly little fluff story written by my 11-year-old self! It isn't intended to have a complex plot line or character development or be realistic! If you want that, this is NOT the story for you! I've read some really amazing stories on here that mine doesn't compare to. But you know what? I also really enjoy reading fluff stories where things move fast and are weird and random and I love them :) I have received some negative feedback but I am still proud of this story because I know others have enjoyed it :)

"Imperio!" 'Go and review... Go and review...' :D