Disclaimer: This story is like many others of Fan Fiction. I'm a fan. And I write fiction. Duh.

OK guys? So I decided to write the next chapter whilst I am off school dying with a head cold, watching the heartbreak kid, and "doing my coursework" ;D.

I'm glad that "princessinmymind" thinks Claire and I work well together, I think our music teacher would beg to differ! Haha! Also sorry if they seem OOC but let's just say Draco lives in a different frame of mind since the war...hey it could work! :P

Natalie xxx


Thanks to everyone who reviewed, added the story to their favourites or put it on their story alerts! All the names are here!

sk8tergrl700 // princessinmymind // RainbowKatie // weasleyandtaylor // Hermione'sBFF454 // lacking a better name // Chelsey89 // cyiusblack // MidnightThief15 // CFCRockAngel // yesterdays-dragon // bas1014 // kleipoppetje

You're all fantastic!

shygirl135


Chapter 4: Going to PRC

Hermione and Draco arrived at Potions to find Blaise, Harry and Pansy already there at a table next to Ron, Neville, Hannah and Crabbe. They went, sat down and just at that moment Snape swept into the dungeon.

"The Oblivious Unction is a potion used a lot in medicine, some of you may have been treated with it by Madam Pomfrey, after having a nasty accident that causes you painful memories, and renders you incapable of peaceful sleep." After this statement Snape's eyes lingered on Harry and Ron for a split second."It requires much concentration and thought and you will therefore be working in complete silence. Ingredients and method are-" he waved his wand, "On the board. You may begin."

There was the usual murmur as people lit their cauldrons but soon everyone was working and the only voice Hermione could here was Pansy's.

"I can't believe we had to split up Blaise! Potter looks nowhere near as good as you do topless!" She whined at him.

Harry turned red.

"I know babe, I'm gutted as well, Weasley isn't anywhere near as pretty as you, but what the Minister says is law, and my mum would freak if I went against it, I'm sorry." Blaise told her, and turned back to working on his potion.

Hermione grinned to herself. I reckon he likes Ginny more than he is letting on, she is much prettier than Parkinson who's he trying to kid? I wonder if he does look better than Harry, I'll have to ask Ginny later. He can't look better than Draco though. I have to admit that after all those years of playing Quidditch, he looks extremely well toned. Her potion hissed and turned a smooth gold colour. She looked around, pleased with herself until she saw Malfoy was laughing.

What is he laughing at? I got it right, what's funny about that? Oh God?! Malfoy! You'd better hope that you aren't using Legilimency against me!

So what if I am?

You've been listening to my thoughts? Merlin!

It's okay Granger, I don't blame you, why wouldn't you think I look good? I mean look at me!

It's an invasion of privacy! You could cheat in a test or something! Get out my head!

Make me.

With that Hermione thought of third year, when she punched him. She focused completely on that, until it was all he could see.

Ouch Granger. He winced. That was low. Didn't work though!

Hermione thought and then pulled out an almost forgotten memory, one shrouded with pain and fear. She brought it to the front of her mind. Expanded and emphasised it until it was all she could see. Draco could see himself, only, it didn't look like himself, his features were tired, almost old looking, and he was squinting in confusion. His eyes made contact with Hermione's in the reflection of the mirror above his own mantle piece. Then he realised what this memory was. It was last April, when Hermione, Harry and Ron had been caught by Greyback and brought to Malfoy Manor.

"What do you think son? Is it him?" his own Fathers' voice echoed around his mind.

"I don't know," he heard himself saying, "It could be." He could feel Hermione's fear through the memory pleading him not to say anything.

Then the memory shifted. It was him again, stood next to his mother by the same fireplace, but the vision was constricted, blurry around the edges. His eyes were squinting in fear, like he didn't want to see what he was seeing, but he had to watch. At that moment a scream echoed through the memory, and Draco felt her pain as his own. He winced and turned back to his potion.

"I'm sorry." He murmured.

Hermione turned back to her own potion ignoring a quizzical look from Harry. Draco didn't intrude on her mind for the rest of the lesson.

The bell went and they all went up to the 2nd corridor, to the classroom usually used for Transfiguration, and they met the 6th years they would be sharing the class with.

"Hey Weaslette," Blaise said grinning, moving to stand next to her.

"Hey Zabini," Ginny replied, and then turned to Hermione. Hermione noticed Blaise looked slightly put out when Ginny abruptly ignored him. They seem to be getting on well, and it's not even been a full 24 hours….

"How was Potions? I feel sorry for you, having to sit next to Malfoy in every lesson, except Ancient Runes."

"It was okay," said Hermione, "Something really weird...I'll tell you later." She switched topics as soon as she saw Malfoy turn the corner with Harry and Parkinson. Ginny gave her a questioning look, but let it fly.

"So what do you think PRC stands for?" she asked Hermione.

"At first I thought it was Prick Recognition Classes, but it can't be. Malfoy is already here!"

This statement caused Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Luna, who had just arrived, surprisingly holding hands, to burst out laughing, until the four Heads of Houses emerged from the classroom casting silence amongst the ever growing group. It looked like they were sharing the classes with rooms 14 and 15.

As she walked into the classroom she saw that the usual rows of desks had been divided up and now there were many desks of two. Hermione and Draco sat down at a desk in the back corner quickly followed by Blaise and Ginny, Harry and Pansy, and Ron and Luna. On each desk lay two diaries. It had a magical clip around the middle and a quill slipped down the spine. There was the words PRC diary, inscribed on the cover in gold calligraphy. Underneath her name had just appeared in red. She glanced at Draco and saw that his was inscribed in green and silver. She opened hers and flicked through the pages, it looked like a regular diary, with dates and a space underneath it.

"Hem hem" Professor McGonagall coughed, "Now I have your attention, I would like to introduce you to your first new lesson of the year. PRC, or Personal Relationship Counselling. The Headmaster predicted some of you may need some prompting to get on with your engagement parties and wedding ceremonies, so these lessons will be where you will talk about issues in your relationships and plan your weddings. The diaries you have are to write in dates of friends weddings and when you are ring shopping et cetera. We, as your Heads of Houses, will be here to assist you in any arguments you and your partner may be having, and for any medical help you may need. We recommend you spend this lesson deciding on weddings dates."

"Right," Hermione said, preparing herself for a rough lesson, "I'd like a spring wedding. What about you?"

"Whatever. I don't care." he replied, crossing his arms firmly across his chest.

"Can't you be civil for just one minute? What's your problem Malfoy?" Hermione said, affronted. I hate how he thinks he is superior to me!

"You. Okay? My father would freak if he found out I was marrying you."

"Your father can't do anything about it Malfoy, He's in Azkaban, and this is law. I know you might hate me because of my blood but unfortunately we are stuck like this."

"Why do you do that? Just assume I'm still like I always was. I'm not. You don't think I'm ashamed of what I used to be, of what I was becoming? I am. When you showed me that memory it hurt me okay? It was bad enough having to watch it the first time round, watching it through another angle didn't help. I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not who I was."

Hermione paused. She felt slightly ashamed, she didn't think that maybe Malfoy could change, has changed.

"Look, I'm sorry that I showed you that memory, but in my defence, you were invading my privacy and watching that memory again wasn't the best for me either. It almost physically drained me, and I probably won't be able to sleep tonight."

Draco raised his eyebrows, "You can't sleep?"

"No, not when I think of that night. I don't want to talk about that. We're stuck like this- together. We have to be nice to one another or we'll kill each other. How about a truce?"

"Okay, Granger," he agreed, "Truce."

A silence fell for a few moments. Neither knew how to approach the subject. Draco decided to just be blunt.

"So, how about a Valentine's day wedding?" Draco suggested.

Hermione thought for a moment, "Really? It will cost a lot to get someone on Valentine's Day."

Draco sighed."Look, you're going to become a Malfoy, you need to get used to the fact that you have an endless amount of money at your disposal."

Hermione grimaced. "Okay then, Valentine's day will be the day." She opened her diary to February 14th and wrote "wedding day" on it in her best handwriting. With that illustrations of wedding bells and bows bordered the page. She smiled to herself. How clever.

"So, ring shopping," Draco continued, "end of October? We can have a Halloween engagement party."

"Sounds good," agreed Hermione and wrote that into her diary, as a border of rings that changed colour appeared on the page. At that moment they heard something from the table next to them.

"Luna, I know how much you want this, but I'm pretty sure Nargles won't be in the mistletoe." Ron said addressing Luna who wore a dazed expression across her face.

"If we have a Christmas wedding, they will inhabit the mistletoe anyway! There's nothing we can do to stop them!" she argued back dreamily.

It was a strange sight to see. Hermione raised her eyebrows at them and turned back to Draco, who was trying to silently laugh without causing too much attention.

"Oh shush! Be nice! They match each other well, better than we do! Plus Luna's wedding is one I'm looking forward to. When she came to Bill and Fleur's wedding she was dressed in bright yellow. It was nice amongst the wash of white." she said to Draco who now had tears rolling down his face.

Draco wiped his tears and calmed himself down.

"Who would you, honestly, rather be marrying? Weasel or me?" he said, serious now.

"Um, I don't know," she said slowly, trying to think of what marriage to Ron or Malfoy would be like. "I don't particularly want to marry anyone at the moment. I'm still in school and want to have a career first. If I had the choice of anyone it would probably be you or Ron I would choose. If you weren't a Slytherin and so obsessed with pureness, I would have probably liked you a while ago. We have the same level intelligence and when you aren't with your friends, you are actually quite nice." Hermione blushed; she had just told Malfoy he was cute!

"What about you? Me or Parkinson?" she asked hurriedly, trying to switch the subject onto him.

Draco paused, then admitted, "Same as you really, If I had the choice neither. I'm still too young and want to make a real name for myself; I don't want to be known as Draco Malfoy- son of notorious Death Eater. I want to be respected, not feared. Also, nothing ever really went on with me and Pansy, it was always her and Blaise, she was too easy for my liking anyway. And you wouldn't have been top of my list either. Had you been in Slytherin or Ravenclaw, had better blood and not hung out with Potter, I probably would have asked you out ages ago. You're a pretty witch and you're definitely clever. I think it was just my father keeping me from what I wanted. I had too much pride to ask out a Gryffindor Muggle-born anyway."

Hermione blinked, momentarily stunned.

He called me Muggle-born, not mudblood. And he called me pretty. ME! We've basically admitted to each other that, under different circumstances, we are a good match. Merlin…

"So…. define your perfect ring," Draco said, slightly embarrassed by their confessions.

"Well, I don't like yellow gold, so white gold is good, and I don't want anything flashy. When I was in Muggle London over the summer I saw a nice ring in the jewellers there. It was a simple white gold band, with 3 diamonds set into it, so it was smooth all the way round. It had one larger diamond and two smaller ones beside it. It was beautiful." She finished, smiling at the memory.

"Well," He started, "I'm not going into Muggle London, so we can get a lookalike in Hogsmeade, secondly, if you want a silver coloured ring, you might as well get platinum, it's more valuable, but I like the idea of it not being flashy. It matches your personality better." He finished.

At that moment, McGonagall called, "lesson dismissed," and told them to have all important dates set by the next lesson.

Wow, I just spent the whole lesson with Malfoy, talking, and it was civil. We didn't argue. What has gone wrong with the world?

Malfoy smiled briefly at her, and then walked out of the classroom with Pansy and Blaise. Ginny came up to her and together, along with Harry, they walked up to their quarters.

She grinned to herself and muttered the password to the glass phial which she saw already had a few silver and gold crystals in the bottom of it.


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