Author's Note: Alright guys, this has been long overdo. It's been sitting in my documents for a really, REALLY long time and I apologize. Truth is, I've been so busy with school but now I'm a college graduate with an English degree who works... at a convenience store. Good news about that? I'm setting a goal to write a chapter a night, on this or one of my other currently suffering stories. So, I hope someone still reads and I hope you enjoy. Ideas and critiques are welcome!

Kricket777 (love the name): I completely agree about Hermione/Charlie stories. I think they'd be so cute together and it kills me trying to make Charlie out to be a player (or at least a failure at commitment) cause that's not really how I viewed him at all. But to make this work in Draco's favor (and yes, it will be a favor to him as he doesn't really deserve our little 'Mione) I had to do something about the ever so sexy Charlie.

Artemis Sagittarius Malfoy (another awesome name!): I understand what you mean about Rowena. I figured since I was going with the whole impossibility of Draco/Hermione, I might as well do so thoroughly and mess up a few more characters along the way. I like making Hermione squirm with the fact she has absolutely nothing in common with the witch she looks up to for her intelligence. Plus, I was trying to be original, thanks for noticing that. I'm glad you're enjoying this really far-fetched idea.

Chapter 4: ~*~ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ~*~

Picture yourself on a train in a station,

With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,

Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

~ The Beatles

It was five of eleven by the time the Weasley family- and Harry, Hermione, and Rowena- made it to platform 9 ¾ on September first. Molly herded them all together like sheep, making sure she had each child in attendance. It was slightly easier, only having two of her own to worry about, but Charlie- who was now loading Hermione and Ginny's trunks onto the train- and Fred and George had insisted on coming along and now they were causing a scene.

"Fred! George! What have I told you about those fireworks!" Molly shrieked.

"You said not in the house, mum." Fred offered.

"Well, we're not, in fact, in the house!" George pointed out.

"No, to be sure. This is not a house." Fred observed, his eyes twinkling on Rowena, the reason for all the stunts they'd been pulling lately… well, an increase in the stunts they'd been pulling.

"Well that applies to train stations too!" Molly insisted. "Oh, Ron, here- you've got a smudge on your nose… no, just let me… Ronald Weasley you hold still right now!"

Ron winced as his mom licked a handkerchief and pressed it to his nose. She rubbed hard enough to turn it pink and he winced away. "Mum! Those freckles wont come off, you know!"

"Oh fine, stay filthy. Now, did you remember to pack your underwear?"

"Mum!"

"I'm only asking cause you forgot last time-"

"Did Ickle Ronnikins have to go commando?" Fred pouted, pinching his brother's cheek.

"Quick, Fred! Make sure his name's on the tag!" George said and together they somehow managed to accio one of his pairs of underwear from his trunk, checking along the waist band for a name tag. Charlie took the opportunity to pull Hermione aside.

"Feel lucky to be leaving yet?" He asked her with a wicked glint in his eyes.

"You forget, I'm taking half of them with me." Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah, the less dangerous half." He snorted. He toyed with her fingers some and they were quiet for an awkward moment. "So, um… I'll owl you?"

"That might be nice of you." She complimented, unable to keep the smile from her face. He smiled back before leaning in and capturing her lips in another mind blowing kiss.

"Mum, they're at it again!" One of the twins whined.

"Like rabbits, the two of them." Added the other. "Here, rabbits. Simmer down!"

A well-aimed aguamanti charm hit Hermione in the side of the face and she pulled away from Charlie, wincing a little and trying to wipe it from her eyes. She giggled a little but Charlie seemed upset at the disruption. "I'll have to remember to hex the two of them when I get home."

"They're just jealous Rowena's not kissing them goodbye." Hermione pointed out. It was true, too. The other girl stood impatiently off to the side, tapping at her wrist in annoyance. Hermione said goodbye to Charlie and made her way over to the other girl, annoyed when she thrust her wrist into her face pointedly. "Oh, bugger off! You're not even wearing a watch!"

"That's besides the point. You got my meaning, either way." Rowena insisted, following Hermione into an empty compartment. "He's not even interested in dating you anyways. You're wasting time."

"I thought you wanted me to go after Charlie." Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah, for some practice! Nothing serious is going to come of it." Rowena scoffed. "Merlin, you can be so clueless. Girl's are supposed to be the intuitive ones."

"That's a gender stereotype if I ever heard one." Hermione said, frowning. Rowena just shrugged as they were joined by Ginny, Ron, and Harry. With a final whistle, the train was off, leaving a waving Weasley clan and a whole lot of other families dodging fireworks as they saw their children off to another year of magical learning.

"I don't see why we have to make up seventh year." Ron complained to fill the silence. "We took down Voldemort for crying out loud! What are they going to teach us that could be more useful than that? How to turn into Voldemorts ourselves?"

"Don't even joke about that!" Ginny snapped but there was a playful smirk on her lips. "I'd look hideous without a nose."

Hermione said nothing, feeling it was too soon to crack Voldemort jokes. Basically, it was just too soon to joke about the recent war that claimed many lives. She seemed to be the only one to feel that way. Ron was busily trying to stuff his underwear back into his trunk without being too noticeable. So naturally, all attention was on him when his trunk fell over onto Harry's foot, spilling its contents all over the floor. Ron's ears turned pink with embarrassment and he glanced not at Hermione, but at Rowena. Hermione bristled at this. A few short months ago, that embarrassment would have been for her. She could have basked in the glow of being so significant as Ron picked up his scattered clothing items.

Suddenly, the compartment door slid back and Neville appeared. "Listen, have you guys seen Luna? Prefects and Head's need to meet in the front compartment to discuss schedules and get acquainted with one another."

"No, I haven't seen her yet." Hermione offered up but Neville's attention was on poor Ron, on his hands and knees, frantically shoving underwear back into his trunk.

"Wow Ron, I have the same pair! That's funny." Neville said, pointing at a pair of black boxers with inexplicably little dancing turtle-frog things on them. Ron blushed even more at this as Hermione clamored to her feet to follow Neville to the meeting. On her way out the door, she distinctly heard Ron muttering something about never wearing those ones again.

Out in the corridor Neville had already vanished to bring his tidings to other prefects hiding on the train. Hermione began to make her way down towards the front, dodging the trolley as the senile old witch in charge of it seemingly darted out of nowhere. As she swerved she felt something hard hit her cheek. "Ouch!"

Thinking the witch was throwing candy at her she glowered at her in her best bossy, important way. The old witch just gave her a peculiar glance before sliding open another compartment door. Something hit Hermione in the face again and she turned to see Luna standing a few feet away, tossing small, glittering rocks at her. "Um, what are you doing?"

"Blessing you with star rocks. They fell from the sky and they are said to bring magical wishes and luck to those they strike."

"Really? Cause most people struck by stars don't usually live to tell the tale." Hermione pointed out, slightly dazed by the way that last rock had hit her. "Besides, I've got my own shooting star. She's sitting back in the compartment, worshipping herself in all her wisdom and good looks and is a royal pain in my ass- ouch, Luna! Stop that!"

"You shouldn't use such language. It deters the stars from giving you magic wishes." Luna chided. Hermione patiently waited for the girl to stop flinging rocks.

"Are you done now?"

"Well, I could gather them up and try again-"

"No time. We have a meeting." Hermione said, grateful to have an excuse not to be hit in the head with anymore 'stars'. She tugged the odd girl along with her down the corridors until they finally got to the first compartment. She slid the door open, seeing the rest already assembled.

Pansy, one of the Slytherin House prefects, curled her lip up in disgust at the sight of the Head Girl badge on Hermione's robes. "Figures the mud blood would be Head Girl."

Hermione frowned, not quite sure why Pansy was so offended by that. Of course, the mud blood comment wasn't so surprising, but she didn't really think Pansy cared about being Head Girl. Pansy couldn't even find it in her lazy body to do her rounds at nights, let alone be such an important leading figure.

"Well, are you going to stand in the doorway the whole meeting or are you going to make your dramatic entrance and sit down already?" Someone drawled from the corner. Hermione's head shot around and she saw to her displeasure Draco Malfoy sitting in the corner, giving her a peculiar look. On his chest, the Head Boy badge sparkled as if it had been just polished. Ah. So that was why Pansy was so mad about her being Head Girl.

Hermione sighed, determined to get this over with and tried to make her way into the compartment. Unfortunately, she tripped over one of Luna's dropped 'stars' and went sprawling at Malfoy's feet. He smirked down at her. "Nice play, Shakespeare."

She gave him a curious glance at the expression but he just shrugged it off. All the other Slytherins looked confused. Of course they wouldn't know anything about Shakespeare. He was only the best muggle playwright in history. Hermione rolled her eyes and managed to get herself into a seat, unfortunately right next to Malfoy. She shot a venomous look at Luna but the girl with radish earrings was too busy telling Neville all about Nargles to notice.

"I hardly recognized you, Granger." Zabini spoke up from beside Pansy. "Trying to fit in this year?"

"The mud blood finally found her way into a bottle of shampoo." Snickered Pansy. Malfoy was oddly silent and when Hermione glanced towards him, she found he was studying her again. She raised her eyebrow coolly at him.

"You want to take a picture? It'd last a little longer, Malfoy." She remarked. He frowned and sat back in his seat, folding his arms calmly.

"I was trying to decide what shade of crap your eyes are." He shrugged. There was plenty of gaffawing from the Slytherins while the others looked uncomfortable. With the exception of Luna who was still prattling away, this time concerning Hermione's annarack troubles.

"Do a lot of crap studying, Malfoy?" Hermione pointed out.

"Well, yeah. Muggle Studies is a required course." He fired back. Hermione smirked; she'd missed this kind of banter no matter how infuriating it was. The truth was, and she'd never admit to it, but Harry and Ron were brainless and arguing with them was about as thrilling as arguing with a rock. They never had any clever comebacks and simply filled the void with swears.

"Are we getting this meeting done or what?" Blaise demanded, suddenly leaning forward. He turned to Draco. "No offense, mate, but I've got some business to attend to."

"Alright, fine. It's not like you don't know what we're going to be discussing so we'll keep it short and sweet before mud blood here stinks up the compartment with her- ow! Blood hell, what was that?" He demanded, rubbing his head and picking something up off the floor. It was one of Luna's rocks. He glared up at Hermione. "Did this drop out of your huge hair?"

"No!" She cried in horror because in all honesty, she wasn't quite sure. Thankfully, Luna solved that dilemma for her.

"Sorry. I missed." She said simply. She then whispered loudly, so the whole car could hear, "Annaracks, you know."

Thankfully, everyone ignored this and Draco went on with what he was saying. "So, basically the usual- set a good example or don't get caught doing anything that wouldn't. If you get caught misbehaving you lose your prefect title and face the consequences and blah blah blah. Ok, that's all. Back to whatever it was you people do."

"That is not bloody well all!" Hermione interrupted, just as Blaise prepared to send some paper bird zooming off with a message. He grimaced at her but wrinkled it up nonetheless. Hermione sighed and said, "We also need to go over patrol schedules, check yours and make sure there are no conflicts in them."

"I have a conflict- why do you patrol with Draco? Shouldn't there be some rule against Head Boy and Girl patrolling on the same nights?" Pansy said, her eyes narrowing shrewdly in suspicion.

"Malfoy and I do not patrol the same nights- oh, bloody hell, we do. What in the name of Merlin was McGonagall thinking?" Hermione sighed. "Whatever, I'm sure she had her reasons for pairing Malfoy and myself on patrols and once we get to the castle- ow, Luna! Cut it out!"

"That one wasn't me." Luna remarked in her usual dreamy way. Hermione glanced around and caught Pansy's eye. The pug-faced Slytherin had an evil look on her face and once Hermione noticed she made a throat-slashing motion.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic." Hermione ordered. She went over the rest of the boring stuff quicker than usual, desperate to get away from the Slytherins. Finally, the prefects began to disperse and she stood to leave the compartment.

"Not so fast, Granger." Malfoy interrupted. She sighed and turned to him with an eyebrow raised. "We haven't gone over the terms of living together-"

"W-what?" Hermione spluttered. Malfoy's cruel smirk widened.

"You heard me." He replied, meeting her gaze calmly. "Gee, now that I looked closer, your eyes really are more of a diarrhea green."

"It's called hazel, Malfoy! They're brown and green?" She pointed out in disgust.

"Like a kaleidoscope." Luna offered as she passed in her usual flighty way to walk with Neville down the passageway to the compartment where Harry, Ron, and Ginny sat. Hermione desperately wanted to follow them but Malfoy was right. They had to set up the terms of their dormitory living. So she sat with a thump, kicking away one of Luna's rocks.

She waited impatiently for Malfoy to go on but he was quiet. She glanced up and noticed him smirking at her cruelly. "What is it now?"

"You've got stardust on your forehead." He said, snickering. She wiped at it anxiously, wondering what it looked like. Her hand came away all black and smudgy. Oh, not quite as pretty as she'd imagined. Malfoy leaned forward and smacked her forehead smartly with his hand. "Ow! What the fuck was that for?"

"Language, Granger." He intoned, settling back in his seat. "You didn't get it all. I was helping."

"Annoying git." She mumbled. "Are we discussing our housing situation or not?"

"Fine. I want to pick our password." He said stubbornly.

"And why should I let you pick out our password all on your own? You're going to pick some Slytherin pride thing and then where will we be?"

"Granger, the war is over and us Slytherin's really have nothing to be proud about, now do we? Don't you think that'd be a little stupid of me?" He reasoned, making Hermione feel rather stupid and insensitive. So insensitive that she winced apologetically.

"Alright. Well, what did you have in mind?"

He smirked. "Oh, you'll find out when we get to the door."

"Hmph. I'm not just going to let you pick it!"

"Well what if I said I'd stay out of your hair the whole year? We could alternate times in the common room. I'll be on my best behavior. Any guests will go straight to my room and the same goes for you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Think no one noticed you snogging that Weasle today? Although I must say if you're going to snog one, that was probably your best option. Least you have a little taste."

"Coming from the guy who hooks up with Parkinson."

"Parkinson's family is very well standing. It'd be stupid not to connect myself with them. Besides," He went on, a glint of something mischievous appearing in his eye. "I do a lot of 'connecting' but I simply believe in a little word called discretion."

"Malfoy you must be the biggest whore in Hogwarts." Hermione pointed out. He surprised her by chuckling at that and shaking his head.

"So, do we have a deal?" He demanded.

"On everything but the password. I'm not going to let you pick it if you wont even tell me what it is first!" She insisted shrilly, causing him to wince and rub his ear some.

"We'll just have to see, won't we?" He smirked. Hermione found herself dying to smack that smirk right off his prat-nosed face. Instead, she opted for storming from the compartment.