Chapter twenty.

Hermione blanched, "That's barbaric! And – Hey! Malfoy and I are absolutely NOT compatible!"

"I dunno, Drake and you have some pretty compatible qualities…"

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "Like what? Are you sure they're not just making an example of us too? A famous Muggleborn and an infamous Pureblood?"

Alice shrugged, "Wouldn't think so, there are enough muggleborns who are now war heroes to not make it totally necessary. If you weren't compatible, they wouldn't have put you two together, I mean, you're Hermione Granger, Wizarding Britain's jewel." She smiled. "Although, you are paranoid, meticulous, OCD, a nagging mother-type person, vain-"

"I am NOT vain!"

"Sure, but you think you're cute, right?"

Hermione self-consciously adjusted her jumper, "There is nothing wrong with how I look. The fact that men find me attractive has nothing to do with that."

Alice walked by her, reached up, ruffled her hair and grinned as she shrieked, before heading downstairs.

"Why did you do that!" Hermione's desperate voice followed her.

"You know, you sound just like Draco!"

"I do not!"

"You just yelled at me for touching your hair!"

"But he yells because he spends hours getting it right in front of the mirror, the vain prick! And I yelled because I just spent ages – Bloody hell, you're right."

Alice settled in one of the chairs, it was still early and they had a while to go until breakfast, "Don't worry, he'll keep you grounded in your flights of fancy."

"I am Hermione Granger, I do not have 'flights of fancy'"

"So, when you decided to do things for the 'better good' without researching anything and get into a whole heap of trouble, because what you did, didn't actually help… That isn't a flight of fancy?"

Hermione slumped into a chair next to her, "Malfoy told you about S.P.E.W, huh?"

Alice frowned, "Spew? No, you just struck me as that sort of 'do-gooder'"

"Wow,' Hermione blinked rapidly in amazement, 'you're good."

"Well, apart from being trained in psychology, which means I have to pick up on that sort of thing, I was pulling your leg." Alice smirked the Malfoy smirk…Must be heredity...

"What!"

"Oh, come on Granger, you Pommies say that too! I was jokin'! Of course he told me about that!"

Hermione frowned, "Fine, tell me about Malfoy then, since he's told you so much about me."

Alice's silent laughter slowed and she took a deep breath, "Well… He's a work-aholic, and from what I've heard, so are you… But I think you're reasonable enough to remember that there's time for work and there's time for play.

'But, with Draco, family always comes first, he almost flew over to Australia to lock me in my room when he heard that I was coming over to help with the battle. And…' Alice smiled sadly,

'He was that close sibling I've always wanted because my sister is so much older than me, but after this war… He decided to become my older brother/father figure!

'See, both my parents were visiting Aunty Cissa because she'd become so stressed…But Death Eaters attacked and Bellatrix…' Alice's lovely naïve face became distorted with sadness and showed more wisdom and pain than her years, 'well, they now have bed's next to the Longbottoms."

"Alice – I'm so sorr-"

"Forget it mate. Anyway! Draco – now, good qualities… He's smart, a lot smarter than me! Protective, vain (like you!) which means he cares enough about his image to not do anything (too) stupid, he laughs a lot (now, don't give me that face! He does it if he trusts you to not take advantage of him… which makes me wonder why he does it so often with me, I don't think he's worked out yet that I continuously manipulate him!) and my friends have managed to give him that good ol' sense of Aussie humour! Which is basically translated to, don't trust anything he says." Alice smiled sleepily, "Now you tell me about Potter."

Hermione smiled softly and looked into the fresh flames, "He is the most unselfish person I know-" she was interrupted by a sudden loud commotion upstairs as the two boys ran down the stairs, laughing. Actually, now that she looked, Malfoy was running down laughing and Harry was chasing him and shouting…naked? Now she got it, Malfoy had obviously taken all of Harry's clothes when he was in the shower and now Harry had to get them all back… Hermione blushed, mortified and glanced at the other girl in mental and emotional support; only to find her curled up in the chair, soundly asleep.

As Malfoy ran by, laughing, he called out, "Don't worry! It's jetlag! And she's slept through louder things!" Before shrieking like a girl and running even faster as Harry growled, almost catching him. Harry paid no attention to Hermione, she'd seen him like this before when he and Ron were dared to go streaking through the Gryffindor dorms, multiple times, during multiple Gryffindor parties. And Malfoy was a guy, he had the same stuff anyway. What Hermione didn't get, as she picked up her syllabus to make a couple of changes, was how much room did the two boys think they could cover before they crashed into something or ran out of space.