Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If you think I do, something is severely wrong with you.

And now, onto the long chapter I've been trying to write!

The Astronomy Tower

The next day seemed to fly by before the 6th years' eyes. Next thing they knew, they were down at dinner, about to begin their new projects. Hermione was sitting with Harry and Ron and they were just finishing when a nervous-looking Ginny sat down between Hermione and Harry holding a letter.

"What's up, Gin?" Harry asked, looking at her carefully.

"Fred and George…they're coming to visit Hogwarts next weekend." She responded, looking scared.

"Well that's good! I haven't seen them in ages!" Harry said with a grin. "Why do you look so upset?"

"It's bloody well not good! Here, just read the letter." She said, thrusting the letter into his hands. Harry read aloud:

Our dearest sister Ginny,

It has been much too long since we saw you last and we thought we'd pay you a visit! We can't wait to spend a weekend with you and hex, erm, I mean, meet any boy that you might be with right now. We're going to be stopping by Hogwarts next weekend and we thought we'd come stay in the Gryffindor dorms with you and Ron and Harry and Hermione. Can't wait to see you, little sis. Miss you.

Your favorite brothers,

Fred and George

P.S. We thought we'd bring along some of our newer products to test and sell! But try to keep that a secret. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise, now would you? See you soon.

"So…what's so bad about them wanting to come see you?" Harry asked, looking downright confused.

"Do you understand why they want to see me? It's not me they want to see! That's just their excuse! They just want to test their new products to see if they're worth selling or not! This is going to be a nightmare! And none of you will be in the Gryffindor tower because you all have your bloody project!"

"Ah…I see what you mean. Don't worry, Gin. I'm sure we're allowed to stay in the tower for a night or two, besides; Ron and I will keep a close watch on whatever they do. They, erm, owe me anyways. They won't try anything on me at least."

"What do they owe you?" Ron asked with interest.

"I'll tell you later." Harry responded quickly.

Ron merely shrugged and grabbed some Shepard's Pie, stuffing it in his face.

"I'm not very hungry." Ginny said, looking quite pale. "It'll be good to see Fred and George again. I mean, they always liked me best and treated me like their triplet, but I still don't ant to even think about the mayhem they'll cause here."

At that moment, Dumbledore stood up from his chair and the room became quite immediately.

"As you 6th years finish your food," he began, looking at all the house tables in turn, "please, head towards the entrance hall where you will be given instruction as how your projects are going to work and what your assignments will be." He finished and sat down again, whispering something into McGonagall's ear before rising once again and walking out the doors into the Entrance hall. Harry, Ron and Hermione raised slowly, each saying goodbye to Ginny and in turn, she wished them luck, and they went into the Entrance hall where students were already assembling.

About ten minutes later, all the 6th years had filed into the hall and were talking quietly amongst themselves. Hermione noticed that Draco, although he still sat alone at the end of the Gryffindor table, was standing with Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, and Blaise, each of them looking hesitantly around. Crabbe and Goyle would be partners as would Pansy and Blaise. Draco was staying with them as long as he could before he was fated to room with the filthy Mudblood he had loathed for so many years.

Draco had turned to look at Hermione the same time she looked at him; they both turned away immediately, Hermione, blushing slightly and Draco becoming unnerved. Neither of them was clear as to why, but they didn't want to think about it. At that moment, Dumbledore addressed the group.

"I would firstly like to thank you all for participating with very little complaints." ("Ha. Yeah, right." Thought Draco, angrily.) "And I would like to waste as little of your time as possible so that you may begin your projects.

"As you have been instructed, I presume, you and your partner will be sharing a dorm somewhere in the castle for the next month minimum. After that month, it will be decided on whether or not your project is over. You will be assigned jobs based on what you're best at and will be paid. Your grade will be based on your job, how you act with your partner, and how well you keep your dorms clean. They will be checked on at random times, so it is best to keep it well-kept at all times just to be safe. You are allowed to go into each other's dorms with the owner's permission. If you and your partner do not seem to get along, there will be certain…challenges you two will be required to face. I believe that's everything you need to know. If you would all please now get with your partner and line up with them in front of me and I will give you a map of where your room is along with a password."

The students slowly started to move towards Dumbledore, most of them already with their partner, and lined up. Hermione stayed with Harry and Ron, hoping Malfoy would catch on to come to her.

He didn't.

With a sigh, she walked over to him, looked at him in the eye, well, nearly. She still had trouble making eye contact with him, and said, "Common Mal-Draco. We may as well get this over with." She then got in line with him behind Harry and Ron, Crabbe and Goyle lining behind Hermione and Draco, and Pansy and Blaise behind Crabbe and Goyle.

The line moved slowly.

As Harry and Ron finally reached the front of the line, Dumbledore handed them a map explaining to them that their dorm was starred and their password was written in the margin. They were advised to rip off the password and burn it as soon as they got to their room, so that no one could see it. They nodded, showing they understood and stood off to the side, opening their map and waiting for Hermione to finish.

Hermione and Draco got their map and instructions and stood beside Harry and Ron, Draco wanting to wait for his friends.

Hermione took the map from Draco's hands and opened it, looking for the star. She discovered that they were on the 7th floor next to the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. That meant they were right next to the Room of Requirements.

Hermione looked at Harry and Ron's map, a grin spreading over her face as she saw that they were only one floor below them. Crabbe and Goyle would be on the 4th floor and Pansy and Blaise were on the 6th floor, across the hall from Harry and Ron.

"Well, I suppose we should be going then." Draco said at long last, giving a tentative glance towards his friends.

"Yeah…I have some homework I need to finish anyway." Hermione said sorrowfully. Ron and Harry exchanged glances, trying not to laugh. It was the first time they had ever heard Hermione seemed upset about doing homework.

As they reached the 6th floor, Hermione and Draco bid their friends goodbye, telling them that they would stop by tomorrow morning so that they could walk down to breakfast together, and began to walk the dreaded staircase towards their dorm.

They reached the statue of Barnabas, but there was no door along the blank wall.

"A door will probably appear when we say the password." Draco said, remembering that his old Common Room was the same way.

"Well, I suppose we should go in, then." Hermione said, looking pale. Spending a month with Draco Malfoy could in no possible way be anything but torture.

Looking at the map again, Draco saw the password for the first time. "You've got to be kidding me." He muttered. "I miss my Slytherin password! That was at least logical. This is utter nonsense."

Hermione glanced at the password and laughed. It was taken from her favorite book growing up, Peter Pan.

"I refuse to say this. You're going to have to open it for me every time." Draco said flatly.

"Don't be such a baby." Hermione stated, looking at the blank wall. She was used to a picture being there to tell the password to.

"Well, at least there's no bloody picture anymore. That bloody Fat Lady was getting on my nerves! In Slytherin all we had was a blank wall. Looks like it's the same here. Alright, go ahead, say it."

"Pixie dust." Hermione said, grinning.

As soon as the words left her mouth, a large, wooden door appeared next to the statue. Draco grabbed the handle and opened it slowly, and peered inside.

This won't be so bad. He thought to himself as he walked in. The Common Room was painted an off-white color, but most of the furniture in the room, including the couch, chairs, the small dining table, and rug on the mahogany floor was a deep green.

Hermione followed him in, positively hating the coloring. It was too…Slytherinish for her. There was a mahogany coffee table and a red counter, but that was the only furniture in a different color than green.

The first thing she noticed was on the counter was a piece of parchment welcoming them into their dorm from their head of house, Professor McGonagall. It reminded them of the rules and told them that their jobs would be given to them the following day.

They then looked at the back wall, noticing three doors. The middle was the bathroom consisting of a bath/shower combo, toilet, large two-sink counter, and two cabinets; one for each of their toiletries.

The door on the left led to Draco's room and the door on the right to Hermione's room. They then went their separate ways the explored their new rooms. Hermione's was fit just to her liking. All her belongings had been brought into the room already. Her books were neatly organized in a bookshelf on the back wall and there was a small work desk next to the bookshelf with a window above it. The window had a beautiful view of the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid's Hut, and the lake. The sun had already set, leaving behind a group of red/orange/pink clouds that were slowly turning into dusk.

She had a four poster bed in one corner with a red comforter and gold sheets. There was a red carpet on the floor and in the opposite corner of the bed was a small table with a mirror so she would be able to do her make up in her room, instead of the bathroom.
She thought to herself that it wouldn't be so bad, if she could just spend most of her time in her room. Little did she realize, she wouldn't be spending much time in there at all.

Draco entered his room, looking quite pleased. He had a bookshelf as well, but these books were far different from hers. There was a desk of dark green and a window above it with the same view Hermione saw. Although, to him, it wasn't nearly as beautiful. He then walked over to his four poster bed, which had a dark green comforter with silver sheets. Sitting on it, he thought it to be quite comfortable, perhaps even more so than his old one in Slytherin.

Since it was still early, and neither of them was ready to go to bed, they came back out into the common room, neither acknowledging each other's presence. Hermione sat down at the couch and spread her homework out on the coffee table and began to work, while Draco amused himself in a game of chess, the pieces magically set up to play against him. It was a tricky bit of magic that he had taken a long time to learn, but it was worth it. Especially now that he was stuck with Granger for a whole month!

After about an hour and a half, Hermione put away her homework, yawned, and announced that she was going to bed. After a quick, mumbled goodnight, she walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth, and went into her bedroom.

Draco looked at the door she had just entered for a full minute before he realized what he was doing. He quickly snapped out of it and went back to playing his game. After about ten minutes or so, he became bored of that, and with a yawn, he went to bed, as well.

Both slept extremely peacefully, not used to having a room to themselves and with such comfy beds.

The next morning they both awoke around the same time, both grabbed whatever they needed for a shower and both exited their rooms at the same time, meeting in the middle, at the door of the bathroom. There was already going to be problems.

"Sorry, Mudblood, purebloods always go first." Draco said with his usual sneer.

"I thought we agreed not to call each other names. And whatever happened to ladies first?"

"Right. Well, as soon as I see a worthy lady, I will gladly give up my spot. Until then, you'll have to wait your turn." He finished, coldly and walked into the bathroom, locking the door.

"Malfoy! You're a prat!" She yelled into the door, knowing it was useless. She heard the shower go on and she went back into her room, sitting on her bed, thinking.

"There's got to be someway we can work this out." Hermione thought to herself, knowing it was hopeless. Malfoy thought himself to be superior to all, especially 'Mudbloods' like her. "But…" She thought slowly. "If we can find a way to maybe not think Mudbloods are so terrible, then it could work out! But how am I supposed to do that?" She sighed and put her head in her hands.

A few minutes later she heard the water turn off. Finally! It was her turn! She got up quickly from her bed and walked towards the bathroom. After a few minutes, he exited out slowly, not even glancing at her.

She went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. When she got in, she was fuming.

He had taken all the hot water.

That bloody little pureblood was going to pay.

When they went down to breakfast some thirty minutes later, they stopped and retrieved their friends from the floor below them. Then, they went their separate ways, Hermione with Harry and Ron, and Draco with Pansy and Blaise, and walked towards the Great Hall.

When they got to the Hall, however, Malfoy had to say goodbye to friends and go sit, alone, at the end of the Gryffindor table. Once again, eating as quickly as he could before exiting towards the library.

When the bell rang, they all quickly made their way towards Transfiguration. Hermione and Draco sat as far apart as possible, in case they were put under another task to complete.

McGonagall looked at them both, a pitied expression on her face, and moved onto teaching the lesson.

When the bell finally rung, she called out, "Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, I was hoping you two would stay for a moment."

With a sigh, Hermione bid goodbye to her friends, and walked towards the front of the class, Malfoy not far behind her.

"It appears that you two are still not behaving as you should. Roommates should get along and look after each other like family. From what we've heard so far, you both are still fighting constantly and refuse to speak civilized to each other and don't speak at all at meals and in classes. If you two wish to pass this project, you must learn to get along! So, unless you want us to go to drastic measures, then for the rest of the week, I suggest you two try to get along and maybe even work together!"

"Yes ma'am" Hermione said, frowning. She did not like the idea of trying to get along with Draco Malfoy. Putting up with him for a month was one thing; but actually spending time with him. That was just going too far. By the look on Malfoy's face, she could tell he was thinking along the same lines.

"Since you two aren't getting along, Dumbledore thinks it wise for you two to have a job together."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Malfoy protested.

"This, Mr. Malfoy, is exactly why this is going on. Have you even tried to get to know Miss Granger? She's bright, charming, quick, and quite funny." Hermione turned bright red upon hearing this.

"Now, your job will be to work on the Astronomy tower. You will go up there every three nights at eleven o'clock starting tonight and you will be copying down a star chart, filling out where all the constellations are along with their names and background story. Professor Sinistra will be in charge of you, making sure that you show up on time and work and get along, so make sure to check in with her when you arrive. She'll give you whatever supplies you need. You will be paid a galleon a week. Now, you two best be going to your next class. I wouldn't want you to be late."

At ten thirty that night, Hermione and Draco walked out of their separate rooms where they had spent the day, and walked towards the Astronomy Tower, not speaking at all.

When they arrived at the Tower, Professor Sinistra's office, just below the roof which they would be climbing on, they knocked three times.

"Enter" they heard her voice say. They went inside the room, slowly and carefully.

Professor Sinistra was sitting behind her desk, awaiting their arrival.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, right on time! Excellent, excellent. Now, I presume Professor McGonagall has already told you what you're going to do?" The both nodded. "Excellent. Well, best get to work, then. Here is your star chart, and here are pieces of parchment to right down the significance of each constellation. Your telescopes are already up there, you will have to set them up, though. Do you have any questions?"

"Erm, how long are we supposed to work for the night?" Hermione asked slowly.

"As long as you feel necessary. 2 hours minimum." She responded, looking cheerful. "Oh, and before I forget, whatever you do, do not close the door all the way, it's designed to not let anyone in from the outside as a precaution against everything that's going on right now, so, don't let the door close or you'll be stuck up there until morning, unless I should happen to check up before that, but it's unlikely."

And with that, she bade them good luck and pointed them to the ladder and door that would take them to the roof.

"Oh, this is just great" Malfoy said out loud as they stepped up to the roof. "It's freezing up here, I'm stuck with a Mudblood and if we let the door close, we'll be stuck up here all night. What could possibly be worse?"

"I'm not happy about this, either, you know." Hermione said, looking cross. "But we may as well get this over with. Common." She pushed him to the other side of the roof where their telescopes were in their boxes, waiting for them. They set up the telescopes, pointed them off into the distance, opposite corners.

After about an hour's of silence, only the sound of their quills hitting the parchment, Hermione broke the silence.

"Look Mal-Draco. McGonagall's right. We need to try to get along if we're ever going to pass the project. Can we just…pretend we're not complete opposites? Just for a month. Please." Her big, brown eyes got big and watery, shimmering in the faint moonlight above. They mesmerized Draco for a long moment before he came to his senses.

He slowly nodded his head. "Alright, Granger. I'll try. We'll get along, but I'm not going to be nice guy like Potter and Weasley. We'll get through the project and after that we'll go back to the way things were."

"That's fine." She said with a smile and reached out her hand, which he took, shaking it slowly.

They went back to looking through their telescopes; although this time they would point things out to each other, trying to make it easier.

"That's Pegasus." Draco said, looking through his telescope and pointing where it was focused. We both haven't gotten that yet." He said removing his eye from the lens and looking at her parchment. She had only gotten three of the constellations. She knew there were about a hundred. This was going to take forever!

Looking through her telescope, she focused it where his was. No, I think that's Leo the lion. I don't see the wings that Pegasus would have."

"Oh." He said slowly, looking through his telescope once again. "You're right. Hmm." He looked down at his star chart and scribbled around it, making it Leo instead of Pegasus.

At that moment, a large gust of wind picked up, sending chills down their spine and their paper flying. They went to chase after it when the wind kicked up harder, making the door slam close.

They both stopped suddenly and looked up at each other. The color completely gone from their face.

The began banging on the door, shouting for help. No one came. After about five minutes of straight yelling, their voices became hoarse and they knew it was no use. They would be stuck up there for the night.

They grabbed their parchment which was now on the other side of the roof, stuck against the two-foot-high wall. Putting it carefully in their bags, they began to pack up, feeling it was useless to carry on. They were too upset. They put away their telescopes and left them where they had found them and began pacing around the roof, trying to find someway they could get down.

After twenty minutes of straight, dead-silent pacing, they both gave up.

They were freezing, had nothing but the clothes they were in (which were their school uniforms and a cloak tied around their neck), and they were tired.

Very tired.

Hermione had the idea of creating a small, contained fire with her wand, but it didn't give off much heat. She had to stand very close to it in order to stay warm. Draco tried the same thing, his fire giving off even less heat than hers.

"Come over here, Draco. If we put our wands together, it will probably give off more heat." He obeyed, too tired and cold to make any rude remark about not wanting to be near a Mudblood.

They huddled close together in the corner, the wands giving off more heat together than they ever could alone. After about thirty minutes, they started to warm up and drift off to sleep. Hermione fell asleep first, her wand, still with Draco's falling out of her hand. Draco set down his wand next to it, so it would continue to warm him, and he lay down on the other side of the wand, about five feet from Hermione.

Try as he could, he simply could not fall asleep. Hermione, after being asleep for fifteen minutes or so, was shivering very badly. He was scared, he was never sure why, though, that she would get sick. So, he took off his cloak and wrapped it around her gently. Her shivering subsided quickly and he went back to sitting where he had been. Rubbing his hands together to try to stay warm, he moved the wand tips slightly more towards him. At that point, she started shivering again. He knew there was no way to keep them both warm if they stayed like that. He moved the wands carefully towards her, right near her body and got up and walked behind her.

Lifting his cloak off her, he lay down beside her so that her back was touching his side and he put the cloak back over both of them. Rolling to his side, he got as close to her as he could so that he could try to soak up some of her warmth.

He fell asleep soon after

The next morning, Hermione awoke early, the sun having risen and glaring in her face. Moaning, Hermione covered her face with her hand and she looked at her watch.

6:45 AM. She did not want to be up this early having only received a few hours of sleep. She looked around her, wondering where the light was coming from when she realized that she was not in her bed. The stone below her was hard and cold and she shuddered.

Finally remembering what had happened, she lifted her head slightly looking for Draco. Hearing him snort behind her, she quickly rolled around to find their noses nearly touching. She realized that he had put the fire close to her and even put his cloak over both of them. Smiling, she nudged him awake.

"Morning, Draco." She said, smiling slightly.

"What the bloody hell are you doing in my room, Granger?" He said, also, apparently, not realizing where he was.

"We're not in your room, Draco. We got stuck on the Astronomy Tower last night, remember?"

Slowly, he remembered and groaned, having slept very uncomfortably last night.

He got up carefully and looked around. "Sinistra said that she would be in here in the morning. What time do you reckon she meant? What time is it now, anyways?"

"I'm not sure. Probably before breakfast…I hope. And it's 6:50 right now." She sat up slowly.

"Bloody hell. I'm going back to sleep." He said, falling back down. "Ow. Bloody stone floor! Ugh, I give up." He sat back up and leaned against the wall next to him. Hermione did the same.

Looking over at him and smiling again, Hermione handed Draco his wand back.

"I wanted to thank you for giving me your cloak last night. It really helped. You must've been freezing."

He tilted his head to one side, his Malfoy charm coming into play. "Nah, it wasn't so bad. Malfoy's never get cold. Besides, there was a lady in distress. And maybe we can use it to make McGonagall and Dumbledore lay off us for a bit, eh?"

Laughing, she hit his shoulder playfully. "That's all you care about, isn't it? Playing the cards to get you on everyone's good side. Well, everyone's good side worth getting on, right?"

"That's pretty much it." He responded with a smile on his face.

They sat in silence for another half an hour, occasionally checking the time and looking up at the sky. At seven thirty, Professor Sinistra came up to the roof looking shocked.

"What happened!" She asked. "I told you not to close the door!"

Malfoy, becoming angry, responded sharply, "The bloody wind slammed the door closed and if you had been in your office, you would have heard us shouting! Why the bloody hell do you even have those charms on their anyways? People have to use the tower all the time. How often do they get stuck up here?"

"Actually, you two are the first ones. Usually I'm up here as well and I know a complicated spell that only I and Professor Dumbledore can do that opens the door. Well, come along, you both must be freezing. Go get changed and go down for breakfast. Class starts in an hour."

And with that, she turned around, grabbing her telescopes, and left.

Malfoy nodded his head towards the door, and grabbing their bags, they walked back to their room.

He let her use the shower first today.

This, Hermione thought, might not be so bad after all.

Author's Notes:

Alright, so what do you think? Malfoy being too nice too soon? It's not too late to make him evil again…

Reviews are appreciated!