Author's Note: Sorry that I took so long to update this story! Not to make excuses or anything but I'd say I have a pretty good one since last Friday I moved to a new town and then I started a new job yesterday so it's been a little crazy!

Well anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Hermione tried to smile as more and more people piled into their train compartment. She had to keep reminding herself that she was being surrounded by friends and not enemies.

It was also uncomfortable because she was forced to admit, silently and to herself, that a good chunk of her anxiety was caused by uncertainty. Who knew when she'd get a chance to go slaying again? And how could she keep meeting Malfoy in secret when Harry had the Marauder's Map?

But then Neville rushed into the compartment and he shattered all her other worries with one sentence. "I just heard that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is a vampire!"

Hermione froze at the thought. Surely if a vampire had been hired on he was one of the souled and controlled variety but she'd yet to meet one of that kind. Would that be enough to curb her now natural reaction to vampires which was "see a vampire, kill a vampire" or would she be spending her DADA classes fighting the urge to turn her professor into dust?

Ron tapped her on the shoulder, knocking her out of her thoughts and nearly getting himself knocked out for his efforts. (When she was distracted she instinctively reacted to everything as though it were a threat.) "What? What is it?" she asked.

Ron just raised an eyebrow and pointed to the clock on the compartment wall. "Prefects meeting. Don't you like to get to those at least ten minutes before they start?"

"That's true. But first let me grab a quill and some parchment in case we have to take notes."

Ron sighed in exasperation as she stood and rifled through the bag she'd stashed in the overhead compartment. "You know those are always provided at the meeting."

"Yes, well you never know when someone will forget. Besides, I prefer writing with a specific brand of quill that not everyone else uses," she said even though she knew neither excuse really made any sense. They were all witches and wizards so if someone forgot something it would be easy enough to Summon the supplies or even Transfigure them from something else.

But of course she wasn't actually looking for just any old quill or scrap of parchment. She was looking for one of the stakes she'd Transfigured into a quill with the additional upgrade of a Protean Charm that connected it with Malfoy's tie clip so that they could silently communicate, at least to an extent.

"Okay, now we can go," Hermione cheerfully announced once she'd sent her Watcher a message telling him that they had to meet up as soon as he could escape his Slytherin friends.

The Gryffindor prefects left the compartment together but only minutes later Hermione found herself making an excuse to get away from the Weasleys. "I just need to slip into the loo for a minute. No need to wait for me, I'll be right along," she said. As soon as Ron and Ginny had turned around she snuck into the cubicle Malfoy had just flagged her from.

"I suppose your lying skills aren't horrible but they do need work if we're going to meet during the school year," Malfoy said once she'd secured the door.

"You couldn't have met me in a place that would be easier to explain away if we got caught?" Hermione hissed, completely ignoring his commentary on her lying skills. "An empty compartment or a closet maybe but not the loo! If anyone catches us here they'll assume there was a romantic assignation going on."

"Romantic?" Malfoy snorted. "Merlin, you must be pretty hard up if you think a loo is romantic."

Hermione couldn't stop her face from flaming bright red. "That's not what I…never mind. Did you hear about the new Defense professor?"

"That she's a perky American blonde?"

Hermione's brow furrowed. "I heard it was a vampire."

Malfoy frowned as well. "That's odd. I wonder which rumor is true."

An announcement during the Welcome Feast made it clear that both rumors were true and it spurred Hermione and Malfoy to meet in the Room of Requirement even at the risk of Harry looking at his map and noticing were they were both headed.

Hermione arrived first and nearly had a hole worn in the carpet by the time Malfoy arrived.

She lashed out the second he stepped into the sitting room that had appeared for her. Apparently even the room had known she was too keyed up to work on her fighting skills. "What took you so long?"

Malfoy didn't respond until he'd made himself comfortable in one of the armchairs. "I can't exactly say 'excuse me while I go play Watcher to Granger's Slayer.' Unless you want the cat out of the bag."

Hermione glared at him. They'd already discussed the reasons why they needed to keep her new role as Slayer a secret, primarily because even though Harry and the Weasleys had spent the whole summer with Malfoy, they still didn't trust him. If they found out about the whole unofficial Watcher/Slayer thing they'd probably try and put a stop to it.

"Sorry that I'm worried about the fact that another Watcher, another Slayer and a vampire are at Hogwarts! Especially since you told me there's only supposed to be one Slayer at a time!"

Malfoy sighed. "That's what everything I've read said but who knows? Maybe it's changed since Aurelius was a Watcher."

"What do we do now? Do we tell them? I'm thinking we shouldn't," Hermione rambled. "They'd surely tell the Watcher's Council and I don't want the Council meddling in our affairs."

Malfoy nodded his agreement. Aurelius's diary had mentioned the Watcher's Council, the governing body for Watchers and Slayers, and how many rules they'd had and enforced. Slayers and Watchers weren't to get emotionally attached and could be reassigned if they did. Slayers could and would be tested however and whenever the Council chose. All very invasive.

Hermione finally sat down and pulled her feet up underneath her. "It was already going to be hard enough to hide this. How are we going to when we are literally going to be learning hand to hand combat in Defense?"

That had been part of Dumbledore's welcoming speech. An announcement that DADA classes would now contain a physical element because the Order had gathered intel that Voldemort was researching spells that would take the use of magic away from his enemies. He didn't want the student body defenseless if that were to happen and while the ability to throw a punch wouldn't deflect a major curse it might at least throw the Death Eaters off their game a bit if they had to worry about someone's knuckles.

"You weren't good at riding a broom," Malfoy said slowly. "So it would be very believable that you would also…not excel…at something physical like fighting. You'll have to avoid public displays if you can and pretend you can't do it if you can't get out of it."

"I hate being bad at things," Hermione grumbled.

Malfoy talked over her. "And we need to practice Occulmency. No point in going to so much trouble to hide something if someone can just peer in our heads and see all our secrets anyways."