Draco sat looking out of the window of The Hogwarts Express as the train ferried the students back up to school for the new term. Draco wasn't paying any attention to the chattering of his friends, his mind was elsewhere. Draco's thoughts were reminiscing over New Year's Eve, and most importantly the time he'd spent with Voldemort's daughter. It still bugged Draco that he didn't know her name but the Death Eaters had taken to calling her 'The Dark Lady' and Draco thought the name suited her well so now whenever he thought about her he referred to her as The Dark Lady.
The Dark Lady had been the main talking point on New Year's Eve and after his walk with her, he'd listened to a few conversations about her. From what Draco could pick up she'd done something in one of the meetings to prove she wasn't to be messed with and nearly everyone who he heard talking about her did it with respect. The main topic of conversation regarded her age as the Death Eaters tried to work out how old she was. Most of them agreed she was in her early twenties, but personally Draco disagreed with them.
At the beginning of the night Draco would have agreed with the others about her age, but after spending time with her he reckoned she was younger than people thought. The main reason he thought she was younger than her twenties was the fact she kissed him and as Voldemort's daughter she would know exactly how old he was. As much as Draco would have loved to say he'd kissed an older witch, he just couldn't imagine any witch in their twenties kissing a fifteen year old.
The kiss had haunted Draco's dreams and ever since it happened he'd been struggling to think of anything else. Draco wasn't normally the romantic type so he was slightly perturbed by the fact he couldn't stop thinking about the kiss and the feelings it produced inside him. One kiss from The Dark Lady had produced stronger feelings in him than actually sleeping with Pansy had.
As if Draco thinking about Pansy had conjured her up, the witch suddenly appeared in the doorway of the compartment. Greeting the rest of the group with a smile, Pansy sauntered over to Draco and sat down on his knee. She then proceeded to give him a kiss, which had the others in the compartment snickering.
The second Pansy's lips touched his Draco knew it would be the last time. He needed to end things with her right now. He knew he could end things in a second by pushing her off him and telling her to get lost, but he felt bad for the way he'd been treating Pansy and knew she deserved better than that. Since New Year Draco had been thinking about Pansy and he was starting to regret the way he'd used her to gain a reputation as a sex god. Pansy was first and foremost his friend and over the last few months he'd treated her appallingly.
"Guys, can you give us some privacy." Draco said to his friends as he gently moved Pansy off his knee and into the seat next to him.
Crabbe and Goyle jumped up immediately and vacated the compartment. Blaise and Theo took a while longer to leave and they made a few sordid cracks before also vacating the compartment.
"Oh, some alone time." Pansy grinned, snuggling closer to Draco as her hand fell to the lap of his trousers.
"Pans, we need to talk." Draco said, removing her hand from his crotch before she managed to get him worked up.
"What about?" Pansy asked, sitting back and looking at Draco warily.
"Us." Draco sighed, running a hand through his hair as he tried to find the words to end things with Pansy without hurting her. "I'm sorry Pansy, but it's not going to work. To be honest I've been a complete git to you and you deserve better."
"I don't want better, I want you." Pansy whispered, trying to hold back the tears that threated to fall.
"Please Pansy, don't make this any harder." Draco said. He would rather she got angry than cry and get emotional. "I don't want to hurt you anymore, that's why I'm ending things now."
"Is there someone else?" Pansy asked.
"No." Draco lied. In truth there was most definitely someone else, one kiss from The Dark Lady had gotten Draco in a whirl and he knew that she was the one he wanted.
"I thought we were good together." Pansy said. "Was I bad in bed? Is that the problem?"
"No, Pans, you were great." Draco said. "I just don't want a serious relationship and I care about you too much to lead you on."
"I don't mind, I can do casual." Pansy answered, a desperate pleading note creeping into her voice.
"No, you deserve better than casual." Draco insisted, feeling even guiltier for leading Pansy on. "You deserve someone who really loves you and treats you like you deserve to be treated."
Pansy nodded reluctantly, she could see Draco wasn't going to change his mind and knew better than to argue with him once he'd made a firm decision. "Can we still be friends?" She asked hopefully.
Draco smiled widely and pulled Pansy into a friendly hug. "Of course we can. I'm just sorry I tried to change our friendship in the first place."
"Don't be." Pansy said, looking up at Draco and managing a smile herself. "I don't regret anything we did. I'm pleased you were my first, and I will never forget it."
Draco smiled at Pansy, before wrapping her back in his arms. He had a feeling that in time Pansy would still tell people about them and he would get the sex god reputation he'd wanted. Although now he couldn't care less about his reputation and how easy it would be to get girls into his bed. He only wanted one witch, now he just had to figure out how to get The Dark Lady to become his.
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While Draco was thinking about The Dark Lady, Hermione was sitting up the opposite end of the train thinking about Draco. Ever since New Year she'd struggled to get the blond out of her head. Mainly Hermione relived the few hours they spent together, especially the kiss, but sometimes she wondered if she should tell him the truth about her identity.
Hermione knew her father wasn't keen on letting Draco in on the secret just yet, but she knew if it was what she really wanted to do he would go along with it. However, she really didn't know if telling Draco the truth would be the wisest move. Even if they managed to keep people from finding out who she was, Hermione wasn't sure how they would handle their potential relationship. If everything went as she would hope, telling Draco the truth would lead to them developing a relationship and that would lead to them trying to sneak off together. Hermione shook her head at that last thought, knowing it was far too risky for the pair of them to be sneaking around the castle together.
"What are you shaking your head at?" Harry asked in amusement. He'd been watching Hermione for several minutes as her mind clearly worked through some kind of problem she was facing.
"I'm just thinking about Umbridge." Hermione replied smoothly, not even need to pause before the lie fell from her lips. "She was getting suspicious before Christmas, we'll have to make sure we stay vigilant."
"Don't worry, we will." Harry reassured Hermione. "After all, we need these lessons more than ever in light of what happened to Arthur."
"Speaking of which, how is he?" Hermione asked, turning to Ron.
"He's getting better." Ron replied with a small smile. "Mum's fussing over him all the time, as you can imagine."
Hermione nodded, feeling a wave of sympathy for Ron's father. Molly could be quite overbearing and the thought of her hovering around and fussing made Hermione shudder. Small doses of the Weasley matriarch were more than enough for Hermione.
"And what about your lessons with Snape?" Hermione asked Harry. "Are they still happening?"
"Unfortunately." Harry muttered. "I even had to have some over the holidays, but I don't think they're working. Snape says I'm useless and will never master occulemency."
"I'm sure you will, Harry, you just need time." Hermione smiled at Harry. "So was Snape about much over the holidays?" She asked innocently, hoping to find out if their Potions Professor had revealed she existed.
"Yeah." Ron grumbled. "We couldn't get rid of him."
"Maybe he had a lot of business with the Order." Hermione suggested.
"Nah, Sirius reckons he'd bloody useless." Harry said. "We were talking last night and Sirius says Snape hasn't given them one bit of decent information. Apparently there was some sort of party for the Death Eaters over Christmas, but even then Snape couldn't tell us anything useful."
"Maybe nothing happened at the party." Hermione replied. So far it was looking like her father was right and Snape could be trusted.
"Something had to have happened." Ron snorted. "But apparently he couldn't even give us the names of any more Death Eaters because they were wearing masks. I don't know why Dumbledore trust him, it's obvious he's supporting You Know Who."
Harry nodded in agreement and Hermione rolled her eyes as the duo set off on one of their rants about Snape. Her friends regularly had rants about people they didn't like, Snape and Draco been top of that list. Umbridge had also made the list and the rant about Snape soon progressed onto a rant about Umbridge.
By the time the train reached Hogsmeade station Hermione had once again tuned her friends out and was back to thinking about Draco. As she followed Harry and Ron to the carriages, she kept an eye out for the blond Slytherin but never saw him. Either he was one of the first off the train and was already heading up to school, or he was somewhere behind them.
When they reached the carriages and she saw Harry looking warily at the front of the coach again, Hermione approached her friend.
"They're called Thestrals."
"What?" Harry turned round to look at Hermione in shock. "You can see them?"
Hermione shook her head. "No. After you mentioned them at the start of term I looked them up." Actually she'd asked her father about them and he'd explained what the creatures were.
"If they're real, why can't everyone see them?" Harry questioned as the trio climbed into the coach.
"You can only see them if you've witnessed death first hand." Hermione answered.
"Cedric." Harry whispered quietly.
"But what about last year?" Ron asked. "We used the coaches to get back to the train and Harry never saw them then."
"The mind needs time to process what's it's experienced." Hermione told Ron. "Last year Cedric's death was still too fresh in Harry's mind for him to deal with. The summer had given it a chance to sink in, hence the reason he saw the Thestrals this year."
Ron nodded in understanding and turned his attention to Harry. "Are you alright, mate?"
"Yes." Harry nodded. "It just still hurts to think about Cedric and what happened."
"I'm sorry Harry, I never meant to upset you. I just thought you might like to know why you could see the Thestrals."
"I did, and I appreciate you telling me." Harry smiled at Hermione. "It's nice to know I'm not going mad."
"No-one ever thought you were going mad." Hermione chuckled.
As the journey progressed Harry's mood brightened and by the time the trio entered The Great Hall, he was laughing and joking with Ron. As they took their seats Hermione realised she had a prime view of the Slytherin table. Without it being noticeable she slid her eyes along the table, until she found the head of platinum blond hair she was seeking.
Throughout dinner Hermione kept one eye on Draco and she was thrilled to notice that Pansy wasn't slobbering all over him. Before Christmas she'd sat next to Draco at practically every meal and never passed up the opportunity to have her grubby little paws all over the blond boy. Now however Pansy was sitting on the opposite side of the table to Draco and was a fair few seats down from him. In their positions they couldn't even talk to each other without shouting over half the table.
Smirking at the fact Draco and Pansy's relationship seemed to be over, Hermione turned her attention back to her own table. Between the upcoming breakout from Azkaban and Draco being single again it looked as though it was going to be a good year.