Note: I am updating this chapter because of the amazing amount of typos they slipped by me (it was late at night...) and I also wanted to address some guest reviews before I moved on to the next chapter.

I have read all of the books multiple times, and I know there are things that don't follow along with the book, but guys, this is a fanfic. Everything isn't going to match the books, or else there would be no point in writing it. I also didn't get 100% accurate about where the House rooms are; because that is not where my focus is. I don't want to come across as hateful, and I am very thankful for your reviews, but I just wanted to establish that there is a reason why those things are different and don't follow the book to the letter.

Thank you!

Every first year walked into the dungeons with excitement—perhaps for the first time ever—because of who was going to be teaching them Potions; Severus Snape.

The classroom was dark and the smell of hundreds of ingredients itched their noses as the first years crossed into the threshold. They took their seats—the front of the room filled up quickly—and after everyone was seated, they all waited in an excited silence for Snape to come. The way the classroom was set up, there were two doors, the one they had come in, and the one that was on the opposite side of the classroom, behind a podium and a desk for demonstrations.

After a few moments of them keeping a keen eye on the door in front of them, the door they had entered in through thudded open which caused everyone to jump and turn suddenly. Snape filled the doorway in his solid black robe. His hair was long and hung around his face. He looked around the room, at all of the excited eyes staring at him. He spotted Potter, and the Malfoy Boy sitting amongst the front row. He drew in a deep breath as he walked between the tables and then came to a stop behind his podium.

"There will be no foolish wand-waving, or silly incantations in this class," he began. "In here we will work with physical ingredients, that when mixed properly can do anything from change ones appearance, to making someone think they are in love, and everything in between." He folded his arms across his chest and he glanced around at everyone.

"I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion making but I expect your undivided attention." Snape paused and looked around again. "Who can tell me what the difference between Monkshood and Wolfbane is?" He asked. Hermione's hand shot up in the air. He made a note of her Gryffindor colors but did not call on her yet. He looked around at all of the other students blank faces, before he finally waved a hand for her to answer him.

"They are the same, sir. It is a rare magical plant often also called Aconite. The leaves are most commonly used in the Wolfsbane Potion. The root of the plant is also used as a potion ingredient," Hermione smiled as she finished answering Snape's question. If he was impressed, he did an excellent job in hiding it.

"Where would I find a Bezoar?" Snape addressed the rest of the class. Hermione's hand shot up again after a few short seconds. Snape glanced in her direction before he looked around the room again, disappointment painting his face. He waited long enough that some students thought he was just going to let Granger hold her hand up forever until he relented and waved his hand at her.

"The stomach of a goat. It is a very rare stone that cures most poisons," the way she said it made it seem like it would have killed her if she hadn't been able to answer his question. He nodded his head.

"Correct. I suppose you also know what would be created if powdered root of asphodel was added to an infusion of wormwood?" He asked her with one eyebrow raised. She nodded several times. "Well?"

"It is called the Draught of Living Death. It is a very powerful sleeping potion and it is very difficult to make. When brewed correctly it is as clear as water and gives the drinker all the signs of being dead." Hermione looked a little nervous, "Professor, may I ask why these questions? All of the things you have asked about are very advanced, we couldn't possibly be ready to—"

"I ask, simply because I wanted to see who actually looked into the reading," he held up a finger at her and she nodded faintly. "If any of you wish to pass this class, you must be willing to take the extra step to look forward. I do not believe in babying anyone through school and I will not tolerate laziness. For every lesson forward, you are all expected to do the reading of what we will cover. The first three weeks we will go through the ingredients we will be using and their properties. Everyone who is not prepared will have house points deducted. Is that understood?"

The entire class intoned, "yessir." He glanced at Granger.

"Ten points to Gryffindor," he finally awarded. "I want a parchment on Monday about the uses of Aconite leaves and roots. Class dismissed." He waved everyone off and then disappeared behind the door everyone had expected him to come in through. Hermione didn't move for a moment before she put all of her things away. She had become really nervous when he wouldn't let her answer her questions, and she just got the overall impression that he didn't like her. Draco stood in front of her desk with his hands in his pockets and a small smile on his face.

"That man is intimidating. Just the way he walked in made me not want to answer any of his questions," Draco admitted, "of course that is why I am in Ravenclaw and you are in Gryffindor, I guess. The old hat wasn't lying about your courage," he teased. Hermione stood and glared at him with her lips pressed together.

"You knew some of the answers and didn't say anything?!" Her accusation brought a sly grin to the blond boy's face.

"Of course! My mother always assumed people were trying to kill us so she had a stash Bezoars." Draco didn't want to admit that he had also read the first fifty pages of their text, though. Hermione let out a huff.

"Then why didn't you say anything?" She demanded.

"I already said; he is intimidating!" Draco nudged her shoulder with his as they left the dungeons and they headed to lunch.

"Ooh, Malfoy and Granger, sitting in a tree," a voice behind them sang nastily as they walked shoulder-to-shoulder through the hallway. Silently, the two decided to ignore Ronald Weasley as they walked, but he kept singing the song. Hermione was the first to cave and turn around and glare at him.

"Leave us alone, Ronald Wealsey!" She demanded, her finger pointing at him. The other students around them kept walking like they didn't even see what was going on. Hermione and Draco vaguely noted that Potter and Longbottom hadn't been walking with Weasley to begin with. Weasley held up his hands, and feigned being afraid.

"Oh no, it's a little girl with giant hair! You must be related to medusa or something; ugly and with horrible hair." He laughed like he was being funny. Hermione let out a raging yell and shoved the boy backwards by his shoulders. He was surprised and tripped over his feet and landed solidly on his arse.

"Stop insulting my hair!" She nearly screamed at him. Draco put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down; she looked a second away from kicking him.

"Come on, Hermione, he definitely isn't worth it." Draco was pretty proud of Granger for defending herself, but he also didn't want her to get caught by a teacher or prefect. Weasley rubbed his bottom as Hermione glared down at him. She pointed her finger at him again.

"Leave. Me. Alone," she ground out before she turned around and stalked off. Draco grinned down at Weasley and then followed after her.

"That was impressive, Granger. I didn't know you had it in you," Draco said as they ascended the stairs that would take them to the Great Hall for lunch. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"He has no right being like that," she reasoned," and if he does it again…" She let out a huff of anger. There had been a charm she had been reading about—it was nearly in the very back of their Charms book, but she knew she would use it on him if he said anything again. Draco could tell by her expression that she meant business. He was glad he was on her good side.

After a pleasant lunch the two of them had Transfigurations together, with Professor McGonagall.

Unlike their other classes that day, McGonagall separated the class in sections by their house, which made it impossible for Malfoy and Granger to sit near each other. Malfoy ended up sitting next to Michael, and Potter next to Granger.

She began the lecture with an introduction into what transfiguration was, and its many uses and the ideology behind it. Also unlike their other professors, she never paused in her lecture to ask questions. At the end of class, she assigned a parchment for the students to summarize what she had lectured about, and it was due for their next period. Hermione was excited to get started, but of course no one else was that eager.

Herbology was next and was located in the Greenhouse on the grounds. For Hermione and Draco, this was their first real glimpse at the grounds, as they walked they drank in the scenery around them. During the class, they were told to walk around the greenhouse and try to identify as many plants as they could. Hermione, with no surprise from Draco, was able to identify thirty plants, which was the most any student got. Professor Sprout awarded Gryffindor thirty points, and a girl named Padma Patil won Ravenclaw fifteen points, for second place.

After this class was over, the male first years had Flying Class, while girl first years had History of Magic; this meant that the two young friends actually had a class that wasn't with each other. After this class was over, they would switch and then it would be dinner time. They briefly nodded bye to each other and agreed to meet before dinner, and Hermione went back inside for her class, while Draco headed to the appropriate courtyard for his flying class. A yellow eyed, white haired woman waited for the lucky first years with brooms lined up around her in two lines. She told everyone to stand next to one.

She went over how to properly fly a broom and then ordered everyone to hold out their hand and say 'up.'

Draco scowled when he saw Potter's broom react to him instantly. Draco had to repeat himself three more times before his broom slowly rose to his waiting hand. Harry beamed at his broom proudly.

"When I will blow my whistle, everyone will touch off of the ground slowly, hover for a moment and then lean forward and touch back down." She had waited until everyone had their broom in their hand before she began speaking and after she was done she waited a breath and then blew her thin metal whistle. Potter did excellently, he had a natural talent.

The others….it would take a while.

Draco struggled to hold himself balanced on the broom and kept swaying left and right. Neville Longbottom didn't trust himself enough to even try to kick off of the ground. Whenever Ronald Weasley pushed off of the ground, he would just land back on his feet like he didn't have a broom between his legs.

"You must use a bit of your magic to get your broom to respond to you! Concentrate!" Madame Hooch called out. Draco drew in a deep breath and when he opened his eyes again, he felt at ease on the broom. He could have been a thousand feet up and he didn't believe it would have made a difference, he felt comfortable. He glanced over at Potter, to see him easily touch back down. Draco mimicked the boy's actions by leaning and he gracefully landed on his feet. Madame Hooch walked around again, nodding to the students that did well, and encouraging the ones that weren't doing so well. After a few more minutes, she encouraged those willing to try, to kick up even harder and go a few more feet off of the ground. When Potter did it, he shot up twenty feet. Madame Hooch was only impressed for a moment and then yelled at him to get down lower. Draco tried to go just as high as him, but only raised six feet up in the air. Madame Hooch didn't yell at him, however, so Draco tried to imagine he had done the better job but he wasn't convinced.

Class went on a little bit longer, with Madame Hooch ordering them to move around low to the ground. After she dismissed everyone, the lot walked up the path to the school, where they reported to their History of Magic class. It was more boring that Draco could have ever imagined, but somehow he managed to stay awake the entire time, though the notes he had taken contained more doodles than helpful notes. He waited outside the Great Hall for a while, and when Granger didn't show up, he went inside with the idea that he had missed her. He didn't see her anywhere at the Gryffindor table. He spotted one of the first year girls nearby and got her attention because he didn't know her name.

"Where is Granger?" He asked her. She eyed him with a glare but sighed.

"The infirmary; there was an accident in Flying Class," the girl said and looked sorry about it when Draco's eyes widened in concern.

"How?" He demanded. She looked at the girl sitting next to her and then back at him.

"Her broom…well it went a little crazy when she got on it and it threw her off. I think her wrist was broken." Draco didn't stick around to ask any more questions. He stopped on his way out of the Great Hall to ask the Ravenclaw prefect where the infirmary was. The seventh floor!

He ran most of the way—he had to stop when a teacher yelled at him to walk—and when he entered the room, he saw Hermione sitting on a bed halfway down the room, with her left arm wrapped in gauze. She had her head in a book and it caused Draco to laugh. She jumped at the noise.

"You should be eating," she said. He rolled his eyes.

"I was wo—" He caught himself before he said worried, he was not going to say that, "—wondering where you were when I heard some Gryffindor's talking about how you got thrown off your broom?" He ended his sentence in a question and she looked embarrassed.

"I don't know what happened, alright? I did everything like Madame Hooch said to. I held my hand out and said up. I rose eventually and when I mounted it, it zoomed off no matter what I did! The broom suddenly veered to the right and I lost my grip and fell off…" She looked down at her hand. "It hurt really bad when I landed, but Madame Pomfrey promised I would be healed by the morning. At least it wasn't my right hand. I wanted to do my Transfiguration homework tonight." Draco chuckled faintly as he sank into the seat next to her bed.

"Do you really have to spend the rest of the night here? I mean you look fine." Draco raised his eyebrows in question. Hermione actually blushed a little bit.

"I…well it's embarrassing, okay? I don't want anyone to see me like this." The way she said 'anyone' Draco figured she mean Weasley. He nodded in understanding.

"Okay. Do you want me to bring you any food?" Draco asked honestly. He wasn't going to ask her to do anything she didn't want to do, of course. She smiled faintly.

"Thanks so much, but Madame Pomfrey said she was sending up food as soon as she got to the Great Hall. I imagine it will be here any minute." Draco nodded his head a little and then looked at the book she was reading, and tilted his head.

"What is that?"

She looked down at the book and shrugged a little. "It was left here by a fifth year. It is a Charms text book." She looked back down at it and grinned. "This Charm here is called a Bubble Headed Charm, and it is for breathing underwater, isn't that amazing?" She had such a sparkle in her eye he laughed.

"What you are doing is kind of cheating," he pointed out, "I mean, we aren't supposed to know that sort of stuff for another four years." She looked a little put off for a moment. Her eyebrows knit together as she thought about it.

"There is nothing wrong with looking ahead. Cheating is taking someone's work for your own," she clarified with a nod of her head.

"So then cheating is like stealing? Like stealing some fifth years textbook?" He teased. Her nostrils flare at the accusation.

"It was just sitting on the nightstand!" She said exasperated. Draco chuckled and held his hands up in defeat. A covered tray suddenly appeared next to Hermione on her bed and she jumped to her feet in surprise. Draco laughed and beat her to taking the cover off. It was roast beef, potatoes, green beans, and pumpkin juice. He eyed the food hungrily and his stomach growled in response to the smells wafting around them.

"I don't know why she sent that much food, I could never eat it all!" Hermione protested as she picked up the fork that came next to the plate of food. Draco took that as his invitation and stabbed some green beans with the knife since Granger had claimed the fork.

"Don't mind if I do, then." He said as he popped them into his mouth. Hermione rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

Their dinner alone was pleasant. Draco complained about how boring History was, but didn't mention the fun time he had at Flying, because of her incident. Hermione didn't ask about his flying lesson either, which didn't go by unnoticed by him.

"What on Earth are you doing here, young man?!" A posh voice demanded behind Draco, causing him to jump in surprise. He turned around to see that teacher that had yelled at him to stop running before. It was a woman with gray hair and in a white dress. He figured she was Madame Pomfrey.

"I had come to visit my injured friend. Is that against the rules?" He asked.

"Well, no, it isn't. But it is ten minutes until ten and that is past your curfew!"

"What?!" Exclaimed Draco and Hermione at the same time. They hadn't noticed their conversation had gone on for three hours. Now that he thought about it, he was very tired and thirsty from all the talking. Hermione apologized profusely to Madame Pomfrey for it, because she honestly didn't notice. Madame Pomfrey eyed Draco severally.

"This is your warning, boy."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," he said. She nodded faintly and took out a pen and summoned a piece of parchment. She wrote something on it and handed it to Malfoy.

"If anyone stops you, show that to them, Malfoy. You are to go straight to Ravenclaw tower, is that understood?" Draco nodded his head several times and before he left, he waved to Hermione, who still looked apologetic and he left the infirmary.

Being in the empty hallways this late at night was…awesome. There was no one to glare at him, or to jump out of his way like he was a walking jinx.

He was standing on the steps of the Grand Stair case between the sixth fifth floor, which the corridor at the bottom of the steps would take him to his dorm, when the staircase lurched under his feet and moved him across the entire room. Now, on the wrong side of the castle to reach his the Common room. He decided to go downwards to the fifth floor anyway. At the landing, he waited for the stairs to begin to move, but they stayed there.

Behind him was an archway into an empty hallway. He looked curiously down the corridor because he wasn't sure where it led—he hadn't been there before. He walked through the archway and took small steps forward, listening for movement. He noticed a dip in the wall behind a marble candle stand that lit up most of the hallway, but maybe it was just a trick of the light and the large support pillar next to it. He walked up to it, and was surprised to find it wasn't a trick of the light after all. He leaned into the hiding spot behind the pillar and glanced around and realized this was a…well sort of a secret passageway. It was too small to be a corridor and it was nearly hidden behind the light. He took a few steps down it when he heard the approach of a few people, and angry conversation.

"What do you mean it was jinxed?" He recognized the voice as McGonagall, though it was a few octaves higher than normal.

"I inspected the broom after coming back from the infirmary. It had been tampered with, and was cursed." The reply came from Madame Hooch undoubtedly. Draco's eyes widened considerably. Hermione's broom had been cursed? He felt an instant rush of adrenaline as his blood called for revenge-but to who?

"Do you have any sort of idea who would do such a thing?" McGonagall demanded. Madame Hooch must have shrugged or something because she didn't reply at first.

"I took it to Moody, for him to look at, to see if he could trace it." She finally replied. It seems like they had come to a stop in front of his hiding place, which made Draco's heart beat rapidly.

"Did he find anything?" The Gryffindor head asked.

"Not yet. Should we tell the girl?" Madame Hooch asked in a quieter voice. McGonagall sighed heavily.

"I don't want to scare the poor girl. She's muggleborn, and very innocent. I don't think she would be any better off if we told her. Who would want to go after her?" McGonagall replied. "But I will go inform Dumbledore now, he needs to be alerted." Then the two women wished each other a good night and Draco listened to their footsteps recede.

Draco was about to turn around when a hand closed over his mouth from behind him. He shot his elbow backwards instinctively. He then spun around, his wand in his hand already. Two redheaded boys towered over him with grins, one was rubbing his stomach, where Draco must have hit him.

"Reign it in Malfoy, we aren't gonna hurt you," Draco recognized them as the Weasley twins. He glared at them but put his wand away.

"What the hell are you doing then?" He asked gruffly. The twins chuckled.

"The stairs past curfew always move so students have to take the long routes around the castle, which increases the chances of them getting caught. Not often do those so late notice these little…short cuts." The boys gestured around them.

"I don't need to get to Gryffindor tower, though. Obviously."

"This one doesn't lead to Gryffindor tower," one of the twins said. "This one leads to the Ravenclaw Common room."

"Why are you two here, then?" He asked suspiciously, but they didn't answer.

"Follow the tunnel around, until you reach a fork, take the right one. When you reach a dead end, tickle the brick that is fourth up from the floor in the middle of the wall. That will take you straight into the common room." They then waved at him and walked past him and back into the hallway. Draco watched them go for a moment, and debated whether or not to just turn back—he had Madame Pomfrey's note anyway.

Curiosity got the best of him, however, and he followed their instructions. When he reached the dead end, he counted out the fourth brick and tickled it. The brick shrank away from his touch, as did all the ones underneath it, which opened a hole large enough for him to crawl through. By ignoring his dignity for a moment, he got down on his hands and knees and crawled through the opening. When he stood back up, he was amazingly in the Ravenclaw Common room, in between the fireplace and the window- just like the twins had said. No one was there, and when he looked back at the spot on the wall, the hole was gone. He laughed faintly as he went up to bed.