Hermione stood up, startled. The pale thin face of Draco Malfoy looked back at her from just behind the carriage's door, the sight of him catching her off guard for a moment. She shifted her eyes downward and nearly started at the glint of a head boy badge pinned just below his collar. Was this a joke? Malfoy was her head of school partner for the year? She scoffed at McGonagall internally, feeling immensely put off.
Not wanting to make a scene beyond what they had already caused, she stuttered, "I…. uh… sorry," and moved back from the door way. She watched as his eyes dropped and without saying anything, he made his way back through the carriage. Her own eyes darted around to see everyone watching as Draco walked away and found a seat beside Daphne Greengrass. Clearing her throat, the carriage's attention turned back to her. Ginny had already taken a seat beside their Gryffindor friends and Hermione now stood alone at the front of the car.
Still shaken by her newest revelation, she stuttered a moment and then jumped into the spiel she had prepared in the weeks before school. She noticed, as she talked that, by her calculations, something seemed off about the mix of prefects before her. The carriage seemed more crowded than she remembered. Assuming the group at the back were her slytherin prefects and head boy, minus Draco, she had four. Was that all McGonagall could scrape up?
But they seemed to have an overabundance of prefects from the other houses, more than what would have been necessary to cover the lack of Slytherin prefects. From her own house, Dean and Pavarti posed an interesting addition as, to her knowledge, they had not been prefects prior to this year. She supposed they had been selected to replace both herself and Ron. Ginny was also an odd addition, seeing as though she was a sixth year; typically prefects were selected fifth year. She counted eight Gryffindor prefects, matched by eight from Ravenclaw, and nine from Hufflepuff. Twenty-nine prefects and two heads. Each one of them had a badge pinned somewhere upon their person, so no one was there by mistake.
It certainly piqued her curiosity, but she knew that she would not get any answers until they reached Hogwarts. She stowed the oddity carefully in the back of her mind for later use.
"Now can any of you tell me some of the duties you read about in the paper included with your Hogwarts letters?" She listened as a few prefects spoke up. When everything she was hoping to hear had been covered, she addressed them again. "Now remember, it's important to be fair with our fellow students. You've been chosen by Professor McGonagall because she is impressed by your character and thinks that you'll do a good job. Please do your best to live up to her expectations. As head boy and girl, Draco and I," she shuddered as the words passed her lips, "will be here to answer any questions you have and to act as a link between you and the headmistress."
She stole a glance over to the boy in mention. Whether he was listening or not, he certainly didn't seem to care about his duties as head boy. Not once had he spoken to any of them. If anything, he was probably more upset at the arrangement than she was, but at least she was still doing what she was supposed to. She would have to speak to McGonagall. This arrangement most definitely would not work. Maybe there'd been a mistake.
"Any questions? No? Okay, then I think that's all I have for you. Now, I'd like our fifth years to patrol in the first third of the train, our sixth years in the second third, and seventh years in the last. There's no need to walk around the whole time, just be sure to check around every now and then."
She moved out of the way and sat down as her prefects got up and left the carriage per her request. Soon it was just her, Draco, and the clicking of the tracks beneath them.
"You know, you'll have to do better than that or you'll lose your head boy badge," she said dryly. He turned his head slowly to look at her.
"Bet you'd love that, wouldn't you Granger?"
"Maybe I would!" she replied forcefully. They both growled and looked away. She had been so excited to go back to Hogwarts not an hour ago and now a certain platinum-haired prick had gone and stolen all her happiness away.
Not wanting to spend any more time in his presence than absolutely necessary, she grabbed her bag filled with textbooks and emergency reading materials and exited the car. As she looked for a spare compartment to read in, she grimaced at the thought of working with a stuck-up sot like Malfoy all year. No, she thought firmly. She would take the matter to McGonagall first thing.
Hermione managed to find a quiet and empty compartment, took out her Arithmancy book, and settled in for the long ride to Hogwarts.
A/N: I made a secret pact with myself that I have to post over 1,250 words each time I update, so we have a dual-chapter update today.