- Hermione's POV -

I woke up early the next morning in order to make my way to the Headmistress' office before breakfast. Being Head Girl meant that I got the password before any other students, except for Harry of course, he needed to be able to report to McGonagall in order to calm things down with the Ministry and Floo there when he was needed. When I arrived, I told her about the incident with Malfoy. She was very displeased. I tried to get information on what would happen to him, to make sure I wouldn't be aggressively hexed at random, but she simply reassured me that this would not happen again. I trusted her. Thanking her on my way out, I collected my things and made my way down to breakfast. Ginny and Harry were sitting close together across from Ron. Ron was nibbling on a crepe and eyeing them from across the table with disgust.

I set my things down loudly next to Ron, distracting him from his childish trance. "You should be happy for them," I remarked, grabbing a lemon poppy seed scone and remembering how clueless Ron was about romance. He just shrugged, his food-covered lips sneering at me. We all chatted casually about homework and classes, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Headmistress McGonagall escorting Draco Malfoy from the Great Hall, presumably up to her office. Serves him right.

Malfoy arrived to class late, a scowl plastered on face. He seemed placid and full of disdain as he slammed his bookbag onto the desk that he shared with Pansy Parkinson. She gave a jump and shot him a wondering look. He stared me down as he took his seat, not even blinking. My spine shuddered. I hoped that talking to the Headmistress would be enough to quell the bullying, knowing full well that it could actually agitate it more. I knew I would have to see in the coming days if it would be the former or the latter. I watched Malfoy lean over and probably inform Pansy about his disciplining. She muttered something indecipherable and full of hate and I returned my attention back to the professor. Charms drew on for two more hours. We had a new teacher. We had many new teachers, many of them unwilling to come back to Hogwarts, or unwilling to.

When the bell eventually chimed, I got up from my seat and met another trademark Draco Malfoy glare just before he turned to the door and stalked out. "Tough day, innit?" Neville commented to me as we both watched the back of Malfoy disappear. "Tough day indeed…" I said with a sigh.

However, I was relieved when the whole week passed without even a thread of bullying. I guess Headmistress McGonagall was taking her post seriously. I couldn't help but wonder what she had said to him…what did it take to make the Head Bully back off once and for all - hopefully-?

-Draco's POV-

"I guess that was stupid of me," I muttered into my food.

"What? Messing with the mudblood?" Goyle insinuated, his tone irritated.

"No," I replied, "getting caught," I finished, stabbing my piece of steak. I breathed a heavy sigh. Things had been awful since the fall of the Dark Lord. Things used to be normal when he was in power, but this school had always been rotten. First with Dumbledore, and now with that mudblood-loving Headmistress. I don't know why my parents even want me here.

"At least we're serving detention together," Pansy cooed into my ear. She had purposefully had gotten herself in trouble by hexing a first year after she heard that I'd be punished for a week. Zabini winked at me. But I was bored. My friends were boring. School was boring. Life was now just an absolute bore. I poked uninterestedly at my food and waited for the dreaded evening to end. Stupid Granger. I now lost access to the one thing that had been keeping me entertained. I forked a pea and studied it, wishing to find something interesting. I felt Pansy's hand on my knee under the table as she casually started asking to cheat off of someone's homework. Even Pansy's attempts to 'entertain' me were boring. The worst part was that we would officially graduate at the end of the year and the position I thought I would have, died with the Dark Lord. I had to now rethink everything and decide on a civilized wizarding career. What the hell am I going to do with my life?

Pansy asked if I would join her on prefect duty under an invisibility charm. I declined and instead laid in my four poster that night, looking up at the sheer cloth pulled taught across the posts. My mind began to wander. Father had no use for me anymore. Of course he wanted me away at school, he wouldn't have to deal with me this way. And with how he'd been treating mum, I didn't want to be by him either. I had punched him just earlier that year when he started pushing mum around and I drew my wand on him just before I left for the start of term. He's been taking out his frustration about losing the war on us. Dad said that I was "a bigger disappointment than the fall of the Dark Lord." My father loved the Dark Lord more than he loved me. I was nothing but an ornament. A pawn. And now he had no use for me whatsoever.

I took out my golden snitch, the one my mother had gifted me that she won at an auction from my favorite team. I threw it up and down, catching it several times…thinking….about what would become of me.

Hating my dad made me more aware of the parts of him in me that I hated. I wanted to be different. I always had a sneaking feeling that I followed my parents too blindly. Following them led to the rise of the Dark Lord and following the Dark Lord was a horrible time. It wasn't clear to me at the time why Potter and his gang were so against his reign, but being under his power; occluded constantly, groomed to praise him, watching him torture people, being forced to torture people. I felt sick reflecting on the things that had happened in the past two years. Bullying people was fun, but killing people - hurting them…I discovered that that wasn't the world I wanted. I didn't want what my parents wanted, but I had no idea what I wanted without that guidance.

I was relieved when the Dark Lord fell. Mother was too. But my father couldn't have been more disappointed, well not more disappointed about me existing anyway. Maybe McGonagall's invitation to stop bullying people was the perfect premise I needed to start leaning into my nicer side.

The thought sickened me and I dropped the snitch on my forehead.

I was once again annoyed with everything; the change, the loss of power, and how much I liked my life without the Dark Lord. Even though I didn't know what I was going to do with myself and my life, at least my friends were all alive and we were no longer being controlled. It was hard. A lot of my friends' parents went to jail or died. But at the end of it all, the good trumped the bad in a way I was only beginning to understand. The pros and cons of this new world weighed on me and eventually I rolled over and went to sleep for the night.

A few weeks later, in the library, Pansy and I once again had the misfortune of sitting close to Granger and Potter. They must have missed us as they chose their seats. Pansy noticed, and went for her wand. She winked at me as she pointed it towards Granger's feet, likely with plans of a small spell, but surely one that the mudblood wouldn't like. "Don't" I hissed, lowering her wand.

"Why?" she snapped, pulling her arm away.

"I don't want to be in detention forever," I retorted.

But that wasn't why I stopped her.

Pansy has always been very sneaky and I'm sure she would have chosen a subtle enough spell to avoid getting caught. But I just didn't want it to happen anymore. I wasn't scared of McGonagall, I just…didn't want to continue being like my dad anymore. I hated him. A loser. A hater. Drunk on power alone with nothing to back himself up. Pansy rolled her eyes and went back to her herbology essay. I felt Granger looking at me, perhaps she had even been looking at us or listening the whole time. But by the time I raised my head, she was looking away.

"Why are you smiling like that?" I caught Potter asking her in a faint whisper. She just shook her head and shooed him away.

My Slytherin comrades didn't take too kindly to my change in heart. They had been noticing that I wasn't as hateful as before. It all came to a head one night in the dungeons, when we were all sitting around with a smuggled bottle of firewhiskey.

"Draco has been quite the saint these days, hasn't he Blaise" Pansy commented, challenge in her voice.

"Aye he has, Parkinson. I'd say he has quite the affinity for dirty blood these days, Potter lovers as well" he replied, smirking with Pansy in congruence. I shot him a glare, trying not to give into the bait. "What do you have to say for yourself, Malfoy?" he asked, a threat in his voice.

"I think I have to say shut the bloody hell up, Zabini" I retorted, not settling for them mouthing off.

"If you don't care about the mudblood, why'd you stop Parkinson from hexing her?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow. Lucky for me, I've been lying my whole life. But honestly, I didn't even care enough to lie well anymore.

"Because of McGonagall," I shot back, a grimace in my voice. "She told me that if I touched a hair on Granger's head that I would be expelled without any questions."

"And when has that mattered to you? You said it yourself that this school has gone to the dogs," he challenged back. "You've never protected that whore, only this one" Zabini shouted, pointing at Pansy. "If you don't care about Granger being a mudblood, then why haven't you hooked up with her? Maybe you fancy her? Want to marry her?"

"Good point. Maybe I should," I shot back, sick of their bullshit.

"It's a bet then" he said, calculatingly, "Bring her panties back."

"It's a bet then!" I replied, wild-eyed, shooting up from the couch. I ignored Pansy's open mouth. Honestly, panties? He wanted me to humiliate Granger by getting her panties? I shook my head as I stormed off to bed, not bothering to look behind me again.

When I got to my room, a few were already sleeping. I stumbled around in the low light and kicked off my trousers. I threw my robe on its hanger and hung it from my four poster. I silently slipped on my pajamas and stared into the dimly lit room.

…What the fuck did I just agree to?

It had all happened so quickly. I sat down on my bed, unblinkingly. The fact that I was changing was becoming undeniable now. I could no longer hide how much I didn't care to hate people of non-magical origin. How much was I changing? - I didn't know.

I just knew that we all lost so much in the war. People died on both sides. I had friends without parents. Some in Azkaban, some dead. And here we were, still on about the same old bullshit. I was sick of hating everything. What if I wasn't wasting my time on petty bullshit? Who would I be if I didn't use hatred as part of my personality?

I laid back on my pillows and I tried to imagine what it would be like to hook up with Hermione Granger…I mean she was always pretty, for a mud-...Ah, old habits die hard. Merlin but I could practically pass for a Gryffindor at this point.

But I knew at that moment I wanted to change. I didn't want to continue the old Slytherin tradition of hurting others to feel better about myself. I hadn't seen it before. But when the Dark Lord fell once and for all, an undeniably bright light was shown on my father's intentions, who he was.

I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get over my bloodline's extreme beliefs on muggle-borns, my own old beliefs on muggle-borns.

Zabini wanted me to shag her to prove I didn't care about her, but I wanted to shag her to prove to myself that I wasn't the man my father wanted me to be.

Easy then. I'll just kiss her, and she'll have me. After all, I was Draco Malfoy - a man wanted by many women. I smirked to myself. How hard could it be? I chuckled before rolling over in bed to sleep, hoping to not have another nightmare about the war. I didn't know where any of this was leading, off-roading from the ways I was raised, but I simply didn't care anymore. Maybe this change would be good. Or maybe terribly wrong.