A/n:

This chapter is mostly canon, but I do need more storylines to describe their relationship and how they think about each other. The next chapter will be much different from the origin story. In the meantime, hope you enjoy!

Everyone had been gossiping about the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, and Hermione was no exception. By the time the year two students had their first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, she had already gone through all of Lockhart's books. Although she admitted that the books were not particularly useful to their studies, they were certainly interesting to read.

Hermione, accompanied by Parvati Patil, another year two Gryffindor, went straight to the classroom after lunch with their heavy books. They took the front seats in the middle of the classroom, waiting patiently for Professor Lockhart's arrival. She was so excited to see him at Flourish and Blotts until her day got ruined by Lucius Malfoy. Some other girls arrived early as well but were too shy to be at the front.

On the contrary, the boys were not buying his famous, handsome attributes. Ever since Lockhart's arrival, he had been causing numerous scenes on the school grounds. Promoting his overpriced collections and giving out faulty advice were nothing out of the ordinary. Even the other professors were not pleased with his behaviour. Unfortunately, they had no choice but to work with their arrogant colleague.

The rest of the class entered the classroom just before the bell rang. Harry and Ron took their seats behind Hermione and slammed their heavy books onto the desk. Hermione turned around, glared at them and shushed them.

"She is out of her bloody mind," Ron whispered. Harry nodded in agreement.

With not many seats left, Draco took the one next to Harry, with an aisle between them. He could see Hermione's expression clearly from his seat, and he was amused by her ridiculous reaction. "How could someone so smart be so dumb?" He commented and laughed with his peers. Harry and Ron apparently heard it too, but they let it slide since they couldn't help but agree with him this time.

Lockhart waltzed in with his white cape with golden linings. He picked up his copy of Travels with Trolls from his desk. "Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League."

He walked next to the enormous portrait of him painting a portrait of himself. He winked again and smiled at his portrait self, "and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

His joke was not appreciated at all by the majority of the class, but his smile did make a few gasps, Hermione's included. Draco watched her with his eyebrow shot up high. "Unbelievable," he said under his breath while shaking his head.

"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books - well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz."

Lockhart gave out a set of quizzes with a total of 54 questions. When the students received their copies, all their brows furrowed together, even Hermione was a bit wide-eyed. All the questions were not related to anything about Defense Against the Dark Arts, but himself. They picked up their quills reluctantly and started putting down ridiculous answers. 30 minutes passed and Lockhart started complaining about how no students knew his favourite colour or his ambition as he went through the papers one by one.

"... but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions. Good girl!" She was startled as she heard her name. "In fact, full marks! Ten points to Gryffindor!"

Despite how absurd the quiz was, Hermione felt the need to complete it with her best, but she never anticipated how embarrassing it was to get called out for being a perfect fangirl. She could even feel the silent laughter from her classmates. For the first time, she was embarrassed by compliments.

The lesson moved on as Lockhart presented a cage full of Cornish pixies. A few laughs broke out and Lockhart was not pleased by their obvious disparagement. He unlocked the cage and released the devilish pixies without any instructions on how to deal with them. The classroom became an instant chaos. Bluish devils shot through the classroom in different directions and tore apart everything they could get their hands on. Poor Neville was lifted into the air and hung onto the iron chandelier. Everyone else was running from the little devils. Some students were able to flee the classroom before a group of pixies blocked their way. Lockhart's collection of books had become their weapon against the pixies.

"Come on now. Round them up, round them up. They're only pixies." Lockhart seemed to be amused by the troubled students for not treating the lesson seriously.

"Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" Lockhart flicked his wand and bellowed. Nothing happened. Then in a split second, his wand was snatched by a pixie and thrown out of the window. A clueless Lockhart immediately crawled under his desk to hide from the pixies.

"Well, I'll ask you to nip the rest into the cage." He peered from his desk and shouted. Before anyone could react, he fled into his office, leaving the students with the horrible pixies.

Students were still screaming in horror as the pixies wrecked the classroom. Hitting pixies with books was their only option.

"Ouch!" Harry smacked a pixie that was biting Ron's ear.

While protecting her hair from being aggressively pulled, a spell came to Hermione's mind. She read about it in their textbook, the incantation and the wand motion, but she never cast it before. Hoping for the best, she pulled out her wand and cried, "Immobulus!"

The pixies froze as the spell launched. All the students were finally able to catch their breath. While some of them were figuring out how to help Neville, the others picked the pixies up and shoved them into the cage one by one.

Seeing the threat was gone, Draco gestured for his friends to leave. "Let's go. I'm not interested in cleaning up," he said as he smacked away the frozen pixies near the door.

Once again, the day was saved by the know-it-all Hermione Granger. He remembered reading about the charm when he casually flipped through their year two spellbook. He tried it a few times, but it didn't work. He wondered if she ever had the same struggles he did.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and the trio planned to give Hagrid a visit after breakfast. Hermione was already at the Great Hall chewing her toast with a book in her hand. Ron arrived and sat opposite her, all without Harry.

"Where's Harry?"

"He left a note, saying he has Quidditch practice. Maybe he will come soon."

They waited for a while but Harry never showed up. They took some toast for him and made their way to the Quidditch field.

As they crossed the school courtyard, they found Harry and his team confronting another group of students, the Slytherin Quidditch team. They quickly joined their friends to see what was going on. Wood, captain of the Gryffindor team had booked the Quidditch field for practice yet the Slytherin team was going for practice as well. Flint, captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, handed over a note from Snape, giving them permission to train their new seeker.

"You've got a new seeker? Who?" Wood asked.

The Slytherin members stepped aside and a young boy moved forward. Standing in the front, was Draco Malfoy fully dressed in Quidditch robes with a broom in his hand. It was no regular broom. It was a Nimbus 2001, the latest racing model. And not just Draco, but everyone on the Slytherin team had a brand new Nimbus 2001.

Ron couldn't help but gasp in awe. "How did you get those?"

Draco, with a smirk on his face, taunted, "You see Weasley, unlike some, my father can afford the best."

Feeling indignant and unjust for her friends, Hermione stepped up and said sharply, "At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent."

The smirk on Draco's face faded into a rage. He had spent his whole life practising even before he got into Hogwarts. He always had a gift of speed, so becoming a seeker had been his dream. He had spent hours in the Malfoy Manor field chasing the Golden Snitch over and over again. He had been looking forward to the tryouts ever since school started. With no surprise, he passed the tryouts with flying colours, beating all Slytherin records.

Being accused of buying his way in was an insult that he would not accept and definitely would not let slide. He walked up to Hermione and stared at her with distinct fury. "No one asked for your opinion. You filthy little Mudblood."

As his words hit the air, Fred and George Weasley launched themselves towards Draco along with the hateful remarks from the other students. Flint and other Slytherins immediately moved in to block the raging Weasleys. Time seemed to slow down and the noises from the arguments muffled as they drown in their own thoughts.

She would always stand up for herself, but this time Hermione didn't say anything. She was the one who started the slandering, she wouldn't deny that. She expected some kind of nasty comment from him, but that word hit differently. She was pissed, not just at Draco, but at herself for wishing he would view her as more than just dirty blood. The forest didn't change anything. It was all just in her imagination.

Draco knew how derogating and humiliating that word was. But in that moment of heat, his father's constant curses were the only words that he could hear. He was irritated, not just because of the endless comparison between Hermione and him from his own bloody father, but at her for constantly appearing in his mind. He thought embracing his father's approach would clear his head. When he looked past the angry seniors to meet her eyes, he realised it did the opposite.

Her sharp brows were still furrowed, but the usual confidence in her eyes was gone. She was biting hard on her lower lip, like she was using the pain to hide her emotions. He swore he could almost see her eyes slightly glisten under the sunlight.

The moment ended when Ron pulled out his broken wand and shouted something at Draco but instead, it backfired on himself, sending him backwards onto the ground. Hermione and Harry rushed to his side, only to find that Ron was spitting slimy slugs. They helped him up and left the courtyard.

Draco watched her holding Ron in her arms. He could almost feel the bitterness in his throat.