Disclaimer: None of these characters are my own, they are all the property of the wonderful and amazingly talented J.K. Rowling.

A/N: So, after much deliberation, I finally decided to write a Dramione fanfic, so here it is! It seems pretty boring at the moment, but it'll hopefully get better as time goes on. Enjoy!

Hermione sighed, leaning her head against the window of the compartment she was sharing with her friends. Ron sat next to her, his nose buried in the latest issue of Broomstick Bonanza, and Harry and Ginny were wrapped around each other across from her. Despite her boredom, she was very excited. She was heading back to Hogwarts for her seventh and final year, and now that Voldemort was dead and all of the Death Eaters were either dead or locked away in Azkaban, her and her friends were all hoping for what would be a quiet and calm school year, except for the flurry of homework they were bound to receive from their teachers.

Hermione checked her watch once again, something which she had been doing every five minutes for the last hour. It finally seemed like a reasonable time to change into her school robes, so she quickly pulled them out and excused herself from the compartment to no real objections from any of its occupants. Ron was still entirely absorbed in his magazine, and Harry and Ginny were still embracing. The only member of the compartment who noticed her leave was Crookshanks, who followed her with his large yellow eyes as she headed to the train's bathroom to change. She kept her head down as she walked, trying to avoid the faces of the onlookers and wishing that something would drown out their whispers.

"Hermione Granger…"

"…Harry Potter's friend…"

"…Ronald Weasley's girlfriend…"

"…Dark Lord…"

She was all too grateful when she reached the closed doors of the bathroom, and she quickly pulled on the grey skirt and white blouse which she always wore around Hogwarts, followed by her cloak to which she had pinned her Head Girl badge. She glanced at herself quickly in the mirror. She had changed since her sixth year, and it was definitely apparent. Whilst searching for the horcruxes with her two best friends, she had grown her hair long, and the weight had pulled out the frizz so it was now long, thick brown curls. She had seen things that a girl her age should never see, and even though she had been an old soul before the war, she had aged and matured beyond what most people could have imagined. Although she didn't look much older, she felt it, and she carried herself with an air of wisdom and experience.

With another sigh she grabbed her discarded clothes and headed back to the compartment, once again avoiding the gaze of the many students who had poked their heads out to catch a glimpse of her.

"Hermione!"

She spun on her heel at the familiar voice, and saw Luna Lovegood standing in front of her, the dreamy smile fixed on her face. They hugged quickly, and Hermione led her friend back to the compartment. When they got there, the scene had changed. Ron and Harry had magicked a wizard's chess board to hover between themselves, and their faces were both perfect pictures of complete concentration. Ginny was watching with a bored looking expression, but her face lit up when Hermione and Luna entered the compartment.

"Hey, Luna. How was your summer?" Ginny asked after giving her friend a hug. Luna sat down beside Ron, barely casting a glance to his knight who had just smashed Harry's bishop into several pieces.

"Bastard," Harry muttered.

"Sucked in, Chosen One," Ron smirked.

"Oh, it was okay. Daddy and spent a lot of it rebuilding our house. It was quite destroyed after the events of the summer, but Daddy said that with the generous donations from the fans of the Quibbler it should be back to good in no time," Luna answered Ginny's question with her usual airy tone. "But the reason I found you anyway, Hermione, was because there's a prefect's meeting in the first compartment in about five minutes."

"Oh, you made prefect? Congratulations, Luna!" squealed Hermione, hugging her friend once again.

"Yes, it was quite a shock when the badge came in the mail, but I was quite pleased. Shall we go?"

Hermione nodded eagerly, waved goodbye to Ginny and Harry and gave Ron a swift peck on the cheek before following her Ravenclaw friend from the compartment and down the train. Once again she was subjected to the whispers from onlookers as she passed by them.

"…Luna and Hermione!"

"…Harry and Ron…"

"…mission from…"

"…wonder if she'd sign…"

Luna parted the crowds with ease, not seeming to notice the whispers flying around the train. Hermione took her lead, humming quietly to herself to try and distract herself from what everyone around her was saying. After fighting through a crowd of first years who seemed to be awestruck at seeing the Hermione Granger in person, the pair reached the first compartment.

Hermione looked around with interest to see who the prefects were, and, most importantly, who the Head Boy was. She saw the two Hufflepuff prefects, Hannah Abbott and Ernie MacMillian sitting next to each other, looking around awkwardly. Beside them the male prefect for Ravenclaw, Michael Corner sat, and his face lit up when he saw Luna enter the compartment. She sat by him and they started talking quietly to each other. Across from the Ravenclaw prefects sat Seamus Finnigan and Pavarti Patil who were talking, and, to Hermione's surprise, holding hands. The Slytherin prefects, Daphne Greengrass and Theodore Nott were talking quickly and quietly to another person in the compartment who was no doubt Head Boy. His head was bent over so Hermione couldn't tell who it was at first, but when she got a good look at the top of his head, there was no mistaking that sleek blonde hair.

"Malfoy?" Hermione couldn't keep the disgruntled tone from her voice as the pale face looked up to her. She couldn't help but notice how old and haggard he looked in comparison to how he had looked just a few years ago. His blonde hair was messier, and the purplish bags under his eyes were very evident against his white skin. His face wasn't carrying its usual smug look. Instead he just looked like he needed a decent night's sleep and a big meal.

Hermione wasn't surprised at his appearance; his life had gone downhill since the downfall of Voldemort. Lucius Malfoy had been forced to give half of his vast fortune to pay for compensation towards families of people who had been killed in the war and had also been locked away in Azkaban for life. Narcissa had fallen apart after this, and she had been admitted into St. Mungo's not long after Lucius' trial, where she was in a closed room away from prying eyes. Draco had been left to pick up the pieces of his shattered family, an incredible burden for someone who was just eighteen years old.

"Granger, so nice of you to finally join us," he said, his voice its usual cold drawl. Well, he certainly hadn't lost his rudeness. "I take it McGonagall made you Head Girl?" Hermione nodded at him once, and he gave a weak smirk. "Of course she did, she couldn't pass you up for Head Girl."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him and sat next to Luna. "Anyway, so as you all know, as prefects you'll be expected to maintain order and control within the school. You will be given the ability to take and give points to students, and you will also be given other privileges, such as access to the prefect's bathroom. Prefects also have to conduct nightly patrols around the school, and Mal…Draco and I will draw up a rotation which will designate which nights you and your partner will be conducting patrols. I'm expecting Professor McGonagall will want to have another meeting when we arrive at the school, so that's all I'll say for now. You can head back to your compartments and friends now." Hermione dismissed the prefects with a smile and a wave, and looked towards Malfoy who hadn't moved.

"How are you?" she asked, her eyes shining with concern.

"It isn't like you care, Granger, so I would prefer it if you didn't pretend to," he snapped coldly.

"It's not like I care? I helped save your life, Malfoy, and the least you could do would to be a little bit grateful."

"Oh, of course. Thank you so much for saving me, Granger. I want nothing more than to live in complete misery with half of my inheritance gone and receiving scowls from every witch and wizard I pass on the street purely because of what my father did. It all just makes my life absolute wonderful," spat Malfoy, and Hermione scowled.

"Well I'm sorry for trying to be a decent human being, Malfoy, I'll try not to be like that in future. Why did you hang back, anyway?" Hermione asked, her voice cool.

"Well, I'm sure that you know that the Heads share their own dormitory, and I just wanted to say that maybe we should try and keep it as civil as possible between us to avoid any complications with living with each other, if that's possible for you," Malfoy said.

"I was always planning on keeping it civil between us, Malfoy, so you don't need to tell me twice about it. Is that all?" Hermione asked, trying to keep her face blank and free of any emotion or expression. Malfoy nodded once, and Hermione stalked back to her compartment, trying to keep her cool. Maybe it was the fact that she was enraged that Malfoy had become Head Boy, or maybe it was how he had spoken to her, but something about her expression kept people from staring at her and whispering when she made her way back to her compartment.

She threw the door open and stormed in angrily.

"That stupid prat! I can't believe McGonagall made him Head Boy! He is such an ungrateful, inconsiderate little ferret!" Hermione exploded with anger once she had sat down. Ron, sensing her anger, decided to avoid making physical contact with her.

"McGonagall made Malfoy Head Boy? She must be out of her mind!" Ginny sympathized with Hermione. She was holding hands with Harry, but her face was one of concern. "You have to share a room with him, don't you?"

Hermione nodded sadly.

"WHAT?" Ron was suddenly on his feet, fists clenched and his face an extraordinary shade of red. Hermione's eyes flew up to her aggravated boyfriend, and she placed a hand softly on his arm in an attempt to calm him. He finally succumbed to her, and sat down with Hermione's hand in his. "You have to share a room with that little git? I swear, if he touches you I will hex him into the next week."

"Look, I'm just going to try and ignore him. We'll have different bedrooms and Penelope Clearwater told me that when she was Head Girl they had separate bathrooms as well, so it should be alright. Don't do anything too rash just yet," Hermione soothed, and kissed Ron's cheek. "You should change into your robes, we should be getting to Hogwarts soon."

***

A/N: So, what did you think? Please review, I love feedback!