Hello my lovelies. This is my first fic, because although I am a long time potterhead, I am new to the Dramione fandom! Future chapters will be longer and think of this chapter as more of a prologue. I already have 4 chapters written, so expect updates soon! I won't post them all right now, cause I want to make sure the second matches up with the fifth and so on.

I would love reviews, but please, constructive criticism only. If you don't like my story, tell me why. If you do, tell me why. Sorry this is a slow chapter. Chapter 2 to be posted on Friday, and 3 on Sunday morning. Enjoy your reading :)

It was nearing the end of Hermione's sixth year at Hogwarts. It was quite chilly and grey for the beginning of April, and it seemed as if even the weather was showing that wicked things were coming this way. As she patrolled the corridors alone on her prefect shift, all she could think about was where her future was headed. If she even had a future, that is. With the Dark Lord rising into power, there was no guarantee that she would even be alive this time next year. She also realized how alone she had felt this year. She hardly saw much of Ron and Harry anymore. In fact, Ron should be patrolling with her right now, but she left early from the common room, assuming that he would probably just be off snogging Lavender somewhere. With Harry, no one really knew what was going on. He always made sure to tell her everything that Dumbledore said to him, but between his meetings with the Headmaster, his persistence on following Draco Malfoy, his distrust of Snape, his Quidditch captain duties and his avoidance of Slughorn, it seemed like he hardly had time for Hermione anymore. She had Ginny she could turn to, but she was either always with Dean, or complaining about him so it seemed as though she never wanted to actually know how Hermione was, or how she was feeling about everything.

As she walked farther down the 6th floor corridor, she started to feel a familiar buzzing in her ear. It almost as though there was a fly within a few feet of her. Hermione immediately recognized this feeling and was confused. Exactly how many students knew the Muffliato spell? As far as she knew, it was only she, Ron and Harry. Harry was sitting in the 7th floor corridor, beside the Room of Requirement, with his invisibility cloak on so there was no way he could have cast it, and she was pretty sure Ron was with Lavender in the Gryffindor common room. Not many people would recognize when this spell had been cast, but being typical Hermione, she often noticed the small details of the affects of spells that most wizards and witches in general would overlook.

Hermione looked around and realized that she was right next to the bathroom on the sixth floor. It wasn't often that she would find students in this corridor since it seemed more like a useless space between the 5th and 7th floors. She leaned against the bathroom door and didn't hear a single noise, just the light buzzing. She tried to slowly turn the knob only to notice someone had used a locking charm in the bathroom as well. She quickly undid both spells, hopefully without notifying the person or people inside, and leaned her head against the door again. She was hoping to possibly catch some lower years in the middle of a snog, but instead all she heard was sobbing. It seemed as if the person, or most likely boy, who was inside was trying to control the sobs but couldn't, so they came out in a sputtering and choking manner.

"Let me help you. Please." Said a very girly and high-pitched voice.

"No, you can't help me. No one can help me!" exclaimed the sobbing boy.

"I can do my best, at least let me try."

"He is going to kill me if I can't do this. He'll also go after my family, I have no choice."

"Oh sweetheart, you always have a choice."

Hermione finally recognized the girl's voice as that of Moaning Myrtle. It seemed strange that she wasn't in her bathroom on the second floor or spying on the prefect's in their bathroom on the fifth floor but that isn't what concerned Hermione the most. The boy's voice was unrecognizable through his sobs. This must be the boy that Harry had heard about from Moaning Myrtle just the week before. She pressed her ear closer to the bottom of the door, hoping to figure out who it was.

"I can do this, I have to. My own life is at stake here." The boy's voice was no longer shaky, and Hermione immediately knew that, that voice belonged to none other than Draco Malfoy.

She didn't know what she was thinking, but she pushed her body away from the door and up from the floor. With a quick swipe of the front of her robes, and a quick run through her slightly bushy hair with her fingers, she set her hand on the doorknob. Hermione debated with herself on whether or not to turn the knob for a moment when she heard footsteps coming down the hall. Instead of asserting herself as a prefect, without thinking she slipped into the bathroom, turned towards the door and shut it. She seemed to always resort to hiding when she was in the halls after hours, often forgetting that she had the right to be in the halls with her superiority as prefect. Before she could walk back out the door to reprimand whatever student was wondering the halls this late at night she heard a chilling voice behind her.

"What exactly are you doing, Granger?"

Hermione turned towards Malfoy and quickly retorted, "Excuse me, but I have a right to be here" pointing to her prefect's badge. "And may I ask what you're doing out of your dormitory at this hour?"

"In case you have forgotten, I am a prefect as well." Malfoy said while turning away from her, trying to hide his slightly red and puffy eyes.

"Well if you're supposed to be a prefect, at least have the decency to act like it. It's not like you've actually done any patrolling in this school since the Inquisitorial Squad disbanded, and that was only for your sick, personal thrill of power."

"Granger," Malfoy said turning back to her and stepping within a foot of her, "how about you do me a favor and do not act as though you know me. You don't know anything about me."

"I beg to differ Malfoy. You see, you aren't exactly that hard to figure out. You vie for perfection and hate the fact that not all things will ever go your way." It was Hermione who took a small step forward now. "That is why you hate Harry, isn't it? He chose being Ron's friend over being yours, and let's be honest, do you honestly hate me because of what family I was born into, or the fact that even with your so-called superior blood status, I am still better than you in every single subject."

Malfoy backed Hermione up against the bathroom door and set is hands against the door on both sides of her. He stared daggers at her hoping she would lose her composure, but Hermione kept her lips in a straight line and stared straight back at him. "I honestly don't give a shit about what you think Granger, or about your little followers Potty and Weasel. Don't you understand why they stick around you? They are both too daft to actually think through their little plans and if it wasn't for you, I doubt they would be alive right now." His face was within inches of her now and he could smell the peppermint on Hermione's breath. He could tell he had touched a nerve as her eyes suddenly looked more wet than they did before, but she still kept her face, trying to hide her rage and hurt. "Don't you see it? They use you. I noticed you and the Weasel don't talk very often anymore. Are you upset because he chose Lavender over you?"

"Fuck off Malfoy, you have no right to insinuate anything happened between Ronald and I."

"Don't you see Granger? I guess we aren't so different after all." He said, releasing his hands on either side of her and taking a step back, smirking.

"How dare you even compare me to the likes of you. I am nothing like you. You are a seething git who only cares about blood status and shagging every girl who has every stepped foot into the Slytherin common room. Don't you ever suggest that we are at all similar, do you understand?" At this point Hermione now had the tip of her wand against Draco's adams apple. Draco wasn't sure why, but he liked the fire that hid inside of her.

"Hermione, lower your wand."

"Do not think for one moment you can order me arou-, did you just call me Hermione?"

"Well that is your name, isn't it? Why did you come in here in the first place?"

"I-… I was simply doing my patrols and heard a noise in here." Hermione said so fast her words nearly blended together.

"Oh really? And how could you have possibly done that? We both know there was a silencing spell on the room. Stop playing games." Malfoy snapped

"I don't answer to you Draco."

"Did you just call me Draco?" Malfoy said, mocking Hermione's previous question.

Hermione almost mirrored his famous smirk, "Well that is your name? Isn't it?" and with that she quickly opened bathroom door and headed back to her common room. Draco paced in the bathroom for a little while, forgetting his earlier sorrow. Now all he could think about was Granger. He loosened his green tie and tried to sooth his unkempt hair down. Draco found himself blushing from embarrassment at possibility that Hermione could have possibly came in to check on him, or even spy on him, and heard him sobbing. He knew that this would not be his last confrontation with Hermione Granger.