"Hi, Hermione!"

"Hey Ginny!"

Ginny ran towards Hermione excitedly, jumping into the older girls arms just as she passed through the barrier of platform 9 ¾. Harry and Ron trailed behind her as they met their friend halfway. Looking on amused they ignored the desperate pleas of their friend to save her from the petite red head currently trying to strangle her.

"Hey guys, how was summer?" Hermione asked them with a smile as the red head released her grip on her friend.

Ron threw her an annoyed look and grumbled, "Fine."

"What's his problem?" Hermione asked Harry and Ginny as Ron pushed past her onto the Hogwarts Express.

"Nothing. He's just upset because Mum threatened to keep him home this year, and not let him come to Hogwarts," Ginny explained.

"Why?" Hermione questioned.

"It's a long story," Ginny sighed, rolling her eyes. She clearly didn't want to explain it all, so Hermione decided to drop it and turned to Harry.

"So Harry, how was your summer? Did you go to Ron's?"

"Yeah, it was okay, I suppose. But I couldn't wait to get to the Burrow to see Gin- I mean, Ron." Harry looked towards Ginny, and Hermione could see his face turn slightly pink as he watched her long red hair flowing in the light breeze.

"Harry," Ginny said, turning to him, "quick! The train is about to leave." Harry quickly snapped out of his daze, and followed Hermione and Ginny as they quickly boarded the train to find Ron in the compartments.

Hermione was starting to think what it would be like to have a peaceful year at Hogwarts as Harry led the way, when she bumped into someone.

"Watch where you're going, Mudblood." Malfoy sneered. Looking past him Hermione noticed he was accompanied closely by Blaise Zabini, his best friend and to Hermione's dismay, Pansy.

"Sorry," Hermione said, looking away, but she couldn't help but quickly notice that he was still staring at her.

'Granger looks different this year; kind of cute,' Draco thought as he walked back to the Slytherin compartment, running his pale hand through his platinum, blonde hair. Blaise and Pansy followed closely behind.

Blaise pulled Draco to the side just before he entered the compartment, careful to let Pansy enter the compartment before them so they could talk in peace.

"Weaselette is looking pretty hot this year. And so is Granger," he whispered.

"Yeah, I suppose she's okay." Draco said as he entered the compartment before Blaise.

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"Thank Merlin, that took ages," Draco said in exasperation as he heaved his trunk from the compartment, and out onto the cold, wet platform.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all entered the entrance hall, and waited for the 'Okay' from Professor McGonagall to enter the Great Hall.

Hermione and Ginny were talking loudly in the entrance hall, when Hermione caught Malfoy looking at her. Not with his usual, cold stare, but with a soft, welcoming look in his eyes. This made Hermione smile a little, causing Malfoy to look away, slightly blushing. Ginny began to stare at Hermione curiously.

"Were you staring at Malfoy?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"What? Uh, no!" Hermione cried, looking away from Ginny - who had a slight smirk on her face - and towards Professor McGonagall, who stood aside as the students filed into the Great Hall for the feast and sorting.

The sorting took longer then expected, and Hermione was growing tired and hungry. She politely clapped whenever a new student got sorted, expertly hiding her annoyance on how long this was taking. Sometimes she would casually glance over at the Slytherin table, and would find her brown eyes lock with a pair of silver ones, but would quickly shake it off, and watch the sorting drag on. Finally, it was over.

But before the feast was to begin, Dumbledore got to his feet for a few small words. "To the new students of Hogwarts I say welcome! And to our old friends, welcome back. Now before we finish up and let you become enchanted in our fabulous feast, I have a few announcements to make.

"First is to announce our new mission this year, which is to create a union between the houses. And to help us to accomplish this, I would like you to congratulate our new Head Boy, Draco Malfoy, and Head Girl, Hermione Granger."

The whole hall went silent at the thought of Malfoy having so much authority over them. Then there was an outburst of applause from the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables. Harry, Ron, and Ginny stared at Hermione, who had a look of shock and delight across her face.

"I knew you'd be the one to get that," said Ginny and Harry together as they beamed at her.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Now for the rest of the announcements..." Dumbledore's voice trailed off as the doors leading to the entrance hall burst open, and Filch began limping down to the Headmaster with Mrs. Norris, his skeletal cat, at his heels.

"Headmaster, the Minister of Magic would like a word with you."

"Well, tell him I will be there in a moment. Argus, please escort the Minister to my office; I must finish here first." With that, Filch left the Great Hall at a run, wheezing and puffing, with Mrs. Norris at his heels once more.

"Well, I have some business to attend to, so I'll finish with these last words: pip, pip. Tut, tut." With these last words said, the dishes and plates across the four house tables filled with food of all sorts and shapes, and everyone began to eat. Afterwards, the timetables were handed out.

"Oh no... Double Potions with Snape first thing," said a disgusted Ron.

"And look," Harry spoke up, "History of Magic with Professor Binns straight after!"

After the timetables were handed out, Professor McGonagall called Hermione and Malfoy towards her as the Great Hall began to empty. Over at the Gryffindor table, Hermione was saying, "Sorry guys, I have to go. I need to see what McGonagall wants. I'll see you in a while." While over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was saying good-bye to Blaise and Pansy, when Pansy jumped at him, kissed him on the cheek, and said, "Don't be too long, Drakiepoo." Malfoy kissed her on the cheek in return, and then left.

"Professor, were you looking for us?" Hermione asked as she walked up to the professor with Malfoy.

"Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy, as you know you have been chosen as Head Boy and Girl. Now I would just like to show you to your common room, which only the both of you will share."

'I, Draco Malfoy, pure-blooded Slytherin must share a common room with... with... Mudblood Granger?" Malfoy thought as Professor McGonagall lead them to the seventh floor to the head suite.

"Now I will leave you two here, and goodnight ...Oh, wait! I almost forgot. You two must decide on a password, and repeat it to the portrait. That will be your password until another is chosen," said McGonagall, and left.

Hermione and Draco stood there, astounded. It was Hermione who finally broke the silence, "What shall we choose as our password?"

"I don't care. Whatever. Just choose, Granger. I haven't got all day to be waiting around here with you!"

"Okay, you don't need to be so rude about it." Hermione stepped towards the portrait and said, "Sugar quills." The portrait swung open to reveal a magnificent room. Malfoy walked in behind her, and they were both speechless as they gazed around at their new rooms. In their room they had: a small and cozy kitchen; a breathtaking common room with a blazing fire in the center of it; they also had an upstairs, where they each had their own rooms, which lead out onto a spectacular balcony; they also had a shared bathroom, which held a bath, a shower, and the other essentials in the form of a sink and toilet.

Hermione turned to Malfoy and quietly said, "Malfoy?"

"What is it, Granger?" Malfoy turned to face Hermione with a sneer on his face.

"Could we make an agreement to just ermm... well...?"

"Well, spit it out, Granger. As I said before, I don't have time for this, and I would like to leave before I reach old age and die."

"Oh... well, then could we just make an agreement to stay out of each others way, and just try to get along?" Hermione asked. As she said this, she noticed Malfoy was staring at her warmly. Hermione blushed scarlet, and turned away. Draco, realizing what he was doing, snapped back to his cold glare.

"Fine, Granger, but only inside this common room." He turned, and went to the bathroom to take a shower and go to bed.

Hermione decided to go check out her room, and read up on her new text books before their first class. 'Malfoy looks so hot when he's angry,' Hermione thought to herself. 'Wait... what am I thinking?' She shook the thought of Malfoy from her mind, and began her work.

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A couple of weeks later, they were already nearing their first Hogsmeade trip, the amount of homework nearly doubled in size towards their previous year, and, believe it or not, Hermione was finding herself falling behind on her work - as she was much too busy with her Head Girl duties, and her rounds with Malfoy.

Early on the morning of the Hogsmeade trip, Hermione had planned to meet up with Harry, Ron and Ginny in the entrance hall so that they could walk down together. Hermione decided to go for a shower before going to find her friends. She collected her clothes from her room, and headed towards the washroom. As she walked by Malfoy's room, she had noticed no one was there.

'I wonder where Malfoy is...' Hermione stopped where she stood, and shook the thought from her mind. 'Why should I care where Malfoy is?' Hermione let all thoughts of Malfoy slip away, and she continued to walk to the washroom. There she stripped, and entered the shower. After a well deserve 45 minute shower, she put on her lace underwear and bra, and sprayed her body with a vanilla scented spray. Abruptly after, she began to dress.

As Hermione was leaving the bathroom when she was finished getting ready, she bumped into none other than Malfoy.

"Oh... um... sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Huh...? Oh, its okay, Granger. Just watch where you are going next time." Malfoy headed into his room to get ready for the trip.

Hermione walked down the stairs, wondering why Malfoy had been so polite to her, and walked out of the portrait to look for her friends. As expected, she found them in the entrance hall, awaiting her arrival.

Harry and Ron walked ahead as Hermione began to talk to Ginny. "So, how has living with Mal-ferret been?"

"It was okay. We kind of made a truce not to get in each others way while inside the common room, and he's usually in bed before I am or doesn't come back until I'm already asleep."

Ginny turned to Hermione with a smirk on her face. "Last night when you were looking at Malf-"

"I was not! I already told you that, Ginny."

"I know, but... well, do you think he's hot?"

"What...? Who, Malfoy? No! What in the world gave you that idea?"

"Oh... nothing... it's just... well, you seemed to be staring at him a lot last night, and I mean a lot! And he seemed to be checking you out as well. I could see him staring at you out of the corner of his eye... Maybe you two have... feelings for each other?"

"What? Me an... and... Malfoy? No way! We all know that's not true, and it will never be true!" Hermione could not bare the thought. After all, he was the one who constantly picked on Hermione, and called her a 'Mudblood'.

"Sure, okay. Well, we better get back up to the boys now. Come on, Hermione."

"Okay. Coming now."

Hermione kept thinking of what Ginny had said about Malfoy staring at her. 'What if Ginny is right about Malfoy and something happens between us?' Hermione thought. 'Wait ... this is Malfoy we're talking about! Draco Malfoy ... there is just no way!'

Hermione caught up with Ginny, Ron and Harry, and brushed her thoughts of Malfoy from her mind.

Later that day, the four friends found their way back up to Hogwarts castle from Hogsmeade, their arms full of sweets from Honey Dukes, and stink pellets from Zonkos. When they got back, they went straight to dinner.

Harry and Ron sat opposite Ginny and Hermione as they were about to eat, when somebody caught Hermione's eye, and had distracted her from all her surroundings.

It was Malfoy. He was staring at her from across the room at the Slytherin table. He seemed so transfixed, he didn't even blink. 'Granger sure does look nice lately,' Malfoy thought to himself. 'Wait ...this is Granger! Filthy, disgusting, Mudblood Granger... I shouldn't be thinking about her like this... or at all!

'Look at her... sitting over there with Potty, Weasel, and that Weaselette... thinking she's all perfect, with her perfect grades, and perfect friends, and her stupid perfect smile, and her horrible big, chocolate brown eyes, and her horrible small curves, thinking she's all perf...'.

Draco stopped as he realized what he was thinking.

"Hey, mate!" cried someone's voice, pulling him from his thoughts. It was Blaise. "Draco, are you listening to me?"

"What? Huh? Yeah, sure ...What were you saying?"

"What's up with you, mate? I have never seen you like this. You're barely talking, you haven't touched your food, and you keep ignoring Pan-" Blaise stopped in mid-sentence as he noticed Draco was not listening to a word he was saying. Blaise turned to look where Draco was staring, and turned to him with a small smile on his face as he noticed Draco was staring at Hermione Granger, who seemed to be in deep conversation with Ginny Weasley.

"Mate." Blaise shook Draco and said, "Draco, what's going on between you and Hermione?"

This seemed to wake Draco from some sort of trance, and he rounded on Blaise. "What…what about me and the mudblood? There is nothing going on between me and that filth!"

"Okay, Draco, calm down. I was just wondering, because you were staring at her for quite a while." He taunted.

"No, I was-"

"Drakie! Oh, Drakiepooo!" Pansy screeched all over the Great Hall, and jumped into Draco's lap. "I have been looking for you all over! Where have you been?"

"Nowhere, Pansy... just... just leave me alone."

"But Drakie-"

"But nothing, Pansy. I'm going to bed. See you around, Blaise."

"Bye, mate."

Soon after, Hermione decided she was ready for bed as well, and decided to go back to her common room.

"I'll talk to you guys in the morning. I have to go."

"Goodnight, Hermione."

They all stood up, and gave Hermione a hug. She bid them all good-bye, and left for her room.

Hermione left the Great Hall, and walked up the marble staircase to the seventh floor. She said the password when she reached her destination, and the portrait swung open to allow Hermione to enter.

When Hermione got in, she saw Malfoy asleep on the sofa, so she walked over to the vacant armchair facing him to read her text book and finish some homework. A while after, Hermione noticed she could not concentrate on her work as her eyes were constantly being drawn towards Malfoy.

"Mmmmmm." Malfoy had turned over onto his side, and his blanket fell off to reveal his extremely muscular body.

"Oh God!"

While Hermione was staring at his bare chest in awe, she hadn't realized Malfoy had awoken to find her staring at him.

"Like what you see, Granger?" he asked with a smirk, making her jump.

"Ehhh...emm ... I don't know what you mean, Draco. I was just getting my book from the floor. I... I dropped it. That's all," she replied back nervously.

"Oh, so it's Draco now? So I have the privilege to be called by my first name?" Draco looked up into Hermione's eyes, and smiled as he said this.

"No! Of course not, it was merely a slip of the tongue, Malfoy."

Draco had an idea he thought he might be able to win Hermione over after seeing her reaction when the blanket fell off of the sofa.

'Maybe... just maybe, I can slowly make her fall for me. But why wouldn't she want me? Everyone does," Draco thought to himself as he walked up the stairs, and into his room.

Hermione stood in the common room, staring after him, and thought to herself, 'He is hot, and I can't believe I called him Draco... but he's hot!"

Hermione put down her books, and went for a quick shower. Afterwards, Hermione left the bathroom, and went into her room to get dressed for bed. She had not realized she had left the door slightly open, and began to get dressed with her new lace underwear and bra at the same time Draco had gone into the bathroom to take a shower, and noticed Hermione left her door open. He was about to shut it, when he saw Hermione walking around her room with nothing but a lace underwear set on! Draco could not help but stare at her. She had lost a fair amount of weight, which produced small curves that Draco thought suited her nicely.

'Wow! The bookworm has got a great body." Draco shook himself of these thoughts, and shut the door into Hermione's room - quietly, so she would not notice. But just as he shut the door, Hermione reopened the door and shouted Expelliarmus, and Malfoy flew backwards. He could not move a muscle, for he was stunned with shock. Hermione stood over him with disgust written all over her face. She made sure Malfoy was going nowhere before walking back to her room, and grabbing her robe to tie around herself.

"How dare you! How dare you spy on me in my room! I should hex you back to the next century, and-" Hermione was cut off when she saw his face, and how sorry he looked. She just stared at him.

"I... I... I'm sorry, Hermi-"

"Leave it, Malfoy! Just forget it happened! Goodnight!" she snapped at him, and slammed the door behind her.

Hermione was so outraged that Draco was spying on her, that she could not sleep, and wanted to get a drink. On her way down, she bumped into Draco, and fell to the ground.

"Sorry, Draco."

He smiled towards her, and leaned very close to her so that she could feel his breath on her neck, and he inhaled the smell off her. 'Vanilla.'

He slowly helped her up, whispering in her ear, "Don't worry about it, and I'm sorry about earlier." He shot her another warm smile, sending shivers down her spine and gave her goose bumps.

'How is he making me feel like this?' she asked herself.

Draco slowly leaned in to kiss her, but his efforts were met with disappointment as Hermione backed away from him and said, "No, Draco." She walked into the kitchen to get her drink, and went straight back to bed, leaving a very depressed Draco in her wake.

The next day, Hermione went down to breakfast, and was looking for Ginny to tell her everything that had happened the previous night.

When Hermione was leaving early in the morning, she had a quick shower, and made sure she left before she could run in to Draco again.

When Hermione finally found Ginny in the Library, Hermione began to tell her every little detail of what happened, and how she had caught Draco spying on her.

"I knew Draco was low, but not this l-"

"Wait, you call him 'Draco' now?" Ginny interrupted, followed by a smirk.

"Never mind that now. I can't help it... What will I do?"

"Hermione, I think Malfoy may have some serious feelings for you. Just keep an eye on him, okay? Wait, here comes Harry."

Harry walked over to Ginny, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and sat down. He turned to Hermione, and said, "Dumbledore asked me to give this to you Hermione." He handed her a folded note, with 'Miss Hermione and Mister Malfoy' scribbled across it.

"Oh, thanks Harry." Hermione opened the note, and it read:

Dear Miss Granger and Mister Malfoy,

I would like both of you to meet me in my office tomorrow evening

At six. I would like to discuss some important issues

With you concerning this years activities for the students. I would have liked to have

Briefed you on these matters on your first night, but sadly I have been

Curiously busy.

Signed, Albus Dumbledore

PS, I like Cockroach Clusters.

After Hermione read the note, she folded it back up, and headed to the Great Hall. Right when she entered, she walked over to Draco at the Slytherin table. As she walked over, there were hisses coming from the Slytherin's to show their outrage that she was anywhere near them.

"Draco," Hermione said quietly.

"What do you want?" Pansy screeched as she leaned over to kiss Draco on the lips. Hermione felt strange. It was as if something was welling up inside of her, and she wanted to attack Pansy for some unknown reason.

"Yes, Granger?" Draco shot her a smile quickly before Pansy could see him do it.

"I asked you what did you want, Mudblood?" Pansy cried as she stood up to confront Hermione.

"Don't call her that, Pansy!" Draco shot at the Slytherin girl.

Draco was about to pull Pansy back down and tell her to shut up, when Hermione brought herself up to her full height and said, "It's none of your business, Parkinson, so sit down and shut your mouth before I hex you into oblivion!"

Draco stood there in shock as Pansy sat down on the bench with a huff, and Hermione handed Draco the folded parchment. "It's from Dumbledore." She smiled at Draco, and walked away.

After breakfast, they all had classes, and went their separate ways. Harry and Ron went to Divination, while Ginny went to D.A.D.A. After their prolonged good-byes, Hermione realized she was late for class, and went straight to Greenhouse 4 where she muttered a rushed apology to Professor Sprout, and began her work. A minute or so passed, and Draco suddenly stormed into the Greenhouse, muttering his own apology.

Professor Sprout turned to him with narrow eyes. "Since yourself and Miss Granger feel that you can come to class whenever you wish, and since partners have already been assigned, you shall be assigned to work together for the rest of the year. Understand ... is there any problems?" she finished coolly.

Draco and Hermione both nodded their heads to show that they had understood, and silently began to do their assignments, which was to remove and collect the puss from the Bubotubers.

"Why where you late?" Draco shot at Hermione

"Oh... I was just finishing up talking to- wait a minute. Why were you late?"

"Oh, just taking care of some business, that's all."

Twenty minutes later, Draco and Hermione were talking as if they were old friends. Pansy seeing this did not approve of a mudblood talking to her Draco in such a friendly manner and decided to take action.

After collecting all of the puss from the Bubotubers, Draco and Hermione were still talking quietly, while Pansy and Arietta, Pansy's best friend, made plans to teach Granger a lesson that Draco was off limits to everybody except her.

"Who can tell me what would happen if you drank a Potion brewed with mandrake root? Anybody? Come on, now, this is easy review." Professor Sprout looked around the classroom. No hands were up. "Can anybody at all tell me?" Pansy shot her hand up, an evil grin on her face. "Yes, Miss Parkinson...?"

"If you drank a Potion brewed with...," Pansy and Arietta were suppressing their laughter as best as they could, "...mandrake root...," more suppressed giggles, "...you would... turn as... ugly and fat as... Granger!" Pansy and Arietta burst into screams and screeches of laughter.

"That is quite enough girls! 20 points from Slytherin! Anybody else want to have a try?" Hermione's hand shot up. "Go ahead, Miss Granger."

Hermione, fighting back the tears that were forming, began, "When brewed it can be used to... to... it can be used to return people who have been petrified back to their original state." Slowly, tears fell down Hermione's face onto the table, when Pansy went one step too far.

"Awe, look. The little mudblood is crying." Arietta was in tears from the laughter, and while Professor Sprout was dealing with Arietta, Pansy knocked the Bubotuber puss all over the table and onto Hermione's arms and legs, causing huge, puss filled and painful boils to form on Hermione's skin. Pansy and Arietta were now on the floor, holding their sides from laughing at Hermione's desperate attempt to remove the puss from her skin.

Professor Sprout began to shout after watching the scene unfold. "Pansy! Arietta! Report to your head of house immediately, and another 20 points from Slytherin... each!"

Draco could still hear them laughing as Hermione was crying. Suddenly, he shouted, "Shut up, Parkinson, and just leave the class... now!"

To Pansy's annoyance, Draco asked permission to take Hermione to the Hospital Wing, and lifted her into his arms to carry her there.

As Draco left the Greenhouse with Hermione in his arms, he was closely followed by Pansy who was shrieking, "Why are you helping her! She's just a filthy Mudblood, and you have me! That's all you'll ever need!" As this was said, Draco snapped and turned towards Pansy with Hermione crying into his shoulder from the pain, and retorted with, "Pansy, it's over... GET OUT OF MY SIGHT! I don't want to see you ever again, and I mean it."

"But Drakiepoo-"

"I don't have time for this Parkinson, this was low even for you!" he hissed vehemently.

As Draco walked up the marble staircase, he heard Hermione mumble, "You didn't have to do this."

"I know. Just relax, okay? We're nearly there."

"Madame Pomfrey! Madame Pomfrey!" Draco cried rushing into the Hospital Wing with Hermione slung over his shoulder. He gently dropped her onto one of the vacant beds. "Quick! It's Hermione! She is covered in Bubotuber puss!"

"How did this happen?" questioned Madame Pomfrey as she rushed out of her back office.

Draco began retelling the story with fine detail, when Hermione whispered, "Thank you, Draco... for everything."

"Don't worry. I'm sure you can repay me later," he said with a mysterious smirk on his face. And with that, Draco was gone from the room, leaving Hermione to feel quite alone.