Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

A/N: This fic is set at the beginning of the 6th year at Hogwarts. Dumbledore is therefore still alive, Snape is Defense against the Dark Arts teacher and Slughorn potions teacher, and the situation with Draco as a Death Eater is slightly different and not in the foreground in this story. Apologies to those who mind.

Chapter One

There she was again, smiling like an idiot with him, her close friend.

Malfoy refused to call him her boyfriend. For no reason, of course. A Malfoy didn't need to have a reason anyway, and so he didn't.

Finnigan, putting his arm around the mudblood's shoulders, smiled as well. Draco snorted and continued walking on, letting the rain soak his silver blonde hair.

What did it matter to him, seeing them sitting on the stone bench like every day since the beginning of the year, shielded from the drops that constantly fell from the sky, showing off their relationship? Exactly. It didn't.

Maybe a bit. But only because he didn't meet her on the corridors so often anymore, unable to throw an insult at her then. Good thing she was a Prefect too then.

He frowned as these thoughts crossed his mind. What the hell was wrong with him? He shrugged and decided not to bother. It wasn't as if he was the only one who had noticed how much the mudblood had changed during the summer. Not that she was anything more just because of a few curves, but he was still a guy.

Walking through the corridors, he made a few biting remarks against a bunch of young Gryffindors, making use of his role as Prefect.

This really was going to be a fun year. Since he had left the train, he hadn't stopped telling off Gryffindors without them being able to complain.

He smiled smugly while entering the common room and passing his hand through his hair, knowing that Pansy was already there, waiting for him.

How idiotic could anyone get? So much for a fun year. It seemed like the girl had no self-esteem whatsoever. Honestly, how obvious could he still make it to show her that he had no interest in her or anything related to her?

True, he did have some fun with her, but that didn't mean anything, did it? 'Girls…' he thought.

But there she was, sitting at their usual desk, obviously waiting for someone: him. She beamed and went over to greet him.

"Oh Draco, didn't I tell you that you shouldn't be walking in the rain like that? You could catch a cold, or worse! Come here and let me warm you up a little…"

She invitingly came closer and pulled him towards a couch close to the fire, putting her arms around his slender waist and her head on his shoulders.

He sighed and, slowly took her hands to free himself from her grip. He didn't even have anything against her holding him like that, but he didn't feel like it this evening.

"Just don't" he said, almost roughly, and leaned back against the cushions. She gave him a look and pouted, but he just decided to ignore her and stared into the flames.

"Fine then, I'm going to bed" she said, staring intently into his eyes that were still fixated on the dancing fire, almost pleading.

He nodded absent-mindedly, a tiny part of his consciousness understanding the meaning behind her words and the fact that she either wanted him to follow her or to hold her back.

Whatever it was she wanted, he didn't even consider doing either for a second and just went on staring, his mind empty, and so, she left.

'I bet that she hates the rain' he suddenly thought, remembering how they had sat there under the a covered area where they could have watched other people getting soaked, or couples running through the rain, hand in hand. But not a single drop had reached her.

With that image, he drifted off to sleep, his head leaning against the green head rest, knowing that he was going to be late for his prefect watch through the corridors of the castle.

"Please stay a bit longer". Seamus' low voice whispered into her ear. She giggled, but then slowly got up from the armchair of the Gryffindor common room they had been sitting in for a while.

Ron hadn't stopped throwing them glances while Lavender desperately tried to get his attention back on her.

Seamus and Hermione. Nobody would have thought that the two of them could ever suit the other, but it seemed to be working out just fine. Better than just fine, for that matter.

They barely left each other's side, except for when they had separate classes or when she had to do her duty as a Prefect, or other little occasions.

He stood up and gently put his arm around her waist, holding her close.

"Do you really have to go?" he asked pleadingly.

Gently taking his fingers one by one into her hand, she freed herself from him and turned to face him.

"You know I'll be back. Soon" she promised.

He gave her one last kiss, which made younger Gryffindors turn away or giggle and girls from their age sigh dreamily.

She smiled to herself. She knew that no one had expected her to be like that, and she might even be the one who was the most surprised.

They had been together for a few months now, starting from shortly before the summer holidays. She had seen him almost every day then, spending less time with her friends, but it seemed that they understood pretty well, especially Harry.

Ron, on the other hand, was rather difficult. Hermione decided not to think about him, him and Lavender.

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. Couldn't he just stop being so sarcastic whenever they were together?

"You should better go now" Seamus said after a few moments she had just been standing there, staring.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" she asked teasingly.

"Who knows?" He winked at her. "Besides, the sooner you leave, the sooner you'll be back."

He tried to kiss her again, but she shrieked as she looked at the time, and ran towards the painting. She was going to be late for her patrol.

Hermione was running down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. She couldn't permit herself to be late again because of "private reasons", as McGonagall had said the last time, when she had turned up late to a meeting.

The Ravenclaw prefect girl, Padma Patil, had looked at her reproachfully, and Slytherin... Malfoy had just smirked at her, in his usual way. The Hufflepuff prefect had just taken notes of everything the teacher had said.

Hermione sighed as she remembered that meeting. It was there that she had wished to have been in the other group, without Malfoy.

Apparently, Dumbledore had found the need to divide the prefects into two teams, so that one of each house was in one of them.

There were Hermione and Malfoy with Padma and Ernie McMillan, and on the other side Ron with Pansy Parkinson, Hannah Abbot and Anthony Goldstein from Ravenclaw.

How had she wished to be able to switch with Ron, that day, but only for a brief moment, since she wasn't the kind of person anyone else could easily influence.

How unlucky for her that she had also come late to the one meeting where they were divided into pairs of two for patrolling.

Malfoy hadn't mentioned any preferences, and so, Padma had ended up with Ernie, and she had been paired with the Slythering. Hermione ground her teeth at the memory.

As she had then arrived there, the only thing he had said before leaving had been "here comes the mudblood".

His usual sneer had been on his face, but he was gone before McGonagall had been able to say anything.

Still, Hermione had been surprised that he hadn't complained more. Maybe he had just been in a hurry to leave. He sure had changed over the years. As for the insult, it seemed as if both of them knew that it had become nothing more than an empty word.

Instead, their "relationship" had evolved to a higher level. They weren't calling each other names as frequently anymore, but were using more intelligent remarks.

The young Gryffindor sometimes even enjoyed those challenges, because they were something different and a change to her usual day, but that didn't keep her from sometimes being hurt. He knew very well how to do that, too.

Obviously, Hermione would almost rather die than to ever admit any of that.

She was running up some stairs now, definitely being late. McGonagall was not going to like it at all. Still, being with Seamus had changed her to some extent, and just thinking of him made her smile.

Not paying attention to where she was going, she suddenly bumped into someone, making her stumble back, but before she could fall down those painful steps, the other person caught her by the wrist and held her up.

Malfoy, a smirk on his face.

"Careful now, mudblood. It would be a pity if your dirty blood covered the stairs that I have to walk over every day." Despite those words, she could see that he was in a bad mood, worse than usual, and he looked thoughtful.

"Am I late?" Hermione asked instead of answering, eyeing him carefully. You could never be too careful with him in such a bad mood. His eyes looked like a cloudy sky, just before a storm, dark and impenetrable.

She was out of breath for running up the stairs, and was now leaning against the wall, closing her eyes.

Draco looked at her, a frown on his face. She had never come late to anything before, except for the past few meetings where she hadn't been able to pair up with anyone else than with him.

He didn't mind, since that would mean less work for him, but the way things looked at the moment, he wasn't so sure about that anymore.

"Whatever. Just do whatever you want now, I'll just walk round here for a bit and then leave."

She flung her eyes open. "But you can't do that, it is your duty as a Prefect to make sure that everything is okay. You have to do this for at least a few hours, to make sure that all of the students are in bed!"

"But there's nothing you can do about it, now is there?" he asked with a sneer.

"We'll see about that" she exclaimed.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that. I am still better than you will ever be."

Hermione simply laughed, too happy to care at the moment, and saw the grey of his eyes lighten up ever so slightly. It was a really old line. But he turned away and began walking through their assigned corridors, so everything she had left to do that evening was to keep an eye on the students.

That was it for chapter one. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated :)