Chapter 4-A Man Don't Have to Die

A/N: What's up people? Yes, it's been a long time and yes I'm very sorry. I wasn't going to continue this story, but it just kept nagging at me in the back of my head. I feel really bad for keeping you guys waiting for so long because I hate it when I'm reading a story and then the author just decides to never update…

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the world of Harry Potter! It's all JKRs… so… let us get on with the story, shall we?

"What are you doing?" Draco yelled in between blows from the pillow Hermione was launching at his face.

"Waking you up! Nothing else worked, so I resorted to hitting you in the face."

"Just because we were friendly with each other yesterday doesn't mean you're allowed to attack me, woman." Malfoy grumbled as he sat up in bed.

"Your lucky I used a pillow, it could have been a lot worse, and besides, how could you even think about sleeping this long on the first day of classes?"

Draco inwardly groaned. Classes.

He rolled over and closed his eyes, hoping Ms. Crabby Pants would go away. But instead she just hit him with a pillow again.

"But seriously, get up. It's 7 and breakfast starts at 7:15. You have 15 minutes to get up, take a shower, get dressed and get all your things for your classes. That's 4 things in 15 minutes!" The bushy haired girl listed off on her fingers.

"Yeah, I know how to count thanks, and I don't need you telling me what to do. You can leave, I'll see you at breakfast." The blond responded as calmly as possible. What he really wanted to say was: Shut up and get out of my room! But that's not how friends treat each other now is it?

~X~

How could he still be sleeping? How could he have even slept at all last night? Hermione thought to herself. She knew she was never able to sleep the night before classes; she was always so nervous and excited. Wondering what they were going to learn and worrying that she hadn't read enough of the text over the summer even thought she was always the most prepared out of anybody.

After making sure that Draco didn't go back to sleep, Hermione grabbed her bag (packed the previous night) and headed off to breakfast. Hermione felt quite lonely sitting at the Gryffindor table all alone. She felt even worse when the owls came and she realized she wouldn't be receiving any more letters from her parents. This would be the first year she was at Hogwarts and she didn't have any parents.

Hermione ate her breakfast of toast and pumpkin juice in silence until 8:00 when she got up and decided to head off to class a half an hour early.

The halls were mostly silent, with the occasional student who is either late to breakfast (like Draco would probably be) or early to class like herself. The hallways smelled like back to school and as Hermione made her way down to the dungeon she could feel the temperature drop. She was soon covered in goose bumps and regretting only wearing a light shirt underneath her school robes.

The dungeons looked just as they always had: dark and ominous.

Hermione didn't actually mind potions all that much, but she was not looking forward to being taught by Professor Slughorn. When she was in 6th year and he taught potions, Hermione liked him but learned a lot more when Snape was around. Even though he was a git at sometimes, he really was a good man, and teacher.

Because she didn't want to be the first one in the classroom, Hermione decided to sit against the cold dungeon wall and re-read the first chapter in her potion book.

~X~

Draco was not looking forward to potions…Not at all. Especially because that Slughorn man was still teaching them and he just didn't seem like a very bright fellow. Draco actually thought Hermione was knew more about some of the things he taught when they were in 6th year, but he would never say that out loud.

The only comforting thing about going to potions was being back in the dungeons.

He knew it was a little strange, but Draco always found that they were part of him, and he missed them dearly when he left school during the war. They were home to him more than any other part of the castle…Even if they were cold and dark. It really didn't bother Draco that much.

As the boy turned the corner, he noticed someone seated next to the door of the potions room. As he got closer, he realized it was Hermione.

But honestly, who else would be this early on the first day of class? There weren't that many people to choose from in this school.

This meant he had to either turn back or wait for more people to arrive so he could avoid an awkward conversation, or he could go and make up something to talk about with her.

Without giving it much thought, he decided option one would do.

Hermione was reading a book when he approached her, and she didn't even look up at him when he stopped in front of her. Could she really be that immersed in a textbook?

Of course. This was Hermione he was dealing with.

Draco cleared his throat and she jumped a little bit, which made Draco snigger.

"I didn't even realize you were there! You scared me!"

Draco held back his sarcastic remark, and instead chose a nicer topic, rather than poking fun at his new 'friend'.

"So, decided to get an early start on the text book?" he said as he slid down the wall to sit next to her on the cold dungeon floor.

"Well, actually I've already read it, I just got bored."

Huh.

Well this is pretty awkward. He thought as silence slowly overcame their conversation. Draco racked his brain for a topic they could discuss but he couldn't hink of anything. He never had friends that he had friendly discussions with before this. Him and his friends usually just gossiped about how annoying certain people were or homework. Or they were plotting a prank on someone. So he didn't really have any experience with being friendly. He had used up all the general awkward small talk that you can use on anyone, like how was your summer and how are you doing. So Draco decided to just sit there either until class started, or he came up with something. But it didn't seem like either of those two things were coming around anytime soon.

~X~

Hermione cleared her throat in effort to make the silence less awkward. Draco probably didn't want to talk to her and didn't want to make her feel bad by leaving. Did that mean he didn't want to hurt her feelings, which means he was willing to try being nice to her. Which was a good thing. Hermione couldn't think of anything she could talk about with him. She always knew what to talk about with her fellow Gryffindors, but this was so different. Hermione thought hard.

What do friends talk about….? She wondered

Hermione suddenly remembered a time when she was little and her and her muggle friends always played the question game. It was a little silly, but it could be a way to break the ice, right?

"Have you ever played the question game?" Hermione asked, immediately feeling idiotic.

"Erm. No?" Draco said confused. He definitely had no idea what the question game was. Damn. She should have just kept her mouth shut. Oh Merlin this was a horrible idea, he was going to think she was some stupid mudblood who played stupid muggle games. Well, it's not like he never thought that before…

"Okay, well it's this game that I used to play when I was little where one person asks a question, and the other person has to answer truthfully." She said with a smile, trying to make it look like she was completely confident in her decision to play this game.

"That just sounds like a really not very sneaky way to get me to spill all my secrets." He said playfully. "Have you ever played truth or dare? At least if we play that, I can avoid telling things you don't need to know."

"Sure," Hermione said. She wasn't all that sure that her and Draco were talking about the same game though. Why would Draco Malfoy have played a muggle game? She didn't like the look he was giving her, and slowly started to become afraid of what was going to happen next.

"If you say so…" Draco said with a sly grin.

~X~

Draco pulled out his wand with a flourish, and pointed it at Hermione. He was about to ask truth or dare when she whipped her wand out and had it pointed at Draco's chest in a defensive manner. He couldn't help himself. He just started to laugh. And when he started, he couldn't stop. He threw his head back and laughed for what seemed like ages. He hadn't laughed in so long, and he laughed until his stomach hurt. There really wasn't anything funny about the situation. Maybe it was the expression on Granger's face, or the sound of his laugh echoing off the walls, but something about the situation made it impossible for him to control himself. When he finally calmed down, he looked at Hermione and asked "What's your problem?"

"I could ask you the same thing! I thought we were getting along fine! There was no need to pull your wand on me!"

At first he just stared at her. Then finally he spoke.

"That's how you play wizard's truth or dare…. You have to say a spell… otherwise, the other person doesn't have to do anything. They could just walk out of the game if they wanted to."

"That's definitely not how I learned it!"

"Well, that's 'cause you're a mu-muggle born…" Draco quickly corrected himself.

Hermione raised one eyebrow in what the blond decided was a very cute manner. She had obviously heard his slip-up and was going to call him on it.

"Malfoy. I don't really care if you call me a mudblood. I've heard it so many times, it doesn't even phase me at all anymore. I know old habits die hard, so you don't have to feel badly…"

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Of course I should feel badly! Just because you've been called that far too many times doesn't make it right!" He said with a sudden fury.

"Seriously, Draco…" She was cut off by the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. They both forgot about their conversation and waited for the owner of the footsteps to appear. The boy was a Slytherin, she recognized him, but couldn't remember his name. She thought maybe he would start talking to Draco and she would remember, but he didn't even glance at Draco as he walked into the classroom. Draco was staring off into space, wondering if the Slytherins were going to ignore him all year, when Hermione interrupted his train of thought.

"We should probably go in, you know, to get good seats or…"

"Alright." He said as he offered her a hand, and helped her up. The two walked inside, and there was an awkward moment when they didn't know if the other wanted to sit together, but they were both too shy to ask. Finally, Draco decided he would just be a man about it. He sat down in the back, where they would be a little bit more hidden from the eyes of other students.

"Well, are you going to sit with me or not?"

Hermione looked taken aback for a moment but quickly gathered herself and took a seat next to Draco. They didn't say a word to each other until class started. He could see Hermione start to fidget as more people entered the room. Soon, all the seats were taken, and everyone was waiting on Professor Slughorn. Hermione thought it was strange because Professor Slughorn was usually in the room before class started. It seemed to take a very long time, but finally, the doors to the room burst open.

"Turn to page 97 in your books, and retrieve all the ingredients on the board. I expect that you have all read the first couple chapters of your textbooks. We will be brewing veritiserum today, a potion I'm sure you are all familiar with it…" Hermione almost fell out of her seat. She looked over at Draco, and he looked an awful lot more pale then he usually did, and that was saying something. Some other kids in the room looked like they were going to throw up. This was crazy… he was supposed to be…

"What are you all staring at?" A very angry, very alive, Severus Snape snaped at them.