"Father, why do we have to go here every year? You never get anything," soon-to-be seventeen-year-old Draco Malfoy complained to his father in the doorway of a creepy store in Knockturn Alley. Lucius Malfoy looked down at his son somewhat glaring at him, but his lips were curled in a nasty smile.

"Draco, Draco, Draco... we don't go to this store to buy things, I come here for many... different reasons," Lucius said, hesitating a little as he spoke. Draco raised one eyebrow suspiciously, but followed his father into the store nonetheless.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, welcome back, welcome back... here about your, um, letter, I assume?" A very old looking man with a scratchy voice greeted them as they stepped toward the counter. Lucius nodded, motioning for Draco to give them a bit of privacy as they talked.

Draco sighed. "Fine. I'll wait outside." He felt uneasy as he walked outside, however, considering the fact that everyone seemed to be staring at him today. It really bothered him that everyone would want to stare at him, but he didn't really care as he leaned against the wall, looking up towards the sky.

If only he was with her. Then he'd be completely happy, but alas, he wasn't. And even if he did tell Hermione Granger the reason he hadn't been teasing her as much as he had to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, she'd probably hate him even more. But if only he could tell her... tell her everything that was bottled up inside him, including the fact that his one true desire was to be with her, and to be friends with her friends. Of course, no one knew this. He couldn't just go around saying he, Draco Malfoy, pureblood Slytherin and son of Lucius Malfoy, loved a Gryffindor Muggle born. How would that look on his reputation?

Of course, if you really, truly loved someone, you wouldn't care very much about your reputation.

Draco jumped at the sudden sound of banging on the counter from inside the store his father was in. And from the looks of it, Lucius wasn't very happy. Draco pressed his ear against the window to attempt to hear what they were saying, but the glass was simply too thick. But he did catch a few words. Words such as "Draco", "Slytherin", and "Gryffindor". He had no idea why his father would be talking to a man like that about Draco and Hogwarts, but it had to be another one of his schemes. There was no other excuse.

Some good ten minutes later, Lucius stepped out of the store, slamming the door violently behind him. Grabbing Draco's arm, he pulled his son towards the extremely crowded streets of Diagon Alley.

"Father, can you tell me what's going on? You seem kind of angry," Draco asked his father as they rushed through Knockturn Alley. Lucius glared down at him. Obviously, he wasn't in the mood to have a one-on-one conversation with his son.

"You don't need to know what went on in there," he replied very icily. Draco felt no need to ask any more questions, as they would just anger his father even more. And, from previous experience, Draco knew that was something he never wanted to do again.

"Draco, get your school supplies and come back to the manor. I have some business to attend to," Lucius said shortly, and with a flick of his black robes, he turned around and walked in the opposite direction Draco was going in.

He'd been acting very strange lately. Ever since Lucius had received an "urgent" call from the Ministry of Magic, he'd been extremely tense, and had a new tendency to snap at the smallest things. For example, just last weekend Draco had broken a very inexpensive vase his mother had bought, and Lucius had completely flipped out and forbid Draco to touch anything made of glass for the rest of the week. This definitely was not like his father.

But the sound of an all-too familiar voice snapped Draco out of his thoughts. "Ron, I'm telling you, you do not need to obsess about Chairee every-" Hermione voice stopped in mid-sentence as the trio reached Draco. Putting on his usual smug face, Draco looked down upon them.

"Who is this 'Chairee' you speak of, Granger? I've never heard of her in my life," Draco said, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"She's my girlfriend, Christina Hayden, but we call her Chairee. Pity, you don't even know what it's like to have a girlfriend!" Ron shouted without thinking. Draco's eyes narrowed. Yes, that was true. But did he have to be reminded of it?

"I'm surprised you even have a girlfriend, Weasley, since your family is so poor and all... who would want to go out with the likes of you?" Draco replied, smirking as Ron tried to attack him, but was held back by his two friends. Draco was so proud of his ability to make people angry just by saying one single sentence.

Once Harry and Hermione got Ron settled down, Hermione took a step forward. "Malfoy, you are such an insensitive jerk! You're the one who doesn't deserve a girlfriend because you're so mean to everyone!" Draco stared at her, his eyes wide with a mixture of anger and sadness. He didn't know what to say to that.

"Yeah, Malfoy, so why don't you just go find your little friends and leave us alone?" Harry said directly to him. Draco took a few steps back, then turned around towards the bookstore, Flourish and Blotts. And as he looked back slightly at them, he could see the look of surprise on their faces. Naturally, they'd been expecting Draco to come back with a witty comeback, but they were so wrong.

"If I'm gonna secretly like Hermione, I have to start being nicer. Though it will seem kind of weird..." Draco mumbled to himself as he opened the door of Flourish and Blotts and stepped inside.

Once Draco got all of the supplies he needed for school, he started to go home. He really wished his father had stayed so he didn't look weird walking by himself, but he did say he had some business to attend to. Whatever that could be.

And besides, he had some thinking to do. He couldn't do that with another person around.

Why do I have to be so mean? I mean, I tried to become Harry's friend in Madam Malkin's robe shop before our first year, so what happened? Well, that was obvious. Harry had been sorted into Gryffindor, and that just made Draco angry. He'd desperately wanted to become Harry's friend, but Harry had chosen Ron over him right in front of Draco's eyes. And that just made Draco hate Harry even more. But, unknown to Draco, deep down inside, he was wishing that he[ were Ron, and that he was the one who got to follow Harry around everyday, and be close to Hermione nearly all day...

God, he sure has a lot on his mind.

Soon, Draco reached the Malfoy Manor. It was a rather dark place from the outside, with stone gray walls and historic style windows, but on the inside, it was extremely beautiful and one of the largest houses in the wizarding world. And, to his surprise, a light was on in the very top tower of the manor. Strange, Draco thought, no one ever goes up there. He didn't think too much of it, however, as he walked into the house and was greeted by his mother, Narcissa Malfoy.

Narcissa wasn't exactly the most responsible mother in the world, but she did watch out for him more than his father did. That had to mean at least a little something.

"Oh Draco, good, you're home... do you know what's wrong with your father? He's been acting very strangely lately, always wanting to go into the top tower..." Narcissa looked at him with hopeful eyes, thinking he knew the answer, but her hopeful look became discouragement as he shook his head.

She turned around to leave. "All right then. Well, just do whatever you want to, I could care less." Well, at least she didn't glare at him.

Note: Two characters in this next chapter were created by me for the story.

The next day, Draco was awoken by someone shaking him. He looked out the window, noticing it was still dark outside. Why would his mother or father want to wake him up this early? It probably wasn't even five o'clock yet.

He rolled over to see who it was that had woken him at a time this early. To his surprise, it was neither his father nor mother. It was two girls, who looked roughly his age, and were grinning down at him. Draco's face turned red as a tomato as he realized he probably didn't look as good as he usually did.

"Hey, Draco! Bet you don't remember us, huh?" the one on the left said. Draco gave her an utterly confused stare. He knew these two girls? He didn't even remember a single thing about them.

Although, he had to admit, they weren't all that bad looking. The girl on the left had long, golden brown hair with chunky layers of colors, ranging from blonde to black, crystal blue eyes, and tan skin. And her friend on the right had layered brown hair with lighter brown highlights that went just past her shoulders, hazel eyes, and lightly tanned skin. If he knew them, he was sure glad he did.

"Uh, no, have we met?" Draco said, rubbing his eyes. It was way to early for this.

The girl on the right giggled. "Of course we have, you moron! I'm Samantha Baracudan, and this is Brianna Dershin. We used to live around here, but then we moved to America for awhile. Don't you remember?" Draco stared at her, drawing a blank. How the hell was he supposed to remember from that far back?

"Actually, no, I don't. What, am I supposed to?" Draco asked them, smirking. Brianna and Samantha both rolled their eyes, sighing, obviously frustrated with him.

"Okay, just forget it. Anyways, we're starting school at Hogwarts and your father said you could help us out a bit. We know we'll be sorted into Slytherin, it's just so obvious. Alright?" Brianna asked him. Now Draco was interested. Slytherin, did she say? Now, those were people he could actually hang out with and not get ridiculed about it later.

He stood up. "Slytherin, did you say? Very nice choice." Both girls nodded, smiling, as the three of them walked out of the room.

* * *

"So, when does the school year start, anyway? We already have all of the stuff we need, and we're really excited to go..." Brianna was saying as she and Samantha waited outside the door as Draco got dressed.

"Six days!" he shouted as he pulled a gray shirt over his head. And, quite frankly, he couldn't wait for it to start either. Although, his reasons were much different than Brianna and Samantha's reasons.

"Awesome! So, Draco... got a crush on anyone?" Samantha asked mischievously. Draco froze. Should he tell them? Or should he keep it a secret?

He opened the door after he finished getting dressed, and came to find he was facing two girls who looked highly excited. Well, maybe he could trust them... they seemed pretty trustworthy to him, at least.

Draco ran his fingers through his silvery blonde hair. "Well, yeah... but you can't tell anyone. And I mean no one. Especially not my father." he said. Samantha and Brianna nodded.

"We promise, we promise, now tell us already!" Samantha asked impatiently, tapping her foot.

"Alright, well... her name is Hermione Granger... but she, well, she..." Draco hesitated. He really wasn't ready to tell them. He barely even knew them, he realized, so why should he tell them his deepest secret? Too bad he hadn't thought about that little fact earlier.

"Go on, go on. I can tell there's a little catch to all of this, so go on already!" Brianna demanded. Taking a deep breath, Draco continued.

"Well, she's in Gryffindor at Hogwarts... and she's a Muggle-born," he finished finally. The two girls stared at him in disbelief. He knew they wouldn't understand.

Suddenly, Draco heard a familiar voice clear his throat from the corner of the hallway.

"Uh-oh..." Samantha and Brianna chorused as Lucius Malfoy stepped out from behind them. Draco gulped.

Lucius shook his head back and forth, chuckling as he did so. "Draco, Draco, Draco... you should know by now that associating with Mudbloods is a disgrace to our family name... but liking one of their kind? That's pushing it."

"But... I can't help it..." Draco said., looking his father directly in the eye.

"Of course you can. You are a Malfoy. A pureblood. You can do so much better. Like one of these girls, for instance," Lucius replied, jerking his head towards Samantha and Brianna.

Suddenly, Draco felt a surge of anger course through his body. Why did his father have to be so nasty all the time? Even he wasn't that nasty to his peers as to tell them what to do and what not to do. He just couldn't take it anymore.

He narrowed his eyes at his father. "You would never understand, would you... Lucius?" His father looked up, startled at the sound of his name coming from his son.

"You will call me-" he started, but Draco cut him off.

"No, I'll call you whatever the hell I want to call you. Why can't you just let me live my life the way I want to live it? You wouldn't ever know what it's like to truly love someone, because I was told that you wouldn't leave my mother alone until she married you. As in, blackmail, might I suggest?" Draco could literally see the veins popping in Lucius's arms as he finished his sentence.

Lucius clenched his fists. "Get out of my house. Now," he said in an angry whisper.

"I'd be more than happy to," Draco replied as he began to walk down the hall. Samantha and Brianna followed him.

Once they were out of the Malfoy Manor, Samantha and Brianna began to show Draco the way to their houses. Draco had sure picked a convenient time to tell his father off, didn't he?

"Draco, that was awesome! I could never say that to my parents..." Samantha said as they walked down the streets, which were dimly lighted by antique-style street lamps.

Brianna nodded. "Me neither. Well, to my dad at least."

Draco simply shrugged. "It wasn't that big a deal... I've been wanting to do that for a long time now, it's about time now that no good excuse for a father got a taste of his own medicine!"

"Now, that's what my brother needs!" Samantha said, giggling.

"You can say that again... your brother is so annoying!" Brianna agreed as the trio continued walking.

As Samantha and Brianna continued talking, however, Draco was lost in his own thoughts. Sure, he was happy to finally be gone from that awful place he'd called home for roughly seventeen years, but then again... he was in his final year at Hogwarts. And he did need some support from his family. But, of course, he'd figure out some way to support himself.

"Draco, hello, Draco, you still there? We're here now," Brianna was continually snapping her fingers in front of Draco's face.

Samantha shook her head. "God, Draco, you have so many problems... but anyways, let's go inside! It's getting kind of boring standing out here."

* * *

Six days later, Draco, Brianna, and Samantha were putting their trunks into a taxi headed to the train station, where they would be boarding the Hogwarts Express and going to Hogwarts.

"Hey, Draco, I have a question... what are you gonna do if you see that Hermione girl with her friends?" Brianna asked as they found themselves on Platform 9 3/4, the train station where the Hogwarts Express was.

Draco shrugged. "I don't know. I can't just suddenly be nice, you know." But really, he did want to be suddenly nice. Of course, that would be very strange...

Once they got on the train, they found an empty compartment where they could sit. Luckily, they'd gotten there early, so there weren't that many people.

"Well, this is lonely..." Samantha muttered as she took a seat. Draco had learned in the six days before coming here that Samantha liked big crowds of people, and hated it when there was barely anyone around.

"You'll live for about another five minutes," Draco said.

"Fine. Be that way," she replied.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt you guys, but are those the people you always torture?" Draco looked over at Brianna, who was pointing out the window at three familiar faces talking and laughing as they walked towards the train.

Draco nodded. "Come on," he said, motioning for Samantha and Brianna to follow him.

As they approached Harry, Ron, and Hermione, the trio glared at them. Of course, they were looking at Samantha and Brianna with the expression that clearly said, "who are they?", but they would find out soon enough.

"Malfoy, what do you want now?" Ron asked, annoyed.

Draco smirked. "Why, Weasel, I came to introduce you to my two new friends, Samantha Baracudan and Brianna Dershin. They're destined to be in Slytherin, as you might have guessed."

"Yeah, well... no one really cares about your friends!" Ron spat at him without thinking.

"You really don't have a brain, do you, Weasley? And by the way, where is this 'girlfriend' of yours you seem to be obsessing about?" Ron's ears turned red as Draco finished his sentence. He obviously didn't want many people to know he had a slight obsession with his girlfriend.

"Malfoy, just go away! We're sick of you always bothering us," Harry said. Draco sharply turned his head to look at him.

"I'm actually surprised at you, Potter. I would have expected you to have a girlfriend by now," Draco said, smirking.

This time, it was Hermione who spoke. "Harry does have a girlfriend! Well, kind of at least. It's not one hundred percent official quite yet, but you shouldn't start jumping to conclusions about people... Draco." He looked at her, startled at the sound of his first name, not his last, coming from her mouth. He wasn't expecting that.

And her friends weren't either. "Hermione! You called him... you called him... Draco! How could you?" Ron yelled at her.

"Maybe she wants a change, unlike you. Draco's told us you have quite a temper," Brianna spoke up. Ron opened his mouth to speak, but decided against it.

Draco still couldn't believe Hermione had actually called him by his first name. Maybe she had a little secret of her own... no. She was probably just trying to be nice. After all, Draco had been informed she was the new Head Girl, and as he was Head Boy, they would have to start addressing more properly.

"Hey, Draco, can we just leave now? These three are getting on my nerves," Samantha said.

He looked at her. "Fine. Let's go. I'll see you three at school." And with that, they left, leaving the three Gryffindors staring at them as they left.

Draco, Samantha, and Brianna walked silently back to their compartment. Draco had this weird feeling in his heart, a feeling that he'd never actually experienced until now. And now, he knew it would be even harder to have to share a common room with Hermione as Head Girl and Head Boy when they got to Hogwarts.

"Draco, you seem kind of... preoccupied. What's up?" Samantha asked him as she shut the door of their compartment.

He sat down. "Well... remember when I told you I kind of liked Hermione? Well, um... kind of just doesn't cut it anymore." The two girls sat on either side of him.

"Draco, Draco, Draco... I feel bad for you, I really do. and that's why I have a plan," Draco and Samantha looked at Brianna. What exactly did she mean by "plan"?

"What kind of plan?" he asked, curious. Brianna grinned.

"Alright, so, you like Hermione. And I mean really like her. Am I right?" Draco nodded. "Well... I was thinking that, after Samantha and I get sorted, we could go up to Hermione and complain about wanting to be in Gryffindor, and she'll feel sympathy for us and become our friend. Then, we'll get to know her and ask her what she thinks of you. What do you guys think about that?"

Personally, Draco thought it was a great plan. He just wasn't sure if it would work.

"Well, I like it... but wouldn't Draco be able to talk to her in the Head Boy and Head Girl's common room?" Samantha asked.

"I thought about that, too, but then I realized that her friends Harry and Ron probably forbid her from talking to you, Draco... you get where I'm going with this?" Now it all made sense.

Draco stood up. "Alright. We're gonna do this." Brianna grinned, her face glowing as the compartment door slid open.

All three looked up to see a girl with shoulder length, slightly wavy blonde hair that had brown highlights in it, green eyes, and tanned skin. She didn't look familiar to Draco, so he assumed she was a new student.

"Oops, sorry, I thought this one was empty!" she said, looking around at the three of them.

"Hey, wait," Brianna said as the girl turned to leave, "what's your name?"

She stopped and turned around. "My name is Rachel Philipsen. I'm new here, and I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher's adopted daughter. I really hope to be in Gryffindor, so..." She obviously had heard about Draco, and knew he was a Slytherin. You could just tell from the way she looked at him.

"Gryffindor, huh?" Draco asked her. She nodded.

"Is that a problem?" she said, grinning mischievously at him. Draco was actually kind of surprised she'd said that to him, but then again, he did have to stop being so judgemental of people.

"No... I just.. oh, screw it," Draco said, leaning back on the seat as the train lurched forward.

"Well, I'm just gonna go find somewhere else to sit. See you at school," Rachel said as she closed the compartment door behind her.

Samantha sighed. "Another good mind gone to waste... just kidding!" Brianna giggled and Draco shook his head, chuckling slightly.

"You, Samantha, are very strange..." Draco said. Samantha hit him on the head.

"I am not!" she insisted.

"You are too!" Brianna said.

Samantha sat down, crossing her arms across her chest. "Geesh, everyone just hates me here..."

See? Slytherins aren't always mean.

* * *

"Wow, this place is, like... huge!" Samantha exclaimed as they stepped off the train onto the Hogsmeade station.

"No, I thought it was small!" Brianna said sarcastically. Samantha glared at her, although you could tell she was holding back a smile.

"You know, we really should try and get an empty carriage..." Draco said.

Both girls looked at him. "Oh yeah! Well, let's find one then! I don't wanna be stuck in some carriage with some creepy little dude who stares at you forever and ever and ever until you get there..." Samantha said as they walked towards the carriages.

Unfortunately, there were no empty ones. Fortunately, none of them contained creepy little dudes who stare and you forever and ever and ever until you get there.

"Well, looks like this is the only one left... can we sit here?" Draco asked a girl with straight, dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. Another new student, most likely.

She nodded. "Sure, I don't really care. I'm Whitney Taylor, by the way. Who are all of you?"

"Well, I'm Draco Mal-" Draco started, but was cut off by Whitney.

"Are you now? My friend Ginny's brother, Ron, told me so much about you..." she said with a sly grin. It seemed to Draco that Harry and Ron were trying to get all the new students to dislike him.

Draco sat down on the opposite side of Whitney. "Yeah, well, that little Weasel better learn to keep his mouth shut!" Draco replied defensively. Samantha and Brianna rolled their eyes.

"He's really not that bad... you just have to get past that mean, cold, proud exterior... I'm Brianna Dershin and this is Samantha Baracudan," Brianna said as she sat down next to Draco.

Whitney smiled. "Yeah, I kind of figured that... I mean, Draco, no offense or anything, but you kind of overdo the mean thing to me, so I'm not buying it. Luckily for you, I didn't tell Ron that." Draco just stared at her. He didn't really know what to say to something like that.

"Whatever," Draco said, looking away from the three girls. He was really getting sick of hanging around all girls.

"You're so stupid..." Whitney mumbled as the carriges moved forward, going towards the huge doors of the Hogwarts entrance.

They continued on in silence, not saying anything to each other. Besides, there was nothing to talk about. Nothing interesting, anyway. Unless someone suddenly saw Lord Voldemort coming out from the lake, there was nothing all too interesting to talk about, was there?

"Finally... now I can get out of here and find Ginny!" Whitney said as the carraige came to a stop by the Hogwarts doors.

Students between years two and seven came out of all the carriages, chatting excitedly about what things could happen during the year. Unfortunately for the first years, they got to go across the dark lake in small boats to get to Hogwarts. How fun.

"Hey, Draco, I have a question... since we're new here and all, how do we get sorted?" Brianna asked as they walked through the doors amongst the rest of the school.

"You get sorted after the first years, I think," Draco replied. Honestly, he didn't know.

"I don't trust you... I'm gonna go find that Hermione girl. Maybe she knows. Come on, Samantha," Brianna said, grabbing Samantha's wrist and pulling her through the extremely large crowd of students.

* * *

"Draco! Oh, I've missed you so much!" Draco winced at the sound of the voice of Pansy Parkinson, a fellow Slytherin and the most annoying girl in the school, behind him. Pansy thought he was in love with her, but if only she knew the truth. And she never would, given that she barely let him speak his mind around her.

Draco smirked. "Oh yeah, you, I've missed you, too, I guess." Pansy's face fell. She obviously wasn't used to Draco being mean directly to her.

"But... but, Draco, I thought you were my boyfriend!" a crowd was watching them now, or, watching Pansy whine and attempt to get her way.

Draco snorted, and so did many of the Slytherin boys. "You? My girlfriend? Yeah, right, not even in your dreams..." Pansy looked hurt as the Slytherin boys howled with laughter.

"You've gotten meaner, Draco!" Pansy said as she ran out of the Great Hall, trying not to cry in front of her peers.

As the laughter died down, the boys of Draco's house started congratulating him.

"Nice one, Draco. You may be Head Boy, but you've still got that mean streak in you!" a Slytherin sixth year boy said, patting him on the back. Draco smirked down at him, knowing it was true.

Though he wished it wasn't.

"Could everyone take a seat, please?" the voice of the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, came loud and clear from the front of the room. Almost all at once, the students in the Great Hall stopped their conversations and sat down.

Pansy came back in the room, sniffling, and took a seat as far away from Draco as she possibly could. The boys all sniggered as this happened.

"Thank you. Now, before we begin, I have a new staff member to introduce," everyone looked up to the new staff member, who had just stood up on the left side of Professor Snape, the Potions master.

She had straight dark brown hair, and from what Draco could tell, she had dark brown eyes as well. She looked pretty young for a teacher, possibly in her early twenties, but compared to the other teachers in the school, they definitely needed that.

"Allow me to introduce you to Professor Gabrielle Elaine, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Even though she is new, I expect all of you to respect her as though she has been here forever," Dumbledore said with that familiar twinkle in his blue eyes. Professor Elaine smiled as she once again took her seat.

Then, the doors to the Great Hall opened, and in came the first years and transfer students. Samantha and Brianna were at the end with the other transfers, crossing their arms. Obviously, the other transfers wanted to be in any house except Slytherin.

"As you can see, this year we not only have first years, but transfer students as well. So, let's begin with the sorting!" Dumbledore said, looking over at Professor McGonagall as he took his seat.

As the rest of the school watched the first years being sorted, Draco began to watch Hermione. He knew that seemed somewhat [i]stalker-ish[/i], but he just couldn't help it. She had such a better life than he did. Or, at least that's how she made it seem.

"Baracudan, Samantha," Draco was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of Samantha's name being called. He sure did develop a tendancy to get lost in his thoughts lately.

"SLYTHERIN!" the Hat shouted out, only to be rewared by tremendous applause from the Slytherin table. Samantha smirked as she walked towards the Slytherin table, and took a seat next to Draco.

"I was so right..." she whispered.

"Dershin, Brianna!" Brianna walked up to the front of the room and had the hat placed on her head. She seemed pretty confident.

"SLYTHERIN!" the Hat shouted once again, and once again rewarded by applause from the Slytherin table.

Brianna walked over to the Slytherin table and took a seat across from Draco.

Hayden, Christina!" Draco was surprised to see a girl with short, purple hair and deep green eyes. He was guessing this was Ron Weasley's girlfriend he'd heard about in Diagon Alley.

"RAVENCLAW" the Hat shouted, greeted by extremely loud applause from the Ravenclaw table. She seemed rather sad she hadn't gotten in Gryffindor with Ron, but smiled nonetheless as she sat down at her house table.

"Philipsen, Rachel!" Rachel casually walked forward and took a seat on the stool, waiting for the Hat to call out her house.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat shouted. Rachel beamed and walked to the Gryffindor table, sitting down next to Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil.

Samantha tapped Draco on the shoulder. "Hey, isn't that that girl we met on the train? Guess she got the house she wanted, huh?" Draco nodded as he continued to watch the rest of the sorting.

"Taylor, Whitney!" McGonagall called out as Whitney walked forward.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat shouted immediately. Ginny Weasley beamed from the Gryffindor table as her friend walked towards her and sat down next to her.

Brianna leaned back in her chair. "This is getting so boring..." Draco rolled his eyes at her as he watched the ending of the sorting, which was about to finish after the last girl was sorted.

"Thomas, Avery!" McGonagall called out.

A girl with wavy, waist length dirty blonde hair and blue-green eyes winced as she walked forward. She obviously didn't like her first name very much. Draco sure wondered what she prefered to be called.

And then Draco noticed Harry staring at her, a lump forming in his throat. Maybe this was the girl that was Harry's "almost" girlfriend, as Hermione had said previously in Diagon Alley. And, judging from the way the girl smiled when Harry looked at her, this had to be true.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat called out once again. The Gryffindors appluaed quite loudly once again as she went to sit down right next to Harry, causing his face to turn red.

Dumbledore stood up. "And that is the end of the sorting! Now, I'm sure you're all starving by now... let us begin the feast!" Immediately, food and drinks appeared in front of them. The first years and transfer students looked shocked at the fact that food and drinks could just magically appear like that, but what would you expect?

"The food here is, like, really good... how does the common room look, Draco?" Samantha asked as they walked down the corridors to the dungeons, where the Slytherin common room was located. They'd finished eating, and it was now time for the prefects to lead the other students to their common rooms. Of course, Draco had other places to be, but he wanted to show his two new friends around first.

"Well, it's in the dungeons... what do you think it looks like?" Draco replied. Samantha rolled her eyes as they stopped, waiting for the Slytherin prefect to give the password to enter the common room.

"You're not very helpful, Draco," Brianna said as they walked inside.

Once they got inside, Draco showed Samantha and Brianna to their dormitory, though Pansy or one of the other seventh year girls could've done so. But he didn't want them getting mixed in with that company.

"Alright, so... I have to go the Head Boy and Head Girl common room and dormitories... so... see you guys later," Draco said.

The two girls grinned. "Have fun, Draco! You and Hermione will get along great once we put our plan into action tomorrow!" Draco smirked at them as he left the common room and headed towards the common room where he would be living for the remainder of the Hogwarts year.

He reached the portrait to the common room, which was just a portrait of some fruits in a basket. It seemed kind of silly to have a portrait of fruits in a basket to Draco, but he guessed it was for the better.

"Bertie Botts," Draco said to it. It swung forward, allowing Draco inside.

He had to admit, he wasn't expecting the common room to look as good as it did. There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, most likely lit by tiny faeries inside each of the lights. There were portraits of all the former Head Boys and Head Girls, one of which happened to be Percy Weasley, Ron Weasley's older brother. The rugs were hand-beaded, and everything looked so clean.

And Hermione was sitting on the red, leather couch, staring up at him.

"Hello, Draco," Hermione said rather coldly to him as he sat down across from her.

"Hey... um, Hermione," Draco replied. She quickly looked back down to the book she had been reading. Just like Hermione, always reading and improving her knowledge.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for nearly an hour, doing completely random and somewhat pointless things just to avoid talking to each other. This definitely wasn't any fun. In fact, Draco was feeling completely miserable inside, but he still acted like the same arrogant jerk he'd always been to Hermione.

"Well, Draco, I'm going to bed, if you don't mind," she said, standing up and walking towards her dormitory.

Draco sneered at her. "Already? Why, it's not even ten o'clock yet. Usually, on the first day, the Slytherins and myself stay up until midnight. But, oh, that's right, you're too focused on your studies to even think of having fun, aren't you?" Hermione froze. Draco knew he'd struck a nerve right then.

She spun around to face him. "You don't think I know how to have fun? Well, I'll just have to prove you wrong then." He just stared at her, not saying anything.

"If you think I'm all work and no play, you're wrong, Draco. You know, you're right. I am too focused on my studies. And I'm not even tired anyways," she sat down next to him, a little close in fact. "So... what do you want to do then?" she asked, grinning up at his completely shocked face.

Draco didn't know what to say. The only words that were coming out from his mouth were little squeaks of "ah" and "uh". He was truly being pathetic, and Hermione sure knew it.

"Uh, well, uh, I, uh..." Draco stuttered as Hermione inched closer to him with a sly grin on her face. And, to make matters worse, Draco could barely move.

"Aw, is Draco nervous? Does Draco... like Hermione?" she said in a baby-ish voice. Draco gulped, his face reddening, looking directly at her. Hermione stared back at him, trying to read the expression on his face, and when she did, she looked extremely shocked.

"Oh my God. You do like me!" Hermione said. Draco still said nothing. He was too embarrassed to even look at her anymore.

"Draco... do you like me as a friend, or... as more than a friend?" she continued.

He looked up at her. "Uh, friend, definitely friend." She smiled, standing up and walking towards her dormitory.

"Well, now that that's cleared up... I can go to bed now. Good night, Draco," she said as she closed the door behind her.

Draco leaned back into the couch, sighing. Just a friend? How far from the truth was that? But, he reasoned with himself, if he told her how he really felt... well, things probably wouldn't go over too well, especially with the Slytherins and Gryffindors.

"I better go to bed too..." Draco mumbled as he stood up, walking over to his dormitory door.

He paused at the door, looking over his shoulder to Hermione's closed door. "Good night..." he whispered, and with that, he walked in his dormitory and closed the door behind him.

Draco woke up the next morning to bright sunlight pouring through his window, nearly blinding him as he got out of bed to get dressed for the day ahead of him. He'd nearly forgotten where he was, sharing a common room with Hermione, but as the events of the previous night played in his head, he remembered clearly where he was.

"I'm such a moron..." he mumbled as he walked out of his room. It looked like Hermione was still asleep, either that or, she'd already left early for her classes. He just realized he'd completely missed breakfast, but he didn't really care.

Draco walked out of the common room towards his first class, which was Charms. Draco thought Charms was pretty boring, considering they rarely learned anything new. But at least he'd have his friends to talk to during the class.

As he entered the classroom full of chatting Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, Draco noticed Samantha and Brianna waving frantically at him from across the room. He quickly walked over to them and took a seat between the two girls.

"Hey, Draco... how did last night go? You and Hermione get along okay?" Samantha asked the second he sat down.

"Yeah..." Draco replied nervously. Samantha and Brianna exchanged mischievous glances.

Brianna put her arms around Draco's shoulders. "Come on, Draco... tell us what happened... we are your friends, after all."

Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well, um, I kind said she didn't like to have fun and I guess she wanted to prove me wrong so she started acting really... un-Hermione-like... and then I told her I liked her as a friend..." Brianna and Samantha's smiles widened across their faces as he finished his sentence.

"You know, you might not need our help anymore... but we still will! But, have fun!" Samantha said as Professor Flitwick, the Charms professor, entered the room and went to the front, standing on the pile of books he had, since he was so short.

"Could everyone settle down please? It's time for class to begin!" Flitwick squeaked in his high-pitched voice. Slowly, the class began to take their seats and quiet down so he could begin the day's lesson, which would probably be a repeat of last year's lesson, so no one really cared.

"Just to warn you, Flitwick probably won't teach us anything new..." Draco whispered to Samantha and Brianna, who nodded in response.

"Well... welcome to Charms! This class is basically going to be a review of last year, so for those of you who are transfer students... pay attention!" Flitwick said.

"You were right..." Samantha whispered back.

As the lesson dragged on, Draco found himself zoning in and out of what was really happening. God, that Hermione was sure having a huge affect on the way his brain was working. But, like the proud, arrogant person he was, he wasn't about to let anyone else but his friends know that.

The lesson ended, and everyone walked out of the room, the Slytherins going to Transfiguration with the Gryffindors, and the Hufflepuffs going to Herbology with the Ravenclaws. And now Draco would have to put up with seeing Hermione for a whole hour. With her friends.

"Well, this ought to be fun, huh, Draco? I mean, you'll be seeing your dream girl!" Brianna teased Draco.

"Oh, be quiet!" Draco said as they walked down the crowded corridor.

"Stop holding your feelings in! DRACO LO-" Samantha started, but Draco quickly put his hand over her mouth, silencing her. She sure had a big mouth for rather small girl.

"What did I just tell you?" Draco said in that malicious way everyone in the school was used to. He then took his hand off of Samantha's mouth.

"Well, sorry... just trying to help!" Samantha said, grinning.

"Samantha, that's not the kind of help he needs!" Brianna said, although she too probably would have done something similar.

Draco started walking a little faster. "Let's just get to Transfiguration... you two still have to complain to Hermione about wanting to be in Gryffindor so you can learn more about her, you know." The two girls nodded and followed Draco, because, truthfully, they had no idea where the Transfiguration room was.

* * *

Draco left Samantha and Brianna at the door of the Transfiguration room. He had to make it seem like he wasn't friends with them so Hermione would believe that they truly wanted to be in Gryffindor, even though in reality, they really didn't.

As soon as his two friends were inside the room, he waited a few minutes before entering. The second he entered the room he saw Samantha and Brianna talking with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ron's girlfriend, Chairee, and Harry's "almost" girlfriend, Sapphire. He could just make out what they were saying from the opposite end of the room.

"So, neither of you wanted to be in Slytherin? But I thought everyone who was sorted into Slytherin wanted to be there..." Sapphire was saying to them.

"Well, I guess we're different then!" Brianna said.

"You definitely are... didn't I see you talking to Malfoy?" Ron asked in a suspcious voice.

"He was just being a big jerk to us, that's all. We told him to leave us alone, but he just wouldn't listen," Samantha said.

"Uh, that's just like Draco, I guess. I mean, he has to have a nice side, right?" Hermione asked. Draco saw Ron's face turn red with anger.

"Hermione, are you kidding me? That little git, have a nice side? This is Malfoy we're talking about here! You must be going crazy!" Ron yelled.

"Ron, you really have to calm down... you get mad so easily," Chairee said. Ron looked at her, shoved his hands in his pockets, and starting mumbling something Draco couldn't hear from his distance.

Well, things are going okay for now... they still haven't got Hermione to say she'd be their friend, but it doesn't matter, Draco thought to himself as he took a seat next to Gregory Goyle, one of Draco's "friends". They hadn't exactly spoken in awhile, which was probably why Goyle looked surprised to see Draco sitting next to him. Not that he was going to talk to him or anything, he just needed a place to sit.

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! I really appreciate it! I hope you all stick around... :)


As the Transfiguration class, ended, Draco found himself walking alone. What a stupid idea, let both of them go off and befriend Hermione while he was left to be alone for the rest of the day. Well, kind of, anyway.

"Hey, Draco. Can we, uh, hang out with you?" Goyle was asking him. Draco's other friend, Vincent Crabbe, was by his side.

The main reason Draco had stopped talking to them was because, well, they were kind of boring. And the other reason was that they didn't have much in common- Crabbe and Goyle would much rather eat all day than listen to Draco's plots to torture the "Wonder Trio", as they sometimes called Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Sure. Whatever," Draco replied with no interest.

"Thanks," Crabbe grunted. That was what bothered Draco about the two boys- they'd always grunt when they spoke.

"Uh-huh..." he said.

They walked down the corridors in silence to their next class, Herbology, with the Ravenclaws. Herbology was a subject Draco had always dreaded, and now he had to find Samantha and Brianna down there and get away from the two losers he was with.

They reached the green houses, where the rest of the Herbology class stood waiting for the class to begin. Draco saw Samantha and Brianna amidst the crowd, and he wanted badly to get to them and have an actual conversation.

"Well, see you guys around..." Draco said, speeding up towards his two real friends.

"Draco! Hurry, get the hell over here, we gotta tell you what all happened!" Brianna said, motioning for Draco to move faster.

He stopped next to them. "So... what happened?" Draco asked. Judging from the way their smiles were nearly a mile wide, something good had definitely happened.

"Well... Hermione agreed to be our friend. Not only that, but so did Harry, Ron, Chairee, and Sapphire. Did we do good or what?" Samantha asked. Draco smirked at her.

"Yeah, pretty good. For your first time manipulating someone, anyway," Samantha and Brianna stuck their tongues out at him as Professor Sprout, the Herbology professor walked into the greenhouse and signaled for class to begin.

* * *

"Okay, it's official. I hate Herbology!" Samantha whined as they walked out of the greenhouses.

"I never said you would like it," Draco replied.

"Hey, Draco, isn't that the Headmaster dude Dumbledore?" Brianna asked, pointing to the wizard with a long, white beard. Dumbledore seemed to be motioning for Draco to come towards him. Must be something I'm supposed to do since I'm Head Boy... Draco thought.

He nodded. "Yeah. Guess I gotta go now. Maybe I'll see you two at lunch..." Samantha and Brianna continued walking to the Great Hall, while Draco walked over to Dumbledore.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy. Having a nice day?" Dumbledore asked.

"If you count sitting through boring lessons a nice day, then yes," Draco replied sarcastically. Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled down upon him.

"I see. Still the same Draco we all know, even as Head Boy... and speaking of that, we must find Miss Granger right away. I have a little... request for the two of you," Draco looked at Dumbledore suspiciously, wondering what this little "request" would be.

Dumbledore began walking, and Draco followed him. "What kind of request?" Draco asked curiously.

"Oh, you'll find out... you'll find out..." Dumbledore said, looking back at Draco with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"Ah, Miss Granger. Over here please," Dumbledore said once they found Hermione, who had been talking with her friends. She told her friends something, and then began to walk over to Draco and Dumbledore.

She stopped in front of them. "Hello, Professor Dumbledore. Do you need to talk to me?" Her friends were closely watching her.

"Yes, Miss Granger, I have a request for you and Mr. Malfoy. Please, follow me," Dumbledore replied, leading Draco and Hermione through the corridor. Ron gave her a suspicious glance as they passed. If only Ron could actually accept the fact that Draco and Hermione were the Head Boy and Head Girl.

Dumbledore lead them to his office, gave the password to the statue, and led the two students inside. Draco was getting very impatient. Why couldn't Dumbledore just tell them the request? Was it really that big?

"Please, take a seat," Dumbledore said, waving his wand and making two chairs appear in front of his desk.

He sat down at his desk. "Now, I'll bet the two of you are wondering what my request is," Draco and Hermione both nodded, "Well... as the two of you know, you are Head Girl and Head Boy. And every year I have the Head Boy and Head Girl do something... interesting for the school." Draco and Hermione looked at each other, a slight look of panic in their eyes.

He smiled at their expressions. "Now, it won't be that bad. Of course, this will change your lives quite some, but you really don't need to worry about that much, do you?" They stared back at him, not knowing what to say.

"Speechless, I see. Well, that would be expected," Dumbledore continued, still smiling at them.

"Um, not to be rude, but could you please tell us your request?" Hermione asked suddenly. Dumbledore looked at her and nodded, still smiling.

He walked towards them. "Draco... Hermione... I want the two of you to do something no Slytherin or Gryffindor has done before," they both gulped as he came closer to them.

"I want the two of you to become a public couple in front of the entire school."

They both froze.

"WHAT?!?" they both shouted, their eyes wide as they stared at Dumbledore. Sure, they were secretly getting along better than they had in the past six years, but Dumbledore forcing them to become a couple? How strange was that?

"You both heard what I said," Dumbledore said, still smiling. There had to be a reason he was doing this to them.

"But... but why?" Hermione said, staring at him.

His smile widened. "Oh, you'll figure that out yourselves. You'll see. Now, I expect to see the two of you together for most of the day." And with that, Dumbledore winked at the two and left his own office.

They stood in his office, frozen to the spots they were standing on. Never, not even in one million years, had they expected Dumbledore to do something like this. They knew he was always keeping people guessing and things like that, but this was definitely pushing the limits. And what would their classmates think? Especially Harry and Ron in Hermione's case.

"I... I don't believe this... maybe he really has cracked..." Hermione said quietly.

"Yeah... and what do you suggest we do about our friends? Especially yours?" Draco asked. Hermione turned her head to look at him.

She sighed. "I don't know. I mean, Ginny and her friend Whitney will understand, and maybe Lavender and Parvati will, but Harry and Ron... they're going to go crazy! And I don't know enough about Sapphire or Chairee yet... God, this is going to be the most confusing school year..." Draco nodded in agreement. It definitely wasn't going to be easy, if one thing was for sure.

"Yeah... um, just to let you know, Samantha and Brianna are actually my friends..." Draco hesitated as he spoke.

Hermione smiled. "I know. I kind of figured that out on my own. I mean, no one actually hates being in Slytherin. So, um, we better get going, huh?" Draco nodded.

They walked out of Dumbledore's office together, causing many heads to turn as they walked down the corridors. Unfortunately for them, Harry, Ron, Chairee, Sapphire, Ginny, and Whitney were waiting right outside for them.

"So, Hermione, care to explain what's going on?" Ron said coldly, glaring at Draco.

"Um... well, you see..." Hermione started, uncomfortable at the way Ron and Harry were glaring at her. No one else seemed to mind, however.

"See what?" Ron insisted.

Hermione sighed. "Draco, should we tell them?" She looked up at him. He nodded, and she took a deep breath, hoping her friends wouldn't take her news in the wrong way.

"Draco and I are... dating," Hermione said simply. Ron's mouth nearly dropped to the floor.

"You're WHAT?" he shouted, loud enough to stop everyone passing by in the corridors. He looked angrier than Draco had ever seen him get. And, come to think of it, so did the other Gryffindors surrounding them.

Ron suddenly pushed Draco into the wall. "What do you think you're doing, Malfoy? Trying to get Hermione to join you and your Slytherin friends?" Ginny and Chairee attempted to pull Ron off of Draco, but it was no use. He was holding Draco's shoulders so hard it was starting to become painful.

"No, I'm not... just let me go..." Draco said weakly. Ron glared at him, but released his strong grip.

"This is stupid... Ron, stop being an idiot and let's go. I don't want to watch you get into a fight with someone," Chairee said from behind him. He turned around to face her, and then began walking away with her.

Everyone else, however, continued to stare at Hermione and Draco. None of them could believe this was actually happening. All they did for about five minutes was stare at the two, creating a very uncomfortable silence.

"So, um... can I ask you guys why?" Ginny asked suddenly as Whitney nodded beside her.

"Well... it's kind of complicated. We'll explain later, okay?" Hermione asked her. Ginny nodded.

"Hey, why is everyone standing around here?" the voice of Rachel, Professor Elaine's daughter, said as she approached them.

"It's complicated. Or at least that's what they say," Whitney replied, pointing at Draco and Hermione.

"Oh... I see..." Rachel said, eyeing Draco and Hermione. It really wasn't that big of a deal, if you really looked at it. So why did everyone have to make it out to be one?

"Um, well, we really have to get going... I still have to tell Samantha and Brianna about this," Draco said awkwardly, walking away from Harry, Ginny, Whitney, Sapphire, and Rachel. Hermione followed him as everyone stared at them as they left.

Once they were away from everyone else, Hermione sighed. "That didn't go too well... it has to get better, doesn't it?" She asked, grabbing Draco's arm. Draco did all he could to resist from blushing as he nodded, not looking at her.

They continued walking, looking for Samantha and Brianna, who seemed to be nowhere in sight. Where could they have gotten themselves into? This was really starting to annoy Draco and Hermione both.

"Where did they go?" Draco said in an annoyed voice as he came out of the Slytherin common room. Still no luck in finding his two friends.

Hermione shrugged. "Maybe they're in a classroom? You never know." Draco began walking towards the classrooms, looking in each empty one. He just had to make two new friends who could somehow figure out a way to get themselves completely separated from him, didn't he? Even Crabbe and Goyle would be easier to hang out with, although Samantha and Brianna were much more interesting.

And finally, they found them, sitting in an empty classroom looking at something. Draco tapped them both on the shoulder.

"Ah!" They both jumped, quickly spinning around to face him. When they noticed Hermione next to him, their expressions turned into completely confused looks.

"What are you two doing?" Draco asked, smirking.

"Um... nothing?" Brianna said, hiding whatever it was they'd been looking at behind her back.

"Draco, the real question is... what are you doing?" Samantha asked, looking directly at Hermione, who grinned.

A/N: This chapter is one of the boring-er chapters, but the next one will be much more interesting!


"First, you two tell me what you were doing," Draco demanded, crossing his arms as he looked down at them. The two girls grinned with guilty expressions on their faces.

"Well... um, sorry, Hermione, but we kind of found your diary and, well, couldn't resist reading it..." Brianna said, trying not to giggle. Hermione's face turned scarlet and she looked down at the ground as the two girls grinned, trying not to laugh.

"Could I have that back? Please?" Hermione mumbled. Brianna reluctantly handed her the diary back, even though you could tell both girls were dying to read more of whatever it was they were reading.

Then their attention turned to Draco. "So... explain?" Samantha asked. Draco gulped. By the time he told them, the whole Slytherin house would know. And knowing them, they'd make it sound a lot different than he had actually said it.

Draco sighed. "Alright, well... Hermione and I are dating," their eyes widened, "but, it's not what you're thinking. Dumbledore [i]asked[/i] us to do this. And no, we don't know why, but knowing Dumbledore, it's for a pretty important reason. You got me?" Both girls nodded, though they didn't completely believe him. After all, who would actually believe a story like that? Not many.

"Well... congratulations then!" Samantha said, smiling at them both. Hermione looked up, her face still relatively red.

"Thanks... you won't, like, make a big deal out of this, will you?" Hermione asked. Samantha shook her head, still smiling. Brianna was smiling as well. Did they know something Draco didn't?

"Uh-oh. Looks like we're all late for class!" Brianna said. Hermione looked alarmed; she was rarely late for class, except for those unforgettable times in their third year, that it.

She started running out of the room. "I gotta go!" The other three followed her out of the room, passing classrooms full of other students as they breathlessly ran through the halls.

* * *

The four students ran to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, which was the next class the Gryffindors and Slytherins had together. They had no idea what the new professor was like, but hopefully she'd be nice and let them off easy just this one time for being a few minutes late.

They opened the door and entered the classroom. Everyone turned to stare at them as they walked in.

"Ah, so you must be Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Brianna Dershin, and Samantha Baracudan? We've been waiting for you. I'm Professor Elaine, by the way," she said. They nodded.

"Sorry we're late... we kind of lost track of time," Hermione said. Elaine smiled at her.

"I understand. But, I'm only letting you off easy because I know you're Head Girl and you're Head Boy," she said, winking at Draco and Hermione. Draco then took a seat next to Brianna, Hermione next to Harry, and Samantha next to Rachel.

"Alright, so... as you already know, I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Dumbledore told me everything you've learned so far, and I thought it would be fun to start off the year with something new," Everyone looked rather excited. After an intensely boring day of review, a new lesson was what they'd all been hoping for.

She pulled out a box from under her desk. Inside it was an interesting looking creature with dark brown fur in some places, while it was black in others. It looked kind of like an owl mixed with a bat, since it's wings were light and sleek while it's body was covered in feathers. None of them had ever seen anything like it.

"Class, this is a Buhobate. Now, I know that seems like a very amusing name, but, none of you should be laughing at it. Does anyone know why?" Elaine asked. Hermione's hand instantly shot up into the air.

"Yes, Miss Granger," she said.

"Well, the Buhobate's ears are very sensitive to laughter, and laughing at it will make it angry and it might even attack someone," Hermione replied.

Professor Elaine smiled. "That is correct. Five points to Gryffindor. Now... what we're going to do next is a little... experiment. I have with me a box that produces laughter, and I will put that and the Buhobate in this very safe glass enclosure. I want you all to watch very carefully to see what it does." Everyone leaned forward slightly, interested to see what would happen.

"Everyone, please step back a little bit," Elaine said. The class did as they were told, taking a few steps backward from the front of the classroom. She then put the Buhobate in the class enclosure. Then, very carefully, she turned a little knob on the side of the box that would produce laughter from it, and gently set it down inside.

Once the laughter rang out, the Buhobate started flying around like crazy, revealing that it had extremely sharp teeth and talons. It crashed into each side of the box multiple times, screeching loudly as it did so. Everyone was staring at it, and some of the girls even gasped at the sight of it.

The laughter ended, and so did the Buhobate's rampage. The girls heaved sighs of relief as everyone took their seats.

"Now... can anyone tell me any observations they made? Any at all?" Elaine asked. Hermione's hand, once again, shot up into the air.

"Miss Granger, once again?" she said, nodding at Hermione.

"Well... I noticed that right after the laughter stopped, the Buhobate stopped what it was doing," Hermione said.

"Excellent. Another five points for Gryffindor! Anyone know why?" Elaine asked.

This time, to Draco's surprise, it was Samantha who raised her hand. And here he thought she was unintelligent.

"Yes, Miss Baracudan?" Elaine said, looking at Samantha.

"Well, the Buhobate's mind works differently from a lot of other magical creatures' minds do, so then when the laughter stopped, it's brain stopped processing what was happening to it, and then it's hearing stops completely afterwards," Samantha said. Elaine looked deeply impressed, as did Hermione.

"Excellent job. Five points for Slytherin!" Elaine said. Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of the class.

Everyone grabbed their book bags and stood up, leaving for their next class. "No homework tonight!" Elaine shouted as they walked out the door to their next class.

"So, what do we have next?" Brianna asked as she, Samantha, and Draco walked out of the door. Hermione was close behind them, although she was talking with Harry, Ron, Sapphire, Chairee, and Rachel. Draco could almost feel Ron's glaring eyes on his back.

"Arithmancy. And Hermione's in that class too..." Draco said, lowering his voice so Ron wouldn't hear him.

"Is that class easy? 'Cause Defense Against the Dark Arts is really easy to me," Samantha said.

Brianna rolled her eyes. "No kidding, genius! You sounded like you read the whole book before class in there." Samantha blushed.

"What's wrong with reading books before class?" Hermione said from behind them. Ron glared as the three Slytherins turned around to face her. He wasn't for this whole "inter-House unity" thing that he was probably convinced was going on.

"Nothing. Samantha here just never reads, so it was kind of surprising. Come to think of it, Samantha never studies either..." Brianna said. Draco sniggered while Samantha crossed her arms across her chest.

She began walking faster. "I am not stupid, if that's what you're suggesting..."

"You say that now..." Chairee piped up from next to Ron, who was still glaring at Draco. He really had to get over this.

"Blah, blah, blah..." Samantha said, putting her fingers in her ears.

"Alright, well, see you guys later... we gotta get to Divination. Come on Chairee. Oh yeah, and Harry and Sapphire," Ron said through gritted teeth as the four began walking off in the opposite direction.

Draco sighed. "You really have to talk to him, you know." Everyone else nodded.

"I know, I know. But it's hard to talk to him, since he's been angry with me a lot lately. Though I can't seem to figure out why," Hermione replied, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"Hey, maybe he's just going through, um, well, you know!" Rachel said, giggling.

"Oh my God, that would be funny! You should so ask him about it. I'd love to hear what he says," Samantha replied, grinning.

"You know, I'd rather not... let's just go to Arithmancy. And by the way, could someone please tell everyone to stop staring at us? It's really bugging me," Hermione said. It was then that Draco noticed that everyone passing by noticed them walking together.

"HEY EVERYONE! STOP STARING AT US! SO DRACO MALFOY AND HERMIONE GRANGER ARE DATING, BIG DEAL! DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO STARE AT US!" Samantha and Brianna yelled at the exact same time. Hermione and Draco's faces both turned scarlet as literally everyone in the halls stopped to stare and point at them.

"Are they for real?"

"A Gryffindor and a Slytherin? Give me a break!"

"They are so full of it..."

"No way in hell would that ever happen!"

The students in the Hall all began talking at once, occasionally looking up at Draco and Hermione. He sure had made some big-mouthed new friends, and now the whole school would know by the end of the day because of them. Wonderful.

"Gee, now we have Miss Big-Mouth and Miss Even-More-Big-Mouth to thank for this..." Draco mumbled, his face still red. Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Oh, come on, it can't be that bad!" Rachel argued.

Draco looked up at her. "But, you don't quite understand... Gryffindors and Slytherins are sworn enemies. And everyone knows that!"

Rachel sighed. "Yeah, I'm aware of that. But, don't you think we need some good old house unity right about now? I mean, you never know what could happen..." Draco considered this for a moment. Maybe she was right...

"Uh... how about we just get to Arithmancy before we're late?" Draco said quickly, changing the subject.

Rachel rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever you say... you just wanna get away from all the people staring and pointing at you and Hermione." Draco smirked and nodded.

"So do I, for that matter..." Hermione mumbled as they turned the corner of the corridor the Arithmancy classroom was in. As they walked into the Arithmancy classroom, several of the students already in their seats started pointing at Draco and Hermione, whispering to each other. Had word really spread that fast?

They took their seats, Hermione and Draco next to each other, which didn't exactly help matters all that much. "Wow, you guys are going to be talked about for, like, a month..." Brianna said from behind Draco. The other four nodded in agreement.

"Hey, look on the bright side... at least you're not outcasts!" Samantha said, grinning. Draco and Hermione rolled their eyes. At least someone could look at this in a humorous way.

Just then, the Arithmancy professor, Professor Vector, walked in the classroom and set some books down on her desk, smiling at the class. She seemed to be in good spirits.

"Welcome to Arithmancy! And for those of you new to this class, trust me, you'll love it. Everyone else does, don't you everyone else?" Vector said. The class mumbled and nodded in agreement.

"I like this professor..." Draco heard Rachel whispering to Samantha and Brianna.

Draco drifted off into sleep, although he didn't know why, for he usually loved sitting in Arithmancy, which was his favorite class. Perhaps he had fallen asleep thinking about the many possible reasons Dumbledore had made he and Hermione date publicly. Blame it all on Dumbledore.

"Aww, is Draco tired? It's so much fun watching you sleep," Brianna said teasingly as they walked to History of Magic, which the Slytherins had with the Ravenclaws. Most boring class in the world, by the way.

"Oh, shut up..." Draco said, shoving his hands into his pockets as he watched Hermione talk with Ginny and Whitney, whom she'd run into in the corridors as she walked to Charms. I wish I could just be with her all the time... Draco thought. He really hadn't realized what he'd been thinking until he took a seat in the History of Magic. But then, he realized he was yet another pathetic boy who was head-over-heels in love with the supposed girl of his dreams.

"Hey, Draco, what's wrong? You seem kind of preoccupied," Brianna said as they took their seats in the back of the History of Magic classroom.

Draco shrugged. "Nothing." His two friends looked at each other, smiling.

"Whatever you say, Draco... but you know we don't believe you, right?" Samantha asked, still grinning. Draco smirked and nodded. It wasn't exactly easy for Draco to successfully cover up what he was really feeling.

Samantha leaned back in her chair. "Hey, isn't this, like, the most boring class... ever?" Draco nodded while the two girls groaned.

"Great... but hey, at least it gives you a chance to daydream about Hermione!" Brianna said with a mischievous grin on her face. Draco rolled his eyes at her, even though she was right about it.

As Professor Binns, the History of Magic professor and the only ghost professor in the school, floated up to the front of the classroom, every single person in the class leaned back in their chairs, prepared for the most boring class ever. But, after seven years, you would kind of get into the routine of doing just that in Binns's class.

"Today we will be discussing the history of other wizarding schools. This may sound boring to you, but it is a very exciting topic," Binns said in a bored tone, though he probably thought it sounded excited and lively.

As he dragged on, Draco found himself nearly falling asleep in his chair. Thinking about Hermione, of course. Why had he, that one night in the Head Boy and Girl common room, told Hermione he only liked her as a friend? That was far from the truth. And, Hermione had believed him, which was actually a good thing, though Draco was sure she wouldn't have believed him. Then, to Draco's happiness, Dumbledore had made him become Hermione's boyfriend. Quite a turn in events, but Draco couldn't be any happier. Even though Hermione only saw him as a friend while he saw her as something more...

Well, it could be worse. They could still be enemies.

* * *

Soon the day was over, and Draco was actually looking forward to spending some time with Hermione in their common room. Even though he knew nothing would really happen, it would be nice to spend some time with his "girlfriend".

He said the password and walked into the common room. Hermione wasn't there yet, so he decided to wait for her. As Draco sat down on the sofa, he noticed a little blue book sitting on the table. Wondering what it was, he picked it up and began to read the first page.

It was a diary. Hermione's diary, to be exact. And when Draco saw his name on the very first page, he became rather curious.

Dear Diary,

I can't believe my luck! Dumbledore called Draco and me into his office today, and he said we had to become a couple! I'm so happy, after all, I have had a crush on him since I first saw him in our very first year at Hogwarts... but how am I supposed to tell him that? He only sees me as a friend. At least, I think he does...

Draco smiled as he finished reading the entry. So, he really had nothing to be worried about after all. This had to be the absolute best day in his life. How could he had known Hermione Granger had a crush on him in their first year? He hadn't even begun to like her then. But now that he knew, he was extremely happy. But, he did have to keep it a secret. If Hermione found out he'd read her diary... well, let's just say she probably wouldn't take it too well.

The door opened, and in walked Hermione. She didn't look very happy. Her so-called friend Ron had probably said something completely nasty to her.

"What's wrong with you?" Draco asked as she took a seat next to him and rested her head on his shoulder, sighing.

"Oh, it's Ron... he doesn't approve of this at all. But then again, Ron's never approved of what I do. Same with Ginny," Hermione replied with another sigh.

Draco put his arm around her. "He'll have to get over it..." Hermione smiled.

"Yeah, and especially with Ginny... she's getting really frustrated with him, and, quite frankly, so am I," she said. Draco chuckled.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, just sitting on the couch, all cuddled up. It was a very sweet moment, really, but if Ron or Pansy had been there, they would have completely lost it, and, attacked Draco and Hermione.

"Hey, Draco?" Hermione said suddenly, looking at the table where her diary was. Draco gulped. He realized it wasn't exactly where it had been before...

"Yeah..." Draco replied reluctantly. Hermione sat up and grabbed her diary.

She flipped through the pages. She then looked at him. "Have you been reading my diary?" Draco could feel his face turning red as he nodded. Hermione's eyes widened.

She stood up, and, to Draco's surprise, slapped him right across his face. "How dare you? Don't you know that diaries are supposed to be private? You should've never looked at it!" she shouted, her face a bright shade of red.

Draco rubbed the new red mark on his face. "Sorry... but..." Hermione lowered her hand, which had still been raised in the air, probably preparing to slap him again.

She sat down next to him. "What?" she asked. Draco sighed and looked at her.

"I kind of... well, read the first page. And I found out you... have had a crush on me since our first year. Is it really true?" Draco asked. Hermione's face turned an even deeper shade of red as she looked down at the ground.

"Yeah... yeah, I did... and I still do," she said quietly, a smile on her face.

Draco smiled. He put his hands under chin and lifted her face so she was looking directly in his eyes.

"To be honest with you, I didn't have a crush on you in our first year... but during our second year... I did. And, I still do," he said with a smile. Hermione's smile widened as she put her hands on top of Draco's.

They both leaned in, slowly, as they stared into each other's eyes. They could almost hear their hearts beating as their lips drew closer and closer together.

Finally, their lips met, and the spark they felt between them was enough for them to close their eyes and deepen the kiss. Neither of them had ever felt happier in their lives. At long last, after six years of hating each other, they were sharing their very first kiss, a very passionate one at that, and they didn't have a care in the world.

They pulled apart, smiling as they continued to stare into each other's eyes. "Draco... I love you." Hermione said. He gently stroked her cheek.

"I love you, too," he said. After sitting on the ground for awhile, they realized where they were.

They stood up, brushing any dirt off of their robes. "Wow, look at the time! I didn't even realize how late it was," Hermione said suddenly, looking at the clock in the center of the room. Well, when you're kissing the boy of your dreams, you really don't care what time it is, you know.

"I guess we should be getting to bed, huh?" Draco said. Hermione nodded, still smiling.

He walked over to her and kissed her on the forehead. "Goodnight then. See you tomorrow."

"Goodnight. I can hardly wait until tomorrow..." Hermione replied with a devilish grin as she walked over to her room.

Draco flopped down on his bed, feeling extremely lightheaded and happy. He could hardly wait until tomorrow, when he and Hermione would probably go on their very first date after their classes.

He didn't even care what other people would think. He just wanted to be with Hermione.

* * *

The next day, Draco woke up quite early, before breakfast was even served. He doubted anyone else was awake, although he felt one hundred percent ready for the day ahead of him.

He quickly dressed and brushed his hair. As he walked out of his dormitory, he noticed it was five o'clock in the morning. Why had he woken up this early?

"What to do... what to do..." Draco mumbled as he walked around the room.

Really, there was nothing to do. Draco sighed and slumped down on the couch, staring at the wall in front of him. Maybe Hermione would wake up soon. Hopefully.

"Maybe I can take a walk or something," Draco said to himself. He decided that was a good idea, since he hadn't been alone all that much lately. Grabbing something warmer to wear, Draco left the common room and walked outside.

As he expected, the air was chilly and there was a slight breeze. The sun wasn't even fully risen yet, creating a beautiful sunrise reflecting on the lake. Not as beautiful as Hermione... he thought.

He began walking around the Hogwarts grounds, unaware that Ginny's friend, Whitney, was sitting on the grass, watching his every move. Too lost in his own thoughts, perhaps.

"Draco? What are you doing here?" Whitney asked. Draco jumped.

"Huh? Oh, I'm just taking a walk..." Draco replied casually.

"Uh-huh. And why, may I ask?" she asked.

"Well... you see... ah, I don't need to tell you. Not now, anyway," Draco said. Whitney rolled her eyes.

"I'm not stupid, you know. I can tell you kissed Hermione. It is so obvious. So stop trying to hide your feelings, because you're really bad at it," Whitney said, grinning.

Draco stared at her. "You're good..."

"I know. Well, I better get going... I'm helping Harry get the courage to ask Sapphire on a date, and it's really kind of funny... see you around," Whitney said, walking up to the castle.

"Yeah, see you," Draco said as he walked in the opposite direction she was going in.

After walking around the Hogwarts grounds at least three times, Draco figured it had to at least be time to go to the Great Hall for breakfast. He walked back up to the school, where he was greeted by Samantha and Brianna.

"Draco! We ran into Whitney in the halls since we were awake and she told us what happened with you and Hermione!" Brianna said excitedly.

"Yeah, and, Draco, you are so lucky! I can hardly wait to get a boyfriend..." Samantha said dreamily.

Brianna shoved her lightly. "You moron, you've already had two!" Samantha grinned.

"Two boyfriends? Wow, you must really be good at keeping good relationships," Draco said sarcastically. Samantha glared at him.

"Okay, Draco, just 'cause I haven't had a real relationship yet doesn't mean I'm not good at keeping them! I just... haven't found the right person yet. That's all," Samantha said. Draco smirked.

"Whatever you say," he replied in his usual tone.

Brianna grabbed both of them by the arms. "Let's just go eat already! I'm starving," she said as she dragged the two to the Great Hall.

As they entered, everyone stared at Draco as he passed them. He didn't need to be a genius to know why. By now, he had expected the whole school to know. And, as he'd said many times before, he really didn't care anymore.

He saw Hermione smiling at him as she sat with her friends at the Gryffindor table. He smiled back as he took his seat at the Slytherin table. It was too bad they couldn't sit together during breakfast, lunch, or dinner, unless they were in Hogsmeade. Then they'd really give everyone something to stare about.

"Draco. How could you?" Those were the first words out of Pansy Parkinson's mouth as he sat down across from her.

"Do what?" Draco asked, although he knew perfectly well what she was talking about.

"Kiss a Mudblood! You idiot! Do you even know what can happen to you now? Voldemort will kill you for sure!" she shrieked, causing everyone in the Great Hall to stare at her.

Draco shrugged. "Don't know, don't care, shut up and leave me alone!" Pansy looked startled, but took her again anyway, her face red from embarrassment.

* * *

"Nice one back in there, Draco!" Samantha complimented him as they walked out of the Great Hall once they'd finished breakfast.

"Thanks. I've always wanted to say that to that prat," Draco said proudly. And Pansy definitely deserved it.

"So have I. And I've only known her for two days..." Brianna said. The three of them laughed as they walked to their first class, not really noticing the large number of Slytherins glaring at them as they entered the room.

They took their usual seats in the Charms classroom, prepared for yet another boring day of classes. If it weren't for the whole "Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger are dating" thing, this school year would be the most boring one yet.

"Ugh. This is so dumb. I'm sick of everyone staring at us!" Samantha said, loud enough for the whole room to hear. That seemed to work, for everyone went back to what they would've usually done.

"Well... let's prepare ourselves for a boring day..." Brianna said. Draco and Samantha nodded in agreement.

But, to their surprise, Flitwick didn't come into the classroom; Dumbledore did. And Dumbledore rarely made appearances in any of the classrooms, so everyone knew this had to be pretty big.

"Could I have everyone's attention, please?" Dumbledore said. The whole room silenced automatically.

He looked around at them all, no sign of a smile or any happiness on his face. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for all of you," he said. Everyone continued staring at him.

He took a deep breath. "Lord Voldemort has been sighted in the Muggle World; in an area very close to Hogwarts, as a matter of fact. He is currently on his way here, and because of this, we must be extremely cautious. The main thing? Never go anywhere alone. You never know what could happen..." Everyone started talking to each other instantly. Their worst nightmares were coming true.

"Draco, what's going on?" Brianna whispered to Draco. He shrugged, though he was kind of scared.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "It seems that... Voldemort has discovered a... 'traitor' in the Slytherin house," Draco gulped as the rest of the Slytherins turned to glare at him, "but, I suppose this is my fault. And the reason being is because, as many of you have heard, I made this certain person date a certain Gryffindor witch," Dumbledore said, looking directly at Draco. But how could have Voldemort found out?

It seemed as though he wasn't the only one thinking that. "But, sir, how could, um, Voldemort have found out?" Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff student in Draco's year, said nervously.

Dumbledore stared at him for a second, then he sighed. "I am unsure. Although, we could have yet another traitor... that is the only possible reason we have so far." No one said a word. Well, maybe this year would turn out to be a bit more interesting than anyone had expected.

"Who do you think it could be? Like, from what house?" Samantha asked suddenly.

"Possibly Gryffindor. But, it could be any other house, so we're not sure... and no, it is not Miss Granger, if that's what you're all thinking," he replied with a twinkle in his eye. Several students giggled. Obviously, that had been what they were thinking. Though, Draco had to admit, that would have been a good guess. But it wasn't true, of course.

He looked around at them all. "Well. I suppose that is all I have to say for now... I'll have Professor Flitwick take over the class now," Dumbledore said, nodding at Flitwick, who had been sitting behind him through the whole discussion.

Everyone watched Dumbledore leave the room. Once he was gone and on to the next classroom, Flitwick stood on his pile of books before the class.

"Well, everyone, I have some good news for you! Our review unit is going to have to be cut short; the Ministry would like it much more if I told you a bit about defensive charms, just in case. So, pay attention!" Flitwick said. Everyone who had been slouching in their seats sat up, interested in what he had to say.

* * *

"That was awesome! I hope we do that again tomorrow," Samantha was saying as they left the Charms classroom.

True, it had been a great lesson, but Draco wouldn't exactly call it awesome. Even though the powerful defense charms they were learning about had amazing powers and such, Flitwick had somehow managed to make the lesson incredibly boring. Probably because he was a little bit preoccupied.

"Yeah, I guess so. But I wish we didn't have homework... I have some, uh, Head Boy duties to attend to," Draco said. Samantha and Brianna grinned and looked at each other.

"Sure. Head Boy duties. Whatever you say..." Brianna said.

"Hey, I'm being serious! Really, I am..." he said. Though he was lying, but just a little bit.

"Okay. I guess we'll believe you for now..." Samantha said, but Draco could tell she still didn't believe him.

"Harry, Sapphire, congrats to both of you! And we have Whitney and Ginny to thank for this... too bad Hermione doesn't have a-" Ron Weasley was saying. But he stopped when he saw Draco, Samantha, and Brianna.

Harry and Sapphire were with him, and they were standing very close together. Whitney had probably done what she said she would do; get Harry to finally ask Sapphire out on a date. And it looked like it worked.

Ron glared at the three Slytherins coldly. "Hello... Draco. And, uh, I don't remember your names. Sorry," he said.

"Their names are Samantha and Brianna, Ron," Sapphire said.

Ron nodded, but anyone with half a brain could tell he didn't care. "Hermione wanted me to tell you that she's not going to be around much today. She's doing something for McGonagall, I guess."

"Alright... thanks, Wea- Ron," Draco said, hesitating before apologizing to him and calling him by his first name.

* * *

The day went on as it usually did; boring lessons and the occasional embarrassing moment of a student in one of their classes. But all Draco really cared about was finishing dinner; Dumbledore had arranged for he and Hermione to go to Hogsmeade alone before they had to patrol the halls as Head Boy and Head Girl.

"So... Draco, you gonna have fun tonight?" Brianna asked with a devilish grin on her face.

"I'm just patrolling the corridors..." Draco lied. But, try as he might, Draco just wasn't all that great at being a liar lately.

"Draco, do you seriously think we're that stupid? We know you're going somewhere with Hermione," Samantha said as she played with the food in front of her. Draco had learned Samantha was an extremely picky eater.

Draco sighed. "Yeah, I know. Just thought I'd give it a shot..."

"Well, you're not very good at it, so stop it!" Brianna said.

Dinner dragged on for what seemed like hours, and, finally, it was time to meet Hermione by the entrance.

She was already standing there, waiting for him. He couldn't help but notice she looked very nice in the Muggle clothes was wearing; a black, knee-length skirt and blue V-neck top. He'd never seen her wear something like that, unless the Yule Ball in their fourth year counted.

She smiled when she saw him. "Hey, Draco. I've been waiting for you." she said as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Sorry about that. Let's just get going!" he replied, taking her hand in his and leading her out the doors.

Hogsmeade was surprisingly busy, though there were no students from Hogwarts there as Dumbledore had supposedly planned. They walked into the Three Broomsticks, where Draco ordered them two butterbeers.

Just because there weren't any Hogwarts students there didn't mean people weren't staring at them. Everyone knew which house each of them were in, and many eyebrows were raised as they walked to a table in the back of the room, holding hands.

"We just can't get away from all this staring..." Hermione mumbled with a sly grin as they sat down next to each other.

"We'll live. They'll just have to get used to it," Draco said, kissing her on the lips.

It looked like their butterbeers would just sit there for a while, since Draco and Hermione's little kiss turned into a very long kiss, or a make out session if that's what you prefer. People around them just sat and stared, which was actually disgusting when you thought about it.

They separated, smiling, noticing each other’s hair was completely messed up. "Well, not bad for a Mudblood," Draco said jokingly.

Hermione punched him playfully on the arm. "Very funny, Draco!" she said with a huge smile on her face.

It was then Draco noticed a very mysterious looking figure looking at them. He nudged Hermione, pointing over to him. He immediately walked out of the pub, as if he were trying to not be noticed.

"Well... that was strange..." Hermione said. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Draco! What if that was one of Voldemort's spies?"

Draco had never thought about that, until he remembered that Voldemort was on his way to Hogwarts. "Dammit... we really have to be careful now, Hermione." She nodded, and Draco noticed she looked a little scared.

He smiled, touching her hand gently. "Don't be scared... I won't let anyone hurt you." She smiled slightly as his fingers gently stroked her hand.

* * *

Soon it was October first, and the school was already buzzing with talk about a plan the prefects had made to have a Halloween Ball this year. Mostly everyone in the school loved dances, so it seemed like a good idea.

"Alright, so, what kind of ideas do you all have in mind?" Draco asked at the prefects' meeting, which he and Hermione were in charge of.

Over the past month, there had been no sightings of Voldemort, so everyone had been pretty calm. But, Dumbledore still warned them to be careful; Voldemort was most likely just taking his time.

One of the Hufflepuff prefects, Lindsey Colburn, raised her hand. "I think we should, like, get a band to play, you know? Like, maybe the Weird Sisters or something," she said.

"Hmm... I think we could manage something like that. Anything else? Wait, how about this... who wants to be in charge of food?" Hermione asked.

The two Slytherin prefects raised their hands. "We'll do that. It's all covered, you've got nothing to worry about," the male Slytherin prefect, Michael Johnson, said with a grin.

"I already know that..." Draco said, also grinning.

"Duh, stupid," the female Slytherin prefect, Amy Osken, said in her usual dizty tone Draco had come to recognize.

"Alright, so... I take it the two Hufflepuff prefects will be in charge of music and entertainment, then?" Draco said. The two nodded.

"And that leaves the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw prefects. What do you guys wanna do?" Hermione asked them.

"We could be in charge of advertisements and stuff..." Stacy Eastwood, the Ravenclaw prefect, suggested.

Hermione nodded at her. "Alright, sounds good. And you guys want to...?" Hermione's fellow housemates looked at each other.

"We were kind of hoping we could be in charge of, uh, the drinks..." Maria Vilsen said with a sheepish grin.

"Fine, then Hermione and I can be in charge of decorations. Is that okay with everyone?" Draco said. Everyone nodded, grinning at them both. They'd all been avoiding decorations on purpose so Draco and Hermione could spend even more time together. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out.

Draco and Hermione closed the meeting, and had the prefects patrol the corridors instead of them.

It had been a long, stressful day. Dumbledore and McGonagall had bombarded them with all of their duties for the next three months, and let's just say Draco and Hermione would be exhausted every single day. But, they were kind of expecting it.

"Whew... I think I'm just gonna go to sleep now," Draco said, leaning back in the red chair. Hermione giggled and sat in the chair next to him.

"Draco, you haven't even eaten dinner yet! You can't just go to sleep," Hermione said.

"Screw dinner, I'm tired..." Draco mumbled with his eyes shut, although he really wasn't as tired as he was making it seem.

Hermione got up and sat down on his lap. Draco opened one eye and looked up at her, surprised. Though she'd been his girlfriend for a month, she'd never done this before.

"You know... I'm really glad you've changed, Draco. But... I have a question for you," Hermione said, resting her head on his.

"What is it?" he asked, stroking her bushy brown hair.

She sighed. "Have you told your father?" Draco froze completely.

His father. Lucius Malfoy, Draco's manipulative father, was against the idea of purebloods and Muggle-borns interacting with each other. How would he handle the news of Draco dating Hermione Granger, his supposed enemy of six years?

He shook his head. Truthfully, he was afraid to tell his father.

Lucius did know one thing: Draco liked Hermione. He'd accidentally found out before Draco had gone to Hogwarts, which was also when Draco had basically been kicked out of the house by his father. If Lucius had been mad then, Draco didn't even want to imagine how mad he'd be now.

"You're going to have to tell him sometime, you know," Hermione said. She had a point.

"I know, I know... but he's probably still mad at me, so I'm not going to tell him quite yet," Draco replied.

Hermione nodded. "That's fine, Draco. But if he finds out some other way... well, I'll stick by you, okay?" Draco smiled and nodded. No one had ever stuck up for him before.

"And thanks, Hermione. For everything, you know?" Draco said, kissing her on the cheek.

"Anytime, Draco. Anytime you need me. But you know, I am getting kind of hungry!" she replied.

"Then let's go eat," Draco said as he and Hermione both got up from the chair and walked down to the Great Hall.

* * *

Draco took his usual seat at the Slytherin table when he entered the Great Hall. Samantha and Brianna still weren't there, which was strange, since they were always at dinner or any other meal before he was.

"Draco, Samantha wanted me to tell you she might be a little late today. She also said she'd tell you why when she and Brianna got back," Pansy said to him without even looking him directly in the eye. She was still mad at him. Pathetic.

"Alright. And stop being mad at me. It's not working," Draco said with a smirk on his face.

She crossed her arms and turned away from him. "I'm not trying to accomplish anything by not looking at you. I just can't stand to look at you, since you kissed a Mudblood," she said.

Draco rolled his eyes. That was a pretty pathetic excuse.

* * *

A few minutes later, Samantha and Brianna came into the Great Hall, both looking very excited about something or another. They sat down next to Draco.

"Draco! Guess what? We caught Harry and Sapphire kissing in the corridor!" Brianna said with a giggle.

"It's so cute!" Samantha agreed, also giggling.

Draco rolled his eyes. Of course, he realized, it had to be something "girly" like that. What else would they be looking excited about?

"That's nice. But I don't really care," Draco said as he continued eating.

"Oh, that's right... you only care about kissing Hermione, I forgot!" Brianna teased. She and Samantha had made a habit out of somehow brining up how often he and Hermione kissed into every single one of their conversations. It was really starting to get annoying.

"Do you really have to bring that up every single time you talk to me?" Draco asked in an annoyed tone.

Samantha nodded. "Yes. It's absolutely necessary." Brianna giggled again as Draco rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of... Hermione's coming," Brianna said, her voice getting suddenly quiet as though she was keeping a secret.

"Draco, Dumbledore wants to talk to us," Hermione said with a sad look in her eyes. Uh-oh. What could Dumbledore want from them now? He'd already given them enough things to do.

Draco got up and followed Hermione out of the Great Hall, where Dumbledore was waiting for them with a sad expression in his eyes. This obviously wasn't about more duties; that was for sure.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked, confused. A few tears rolled down Hermione's cheeks.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this... but... there was another sighting of Voldemort this morning. He killed three innocent Muggles in the area, and he said that he was going to 'kill that traitor and his Mudblood girlfriend' soon. So... I'm afraid I must ask you and Hermione to stop seeing each other," Dumbledore said gravely.

Draco froze. He didn't know how to feel. Or what to think, for that matter. First, Dumbledore tells him and Hermione they have to date, and now he was saying they couldn't? What was he doing?

"I'm sure you're both wondering why I had the two of you date in the first place, are you not?" they both nodded at him, curious to know his mysterious reasoning.

"Yeah, that would be nice..." Draco said.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Well, you see... at first, I had my doubts. I thought of all the consequences of what could happen to the two of you if I went through with what Cornelius Fudge had requested..." he paused for a minute.

"Continue, please," Hermione urged.

He smiled. "Ah, well, you see... Cornelius and I knew Voldemort would be indeed rising very soon. So, what we had planned was to show Voldemort that Muggle-borns and purebloods can get along, and that there is nothing wrong with Muggle-borns. Of course, we should've known better. As you may have already known... he's now after the two of you, as well as Harry." Draco and Hermione were completely silent for a moment.

"So... so, what you're saying is that you were using us as pawns in your experiment?" Hermione asked, looking shocked.

Dumbledore shook his head. "No, that isn't it at all. There are other reasons, but those reasons are what you must figure out for yourselves. Have a nice school year, both of you." And with that, he went back into the Great Hall.

Draco and Hermione stood staring at each other for a few moments, trying not to cry. They really were in love. They really, really were, and now Voldemort had to go and ruin it.

"Well... I guess this is it then..." Draco said, smiling weakly at her.

She smiled weakly back at him. "Just one last kiss?" she asked hopefully. He nodded, stepping towards her and putting his hands on her hips as she put her arms around his neck.

"I'll miss you..." Hermione mumbled as their lips met in what seemed to be their very last kiss.

Unfortunately, they didn't notice a certain blonde-haired man watching them.

"Ahem," they heard him say as they immediately separated.

They both looked shocked. "What are you doing here?" he said coldly, glaring at his father, who was glaring at Hermione.

"Draco. What were you doing just now?" Lucius asked, still glaring at Hermione. Hermione looked a little scared, so she grabbed Draco's arm on impulse. Not exactly the best move, but Draco didn't care.

"What did it look like I was doing? Killing someone?" Draco replied sarcastically. Lucius's eyes narrowed.

"Trust me, the Dark Lord will find out about this, and you both will die. Now, if you excuse me, I have business to attend to," Lucius said, quickly walking away from them.

Hermione looked up at Draco. "Well... we better get going..." Draco nodded. He never wanted to go, however.

"I love you, Hermione," Draco whispered as he tried to hold back his tears. And he really, truly meant it.

Hermione wiped the tears from her eyes. "I love you, too, Draco... bye for now..." And, separately, the two walked into the Great Hall and went back to their house tables, trying not to cry in front of their classmates.

* * *

Draco sat down in between Samantha and Brianna, slouching in his chair and not touching his food. Samantha and Brianna obviously sensed something was wrong with their friend.

"Hey, are you okay? You look kind of sad," Samantha said.

"Yeah, you do... what's wrong?" Brianna asked.

Draco sighed. "I'll tell you after dinner when there aren't as many people around," he replied, noticing the large amount of Slytherins trying to listen in on their conversation.

Both girls nodded and went back to eating their dinner, occasionally glancing at Draco to make sure he didn't suddenly start crying in front of everyone.

Once they finished eating, or sulking as Draco was doing, Samantha and Brianna literally pushed Draco into the wall to get the truth out of him.

"Alright, tell us what's going on," Brianna demanded.

He sighed. "Alright, fine. Dumbledore forbid Hermione and I to ever see each other again," Draco said miserably. He'd never, ever, felt this way before.

"Aw... Draco... I'm sorry," Samantha said, giving Draco a big hug.

Brianna hugged Draco, too. "You'll be okay. We'll help you out. Don't worry about it." she said, winking as Samantha grinned and nodded.

"YOU KNOW WE LOVE YOU, DRACO!" Samantha and Brianna screeched, hugging Draco until it seemed as though they were trying to choke him.

"Yeah, that's... nice..." Draco said, gasping for air.

Samantha and Brianna released him. "There! All better!" Samantha exclaimed. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for choking me. I feel so loved now," Draco said as Hermione and the rest of her friends passed them. Ron looked extremely happy, probably because Hermione was no longer with Draco.

"Anytime," Brianna said, grinning.

"Well, I have to get going back to my common room... I still can see Hermione, you know," Draco said, remembering he and Hermione still had to share a common room.

"Yeah, well, good luck with that. We'll see you tomorrow, Draco!" Samantha said as she and Brianna caught up with some other Slytherin girls and walked back to the Slytherin common room.

Draco sighed and walked back to his common room. Now he'd have to go through the entire year with seeing Hermione in classes, but not being able to talk to her. Well, this year really sucks... he thought as he kicked the ground.

He gloomily walked into the common room and sat down in a chair, staring at the walls. He really didn't feel like doing his homework at the moment, nor did he feel like starting on the decorations for the Halloween Ball.

It was then he realized something. Damn, how are Hermione and I supposed to work on the decorations together?

Well, this was going to be much harder than he'd thought.

* * *

The next day, Draco woke up, still asleep on the common room chair. He noticed Hermione sleeping on the couch next to him. She was probably just as upset as he was. At least, that's how it looked to Draco.

Suddenly, the common room door burst open, and in came one Slytherin prefect and one Gryffindor prefect. "Draco! Hermione! Come quick, something terrible's happened!" one of them shouted. Hermione awoke, startled at the sudden noise, and jumped off the couch, following the two prefects and Draco out of the door.

"What's going on?" Draco asked, nearly out of breath as they ran down two flights of stairs at what seemed like top speed.

"We'll explain when we get there, just hurry up!" one of them shouted, sharply turning a corner as they lead the two towards the Great Hall.

They stopped once they got into the Great Hall, and Draco was shocked at what he was seeing.

Ginny Weasley was lying on the ground, unconscious, but still breathing, though very quickly. She looked awfully pale, and her eyes were wide with fear. Oh no... this can't be... Voldemort. Draco thought with horror.

Dumbledore, McGonagall, Ron, and Whitney were leaning over her. "We're really in danger now, Dumbledore..." Draco heard McGonagall mumble.

Dumbledore straightened up when he saw Draco and Hermione. "It seems as though this is the first of Voldemort's many attacks. I'm sorry." Hermione looked as though she was on the verge of tears, and Draco could do nothing about it.

"How could this have happened?" Hermione whispered, looking down at her friend with wide eyes. Even though Draco didn't personally know Ginny as Hermione did, he felt very bad for her.

Ron stood up and walked over to Draco. "Okay, I'm still pissed off at you for dating Hermione, but... I guess you're not so bad... 'cause, well, Hermione told me last night you would never let anyone hurt her... so I gotta say I'm kind of sorry for being such a git to you all these years. Especially now," he said, jerking his head over to Ginny.

"Yeah, I'm kind of sorry, too... and sorry about your sister, by the way," Draco said. Hermione's smile was about a mile wide as she listened to the two boys' conversation.

Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, came in with a stretcher for Ginny, and immediately took her to the hospital wing as the whole school watched in silence.

"It's nice to see a rivalry finally put to rest, but I must warn you... Voldemort will be after you now," McGonagall said as she walked over to Draco, Ron, and Hermione.

"Well, we'll just take that chance," Ron replied with a grin.

"Alright, I suppose... now, I must have a word with Mr. Potter over here..." McGonagall said, walking over to Harry, who was talking with Sapphire, Rachel, and Chairee.

Hermione suddenly gave Ron a big hug. "Finally! You finally realized you needed to stop being so nasty to Draco all the time!" This little moment reminded Draco of Samantha and Brianna's "hug" the previous night.

Sapphire, Rachel, and Chairee then walked over to them. "Hey, how's it going?" Chairee asked as they stopped in front of them.

"Uh, pretty good..." Ron replied, though he was clearly worried about his sister. Whitney had gone with her instead of Ron, though no one really knew why.

"Hey, um, I'm gonna go find my friends... see you guys around," Draco said.

"Bye, Draco!" The girls all said at the same time. Ron just simply waved with a slight smile on his face.

Draco found Samantha and Brianna talking to Pansy with extremely annoyed looks on their faces. He chuckled; he felt sorry for the two girls for having to talk to the most annoying person Draco had ever met.

Pansy's eyes narrowed as Draco approached, and she quickly said goodbye to Samantha and Brianna and left.

"Hey, what did Pansy want?" Draco asked.

"She was just saying how lucky we are to lose a Gryffindor even though she's not technically dead," Brianna replied.

"Yeah, she's such a loser; all she does is think about herself," Samantha added with a grin.

"And now you know the pain I've suffered for the past six years..." Draco said.

The whole school was talking and laughing as if nothing had happened, though anyone with half a brain knew this was only to take off the sadness of what was really happening. Maybe the Halloween Ball at the end of the month was just what this school needed.

Finally, it was the thirtieth of October, and even though tomorrow was the actual date of the Halloween Ball, everyone was excitedly talking about it everywhere you turned. Everywhere. And it was really starting to give Draco a headache.

Somehow, he and Hermione had managed to finish the decorations for the dance without any Voldemort attacks. And, luckily, Ginny was going to be just fine, though she was still in the hospital wing recovering from shock. But, for the most part, it was actually pretty quiet at Hogwarts. Well, except for the constant talk about the dance...

"Oh my God, this is gonna be so much fun! I love dances," Draco heard Lavender Brown say to Parvati Patil as he sat behind them in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Elaine was late, so everyone was talking as they waited for her arrival.

"What's wrong, Draco?" Samantha asked.

"I'm sick of hearing everyone talk about the dance," Draco mumbled. Samantha grinned.

"Oh my God, I'm going with this, like, really hot guy and..." Samantha said in the most fake voice Draco had ever heard in his life.

"I'm not listening..." Draco said, tuning out her voice and basically everyone else’s.

Samantha went to talk to Brianna as Draco sat with his head down on his desk. He was still moping about the forced breakup of he and Hermione, and he noticed Hermione was doing the exact same thing.

Just then, Elaine entered the classroom, carrying in yet another strange looking creature. This one, however, was a water creature; it was sitting in a class tank filled with water, and it looked like a mutated baby shark or something like that.

"Class, settle down, please! It's time to begin the lesson," she shouted over the talking students.

"What on Earth is that thing?" Harry asked suddenly, staring at it like everyone else was.

It had to be the strangest creature on the planet. It was a disgusting green color, and it had teeth of all sizes jutting out from its diagonally shaped mouth. Its fins were two different sizes, and it looked like it was angry at all of them.

Elaine smiled at them. "This is a Karpion. I know it looks very strange... does anyone know why, by the way?" Once again, Hermione's hand was the first to shoot up into the air.

"Yes?" she said, nodding at Hermione.

"Well, the Karpion's body is designed like this for the ability to be able to swim in all directions at once to avoid its attackers," Hermione replied matter-of-factly. Draco loved hearing her speak...

"That is correct. Five points for Gryffindor. Now, what we're going to do today is read from our books about the Karpion, and your assignment for next week will be an essay on the Karpion. Understood?" Elaine asked. The class nodded, though none of them looked too happy about getting homework the day before the dance.

"Excellent. Now, get to work!" Everyone quickly pulled out some parchment and their quills, trying to get as much as they could get done before the dance.

* * *

Soon the day was over, and Draco walked back to his common room feeling exhausted. Why had the teachers given them so much homework the day before the dance, anyway? It made no sense to him, or anyone else.

He sat down on his usual chair and pulled out his books. He could at least get some work done before tomorrow.

* * *

Finally, it was the day of the Halloween Ball. And, Draco had to admit, he was pretty excited about going, though he didn't show it. He was going with Brianna, since Samantha was already going with a Slytherin sixth year named Matt Weston, and Brianna was much easier to talk to than Samantha anyway, so he was happy with it.

Draco got up, making sure he was quiet since Hermione was still sleeping, and went downstairs to eat breakfast. There were no classes in honor of the dance, so most students were sleeping in, but for the few who always woke up early, there was already breakfast downstairs.

Surprisingly, there were a lot of people there. Samantha and Brianna being two of them.

"Draco! Hey, come sit down," Brianna said. Samantha seemed to be indulged in a conversation with Matt Weston, who was actually pretty good- looking as Samantha had said the previous day as a joke, with his golden brown, I-know-I'm hot, hair and chocolate brown eyes.

"Hey, how's it going?" Draco asked as he sat down and began eating.

"Eh, it's okay, you try listening to these two talk," Brianna replied, looking over at Samantha and Matt, who seemed to be hitting it off really well.

Draco chuckled. "Sounds like fun. Really." Brianna rolled her eyes as she dug her fork into a huge pile of eggs.

"Oh yeah, thanks for taking me to the dance tonight..." Brianna mumbled through her mouth full of eggs.

"You're welcome. I didn't have anyone to go with anyway... it's not that big of a deal," he replied casually.

* * *

The day went surprisingly fast, seeing as everyone was excited for the dance. For most of the day, the students had hung out with each other on the Hogwarts grounds, or just stayed in the common rooms and did nothing all day.

Four hours before the dance was supposed to start, Samantha and Brianna stood up from the shaded area they were sitting on outside.

"Where are you going?" Matt asked. He'd started hanging around them all day, and Draco had to admit, he was a great person to hang out with. And, now Draco didn't have to listen to Samantha and Brianna's girl talk all day.

"We're going to go get ready for the dance," Brianna said.

"Already?" the two boys said in unison.

"Yeah, we have to look good, you know," Samantha said, winking at them both.

"I'll never understand girls..." Matt said, sighing.

"You and me both, buddy," Draco agreed.

The two boys decided to go back inside, since it was getting rather cold outside. Draco led Matt to the Great Hall to show him the decorations he and Hermione had done for the dance.

"Wow," Matt said as he looked around.

It was pretty impressive. Orange and black streamers hung around the doorways, one table was decorated with a black tablecloth and a talking punch bowl, and ghosts flew around everywhere. The lanterns in the room were lit by orange and black fairies, and there was now a stage at the front of the room, where, instead of a band, they'd gotten some wizard disc jockey to play the music for them.

"This is awesome," Matt continued as the two boys walked around.

"Yeah, and it took a really long time to finish," Draco replied.

* * *

After Draco and Matt had circled the Great Hall several times, they decided to go back to the Slytherin common room to wait for Samantha and Brianna. Draco hadn't been to the Slytherin common room in what seemed like ages, so it would be nice to go back for a little bit.

Draco and Matt talked for a long time, basically to get to know each other since they'd never really talked before. Besides, Samantha and Brianna were taking forever, so they could really do whatever it was they wanted to.

But when Samantha and Brianna finally were done, the two boys couldn't keep their eyes off of them.

"Hey, you guys," Samantha said as she and Brianna walked down the stairs.

"Hey,- whoa," Draco and Matt said together.

Brianna was wearing a satin, sapphire-blue dress that went just past her knees and had fancy Indian beading on the top of it with strappy silver heels. Her hair was done in a fancy bun, and her makeup was subtle but still extremely nice. Samantha was wearing a velvet, ruby-red spaghetti strap dress that went just above her knees and strappy black heels, which were similar to Brianna's shoes. Her hair was done in fancy ringlets, and her makeup looked just like Brianna's, just with slightly different colors.


The two boys were speechless for about five minutes as they stared at their dates. All they'd really done was put on a nice shirt and pants, done their hair nicely, and sat around and waited for the two girls. And here it had taken Samantha and Brianna four freaking hours to do all of this.

"So... what do you guys think?" Samantha said, spinning around to reveal that the back of her dress was very low-cut.

"R-really nice," Matt stammered, staring at the two.

"Y-yeah. Both of you," Draco said, still staring at both of them.

The two girls giggled. "Boys... such little perverts... well, let's go then!" Samantha said, taking Matt's hand as the four walked out of the Slytherin common room.

"I'll bet you can't wait to see what Hermione looks like, huh?" Brianna said to Draco as they walked down to the Great Hall along with more than half of the school.

Draco nodded. "Yeah, not that I'll be able to talk to her or anything..." Brianna smiled at Draco's last comment; she thought he was a lovesick puppy, but in a nice way.

"Hey, Draco, do you even know who Hermione's going to this thing with?" Samantha asked from in front of them.

"No, but I guess I'll find out, won't I?" he replied.

They entered the Great Hall, where several students were already there, dancing with whoever they really wanted to. Hermione and her friends weren't yet there, and that made Draco kind of sad.

"Come on, Matt, let's dance!" Samantha said, grinning, as she pulled Matt, also grinning, onto the dance floor. They were too perfect for each other.

Brianna tapped Draco on the shoulder. "Draco, we can wait for Hermione and her friends if you like. I don't mind." Draco nodded.

"Yeah, that would be nice. Thanks," Draco replied. She smiled and went to go get herself something to drink.

Draco stood against the wall for a while, watching everyone as they came in, the girls in fancy, low-cut dresses and the boys in either suits or nice shirts and pants. He sure hoped Hermione would get there soon.

"Hey, I'm gonna see if I can find Draco first... I know I'm not supposed to talk to him, but I can't help it!" Draco heard Hermione's voice from outside the Great Hall, probably talking to her friends.

"Well, you won't have to look very long," Sapphire said, noticing Draco leaning against the wall.

Draco was speechless once again. Hermione was wearing a strapless black dress that went just past her knees with matching heels. She'd straightened her hair, just as she'd done for the Yule Ball in their fourth year, and she just looked so goddamn beautiful.

"Hey, you look nice," Hermione said, smiling at him.

He took a deep breath. "You look really, really nice... oh, screw it, you look goddamn beautiful," Draco replied. Hermione blushed, but she was still smiling.

"Who are you here with?" Hermione asked.

"Brianna. Who are you here with?" Draco asked her.

"I'm here with Harry and Sapphire. Just for fun, you know? You're doing the same with Brianna right?" she replied.

Draco nodded. "Yeah, Brianna and I are here as friends. Maybe... maybe later we could dance..." Hermione nodded.

"That would be nice. You better go off with Brianna now," Hermione said as Brianna came back with drinks for the both of them.

Brianna handed Draco his drink. "So, what'd you talk to Hermione about?" she asked, taking a long drink.

"Just, you know, a normal conversation..." Draco said, though he knew Brianna could see the sadness in his eyes.

She sighed. "Come on, let's just go out there, dance, and have a good time. Alright?" Draco nodded.

* * *

After dancing quite a bit with Brianna, Draco felt pretty tired. After telling Brianna he was going to take a break for a little bit, he went over to get something to eat and a small drink.

He sat down on a chair next to the other people who were tired from dancing so much and watched the people who seemed tireless, like Samantha, Matt, and Brianna, dance.

"Tired, huh? Ron said next to him. He jumped, startled. He hadn't noticed Ron sitting there.

"Yeah, Brianna never seems to run out of energy..." Draco replied.

"Well, Chairee ran out of energy. She's in the bathroom right now, so I'm kind of waiting for her to get back," Ron said.

"Sounds like fun," Draco said. He'd never had an actual conversation with Ron before. It felt kind of weird, but in a sort of good way.

"And by the way... Hermione wants to slow dance with you at the end of the dance. Even though you're not supposed to be talking... what'd you do to her, anyway? Seduce her with your almighty Slytherin powers?" Ron said jokingly.

Draco grinned. "Nah, she just likes me, that's all."

Ron smiled. "Good. As long as you're not using her, I guess I'm okay with this now..." Finally. It was about time Ron had come to his senses about accepting Draco and Hermione as a couple. Too bad it was a little bit late.

* * *

Chairee came back a few minutes later and gave Ron a kiss on the lips. That made Draco miss Hermione even more, so he turned his head away and focused his attention on Samantha dancing with Matt.

Soon Draco was sitting by himself, and feeling kind of lonely. He hoped Hermione would notice him soon; he really, really wanted to dance with her.

"Draco? Hermione's looking for you," Draco looked up suddenly to see Rachel looking down at him.

"Uh, where is she?" Draco asked, standing up.

"Follow me," she replied, grabbing Draco by the wrist and pulling him to the other side of the room.

Hermione was standing there, looking around at everyone dancing as Draco had been doing earlier. When she saw him, she smiled, and they stood there for a few moments just staring at each other.

"Well, isn't this romantic... I'll see you guys later," Rachel said, winking, as she went to find someone to dance with.

"So... did Ron tell you I wanted to dance with you at the end of the night?" Hermione asked finally, breaking the silence.

Draco nodded. "Yeah, and he mentioned something about slow dancing..." Hermione blushed.

"That sounds about right," she said sweetly, looking up at him.

The song playing ended, and the final song of the night, which was, of course, a slow song, came on. Draco grinned at Hermione and held out his hand to her.

"So... do you want to dance?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded, taking his hand and followed him out to the dance floor.

Draco led Hermione out to the middle of the dance floor, his heart beating rather fast. Many students stared at them as they began to slow dance, and Draco could almost feel Dumbledore's eyes watching them carefully.

"Hey, aren't you guys supposed to not hang out with each other?" Dean Thomas asked curiously.

"You know what? I just don't give a damn anymore," Draco said.

Hermione smiled. "And neither do I."

They continued dancing in silence for a few moments, just glad to be with the other again. Who cared if Voldemort came after them? As long as they were together, they could care less.

"Draco... I know I've said this a lot, but thanks for everything. I've never felt happier," Hermione said.

He stroked her hair. "I know. To tell you the truth, I was never really a happy person until you helped me out..."

She looked up at him and he looked down at her. They knew half of the school was watching them, but they leaned in closer until their lips met anyway. But just as they kissed, a banging on the doors of the Great Hall interrupted the whole dance.

Several girls screamed at the sight that came through the door. Lucius Malfoy was there, wand at the ready, glaring around at them all. And when his eyes landed on Draco and Hermione, he looked like he could rip down the entire school.

He pointed at them. "You," was all he could say as he glared at his son and Hermione.

"Lucius, what are you doing?" Dumbledore said, stepping in front of Draco and Hermione as Lucius advanced towards them.

He pulled up his sleeve, only to reveal the dreaded Dark Mark, the sign of a true Death Eater, on his arm. "Lord Voldemort has sent me. Sent me to murder those two." Everyone gasped as he pointed at the two figures behind Dumledore.

"He wouldn't really kill his own son, would he?" a voice whispered in the crowd.

Lucius eyes darted over to where the voice came from. He looked like a madman on a killing spree, if one thing was for sure. His eyes were wide, and his face was twisted into a crazy expression. You'd be frightened at the very sight of him.

"Draco... I'm scared..." Hermione said in a squeaky whisper. He wrapped his arms around her tighter.

"I won't let him hurt you, Hermione," Draco whispered back.

"Lucius Malfoy, I demand you leave this very instant!" Dumbledore suddenly shouted, pulling out his own wand and pointing it at Lucius.

Lucius chuckled. "You wouldn't have the guts to hurt me." Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.

"Are you sure about that, Lucius? You are aware I can be very... unpredictable, if you will," Dumbledore replied. Lucius stared at him for a second, that crazy look still in his eyes.

"I don't care. Now, get out of my way!" Lucius said angrily, storming towards Dumbledore and violently pushing him out of the way.

Hermione grabbed Draco's left arm tightly and slighty hid behind him as Lucius looked down upon them, a look of hatred in his eyes. Draco couldn't help but feel a little scared of his father as well.

"You betrayed Lord Voldemort, Draco... and now you'll pay for it," Lucius said in a menacing tone.

"What are you gonna do to him?" Samantha asked suddenly from the crowd of people closest to them. Lucius looked over at her, glaring at her as well.

He took a few steps towards her. "Do you dare question me, Baracudan?" Samantha took a step backwards. Even she was afraid of him, and Samantha was probably the bravest Slytherin in the entire Slytherin house.

"Leave her out of this," Draco hissed, his arms still around Hermione.

Lucius appeared to not have heard him. "You'll pay for that... Crucio!" Lucius shouted, pointing his wand at Samantha.

The spell hit her directly, and she instantly started screaming in pain. "Stop! I didn't do anything!" she shouted as she bent over on the ground.

"She said stop, so stop!" Ron suddenly shouted, running out from the crowd at Lucius and hitting him to the ground with full force. Samantha collapsed on the ground, and Brianna and Matt instantly bent down to attempt to wake her up.

"Keep him there, Ron, members of the Ministry are here," McGonagall said, walking over to Ron and the struggling Lucius, who no longer had his wand.

Five men in dark cloaks swept through the Great Hall over to where Ron and Lucius were. They pulled Ron off of Lucius, and took Lucius away as he continued struggling.

"Everyone, please report to your common rooms. Draco, Hermione, I believe it is best if you stay with the Gryffindors and Slytherins tonight instead of going back to the Head Boy and Head Girl common room," Dumbledore announced as everyone started talking in scared tones.

Still talking, they all walked out of the Great Hall, everyone following their prefects to the dormitories. The only people who weren't going to the dormitories were Samantha, Matt, Brianna, and Ron. When Ron had pushed Lucius down to the ground, he'd hit his head hard on the ground, and had fainted when he'd tried to get up.

"Hey, you gonna be okay?" Amy Osken, the Slytherin prefect, asked Draco as they entered the Slytherin common room.

He shrugged. "I guess... maybe." Amy sighed and took a seat with her other fifth year friends.

Draco decided he would feel much better if he just sat alone for a little while. He was still having trouble believing his own father actually wanted him dead, instead of just loathing him for loving a Muggle-born. It would take quite awhile to sink in.

About half an hour later, the portrait swung open, and Brianna and Matt walked in. Everyone surrounded them, asking them questions about their fellow housemate.

"Is she going to be okay?" a second year girl asked with wide eyes.

"She should be, but Samantha's gonna be unconcious for about a week or so... maybe even a month, Madam Pomfrey isn't really sure how bad her injuries are yet," Brianna explained.

"And what about... what about, uh, Weasley?" A fourth year boy asked, hesitating.

"He'll be fine, too, he just has a slight concussion and should be awake by tomorrow afternoon," Matt replied.

The two saw Draco sitting alone, and moved through the crowd of curious Slytherins to talk to him. "Hey, Draco... Hermione was there for a bit; she wanted us to tell you that she's sorry," Brianna said as she sat down across from him.

"Sorry for what?" Draco asked. She hadn't done anything wrong.

She shrugged. "I don't know. She didn't really say..."

"I think I'm gonna go get some sleep now. Good night," Draco said quickly, getting up and going to the boys' seventh year dormitory, which had an extra bed in it just for him.

* * *

Draco woke up the next morning feeling angry and still a little bit tired. He'd had a very... rough night. He'd woken up about ten times dripping in a cold sweat from a nightmare about Voldemort and his father. He'd even woken up Brianna at one point, but she hadn't been much of a help, as she was only half-awake when he was trying to talk to her.

He walked down to breakfast alone, trying to avoid eye contact with the people he passed. He just knew they were all wondering the same thing. Wondering how he felt about his father wanting to murder him. Well, it was hard, and he really couldn't believe it, but he wasn't about to admit that to the world.

Brianna was already at the Slytherin table, talking to Matt about Samantha and Ron, who were still unconcious in the hospital wing. "Do you think they'll be alright?" Matt was asking as Draco sat down next to Brianna.

"Hi, Draco... did you, um, get any sleep?" Brianna asked.

Draco shook his head. "Just a little. But not much..."

"Oh. Sorry about that... but you'll be okay, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, don't worry," Draco replied as he took a drink of the orange juice on the table.

"That's good. Hey, Hermione asked me if you, me, and Matt would want to see Samantha and Ron in the hospital wing today. Think you're up for it?" Brianna asked.

"Sure, that'd be great," Draco replied, feeling slightly happier than he'd been feeling that morning.

Once they'd all finished eating breakfast, Draco, Brianna, and Matt met up with Hermione outside the doors of the Great Hall.

"Hey, Hermione, ready to go?" Brianna asked as soon as they got there.

She nodded. "Yeah, and just to let you know, Harry and everyone else might be coming later, too," Hermione replied.

"Alright, that's fine," Draco said as they began to walk to the hospital wing.

They got to the hospital wing, where Ron was sitting up in his bed, drinking tea or something along the lines of that. Samantha was still unconcious, and she looked extremely pale.

"Oh, hey, what are you guys doing here?" Ron asked, grinning. He had a bandage wrapped around his head, which looked very funny with his now messy hair.

"Just thought we'd pay you a surprise visit," Hermione replied as they all sat around him and Samantha.

"Just out of curiosity... where are Harry and everyone else?" Ron asked.

"They're coming later. Harry's on a date with Sapphire, so, you know..." Hermione replied with a grin.

"And by the way, Ron, do you know when Samantha will wake up?" Matt asked as he held Samantha's hand.

Ron shook his head. "Sorry. Madam Pomfrey still doesn't know, but she said she'd probably find out later today."

"Awesome, I'll be back later then," Matt responded.

"So... um, when do you think you'll be out of here?" Draco asked.

Ron shrugged. "I guess, soon. That's what Dumbledore said, anyway."

"Well... yeah, we better get going, right, Draco?" Brianna asked, obviously feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Yeah, we gotta go... well, see you guys later," Draco replied as he, Brianna, and Matt exited the hospital wing as Harry, Sapphire, and Chairee entered.

The three walked back to the Slytherin common room, where many of the other Slytherins were sitting around doing homework or playing games, such as chess. Draco, Brianna, and Matt all sat down in a quiet corner of the room, not saying much nor doing anything.

"So... Draco, um... oh, screw it, I forgot anyway," Brianna said.

"I know you didn't forget, you just don't want to say what you were going to say," Draco said.

Brianna opened her mouth to speak, but then decided against it as she closed her mouth.

"Well, I guess we could-" Matt started, but was cut off by a first year girl bursting into the common room rather loudly, causing everyone sitting around to jump.

"Everyone, come quick! Hermione Granger's gone!" the first year said with a scared look in her eyes.

Draco froze completely. Hermione Granger was kidnapped? This had to be some kind of sick joke from someone in the other houses, although it seemed much to real to be a joke as everyone quickly got out of the common room and followed the girl down to the Great Hall.

* * *

They all ran down to the Great Hall, where, once again, the whole school was gathered around Dumbledore. The Gryffindors all looked very scared, probably thinking any one of them could be next if one of their own had already been kidnapped.

"Ah, I see the Slytherins have arrived... well, as you may have guessed, we have a brand new crisis on our hands. Our Head Girl, Hermione Granger, has indeed been kidnapped by Lord Voldemort himself. And because of this, I must say, it is now strictly forbiddden for Slytherins and Gryffindors to speak to each other," Dumbledore said as the students began talking rapidly.

"But, sir, why?" Rachel asked from the front of the crowd.

Dumbledore looked down at her. "Well... if you must know... Voldemort left a... note. A very threatening note, at that. And I'm pretty sure you all can guess what it was about, so there is no need for any further questioning." The crowd was silent for only a few seconds.

"But how are the Slytherins and Gryffindors going to attend their classes together?" Chairee asked from next to Rachel.

"That will still be manageable. But please, don't take this issue lightly; this is a very serious matter, and we will get down to the bottom of it. You are all now excused to go back to your common rooms," Dumbledore finished, signaling for them to leave.

Draco, Brianna, and Matt walked slowly back to the Slytherin common room, trailing far behind the rest of their house. They- actually, everyone- had thought that they'd finally accomplished putting the Slytherin and Gryffindor rivalry to rest, but now things were just getting worse. Perhaps it just wasn't meant to be, well, the Slytherin and Gryffindor rivalry, anyway. Everyone now knew Draco and Hermione were destined to be together, and now, thanks to Lord Stinking Voldemort, they couldn't even speak to each other. And, to make matters worse, Hermione was no longer even in Hogwarts anymore.

"You okay, Draco?" Brianna asked suddenly.

"Yeah. I guess. Whatever..." Draco mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets.

* * *

"Draco, if you keep moping, I swear, I'm gonna have to beat you up!" Samantha said as Draco, Brianna, and Matt sat by her bed in the hospital wing.

It was now November, and Draco was still moping around about Hermione being kidnapped. And, Samantha had finally woken up, which was definitely a good thing for everyone.

"Like you could, in your condition," Draco said in a bored tone.

"Well... when I get out of this shitty place, I'll beat you up!" Samantha replied, laying back down on her bed.

"I'm afraid you three are going to have to go back to the Slytherin dormitory now," Madam Pomfrey said as she came into the room, carrying a large container of medicine for Samantha. Samantha grimaced as she saw it; she'd been complaining ever since she'd woken up about all the medicine they were giving her for "no apparent reason", as she said.

The three stood up. "Well, see you, then," Matt said as he followed Brianna and Draco out of the hospital wing.

"You know... I could always beat you up for Samantha..." Brianna said thoughtfully as they walked through the corridors.

"That's okay..." Draco said, walking a few inches away from Brianna as she grinned at him.

"But I won't, so don't worry. Hey, isn't that Harry?" she said suddenly, pointing to someone who was running towards them.

"Yeah, I think it is..." Draco said, staring at him.

Harry stopped in front of them, clearly out of breath. Obviously, he didn't really care about what Dumbledore had said very much.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked him, bewildered.

"I... have... an... idea!" Harry said, panting. Draco now wondered where Harry had been running from.

"What kind of idea?" Brianna asked.

Harry caught his breath for a few minutes before speaking. "You know how Hermione's been kidnapped, right? And you know Voldemort's after me, too, right? Well, I had this idea. For years, Ron and I have been accidentally going after Voldemort for several different reasons, but since Ron still isn't one hundred percent well, I need someone else to go after Voldemort with me. So, I chose you, Draco." Draco stared at Harry as he finished.

"So... basically, what you're saying is... we're somehow gonna find out where Voldemort is, rescue Hermione, and attempt to kill Voldemort?" Draco asked.

"Pretty much, yeah. I know it sounds really, really weird right now, but once we really get an actual plan... it'll sound a lot better. So, what do you say?" Harry asked, pushing his hair away from his glasses.

Draco thought about this for a minute. He knew it was completely crazy, and completely out-there considering the new rules, but he really wanted his Hermione back, and Voldemort dead. But, then again, working with his former enemy to do so would be kind of hard, since there was still some tension between the two boys.

"Well... what do we have to lose?" Draco said, smirking.

"Excellent. Well, we really can't talk much now, so... we'll talk later, alright? Bye, you guys," Harry said as he ran back in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.

"Draco, you do realize that if you and Harry do join forces, you'll be, like, unstoppable? This is so awesome," Brianna said excitedly as the three continued on to the Slytherin common room.

Draco nodded. "Yeah, I know, and I think we can pull it off," he said as they turned a corner.

"You know... this year has actually been kind of funny," Brianna said thoughtfully.

Draco and Matt stared at her. "What?" the two boys said in unison.

"Well, it's like this... everything bad has been happening to Harry the past six years, right? And now the tables have turned, and bad stuff is happening to you. I know that's not funny funny, but it just seems kind of weird funny, you know?" she replied as the two boys continued to stare at her.

"Uh-huh..." Matt said, not fully understanding what she'd just said.

"Yeah, you know, I think you might be crazier than Samantha," Draco said as they walked into the Slytherin common room.

"Hey! I am not crazy! You're crazy!" Brianna protested.

"And how do you suggest I'm crazy?" Draco asked with a smirk.

"You... you... um, you..." Brianna said as Draco continued smirking at her.

"See? I'm not crazy," Draco said once Brianna gave up trying to find a reason why Draco could be crazy.

"Fine. Whatever. I'm just gonna sit in this nice, quiet corner for a little while..." Brianna said as she sat down in the farthest corner of the room, away from Draco and Matt.

* * *

The next day, Draco and the rest of the Slytherins went to their classes as usual. Draco, however, wasn't exactly focused on his classes. For once in his life, Draco was actually looking forward to seeing Harry after classes were over so they could secretly discuss how to find Hermione and possibly destroy Voldemort for good. And, if he and Harry could manage to keep their plan and secret meetings a, well, secret, from Dumbledore, everything would ultimately work out in the end.

"Draco... Draco! The class ended, you idiot!" Brianna said as she violently shook Draco's shoulders to snap him out of his trance.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, preoccupied..." Draco mumbled, picking up his bag and following Brianna out of the classroom.

"Yeah, I know. You've been doing that all day, in case I need to remind you how many times I've had to wake you up at the end of each class," she replied, rolling her eyes.

Draco grinned. "Well, that's not my fault. Blame it on Harry. Speaking of which... I have to go, see you later!"

He walked down to the Quidditch Pitch, where Harry had said to meet him in a letter Draco had received from him this morning. Luckily, no house teams were practicing Quidditch that day, so it was the perfect time to secretly meet and discuss Voldemort-killing and Hermione-rescuing plans.

Draco waited around for about ten minutes before Harry finally showed up, carrying his bookbag and panting, out of breath. Draco rolled his eyes as Harry stopped in front of him to catch his breath for a few minutes before talking.

"Sorry I'm late... McGonagall wanted to talk to me about helping Ron catch up on the work he missed," Harry said once he'd caught his breath.

"That's fine, I don't have anything to do today, anyway," Draco replied.

The two "former enemies" stood there in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before Harry spoke once again. "So... how do you wanna do this thing?"

Draco thought about it for a moment. "Well... first, we have to find out where the hell Voldemort is. We can't do much unless we do that, right?" Harry nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we'll have to do that... but how? I mean, it's not like we can just say 'find out where Voldemort is!" to some random object and it'll tell us or anything like that..." Harry replied slowly.

"Well... we could always take our chances and ask Dumbledore. You never know what could happen," Draco said, shrugging.

"You know... that might actually work..." Harry said thoughtfully, looking up towards the castle.

"Are you serious?" Draco asked, staring at him.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I mean, Dumbledore's always been willing to help me and my friends out in the past, so why not now? And I'm sure he'll help you, too, since it's technically his fault Hermione was captured, you know."

"Yeah... it is, isn't it? Well, I guess we should go find Dumbledore then, huh?" Draco asked.

"Yeah, but you know, it is getting rather close to dinner time... we better do that first before any of the professors find out that we've been 'breaking a rule'," Harry replied.

"Alright, let's get going," Draco agreed.

The two boys walked back up to the castle separately, avoiding all contact with teachers and students as they walked along, just in case someone had seen them talking together. Even though everyone thought the new rules were completely stupid and pointless, they all just loved seeing their classmates get in trouble for some odd reason.

Once Draco reached the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, he quickly sat down next to Brianna. "Hey, Draco, how was your little meeting with, um, your friend?" Brianna asked as he sat down.

"Oh, you know, it was, um, good. Got a lot done," Draco replied once he noticed several other Slytherins listening in on their conversation.

"Well, that's good... hey! Did I tell you Samantha's gonna be back in classes in three days? She's nearly recovered. Matt's down in the hospital wing with her right now, by the way," Brianna said, smiling.

"That's great, I'll bet Professor Elaine will be glad to have her back in Defense Against the Dark Arts!" Draco said.

"Yeah, it's been kind of... strange without Samantha and Hermione around," Brianna agreed.

"Alright, what is going on? I know you two are hiding something. Now, cough it up!" Pansy basically shrieked from across the table, glaring at Brianna and Draco.

"Whatever do you mean?" Brianna asked innocently.

"You know we would never keep any secrets from you!" Draco replied sarcastically.

Pansy glared at the two of them. "Fine. Be that way. I really don't have time for you two Gryffindor-loving freaks." Draco and Brianna had to bite their lips to keep themselves from laughing as Pansy walked off in a huff, trying to be so indredibly cool, but ended up tripping over two Ravenclaw first year boys fighting on the ground. Pathetic.

"God, I hate her... she shouldn't even be allowed to live, she's so damn annoying," Brianna said as she laughed at Pansy, who was tangled up with the two boys from Ravenclaw. She looked so embarrassed words couldn't describe the expression on her face.

"You can say that again," Draco replied.

"I will. Pansy shouldn't even be alowed to live, she's so damn annoying!" Brianna repeated loud enough for the whole Great Hall to hear with a smug look on her face.

Pansy glared at Brianna as she violently shoved the two boys off of her. "I don't care what you say about me, Brianna Dershin. I know everyone here loves me, and that's a fact!" Brianna and the rest of the Slytherins snorted at Pansy's statement. Since when was that very untrue fact true?

"What is so funny?" she asked, still glaring.

"Hate to break it to you, Pansy, but... no one loves you. In fact, we all hate you," Draco said simply as Pansy's face fell.

"W-what do you mean?" Pansy asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

"You know perfectly well what I mean," Draco replied, smirking.

Pansy stared at Draco and the rest of the smirking Slytherins for a few minutes before bursting into tears and running off into the girls' bathroom. The whole Hall erupted in laughter as Pansy, once again, tripped, but this time over herself.

* * *

"Don't you think that was a bit harsh back there, Draco?" Harry asked as he and Draco walked down the corridors to Dumbledore's office a few minutes after dinner ended.

He shrugged. "I guess, but you have to admit, it was kind of funny..." Harry grinned.

"You can say that again," Harry said as they reached Dumbledore's office. Then the two boys realized they didn't even know the password to get inside. Some plan.

"Well... this is a problem," Draco said as he and Harry sat down on the ground.

"Maybe he's not in his office yet... he might come back soon, you know," Harry replied.

"Yeah... hopefully," Draco agreed.

A/N: Wow! Thanks for all the reviews guys, they're really great :)

Harry and Draco waited for what seemed like hours until they heard Dumbledore's footsteps around the corner. The Headmaster did look rather surprised to see the two of them waiting for him, but he smiled all the same as he approached them.

"Hello Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy. Is there something I can help you with?" Dumbledore asked.

The two boys stood up. "Yeah, we need your help. And I mean major help, Dumbledore," Harry said.

"What kind of help?" Dumbledore asked, though he knew perfectly well what Harry was talking about.

"We need you to help us find where Voldemort took Hermione," Draco said abruptly before Harry could even say another word.

Dumbledore smiled at him. "Ah, just as I figured would happen eventually... well, I suppose I'll help the two of you. Even if you are breaking my new rules." His blue eyes twinkled as he gave the password to get into his office, leading Harry and Draco inside.

Dumbledore motioned for the two boys to take a seat across from him as he sat down at his desk. Harry and Draco sat down, waiting rather impatiently for Dumbledore to speak.

"Harry... Draco... I will be honest with you; I do not yet know where Miss Granger's whereabouts are. Yet. I do, however, have my ways of finding out. And that, that is what we will be doing right now," Dumbledore said with a mysterious air in his voice.

"Okay... but what are we doing?" Draco asked.

Dumbledore smiled at him. "It's very simple, actually. You do remember the Marauder's Map, don't you, Harry?"

Harry stared at Dumbledore in surprise, while Draco sat there, rather confused. "Yes... but it only shows the whereabouts of people in Hogwarts, and I'm pretty sure Voldemort wouldn't keep Hermione in Hogwarts..."

"I never said Hermione was in Hogwarts, you know. You see, the Ministry has a device similar to that of the Marauder's Map, although you have to be quite recognized to get such an item. I, of course, have the ability to get this item. And, lucky for the two of you, I have it right here... in my pocket," Dumbledore finished with a smile and mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"You have it now? How long have you had whatever it is for?" Draco asked.

"Since Miss Granger was kidnapped, actually," Dumbledore replied.

Draco and Harry stared at him. He'd had the one thing they'd needed to find Hermione all along, and he'd never told them about it? Why would he do such a thing?

"Wait a minute... you're telling us you've had this thing for God knows how long and you didn't even make any hints about it?" Draco said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"No need to get angry, Mr. Malfoy. I figured it was for the best, so the two of you would not do anything to drastic... such as, rush into action without thinking, I believe?" Harry and Draco both grinned sheepishly at Dumbledore's words.

"Yeah, okay... can you just tell us what we're doing?" Draco asked impatiently.

Dumbledore began rummaging through his robes. "Why, yes, I believe I can. Just a minute, please, boys." Harry and Draco sat and watched Dumbledore search the pockets of his robes for whatever it was he was looking for. And, after a few minutes, Dumbledore pulled out a piece of tattered parchment and set it on his desk.

"What's that?" Harry asked, staring at it.

"This? This has no name, really, just a piece of parchment that, when you ask for whomever it is you're looking for, it will tell you their exact locations right away," Dumbledore replied as he unfolded the piece of parchment.

Oh," Harry replied.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Well, shall we begin?"

Draco and Harry both nodded. "Hurry up! We have to continue making our plan..." Draco said, grinning.

Dumbledore smiled at him. "Well, with that said... map, show me the exact locations of Lord Voldemort and Hermione Granger."

Harry and Draco stared at what was happening right before their eyes. Black ink immediately appeared all over the parchment, showing where Voldemort and Hermione were.

Godric's Hollow.

Harry and Draco both stared at the parchment. This couldn't be right. Why, why would Voldemort go back to the very spot where he was defeated by Harry in the first place? This was definitely some kind of trick.

"But... but, Dumbledore, this makes no sense," Harry said suddenly.

"Oh? Why not?" Dumbledore asked, looking up at him, surprised.

"Well, I mean... I mean, Voldemort was defeated by me there, so, um..." Harry said, not really sure what he was saying.

"Actually, it does kind of make sense," Draco said suddenly.

Harry stared at him. "How?"

"Well, you know, it's kind of obvious. I mean, Voldemort basically knows you don't technically know where exactly Godric's Hollow is... so, basically, it'd be the perfect place to hold Hermione hostage, right, Dumbledore?" Draco finished, looking over at Dumbledore, who was smiling.

"Excellent job, Mr. Malfoy. But, seeing as you do now know where Godric's Hollow is, I suppose Voldemort's plan has backfired, hasn't it?" Dumbledore said.

"Yes, it has... so, I guess we'll be leaving now, right, Harry?" Draco said, nudging Harry in the ribs. Harry had been staring off into space for quite some time now, and it had really been getting on Draco's nerves.

"Ow! Huh? Oh yeah, right, we have to get going... thanks for your help, Headmaster," Harry said before the two boys left.

"Anytime boys, anytime..." Dumbledore said as they closed the door behind them.

* * *

"So, what are we doing?" Draco whispered as he and Harry sat in a dark, quiet corner of the library to plan what they were going to do.

"I don't know... I thought this would be easy, but I guess it's not..." Harry whispered back, looking around to make sure no one could hear them talking.

Draco sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Well, we have to think of something before we leave tonight..." Harry nodded in agreement.

"And we can't tell anyone about this either. At least, not yet," Harry said.

"I realize that, but, you know, we should really think of a plan first..." Draco mumbled as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Hey! I think I have an idea... we could use one of our brooms and my Invisibility Cloak to get to Godric's Hollow... and, uh, I don't you, do you have any ideas?" Harry asked.

Draco thought about this for a moment. That would work, although Draco wasn't too sure that Dumbledore would allow it to actually happen. But, then again, Dumbledore was letting Harry and Draco do this on their own without his help, so he'd probably understand.

"Yeah. We should do that. I don't have any other ideas, but we should stick with yours," Draco said.

Harry nodded. "All right. We better get going then, huh?" Draco nodded as the two boys stood up to go back to their common rooms.

* * *

The next day, Draco woke up feeling rather excited and happy for once. After all, he was going to rescue the one girl he'd ever been in love with from Voldemort, wasn't he? Nothing could be better than that.

Draco quickly dressed and ran down to the Great Hall for breakfast. As he entered the Great Hall, he was surprised to see Samantha sitting at the Slytherin table, talking to Brianna and Matt.

"Hey... aren't you supposed to be in the hospital wing?" Draco asked as he sat down.

"Yeah, but that place is so boring! I was dying in there, Draco," Samantha replied.

"You should've seen the look on Madam Pomfrey's face when Samantha here nearly knocked over her bed trying to get out. It was hilarious!" Brianna said as Matt nodded in agreement across from her.

Draco chuckled. "Well, that sounds like something you'd do, that's for sure. By the way, you guys, Harry and I made a plan to rescue Hermione last night," he said, lowering his voice so no one else would hear them.

"Are you serious? Didn't anyone catch you guys?" Samantha asked, also lowering her voice.

"No, and Dumbledore's all for us going out to rescue Hermione and, hopefully, destory Voldemort for good... I just hope it works," Draco said.

"That's amazing... what are you guys going to do?" Matt asked.

"Well, we're going to use Harry's Invisibility Cloak, cover a broom with it, and fly off to Godric's Hollow, where Voldemort has Hermione captured," Draco replied.

"Seems simple enough. Think you can pull it off?" Brianna asked.

Draco nodded, looking briefly over at the Gryffindor table, where Harry was telling his friends about their plans. "Yeah, and by Christmas, everything will be back to normal again."

As soon as they were finished eating breakfast, Draco met Harry outside the doors to the Great Hall once everyone was back in their common rooms. Since it was Sunday, there were no classes, so they'd planned the perfect day to put their plan into action.

"Ready?" Harry asked as the two boys walked outside, accompanied by Dumbledore.

"You two better be. I'm counting on you boys to bring our Head Girl back," Dumbledore said with a wink as Draco got onto the broom.

Harry draped the Invisibility Cloak over them. "Well, we'll see you later, Dumbledore... and, hopefully, we'll have Hermione with us." Harry said as he kicked off of the ground.

"Good luck!" Dumbledore shouted as he "watched" them fly away.

It took quite awhile to fly all the way to Godric's Hollow, which was still in the wizarding world, but was quite some miles away. Draco estimated it was about ten miles from Hogwarts, and on a broomstick, that took awhile.

When they got there, however, they were rather surprised at the sight they saw. Godric's Hollow was old and rotting; the roof was falling off, the grass was brown, glass was broken, and the paint color was basically gone.

"Whoa. This place is... well, let's just say it's not very nice..." Draco mumbled as Harry pulled the Invisibility cloak off of them.

"You can say that again..." Harry replied.

"Well... ready to go inside?" Draco asked. He didn't want to waste anymore time standing around and accomplishing nothing.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, ready as I'll ever be..." Harry replied.

Draco noticed Harry looked a bit scared, but what would you expect? Harry had seen Voldemort about six times already, and that had to be a little terrifying.

"Let's go then," Draco said as the two boys walked to the door of Godric's Hollow, wands in hand.

The inside of Godric's Hollow was even worse on the inside. It looked as though it had been aging for millions of years; nothing looked exactly right. The floorboards creaked noisily when you stepped on them, furniture that had been left there was covered with dust and falling apart- you could get deathly ill being in the place for a mere ten minutes.

Draco sneezed. "God... this place... is really dirty."

"Bless you. And yeah, it is really dirty," Harry replied as he looked around the room.

"Where do you think we should go?" Draco asked. The house was extremely large; Voldemort could have Hermione held hostage in any of the rooms.

"Uh... upstairs, maybe?" Harry suggested. That seemed reasonable.

"All right, let's go," Draco agreed as the two boys walked over to the staircase and carefully walked up it. The stairs looked as if they'd fall down any second, so they definitely had to be careful.

The upstairs, surprisingly, was in much better condition than the rest of the house, as if someone had been taking care of it for quite some time. There were even proper lights in all of the rooms, so someone was definitely upstairs at the moment.

"There sure are a lot of rooms up here..." Draco mumbled as they walked around.

"Yeah..." Harry said, pulling on a doorknob. It was locked.

"Harry, stop. Alohomora!" Draco shouted, pointing his wand at the door.

The door unlocked and swung forward slowly. The room was darkened inside, from what the two boys could tell. And there just wasn't a good feeling coming from that room...

"Harry. Draco. So nice of you to come," Lord Voldemort was sitting across from the room, the outline of his figure barely visible in the darkness.

"Voldemort," Harry whispered bitterly. As the two boys walked in, the door slammed shut behind them, as if closed by magic. Probably by Voldemort, if it had been.

The lights flicked on, and the two boys could now see a clear image of Voldemort. His face was hidden behind a long, black cloak, but his hand was visible, carrying his wand.

And Hermione was sitting in a chair next to him, tied up and unconscious.

"What did you do to her?" Draco asked angrily.

"Ah, you see, she wouldn't stop screaming. I simply used the Cruciatus curse on her to inflict pain, obviously, and just like that, she was unconscious. I hope you aren't... too angry," Voldemort replied in a deep, husky voice.

Draco glared at him. "I swear, you're gonna pay for this..."

"Oh? How will I be doing that? Terribly sorry, but I'm all out of galleons," Voldemort replied in the same tone of voice he'd used before.

"That's not what he meant," Harry said coolly.

Voldemort paused for a few moments. "Yes, Harry, I know that isn't what he meant. Do you honestly believe I'm that stupid?"

"No. Just give us back Hermione," Harry demanded.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that. She's my property now," Voldemort replied.

"She's not your property," Draco said through gritted teeth, his hands forming into two fists.

"Oh yes she is, Mr. Malfoy," Voldemort replied in a cruel tone.

Harry and Draco both glared at him. Neither of the boys liked hearing their friend or girlfriend being talked about as someone else's "property". That alone would be enough to make them snap completely.

"Let her go. now," Draco said through gritted teeeth.

"Losing your temper already? My, my, my, I'm very disappointed in you," Voldemort replied.

Draco began to raise his wand, but Harry stopped him. Draco stared at him. Why didn't he want to attack Voldemort? Didn't he want to rescue Hermione just as badly as Draco did?

"Not yet," Harry whispered as he lowered Draco's arm.

"Why not?" Draco whispered back.

"Debating whether or not to attack me, are you?" Voldemort said suddenly. Both boys looked up, surprised. How did he know they were talking about him? It was like he had special hearing or something.

"H-how did you know that?" Harry stammered, staring at him.

They could almost see Voldemort's mouth curl into a wicked smile.

"I have my ways. Now, you're not going to attack me yet? Pity. I was just ready to fight." He pulled out his wand, pointing it at the two boys.

"Harry, we have to fight him now," Draco whispered angrily.

"I told you, not yet..." Harry whispered back.

Now Draco was getting even angrier. "Why the hell not?"

"Come now, Harry, can't you see Draco here wants to fight me badly? Let the boy do what he wants to, I say," Voldemort said in the most patient voice either of them had ever heard from him.

"He's trying to get us to do something we'll regret later. Don't fight him yet," Harry muttered.

"Then we'll be careful," Draco reasoned with him.

Harry paused for a moment, probably considering what Draco had just said to him. "Fine. Let's do this."

Draco smirked. "It's about time you've come to your senses."

Harry grinned. "You know, deep down, I've been wanting to fight him this whole time, too," Harry said as he and Draco pulled their wands back out of their robes and pointed them at Voldemort.

Voldemort stood up. "Well. It's about time."

"Yeah. Let's just get this over with," Draco said.

Before Draco or Harry could say another word or take a single step forward, Voldemort raised his wand, still not removing the dark cloak from his face. "Crucio!" he shouted.

Draco and Harry jumped out of the way, just avoiding the spell. "That wasn't fair at all. You didn't give them a chance..." All three looked over to Hermione, who had just awoken, and was looking rather confused and dizzy, for some reason.

"You were supposed to remain silent unless you wanted these two to die," Voldemort said icily.

Harry and Draco stared at him. "Wait... what? You said you used a spell on her." Harry said.

"It was all planned out... I just went along with it so you two wouldn't get killed. I'm sorry..." Hermione said, smiling weakly at both of them.

"You little liar..." Draco muttered angrily, glaring at Voldemort.

"Ah, but you should've known better, Draco. And as for your little friend's outburst..." he walked over to Hermione and put his wand under her chin, "unless you two think of something fast, she'll be dead in less than a minute. Good luck."

Hermione's eyes widened in fear as the tip of Voldemort's wand touched her chin.

"You wouldn't dare..." Harry said, though he looked just as scared as Hermione looked and as Draco felt.

"Oh, but you know I would, Harry," Voldemort replied.

Draco nudged Harry in the ribs. "We really have to do something..."

"I know, but I don't know what we can do... I mean, we don't know that much advanced magic quite yet," Harry replied quickly.

"Well, we have to think of something."

"I know."

"Done debating yet, boys? I'm just about ready to murder your precious Hermione here," Voldemort said in a bored tone.

"Okay, that's it... Petrificus Totalus!" Draco shouted before Harry could stop him as he pointed his wand at Voldemort.

Voldemort yelped slightly as the spell hit him, completely binding his arms and legs together so he wouldn't be able to do any harm to Hermione. Voledmort's wand fell to the ground, as did Voldemort because he could no longer support himself while standing.

"Well, that works," Harry said, wide-eyed, as he stared at Voldemort on the ground.

"Draco, that was excellent!" Hermione said happily from where she was sitting.

Draco smirked. "I know it was."

"Yes, but can one of you please untie me?" Hermione said impatiently.

"I won't allow this to happen! You can't have her!" Voldemort shouted from the ground.

Draco walked over to where Voldemort and Hermione were, pointing his wand at Voldemort the whole time. He quickly untied Hermione from her bindings, and once she was free, she gave him the biggest hug he'd ever received and a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you so much, Draco! You too, of course, Harry!" Hermione said happily.

"Draco? Are we going to kill Voldemort or what?" Harry said suddenly. He was now glaring at Voldemort angrily.

"You can't!" Hermione said suddenly.

Both boys stared at her. "What?"

A/N: Sorry guys, this is the last chapter! I'm really, really happy you all decided to read and review this story, and be sure to look for a sequel in the near future! Cause, well, if there weren't a sequel to this story... well, you'll find out. Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing everyone!

"Hermione, what are talking about?" Harry asked, bewildered that she would say such a thing like that.

Hermione sighed. "I'm so sick of seeing everyone getting hurt and dying. I mean, yes, I do want Voldemort dead, but... after seeing Ginny and Samantha injured, I'm just sick of seeing people get hurt."

"But, he's Voldemort. He deserves to die," Draco said pointedly.

"I know," she replied.

"Sorry, Hermione, but this has to be done..." Harry said quietly.

"I guess I understand... but can I leave the room first? Please?" Hermione asked hopefully.

Draco nodded. "Of course you can."

Hermione smiled at the two boys as she left the room. "Thank you so much, you guys. I'll be waiting outside for you."

Once Hermione was out of the room, Harry and Draco focused their attention on Voldemort. All Voldemort did, however, was stare at them. He knew he was defenseless. Draco could sense it.

"Would you like to do the honors, Harry?" Draco said, smirking at him.

"Yes, actually, I would," Harry replied.

Voldemort suddenly started laughing. "You really think I can be defeated that easily? Well, boys, I regret to inform you, you are greatly mistaken."

Harry and Draco both stared in shock as Voldemort rose from his spot on the ground.

"W-what?" Harry stuttered as Voldemort stood up, pointing his wand at him.

"How did you do that?" Draco asked as he stared at Voldemort.

"Harry, Draco, you two do realize I'm the most powerful wizard of all time, do you not? A simple spell like the one you just used could never defeat me," Voldemort replied.

Draco glared at him. "I'll just have to use more powerful magic if that's what it takes!"

Draco began to raise his wand, but Harry stopped him. "No. This is my fight. You go and keep Hermione safe."

"You can't defeat Voldemort alone, you know," Draco replied.

"Well, I'm going to try. Your job right now is to keep Hermione safe," Harry said, turning away from Draco and raising his wand, ready to fight to the death with Voldemort.

"Are you sure?" Draco asked as Harry began walking towards Voldemort.

"Yes. Now, go outside and stay with Hermione," Harry commanded as Draco went to the door, opened it, and walked out.

Well, it won't be my fault if he gets himself killed... he didn't want my help, anyways. Draco thought as he walked down the rickety staircase once again. But, deep down, he knew he should've stayed and helped Harry.

Hermione was standing outside on the side of the road, covering her head with her robes. It had begun to rain outside, and the temperature had dropped rapidly. Draco dreaded to think it might be foreshadowing the victory of Voldemort.

"Draco? Where's Harry?" Hermione asked as he stood next to her.

"Well, you see, it seems as though Voldemort wasn't exactly defeated quite yet..." Draco replied.

"WHAT? YOU DIDN'T STAY WITH HARRY?" Hermione shouted, staring at him in disbelief.

Draco sighed. He should've expected this. "He didn't want me to stay. There was really nothing I could do about it."

Hermione opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a huge crash coming from where Harry and Voldemort were fighting. Both turned their heads towards the building, only to see pieces of the fading paint fall off from the crash.

"Oh my... I hope he isn't hurt..." Hermione said, looking up at the window with a worried look in her eyes.

"He'll be fine..." Draco replied reassuringly, wrapping his arms around Hermione. He wasn't too sure, however; Voldemort was very powerful, and Harry was but a mere seventeen-year-old.

Hermione sighed. "I hope you're right..."

Bright flashes of light could now be seen from the window, with the occassional scream of pain from Harry. Hermione winced every time this happened, and buried her head in Draco's cloak, which was now covering both of them from the rain.

Suddenly, there was silence. Not a sound from the building, [i]nothing[/i]. The only thing they'd heard before that were two screams, one from Harry, and one from Voldemort. Now all they had to do was find out who had won the final battle.

"You don't think Harry's hurt, do you?" Hermione asked, shivering. They'd been standing there for almost an hour, listening to the battle and watching the window very closely.

Draco kissed Hermione on the top of the head. "He'll be fine... I'm sure he won."

Hermione smiled weakly at him. "I just hope you're right."

* * *

They waited for a few minutes, staring at the entrance door to the building. Draco could tell Hermione was getting anxious; she kept grabbing his hand and squeezing it very hard.

"Draco, look!" Hermione gasped, pointing at the doorway.

And, sure enough, Harry was standing there, a proud grin on his face, dirt in his hair, glasses broken, and his clothes ripped in several places. Hermione heaved a sigh of relief and ran towards Harry.

"I'm so glad you're alright! Oh, Harry, we were so worried about you..." Hermione said as she embraced her friend in a hug.

"And I'm so glad Voldemort's gone. And that you two are going to be just fine," Harry said, grinning as Draco approached them.

"I think we should get back to Hogwarts now. We can celebrate there," Draco said.

Harry nodded. "Right. Well, now that we have three people, my Firebolt might be a bit crowded, but... I'm sure you won't mind sitting very close to Draco, will you, Hermione?"

Hermione grinned and grabbed Draco's hand. "Of course not."

"But before we go... I have to ask you something, Draco. In private," Harry said, motioning for Draco to follow him away from Hermione.

Once they were out of earshot of Hermione, Harry turned away from Draco. "Draco, do you really, really love Hermione? Or are you just kidding around with us?"

"I really do love her," Draco replied.

Harry turned around to face him. Upon seeing the serious nature of Draco's eyes, he smiled. "Good. You know what you have to do then?"

"Yeah. And I know just when to do it," Draco replied, grinning.

"Good. Well, let's get back now, shall we? We have some good news to tell everyone back at Hogwarts," Harry said, grinning, as he and Draco walked back to Hermione and the Firebolt.

"What did you two have to talk about that didn't include me?" Hermione asked the second the two boys stopped in front of her.

"You'll find out soon enough. Let's just get back to Hogwarts," Draco replied as he and Harry got onto the Firebolt, Hermione following them.

"But I want to know now!" Hermione said impatiently as Harry draped the Invisibility Cloak around them.

"You can wait, can't you?" Draco asked as Harry kicked off from the ground.

Hermione sighed. "I suppose."

"That's good," Draco said.

* * *

It didn't take as long as they'd expected to fly back to Hogwarts; probably because they were all excited about the good news they had to tell the school. And once the Firebolt landed on the ground, Draco started walking quickly to the Slytherin common room.

"Draco, where are you going?" Hermione asked.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon..." Draco said with a mischievous grin on his face.

* * *

"Attention, everyone! We have a very special announcment to make!" Dumbledore had gathered all students and professors to the Great Hall for an "emergency meeting" concerning Voldemort. Everyone was predicting that something terrible had happened, but little did they know that they were way off track on that one.

Dumbledore looked around at all of the terrified faces, smiling at each and every one of them. "Now, there's no reason to be worried. This is actually some very good news for you all."

Now everyone looked interested. "So, with that being said... Harry, Draco, Hermione, would the three of you come up here please?"

Harry and Hermione rose from the Gryffindor table and walked to the front, while Draco rose from the Slytherin table and did the same. Everyone stared at them as they passed, wondering what this had to do with the three students now standing in front of their classmates.

"Harry, would you like to do the honors?" Dumbledore asked, smiling down upon Harry.

Harry nodded. "So, you all know how Voldemort attacked Ginny Weasley and kidnapped Hermione, right? Well, Draco and I made a plan to go after Voldemort to rescue Hermione and murder Voldemort once and for all. Well, we found out Voldemort was holding Hermione hostage at Godric's Hollow, so the two of us went there to rescue Hermione. Just when we thought we were finished with him, he rose again, and I had to fight him in a battle to the death. And, guess who won?"

"I did," Harry finished as the Great Hall erupted into tremendous applause.

"That deserves one huge party!" Draco heard Samantha shout from the Slytherin table. Everyone in the Great Hall seemed to think this was an excellent idea, and soon everyone was just having a good time with their friends, and even people from other houses whom they'd never spoken to before.

"Hermione, Draco, I believe the two of you did an excellent job," Dumbledore said.

They both looked at him, confused. "What? Harry was the one who defeated Voldemort, not us," Draco said.

Dumbledore smiled at them. "Ah, but you see, without the two of you dating, none of this could have ever happened." He motioned to the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws all talking to someone from the Slytherin house.

"Yeah, we have you two to thank for this little house unity we've got going on here," Harry replied.

"Well, I don't want to keep the three of you from having a good time, so go out there and celebrate!" Dumbledore said, gently pushing them into the crowd of students.

***

Months later, and their final year at Hogwarts was just about ending. No longer were the houses at war with each other; everyone was friends with everyone, except for the few people, such as Pansy Parkinson, who still believed one house was better than the other.

"I'm glad those N.E.W.Ts are over, I tell you! Those things were bloody hard..." Ron said as he, Draco, Harry, Hermione, Samantha, Brianna, Sapphire, Chairee, and Rachel sat on the grass next to the lake.

"I think I did pretty well," Hermione said.

"Never would've guessed!" Ron replied sarcastically.

"I'm just glad this year is over already," Sapphire said, her head resting on Harry's chest.

"Yeah, it was... interesting, to say the least," Harry agreed.

"Hey, Draco, what are you going to do about your dad?" Ron asked suddenly, directing his attention to Draco.

Draco shrugged. His dad was now in Azkaban, and his mom had gone insane when he was put there, so she was now in St. Mungo's. But, he did know what he was going to do now. He just didn't want to do it in front of a whole group of people.

He looked over at Harry, almost asking him if now was the right time. Harry nodded in response.

"Uh, actually, I need to talk to Hermione alone right now, if that's okay with all of you," Draco said, standing up and holding out his hand for Hermione.

"Yeah, sure, that's fine," Ron said, watching Draco and Hermione as they Draco led her far away from their friends.

* * *

"Draco, what do you need to talk to me about?" Hermione asked. Draco had led her all the way up to the Astronomy Tower, which was usually deserted around this time of the day.

Before saying a word, Draco gently grabbed Hermione and kissed her passionately on the lips. She looked surprised, but didn't hesitate; after all, she was with the only boy who'd ever made her happy.

"Wow. What was that for?" Hermione asked, grinning, as the two separated.

Draco touched a small box in his pocket with his finger and got down on one knee in front of Hermione.

"Alright, Hermione, you know how much I love you, right? Well, I've realized something; you're the only girl I've ever wanted to be with. Sure, I've dated a lot of girls, but you're the only one who ever made me happy and feel good about myself. And I'm pretty sure you feel the same way, so... I have to ask you one of the most important questions I'll ever be asking you; Hermione Granger, once the two of us turn eighteen, will you marry me?" Draco asked, holding out the beautiful diamond engagement ring he'd bought for her, Hermione staring at it with amazement and excitement.

THE END