Hermione all but dropped her parcels when she saw the owl, and stopped moving abruptly. Ginny ran into her back and sent her tripping towards the bird. The great, tawny beast shifted uncertainly, but didn't fly away in fright like Hermione expected.

"Whose owl is that?" Ginny inquired.

"Malfoy's, I suppose," Hermione replied absently, lowering herself to sit on the bed. She felt breathless. She honestly hadn't expected him to write her so soon, if at all. Her pulse began to pick up; she felt nervous and excited, both of which were tempered with guilt. She shouldn't be excited to be hearing from the boy who did everything in his power to make her miserable as they were growing up.

"Malfoy?! Why on earth would Malfoy be contacting you, Hermione?" Ginny gasped.

"He's Head Boy," Hermione replied, reaching to take the letter from the owl's leg. "We're going to discuss our plans for the prefects over the summer so we're prepared on the first."

When no response came from Ginny, Hermione turned around. Ginny was standing there staring at her with a look that she couldn't quite decipher. She hoped beyond hope that she'd never called out his name during one of her dreams, and if she had that Ginny had slept through it and wouldn't be confronting her about it. Something crossed Ginny's face, and she shook her head, as if deciding against something.

"That dirty, little ferret better toe the line concerning you, or he'll have me to answer to!" Ginny proclaimed boldly.

"I really don't think that will be—," Hermione started before Ginny cut her off.

"Save it! I know what a prat he's been to you in the past, and I know that you can handle yourself, and that you have Ron and Harry to back you up, but aside from Fleur," Ginny shuddered, though not as much as she used to, "You are the closest thing to a sister I have and no one, I mean no one is going to mess with you and get away with it."

With that, Ginny dropped her bags on her own bed, turned on her heel and flounced from the room. Hermione smiled fondly after the younger girl, and shook her head. Ginny was loyal to a fault, and Hermione had no doubt that she would follow through on her threats if Malfoy did anything untoward.

Sighing, she ran a hand over her face. She'd finally gotten the letter unattached from the owl during Ginny's tirade, and now she looked down at it. She felt so intimidated by this letter. For all she knew it was full of venomous hatred, but the way he'd been at Madame Malkin's had her hoping that perhaps he would have responded professionally. He'd made a small jab at her, but nowhere near what he'd been like in previous years. For all she knew, he was trying to look like he was trying to be more amicable in public, but in the privacy of a letter he could be a heinous beast again. What am I thinking? Didn't I just reprimand Harry and Ron for not giving him a second chance? Steeling herself, she looked at the letter with determination; no matter what it said or how he acted she would remain professional. Maybe he would even surprise her. She bit her lip as she flipped it over and slid her finger under the flap of the envelope until it opened, and proceeded to pull out the letter. She read over it slowly, making sure to consider everything he said.

She couldn't lie, she was surprised when she got to, "I hope that this year we can work together and put the last few years behind us." It sounded like he actually wanted to work together, to put the past behind them. She wanted to trust him, knew that McGonagall wouldn't have teamed them up if she didn't think things would work out, but still, she felt wary. How could years of conditioning to hate muggleborns just suddenly go up in smoke in such a manner that he was willing to work affably with her?

She struggled internally over whether or not to trust this new, reformed version of him as she wrote back.

Malfoy,

Thank you for your prompt correspondence. I think that your idea about mixing house prefects is a good one and would work wonderfully. Perhaps we could even set it up on a rotation so that the same two people aren't together the whole time. That way, if two people don't get along they won't be stuck together the whole year. I'm not going to lie, as I'm sure you noticed in Madame Malkin's, I was shocked that you are Head Boy, but I think that if we both truly can put the past behind us and move on from that, that we can present a united front. I propose that we attempt to get to know each other over the remainder of the summer to try and make this work better.

Cordially,

Hermione Granger

Feeling confident about her letter, she calmly slipped it into an envelope, attached it to Malfoy's owl's leg, and sent it on its way before she really had time to ponder what she had written and rewrite it fifty times. Exhausted, she flopped backwards onto the bed and succumbed to sleep.

///

They were tangled up on the couch in the common room, kissing each other like they needed the other to live. It had started out innocently enough; they'd both been reading, when Draco had caught her staring again. After tossing his book aside, he plucked her book from her hands and tackled her into the cushions. She'd giggled and squealed and had pretended to protest, but he knew all too well that she couldn't get enough of him. Soon enough, the giggles and squeals turned into sighing the other's name. At some point, Draco had moved from her lips to her neck, to that place just under her ear that she loved when he kissed. After a few minutes more, she broke the kiss and gazed up into his eyes.

"I think I'm falling in love with you," she whispered, moving her gaze from his face down to his chest.

"Well I know I'm in love with you 'Mione." He said rather giddily.

Hermione stiffened and slowly looked up at him. She was no longer looking at her handsome Slytherin; she was looking up at Ron.

The pure shock and horror, had her shooting up in bed. She pushed the hair up out of her face and let out a long sigh. This was getting to be too much for her.