Dramione; A Battle Worth Fighting

The Beginning of the End

On the morning of the first day of September, Hermione apparated to Kings Cross Station alone. Harry and Ginny were waiting for her by the ticket office.

"Good to see you Hermione." Harry called out to her.

"Harry! I didn't know you would be here!" she exclaimed when she realised it was him.

"I came to see Ginny off, and you if I could find you; I knew you would pass the ticket office so here was my best shot." he replied and smiled. Together, they set off for platform 9 and 3/4 and disappeared magically through the brick wall. The scarlet engine was puffing large clouds of white smoke. Hermione, Harry and Ginny were greeted by Luna and Neville, who were running towards them looking very pleased with themselves.

"Harry, Ginny, Hermione! We have the most amazing news!" Luna was squealing. She smiled at Neville, and she showed them her hand; on her finger there was a tiny diamond ring.

"We're getting married at Christmas!" Luna and Neville hugged each other.

"That's fantastic!" Hermione and Ginny shook hands with Neville, which looked and felt rather strange. Luna and Neville disapparated together.

Harry and Ginny were kissing each other goodbye, before Ginny boarded the train with Hermione. It started to leave the station. Out of the compartment window, Ginny and Hermione waved goodbye to Harry and watched the platform fade in the distance as the train picked up speed.

"I can't believe it's our final year." Ginny sighed and sat down. Hermione, however, pinned her Head Girl badge to her uniform and picked up her travelling bag.

"Where are you going?" Ginny asked as Hermione slid the compartment door open.

"Prefects carriage; Professor Mcgonagall sent an owl saying I needed to meet her for the train ride and stay in the Prefect's carriage." Hermione replied, and left. As she walked through the corridors, people were staring and pointing at her; the girl who fought alongside Harry Potter. They were whispering and giggling as Hermione went from an easy pace to a fast walk. She reached the fifth carriage out of six in the train. It read "Headmistress" in golden letters. Hermione took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A magical eye popped out of the door; it looked just like Mad-Eye Moody's, but a mild green instead of electric blue. The door swung open and the frail old Professor looked up at Hermione. Standing next to her chair was Draco Malfoy and a Daily Prophet reporter; oh no! Rita Skeeter, Hermione's enemy. She saw the reporters eyes gleam with hate; Hermione had once successfully blackmailed Rita four years ago into writing the truth, not horrible lies and gossip about people.

"Miss Granger, good to see you. I trust you know the responsibilities of Head Girl?" Hermione replied with a very quick "Yes Professor Mcgonagall". The Professor asked her to stand with Malfoy, who smiled as she came over; she didn't trust the smile, and stood as far away from him as Rita Skeeter would allow.

"Miss Skeeter here is now a writer for the Hogwarts Newspaper; The Magical Monthly. In our first addition, there will be a complete set of school rules and equipment, a list of Prefects, Head Boy and Girl, teachers and a few....familiar faces." Hermione thought by "familiar faces" she meant students who had returned to school to redo their N.E.W.Ts or (like Hermione and Draco) Seventh Year.

"The Hogwarts Express will be arriving in Scotland in 2 hours, so you may both advance to the Prefect carriage. Prefects will be making sure all students are in a compartment and not walking around and you will instruct them for their patrols. Any student who is not a Prefect will be given a warning if not in a compartment. Do you both understand?" They replied with "Yes Professor Mcgonagall" and left.

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As Hermione and Malfoy walked to the Prefect carriage, Hermione bent down to tie her shoelace; once she had straightened up, Malfoy grabbed her forearm and held her close to him. She tried to shake loose but he wouldn't let her.

"If I let you go, will you listen?" he whispered in her ear. She stopped struggling and Malfoy let her go. When he did, she leapt back against some suitcases and breathed hard as if she had been running; she looked at him with hatred.

"Look, I'm sorry for everything that happened in the Wizarding War. Honestly I am. If I didn't care about you, then I would've told Bellatrix it was Harry Potter and you would've been killed. Right from the start of the war I cared!" He yelled the last sentence. Hermione stopped and thought for a minute; then, she pulled up her sleeve to reveal a scar on her arm. It was clear; it spelled out, in her own blood, MUDBLOOD. In fury, she pulled it back down as fast as she had pulled it up.

"I really am....sorry, Hermione. It wasn't my fault that she did that!" he screamed. Some first years were anxiously watching them. Draco started to walk towards them in anger, his whole body tense.

"What do you think you're doing! Your compartment doors should be closed at all times!" he yelled at them, before slamming the door and walking quite fast into the Prefect's compartment. The door on the first year's compartment had been smashed and there was broken glass everywhere; Hermione repaired it and apologised to the first years but said that the door really did need to be closed. They nodded and she left for the Prefect's carriage.

Before going into the Head Boy and Head Girl compartment with Malfoy, she pulled a first aid kit out of her extendable beaded bag that saved her life more than once last year. Once again, she pulled up her left sleeve, but slowly this time. For a minute, she looked at her scar and tears began to fill her eyes. Then, she wrapped her scar up in white bandages to cover it from eagle eyes; especially Slytherin eyes. Once this was done, she went into the compartment with Malfoy. He didn't look up as she entered, but looked at her arm which she had bandaged.

"Did the glass cut you?" he asked quietly.

"No," she replied just as quietly. "There was something I wished to keep hidden."

"Did you put the correct charms on?"

"Charms?" Hermione replied, perplexed slightly. Draco pulled out his wand. Hermione held her breath.

"Specialis Revelio" he muttered. The scar shone through the bandages; it burned. Hermione had completely forgotten to put a protective charm on it. Once again, she pulled out the first aid kit, muttered an incantation to keep it hidden, and wrapped another layer of bandages around it. This time, when Draco said the incantation, it stayed hidden. Hermione smiled and thanked him. She then pulled out a notebook and her copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard which she had received from Dumbledore. The book was written in Ancient Runes, so Hermione was translating it. To help with some of the more difficult runes, she pulled out her large book on rune translations. Malfoy watched her translate story by story, not getting bored.

"What do Muggle children read?" he asked after several long minutes of silence. Hermione looked up from her rune translations book and stared for a couple of seconds. She troubled to find her words.

"Well....my favourite muggle story is Rapunzel." she said, once she had found the right words to make a proper sentence that made sense. It shocked her when she asked; Draco Malfoy, casually asking her about the life of a muggle child?

"I thought Rapunzel was a kind of plant." he said back. Hermione laughed, and told him about a beautiful girl with hair so long people could climb up it, and how she lived in a tower, imprisoned by a witch. Draco asked if the witch was like Bellatrix Lestrange; Hermione didn't say yes. She said that he'd have to read it and judge for himself.