It's Complicated

I Suggest...

Hermione gave the Slytherine a sharp kick in the gut and untangled herself from his grasp yanking her blanket out of his fist as she did so.

Draco made the sound of a an angry, dying elephant on the floor while Minerva McGonagal surveyed the room with cold eyes, yet Hermione could see with some surprise that they also held warmth and a tad bit of amusement but it was gone by the time she could make anything of it.

"Is this the sort of behaviour I should expect from our HeadBoy and Girl for the next year?" The strict teacher asked wearily, the threat looming under her words - this better not be the behaviour of our new HeadBoy and Girl - it said harshly.

Hermione flushed violet and shook her head frantically, she wasn't going to let him ruin this for her!

The ferret was still on the floor feigning injury and some wretched part of Ms Granger wanted the pain to be real, to hurt him like he deserved. Oh boy, she thought nastily, does he deserve pain.

Little did she know that he'd suffered enough of it to carry him through all of time and space without stopping once for rocket fuel.

"Mr Malfoy, get up and address your headmistress." Hermione had expected him to act rudely and in a disrespectful manner to her favourite teacher but to her surprise he pulled himself up and then plonked down on a seat nodding for the older woman to continue. She smiled wryly at the boy a rare smile that she reserved for people like Hermione or Mr Potter, Draco never thought one would be directed at him and he felt a swell of pride at the sight of it.

He was earning his honour back, little by little.

"As you may already know, the Heads of the school are required to take certain roles - someone the youngest of students can turn to and someone the older students trust and care about," Hermione pressed her lips tightly the image of a little boy asking Malfoy for help was hysterical.

"You will be who organises events and also organises patrols of the prefects taking some of them yourself.

Then there is the lovely arrangement of the shared living area, unfortunately because not all of Hogwarts has been restored yet you will be sharing a dormitory." Draco jaw slackened and he shot the muggle-born a disgusted glare.

Share a living space? Fine, he could avoid it like the plague but sleeping space was entirely different. He began to protest just as Hermione opened her mouth to do the same.

McGonagal held up her hand before either of them could speak.

"This is not to be a negotiation, that is what is happening. It will show our older students how to act now that the war is over and set an example for the younger ones." Hermione snorted, she'd do it if she had to but she wasn't going to tell anybody about it!

Draco was thinking along the same lines. He wasn't going to go back to Slytherine and announcing he was going to be sleeping ten feet from a mudblood was this woman mental?

I'd be killed!

Draco thought sending another dagger filled stare Hermione's way, not as oblivious to this as he had thought she was she very sneakily, without detection gave him the V sign behind her back so that only he could see.

He almost choked on his laughter, Hermione Granger swearing?

It was the funniest thing he'd seen in years!

"I trust that you will take this job seriously and do it proud," McGonagal looked to Hermione and inclined her head.

"Like I know you will." Then with a swish of her cloak she left the compartment.

Hermione slumped down in exhaustion, she'd been standing for only a few minutes but it felt like forever to be under her scrutiny.

To be caught in such a position!

Hermione's embarrassment shone on her heart-shaped face, which she then buried in her blanket.

"You know Granger it occurs-" Hermione held up a hand to silence him her face still stuffed into the blanket. She heard him huff, and started to smile in satisfaction, he'd actually shut up? Amazing.

She counted to 20 in her head before coming up for air only to see him watching her with a cooly raised eyebrow.

"It occurs to me that we'll be spending an awful lot of time together." The muggle-born grimaced at his words. He was right though, there wasn't really a way around it.

"So, I suggest..." He trailed off.

"What? What do you suggest Mafloy?" Hermione asked impatiently he simply shook his head making her even more infuriated with him.

"Fine!" She muttered, laying down across her seats and using her blanket as a pillow decided to go back to sleep.

Draco watched wearily as she did this, still berating himself for almost suggesting that they get along, it was outrageous! Why would he even want to get along with filth like her?

Yet, it was obvious while she slept that he could very well get along with her.

She was intelligent, she was responsible - heck! - she could even be funny!

So what was stopping him?

He searched her face again, trying to find some sort of dirt or troll features that could prove that she belonged in a sewer rather than a magical school.

He could find none.