When Draco Malfoy turned up on the Order's doorstep with Harry, everyone welcomed him with open arms. They trusted him. But, not Hermione. She knew better; he was up to something. She wasn't quite prepared for what that something was. Or how she'd feel about it after.

"I just don't understand. Why... why Malfoy?" She was scrubbing the dishes in front of her the muggle way, a habit she did when she was nervous, uncomfortable, or angry. And now, with her fiancé red in the face and not meeting her eye, she was all three. "He's..." From her peripheral she watched him run a shaking hand through his hair. "He's just everything I'm not. Everything I've always wanted to be."

Malfoy's handsome face was contoured into a condescending smirk. "No faith in that giant brain of yours, Granger?" She looked up at him defiantly. "Maybe I don't have any faith in you!" she said, raising her voice. Malfoy only looked at her. You'll find I'm very surprising. Dramione AU, canon divergence, year 6 with a slow burn and a killer twist. Book I of "This World or Any Other" Series. COMPLETE. [Cross-posting of all stories currently in progress from FFN and AO3.]

Hermione felt the pounding in her ears again. She would see him for the first time since the Great Hall, gaunt and stricken at the Slytherin table with his mother clutching his arm. She hadn't meant to look for him. Not in the corridors, not beneath the white sheets of the fallen, not on the way to the Chamber of Secrets with Ron, but she was a stupid girl.