FicWad

Disclaimer: None of the characters in this story are of my own invention, but instead the artwork of J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 1- A mild Dragon

Hermione woke up to a bright sun shining on her face. She groaned. Forgot to close her bed curtains yet again, and she always hated herself for it.
With quite a lot of bickering with herself in her head, Hermione dragged herself out of bed. She lazily took a shower and started dressing in her school robes before she realized,
"It's Saturday!" Hermione whispered to herself while brushing her burdening hair. And almost on cue, a second after she said it Hermione heard a voice outside the door.
"ITS CHRISTMAS BREAK!" Parvati sang.
Hermione finished brushing her hair and opened the bathroom door to Parvati dancing around the room, pointing her wand at a corner of the room to make a Christmas tree appear.
"Can you not?" Eloise groaned into her pillow.
"No, I have to, Eloise," Parvati said, shaking Eloise from her bed. "And you know why?"
Hermione answered her. "Because it's Christmas!" she sang.
Parvati turned around. She smiled at Hermione and said, "Yes, it is! Glad Mione's not a Grinch like El here."
Eloise rolled over on her bed to reveal an annoyed face. "I am not a Grinch, I just don't appreciate being woken up this early. What are you two, grandmas?"
Parvati tut-tutted at her comment. "Sleeping in is great, but not on Christmas break! How can you just ignore the snow?"
Hermione glanced out the window. Sure enough, a fresh layer of snow was awaiting them outside. Hermione smiled to herself. It wasn’t a proper Christmas until the snow fell.
Eloise had sat up to look out the window. Taking her chance, Parvati tackled Eloise off her bed.
"PARVATI NO-MIDDLE-NAME PATIL," Eloise yelled out. "I will kill you when you least expect it, I swear to you."
Hermione had doubled over laughing. Eloise glared at her, but then started laughing as well.
"Well, that would be great for you, but after Christmas break is over, please," Parvati replied.
This room was usually empty at this time of year, and Hermione had never stayed over Christmas break until now. With her parents in Australia, it took more hassle to get over than to just stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. Hermione loved her parents, but she needed this year alone, just to enjoy her last year at the wondrous school.
The only people in Gryffindor who had stayed over the break were Dean, Seamus, and Harry. The Weasley brother and sister had left for the Burrow. They had invited Harry and Hermione to come as well, but after what had happened this past year, she felt as if she would be invading their household, no matter what Mrs. Weasley told them. It just didn’t feel right.
Hermione was sad to lose Ginny over Christmas, but Ron leaving was quite relieving. Don't get me wrong, I love Ron. Just not like that. I loved him like a brother, but he did not feel the same way. After the kiss we shared during the Battle of Hogwarts, being together was an awkward situation. During summer, Ron had sent her plenty of mail that, she'd admit, made her feel quite excited to see him again, but he never kissed her when he first saw her at the Burrow. Sure, they had shared a few stolen kisses here and there, but they just never felt the same that the first had in the Room of Requirement. But even though there was almost no intimacy in their relationship, Ron still felt an unexplainable need to go with her almost everywhere.
Christmas Break lifted not only the Red-Haired weight off her shoulder, but now, finally, she could just relax. Sure, summer with her parents had been great, but it had been full of finding her parents, explaining everything to her parents, explaining everything again to the Ministry of Magic, and talking in court against a handful of Death Eaters.
Hermione, Parvati, and Eloise headed down to the Great Hall together. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall made sure that house connections were to be reinforced. So not only did that mean no more House Cup, it also meant that during meals houses were allowed to sit together. Due to the lack of people during Christmas break, the four tables were broken down to one, forcing all houses to sit together in, get ready for it, unity.
Although we all sat at the same table, that didn’t mean we had to sit right next to each other. While Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor all sat as one, Slytherin kept to themselves on the end of the table. The only Slytherins who had stayed this year were Draco, Blaise, and Pansy.
Harry sat down next to the three girls and frowned over at the Slytherin side of the long table. "Why they even have the guts to stay for Christmas is beyond me."
Hermione grabbed some French Toast from a plate in front of her. "Well, they probably have no place to go."
Harry's frown deepened. "But their parents are loaded, they obviously don’t need to stay here."
Padma, who sat across from us, sighed. "Harry, their parents may be loaded, but that doesn’t mean anything if they're in jail."
"Right," Harry said.
After breakfast, Harry suggested that we went outside. At this point, Eloise and Hannah were hanging on to every word that Harry muttered, so that he was never alone. Sure, they knew that Ginny and Harry were dating, but they didn’t care.
Speaking of it, they may have a chance. During Hermione's time at the Burrow, Harry and Ginny just seemed, well, distant. Even after they had gotten intimate, which Hermione was sure they only did because they knew they were growing apart, Ginny just seemed to be in a different world around him. Hermione had even once caught Ginny in the act of staring, quite longingly, at a photo, and when spotted, Ginny had hastily stowed it back into her diary.
But same was to be said on Harry's part as well. Soon after Ginny started, Harry followed suit, although Hermione didn’t think he had a picture to stare at.
The five of them cut through a hallway to the door of Hogwarts. Just after Harry had reached for the handle, a familiar voice rang out.
"Granger," called the notorious voice of Draco Malfoy.
Hermione whipped around in a fluid movement, grabbing her wand, and holding it up at shoulder height, although for Draco she was pointing at his stomach. He was standing a good five feet away from her.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry said from behind her.
Draco put up his hands to show that he had no intention of grabbing his wand. "I just want to have a civilized conversation with Granger."
Harry's eyes showed distrust. "I think we're past that point, Malfoy."
Hermione studied Draco for a moment. His eyes showed no bad intention, but you just never knew with Draco.
"It's okay, Harry, I can handle myself," Hermione said, lowering her wand.
Harry grunted. "Alright, Mione, but keep your wand out," Harry warned. "You never know what he'll do."
Draco laughed. "I take that as a compliment, Potter."
Harry made a grand exit by flaunting his middle finger, then left to go outside with the three other girls.
Hermione waited for the door to close before she asked, "What do you want, Malfoy?"
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I need a favor," Draco responded.
Hermione couldn't believe her ears. "A favor? For you? After all the damage you've caused, Malfoy, I'd think you'd learn your place."
"My place?" Draco questioned. "I thought we were all equal now, with Voldemort gone and whatever."
Hermione stepped forward, closing the five feet to three feet. "After what you've done-"
"First, sorry to interrupt, Granger, but first, you really think I wanted to do all of that shit? It stopped being funny in fifth year," Draco interrupted.
Before Hermione could respond, Draco continued, "And you really think that I'd be a killer? I stood up there, waiting for old Snape to come to my rescue. I had nothing in me to kill Dumbledore."
Hermione opened her mouth to speak, yet again Draco interrupted.
"And you really think that I enjoyed watching you get tortured by Bellatrix? Watching even Pansy get tortured by Bellatrix? It wasn't any fun, believe me."
This time Hermione beat him to it. "Pansy?" Hermione asked. "Why Pansy?"
Draco sighed. "Pansy was supposed to be watching the She-Weasley so that she didn’t sneak off. But after Weasley found her way home, Pansy tried to cover up her mess by blaming the Carrows. But soon enough Bellatrix found out, and she wasn’t happy that her perfect plan of spying on the Weasley family was ruined."
"Spying?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Draco answered. "The Weasley family was of course her biggest target, so she needed a spy. So, when Pansy let the Weasley girl go-"
"Her name's Ginny."
Draco looked at Hermione with annoyance. "Fine, when Pansy let Ginny go, Bellatrix, well, I don't even know what she did. But I definitely heard Crucio more than once."
Hermione was flabbergasted. Pansy? Out of all the people, Pansy Parkinson?
"And her parents? What did they do?"
Draco grimaced. "I don't think they cared much. Probably why she's not all too sad to see them in Azkaban."
A long silence ensued between the witch and wizard. Finally, it was Hermione that said, "Wow. Bellatrix is..."
Draco attempted to finish her sentence. "Horrible? Wicked? Evil?"
Hermione gave Draco a sad smile. "I guess."
Draco tapped his foot on the hall floor for a few seconds before he said, "Don't mention this to Pansy, okay?"
"I won't."
"Alright, back to business, Granger. As I already said, I need a favor. I'm assuming you'd like to know what that would be."
Draco's switch from guilt to his normal-self surprised Hermione. But then again, she knew that Draco wasn't one to bawl on.
When Hermione didn't say anything, Draco went on, "My request would be, I can't believe I'm saying this, that you'd tutor me in Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Tutor you?" Hermione asked. "You get good grades in both classes. You shouldn't need a tutor."
Draco smiled. "See, that’s the part of my master plan. Professors Morris and Jennings still hold my family name against me," he explained. "Ever since they heard of my name, all of my rightful A's turned into B's and C's."
"Teachers are not allowed to do that," Hermione countered.
"Yet they still do. So, I figured, since you've got every professor wrapped around your finger-"
"I do not-"
"-then the simplest solution would be that you go up to the professors and tell them that you're tutoring me, and that ought to turn my grades back up again. Hero Hermione Granger, saves the day yet again by tutoring Draco Malfoy," Draco emphasized his point by waving his hand in the way.
Hermione thought. Yes, sure it was a great plan. But did Hermione really want to do that, especially for Draco Malfoy? And what if this was a trap? There was too many cons...
"Fine, but you owe me two," Hermione finally answered.
Draco blanched. "Two? I only owe you one, Granger."
"No, you owe me two. One for the tutoring, and one for talking to the professors."
Draco grunted, but finally said, "Fine. Let's shake on it."
He put out his hand for Hermione to shake, and she grabbed and shook.
"Alright, Granger, when do we start?"
"First, we'll start with names. How about we call each other our first names for a change?"
Draco thought, then said, "Alright, Hermione" (Her name came unwillingly from his mouth).
"Good, Draco," she responded. "We'll meet Monday, in the Potions dungeon, at two o'clock, and then for DDA, we'll meet on Tuesday, in the Charms classroom, at three o'clock."
Draco made a show of pretending to think, then responded, "Guess that's good, since I've got nowhere else to go."

(Thank you for reading my fic, a new chapter will be coming out in a few days. I promise, as the chapters rant on it will go from G-R rated.)