What I\'ve Always Known

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of the characters in this story, save for the new Heads.

Chapter One: Jealous Eyes


Rain spattered the windows relentlessly as the Hogwarts Express plunged further towards the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Lush scenes of greens and purples flashed past in colorful intervals, the speed of the train making it impossible for it’s passengers to fully enjoy the beauty of the countryside. The ride was familiar to many students aboard that train, including Hermione Granger, now in her sixth year at Hogwarts. It was only the second time Hermione had ever been on the train without her two best friends; the famous Harry Potter and the oddball Ronald Weasley. Harry and Ron had owled Hermione earlier that day to let her know they were going to find their own means of making it to school that year.

‘Please don’t let it be another flying car’ Hermione thought to herself, and smiled. She didn’t think that they could take much more punishment without Mrs. Weasley, Ron’s mother, sending about three dozen howlers the very same day. Even a missed homework assignment would mean a harsh punishment for Ron.

Hermione stared out the window, squinting through the silver sheets of rain, trying to make out anything familiar, any landmark that would tell her something of their distance from the Hogwarts castle. The train ride was taking far too long for her liking. Returning to Hogwarts, felt like returning home for Hermione this summer. Things had changed at home, and Hermione’s parents were no longer the simple dentists Harry and Ron had labeled them as years ago. Dan Granger, Hermione’s father, was out of work, and did not seem to even care. Toward the end of the summer, he could barely see past the bottom of the beer bottles that were constantly in his mouth or hand, let alone see the strain he was placing on his wife. Hermione’s mother, Eileen, had turned somewhat frantic and took to controlling Hermione’s life, as her own was so far out of reach. Making sure Hermione knew that she was counting on her to make her proud with flawless school marks that Eileen could brag about to her colleagues at work. She did her best to make sure Hermione stood up straight, kept her nose in her books and out of trouble. Hearing about what they had done last summer had nearly made Eileen disown Hermione; breaking into the Ministry of Magic to rescue a mass murderer whose innocence was only known to a small group of people, including Hermione herself. The fact that it was not even her ministry made no difference to Eileen, and she punished Hermione, punished her so gravely, that Hermione’s return to Hogwarts was blissful for the girl. Hermione let her forehead fall against the cool glass of the window, hoping that in some way it would help to calm her hot, feverish thoughts. The absence of her two best friends had finally given Hermione time to slow down; time to think about all that had happened over the summer, including Ron’s newly confessed feelings for her…

“Anything off the trolley, dear?” A sudden voice startled Hermione out of her reverie. She turned to see the plump witch who always pushed the lunch trolley through the train smiling at Hermione from her compartment doorway.

“No thank you, I’m not hungry” Hermione smiled at the witch. She hadn’t heard the door open, and wondered how long the witch had been standing there. The trolley witch nodded and made to shut the door, when someone in the corridor stopped her. Pushing the trolley in front of her, she dutifully knocked on the next door.

“Not eating anything Granger? My my, this must be a first!” said a voice in an all too familiar drawl. Blonde silver hair pushed its way around the door, followed by a pale face, set with cold grey eyes. “And where are potty and the weasel this evening? Why have they deprived me the great joy of making all three of you Gryffindor rats’ lives miserable?” The speaker moved their lean, but well built frame into the doorway.

“Shove off Malfoy. Can’t you tell when you’re not wanted?” Hermione snapped at the blonde boy.
Malfoy…Draco Malfoy had been the cause of a good deal of their messy entanglements at school over the past five years. He was usually the root of their problems, the slimy, poisonous little root.

“Temper temper Granger! The headmaster wouldn’t appreciate his cleverest little mudblood prefect being snotty with an honorable Slytherin prefect now would he?” Malfoy said lazily, his silky voice filling the whole room as he leaned casually against the doorway to Hermione’s compartment.
Hermione’s temper rose rapidly, and somewhat uncharacteristically, at his use of the word ‘mudblood’.

“I don’t know what you’re on about Malfoy. I have yet to see a Slytherin worthy of anything, besides shame and disgrace. You know nothing of honor, snake!” Hermione found herself suddenly on her feet, right hand inside her robes, fingers clenched tightly, almost desperately, around the handle of her wand. Draco straightened up, his body rigid with anger.

“What did you say?” he said in a deathly whisper, every syllable trembling with cold fury. His right hand was also now inside his robes, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why it was there.

“You heard me, or is your head so swollen with your ego that it’s gone and blocked your ears off?” Hermione spat, now shaking with years of suppressed rage. She hadn’t been this angry with Malfoy since back in the third year when he made fun of Hagrid, and that time she had slapped him across the mouth. For the few seconds they stared at each other, fingers around their wands, the very air in the room seemed to crackle with anger and…something else. Hermione couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was definitely another feeling, simmering just below the surface.

“You…you…“Malfoy, for once, seems enraged beyond words. “Disgusting mudblood! You are a disgrace to the wizarding kind, you and all the other half breeds of this world! How dare you talk to me about honor, you horrible mudblood!” Draco advanced into the room. In his fury he seemed to fill the entire compartment and as he reached her, Hermione had to take a step backwards to avoid being knocked over. Being about half a foot shorter than him, she had to tilt her chin up to be able to see his face. His eyes were flashing angry and his cheeks were a pale pink, Malfoy’s version of flushing. Hermione guessed that her chestnut eyes looked just as stormy as his grey ones, and her cheeks were practically on fire with heat. In a moment of bravery, or perhaps stupidity, Hermione summoned up the words she had been longing to say for a long time, and pushed them out of her mouth;

“What are you going to do, ferret boy? Get your father to come up her and fight all your battles? Even against a helpless little mudblood witch like me?” Hermione sneered savagely. From the way Draco’s face twisted and went pale, she knew she had touched a nerve.

“How dare you-“Draco began.

“There you two are! We’ve been searching every compartment for you two! The head boy and girl want all prefects to the front compartment for a short meeting.” Hannah Abbot, Hufflepuff sixth year and fellow prefect poked her head into the compartment and cut Draco’s words short. Seemingly oblivious to the almost unbearable tension in the room, Hannah strolled forward and reached around Draco for Hermione’s arm, pausing only to scratch Hermione’s cat Crookshanks behind his fluffy ginger ears.

“My Hermione, you’re feeling thinner, how was your summer? I tried using that telemaphone thing, you know that muggles use, to call you, but your dad said that you weren’t allowed out of your room! Whatever were you punished for?”

‘Hannah Please stop!’ Hermione thought urgently, spotting Draco’s eyes widen at Hannah’s last words. Hermione loved Hannah dearly, but sometimes her mouth was so big you could park a truck in it.

“I mean, of course I asked but he seemed kind of…drunk, really. He was barely coherent. Draco, you’re in the way.” Hannah bustled about the compartment, talking none stop. Draco had moved in front of the door while Hannah was talking and now his eyes were boring into Hermione, who was looking determinedly else where.

“Am I now?” Draco asked distantly, still looking at Hermione.

“Yes, yes you are. Now if you would, we all need to reach the front compartment…” Hannah said pointedly.

Without a word, Draco spun around and strode purposefully towards the prefects compartments at the front of the train.

“I never got why he was a prefect.” Hannah said, as soon as Draco was out of ear shot “I mean, his marks weren’t even that…Hermione dear, why are you groping yourself?!” Hannah suddenly demanded, staring at the hand that was still inside Hermione’s robes, gripping her wand.

“Um…new hobby?” Said Hermione, slipping the handle of her wand out of her robes to show Hannah.

“Well everyone needs one” Hannah chuckled and knocked on the compartment door that Draco had shut behind him.

Footsteps approached the door from inside and Head girl Anne Rivers opened the door for them.

“Ah girls, good you here. Sit down.” Anne indicated to the two seats left in the compartment; one next to Ernie McMillan and one next to Draco.

‘Oh god Hannah, don’t do it…’ Hermione pleaded inwardly, but too late; Hannah had already seated herself next to her fellow Hufflepuff prefect.

“Hermione?” Anne raised her eyebrows at Hermione and nodded to the seat by Draco.

“I- I’d rather stand, thank you” Hermione smiled at Anne, hoping Draco hadn’t heard the waver in her voice. Anne shrugged and counted heads, making sure everyone was present.

“Parkinson, Malfoy, Abbot, McMillan, Goldstein, Patil, Granger…Wait a moment, we’re missing someone, male prefect for Gryffindor…” Anne hesitated. At a glance from Anne, Head boy Aaron Clark checked a roll of parchment sitting in his lap.

“That would be…Ronald Weasley.” He said, running a finger down the list.
Draco snorted derisively and Hermione had to cross her arms to stop her hand reaching for her wand again.

“Oh yes” Said Anne, nodding “Does anyone know where-?”

“He’s finding different means of arriving” Hermione answered the unfinished question.

“Well let’s just hope they aren’t rash,” Anne said reprovingly. Hermione studied her shoelaces carefully, focusing on not snorting with laughter; this woman clearly didn’t know her Ron.

“Alright, this year, things are a bit different up at the castle” Anne said, and Hermione’s head rose to look at the suddenly professional Head girl “Firstly, even though Professor Umbridge has left her post as both teacher and High Inquisitor, the Ministry still sees fit to interfere with Hogwarts. You will receive clearer details from the Headmaster at the welcoming feast, so for now I need only say this; the Ministry is looking for any excuse to persecute our beloved Headmaster-“another snort from Draco and a sappy giggle from Pansy Parkinson punctuated Anne’s speech-“and the last thing we need is to lose our headmaster when the Dark Lord has returned.” There was a sharp upswing in the attentiveness at theses words. Nearly everyone tensed in their seat, and a few people looked as though they might be sick. Anne ignored the almost baleful silence in the compartment and plunged on with her notices; “Secondly, with the dark arts so close to the surface these days, the Headmaster and heads of houses saw it fit that this year, prefects will patrol the halls at night time this year. This does not mean that you will be patrolling every night-“Anne had to raise her voice slightly as many of the prefects grumbled at this news “-It means that you will be spending one night each week in the company of one other prefect and the both of you will be patrolling the castle together from the hours of 9PM to 6 AM. Does anyone have any questions?” Anne folded her hands behind her back and
dropped her professional manner, her duty done.

Several hands flew up in the air, and Aaron Clark stood up next to Anne. He pointed at Ernie and Ernie stood up, apparently desperate to give a good impression. Stumbling as the train swayed he asked “Will we be patrolling the halls with the same partner every week, sir?”

Aaron grinned broadly at being addressed as ‘Sir’ but quickly quailed under Anne’s furious stare.

“Ahem-yes…er…no, no you will be rotating partners every week until you have patrolled with at least every other prefect, then you will start at the beginning again. We will move in that cycle all year.” Aaron clutched the wall as he spoke; the train was slowing down and was lurching unnervingly in the process. Hermione was having a hard time keeping her balance as Aaron’s words sunk in; she was going to have to spend nine hours in the dark castle with Draco Malfoy…

“Well, the trains slowing down, we must be near the castle. Hopefully the rest of your questions will be answered at the feast. If not, feel free to come and find either Aaron or I, and we will answer them for you. You had all better get your luggage. And you need to change” Anne added, pointing to a Ravenclaw prefect Anthony Goldstein.

Hermione practically bolted out of the prefect’s compartment, down the train corridor and back to her own. Resisting the urge to scream out loud in frustration, Hermione poked Crookshanks awake from where he was snoozing on a seat, and put him back in his basket.

“You’ll be out before you know it Crookshanks “She promised her bandy legged cat through the wicker work basket. An abrupt jolt of the train sent Hermione flying into the seat opposite, and she guessed they were at Hogsmeade station. Hermione stowed Crookshanks back in the luggage rack where he would later be taken up to her dormitory and joined the throng in the corridor, all crushing towards the door.

“Hey Hermione!” a voice called out across the crowd. Hermione looked around and found the owner of the voice.

“Hey Seamus!” Hermione waved and pushed her way toward her fellow Gryffindor, where he stood with Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom, also in Gryffindor.

“Where are Ron and Harry?” Neville asked, looking around for them.
Hermione explained that they were finding their own way to school, when Malfoy went elbowing by their group. Seamus threw his arms up just in time to catch Hermione, who went flying into him when someone went flying into her, all set off by Malfoy and his cronies; Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. A love-struck Pansy Parkinson trailed after them, laughing as though Draco had just done the wittiest thing in wizarding history. Hermione thanked Seamus, straightened up and turned around, ready to glare at Draco. Her breath caught in her throat as she found he was already looking their way; he was staring at Seamus with something that strangely resembled something like jealousy. Hermione’s feet carried her off the train and into a ‘horseless’ carriage, while their owner was stuck in a confused daze. Jealousy? Why would he be jealous of Seamus? Hermione shook herself mentally when she realized someone was talking to her

“What? Oh, sorry Ginny, hi!” Hermione cheerfully greeted Ron’s younger sister, a small red headed girl, who had said hello to Hermione.

“You didn’t even hear me say me say hi when I got into the carriage! Are you alright?” Ginny asked, concern on her freckled features.

“Yes I’m fine; I’m just a little tired is all. Did Harry and Ron tell you how they’re getting here?” Hermione demanded of the girl.
Ginny giggled and shook her head, although she looked guilty. Hermione laughed and shrugged, before going back to staring out the window, searching for the first sight of the castle.

Just as Hermione was starting to get distracted by Ginny and Dean laughing over something Seamus said, the tallest tower, the astronomy towers, came into view. Hermione laughed out loud with joy as the rest of the towers and turrets became visible through the curtain of rain. Dean and Seamus gazed at Hermione like she was twisted, but Hermione couldn’t care less; she was home.