I just want to add that I am not a native english speaker so the beginning of this story starts a little clumsily. I improved a lot in the writing process so I hope you won't give up on my story too early :)

There is lots of drama ahead, some mystery and a very slow-burn Dramione!

A loud buzz jolted Hermione out of her sleep. She jerked upwards in her bed but recovered quickly, realizing that it was only her wand alarm. Rubbing her tired eyes, she murmured the counter spell and got up for the day.

Before leaving her private quarters, Hermione took the time to make sure that her Head Girl Badge was fastened correctly to her uniform. Thinking about the more dreadful parts of her new job, she sighed. Somehow, Hermione had imagined this task to be easier, this year to be easier. Instead, she wasn't as sure of her capabilities as she used to be anymore. It didn't help that she detested the one sharing her position. Why in the name of Merlin they had elected him for Head Boy, was beyond her. As she hurried through the Dungeons towards the Great Hall, Hermione mentally catalogued her daily tasks. Frowning, Hermione realised that today was her turn. Shaking her head, she sped up her pace to divert her attention elsewhere. She'd deal with that duty at the appointed time, no need to ruin her concentration for the whole day by worrying about it.

When Hermione made it to the Entrance Hall, she spotted a still bleary eyed Harry and an equally tired Ron waiting for her at the grand doors. As soon as her friends noticed her, they waved her over and together the three of them entered the Great Hall for breakfast. Passing the House Tables they discovered that they were in fact one of the early risers that morning, except for the Ravenclaws, who were already assembled in little groups at their table studying or reading.

Once they were seated among their fellow seventh years at the Gryffindor Table, Ron instantly fell into a conversation with Dean and Seamus about this year's Hogwarts Quidditch Teams. Tryouts had been the week prior, giving the boys fodder for conversation. Realizing that Ron was a lost cause, Hermione tried to get Harry's attention, but he couldn't tear his eyes off Ginny, who was laughing with her friends a few seats down the table.

"You mustn't forget that Smith is now in charge and promised retribution for last years' fail. He wants to change his tactics completely and drop his last seeker," Seamus replied to Ron's question about the Hufflepuff team. "I'm just not quite sure who'll take his place."

"Who do you think will replace Summerby as seeker, Harry?" Dean asked looking at him expectantly.

"What?" Harry turned around seeming slightly confused by being shaken out of his reverie.

"Never mind," Ron rolled his eyes good-naturedly at his friend and continued his analysis of the Hufflepuffs' game tactics with Dean and Seamus.

Giving up on seeking her friends' attention with a huff, Hermione made herself a marmalade toast. Didn't they know that there were more important things than Quidditch? Reaching for the Daily Prophet that had already been delivered, she turned to page one. She had to swallow hard, when her breakfast nearly made a reappearance. Her eyes watered slightly, when she choked on her last bite. The article Hermione had spotted was listing two attacks frighteningly close to her home.

Putting the newspaper as well as her toast aside, Hermione pulled out her Potions essay instead, scouring it for any wayward mistakes. She really should be used to the dreadful news that reached Hogwarts week after week by now. But it continued to fill her with lung-squeezing hopelessness. It felt like a tsunami that you were powerless to escape from, announcing its presence with gigantic waves that conquered the horizon long before the actual impact. Hermione got the uncomfortable feeling that it was already too late for her to run. The wave would catch up to her eventually. How could she leave her friends to deal with its destruction anyway? Hermione huffed, her friends that didn't even seem to give a care in the world, discussing Quidditch tactics instead of preparation measures. Shaking her head, she returned her attention back to her essay.

She could have helped Neville with his Potions essay, but he was off to the Ravenclaw table, trying to explain to Luna why Nargles could not help Snapping Grass fend off hungry Unicorns. Next to them sat Ernie Macmillan with his study group. The other Ravenclaws simply ignored the quirky girl who was swinging her amulets at Neville. Hermione could have an enlightening discussion with Ernie about their last Astronomy lesson, but seeing as they were not really friends outside of the classroom, she didn't want to interrupt his breakfast. Nor did she have time to anyway. Her essays needed to be reread, of course. She would not let her grades slip because she was socialising at the breakfast table rather than adding citations and proofreading her assignment.

After a quiet breakfast, Hermione and her friends hurried to their Charms Class. When everyone had settled into class - Harry and Ron on either side of her - Professor Flitwick asked his students about the Tergeo Charm. Hermione's hand shot up and before her teacher could pronounce the last syllable of her name she started to rattle off the answer with textbook-precision. She didn't feel particularly proud, as she was used to answering correctly. However, she felt content at last, when Professor Flitwick awarded her ten House Points for her answer. Subsequently, she was able to answer three more questions and became irritated with the slow pace the lesson was progressing. Did no one do their assigned reading?

When Hermione finished her last monologue about the different pronunciations and their influence on cleaning spells, she heard hushed giggling from Lavender who was sitting directly behind her. The girl whispered in a strange, high-pitched voice to Parvati and Hermione realized that they were mocking her for her ability to cite textbook passages. Feeling a lump rise in her throat she swallowed hard to quell the sensation. Unable to suppress her humiliation Hermione's ears heated up.

Grinding her teeth, she kept herself from turning around and scolding her housemates for disturbing the lesson, which would give them even more ammunition to make fun of her. They were just jealous, Hermione told herself and lowered her head to her notes. Staring at the lines, she desperately tried to concentrate on her last notation, but despite her best efforts the words were swimming in front of her eyes.

Hermione's embarrassment slowly turned into anger. In the wizarding world women didn't know their own worth. They didn't try to learn and study because they didn't think they would need it anyway. They didn't know anything, silly girls with their shiny hair and pretty painted nails. Hermione looked down at her own short cut and ink strained ones. What would they ever accomplish other than finding a man and cooking his meals while ironing his tie for work?

She wouldn't settle for that kind of life. She was meant to be someone. Hermione knew it, because she was different than them, she was smarter. Never would she sit at home having litters of children she had to cook for and clean up after. Hermione wouldn't throw away her potential to stay at home and do household chores. Lavender and Parvati would be content to someday sit at home and tend to their tots while gossiping, cooking, and cleaning. She might not get to laugh now, but she would be the one laughing in the end when she would employ their spouses and make changes in the Ministry to end the many injustices there. Hermione refused to let herself be pushed aside and continued to hold her head up high mimicking her hand in the following classes.

Leaving Ancient Runes in the afternoon, Hermione made her way to her office.

She was about to turn the corner, when she was shoved forcefully from behind, causing her to stumble and her notes that she had carried to file later slipped from her hands. In a heap of papers they scattered across the floor in front of her.

"Try to not stand in my way, will you, Granger?" Theodore Nott said haughtily.

Hermione grumbled under her breath and reached flustered for her notes, fearing that they would be trampled, if she didn't hurry to gather them up. Nott laughed and stepped on one on purpose, keeping her from picking it up.

"You are a witch, aren't you?" he asked. "At least you're blazing that presumptuous assertion around at every opportunity you get. But, Granger," he leaned down, like she was an imbecile, "a real witch wouldn't crawl around in the dirt if she can wave her wand to pick up her things."

Hermione opened her mouth to deduct a heavy sum of points from the insolent Slytherin, when she was interrupted.

"Ten points, Nott," the Head Boy drawled.

"Oh, come on! It is the truth after all," he complained with an amused glint in his eyes, still not taking the situation seriously.

"It is. But as she's Head Girl, she can deduce as many points as she wants as punishment and you would have lost at least fifty for that. Now that I already disciplined you, she can't give you a second punishment. That just wouldn't be fair, would it, Granger?"

Hermione fumed.

"Also, I'll have to listen to her ranting about how awful my friends are and why I can't keep them on a tighter leash. You deserved it for that alone, Theo" he sneered.

"Just get lost," Hermione growled and yanked the parchment free from underneath Nott's boot.

Throwing them a last glare, Hermione trudged on to the Head's office. To her great chagrin the Head Boy followed her, seemingly having the same aim. She really didn't want to be in her office at the same time as him. Technically, it was their office, but she didn't want to actually admit, that he had a desk in the cosy, wood-panelled room as well. He wasn't worthy of his place in their office in her opinion. Most of the time he didn't even use it to work on his assigned tasks or even his homework. While Hermione put her hard earned desk to good use, he spent more time there talking with his righteous friends. Often times some bint sat on his desk, swinging her legs and laughing shrilly at his jokes giving her a migraine and distracting her from her tasks. The younger female Prefects would occasionally even stay after meetings to flirt with the git shamelessly. Hermione was tempted to hex all of them into next week, but she was supposed to set an example of an immaculate student so she reverted to politely asking them to be quiet numerous times.

Once Hermione had dreamed about what she would do when she got herself a desk in that office. Now, she dreaded the office time. On top of his presence there came the everyday problems the Hogwarts students brought to their Heads. She had no patience for all the incessant moaning about schoolwork and wailing over unfair grading. It was not her fault, that they didn't work harder, neither was it the teachers'. So Hermione told them to either get off their arses and start learning or go to the professor that was giving them a hard time and argue for a higher mark. That taught them to negotiate and stand up for themselves more than being mothered by her. No one would do that for them in the workplace, Hermione often told the students coming to her, before she send them on their merry way. She wasn't lazy, she just wanted what was best for them!

Today, like every other miserable day, there was a young boy ranting about his Arithmancy project. They were supposed to complete the assignment in pairs, but he complained that he had done most of the work on his own and was appalled to find out that he and his partner received the same mark. The Ravenclaw spent a mind numbingly amount of time complaining about the senselessness of the project before he moved onto his partner's brain capacity and then facial features.

'Nothing new there,' Hermione thought with an internal eye roll, thinking back of endless projects she had done the essential work for. Inwardly she pitied him because she could comprehend his situation well. Still, Hermione put on her best Professor McGonagall impersonation.

"Have you considered asking your partner to do his part, or - if he was unable to do so - to work on it together?" she asked critically and sighed when the Ravenclaw shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"I cannot run after Danny all the time, he should have just prepared his part and be done with it!" the pale-faced boy complained.

"And have you tried asking the teacher for help to divide the tasks?" she inquired. He sunk down in his simple wooden chair with bright red ears.

"See? Try solving problems on your own, before taking up time of the Head Students," she lectured him. "Now hush, I have other appointments waiting!" Hermione sent him out of her office ignoring his questions on how to get his well-deserved grade adjusted.

Pouring herself a glass of water she leaned back to breathe deeply for a second, before she felt ready to let in the next student.

The infinite problems of the students put Hermione under constant stress. Why couldn't they try to solve their problems themselves first? She was there to help, but sometimes Hermione got the feeling that instead of looking for a solution on their own, the students chose the easier way and let her do all the negotiation with teachers and punishing of classmates picking on them. It left her unsatisfied that they thought her capable of vanishing all their troubles with a swish and flick of her wand. Sometimes, she had the feeling that they had overly high expectations of her. She wasn't almighty!

"Very sensitive, Granger," Malfoy drawled, interrupting her rare moment of peace without looking up from his desk. He was actually working for a change, writing the timetables for the Prefects' rounds.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Hermione challenged him with arched eyebrows.

"I'm not sure if you forgot, but we are supposed to listen to the students' problems and help them find a solution. Not to tell them that they are the problem," he responded flippantly while gripping his pen like he had to pull himself together immensely to not insult her.

"Oh, you would know! Who's the bully, telling others they are nothing, but the dirt under his shoes?" she snarled crossing her arms defensively. Hermione didn't have the perseverance he had to keep this conservation from turning into an argument.

"What's that got to do with you deeming them a waste of time and not doing your job?" Malfoy asked clearly irritated and finally looked up at her.

"Not doing my job? I'm here, aren't I? As opposed to you, Malfoy, who doesn't think this task is important enough to show up when it's his turn!"

His eyebrows furrowed together in a line, his irritation evident on his face. "I was late. One time," he snarled.

"That's what you say! You were just waiting for me to sub, admit it!" Hermione accused him.

He opened his mouth for an angry retort, but stopped and shook his head, "Whatever, Mudblood." Then he got up and opened their office door. "Next one! Miss Granger is anxiously waiting to listen to all of your problems," he called out to the students waiting in a long line out the door.

"Hey!" Hermione called after him and Malfoy turned around to smirk at her. "Have fun, Head Girl!" he mocked her, while a Ravenclaw girl slipped in, waving a library book with obvious splatters of pumpkin juice on it. Hermione groaned and pictured choking Malloy until he turned blue to avoid focusing her anger at the young girl in front of her.

"Have a seat," she told her and carried on with her dreaded chores.

"Can you believe this?" Ron groaned at dinner while shovelling piles of food onto his plate. "It will take forever to finish today's homework alone! How do they expect us to get through the rest of the week?" Harry looked worried as well.

"How much do you still have to do?" Hermione asked. "Have you already finished your work from last week's lessons?"

Ron turned bright red at her question and quickly took a huge bite of kidney pie, leaving Harry to explain to Hermione that they hadn't even started yet. Already expecting that answer, Hermione rolled her eyes. She still held hope that one day they would do their homework independently.

"Well, what do you have to do?" she inquired. "Maybe we can get it in order so you can work on the subjects that have the shortest deadline first and leave the longer ones for last."

"I fink for Trewamey we hamf to do ose skar charts," Ron remembered with his mouth still overly full with pie.

Hermione resisted the urge to lecture him about his table manners. She wasn't his mother after all. Instead, Hermione ignored the redhead and didn't even bother trying to understand what he had said around the pie he was chewing. She looked at Harry who had pulled a handful of folded papers out of his pocket, unfolded them and shuffled them around. He turned one page on its front and seemed to finally have found his notes on the assignment.

"We have to list the relations of Mars to Mercury and the planets' influence on the stock market," he deciphered his own scrawled handwriting.

"You'll have to see for yourself how to manage this task," Hermione shrugged as she had happily dropped the farce of a class. "What else do you have?"

"There was something for Defence as well, wasn't there?" Harry pondered.

"Do you mean the revision of Diffindio and rereading the chapter about how the spell can go wrong and how to fix it?" Hermione asked with eyebrows raised high. "Harry, that is due tomorrow!" Ron nearly dropped his fork and looked at her shocked and Harry seemed dumbstruck as well.

"Guys, really. You've got your schedules! You should take a look at them from time to time," she shook her head at their ability to completely disregard any organisation or planning in their life. "You can read my summary on that chapter, but you'll have to practice on your own because I am doing rounds tonight. Don't worry, that was second year material. It's rather easy."

"Hermione you're the best," Harry declared with puppy eyes that made her smile a little.

"I know."

Hermione liked the nightly rounds. It calmed her to see the usually bustling and noisy castle halls empty and still. She had already sent her rounds partner Anthony on his way back to his common room. In order to pass one of her favourite courtyards, she took the longer route to hers on purpose. She liked to soak in the sight of the peaceful night sky before returning to her comfortable and warm bed.

The night was not offering Hermione the rest the clear darkness in the void among the stars had promised. Lying on her back, she couldn't keep her wandering thoughts at bay. It riled her up to no end that Nott treated her like he did. Malfoy nowadays kept from openly insulting her without provocation, but he didn't hesitate backing up his friends at every opportunity. How she wished that someone else would be in Malfoy's place. Anyone else. She'd even prefer to share her position with a male version of Lavender over him! At the beginning it had been so awful to be forced to meet with him regularly and discuss organisational matters at least once a week, that Hermione had occasionally entertained the idea of resigning. She often lay in bed wide-awake, her brain still pumping incensing adrenaline through her body, after finally being able to retire late in the evening after endless negotiations and fights. Everything with him was an unceasing tug of war, a constant struggle for superiority.

Rubbing at her tired eyes and constantly suppressing yawns, Hermione struggled through the next day. She was glad, that Malfoy was in charge of the consultations today, so she was free to settle down with a book in their common room after classes, confident that she wouldn't be disturbed for at least two hours. She would seize the opportunity to relax a bit before going to the library to finish her homework.

She was interrupted far too early, in her opinion, when the Head Boy emerged from the entrance of their quarters.

"Granger, we have to talk about some serious issues."

Sighing, Hermione took her time to mark the page she was currently reading and put the book aside calmly. She knew that it irked him, when she wasted his time, so she took great satisfaction in reacting as if she had all the time in the world.

Next Chapter:

She sneered at him and got up, tired of Malfoy towering over her. "I won't stoop to your level, Malfoy. Talk to me when you've calmed down. I won't let myself be yelled at." With that she left to the library. Who did he think he was, talking to her like that?

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Harry and Ron really are incorrigible regarding their homework :D

What do you think about my first chapter? Did it get you hooked?

This was initially supposed to be a short Romance for some writing practice and turned out to be a little longer than planned :'D

Thank you Nora Fares for helping me to rewrite this :))