Overachiever

Chapter 1

Fiery Encounter

Draco Malfoy smirked as a terrified first year dove out of his way at the sight of him and his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, who were menacingly cracking their knuckles behind him. His polished black shoes reflected the dull beige of the compartment's carpet as he strode past the windows, tinted red with the sunset, which gave his pale blonde hair an insidious glow. A compartment door opened directly in front of his face, and he stopped, the tip of his pale nose touching the door.. As his heartbeat returned to normal, he peered angrily around the edge, met by a pair of startling green eyes.

"Potter! Watch what you're doing, you almost hit me with that blasted door." he sneered. Harry stepped out from the compartment and narrowed his eyes at the Slytherin, somewhat arrogantly brushing imaginary dust from his dark blue sweater.

"What, scared it would disfigure you or something? Not that you could look anymore like a spoiled ferret..." Harry trailed off, smirking confidently. Behind him, Ron and Ginny Weasley were shaking with suppressed laughter.

"So, where's little Miss-Know-It-All Granger?" Draco asked coolly, motioning to the absence of Hermione in the compartment.

"I'm right here, ferret, and I suggest you watch what you say." Hermione said, walking up behind Harry and narrowing her eyes. Her golden brown hair looked fiery from the red reflection of the windows, giving her a somewhat menacing look, and her hazel eyes were just as fierce.

"Oh, and why should I compell myself to do that, especially in the company of a mudbl-" Draco was cut off as Hermione's wand appeared, pointed between his eyes. Hermione smirked.

"Another word, and it's detention." she said, pointing to her Head Girl's badge. He simply rolled his eyes. She put her wand back in her pocket. "Now, will you kindy MOVE so I can get my book? The Head Boy is late to the meeting in the Prefect compartment and I'm sick of listening to Luna spout things from the Quibbler every ten seconds."

Draco moved a fraction of an inch to the left, sneering. Hermione pushed past him roughly and picked her book up off the seat. She turned to push past him again when he stepped in front of her, blocking her path. She lowered her eyes to the shining badge wavering in front of her face and nearly fainted.

"Y-...You're Head Boy?" she asked, startled. He nodded coolly and turned to continue down the corridor, but a small laugh from Hermione stopped him. He turned to see her smirking, her confidence back.

"Well, I have no idea how you became Head Boy, short of bribing Dumbledore, which I highly doubt would be accepted, but in any case, you're late. 5 points from Slytherin." Hermione spouted off coolly. Ron's jaw dropped. Ginny was staring admiringly at Hermione, and Harry had put his hand in his pocket and was holding tightly to his wand, which he expected to have to use.

Draco was a bit taken aback and hid it with another smirk. Hermione could see in his eyes that he was alarmed. Satisfied, she turned on her heel and started briskly down the corridor, her plain black robes flowing behind her. After a moment of silence, Draco followed.

"Where did THAT come from?" Ron said incredulously.

"I don't know, but I'm nervous." Ginny said.

"What for?"

"The Head Girl and Boy are in charge of organizing dances, other activities, taking points, giving detentions to everyone including prefects... those two will never agree on anything! They'll be at each others' throats the entire time." Ginny said.

"If he so much as breathes wrong in her general direction, I'll kill him." Ron said angrily.

"I have a feeling that this year is going to be... interesting." Harry said, closing the compartment door behind him.

Hermione, whose momentary burst of cruel confidence (rivaling the Slytherin Prince himself) was gone, shakily opened the door to the small, dingy compartment. Luna Lovegood, now a Ravenclaw prefect, was humming something to herself and reading the Quibler upside down, precisely where Hermione had left her. 2 Hufflepuffs were sitting in one corner, whispering quietly, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom were sitting across from them, another Ravenclaw was looking interestedly at Dean's article about soccer in the United States, Millicent Bulstrode took up the rest of the seat space on their side, and Pansy Parkinson was next to Luna, picking at her fingernails and rolling her eyes every so often. Hermione sat next to Pansy and opened her book.

A moment later, Draco strode in and observed the compartment. Making a show of rolling his eyes and turning up his nose, he reluctantly sat in the remaining space between Hermione and the wall. Hermione made a point of poking him roughly with her right elbow, which was being squashed against her by Draco's side, and continued to read.

McGonagall entered the compartment, her shoes tapping noisily on the floor.

"Welcome to the Prefect Compartment. I expect you all to see this as an honor and a good opportunity to- has no one thought to use an enlargement spell?" McGonagall pulled out her wand.

"Engorgio." The compartment suddenly expanded, the seats becoming twice as long, and the floor space between them now the width of the Weasley's kitchen. The students moved down the lengthened seats, and Hermione followed suit, scooting pointedly away from Draco as quickly as possible. Draco, in rebuttal, made a Thank-God praying motion, enjoying the annoyed look on her face.

They were tempted to stick their tongues out at each other, but they reminded themselves silently that they were in 6th year, Head Girl and Boy, and they were in a crowded compartment. And that they could do it later in the hall when no one was looking.

McGonagall launched back into her speech about upholding the rules, taking care of their duties as Heads and Prefects, and the various procedures. Hermione pulled a piece of parchment and a quill from the pocket of her robes, carefully unrolling the parchment against the cover of her book, and began to scribble furiously.

'She's taking notes? I knew Granger was a know-it-all, but this is just ridiculous." Draco thought, rolling his eyes. He began picking at the loose fibers on his robe sleeve.

McGonagall finished up, wished them luck, and left, her robes soaring after her as the compartment door closed loudly. Draco looked out the window and saw that they were nearing Hogsmeade Station, the lake beyond glittering with lights from the castle. He pulled out his wand.

"Effingo", he whispered, pointing his wand at Hermione's parchment, which was poking out of her pocket, as she read. A piece of parchment appeared wrapped around his wand. He pulled it off and unrolled it.

"Malfoy, pay attention and write your own notes. -Hermione", he read. He glared at the top of Hermione's bent head and went back to the parchment.

"Aparecium", he whispered, pointing his wand at his copy. Nothing happened. Rolling his eyes angrily, he crumpled it up and tossed it under the seat.

The train came to a screeching halt, the steam pouring out of the grimy steampipes and disappearing into the cold air. Harry, Ron, and Ginny clambered off the train, moving towards the carriages. Ron scanned the crowd, his eyes searching hopefully for a familiar bushy, brown head, but he didn't see her in the large crowd of students moving towards the carriages, with the exception of the large group of first years crowded around Hagrid, heading for the boats bobbing expectantly at the docks.

They walked along the row of carriages until they found an empty one. They clambered up the slippery steps and into the warmth of the musty carriage. Ron kept the door open, looking around expectantly, waiting for Hermione to see him in case she was lost.

"Ron, shut the door, mate, it's cold." Harry said. Ron ignored him and kept it open, looking around the station. Harry looked pleadingly at Ginny.

"Ron, don't the Heads have their own carriage?" Ginny asked gently. His face fell a bit and he closed the door, sitting back and tearing open a Chocolate frog. Taking a look at the card, he chucked the card at Ginny, whom he gave his duplicates. She caught it and put it in her pocket, where she had a growing pile of new cards from the train ride.

"Oh, don't be so sullen, mate, we'll see her at the feast..." Harry trailed off at the look on Ron's face. His own face fell when he remembered that the Head boy and girl had to sit at a special table, to the left of the staff table, but decided he wouldn't tell Ron, as it would only make him feel worse. The thestral attached to their carriage tapped his hooves impatiently on the cobblestones and snorted loudly.

The carriage line started to move, slowly inching up the steep stone path, followed by the silhouettes of the boats gliding silently across the icy waters, towards the castle looming in the distance.

A/N: Hey! What's up? I came home sick Tuesday, and stayed home the rest of the week. I feel horrible. I got this sudden burst of inspiration and I got on Fanfiction and I re-did this first chapter of Overachiever. I also deleted Behind These Hazel Eyes because... well, it sucked. Plot holes and nonsense and such. Not snarky enough. Lol I love that word. Snarky. Anyways, sorry I haven't updated forever! I've been so busy with school and homework and Color Guard and going to see The Corpse Bride with my friend that I haven't gotten a chance. And I had no inspiration. I think it's the increase of orange juice that did it. Thanks to Hazelocean, Gi Xian, and Rebell (yay! recent review!) for reviewing the old version! Hope you like the new version too!

Gi Xian- carry on with this, and what if the heads carriage acidently got delayed goin to hogwarts? hm
Not a bad idea... hmmmmmmmm (also)... thanks for the idea!

Hazelocean- cool story!
Thanks!

Rebell- Hm, let's see... yes! another DmHg, love 'em! let me see... ideas... I'll come back to that.

Awesome story so far, I think you keep the characters pretty well IC. I like your style!I don't know about the years. I suppose you could move it to 7th, but then you'd have to deal with all the Horcruxes and stuff... But don't they choose Head Boy and Girl in the Seventh year? You could disregard the sixth year as being mostly uneventful for once and still move it to the seventh year.Or, you could disregard the sixth book and continue in the sixth year... Since Head Boy and Girl are supposed to be chosen in the 7th year, you'd need an explanation for that though... maybe you could do a short part saying that the war has already begun during the summer, and many seventh years have gone to fight, or have left school early and plan to return to finish when the war is over. Then, due to lack of seventh year student, they would go ahead and choose students from the sixth year.

About finishing the story, lots of people have done a Draco/Hermione fic using Head Boy and Head Girl. You'd need a twist or a really masterfully done bit using the other storylines. You know most people say, "oh first they hate eachother, then they like each other, then they hate eachother because Draco has a jerk relapse, they make up, they love each other, the end" very trite. Personally i think you could handle either of them quite well, as you are obviously a good writer.

Also, I'm assuming this will end up DmHg. It depends if you're just throwing Draco in and planning to use him as some sort of pawn. If I remember right, from your profile, you like both DmHg and RwHg, right? So, right there, there's somethin that you can change. Draco's Head Boy, and Hermione still ends up with Ron. But then, what would be Draco's involvement? Does he turn good anyway, and who makes him good? If Hermione turns his outlook around, (and we're still using the scenario of Hermione/Ron) we all know that Ron's personality would make him jealous and make him act like a prat. Another twist, does Hermione decide not to go out with him any more?

Jeez, this a long review. I'd send more ideas to you on email, but my email address doesn't like yours. Something a bout a message failure. n'e way, oh yes, before i go, two more things. I'd like to check out the Hp Board, but i can't find it. I'm assuming it's on somewhere, but either i'm totally overlooking it, or it's somewhere else. And two, heh heh, the contrasting lines about Hermione being an overacheiver... so funny!
Wow! Thanks! Omg that's the longest review i've ever gotten! Cookie for you. I think I'm going to keep it 6th year, and pretend the book never happened lol. I might use the war excuse as to why they chose 6th years. Thanks for the idea! It will be Ron/Hermione at one point, but in the end, it will most likely be a Draco/Hermione, and the ending... well, I thought I might end it with them being in a really bad situation, or escaping from one, and then have a sequel. I won't give the ending away though. I want this to be like, my longest story yet. I also haven't finished Forbidden Forest yet, and I'm going to edit that a bit. Thanks for calling me a good writer! You're a really good writer too, I love Wolfsbane! I can't wait for the update!

Oh, I need to check my profile and make sure the email is right. Did you send it to Also, I put another review on Wolfsbane correcting the last one, because it's actually a diff. site, but the dumb review messed the address up. Thanks a lot for reviewing!

All 3 of you get cookies! Also, Rebell gets the extra cookie i mentioned for giving me a great idea... DUN DUN DUN lol.

Thanks for reading!

Charlotte