I've been thinking about writing this for a while now, so I let myself do it today because we had a SNOW DAY!

I'm not a massive HP fan, (haven't read all the books) so please excuse any errors. I'm doing research though!

Enjoy!

***

"Nadia, you're going to miss the train!" My mother practically screamed at me, even though she was only a few steps away. She always intervened at the most annoying times, like now for example. Here I was, trying to buy a good old Aero chocolate bar to take on that frightful journey, and in the process of buying it I could stare at the very, very attractive cashier. His black curly hair was long and brushed into his eyes; he was indie, and completely my type.

Actually, I lie. I don't think I really had a type. My best friend Stella always proclaimed that my type was boy kind in general, but I thought that was more her thing. I dropped the chocolate back into its place, frowning as I returned to my mothers side. I managed to give the boy a last wistful look as she dragged me away.

"It never leaves on time mother," I stressed the word, knowing how it irritated her, "Not after that incident a couple of years ago with Potter and Weasley."

She huffed next to me. "Well, its better to be safe than sorry. Here, take this." She passed me my trolley with my trunk and suitcases on. "I don't understand why you pack so much. I'm sure you don't use it all!"

"Better to be safe than sorry." I mimicked.

She sighed, "Please Nadia, don't be difficult. I don't like you going off like this every year. I liked having you at home this summer." I felt the familiar stab of regret. I knew she missed me when I wasn't at home. My father had left us when I was younger and now she stayed in our big country house alone while I was off at Hogwarts. The old house was eerie, and I didn't like being there alone myself. But without me there she was able to hold all her 'meetings'. My mother liked to help the needy witches and wizards of the community, holding tea parties and fundraisers in our house and donating the money. We certainly didn't need it, mum's side was old money, and I didn't even really know how much we had stashed away.

Yet I did like getting away from her for months at a time. We fought frequently, so by the end of the summer I was somewhat glad of September's arrival. But she was my mother, and I did miss her at times. In my first year it was worse, I'd become so accustomed to it being just us two of us that the nights found me teary eyed, longing for home. But that was past me now, and I was excited for the new year. Finally, I was a sixth year, ready to boss the small ones around. The seventh years no longer frowned on us, and we were treated with a grudging respect.

My mum and I walked through Kings Cross, me leisurely and her frantic, trying to speed me up. There was a couple of people standing around the platform, and I waited until the last first year had disappeared until I turned to hug my mum goodbye.

"Promise you'll write this time? You never write Nadia."

"I'll try."

"Have a good term sweetie. Love you."

"Love you too mum." She finally let go of me, and I wasn't surprised to see the tears shining in her eyes, just like every year. "See you soon!" and before she could guilt trip me any more I pushed my trolley into the wall.

I emerged on the other side and almost got run over by a second year speeding past with their out of control trolley. "Watch it!" I yelled after him, but he didn't even glance back. I glowered, must be loosing my touch. So much for respect!

I left my trolley stacked high next to all the others waiting to be loaded, and then wondered through the train until I reached the back. Stella was the only one in an empty compartment, her phone was out and she was frantically texting. I swung in and plopped down next to her. "You're always on that thing!"

"That's because in a few hours it won't work!" She looked up and grinning gave me a bone crushing hug. "Good summer Nads?"

Stella had been my best friend from day one when we'd met in Diagon Alley buying wands. We'd both been sorted into the same house, and our beds in our dorms were right next to each other. She was like the sister I never had. We were complete opposites in looks however; she was a skinny blonde bombshell with bright blue eyes while mine were a deep sea green framed by black hair which was cut shorter than her long locks. She was also obsessed with the muggle world. She had all their contraptions, from televisions to computers and phones! I never understood it, but her dad worked in some part of the Ministry where he had to be on the look out for any surprises the muggles invented that could become a threat to our society.

"Same old, same old. Cut the crap Stella, tell me who he is." I winked at her, motioning to her phone, and she spilled to me all the gossip about her latest summer romance.

We chatted happily away to each other until more people showed up, wanting seats as other compartments had been taken. I groaned internally when Pansy saw us and waved frantically through the window. She mouthed 'can I come in?' while pointing at the handle. Stella next to me muttered, "She could just speak, the glass unfortunately isn't thick enough to stop that whine." I giggled and nodded at the girl outside.

"Hi girls!" she whizzed in and sat down opposite us. "How have you been?" Of course she didn't let us get a word in edgeways, and launched into a full account of her tremendous summer. Tremendously tedious was more like it.

"I think I'm going to try and sleep now." Stella declared once Parkinson paused for breath. The train had left the station an hour earlier and my ears were beginning to seriously hurt.

"Oh, really?" She looked frantic. Stella elbowed me in the ribs when she wasn't looking and I quickly caught on.

"Oh yeah, me too." I tossed in a fake yawn for good measure.

"Oh, oh okay. I'll go and find some other people to chat to; I don't want to disturb your beauty sleep after all." She giggled and left the compartment before Stella could yell after her. I stared at the girl's retreating back and then burst out laughing one seeing Stella's outraged face.

"Beauty sleep indeed, look who's talking miss pug face!" She snorted to add effect, causing me to laugh louder.

"Shush Nadia, she'll come back!" I clamped a hand over my mouth, eyes wide in fear. But unfortunately I had already attracted some more unwelcome attention.

"Oh yes, Reeves I thought I heard your hideous laugh echoing from somewhere."

I smiled sweetly at the reincarnation of evil that had just slid our door wide open. His bleach blonde hair had grown over the summer, adding a messy hint to his cold and calculating face. His grey eyes were harsh; the colour was flat yet slightly creepy. And of course, the trademark smirk was firmly in place. He looked down at me, using his whole height to look what I supposed he thought to be threatening. But with all his 'stature' he didn't intimidate me. A draught blew in when the door was opened which made my skin prickle. At least, I told myself it was the chill. Alright, maybe he intimidated me a little, but I liked to believe I hid my feelings well.

"I knew I could smell something rotten around here. You might need a wash Malfoy." I tutted at him.

Stella sighed loudly expressing her annoyance. She glared first at me, if looks could kill… then she turned to Malfoy, "Did you have a good summer Draco?" She spoke in a tone you used on a small child to keep them happy.

"It was rather pleasurable, thank you Stella. And yourself?"

"Yes, it was fine." She waved her hand, as if to get rid of an annoying fly. The arrogant prat took that as an invitation to come in and sit opposite us. My feet were up on the seats, blocking his way. He raised his eyebrows at me, motioning for me to move.

"Say please." My sweet smile was still sat on my lips.

"Reeves…"

I pretended to inspect my nails. "Yes Draco?"

Then he kneed the side of my thigh. My legs buckled and I fell on the floor. He did not just granddad me! The smirk grew bigger, if that was even possible and he stepped over my crumpled form. "Thank you Reeves."

I glared at him from the spot, then got up and proceeded to dig one of my heeled boots into his toes. He didn't respond but his face gave away his pain, as did his sharp intake of breath. "You're welcome Malfoy."

"You can't stop for a minute can you?" Stella huffed moodily when I sat back next to her. "Really Draco, you shouldn't hurt girls like that, it's very un-gentlemanly. What would your mother say if I told her?" She frowned at him, but he just laughed.

"But dear cousin, what would your mother say if I told her about your… how should I put this…" He paused for effect, "Your adventures with the all the male members of the Ravenclaw Quiditch team?"

"Draco!" She rolled her eyes, "Not all of them, only two or three. Anyway, look whose talking!"

The boy just shrugged, "What can I say, the ladies love me." He winked at me sleazily and I shuddered.

"Poor deluded girls." I muttered.

"Anyway," he flashed me a quick glare, "speaking of my mother, she wanted me to give you this." He passed a bag to his cousin. Stella was his mother's niece, the daughter of one of Mrs Malfoy's sisters who had been disowned when she was sixteen. It was an awful family drama, but Malfoy's mother never forgot her younger sibling. It was always strange seeing my best friend and this scumbag get on so well. You could tell they were related from the same blue tint in Malfoy's eyes and if you looked closely they had the same nose. Stella never liked how we didn't 'see eye to eye' as she put it. But it could hardly be helped that I loathed every part of Draco Malfoy. From his leering and sneering to his arrogance. The fact that some certain girls tended to worship him only added to his ego. To be frank, he made my skin crawl.

"Oh this is exquisite!" She pulled out a black knitted hat and scarf which had flecks of emerald green. She pulled on the hat, which of course suited her perfectly. "How do I look?"

"It's lovely!" I assured her.

"Give her my thanks Draco; she always knows exactly what to get me." He just nodded.

"So come on, what joyful delights did I get?" I think it was a family thing, giving each other 'back to school' gifts. I secretly always liked seeing what Stella's parents bought Draco. He didn't hide his opinions well, and Stella normally had no input into what the gift were. Usually Stella got lovely, well-thought presents, and Draco got awful tacky things. Stella pulled a bag underneath her feet and passed it to her cousin.

First came a luminescent green quill. Draco face twisted up in disgust, "Really?"

Stella grinned evilly, "I got you that one, thought you might appreciate it."

Next was a grey jumper which Malfoy nodded at, setting it far apart from the green quill. "Will it be the right size?" He enquired. Stella shrugged. Then he pulled out a hideous snake badge. The eyes were green gems, but one had fallen out into the bag. The one eyed snake was made from a fake silver metal which flaked and was turning black in places.

"Lovely." Draco muttered. He peered into the now empty bag. "There's something else in here…" He reached in one pale arm and pulled out a small bracelet. He twisted it through his fingers and raised an eyebrow at Stella sceptically. "It's rather small."

She leaned over and snatched it from him. "That's not for you Draco! Nadia, I completely forgot! I got it when we went on holiday to Turkey at the start of the summer." She passed me the woven bracelet and I eyed it over. It had a three of those 'evil eye' beads on one side, and it was made from strong black and green string knotted in an intricate pattern.

"Oh Stella it's so pretty!" I pulled it onto my wrist to show her.

"I'm glad you like it." She smiled at me and I felt awful that I hadn't managed to get her anything. Unless… I rummaged around my bag and found my last bar of Cadbury's chocolate. Stella squealed and grabbed it eagerly.

"I don't understand why you like that muggle food Stella." Malfoy's face had twisted up in disgust. "It's probably filthy."

She just rolled her eyes at him. There was a moment of silence, only broken by Stella's munching, and then we all heard a noise that made us shiver.

"Draco! There you are!" The whine was back, and the pug faced girl flung herself into the compartment. I saw Malfoy wince as she squashed herself to him for a hug.

"How was your summer? Did you miss me? Oh! Oh Draco you shouldn't have gotten me a present!" She picked up the broach and Stella began choking beside me. I wacked her on the back, hard.

Malfoy glanced at us quickly, but then the smirk was back on his face, "Yes, I saw it and immediately thought of you Pansy." I snorted quietly, but Parkinson had bat-like ears and heard. Her head snapped in my direction.

"Oh, you aren't asleep? I thought you were…"

"Yes, yes we were but then Draco came and gave me my gifts." Stella said sharply. Parkinson's face fell when she realized that she wasn't the only one with presents from Malfoy.

"Nadia, did he give you something as well?" I glanced up and Malfoy who was still smirking. Any chance to make him squirm.

"Of course!" A wide grin stretched across my face as his smirk shrunk rapidly. "He got me this bracelet." I held out my wrist to Pansy and let my gaze settle on Malfoy. She quickly looked back and forth between my bracelet and her awful broach, then at the boy and me. Of course it made no sense to her; Draco and I hardly spoke, and on the rare occasion that we did it was always to fling insults at one another.

"Oh. It's very nice." She glared accusingly at Draco, who sat back down. His expression was tired, but it was hard to read what he was making of the whole situation.

"Well…" Pansy stuttered, "I must get back to everyone else, they're all in the next carriage." She paused, but none of us tried to stop her. "Draco, are you coming?"

He glanced up at her and drawled, "No, I'll stay here. You should go."

"Oh." She hesitated again, and then left, hopefully for good.

When the door was shut Draco glared at me. "Thank you for that Reeves."

"You're more than welcome."

"You know if you weren't so-"

"Oh be quiet!" Stella groaned next to me. "I do actually want to get some sort of sleep before we arrive in a couple of hours. Draco, if you insist on staying can you keep the fights to whispers?" She pulled a pillow out from another bag beneath her feet. I should have guessed, no matter how much my mother complained about my packing, Stella always had double my amount.

I waited a while until I saw Stella's jaw go slack. Malfoy was staring out of the window. "You were saying?" I hissed.

His eyes snapped back into focus and he looked at me. "What?"

I sighed and shook my head. "Never mind." There was some more silence until a question entered my head. "Malfoy,"

"Yes Reeves?"

"Why didn't you go with Pansy?"

He stared at me, surprised at the change in my tone from annoyed to curious. Then he answered bluntly, "Because she annoys me."

"Then why do you…" I struggled for the right word. They weren't in a relationship.

"Why do I keep her around?" He offered, smirking. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and nodded.

He shrugged, "She likes me."

"That's no reason!" I scoffed.

He narrowed his eyes. "Oh like you don't do the same thing! You've a reputation almost as bad as my unconscious cousin here!"

My eyebrows creased together, "I don't lead boys on like you do to those girls."

He laughed, "Oh really? Remember Marcus Belby last year?"

"I didn't lead him on. He was overly persistent." He sent love notes to me. Although at first it was flattering, after a while I had to confront him.

"Michael Corner?"

"His love potion backfired." I internally shivered at the memory, it backfired badly.

"Dean Thomas!"

I stuttered over that one. I did feel bad about him for a while but… "To err is to human Malfoy." I said loftily.

He smirked, "Point proven." I huffed quietly. Yes, I wasn't a saint, but I wasn't as bad as this boy sitting smugly in front of me. He could not judge me! I clamped my jaw and stared out of the window. Now, don't get the wrong impression, I'm not some sort of witch slut who goes gallivanting around like Stella sleeping next to me. I didn't agree with some of her actions. And okay, I admit that I was a flirt, but I wasn't nasty like Malfoy. I didn't maliciously or intentionally go out to hurt people. I watched the grey clouds creep slowly overhead and I frowned slightly, I wasn't as bad as Malfoy, was I?

I looked over at the blonde boy opposite me. He must have fallen asleep as well. I laughed quietly when I saw that Stella and Draco were mirror images of each other. Both slumped against the window, hair falling into their faces with their jaws slack. It was sort of creepy.

Reaching into the over head compartment, I dragged my bag down and found my robes. As I collected them I noticed something fall onto the floor. Picking it up, I inspected the object. I smiled lightly and fingered the green prefect badge I'd received that summer. Oh, yes did I not mention I'm in Slytherin? I thought it was mainly because of my blood, 'pure' as it was apparently. "Due to your ambition" was what that stupid hat had said. And yes, it was true I worked myself like a slave driver. I wanted to be the best at everything. Well, everything except for sports. Quiditch was Stella's passion, the boys who played it included. The curly haired Granger girl and I had a 'friendly' competition going. We both recognized it for what it was. If she got a better mark than me in anything I always saw that smug smile on her face, and if the reverse happened it was hard to keep the same expression off my own.

So, naturally, I was pleased to be in a position of power this year. However, I knew who the other prefect would be. Reminded of this fact, I glanced back at Malfoy. Sure enough he was wearing his robes already, and there it was, shining from underneath a crease of fabric.

I could swear he was smirking at me in his sleep.

***

Let me know what you think!

Sorry if it's a bit tedious but don't worry, I've got ideas for this story ;)