Charming

Chapter One – Aboard the Hogwarts Express

Disclaimer: Need I even say that I don't own it?

~oOo~

It felt good to be going back to Hogwarts. For the first time in years Hermione actually felt grateful to the Ministry of Magic – sending all the students that had missed out on their seventh year back to school was an excellent idea as far as she was concerned.

The only drawback so far was having to share a compartment with Draco Malfoy on the way – although, all things considered, it could have been a lot worse. In fact, Malfoy had been acting rather odd. He hadn't spoken a word to anyone since they'd boarded the train, remaining huddled in his cloak in the back corner of the compartment the whole journey.

Now that both Harry and Ron had gone to get food from the trolley – clearly not thinking in their hurry to stuff their faces – Hermione was left alone with Malfoy for the time being.

She fingered her wand inside her robes somewhat nervously, wondering if he might not take it into his head to try to hex her now that he wasn't outnumbered. Although Harry and Ron apparently weren't, she was still suspicious of people after the war, especially ex-Death Eaters like Malfoy.

She studied him from her place by the door, but he showed no signs of wanting to attack her. The only visible part of him was some of his blonde hair protruding above the deep black of his cloak. Hermione was looking over at him, wondering why he was so unusually quiet, when he suddenly shifted, letting his cloak fall down around his shoulders and glancing up at her.

Her wariness melted away the instant she saw his face.

He was still the same Draco Malfoy she'd known and hated for the past seven years, yet there was something strikingly different about him. His hair, usually combed back or cropped short, was longer, messy – something unheard of for a Malfoy – and hung untidily around his face. His slightly pointed face was drawn and paler than usual, with the suggestion of bags under his eyes.

But what really stopped her in her tracks was the expression on that face, the emotion in those stormy grey eyes – sadness. Sure, he was still trying to maintain that mask of hauteur, that characteristic Malfoy smirk he'd always worn, but his feelings were showing through it.

There was no doubt about it. He was miserable.

Almost the same second he'd looked up at Hermione, he looked away again, staring at the landscape blurring past outside the window – but she'd seen it. She'd seen the vulnerable side of her ex-enemy...

And she felt sorry for him.

She took a moment to assess how weird that was. She was actually feeling sorry for the slimy little ferret that had plagued her and her friends for years. The same person that had tortured her for information during the war, who she had held at wandpoint in third year and bitch-slapped. She smiled at that memory. She pitied the boy who was sitting across the cabin from her, his profile dark against the window, the sunshine from outside dancing over the highlights in his hair, his eyelashes, his cheekbones...

Whoa. She shook her head to clear it, making her bushy brown hair swirl around her face. That's taking pity a bit too far.

At that moment Harry and Ron came back, laden down with all sorts of food and sweets, so she put Malfoy out of her mind for the time being.

Then at some point her thoughts returned to the lonely boy in the corner again, and she suggested hesitantly to Harry and Ron that they offer him some food. "He's sure to be hungry, and the food trolley's long gone by now," she said quietly.

Both of her friends looked at her with some alarm. "But Hermione," Harry whispered, so that Malfoy wouldn't hear him, "this is Malfoy you're talking about! Why would you want to help him?"

Hermione fixed him with a hard glare. How do I make them understand? I can tell he's not the person he once was. "He's a human being too, Harry – and if he'd been planning to curse any of us he would have done it by now. Like when you two left me alone with him to get all this food! We've got too much anyway."

"Hermione, you're not thinking straight," put in Ron. "You can't honestly be thinking of that git as anything but an enemy. He tortured you last year! He's a Death Eater!"

"Ron, if he really was dangerous, why is he here? You know he wouldn't have been allowed to come back to Hogwarts if he was. He'd have been locked up, not sent back to school." He looks anything but threatening to me, she added to herself.

Taking their silence as defeat, she picked up a few cauldron cakes and some assorted sweets and turned to walk over to Malfoy, who was still staring out the window listlessly. He looked up suddenly when he saw her approaching, and for just a second some uncontrolled emotion showed again in those cold grey eyes – fear? But as soon as she thought she'd seen it, it was gone again, replaced by the hard mask once more.

He appraised her silently, giving her a look that said clearly, Well, what are you here for? What do you want, Mudblood?

It was clear that it was up to her to say something. "Um, we – well, I – thought that you, ah, you might be hungry..."

She internally cursed herself for sounding so unsure, as though she was asking for his permission or something. It was just stupid. She put it down to a residual uneasiness around her former enemy and waited for his answer.

Finally he nodded and reached up to take the food off her, still mute.

"You're welcome," she said tersely, and walked back to her friends. Ron had already resumed shovelling cauldron cakes and liquorice wands down his throat, and Harry was chewing on a chocolate frog and turning the card over in his hands. Attention span of a Confunded gnome, the both of them.

Ignoring Harry and Ron, Hermione sat down and looked back at Malfoy. She saw with some amusement that he had his wand out and was waving it over his food, muttering what were obviously anti-concealment charms under his breath, testing for spells and poisons.

That was fair enough, she supposed. Old habits die hard, after all. After having satisfied himself that Hermione wasn't trying to hex or poison him, Malfoy absent-mindedly took a bite out of a cauldron cake and resumed watching the scenery whizz by.

~oOo~

The remainder of the journey passed uneventfully, though there was a bit of a scene at Hogsmeade Station when hundreds of students saw the Thestrals pulling the carriages for the first time. That incident showed just one of the effects the war had had on people.

Then there was the Sorting and the feast. A separate, smaller 'house' table had been set aside for the eighth-years, as they weren't actually part of their old houses anymore. Harry, Ron and Hermione still clapped loudly when any first-years were sorted into Gryffindor, though. The Sorting Hat preached about change, triumph, unity and forgiveness in the aftermath of 'troubles great' – something that struck Hermione as relevant at that particular time.

After everyone had stuffed themselves almost to overflowing, Professor McGonagall – now the headmistress – sent everyone off to bed. It was then that the eighth-years realised they wouldn't be sleeping in their old dormitories. Professor McGonagall showed the eighth-years to their new dorms herself; they were situated in the West Tower of the castle, somewhere few of them had had cause to go very often in the past.

A large portrait of Merlin hanging on a seemingly random landing served as the door to the eighth-years' common room, which was decorated in the colours of all four houses and had a marvellous view of the school grounds. The boys' bedrooms were up one set of stairs, the girls' on the other.

They soon found out that everyone had a room to themselves, a luxury welcomed by most. They were equipped with ensuite bathrooms – though usually shared between two or three dorms – and each person's name on a small sign hung on their door. All these new changes of course necessitated much exploring and gossiping over... but before long sleep was deemed more important. One after the other, the eighth-years collapsed on their new four-poster beds, exhausted and fast asleep.

~oOo~

Author's Note: Well, with this I'm starting a new ongoing fanfic. It would be really good if I could post regularly for this fic... once a week or so... but of course now that I've said that it's never going to happen since I'll be too busy to do much writing once I get back to work. T.T I'll try, though.

Reviews are always appreciated (convince me to upload faster, I dare you), and I reply to each one! :)