Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money with this.

A/N: I know it's been a long time, but I've finally finished this chapter. I hope you like.

Thank you, dream_mancer, for beta'ing the chapter.

Chapter 2 – Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be

All eyes in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom were on him as Draco stood in front of his classmates, his wand pointing towards Dimitri. The Ravenclaw stood opposite to him, his wand in hand as well, although it was shaking badly.

Hexing Dimitri was tempting, but Draco knew better than to give into temptation. He'd be expelled if he tried anything like that; the Headmistress had been painfully clear about that his first day back at school.

Granger already left the classroom with the she-Weasel, so technically there was no need to cause a further stir up anyway. Not that Draco was quite prepared to admit that he had just voluntarily helped out a member of the Golden Trio...not even to himself. He preferred to pretend that he just wanted to spare them all the drama of her impending panic attack. Besides, that Dimitri was awfully annoying, and he really deserved to be scared a bit.

"Mr. Malfoy, I must insist that you lower your wand at once," Professor Ipsley shouted, his feeble voice barely audible over the tumult in the classroom.

Draco lazily lowered his wand and sat down again, his face expressing nothing but boredom. He faced the front of the classroom and took up his quill, giving the appearance of being ready to continue with the lesson.

Professor Ipsley was just as surprised as the rest of the class that their resident ex-Death Eater didn't curse anyone after all. Slowly, they all settled down. Dimitri seemed still shaken and was demanding that the Headmistress would be informed, but his friends quickly hushed him. They clearly were of the opinion that it was unwise to antagonize Draco any further.

Draco allowed himself a smirk. Even if he hadn't gotten to hex Dimitri, seeing the boy almost piss his pants did hold a certain entertainment value. Life at Hogwarts was boring enough. At least an almost fight with one of his classmates made things interesting for a minute or so.

It took a while until the classroom calmed down enough so that they could go on with the lesson, but even after order was once more restored, Professor Ipsley seemed to be reluctant to continue the lesson where they had left off. It appeared even the Professor now realised that he was not qualified enough to teach a critical lesson such as the Unforgivable Curses, especially not to this particular group of students.

The class waited impatiently for Ipsley to pick up the lecture, but the Professor busied himself with shuffling through the papers on his desk, mumbling to himself rather agitatedly. Draco allowed himself another smirk, silently congratulating himself for having disturbed the Professor to a point were he was talking to himself in a room full of people. It was good to know that he hadn't lost his touch. He had been way too nice lately because being back at Hogwarts meant that he had to be careful to keep a low profile; otherwise he would be kicked out before he even got the chance to take his N.E.W.T.s.

Finally, the Professor cleared his throat and after a dramatic, yet slightly unnecessary pause, addressed his students, "I think it best that we continue this rather crucial topic using a more in depth, written approach. Therefore, you will pair up, and I will assign each group a topic to be scientifically studied and analysed. This project will more than likely occupy the remainder of this term, but I think that only a thorough and theoretical approach will do this sensitive subject justice."

As far as Draco was concerned, this was a rather long-winded way of saying that Professor Ipsley was too scared of teaching them any more and preferred to minimise his involvement as a teacher by giving them papers to write.

Following the Professor's announcement, the class once more erupted into tumult, this time because everyone was trying to find a suitable partner for the project. Predictably, nobody wanted to pair up with Draco. The only other student who couldn't find a partner was Vicky Frobisher, a Gryffindor, who quickly proclaimed she would work with Ginny.

Up to that point, Professor Ipsley had neither acknowledge nor commented on Ginny and Hermione's absence from class. Draco wasn't sure if the scatterbrained Professor had even noticed that the she-Weasel had practically dragged Hermione from the classroom because the other girl had been too distressed to walk on her own.

Now that Ginny was mentioned, however, the Professor was looking through the room. Once he had determined that Ginny wasn't hiding anywhere, he shrugged helplessly. When nobody seemed to protest, he wrote down Ginny's name next to Vicky's on the list of students he was compiling for the project.

"Mr. Malfoy, you will be working with Miss Granger then, right?" The Professor mumbled, while he busied himself with his list. He refused to look up to meet Draco's eyes. Draco shrugged, highly amused that the teacher actually seemed too scared to look at him. While Professor Ipsley couldn't see Draco's gesture because he still hadn't gathered the courage to look up from his papers, he seemed to assume that given the lack of any protest, Draco didn't care who he worked with. He finished his list by writing the names of the last pair: Hermione and Draco.

Now that he had successfully paired up all the students, Professor Ipsley commenced with inventing topics for the project he had just thought of a few minutes ago. Due to this lack of preparation, the selection of topics left something to be desired in Draco's opinion, although the majority of the other students didn't appear to mind that they would spend the remaining time of the term working on subjects like An etymologic analysis of the word Crucio or The importance of grammatically correct commands when using the Imperius Curse.

Draco and Hermione were assigned The History of the Criminal Prosecution of the Unauthorized Use of the Unforgivables in the 19th century. Draco rather sourly thought that it was nice of Professor Ipsley not to assign them the current century, considering his father had been sentenced to Azkaban for using the Unforgivables, among other things.

After Professor Ipsley finished handing out the assignments, the class was over, and Draco gratefully left the classroom and went to the Great Hall for lunch. He sat down at his customary spot on the Slytherin table...the far end, furthest away from the teachers' table and the other students. Since there were only a few upper year Slytherins, their house table was never full, and so there was a plenty of space between him and the other Slytherins. As far as Draco was concerned, that was a good thing, and his fellow Slytherins seemed to agree, too.

Draco took out a letter from his mother, which he had received that morning by owl and hadn't yet had the time to read, immersing himself in her writing while absently picking at his food.

His mother didn't have anything new to say though. The manor was still being searched for Dark artefacts by ministry officials. Draco had hoped they would stop once his father was convicted, but unfortunately that hadn't turned out to be the case. Truth was, the ancient curses on the manor were giving even the best curse breakers in the Ministry's service a headache. The Ministry hadn't been able to collect nearly as many Dark artefacts as they had expected, considering the manor had, at some point, housed Voldemort, not to mention countless generations of Malfoys, who had all been practicing the Dark Arts to at least some degree. However, Ministry seemed determined to continue searching until they would produce the results they wanted.

The constant presence of Ministry officials was one of the reasons why Draco had been so keen on returning to Hogwarts and finishing his education. It was tiresome to watch these strangers tear apart his childhood home, so he had opted to leave rather than stay and bear the constant scrutiny both of his home and his own behaviour.

Moreover, if it was difficult to watch his home being dissected layer by layer, it was excruciating to watch his mother fall apart. Draco wasn't proud of it, but part of why he had wanted to leave the manor so desperately was that he couldn't bear to watch his mother in distress. Narcissa had lost everything during the second war against Voldemort. Her husband was in Azkaban, most of her friends and extended family were either dead or had abandoned her because of her affiliation with Voldemort, and the Ministry was doing a thorough job of making her home, Narcissa's last refuge, as unliveable as possible. Unable to do anything to help his mother, Draco had finally decided to leave, and Narcissa had let him go, the happiness of her son being the only thing she had left to care about.

Feeling guilty that he had left his mother to her own devices, Draco put down her letter before he had finished writing his reply. He was already in a foul enough mood thanks to the accursed Defence Against the Dark Arts class, and he was selfish enough to put off finishing the letter until he was in better spirits.

Sometime during lunch, Draco noticed that the she-Weasel had joined her classmates at the Gryffindor table. Granger, however, remained absent. Not that Draco cared whether she was at lunch or not. He rather thought that it was yet another sign of how utterly boring his life had become that he even noticed completely irrelevant facts, such as Hermione Granger skipping lunch again.

Then again, Draco reminded himself firmly, boring at least meant that his life wasn't in danger or that he would have to watch his every step in order to avoid being punished with the Cruciatus Curse. Boring definitely had its advantages.

Swallowing down the rest of his lunch quickly, Draco stuffed his mother's letter into his bag and left the Great Hall. His afternoon classes turned out to be just as uneventful as always, save for one small incident where several of the upper year Ravenclaws tried to corner him and punish him for threatening to use Crucio on Dimitri.

Considering that Ravenclaws were generally known for being thirsty for knowledge, Draco was sure they were happy to discover that there were quite a few spells and curses that, while technically not illegal, could still do a lot of damaged when used creatively. Unfortunately for the Ravenclaws, Draco had been aware of that little titbit of information and was not afraid to use it to his advantage.

----------

Hermione sought out Draco after dinner that same day. She found him at the library, where he was sat on one of the couches in the Transfiguration section, studying.

"Malfoy, can I talk to you for a second?" Hermione asked.

"No talking in the library. Didn't you read the sign?" He didn't even look up from his books.

"Since when do you care about the rules?" Hermione asked, sitting down on the couch.

"Oh, I've always cared about them. I just choose to put them aside every once in a while."

Hermione snorted, but Draco still continued to read.

Seeing that he was ignoring her presence for now, Hermione took out a book from her bag and began to read as well. So far, nobody had ever beat her in a contest of stubbornness, and she wasn't about to let Draco beat her at anything. If he thought she would give up and leave him alone, then he truly was delusional.

To the other students in the library, it looked like Hermione and Draco were studying together, an occurrence that raised quite a few eyebrows. Especially after the scene Draco had caused in that day's Defence Against the Dark Arts class, about which every student at Hogwarts was already well informed. Even people who had never voluntarily set foot in the library before came to take a look at the unlikely study buddies.

Hermione didn't notice how much of a stir they were causing, focusing solely on her book and Malfoy beside her. However, the emotional break down earlier that day and her constant insomnia had taken out a lot of her. Soon, her eyelids were drooping. The couch was comfortable, and before Hermione realised what was happening, she fell asleep.

----------

Hermione woke up slowly, feeling somewhat well rested and relaxed for the first time since she had come back to Hogwarts. Only when she began to stretch in order to work out the kinks in her body did she realise that she was not in her bed, but rather on a couch. Her eyes shot open in surprise.

"Ah, sleeping harpy awakens," a familiar voice drawled.

Hermione sat up, shocked to find herself still at the library.

"What the...?" She and Draco were the only ones left at the library, and judging by the dark windows, it was very late. Even Madam Pince seemed to have turned in for the night already.

"How long have I slept?" Hermione asked confused. "Why did you let me fall asleep at all?" she added as an afterthought.

"I wasn't aware that it is my job to be your personal animator," Draco replied, shutting the book he had been reading at a table nearby. "But if you ask me, it was high time you got some beauty sleep. Those dark rings underneath your eyes were beginning to make you look like an overgrown raccoon."

He got up, gathering his things.

"Wait, I still have to talk to you." Hermione got up from the couch, absentmindedly smoothing down the wrinkles in her uniform.

Draco stopped, rolling his eyes. "You really can't take a hint, can you?"

"Why did you help me today?" Hermione asked, ignoring his sarcasm.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Draco replied smoothly, turning to leave the library. "If that's all..."

"Of course you know what I'm talking about," Hermione replied, getting annoyed quickly. "I want to know why you did it."

"Look, Granger. I don't know what you want me to say. I didn't exactly plan this. But if it makes you feel better, I promise you if I ever feel the urge to help your pathetic arse again, I will do my utmost to suppress it. I will even kick you when you're down if that's what you want."

"Could you be serious for one second, Malfoy? I need to know..."

"Merlin, Granger," Draco exploded. "Do you ever know when to just shut up? Has it occurred to you that it wasn't exactly pleasant for me to see my Aunt torture someone I know right in front of my eyes? And that is actually just one of the few disturbing memories I have from the last years."

"But you wanted to serve Voldemort!" Hermione said, shocked about his outburst.

"Sure I did. I pledged my allegiance completely willing. They were holding my mother at wandpoint just for show. And the fact that they set me up with a mission no grown wizard had been able to complete for decades probably was just a mistake."

"But you always said..."

"I always repeated what my father said. Turns out, he left out some of the more gruesome details about the service to the Dark Lord. Maybe I would have become a Death Eater even without them threatening my mother, but I sure as hell didn't stay because I wanted to," Draco said bitterly.

"So what? You now don't believe anymore that Muggle-borns should be wiped out and purebloods should rule the universe?" Hermione asked sarcastically.

"Of course, I do. Mudbloods should be exterminated. Along with all the Muggles, Half-bloods and most of the purebloods. As far as I am concerned, ninety-nine percent of all people are a waste of space."

"You cannot be serious," Hermione said disbelievingly.

"Why does that surprise you so much? It's not like I was previously known as some pathetic people hugger. I'm not a stupid Hufflepuff, or Merlin forbid, a Gryffindor."

"If you hate everyone so much, why did you return to Hogwarts then?"

"Beats being at home where the Ministry is looking under every floorboard, searching for Dark Arts stuff. Are we done with the twenty questions?" Draco asked, annoyed.

"I just wanted to understand..."

"Look, I know that you are an annoying Know-it-all with a compulsory habit to stick your nose where it doesn't belong, so nobody realises what a pathetic, wimpy, little nutjob you really are. I helped you out today, saving us all from your whiney hysterics, let's leave it at that."

"Merlin, you're a bastard. Just stay away from me in the future," Hermione bit out, turning to leave the library.

"Oh, I'd gladly do that," Draco sneered. "Unfortunately, we're doing the DADA paper together."

"Which paper?" Hermione asked, still angry. "Professor Ipsley said nothing about a paper."

"He did while you were outside having your pathetic little meltdown, and since you weren't there to object, you were partnered with me. If you ask me, Ipsley made the whole paper up because he finally realised even dear Professor Lockhart was more competent than him. We're to work at this paper during class, as well, for the rest of the term."

"And when were you going to mention this?"

"I just did, didn't I?"

Hermione had had enough. Thoroughly irritated, she stormed out of the library without another word.

----------

The next morning, her classmates confirmed to Hermione that there was indeed a paper to be written for Defence Against the Dark Arts and that the project would, in all likelihood, take up the majority of the remaining term.

Although she had no desire whatsoever to work with Malfoy, especially considering the things he had said to her the previous night, Hermione didn't even bother to try and talk anyone into changing partners with her. While Ginny might have agreed to do it as a favour to her, Hermione didn't want Ginny to be stuck with Malfoy any more than she wanted to be stuck with him herself, and none of their other classmates would ever volunteer to work with the ex-Death Eater.

Failing the project was absolutely not an option, and since they were to work on it in class as well, Professor Ipsley would have noticed if Hermione would have done the project all by herself and just let Malfoy put his name on the parchment in the end. Seeing absolutely no way to avoid the project or her assigned partner, Hermione grudgingly accepted that she would have to form a truce with Malfoy. Somehow.

At lunch, she did not sit down on her regular spot at the Gryffindor table, but resolutely walked towards the Slytherin section of the Great Hall. Draco was sitting at the far end of the table, a few seats away from the rest of the Slytherins. Hermione flopped down on the seat opposite him.

"Go away, Granger. You're ruining my appetite."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Malfoy, we have to work together on the Defence Against the Dark Arts project, we might as well be civil to one another."

"Why?" Draco asked, between two bites of his shepherd's pie.

"Because I care about my grades, and in order to do well on this assignment, we need to work together," Hermione explained in a voice one might use with a five year old.

"Unfortunately for you though, I don't care about your grades one bit nor do I care for mine."

"You still have to pass the class in order to be allowed to take your N.E.W.T.s, don't you? I'm assuming you plan to take the exams," Hermione said.

"Then just write the bloody thing and put my name on the paper, too," Draco said, abandoning his Shepherd pie and reaching for the pudding.

"I will do no such thing. That's cheating!" Hermione exclaimed. "We will either do this paper together or fail it together."

"You wouldn't deliberately fail the class," Draco said, though he was looking at Hermione uncertainly.

"Try me!"

Hermione stormed out of the Great Hall, while Draco was left to stare after her with apprehension.

To his dismay, Draco quickly reached the conclusion that Hermione would probably never bluff when it came to schoolwork and that she was really capable of throwing the entire project if he refused to work with her. Silly bint.

Thus, Hermione and Draco met at the library for their first study session that evening.

To say things went smoothly would be a downright lie. They couldn't agree on anything, from the decision on what table to sit at to who had the better penmanship and should write out the project. They bickered about everything no matter how distantly related to the topic of their paper.

The only thing they had agreed on was that it would be better to use a Silencing Charm around their immediate vicinity, which turned out to be a very wise decision since otherwise Madam Pince would surely have banned them from the library for life.

Draco and Hermione only stopped shouting at each other when they both started to become hoarse. At that point, they redirected their attention to the research they had to do for their project, stubbornly ignoring each other.

While Draco was leafing through an ancient tome about the criminal justice system of the nineteenth century, a dark scowl etched firmly onto his face, Hermione tried her best to focus on Crime and Magical Punishment by Chriselda Christopher. But the rather detailed descriptions of the various elements of a crime didn't help her already troubled mind, not least because she had witnessed most of the described crimes first hand. However, Hermione was determined not to show any weakness in front of Malfoy, so she kept on reading page for page.

"Granger, stop!" Draco finally said, sounding somewhat defeated. Hermione reluctantly looked up and forced herself to look at him.

"What is it now, Malfoy?" she asked, working to suppress the quiver in her voice.

"You're crying," Draco said, sighing, and Hermione was surprised to realise that he was right. She hadn't even noticed. Angrily, she wiped away her tears.

For a moment, they both were silent.

"Look, Granger, I..." Draco began.

"Save it, Malfoy," Hermione interrupted angrily, "I don't need your pity."

"No, obviously what you need is extensive counselling and maybe a personality transplant potion, but that is beside the point," Draco shot back.

"Then pray tell, what is the point?" Hermione asked.

"Are you always this defensive?"

"Only when people have been trying to harm me in any way possible since the moment they met me."

"Look, Granger, I know I've taken every opportunity to cause you pain in the past, and believe me when I tell you that I enjoyed that. But as I told you already, I really prefer to stay in Hogwarts, so I'm not going to do anything that's going to get me expelled."

"Good." Hermione spat.

"Good. Glad we cleared that up." Draco said sarcastically. "So are you going to give me that book or not?" He stretched out his hand toward the book Hermione had been reading.

"Why?" Hermione asked, instinctively grabbing the book tighter. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Because it's making you cry and your constant snivelling is grating. Not to mention that everyone else in this bloody library has already noticed you are crying like a baby, and they undoubtedly think it is all my fault."

"And why would you care what the others think?" Hermione asked. A quick look around confirmed that Draco hadn't exaggerated about people staring at them. Hermione self-consciously wiped the last remnants of her tears from her face. Draco used her moment of inattention to switch out her book with the one he had been reading.

"Again with the defensiveness. I just don't want anyone to run to McGonagall and tell her I made their favourite know-it-all cry. I think we've already established that I'm trying not to get kicked out of school."

"I wouldn't actually let them expel you over me crying if you had nothing to do with it," Hermione said, though the made no move to reclaim Crime and Magical Punishment from Draco.

"Good to know."

With that said, they both directed their attention on the books in front of them.

The rest of the evening, Hermione and Draco actually worked together on their assignment, and those students that had bet that they would hex each other before the end of their first study session found themselves to be thoroughly disappointed.

tbc

A/N: Please review.