The Man In Charge

Disclaimer: I acknowledge that these characters and this world do not belong to me, and I assure that I am making no profit by their use.

Huge thanks go to my beta and buddy, Southern_Witch_69, for her mad beta skills.

Draco, wanting there to be no mistakes about who was in charge and how prepared he was, showed up in classroom twenty-four for the Prefects' meeting half an hour early. He recalled with clarity the condescending tone of Granger's voice in the entrance hall the previous night. The bitch thought she could elbow him out? Well, he'd show her.

He'd spent hours after lessons today catching himself up on his duties and writing up orders for the Prefects. He had perfectly organized schedules and rulebooks for each Prefect, and he was damned proud of them. He'd eat his own hat if Granger had put half as much work into anything she had cooked up for this meeting.

The first thing he did after he'd stepped inside the empty classroom was cast a spell to prop the door open. He glanced at the clock on the wall and noted that it was 8:02. That left him plenty of time. Looking around room, he counted the small tables and mentally calculated how many he would need to use to transfigure a table big enough for all the Prefects plus himself and the harpy to sit around. Twenty-four Prefects (two from each house, each year) plus a Head Boy and Girl... He pushed sixteen desks together and transfigured them into one long table, which left more than enough space for thirteen chairs on each long side and one at each end. He levitated twenty-six chairs into place and Vanished the unneeded furniture. Perfect.

Next, he set the place tags he'd made up at pre-determined intervals around the table. He had already decided who would sit next to whom, making sure that nobody sat next to another person from his or her own house. After that, he sat himself down at his end of the table (that was another benefit to his seating system; he had assigned his own chair as far away from Granger's as was possible) and divided his schedules and rulebooks into two piles.

McGonagall's instruction-slash-rulebook had actually proven useful once he'd read it thoroughly. She had put an emphasis on inter-house unity, instructing him and Granger to ensure that Prefects of different houses intermingled, so Draco had done exactly that. He thought it was rather pointless, but at least no one...least of all Granger...could accuse him of not doing his job right.

When he had his papers organized, he glanced at the clock again...8:16. Excellent. He doubted that Granger would take much longer to arrive. After all, the know-it-all would want to be there early...in enough time to establish authority. Too bad for her that he had beat her to it, Draco thought with malicious smile.

Sure enough, at 8:17, the Head Girl appeared in the doorway, carrying an armful of papers. He watched with a spiteful sort of pleasure as her eyes widened when she took in the state of the room. Her gaze finally came to rest on him, and he smirked, satisfied at her look of disbelief.

"Evening, Granger. Nice of you to finally show up."

"I'm early, Malfoy," she snapped. "And what have you done to this room?"

"Oh, nothing much," he said. "Just prepared it for the meeting."

She gave him a snide non-smile. "Assigned seating? Isn't that a little much?"

"Not at all. It was no trouble. I'm sure it would have been a bit much for you, but don't worry, Granger. I've handled everything."

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Just that you won't have to do much of anything tonight." His lips twisted into a wicked smirk. "No need to worry your bushy little head about it. In fact, I wasn't actually expecting much from you at all," he said, throwing her earlier words back at her. "Id say that all you have to do is show up and look pretty, but we both know that's beyond your abilities."

Granger's mouth dropped open for a moment before she closed it and glared at him. She marched over to her seat and sat down stiffly, her body facing him, head down, as she began to sort her own stacks of paper. After a few minutes, he could tell that she was no longer doing any organizing and was just shifting her hands around to avoid having to pay any attention to him. That suited him just fine.

He leaned back in his chair, his arms behind his head, and waited. Minutes later, the first of the Prefects arrived and looked around only for a moment before finding their places and sitting down. The rest follow suit, and at precisely 8:29, every seat was filled, and Draco stood, took out his wand, and closed the door with a spell.

He heard Granger draw in a breath to speak, but he wasn't going to allow that.

"Welcome, everyone, to our first meeting of the year. In case any of you don't know me, unlikely as that may be, I'm Draco Malfoy, Head Boy this year." He paused, giving Granger enough to time introduce herself, but a glance at her showed her gaping at him in disbelief again, so he rolled his eyes and did it for her. "At the other end of the table is Hermione Granger, Head Girl." He didn't bother to keep the dislike out of his tone, and it was enough to make Granger close her mouth and glare at him again.

"I'll start off by saying that I take my position seriously and expect the same from all of you. Any deviance from the rules I set will be dealt with by me personally."

"Just hold on, Mal..."

"Those rules are as follows."

"You don't have any right to set rules without tal..."

"First, there will be no fighting amongst yourselves. The Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress have made it clear that they wish to see inter-house cooperation this year." Draco had his own thoughts about that, but he kept them to himself. "You as Prefects will be examples to the whole school of this. Any disagreements are to be handled privately or brought to me to be settled. If this rule is not followed, I will take points from the both of the houses in question and report both Prefects to Professor McGonagall to be given detention. With how seriously she is pushing this inter-house unity, I doubt any punishment she would give would be light. Keep that in mind before you're caught fighting."

He gazed coolly around the room for a moment to let that rule sink in, and not even Granger had anything to say about it.

"Rule number two: You will all show up for your assigned patrols on time and dressed properly in your uniform robes and with your Prefect badges showing. If you are ill or have a legitimate excuse to be absent from your duties, it will be noted. Any unexplained absence will result in loss of points and a referral to McGonagall for further action. I will explain the patrol schedule in a moment, but first, rule number three.

"What I say goes. The Headmaster has given me this position, and I have authority to do as I see fit in regards to you Prefects. Within reason," he added with a smirk. "That means my rules apply, and it is my prerogative to make more rules if I think they are needed. If any of you have a problem with that, I'm happy to discuss it."

He looked at the faces around the room and noticed that several people did in fact have a problem with it...Ron Weasley was looking absolutely murderous...but nobody spoke up, so Draco considered it done with.

"Any questions?"

He didn't actually expect anyone to have the courage to say anything, so when a small girl...she had to be a fifth-year...said, "Yes, I have a question. I know we are allowed to take points from other students, but is there a limit to how many we can take?"

It was a reasonable question, so Draco answered it. "Yes," he glanced at her name tag, "Miss Averette, there is a limit of ten points per student, per offense. That means you may take no more than ten points from a student per infraction. It also means that if two Prefects catch a student out after hours, the student in question can lose a maximum of ten points, not ten points taken by each Prefect who catches him, but ten points total. Also, the points you each take and for what reason are automatically recorded and will be reviewed at the end of each month by myself. If I deem any reason to be invalid, it is within my rights to restore the points. Clear?"

There were nods around the table.

"Actually," he said, "that policy, and all others that you will need to know, is listed in this rulebook. I have a copy for all of you." The 'rulebooks' were actually several sheets of paper held together by a clasp. He'd written one copy and used a duplication spell to make the others. He passed a stack down each side of the table, and soon everyone, including the Head Girl, had one in their hands.

"I'll give you all about ten minutes to read through your books, and then I'll assign schedules and other duties."

There was a rustling of papers, and Draco was immensely pleased that his authority was being taken seriously. He couldn't help smiling as he looked around and saw that with two exceptions...Weasley, who was clenching his jaw and giving Draco a death glare, and Granger, who looked troubled as she bit her lip...everyone was reading their rulebook. It was incredibly vindicating after the way Granger had treated him.

He ignored both of them, and he especially ignored Weasley's glare, reminding himself that the git would be held responsible for the information in the book whether he read it or not, so it was actually better for Draco if he didn't read it since that would give him something to use against Weasley later on. He was just settling in to wait for ten minutes when Granger cleared her throat and said, "A word, Malfoy."

He raised a superior eyebrow to her, but said nothing. If she had something to say, she could say it.

"In the corridor, now," she said through clenched teeth. He appeared to consider for a moment and then rolled his eyes and stood. He walked around the table and out the door without looking back to see if she was following. He knew she was.

In the corridor, he turned around as Granger closed the door behind her.

"Yes?" he said.

She pursed her lips and tapped her foot as she appeared to struggle with what to say.

Inwardly, he was more pleased than he could have said to have turned the tables on her, but outwardly, he didn't show anything but practiced supremacy.

There was a long silence as neither said anything, and Granger appeared to become more and more annoyed. Finally, she capitulated with a theatric sigh. "All right. You've made your point. Are you happy?"

Draco smirked. "What point would that be?"

She sighed again. He could tell what it was costing her to play his game, and he couldn't have been happier about it.

"I get it, all right? I shouldn't have tried to push you out. I can't say I want to work with you...you're a complete prat," Draco frowned at this, "but I don't exactly have a choice. And neither do you. You can't get rid of me any more than I can get rid of you."

"Are you so sure about that?" he asked. It seemed to him that he'd done a pretty good job on his own so far. He saw no reason for that to change.

"This is supposed to be a two-person job, Malfoy."

"Oh, so now it's a two-person job, now that you are the one being elbowed out... I see."

"I get it. I shouldn't have tried to elbow you out. I already said that. What more do you want?"

"I want you to stay out of my way. I did everything on my own today, and it's turning out splendidly. I don't need you, and since we want nothing to do with each other, I see no reason why things shouldn't stay this way."

There was a long silence as Granger digested his words.

"I'll go to McGonagall," she finally said flatly.

"Not above squealing, I see."

"Not in the least."

He gave a sigh of his own. "Fine. We can take turns making up the Prefect schedules."

"What else?"

"What do you mean 'what else'?"

"I can think of several things. You made that high and mighty speech in there about your authority without mentioning me. I think I should have some say in the rules."

"You don't need to have a say," he asserted.

"Mal..."

"You don't. I didn't make any rules that are unreasonable, and if you can think of more to add, you're welcome to do so, but I have everything covered. You'd know that if you had read my rulebook."

"I will read your rulebook, but if I think anything needs to be changed or added, I should be able do so."

"Not without talking to me first."

"I...fine. Same goes for you. What I say goes, too, and if you have any problems with it, you can't do anything without talking to me."

The solution was obvious to him...that they just discuss everything together before any more decisions were made...but he wasn't going to say it. He didn't want to spend any more time with her than was absolutely necessary.

"Fine, are we done, then?"

"Not quite. What do you have planned for the rest of the meeting?"

"I've made up patrolling schedules for the rest of the month, and there are also a few reminders for everyone."

She nodded. "All right. But remember, I get to plan and head the next meeting, and from now on, no more one-man shows."

He didn't respond, but moved past her and re-entered the classroom. After another five minutes or so, he stood and cleared his throat again. "All right, now that we're all on the same page, are there any more questions?" When nobody spoke, he went on. "The school must have a curfew patrol every night. As you all know, curfew is 9:00 for years one through four and 10:00 for years five through seven, 11:00 and 12:00 on weekends...with exceptions for those with a teacher's note, those in a late detention, or those returning from Astronomy class, but that isn't until after 1 A.M, and none of you will be patrolling that late. The professors take turns on the late patrol.

"Therefore, there are two patrolling times every weeknight, and the professors do a single patrol on the weekends. Our 9:15 patrol is the shorter one since the 10:15 patrol includes checking all the bathrooms to make sure they're empty. We will all take our turns at both patrols so that nobody can accuse anyone else of having it easier.

"I've made up a schedule for the rest of the month for each of you. There are seventeen patrol nights for the rest of this month. That's thirty-four patrols total. We'll have groups of two, so that means that some of you will have two patrols this month, and some will have three. It will be more even next month, and those that have to do three this month won't have to next month."

Draco passed around copies of the schedule and said, "I've paired you each with someone different for every patrol. If you have a problem with any of your partners, too bad. It's only for half an hour or so. You'll live. On the back of each schedule is a map of the areas that need to be checked every night. This is not advanced Arithmancy, people. Just don't lose your schedules, and we shouldn't have any problems. Right, then. Any questions?"

There weren't any since everyone was too busy looking for their names on the schedule to see who they were paired with. He gave them a few minutes, during which he noticed Granger looking grudgingly impressed, and then he spoke again. "As you can see, tonight, Lucas Whittier and Marissa Featherstone have the 9:15 patrol, and Chelsea Bleckhert and Chris Corbett have the 10:15. For the 9:15 patrol, and this goes for everyone else as well, if you find a first-, second-, third-, or fourth-year student where they shouldn't be, it's ten points from their house, and make sure to write down their name to give to their Head of House. For the 10:15, same thing applies to the older students. Oh, also, if your partner isn't in your house, it would behoove you to find that person tonight and arrange a place to meet. And that covers everything about patrols.

"A few other reminders. If there is rule-breaking going on in any of the houses, it is the Prefects' job to report it. It's your job to set an example for the students of your house and the whole school, so take it seriously. If a younger student needs help with something, give it. Take charge when charge needs to be taken. Remember that the Prefect system exists because teachers can't be everywhere at once.

"And that's all for tonight. Feel free to stay or go, whatever you prefer. If there are any questions, I'll be here for another fifteen minutes, and I'm sure Granger won't leave until she's forced to." And with that, and another smirk at the glaring Head Girl, he sat down and placed his fingers together in a steeple on the table.

Chatter quickly broke out, some people opting to stay and a few leaving, Weasley among them. Draco, ever the observer, couldn't help but notice the glare he gave Granger before he left and the way her face reddened as she quickly looked down. Well, that was interesting.

Draco was asked a few questions, the intelligent of which he answered and the inane of which he responded to by staring blankly at the asker until he or she flushed and looked away.

Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, at the end of the fifteen minutes, there were only a few people other than himself and Granger, and they left shortly after. Before Granger could give him any more grief, he gathered the remainder of his papers and made short work of restoring the room to its natural state. He left as soon as it was done and found Blaise waiting for him in the corridor.

"Nicely done, Draco. That Mudblood bitch was practically steaming from the ears. I thought her head was going to explode for a bit there."

"Well, not all dreams can come true," Draco said, smirking.

Blaise laughed, then said, "So, tell me you weren't serious about all the 'inter-house unity' shite."

Draco snorted. "Hardly."

"And the thing about reporting things that go on in the houses, does that apply to Slytherin?"

"Of course not. Slytherin will go on as it always has. We deal with our own."

Blaise nodded. "Good. Well, anyway, as amusing as it was to see you tormenting Granger, I'm glad the meeting is over. I don't know how much longer I could have sat that close to a Weasley and kept my dinner down."

"Oh, please, Blaise. If I can share a whole dormitory with Granger, you can sit through half an hour in the same room as Weasley."

"Tough luck on that, mate," Blaise replied, shaking his head. "Are you sure you wouldn't be happier if you came back to Slytherin? Or at least Pansy and I could come visit you so you wouldn't have to be alone there with her."

"I'd be happier if Granger would go drown herself in the lake, but I don't have a choice. I have to sleep in the Head Rooms, and honestly, it's not so bad as long as Granger keeps aw..."

Draco was cut off by a body rushing past him, whom he identified quickly as Granger, and he couldn't help but notice the wet tracks on her cheeks. And then she was gone around a corner, headed for their rooms, he could only assume. He immediately felt an uncomfortable twinge in his stomach. He had forgotten that she was walking behind them... He knew he probably shouldn't have said that bit about her drowning herself, but she was just so...

Blaise interrupted his thoughts. "Looks like Granger's going to be sniveling for the rest of the night. Serves her right. Just make sure she stays in her room, mate. You shouldn't have to be bothered with it."

Draco felt a small stab of annoyance at his friend, but aloud, he gave a short, insincere laugh and agreed, "Yeah..."

He hated feeling guilty, and it just figured that Granger would be the source of yet another uncomfortable emotion for him. He sighed aloud. He was going to have to smooth it over. Hopefully she wouldn't be too unreasonable...

He parted with Blaise, not really remembering what was said, and made his way back his rooms slowly, not looking forward to the inevitable confrontation and not sure what he was going to say. His feelings toward Granger had just been so mixed up this year. He felt like he didn't know which way was up and which was down with her. She was so unpredictable. One minute she was almost flirting with him, and the next she was pretending he didn't exist, and yet the next she was back to being her normal bitchy self. Well, normal before this year. He didn't really know what was normal for her now that he was around her more often. Granger was an unknown, and he hated it when something he was sure about turned out different than he expected.

His shoulders were tense as he gave the password to his common room. He looked around, expecting to see Granger sitting in one of the chairs, but she wasn't. His eyes went to her door, and he noticed it was closed. He swallowed a nervous lump. Having to go out of his way to smooth this over would just make it that much more difficult for him. But he knew he had to. His life would be even more miserable if she was any more hostile toward him than she was now. They needed to establish some sort of truce.

He took a deep breath and crossed the room to knock on her door. There was no answer. After a pause, he knocked again, then said, "Granger?"

Still there was no response. Great, so she was going to make it even more difficult. Typical. Irritation crept into his tone as he said, "Come on, Granger. Open the door. Stop being a bitch."

He'd been asking for it, but it still caught him off guard when the door flew open and he was met with a more furious Granger than he'd ever seen, though he was pleased to see she was no longer crying.

"What did you say?" she hissed, stepping menacingly toward him. He took a step back, but she pursued him.

"Granger..."

"You bastard," she said icily. "You say horrible things about me, knowing I'm right behind you, and then you demand that I open my door to you, and I'm a bitch for refusing? You disgust me. You are the worst person I've ever had the misfortune to know. You have no compassion, no sense of how to treat others. You believe the world and the people in it exist to make things easier for you. You are a bully and a manipulative, miserable excuse for a human being."

By this point, Draco's mouth had closed, and he was glaring at her. She was going too far, but she didn't stop there.

"For a moment I actually believed that maybe I was wrong about you, that maybe you were the right person to be Head Boy. For a moment you had me fooled. I thought maybe you had, for once, taken your responsibility seriously, but I was wrong. You have no interest in improving this school, helping anyone else, or having the rules apply to you. You were just putting on a show. You're still the same selfish, egotistical, spoiled brat you've always been, and you know what? You can stay that way. You may believe I'm beneath you, that I should bow to you, but I'm not going to drowning myself in any lakes or doing anything else to make your life easier. If my presence disturbs you so much, you can make more effort to avoid me."

And with that, she went back into her room and slammed the door in his face.

Draco felt like he'd been run over by the Hogwarts Express. That... She... He wandered into his room and closed the door. He sat down on his bed, and her words played and replayed in his head. Merlin... She really hated him. He could acknowledge to himself that maybe he had deserved some of her fury...he knew he hadn't always been... respectful toward her...but... he didn't think she'd needed to be so vicious. Something inside him hardened. Fine, if she wanted him to stay away from her, he was happy to oblige. He certainly didn't need her in his life. He didn't need anyone, least of all someone like her.

She had said he was the same person she'd always assumed he was, but this just proved that she was exactly what he'd always known her to be...a sanctimonious know-it-all, a Mudblood with no manners and no thought for anyone but herself. He'd gone to apologize, and she hadn't even let him get a word in. Well, he wouldn't be making that mistake again. That was the last time she'd ever get any sort of apology from him.

He readied himself for bed quickly and sat down on his four poster, but it was too early to sleep. He stared ahead at his wall, and his thoughts were drawn to what Granger might be doing in her own room, but he quickly stomped out that thought. He picked up his Potions book and decided to do his homework. It wasn't due until Thursday, but it would keep his thought where they should be.

It was late when he finally slipped into bed, and he was tired enough that he drifted off within a few minutes.

SB's Notes: So, was Hermione out of line? And was Draco's performance really that...a performance?