Summary: As head boy and girl, Draco and Hermione develop a strange sort of study system together that quickly becomes a routine. When Draco finds out Hermione barely passed first year flying lessons, however, he quickly makes sure to add flying lessons into their odd routine.

Hermione could not say she hated him. She wanted to and she regularly did when talking with Ron and Harry, but she could not honestly say she hated Draco Malfoy. After testifying at his trial and having to meet with him for the entire train ride to Hogwarts, it was kind of difficult to not notice how he had changed. He was still a prick and she wasn't sure she'd ever forget what he'd done in the past, but he seemed to be making a genuine effort to get along with her.

Only two weeks into the year and they had already come up with some sort of combined study session on weeknights. Hermione wasn't daft. She knew Draco was right behind her in marks and having him as a study partner was probably the best thing she could do for her education. That didn't mean that the first night he suggested it went very well however.

She was rather embarrassed to say she may have cussed him out for attempting to be her friend as if the past hadn't happened. While Draco hadn't yelled back at her, he had informed her he was trying very hard to be a better person and that if she continued to view him as his old self, then really she was no better than the others who called him a Death Eater. Hermione had taken his comments to heart and tried much harder after that to get to know the new Draco Malfoy whom she was now living with.

Now, Hermione set aside the time to study with him each night and review the homework they'd each done during the day. Draco was surprisingly witty and easy to talk to which is how she found herself admitting halfway through their Tuesday night study session that she had barely passed their flying course in first year.

Draco stared at her for several seconds before realising it was not a joke. Then he laughed.

"Oh shit, Granger," he laughed, leaning back in his seat, homework long forgotten. "You're serious."

"Of course I'm serious, Malfoy," she said, her cheeks burning. "I hated the class and refuse to ride a broom even now. Besides, I don't need one if I can apparate."

"No, no, no," Draco said, waving a hand as he attempted to calm down. "This is the greatest thing I've ever heard."

Hermione huffed and glared at him before trying to return to her homework, grumbling about how her misery really shouldn't cause him such joy. It was when Draco sat up straight and stared at her like he'd just had an epiphany that Hermione really began to regret saying anything.

"I'm going to teach you how to ride a broom," he announced. Hermione's eyes widened and she shook her head quickly. "Yes, I will. It's the one thing I can do that you can't, so I'm going to teach you."

"Absolutely not," Hermione refused. Draco just smirked at her and leaned back in his seat.

"After class, meet me at the quidditch field," he told her. Hermione glared at him, already deciding she would do no such thing. "And if you don't, I'll tell Blaise."

Apparently she would be doing such a thing.

* * * * *

Hermione was not proud to admit she was scared as she walked up to the quidditch field. Logically, she knew there was really no reason, but she couldn't help it. She'd seen Harry's broom cursed before and heard horror stories about faulty brooms. To her, they simply didn't seem like a reliable transportation method. She definitely didn't understand why wizards bothered with them when apparation and Floo networks were available options.

Unfortunately for Hermione, Draco was already waiting for her at the quidditch pitch so she had no excuse to leave hastily.

"You look excited," Draco teased. Hermione scowled at him and dropped her book bag by his. He had two brooms in hand, one that she recognised as his and another one that clearly looked like it was the school's. "Since you're clearly terrified—"

"Am not," Hermione grumbled, taking the broom from him.

"—I figured we could start easy," Draco said with a smirk. Hermione's eyes narrowed at him and he laid his broom on the ground. "This is how you get it up," he told her, holding his hand over the broom and saying, "Up."

"I know how to do that," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. She let her broom drop to the ground then glared at it as she held her hand above it. "Up," she demanded. The broom did nothing and Draco snorted. Hermione tried again and it wiggled, but didn't jump into her hand. "Up!" she said, annoyed that the broom was making her out to be a fool.

"You have to pretend you actually want it to go up or it won't," Draco told her. Hermione resisted the urge to glare at him again and instead rolled her shoulders in an attempt to relax. "Breathe, Granger."

Hermione wanted to snap at him, but she did as instructed and looked down at the broom. If it didn't work this time, she was going to throw the broom at Draco.

"Up," she commanded. The broom flew into her hand forcefully and Hermione's eyes widened.

Behind her, Draco grinned but didn't say a word. He'd let her celebrate her success even though he'd happened to use wandless, nonverbal magic to bring the broom up to her. The last thing he wanted was a grumbling Granger on his hands, so he'd helped her out a bit.

"Good," he said, stepping forward. "Now mount it."

"Oh, no," Hermione said, shaking her head quickly. "That's enough for today."

"Get on the broom, Granger," Draco said. Hermione glared at him and carefully climbed onto the broom. She didn't kick off the ground, but Draco wasn't all the surprised. "Just float a little. You don't even have to kick off, just float on it."

Hesitantly, Hermione lifted her feet and floated on the broom. She wobbled more than Draco cared to tell her and her form was atrocious, but it was a start.

With a grin, he climbed on his own broom and floated beside her.

"Now follow me," he said, zipping off across the pitch. He was barely hovering above the ground and when he glanced behind him, Granger was moving incredibly slow. With a sigh and a grin, he circled back around and floated beside her. At least she was moving forward.

* * * * *

Every Wednesday and Thursday during dinner, Draco and Hermione made their way up to the quidditch pitch to practice flying. Although Hermione refused to fly much higher than two meters, Draco considered it progress and spent most of the time practicing new tricks while Hermione floated below him.

"Don't fall," Hermione called up, staring at him as he did loop after loop upside down.

Draco paused his tricks to smirk at her before zipping off in the other direction. Hermione rolled her eyes and followed after him. Even though she wasn't half as fast as Draco, she was much faster than she'd been during their first lesson. Her form had also improved after a surprisingly awkward lesson where he'd gotten very close to her.

Even though Draco spent most of their lesson time practicing his own tricks now, he still managed to teach Hermione a few things here and there. For instance, one particular day, he'd decided he would get Hermione to fly higher than usual. No, not as high as the quidditch stands, but at least four meters above the ground. Unsurprisingly, she refused.

"Granger, you'll be fine," he promised, floating beside her. Hermione gave him a look that said she believed otherwise, but Draco wasn't having it. "I'll be right beside you the whole time. You won't fall, I swear."

"And if I do?" she challenged. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Then obviously I'd catch you," he replied. They stared at each other for several seconds before she nodded once.

"Fine," she agreed, her grip on her broom tightening. "But if I fall, I'm blaming you."

"Perfectly understandable," Draco ceded.

Ever so slowly, Hermione floated higher into the sky. Draco watched her closely, floating just a bit below her in case she did flail and fall. She was incredibly tense the entire time and as soon as Draco felt like they'd gone high enough, he told her so.

"Good," Hermione breathed, still clutching her broom tightly. "I wouldn't have gone any higher."

"Now you have to fly like you normally do," Draco said. Hermione's eyes shot wide open and she glanced at the ground. "Don't think about it," he said, drawing her attention back to him. "It's just like usual, but higher. Relax and just look around. I won't even do the fun stuff."

Hermione rolled her eyes but looked around the pitch. Draco floated beside her as they rode around slowly. They were back to the snail's pace she'd used every other time he'd forced her to go higher, but Draco didn't really care. The fact that she'd agreed to go higher was what mattered.

"I don't know why you like this," Hermione grumbled. They were on their second lap around the quidditch pitch and while Hermione was still tense, she'd managed to relax a little.

"Well, you haven't actually had fun on a broom yet," Draco told her. Everything she did was very calculated and slow. "If you actually went flying, you'd understand."

"I like to think this counts as flying," Hermione said. She gestured to herself sitting on the broom and wobbled slightly. Draco's hand shot out before he'd even thought about it, but she steadied herself easily.

"Sure, but only in the vaguest of senses," Draco argued. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him and stopped her broom.

"I don't trust brooms to actually take me flying," she admitted. Draco nodded. He'd seen as much already and told her before it was why her broom didn't seem to respond to her very well. Hermione liked to argue that it was because brooms hated her, but Draco could tell she'd believed him.

"Do you trust me to?" Draco asked, surprising both of them with the words. "To take you flying, that is. Would you trust me?"

Hermione hesitated for only a second.

"If I say yes, you'll take me flying, won't you?" she asked.

"Well, that is the nature of the question," Draco replied. She pursed her lips but nodded much to Draco's delight.

Together, they floated back down to the ground and left Hermione's broom propped up against the stairs to the stands. Draco scooted back enough that Hermione could sit in front of him before immediately realising his miscalculation. He leaned forward to grab ahold of the broom and ignored the way Hermione inhaled sharply as his chest pressed against her back.

Slowly, as he didn't want to scare her, they lifted up into the sky. As they rose above the quidditch pitch, Hermione shot one arm out to wrap around Draco's while holding onto his broom tightly with the other. Draco hoped she didn't notice the way his heart pounded.

He took them over the castle and above the Great Lake. Hermione's hold on his arm stayed tight, but she did seem to relax a little as they continued to fly. They didn't go over the Forbidden Forest, but Draco did fly them very close to it. By the time they returned to the quidditch pitch, Hermione seemed much less tense than when they started out.

"Fine," she said, dismounting his broom and releasing his arm. "That was nice."

"You can't do that with apparation," Draco replied with a smirk. Hermione rolled her eyes and picked up her bookbag and broom. "Just think about all you've been missing out."

"I'd miss out on more if I fell off a broom and died," Hermione said. Draco frowned at her back as she returned her broom to the broom closet. "As much as I appreciate the flying lessons," she said, turning back around to face him, "I doubt I'll ever love flying."

"I can live with that," Draco said, stealing her bookbag from her and tossing it over his shoulder. She just smiled and rolled her eyes at him, making him grin. "At least I can say I finally got you on a broom."

"Just don't go bragging about it," she told him. Draco smirked but didn't promise not to. After all, who was he to not brag about something to Potty and Weasel?