DISCLAIMER: I do not own either Harry Potter or any of the characters mentioned below.

Chapter 1

Still I scrub and scrub until my body bleeds

Convince myself I am coming clean

Forget and ignore who I used to be

That kid is never coming back

It was more than a year after the Battle of Hogwarts and Draco still had nightmares. They began the day the Great War ended. But in all honesty, they actually began from the moment he was delegated with the task of murdering Albus Dumbledore. No, not murder, assassination. It was an assassination because Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was a great man indeed. Even greater than Voldemort, thought Draco, without any fear because Voldemort was gone now, for good, no thanks to me.

Surprisingly, on such nights when he couldn't sleep, Draco found a great deal of comfort in the huge library at his parent's manor. He discovered this on the fourth night he had the nightmares; in an attempt to find solace, he had wandered around the giant, empty, cold manor and found himself in front of the unused library. As soon as he entered, he was enveloped by a strange warmth that he always associated with Hogwarts. After that night, he came to the library almost every night and sometimes even succeeded in falling asleep, however fitful that may be.

After the war ended, Draco had realized the emptiness of the kind of life he used to lead. He found no comfort now in the continuous attention that he received from either the press or from anyone he associated with his previous life. Mostly, he felt vilely irritated by the non-stop attention he was subjected to by Pansy. He could not figure out how he could have liked and actually wanted it in the first place. For him, she and his other friends from Slytherin (with the sole exception of Blaise Zabini) were a reminder of the kind of life that he absolutely despised.

Zabini and the fact that he wanted to become an Auror when he grew up were the only reasons that he had agreed to go back to Hogwarts for his seventh and last year. He was desperate to get over it quickly so that he could start a new life, but on his own worth and not with his despicable father's filthy money. Although they still lived in the same house, Draco was disgusted of his father and blamed him for dragging him into the world comprised only of evil. He didn't blame his mother, for she too was a victim like him. It was his father that he despised and wanted to get away from.

The train ride back to Hogwarts was pretty uneventful (that is, if you didn't count the stares he got from every direction, especially from the nosey and curious first years who had heard that there was an ex-Death Eater on the train). The only thing that made the journey bearable for him was his best buddy Blaise who gave death stares to anyone looking their way, and Draco was grateful to him for that (God knew, he had received more attention than he would have liked the past year).

As soon as the train stopped, Draco and Blaise jumped out of the train and got on the first carriage back to school. They didn't pay any attention to anyone the whole time and as soon as the feast was over, went back to their Common Room. He didn't want to talk to anyone so he went straight to his room and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

He must have been asleep for about 4 hours when he woke up with a start. He checked the clock in the room and saw that it was 2am. Failing to fall asleep again no matter how hard he tried, he sat up on his bed and saw that all his roommates were sleeping. Trying the tactic that he tried at home, he got up and went straight to the library. He was surprised when he found that the door was unlocked and wondered whether anyone else was up at this ungodly hour. He soon dismissed the thought and proceeded to enter the library as noiselessly as possible. Ascertaining that no one else was there, he went towards the armchairs kept near the fireplace. As he was about to sit on one of them, he heard a slight sniff and suddenly stood up, turning the armchair over. He turned around, surprised, and found himself into the equally surprised eyes of Hermione Granger, looking breath-takingly beautiful in the bright full moon light.

A/N: This is my first shot at writing fan fiction. So please be kind and if you like the story, kindly post a review as that would make my day and encourage me to write more. I would like to post chapters every Wednesday, starting from today (18 February, 2015). Thankyou..:)