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"Come on Hermione. What are you waiting for?"

"Calm down Draco, I'm coming. I can't run as fast as you! What's the big rush anyway? Thought this was supposed to be our day out?"

Draco ran back towards Hermione and grabbed her hand. He pulled her along, and took her over to the edge of the Hogwarts Lake and then stopped. Hermione watched as Draco looked deeply into the dark pool ahead of him and thought about everything he wanted to do involving the lake, most of them unpleasant.

"Do you know why this place is important?"

"Errmm... It's the place I found you just after the Great War. I pulled you away from the water's edge and we sat just over there and talked for hours", Hermione pointed towards a small cluster of trees in which hid a little clearing. The clearing slowly became Draco and Hermione's meeting place; because not many knew their friendship.

"This is where I first realised I... Oh never mind"

Draco sat down by the lake and invited Hermione to join him. She slowly sat down beside him and then lay down with her head resting on Draco's lap. She looked up at him, and he back at her.

Amazing, thought Draco, she hasn't changed one bit since the day I met her. She is still that vision of beauty...

Hermione watched Draco's thought process as he looked at her. She often did this, but because she always looked for any trigger looks. She knew far too well that Draco had triggers which set him off, though when he does become angry or upset; he never took it out ton others but himself.

Hermione looked at Draco's poor arm and knew that that was only one sign of his pain. Scars travelled down the forearm some in intricate patterns, others in violent lines. They covered most of his arm but mostly over his faded 'Dark Mark'. She knew he was ashamed of what he was, and what he did; and he took the anger out on himself. For instance, the night Hermione found him by the lake; his arm was covered in deep gashes and tears in his eyes. A bloody knife in his hand, he was about to do another if Hermione hadn't taken it away from him. That was when Hermione saw Draco for what he was, a desperate person who needed help, who needed a friend, who needed to know what it felt like to be loved. Hermione tried to move him away from the water but he protested and shouted at her. It took awhile but he moved and she led him to the little clearing.

It was there that Draco's knees gave way and began to truly howl and Hermione sat next to him and comforted him. She sat there for hours, talking to him, healing his arm and trying to help him. It was in the small clearing that Draco began to tell her everything. How he couldn't cope with emotions, and how when You-Know-Who took over his life using him as a puppet; Draco began to lose control of everything. It was with that that Draco realised that his pain was the last thing he could control and so got a knife and began to carve lines into his arm, letting the blood ooze out of them till he passed out. He woke up the next day, seeing what he had done and was ashamed with it. However he carried on like this, whenever he felt angry or upset or whenever he didn't have control on something he would cut himself. He had lost his faith in people and himself, but had gained faith in his knife and pain; feeling the blade cut his skin open calmed him and he felt in control again.

This was nearly 2 years ago now, and Draco had tried to stop but had had relapses. He hadn't cut in almost six months but Hermione worried that; being by the water near the anniversary of that night could end up being fatal. She knew Draco still felt, well felt out of control sometimes and sometimes suicidal as he continued to blame the death of Albus Dumbledore on himself every day. But she hoped that her friendship was enough to at least keep him sane, she now loved Draco and it killed her to see him hurt.

Draco could sense that Hermione was thinking about the past also but could see she was worrying again. So he sat her up and said,

"Hermione, I wish you'd stop worrying sometimes. Honestly, I don't think I've ever met anyone who worries as much as you do"

"But..."

"No buts. Besides I never brought you here to for you to worry or for us just to think about the past. I...I brought you here too..."

Draco always found it difficult to let his true intentions know, and Hermione knew this so she waited patiently for him to continue. She looked at him lovingly and this seemed to boost his confidence.

"I've brought you here to discuss... No not discuss... Errmm... Do you remember the first words I said to you? When you found me here?"

"Of course, you said that I was foolish and should just leave you here; so that you could finish. You told me to leave because you had nothing to live for or lose. You told me that if you were to jump into the lake everyone would forget you soon enough"

"Well Hermione, I was wrong. You're not foolish, you're the most intelligent and beautiful girl I know. I do have something to live for and everything to lose. I now know that if I were to have... to have killed myself, that at least one person would remember me and I hope for the right reasons."

Hermione was speechless; she had never heard Draco talk about that night before.

Draco continued, "I have been given a new life thanks to you Hermione, and I could never repay you for that; thank you"

This was it. Draco had been planning for months what to say to her and when just for a chance that she might say that she feels the same way and this was his last chance of trying.

"Hermione Jean Granger, I...I love you"

Hermione gasped, she couldn't believe it. Draco loved her too!

Draco looked at the now ecstatic Hermione who just looked at him and said, "You have no idea how long I've waited for you to say that"

Draco leaned in and kissed Hermione's soft lips to be greeted by her kissing back. The kiss became passionate and more heated, they moved in harmony together as though they were built for each other.

The kiss stopped when they both came back up for air.

"Amazing", they both whispered and slightly giggled when they had.

They sat there holding each other, when Hermione finally broke the silence.

"You know what this means don't you?"

"What?" Draco slightly laughed

"Your gonna be seeing a hell of a lot more of me" Hermione smiled

"I look forward to it" and Draco reached in for another kiss.

What both had not realised was that behind the thick of the trees stood a boy. This boy had watched and heard everything, and it broke his heart. This boy stood by and let the love of his life get away, this poor ginger haired boy.