He watched her. Though she didn't know it Draco Malfoy had watched Hermione Granger at night for several months now. This wasn't the first night she spoke. She rarely spoke but when she did it was normally about schoolwork.

She whimpered. She thrashed wildly, her legs and arms twisting in her sheets. She moaned, groaned, and whimpered. He wanted to help her, to comfort her, make her pain stop, but he couldn't. If he disturbed her she would find out about his nightly visits and curse him into oblivion. So, he didn't. Draco sat and let her get through the nightmare.

Slowly, he walked over to her and grabbed her hand. "Draco… Draco… Draco…" she whispered. For one second he thought that she was awake but then noticed that she was just talking in her sleep.

Why was she talking about me? He wondered.

He released her hand and stood up to leave. Her eyes opened and he froze. "Draco," she looked straight at him, her eyes pleading, "Don't leave." He walked back over to her.

"Why?"

She looked confused but said "I love you. Will you stay with me?"

Draco nodded and got under the covers with her. Her big brown eyes looked back into his cold, grey ones. She put her head on his chest and he curled an arm around her waist. He felt her head move and could tell she was looking at his face. Draco looked down at her face. Hermione smiled and raised herself a few inches until her lips met his. He kissed her back. It was passionate and it was probably the most passionate kiss either of them had ever had.

When they finally pulled apart Draco said "I love you, too, Hermione. I love you, too."

-xXx-

Hermione jerked into an upright position and looked down beside her. The spot next to her was empty, as if it had never even been occupied.

Maybe it was a dream. She thought.

Then she saw it: a note lying on her bedside table. It read:

Dear Hermione,

Last night was no dream, I was truly there and I did tell you I love you, too. I just needed to leave. You know how my family feels about muggleborns and if I was seen with you I would be a disgrace to the Malfoy name. It's not that I'm embarrassed by you; it's just that I'll try to make my mother and father warm up to the idea of us. I quite like the sound of that actually. Us. It sounds very nice.

I love you, Draco

Hermione crumpled the note in her hand. Sure like they would ever be able to be together. As soon as he tells his father, Lucius will marry him off to some snobby, pureblood freak. She lay back down and curled up into a ball, and began crying.

She shook with the force of her sobs. She truly did love Draco Malfoy, but how could he tell her that he loves her and then leave her without a good explanation. This wasn't the first time he had broken her heart.

The first time had been in third year, he had taunted her to the breaking point so she finally smacked him across the face. It had felt brilliant. The second time was in fourth year, when he had gone to the Yule Ball with someone else even after she had asked him. But she got revenge on that by going with Krum. The third time had been in fifth year when he had been caught having a major snog with some random Ravenclaw. The worst time, other than this, was in sixth year when Draco had been found in a broom closet, shirtless, with Ginny. That one had really, really hurt.

There had been several times when she found he liked her, at least a little bit. In third year, she had overbalanced while she was on an old ladder in the library, and her caught her, but told her to tell no one about it. Then, in fourth year, she had felt his eyes following her around the dance floor and she was pretty sure she had heard him muttering at some point of the night how much he disliked Krum right then. In sixth year, at the Christmas Party, she didn't think he was trying to crash the party she thought he just wanted to come with her instead of her going with McLaggen.

That brought us to this year. Our last and final year at Hogwarts.

As soon as she thought this her door opened and Draco came in, an apologetic smile on his face. He whispered. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I'm sorry for everything I've ever done to hurt you. I'm sorry that I left you just now, and I'm sorry that I never told you how jealous I was of all those guys you ever hung out with like Potter, Weasley, Krum, and McLaggen. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me, Hermione?"

She smiled and threw her arms around his neck. Though it was muffled because her face was buried in his shirt, her reply was unmistakable.

"OK."