A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to upload this, it's been a crazy couple of weeks! But we are here finally (yay), so without further ado this is chapter three and the characters still do not belong to me. Enjoy and please review! x

Amnesty (iii)

He'd told her once, fleetingly, in the calm afterglow that his sleep demons had all but ceased with her presence. In that moment, he had been as surprised with the revelation of his attachment as she had been with the admission of his vulnerability.

Being the Gryffindor Know-It-All she was, Hermione had enquired with a soft voice and gentle prompting as to the nature of his dreams. He'd never gone into much detail of course, he was still Draco Malfoy, impenetrable as stone when he desired to be. Yet his feelings for her had provided the chink in his armour, her gateway to true knowledge of Draco the man, rather than Malfoy the Death Eater.

"I'm not made for this," he'd confessed once.

It was the kind of thing one said on the edge of sleep. Words whispered in the dark as though he were inside his own mind rather than the discreet muggle London hotel room, or more correctly, the warm bed he had currently been sharing with Hermione Granger, bleeding heart extraordinaire.

She wordlessly encouraged him with the increasing closeness of her body to his own and although she knew he had wished to stop, he could not find it within himself now that half of the secret had been told.

His hand against her back tensed, clenching into a fist of restraint before finally relenting and splaying as he stole greedy touches of her rose petal skin.

"The death," he began hesitantly, "the destruction, the lies. Salazar knows I'm Slytherin to the bone, cunning and cold, though I'm not my father. I-I can't do it like he can."

She froze briefly though did not wish to further encourage his self loathing for having admitted as much to her despite the several months of the torrid union having bonded them closer than could ever be undone by something as simple as a confession of too much too soon.

The words were priceless to the girl who was currently attempting to repent for her friend's sins as she traced one of the larger Sectumpsempra scars across his chest with the tip of her index finger. Though his confession did not continue, nor could she reply as Draco took control of her lips with a bruising kiss, as though his attentions however consuming they were could indeed make her forget the whispered gift he had given her.

He however, could not, she had filed away the words for undoubtedly later use as she continued her silent apologies, both for Harry's actions and those of so many others.

"You don't have to..." he murmured, his eyes closed, knowing the emotions her features leaked.

Despite her desperate and clawing need to confess her own sins, she pressed a kiss to his chest, flawless skin marred by hatred and whispered for him, "I know."

X

Her heart fluttered with a mixture of hope and all consuming dread as his body convulsed before her, his seeker moulded limbs thrashing and collecting the sheets as he tossed and turned.

"Nightmare," she realised aloud, though she hardly noticed, he was her sole focus, as he had been for so very long.

She knew instantly that she ought not wake him, for there was nothing worse than to wake a sleepwalker and she feared that the intense nightmares fell into rather the same description. However, it seemed cruel to her gentle soul to remain here at the foot of his bed and witness his torment as though it were a fresh film at the cinema. Despite that thought, she knew however that she was not quite prepared nor was she equipped to deal with a conscious Draco Malfoy.

Oh Merlin, she thought in a panic, what if his own violent reactions woke him? Surely she'd given him a strong enough dose of sleeping draught to keep him unconscious until at the very least tomorrow's light. She found though that she could not quite recall her measurements, as she shook like a leaf in his presence those first few minutes, unable to do anything but simmer in her alarm.

Looking back at the cause of her lacking brain, she noticed sweat had begun to bead at his brow, tiny drops forming a sheen that coated his face as his injured body sleep shifted once more, harshly thrown limbs that would surely ache when he finally it appeared that he had.

His eyes were wide, frantic and unseeing as they flickered repeatedly though blindly over her face.

"No," he whispered hoarsely, as though his vocal chords had been scrubbed with a potato peeler. "No," he began again, "what do you mean?"

His husky speech left her aching, the familiarity of the formation of those words on his lips stung her soul, for he'd said those very words as she left.

"Shh," she hushed, timidly approaching the bed.

"Don't go," he sleep slurred, yet the request so clear it all but pierced her being.

Drawing even closer she whispered, "Draco, I'm here."

Stroking his hand with gentle fingers that he'd so greatly missed, she continued, "hush Draco."

But he didn't. It was as though the removal of her hand brought him extreme agony as his body shook and he begged in a most unfamiliar fashion, not to mention loudly enough to rattle the portraits, "Hermione, please."

It was without thought that the second he voiced the plea she had never before heard with such desperation that her gentle hands captured his shaking face. She stroked his hallowed cheeks the way she had the first night they had slept together, chorusing the promise that she was here.

He gasped with a viciousness she had not been expecting upon their contact, grasping the hand that held his face, his shudders perhaps even fiercer than before.

"Draco," she muttered, her fingers searching for the greatest purchase for his attention, begging for a returned serenity she would not receive, as his heavily drugged and disorientated eyes truly saw her.

And it was then as recognition flashed briefly in the molten silver depths and his tremors increased tenfold that he sought and latched her lips between his.

A/N: What did we think? I know it's taken a while to get to any actual interaction to occur between our lovebirds and I am terribly sorry but I promise it is just around the corner, the scene is finally set :)