Draco Malfoy tried opening his eyes and found they were not working, he tried moving his hands, his feet and found he could.

"Oh my God!" He heard a faraway voice say, "He's awake."

"Draco?" Said another voice, much closer that the other one, he tried opening his eyes again and they complied this time. He was assaulted by light the moment his eyes cracked open. He squinted and tried sitting up but winced at the pain.

"Draco? Draco can you hear me?"The voice was much closer now and it sounded a lot like…

"Uncle Sev?" Draco winced as he felt the pain talking caused him. It felt like someone was sandpapering his throat.

"Thank the gods!" Severus nearly joined the witch on the other side of Draco in weeping. He had never felt so worried in his life, he considered Draco as a son, if not more, "Yes, Draco, it is me."his voice was thick with emotion and if anyone else in the room noticed they held their judgement to themselves.

"Where the hell am I?" Draco tried to sit up once again, and winced in pain. His chest was burning and his arms felt like they had been dipped in scalding hot water.

"Draco, you need to relax." Hermione put a hand over him, you've been terribly hurt.

"Granger?" Draco's eyes widened when he turned his head and saw his mate's tear-streaked face beside him, "What the hell?"

"Draco, you are at the headquarters of the order of the Phoenix." Severus said as he moved to the table by the window to extract medicine for the wounded boy, "Pinky brought you here after what happened with your aunt at the Manor."

"Pinky?"Draco asked weakly, trying his damndest not to whimper as Severus began to do something with his wand, pointing it to his screaming body.

"Yes, she did so under your orders."

"Why do I hurt so much?" he nearly cried in relief when the pain began to subside as Severus moved his wand up Draco's body.

"When your aunt cursed me, you absorbed the curse." Hermione said as she grabbed his hand and stroked it.

"It was quite unusual, "Severus said as he handed Draco a vial which he gulped down, grimacing at the foul taste, "I don't believe I have ever come across anything like it, besides between magical creatures and their mates."

"Yeah well…" Draco shifted, uncomfortable with where the conversation was leading. He noticed that Hermione too looked uncomfortable. He wanted to be able to discuss the matter with her before discussing it with Severus. He didn't even know what their mate status meant.

"Would you all please give me a moment alone with Draco?" Hermione asked as soon as she saw recognition in Severus' face, "Please?"

"But why, 'Mione?" Ron asked with a scowl on his face, "Why do you want to do that? Why would you put yourself in risk of getting hurt?"

"Ron I'll be fine." Hermione sighed, annoyed at having to explain this yet again to Ron. Draco had been out for the last three days and she had demanded to be seated by his side at all times. Ron had been convinced that he was going to attack her to which she responded by telling him that he was wrong. That he would not try to kill her after he had just put himself on the line for her. She knew what they were, her and Draco. She knew that she was his mate and that he was a vela. She had had more than enough time sitting by his bedside to research it.

The rest of the room cleared out, leaving Hermione and Draco. They sat there in the silence unsure of how to start.

"I'm a vela." Draco said after a few awkward minutes.

"I know." Hermione was so ashamed that she looked away from his heated gaze, ashamed that her Gryffindor courage had chosen this moment to desert her.

"You're my mate."

"I know."

"I'm sorry I didn't stop my aunt sooner."

"Draco, you did something much better for me." Hermione looked up at him, "You saved my life."

"And mine." He didn't want her to think he had done it for her. Because he hadn't. He had done it purely for his own selfish reasons.

"And Harry's and Ron's." Her eyes were twinkling now, Draco noted, with laughter. She was laughing at him.

"I don't like Voldemort." Draco was quite sure that after today he was going to kill himself for the rest of his existence because, much to his chagrin, he had just blushed.

"Thank you for being good Draco," she held his hand up to her lips and kissed him lightly. He shivered.

"I'm not good."

"You are." she insisted as she sandwiched his hand between her palm and the side of her head.

"How do you know?" he asked as his hand moved of its own volition to cup the other side of her head, he whispered the question again when their faces were merely a breath's space from each other.

"Because," Hermione looked into the silver orbs she had been missing the last couple of days, "Because I've seen it in you."

"You should walk away now." Draco rest his forehead against hers and relished in the contact his skin zinged where it touched hers, "While you still can."

"I'm afraid that is impossible, Draco." She breathed in his scent and had fight the magnetic attraction that was forcing her lips to his, much like the previous time, in the astronomy tower, "I love you. And I don't regret it."

"For now. What happens when my connection with you gets you in trouble? Then what, Hermione? I won't be able to live with myself if something happened to you."

"Draco," Hermione wiped the tears from his cheeks, "Nothing will happen to me. I love you and I don't regret it. I will never regret it."

"You're too good for me."

"I know."

"I love you too."

"I know."

It was different from the first time, Draco noted hazily. It was a thousand explosions of many colours. It was the end of the world, and the big bang rolled in one. His second kiss with Hermione Granger was a burning inferno as hot as the face of the sun. It was as violent as an erupting volcano. His second kiss with Hermione made him realise that he had found something in her that had never been there for him, ever in his seventeen years of existence, a home.