OMG OMG OMG it's been so long! I'm so sorry guys! Multiple writer's blocks, college, and jovial idiots have prevented me from added fuel to this wonderful fire that I'm making between this lovely forbidden couple. Anyways, I hope it was worth the wait. Tell me if you guys want longer chapters or not when you review please!

Disclaimer: JK Rowling is the genius that has fueled my imagination, tis not my own other than the plot development and possible characters.

It had been almost a week since Draco had acquired the muggle-born bookworm as a roommate. Although it wasn't the same as their Hogwarts days, the tension still blanketed the room like morning dew. Tension of what exactly, neither of them knew, but it definitely had a hostile edge. Draco was drinking tea by the window, enjoying the tranquility of his new un-Death Eater-like life. Hermione was curled up in the corner of her bed, and had been that way all morning, reading Hogwarts: A History Vol. 126. Draco turns to look at her contently while she furrows her brow, getting even deeper into her book.

Heh, is she always this serious? I haven't seen her even crack the smallest smile since she's gotten here. Well, I shouldn't expect it seeing as we haven't had the friendliest past. Jeez, I've been a prick over the years. Still, someone had to teach that woman sometime in her life …I bet she glows…-Little did Draco know, a frizzy haired bookworm was smiling at him through her thick, amber bangs.

Is he-smiling at me? He couldn't possib- Merlin, it looks so inviting…Oi! Hermione what are you thinking? This is still the guy that tortured you for half of your life and was sent to kill Dumbledore!-and saved your life- Hermione's soft smile turned into a smug look as the thoughts within her head of the ferret across the room combated for priority.

Hermione noticed his lips forming words and decided to interject the silence.

"What's that?" was all she could muster up to say. Good job, she says to herself.

"Oh, I was just thinking to myself out loud. Did you hear my mind spill?" Draco sternly said, as to show that he didn't want questions asked.

"Umm, well…not exactly. Never mind then," as she immediately goes back to her book as to avoid his gaze. Yes, he was still staring at her. What does he want from me? He's got his gaze of hunger upon him…like he's possessed or something.

A big sigh comes from the Slytherin prince as he places his tea cup in the sink and starts to wash the few dishes in there. He whistles a tune while he washes the dishes; Hermione recognizes it as a song from a muggle band.

"Is that…you know Savage Garden? Isn't that beneath the pureblood culture?" Hermione didn't mean to sound snarky in her response to his whistling.

He was thrown aback at first, but smiled while he responded. "It was an accident how I came upon it actually. I was walking down Diagon Alley when I heard that song playing from a bistro that had just opened. I walked and closed my eyes to listen to the lyrics," He closed his eyes and began to sing to himself, "…'cause I'm counting on, A new beginning, A reason for living, A deeper meaning, yeah… Yeah, I realized that those word s were gonna mean something to me someday. And well, here I am."

"So you wanted a new beginning as well…" Her thoughts escaped through her lips.

"Is that why I found you laying you in the woods that night?" His face gave off a concerned look.

"Uh well," She desperately needed a subject change, "I fell…really hard. You know how concussions go." She tried to laugh it off, but could tell from face that he wasn't buying it.

"Yeah, like hell you fell. I didn't find a book around you, so that couldn't be it. Was there something going on in that bushy head of yours? Something that took so much of your focus, making you fall? Knowing you, it was intentional. Someone had to provoke it, just like Weasely did first year. You ran to the bathroom to cry but ran into a troll instead. You always run off crying, and the way your face looked when I found you that night, you had definitely been crying." Draco now looked at her with a victorious face, as if he solved a mystery, "So, let's try this again. What, or who, made you run away crying in the middle of the forest?"

Hermione couldn't help but give a confused yet guilty look at him. It seems as if he knew so much about her and yet she had been close-minded all these years to know anything about him other than the main three things everyone else knew about him: He's a pureblood, he's rich, and he's a Death Eater.

She gave a big sigh and looked at him with a "please don't judge me" glare. "I ran away because I just didn't care about the war anymore. I didn't want to think about running for my life, losing all the people I love, or worrying about whether what I'm fighting for is really worth dying for. They were all just thoughts running through my head, but then Weasely," she paused at the use of Malfoy's name for him, "Ron saw me and Harry dancing and immediately jumped to conclusions. What really frustrated me though was the way he decided to spill his heart out and degrade me at the same time. I mean he's always had the most unorthodox way of telling me things last minute when there was nothing I could do and blaming me for said things, but this time…he crossed the line. The names I can take; but not from him."

Draco lightly touched her shoulder as to console her. "What did he call you?" asking as if he was going to apparate to Ron and Harry's tent and whollop him in the nose.

She looked down as she let out a sniffle, "Mudblood."

The Slytherin prince's eyes widened. His past hit him harder than the Whomping Willow ever could, right into his heart. He knew how much that word hurt Hermione and the others like her, and yet back then, he said it anyways to get a rise out of them and keep up the Malfoy name. He was always obligated to keep appearances due to his blood status. It sickened the hell out of him..but it didn't matter anymore. The more he thought about how he found Hermione that night and his night alone in the woods, away from titles, blood status, and the war; he realized that they were more alike than what met the eye. Now they had to depend on each other to stay alive, despite all the death that was to come around them .

At that moment, Draco opened up his arms to allow her to fit perfectly inside them.