Sorry for the delay in getting this to you guys. You know how it is, sometimes life just gets in the way! Enjoy x

When they arrived at Malfoy's house, Hermione was fast asleep. Draco carried her up the stairs to the spare bedroom and threw her down on the bed. She still did not wake up, so he pulled the cover over her and went downstairs. What the fuck am I doing? He thought. He did not like Granger, they had hated each other at school and he had been part of the wrong side during the Battle of Hogwarts. Truth was, he hated being a Death Eater but he had no choice. He had done everything he could to stay out of the Battle, but if he had not done anything his parents and he would have been killed. He exhaled in exasperation at the position that he was always in. He didn't feel himself falling asleep on the sofa.

Hermione woke up, and realised that she was not in her own bedroom. Strange, she thought as she was sure that Steven had taken her back to The Leaky Cauldron. She sat up in bed and felt her head pounding and she knew that she had drank far too much last night. Although, after all of the drunken nights she had had, she was growing immune to hangovers.

"Steven?" Hermione called. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She screamed when she saw who entered the room.

"MALFOY!"

"Yeah, Granger, it's not your coffee boy I'm afraid," Draco sneered. "Did you have a fun night last night? I particularly enjoyed it."

"Oh no, what happened?" Hermione said with audible concern in her voice.

"Relax, I wouldn't have touched you last night, you were a mess."

"Why am I here? I remember being at The Leaky Cauldron…"

"You left your bag at the club, so I had to bring you here. As much as I detest your existence, I could not justify leaving you in such a mess at your door. Anyone could have had their way with you."

"Thanks," Hermione mumbled. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm so reckless now and I just, I find it so hard to feel anything." Hermione didn't know why she was telling Malfoy this, but when she looked up at him, his eyes were on the ground and he was clenching his fist.

"So you think alcohol is the answer?" Draco spat out. "Do you really think that's the way that you should cope with that?"

"It just, helps. You wouldn't understand. You inflicted the horrors on us, you don't see what I see at night."

"Do I not understand? I have my own coping mechanisms which are far more pleasurable in the morning than yours. But do you really think I wanted to do what I did? You think that I was happy? If you do, you're not as smart as people give you credit for, Granger," Malfoy said as he walked out the door. Hermione stood, astonishment overriding her feelings of anger towards Malfoy. She had always suspected that Malfoy was not as invested in being a Death Eater as the others, but he had just admitted as much to her. It made her start to see him in a different light.

What a fucking idiot. Admitting weakness to her. What the fuck are you doing? Malfoy mentally castigated himself. He didn't know why he found it so easy to express things to Hermione, but he was clear that it needed to stop. His relationship with his family was too precarious to be openly socialising with a Mudblood. He winced – he really hated using that word now. And, when he looked at Hermione, he didn't see dirt or filth, he saw beauty. She had lost weight, and sadness and pain were engraved on her face, but Malfoy could still see the Hermione that he knew in school. They hated each other, but there was no doubt that he found her attractive, and if the weasel had been out of the picture, if she was not in Gryffindor and if she was not from a Muggle family, he might have entertained the idea of making her his. But they were living in a different world in which that was not possible, and some obstacles were just too great to overcome. He sighed as he heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Thank you for bringing me here, Draco. I would have done something that I would have regretted last night if you hadn't intervened, so thank you. And," she hesititated, "I'm glad I'm not the only one the war damaged. Makes me feel a little less alone," she said with a small, tired smile.

"What about Weasley? Didn't think you would feel alone with that buffoon."

"Ronald and I are…are in a difficult place right now," Hermione said, her voice strong, but her eyes threatening tears and betraying her to Malfoy.

"Huh, never would have seen that one coming," Draco said, confused. The weasel and Hermione had always been a thing.

"Yeah, I don't know if it's what I want. But I don't know what I want, or what I feel, or what I need. I'm fucked up in the head, Malfoy," Hermione said, tears now falling from her eyes. She didn't even try to stop them. Before Draco knew what he was doing, he strode over and embraced her. Hermione wrapped her arms around him, revelling in the evident strength of his body, and his smell. He smelled like parchment and peppermint. Draco held her until her crying calmed down, and even then. He had been with women since the battle to distract himself, to tire himself so he fell into dreamless sleeps, but he had not held a woman like this in a long time and he found himself enjoying it. Hermione sighed, then her body tensed and she pulled away from him.

"I should go," she said, and she rushed out the door, with parchment and peppermint lingering on her clothes. And Malfoy watched her go, with the smell of roses lingering on his.

So, we're seeing a different side to Malfoy in this chapter... Was he always as bad as people thought? Please review!