Author Note: Thanks goes to penelope90, Chella8181 and FlamingIce94 for becoming followers. Another special thanks goes to LightofEvolution and Legolas' Girl 31 for the wonderful reviews.

I'd have to say that this chapter is going to be a little more lighthearted and fluffy than all the previous ones. We are getting down to the last couple of chapters as well. I hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think.

Chapter 7:

Draco awoke restless and exhausted. He couldn't fall asleep no matter what he did. His earlier conversation with Hermione had caused unwelcomed emotions. There was a part of him that wanted this connection with her to last; but the other part of him wanted to be guy his parents were proud of. The things he did in the past tormented him on so many levels, even his mother knew of this; however, his father knew only of the little things. He didn't know how his nightmares racked his brain every night, preventing him from sleeping more than two or three hours in a single night.

Though, with the increasing number of exchanged words between Hermione and himself—his sleeping patterns have slightly gotten better. He supposed that her positive nature had that effect on him. If only he could keep her around more, without the harsh stares from her friends and the whispers from Syltherin House about him going soft. It wasn't about him going soft. It was about being able to live with himself and right now, he couldn't do that.

He went on with his life, doing all he could not to converse with her. Until he could come up with an appropriate way to apologize for everything that happened in the past, he knew that he didn't deserve to feel even the slightest bit of happiness in her presence. That didn't mean he wasn't observant of her movements and actions throughout the day. Ron argued with her, though it was less and less with the days passing by. Lavender had occupied much of his time, much to his sister's disgust. Ginny didn't care for the girl to much. Harry had to intervene with arguments between the women a little more than he should.

The only class Draco shared with Hermione was spent with his head facing forward, trying desperately not to sneak a glance in her direction. To see her unmanageable mop of chestnut curls and matching eyes that just burned with determination to excel in her final year. The spark had finally returned after their last conversation and it made him wonder if it had been because of something he had said. That spark was something he admired about her, always had.

"If you're seconds away from death and you drink the blood of this creature, will it save you?" Hagrid asked looking around the room.

Draco remembered that night in the Forbidden Forest, of the injured Unicorn he stumbled across with Harry during a late night detention session. They hadn't known at the time that it had been Voldemort in disguise draining the creature of the blood. Now they knew, of course. He turned his head slightly to see Hermione's facial expression.

Her eyes met his almost instantly; but raised her hand to answer the question as he knew that she would. Hagrid called on her, simply because she was the only one in the room that had done so. "Unicorn is the creature in question. It will save you; but at a cost." She answered confidently. He wondered how he never noticed how beautiful she was that way.

"Correct, Miss Granger. Now can anyone tell me what the cost is?"

It was Harry's turn to raise his hand, no doubt it was attempt to not let Hermione steal all this thunder so-to-speak. He opened his mouth to answer the question. If someone drinks the blood of a unicorn, sure they would be cured; but the cost would be that they would live a cursed life. Explaining the reason for Voldemort's disfigurement when he finally came out in the open.

The class started to move about when the siren alerted all of them to the end of class for the day. Hagrid announced that there would be another test the following day and a little trip outside to visit his own personal pets. His own Buckbeak, the Hippogriff. The same one that had injured Draco when he first encountered it. He hoped that this year would have a different outcome.

Hermione stepped out from her desk and proceeded towards the door, doing her best not to glance back at Draco. They hadn't spoken a word to each other in weeks and she was okay with it, because there were things she wanted to sort out within herself about it. Her conversations with Ron were more or less civil now that he had Lavender to soak up the majority of his attention. She had to admit that Lavender was more annoying now than she was the first time she tried to get with him.

She stepped down onto the floor just as Draco did, he brushed his arm against hers accidentally. Immediately causing her to look up at him. He muttered an apology and continued on. It left her dumbfounded a moment. She wondered if she had done something wrong to anger him. A hand cupped her shoulder, startling her. "Don't dwell on it, Hermione." Harry said softly.

"I'm not..." She answered continuing to walk with her friend out of the room.

That single event tormented her the rest of the day. It would pop up when she didn't want it to, disrupting her concentration in Potions. In fact, it was so bad that she blew up one of the potions she was working on in front of everyone. It embarrassed her; but she shrugged it off to just being an off day, even though she knew that it wasn't just a bad day.

Weaving through the throb of peers, she finally escaped to the stairway that would lead her to her favorite getaway, the third floor Clock Tower Courtyard. Running up the stairs, her bag was growing heavier by the second; but she ignored it and continued on until finally coming to the entryway.

Hermione realized that everyone was most likely heading back to their dorms to prepare for dinner. She needed that alone time to sort out her emotions in private, except when she took a step in towards the fountain she noticed that she wasn't alone at all. Draco's light blonde hair was spotted across the yard. He was sitting on one of the benches reading a book with a light brown cover. She couldn't tell exactly what he was reading from where she stood.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she quietly made her way to the fountain. Allowing her bag to fall from her shoulder, she gently laid it down on the ground next to her feet. The sound of the running water was soothing to her chaotic mind. Forgetting all about Draco only being a few yards away, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the stone sculpture.

"How long do you think your friends will stick around if you continue to defend me?" His question echoed inside her mind.

She wondered if he knew that she simply didn't care about things like that. She was never bothered by the fact that she really never fit in at Hogwarts. She was a muggle-born witch after all. That came with the territory. A warm breeze caressed her face, shifting some of her curls into her eyes. Opening her eyes again, she moved them slightly only to see Draco was no longer sitting on that bench he had been occupying. He was nowhere to be seen in the courtyard and began to wonder if her mind had just made up his image.

Hermione lost track of time in her own oasis, catching up on reading in her books and reading for her own personal pleasure. The sun faded, replaced with the high full moon. Its reflection was beautiful on the ripples in the water. She was actually surprised that no one had come to find her, even after she missed dinner and it was so close to curfew time.

"Doesn't matter..." She whispered to herself.

"Talking to yourself, Granger?" Draco's voice entered the courtyard.

She immediately looked up from the book in her hands to see him standing in the archway. His hands were in their usual position, in the pockets of his pants. The white button-up shirt was missing the tie and a couple of the buttons were left undone, exposing some of his pale flesh to her viewing. Her eyes refused to look away, no matter how many times she mentally yelled at herself to do so.

A smug smirk appeared on his face when he took several steps closer to her. It was like he knew what she was thinking without her saying anything at all. She silently wished for some of the confidence he had.

She watched him dig into the pocket of his overcoat that had been draped over his arm. He pulled out an apple and tossed it at her. Catching it in her hands, she moved her thumbs over the outer waxy sink. "You weren't at dinner tonight. I figured you would be hungry." He stated leaning against the opposite sculpture.

"You stole this out of the Grand Hall?" She questioned.

"I've been known to steal a lot of things, Granger." He answered knowingly.

A smile curved her lips before taking a bite out of the juicy fruit. The flavor engulfed her mouth entirely. She met his eyes a moment just before swallowing the food down. "Thanks for this..." Hermione said softly, hoping he sit down with her.

Draco studied her. He didn't understand why he came there tonight. He knew that he shouldn't have. There was no good apology in mind; but the look on her face currently kept him from just walking away. She looked at him like a person, which was something hardly anyone has done since the start of the year. The deatheater mark on his arm had started to fade away; but the left behind scar still burned occasionally. How could he apologize to her for the things he's done, if that mark still hadn't healed? "You're welcome."

"Were...were you in here earlier?" She asked just before she took the second bite of her apple.

Her question caught him a little off guard. Was she really questioning her sanity? A light chuckle escaped his mouth as he turned to sit down on the edge of the fountain only a few inches away from her. It brought him back to the last conversation they had together. Same place, except this time it was at night with no one to interrupt. "Are you questioning your sanity?" He asked lifting a knee up to rest an arm on.

"No!" She replied much too quickly.

Another chuckle escaped. She frown, obviously getting annoyed with his sudden laughter at her expense. He found her behavior to be pleasing to the eye. "Yes...yes I was in here earlier, so you can relax. Your mind wasn't playing tricks on you, though I am curious as to why you would think that." He commented, instantly noticing her flushed cheeks. Her words were lost to the embarrassment.

"I...I never said that I questioned my sanity."

Her trying to find words to defend her own question was quite enjoyable for him to witness first hand. She struggled and stumbled over her vocabulary. Once again, he was feeling happiness in her presence and knew that he shouldn't. He knew that he should just walk away before things got complicated.

Hermione looked away, continuing to eat the apple he had given her until all that was left was the core. She tucked the core into her bag on the ground. "Why did you leave without saying a word to me?" She asked trying to understand him a little better and his reasoning for doing things the way he did them.

An agonized sigh left his lips as he moved to stand up and step away from her, with his back towards her. He knew that he could tell her everything that was on his mind and she would understand; but the question was whether or not he was ready to tell her. She knew of the nightmares; however, she didn't know what they were about. "Why do you speak to me?" He countered with his own question instead of answering hers.

"After the war...I changed...I've seen that you've changed as well. There is something about this that just gets me through a day. You understand what I'm feeling better than my own friends do and maybe...I just needed that special understanding more than anything else."

"This is hard for me. I've been brought up to hate all non-pure bloods...especially muggle-born; but you've proven yourself worthy of any pure blood equality during that war. My mother sees that; but my father..."

"I get it..."

Draco looked up from the ground to see her saddened expression. That was not something he wanted to do. He never meant to hurt her feelings. The words just weren't coming out the way he hoped they would have. Talking to her like this was a lot harder than he expected it to be. The clock chimed for the curfew. Anyone caught after this time would be in serious trouble even if they were over the adult age in the wizard world.

Hermione stood up from the fountain and closed the small distance between them. Her eyes locked with his. Reaching for his hand, her soft skin made contact with his sending a shiver of electricity up his spine. "I understand what you've been through, Draco...just like you understand what I've been through." She expressed curling her fingers around his palm.

The sound of his first name rolling off her tongue was almost too much for him to handle. He didn't deserve her affections; but she was willing to give them, despite everything he had done to her in their years of school together and despite allowing his Aunt Bellatrix to torture her on the floor of his own home. "The nightmares I've been having are of that night. The night that word was branded to your skin."

He gently pushed her sleeve up to see the marked skin for himself up close and personal. She never moved her eyes from his. She now understood why he continued to keep his distance when it came to her. The guilt he felt over that night had completely taken over every other thought in his mind. She didn't know how to tell him that it was okay. That it wasn't really his fault. "Don't...this is not your fault...nor was it ever your fault." She stated holding onto his hand tighter.

"I could have said something...but I didn't do that. I let you suffer because I wasn't man enough to stop it."

Draco ripped his hand free from her grasp and stepped away. Her broken expression tore into him, slicing into the wounds further. Ignoring his willingness to stay away, she took another step in his direction and took both of his hands into hers. He attempted to pull them away again; but she held on even tighter, refusing to let go. "Draco, do not let that night destroy you. If you had stepped in, who's to say that Voldemort wouldn't have killed you right then and there."

"At least I would have done something right for once..."

"Don't! Don't you dare say that!"

His eyes widened with her sudden outburst of emotion. She was making it a lot harder to let go of her than he anticipated, because now he didn't want to let go at all. She cared for him. He could see it in her eyes and feel it in her touch. The fire burning in the depths of the chestnut color of her irises was drawing him in closer. "Your death wouldn't have made anything any better. It wouldn't have made things worse. I've already forgiven you for the things you've done in the past, so now you need to forgive yourself."

"You're so forgiving...I don't understand it. You should hate me."

"Well I don't so get over it."

She smiled warmly, enticing him a little further to do exactly what he wanted to do. Taking a hand out of hers, he cupped the side of her face and pulled her closer to him. The first touch of his lips on hers was featherlight, the softest of movements. Relaxing in his arms, she opened up to him with a push of her own body into his. She lost herself in the moment, feeling the electricity surge throughout her entire body. Breathlessly, he broke the connection and leaned his forehead against hers.

"Draco..."

"I should let you go...but I find that I don't want to."

"So don't..."

He smiled and placed a small chaste kiss to her temple. She remained dazed with the after effects of what had just transpired between them. He found the look to be very appealing. In that moment, he didn't care what his father thought; but he didn't want to drag her down by being associated with him. "Can we keep this between us?" He asked softly.

"Why?" She asked turning her head to the side out of confusion.

"I don't care what others think; but I don't want to ruin your image here. I'm a former death-eater, Hermione. How do you think that will look for you?"

"Do you really think I care about things like that? I will keep this between us only because you've asked."

"Thank you."

He leaned in to capture her lips one more time before walking away. Turning away, a smile curved his lips. She watched him leave all with her heart pounding on the inside. She was amazed at how things have changed so much in a few short months. Never in a million years did she think that Draco Malfoy would show her a gentle side, a more emotional side and take her own feelings into consideration.

She was by no means in love with him; but if things progressed the way they were, she could easily find herself in that position and nothing would be able to stop it from happening. That scared her deep down. That was a concern for another day. Tonight, she wanted to think on what happened. She mindlessly placed a finger on her lips, reflecting on how it felt to have him kiss her. "I'm in trouble..." She mentally thought as she snuck out of the courtyard to return to the Gryffindor Tower.