"Scars?" Hermione looked concerned. Draco nodded and produced his left arm to her. A small gasp came from her mouth as she took his arm carefully in her soft hands. It was horrible. The wound had completely healed over and was healthy looking, but that didn't take away from the shock of it all. It was as if he had cut the skin from his inside forearm. The healed indentation had looked like Draco had done it himself in a fit of rage and shame. "Oh Draco..." she whispered sadly. His stomach did a little flip, but he ignored it. She looked up at him. He could see it in her eyes; she was burning with curiosity to know about it, but was too polite to ask.

He sighed. "If there's one thing I learned from Dumbledore and Potter, it's that Voldemort is prejudiced, evil and unrelenting, but illogical at times. It's impossible to remove the Dark Mark. I know you know that. No doubt you'd researched it. It's impossible to remove it with magic. You cannot simply erase it. You know as well as I do that Voldemort thought Muggles were vermin polluting the world. He never even considered that one of his followers would lower themselves to that level. I cut the Mark from my arm, on a whim, hoping it would work, after trying for weeks to get the disgusting thing off of me. And it did work."

Hermione was silent for a few seconds. "Did... did it... um..."

"Hurt?" he asked. She nodded. "Well yeah it hurt, of course it hurt. I was in such a hurry to get the vile thing off of me, I didn't want to waste time getting painkillers or magical numbing cream or anything like that. It was gone within the hour, and even though it hurt like a bitch, I felt such an overwhelming sense of relief that it was gone."

Hermione smiled softly, running her fingers gently over the scars. Draco decided to take a look around her room. It was... interesting. It seems she hadn't been able to decide whether to keep it the royal blue colour or the scarlet red, which created this horrible clash of colours.

"It's an interesting colour scheme you've got going on here." He said to her with a cheeky grin.

"Hmmm? Oh! Um... well, I dunno, I really liked the two colours, but I couldn't decide which one to pick."

Draco thought for a bit. "What about a deep purple colour?" She looked at him, surprised. "Um... well I just thought, you know, red and blue mixed make purple... Nevermind, it was a silly idea."

"No, no! It's a really good idea, why didn't I think of it before?" She jumped up and started waving her wand. She turned the walls a beautiful violet colour, upholstered, all her furniture in the same colour, and changed any wooden furniture items and pure white colour. She stepped back to admire her work. "What do you think?" She smiled. "It makes the room look lighter and bigger, don't you think?"

"Um... sure?" He wasn't exactly an interior decorator. Hermione turned to smile at him. As she did this, she tripped, but while she was trying to right herself, she landed on her foot wrong. She was still standing just wincing lightly. "Hermione, are you okay?"

She nodded and smiled. "I just have weak ankles, if I land on my feet too hard, or I stand on them wrong, they go and I'll probably limping for a day or two. Ow."

"Hermione, your ankle is swelling pretty bad." Draco stood and helped her get back toward to bed. "Sit there and keep your leg up, I'll be back in a second." He left the room and went back downstairs into the Common Room. "I need a House Elf." He said quietly. There was a loud crack and a small squat elf with large brown eyes and a tomato like nose and big bat-like ears.

"Winky at your service, Master Malfoy." She said in her high pitched voice.

"Winky, I need a bag of ice, hot chocolate and some sweets or something. Hermione twisted her ankle upstairs." He said to her. She looked surprised and a little worried, but she cracked out and a few seconds later cracked back in carrying all he asked for on a tray. "Thank you, Winky."

"'Twas a pleasure, Sir. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, no, thanks."

Winky nodded. "Please wish Miss Granger well for me." And she cracked out.

When he got back to her room, he found her glaring at him. "You made a House Elf get those for you, didn't you?"

He sighed. "Yes, Hermione. It's what they like doing. I thought I told you to elevate your leg." He took her leg, sat it on his lap and put the ice on it. Hermione gasped. "That's cold!"

"That's because it's ice, Hermione." He said to her in a patronising voice. She laughed sarcastically and took one of the mugs of hot chocolate, she raised it to her lips. "Oh my god... I may not like the attitude toward the house elves, but my, my do they make some yummy hot chocolate."

Draco smiled at her. This was weird, they both knew it. But they'd grown used to each other, which he assumed was a good thing, it could've been a lot more awkward. All those hours together in the library in No. 12, the hours spent together because of the Head's duties, organising the Hallows Eve Masquerade and pretty much living together. It was a lot easier to get to know her than it probably should have been. As he kept the ice over her ankle, she looked at him curiously.

"So you're a Healer now, Draco?" She asked teasingly. "Results just behind mine, Quidditch player and now Healer. Is there anything you can't do?" She smiled.

He smirked cheekily at her. "You sure sound like your liking what you're seeing."

"There's a man in just pyjama bottoms, cradling my ankle and bringing me hot chocolate and sweets, what's not to like?"

Draco nodded. "Very true. But yeah, I dunno. I know quite a bit about the work Healers do. To tell you the truth, I've always been interested in this sort of thing. I've always wanted to be a Healer or a Mediwizard." He could see Hermione looked quite justly surprised. "Yeah, my dad had the same look on his face. But he seemed to like the idea. Healers and Mediwizards are highly respected among the wizarding community, it's a well paid job, and it'll always be interesting. I was happy he wasn't too opposed to it. Ever since Voldemort fell, he's relaxed his stranglehold on honour, and wanting me to get a Ministry job."

"Hmmm... that's interesting. I never thought of that for a career path. " She finished her hot chocolate and held Draco's out to him. "One minute," he said, and lifted the ice pack to examine her ankle again. The swelling was going down. "Looks like you'll survive." He said cheekily to her, he moved so he was sitting next to her on her bed. She handed him his mug. He took a sip. It tasted gorgeous, just as if they'd put bars of chocolate in the cup and melted them, pair that with the sugary cream and marshmallows, it was heaven in a cup. "Told you so." Hermione said, he opened his eyes to her and realised she'd watched his reaction. Her eyes fell from his down and she began giggling hysterically. He looked down. There was a wet patch where his groin was. He blushed ever so slightly, the condensation from the ice pack must have dripped onto him. How on earth had he not noticed? It was pretty damp and it lay over his crotch, revealing him in all his glory to Hermione. He quickly used a drying charm on it and turned to face her. "Sorry about that..."

"Don't worry. My fault. You were helping me, that's how it happened." She smiled at him again, which made the colour in his cheeks brighten. "You know, Draco, you look better with a bit of colour to your cheeks. Healthier." She teased.

Draco couldn't think of anything to say, so he just cleared his throat and faced her again. They stayed up for another few hours, talking about their future, their past and everything in between, all the while picking at the sweets and chocolates, occasionally filling up their mugs with water from Aguamenti.

It was approaching 9am before Draco shuffled down and lay his head on one of her pillows. He liked the comfort of her cotton sheets. It was a gentle break from his own rich silken ones. He opened one eye and found Hermione looking at him. He smirked and she turned her head away, blushing slightly. "Don't worry, Hermione. I'm only resting my eyes."

After a few minutes he could feel her lie down next to him, facing away. Her bushy hair tickled his face, but he barely noticed. Though he didn't want to, he felt himself drifting off to sleep, unable to fight it back any longer.

Please review. Give me your feedback. I am determined to keep Draco and Hermione in character, but I want to know if you think I'm moving away from it too much. You are my beloved readers and I want your opinions. XD So pretty pretty please?