I'm sorry for the last chapter being so short, and the delay in this one, but I've been up north looking after a group of 13 year olds on a school trip without access to a computer, and I was too busy to write so I've churned this out today. It would be longer but there's a change in tone for the next chapter, hopefully lighter and perhaps fluffier, but I'm nervous because I've never written proper romance before, so I need your help and responses more than ever! Thank you!

DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to JKR.

He reached Hermione's door – simple wood with a brass plaque bearing her name. It looked almost like an office door. He pushed it open silently, and was greeted with the sight of her beautiful self sitting in a squashy purple chair directly opposite him. To his left stood a large brass bed, and to his right a similarly large wardrobe. The furniture seemed awkward and cumbersome in this tiny little room, lit only by a generous window behind where Hermione was sitting. The position of the chair was obviously designed to have maximum reading practicality, but at that moment Draco couldn't give two figs about the logistics of the room's arrangement. All he cared about was its owner. He reached the chair in three long strides and stood before her. Finding that he felt too imposing in this position, he crouched down. Hermione was looking down at him now but only slightly, their difference in height evening the gap between them.

'What do you think?' she asked in a small voice.

She had been waiting for what seemed like hours for the face she wanted to see more than any other. In the aftermath of presenting him with the letter, she realised how much more she wanted to say, and how stupid it was of her to offer him such an easy way out of this. If he takes it it's my own damn fault, she thought. It's my own fault if he gets away scot-free while I have to suffer the rejection a second time over. But that train of thought sped away into the distance faster than the Firebolt 2.0 the instant she saw his shadow appear under the crack in her door, and his face in front of her, and his eyes locked on hers.

'I know,' Draco replied, stressing the word to prevent any confusion, 'that I can deal with this. It's not something I have ever had to do before, and I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I know I will because I want to so badly.'

Hermione eyes filled with tears, but she remained seated just as before. 'That's the most amazing thing I've heard in a long time,' she smiled. 'So do you forgive me?'

'For what?'

'For everything I just admitted to in that letter. Killing my baby and leaving home and selling my body.'

'It's not within my power to forgive you for that,' Draco said slowly. 'You don't need my forgiveness for those things, they really have nothing to do with me. It may sound old, but you have to forgive yourself.'

'That's what I've been telling myself, but I don't think I can yet,' admitted Hermione. 'Not on my own, while I'm living with the regret of it.' She breathed in deeply, trying to hold back tears. 'I keep wondering, what it would have been like. The baby, I mean. I didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl. I will never meet it, I'll never be able to tell it why I killed it. It could have grown up and changed the world.' She buried her head in her hands and sobbed.

Draco saw the warning signs of hysteria coming on, and got up quickly. He took her hand and drew her up out of the chair, sitting himself down and placing her gently on his lap. She curled into his shoulder, still sobbing, and he could do nothing but hold her.

They sat like that for a long time, until Hermione's tears had dried up and she was no longer heaving dry sobs. Draco tilted her chin up gently and looked into her eyes. 'Hermione, I promise to you with everything I have that you will forgive yourself. You cannot because of your regret, but I will make you forget every ounce of regret you feel. And even if you don't want to take our relationship further, I will do everything I can as your friend to help you move on from this.'

Hermione did not dare to believe what she was hearing. Draco had pinned down the exact root of her problem, and the way she wanted most to solve it. 'That's exactly what I want,' she whispered.

Her eyes flicked down to his lips, and he noticed it. She raised her hand to cup his neck, and brought her lips to his. He closed his eyes, not daring to move, just concentrating on the kiss while lasted, drinking in its sweetness, the softness of her lips on his. She withdrew too soon, and his eyes flew open.

'I'll ask you for a second time,' he said. 'Are you ready?'

Hermione smiled – a smile that made his heart melt, while simultaneously beating a mile a minute. 'Yes,' she said.

He threw his arms around her and they sat there for countless minutes, her head in the crook of his neck, his hand stroking her hair. Hermione's senses were assaulted from all sides, the sound of his breath, the smell of his skin, the throb of his speeding pulse in his neck, and she knew with more conviction than she had ever known before, that this was the right thing to do. For the first time in many years, Hermione had made the right decision.

'Let's go on a date,' Hermione suggested suddenly. She and Draco were still in The Chair, which had become so significant in their relationship that they had decided it needed capital letters. Draco had wanted to give it a name, but Hermione had insisted that was taking sentimentality to an anthropomorphic extreme.

'Where?'

'Don't ask me, it's the man's job to surprise the woman.'

Draco raised his eyebrows. 'Since you're asking me out, shouldn't it be you who decides?'

'I suppose. But it's very forward of me, asking you out,' Hermione replied.

'You hussy,' laughed Draco. 'So where are you going to take me?'

'How many Muggle things have you done? Do you want to see a movie?' she offered.

'Movie. Hmm. I'd rather take you shopping,' Draco countered.

'But I'm asking you out. Take me shopping some other time.'

'Wait. You're actually refusing the chance to be spoiled rotten with new stuff at someone else's expense?'

Hermione blushed. 'I'm still not used to spending money. It's only just been Christmas, I have enough new things.'

Draco hugged her. 'Frankly, my dear, that's adorable. But as you say, Christmas has come and gone and I haven't got you a present yet. So that has decided things. Diagon Alley it is.'

'Ok,' Hermione smiled. 'Let me get ready, I'll be five minutes.' She pushed him out the door, ignoring his insistences that she looked quite beautiful enough for him (which made her blush), and that he did not want every man they passed to stare at her like some lech (which made her swat him around the head), and changed from her jeans and new Weasley Christmas jumper into Draco's Dress (also worthy of capitals in her mind). She threw on his coat as well, and pocketing her wand and purse she joined him in the corridor.

'You don't have a handbag?' Draco asked upon seeing her.

Hermione just shrugged. 'No comment on the dress then?'

Draco looked down. 'I'm still trying to come up with something that isn't either too cheesy or too insincere. I'm somewhere in between 'you're more beautiful every time I see you' and 'where the hell did you get that body?'

Hermione laughed and took his arm. 'Both will do. When did you get so honest?'

'It's not my fault if you're so damn pretty I can't construct cohesive lies,' Draco pouted.

Together they walked arm-in-arm down the stairs, stopping outside the living room door. 'I'll tell Harry we're off,' Hermione said.

She pushed the door open and saw Harry and Ginny on the sofa, reading. Ginny was stretched out between Harry's legs, leaning on his chest, and he was holding the book so they could both see the pages. Their eyes were moving in unison. Everything about them displayed total relaxation in each others' company, and Hermione was flooded with an unbearably joyous warmth at the thought that she now had the chance to be like that with someone too. She coughed slightly and they turned to look at her.

'Hi Hermione,' Harry smiled, slightly too carelessly. 'Did you talk with Malfoy?'

Hermione clasped her hands and smiled at the floor. 'Yes. We're going to Diagon Alley for the afternoon. What's left of it,' she added, blushing slightly.

Ginny picked up on this. 'So you've worked things out?' Hermione nodded. 'That's great!' Ginny smiled genuinely. 'Have fun, you really deserve it. Will you be back for dinner?'

'I doubt it. But I'll be back this evening!' she added hurriedly, seeing the spark in Ginny's eyes. She turned away quickly and hurried out the door to see Draco standing so close she was sure he had been listening.

'Not if I have anything to do with it,' he grinned.

'If you mean what I think I mean, please don't think that anymore,' she said hastily, not meeting his eyes. She pulled him a little further away from the door. 'I guess this is something we should talk about sooner or later, even if it is embarrassing for me. I won't be ready to sleep with you probably for a long time, and if that's going to be a problem then we shouldn't let this continue any further.'

Draco reached up and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, tracing his finger down her jawline. 'I'm sorry,' he said, and in his eyes she could see that he was. 'I will wait for as long as it takes.'

'I know,' she replied. 'And it won't be forever.'

'It better not be, if you keep wearing that dress I don't think I'll be able to keep any promises,' he grinned.

Hermione wrapped her coat more tightly around her and walked to the front door, but Draco knew that she had not been offended by his flippant remark. Together they Apparated from the front step to Diagon Alley.