A.N: WOW! Been such a long while since I updated, and for that I am so sorry. And for those of you who are still reading despite my terrible updating THANKYOU so much I really appreciate, and to everyone who reviewed you have no idea how much I love you & I'm so glad that you like it! This chapter is a bit shorter than I regularly post but I really wanted to get it out, so...happy reading and please review! Thanks guys

Hermione woke with a start and the first thing she saw was the white ceiling and stark curtains of the hospital wing. She frowned, struggling to remember how she got there. She remembered Hogsmeade and her encounter with Zabini and then...nothing. Not until – she gasped.

"Draco," she whispered. When she did not get a response she paused, only then realising that there was something heavy restricting the movement of the left side of her body. Manoeuvring the rest of her body carefully, Hermione found Draco's arm and leg covering hers and the rest of him was practically falling out of bed. His hair was falling across his face, so she reached out and gently brushed behind his ear. Their relationship had changed this year, and Hermione suspected that it had changed yet again while she had been unconscious but she was glad it had. It was just about the only thing keep her going.

Draco squirmed in his sleep and Hermione sighed. She knew exactly what was happening to her; the Healers at St. Mungo's had explained it all in great detail. It still surprised her a little though, she never thought that she would be the type to lose her will to live. But somehow, she had. It was just another thing that the war had stolen from her.

The sun was shining brightly through the window but Hermione had no idea what time it was. Despite how peaceful Draco looked as he slept, she nudged him softly. He shifted, slightly, but did not wake. She nudged him again.

"Draco," she whispered, though slightly louder this time. He began to stir. Hermione gave him a few moments, but then started to shift herself.

Draco's eyes opened slowly and he looked up into Hermione's warm, brown eyes. Both knew that at some point they would have to talk about what had happened, what was happening, but for now they said nothing. Those few moments were everything they needed to be and more; moments of perfection that the two of them were terrified they would ruin.

Realising he was half draped over Hermione, Draco scrambled to right himself. Despite his haste, he did not miss the hurt in Hermione's eyes, nor the way her body shifted away from him. Cursing himself, Draco now saw the insecure and inexperienced girl beside him had misinterpreted his eagerness to move.

"Hey," he said softly. When she refused to look at him, he tilted her chin towards him. "Hey, I just didn't want to crush you." Almost imperceptibly, Hermione nodded before whispering back.

"Can you, can you just come up here? With me?"

Draco could see how nervous she was and how scared of rejection. Instead of replying, he crawled up onto the bed and, gently pushing Hermione forward, Draco situated himself behind her so that she was between his legs with her back against his chest. Draco wrapped his arms around her and they stayed like that for a long time.

Neither one of them knew how long they stayed like that – it was one of those moments where time no longer mattered; time became just another label. Unbeknownst to the strange couple, Madame Pomfrey had come just slightly around the corner and observed their embrace, and later on in the day McGonagall had spied them but wisely, none had interrupted them. That is, until well into the afternoon when two contrite Gryffindors arrived at the hospital wing, intending to make their own sort of amends.

Throughout Hermione's entire stay in the hospital wing, her section had been curtained off so that no wandering or curious students could find their way to her bed and so Ron and Ginny Weasley did not find it at all odd when they found it that way, particularly because they had no idea the patient was now awake.

Pulling back the curtain for his sister, Ron was the first to spot the couple entwined together and asleep on the bed. Ginny, following her brother, rapidly jumped to conclusions and began whispering to Ron, outright accusing her of being a whore. Ron, however, was not so quiet nor so easily persuaded that Hermione was associated with the Slytherin and while he jumped to his own conclusions, he pointed the finger in the opposite direction.

"You slimy ferret!" he yelled, startling the sleeping pair into consciousness. "How dare you? Who the hell do you think you are? What kind of sick, perverted, evil freak takes advantage of an unconscious girl?" Draco began to move but was surprised to find Hermione clinging to him, her eyes pleading with him to stay there, with her. While Draco would have preferred to face Weasley standing up and face to face, he did not want leave Hermione or go against her wishes and as such found himself debating the issue from his position on the bed, wrapped around Hermione.

"She's awake, you dim-witted twat! And I was hardly taking advantage of her, we were both asleep!"

"Don't make excuses, ferret! I've seen this with my own two eyes, and now you're going to have to deal with me! You're lucky Harry's not here too!"

"Ron, shut up!" Hermione suddenly interrupted.

"Her-Hermione, you're awake! When did – I mean, when?" Ron stuttered and stumbled over his words now that he realised Hermione was conscious, though often slow to catch on, he knew that things were not as he initially assumed.

"I woke up this morning, Ronald. And had you come in here like a civilised human being you would've seen that Draco is not doing anything that is against my will, in fact he is doing exactly what I have asked him to do." Hermione spoke calmly and quietly but she was determined, and despite her weak body, her speech seemed more powerful than ever.

"You are such a slut!" Ginny suddenly exclaimed, and Draco suddenly shifted from behind Hermione. As quickly as she could, Hermione grabbed his arm to, at the very least, slow him down.

"Say it again," Draco dared, in a lethal whisper. "Say it again and I will personally make sure that your brother, boyfriend and everybody else in this school finds out about your little escapades down in the Slytherin dungeons, are we clear?" Fearfully, Ginny nodded, and barely glancing at Ron, all but fled from the hospital wing. Ron looked at the empty space where his sister had been standing, then looked to Hermione who merely shrugged, then to Draco who glowered, and then back at the space where his sister had been.

"What just happened?" he asked, bewildered at the strange turn of events, and secretly wondering if he had been Confunded.

"What are you doing here, Ron?" Hermione asked, changing the subject with her quiet question. "After everything that's happened, the way you've treated me, the things that you've chosen to ignore, why are you here?"

"When we all got back from Hogsmeade the whole place was buzzing with rumours about what had happened to you, and me and Harry, we came here you see, to see if it was the truth? I, I saw you laying in that bed and you looked so tiny and pale, we knew something was seriously wrong and I just, I couldn't believe that I've ignored you for so long. I ignored all the signs that you weren't well. I talked to Ginny about it last night, and I honestly thought she felt the same way I did, that's why she was here today. I need to apologise, Hermione, and I needed to make it right."

Hermione sighed, thinking about what her former best friend had said. Also feeling Draco slide back onto the bed behind her she leant back against him, thinking about what she should say. She knew how she had felt all year, how Ron had made her feel, but there was a part of her that couldn't help but picture that eleven year old boy she had befriended and that she had faced peril after peril with.

"Ron, an apology doesn't always fix everything," she began. "You say that you need to make it right but just saying that you're sorry doesn't make it right. You threw away so many years of friendship, and were just plain cruel to me when I needed you the most. What happened that day, Ron, at the manor, was not your fault. I'm at peace with the fact that it happened, I've moved on. And although it will always haunt me, I'm learning that I can't let it control me. You can't either. I needed you Ron, and while understand that you're sorry, I can't easily mend what you've broken."

"Hermione, please, I'm so sorry!"

"I know, Ron. And maybe, maybe one day, that will be enough and we can somehow rebuild what we had. But for now, I don't know how to forget what you've done. The forgiving part is easy; it's the forgetting that's a problem." Ron didn't say another word. He stared at her for a few seconds, gave a small nod of acceptance, and left.