Chapter Eleven: Is It Enough

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: To bigmommak: Percy's vacation is because of Ron's death. Shacklebolt is simply a jerk, so he calls it a vacation because the reason for leave seems trivial to him. The timeline of this is quite confusing, even for myself, the "eight hours, and he was dead" comment made by Hermione was in reference to the last time she saw Ron before he died. She saw him around eight-thirty, nine, at the Malfoy Manor, and in those eight hours after their spat, he died early Sunday morning. I think I'm fairly cohesive, but it's tough. And these questions are smart and require me to do a lot of thinking. Can't say why Kingsley and Harry lied to Hermione. Kingsley apparated her directly to Malfoy Manor from her home, and then Draco apparated her to his place again from the scene of Ron's death. Her clothing was provided by Malfoy himself, all bought brand new. And the Weasley's didn't know about Ron's cheating. They assumed he broke it off with Hermione because of her own issues and then met Bianca later. They are clueless, all but Harry. And Hermione doesn't get the chance to justify herself, at least not yet. And Bianca knows, she just isn't in the picture, for now anyway. Whew…I hope that helps everyone. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer as best as I can. Happy reading!

Draco knew it was iniquitous, but it had been two days since he had received any contact from Hermione. Neither an owl, nor a message though any other person had arrived to him. Draco could not be sure she was even safe. She had left what the ministry had deemed a safe place for her to go god knows where. Although, she would not have been allowed to remain where she was if it were not safe. Potter would make sure of at least that.

Draco had gone to Ipswich with Haleigh in search of Travers but had had no luck. Hermione was the one who had talked to the informant, she knew best. His date with Haleigh had been canceled, only because she felt uncomfortable about going out with him during Hermione's strange absence. It pissed him off that Hermione could have power over his life even when she wasn't around. Draco shut the cabinet loudly, the bang echoed through the metal room.

He flipped through the Granger property tax folder. If she had contacted Potter, he must have known where she was. Or she needed a fireplace hooked up to the floo network. He knew Hermione had neither a house elf nor an owl. So he was looking for possible places Hermione could have been staying in. There was her parent's home in Winchester, not far from his own house. That seemed unlikely, too close, and it had been empty since her parents divorce, left to her upon her marriage. Her parent's homes were quarantined; she could visit neither without setting off a ministry alarm…who knew the Granger's had so many homes? Hermione wouldn't have gone back to her own apartment, also too close. Surely she was not in the condo in Australia, which was too far…

A moderate cabin in Sherwood Forest. He flipped through the contents; it had been unused since last summer. Perfect.

"Fuck!" Draco cried as he fell back onto the dirt path. He had damn near splinched himself attempting to get close to the house, again! Hermione's wards were strong. He stood and brushed himself off. The house was barely visible over the little hill that led to it. He attempted a step forward. His whole body felt as though it was on fire, but Draco kept going, knowing that it would eventually pass. Finally after three meters, the pain subsided. Damn Granger and all of her wards. But it seemed even her wards could not keep him out; he was no real threat to her. And her home knew it.

He trudged up the path angrily. Draco needed to calm himself, confronting her angrily would get him nothing but another argument, he needed to be armed with one hell of an apology.

"I hope we can get along" he said dryly with a smirk.

Hermione's eyebrows flew up, "If you don't do anything stupid I'm sure we'll get along just fine. Bye" she said walking down the street.

"Bye" Draco waved to her walking to opposite way.

Hermione replayed this moment over and over in her head. This had been right after their little coffee date; she had never assumed she would be regurgitating these very words in sheer bitterness...

But deep down she had known he would do something so…him. So vile and cruel, so Malfoy-like. He could be an adjective in Webster's…

'God! You're so Malfoy!'

'What a Malfoy thing to do'

'Shame, he grew up to be a Malfoy boy'

Hermione chuckled to herself and leant back slightly gripping the roof tightly in her fingers.

The scene from her roof was stunning. Hermione was perched on the small peak right outside the rails of the master balcony. It wasn't very comfortable, but it was worth it. From the spot she could see the sunset coloring the treetops in rust.

Hermione was so close to falling over lately, just tipping over the unseen edge. Everything was so…fragile, the smallest thing would be sure to send her tumbling. It felt as though she was walking on eggshells. In the moment things were okay, well, they could have been worse. But in the larger picture, her life was in shambles. She had been dismissed by the people she considered family, and by her own friends. She was walking on eggshells, everything and nothing all at once. She wished she could have had someone for advice…

What had her parent's last thoughts been? What could they have possibly been thinking about in the time everything happened? Where were their bodies? Were there bodies? These questions would remain unanswered for her. She sighed and shuffled down lower on the peak until her legs were dangling off the roof. Hermione sniffled and wiped her face with the back of her hand. She didn't know what to anymore. Hermione knew she could not go on…but she did not know where to begin.

And so there she was, hiding from the world. Tomorrow she would have to lug her sorry fat ass out of the house and go back to work. It was impossible to know what was going on outside, no Prophet, no radio or TV was present in the house. Hermione's parents believed in family time during vacation. So the whole wizarding world could have burnt to cinders and she would not know.

"Hermione, don't jump!" Draco cried rushing towards her on the path leading to the house. He had spotted her on the brink of the roof, and she looked to be in thought. Had she really fallen so low that she would consider suicide?

Hermione turned and eyed him doubtfully an insignificant speck below her "I'm not going to jump" she said coolly before turning back around to face the setting sun. How on earth had he managed to figure out where she was? And why hadn't the wards kept him out? But most important, why had it taken him two days to come find her?

"Oh" Draco whispered awkwardly. Now he felt like an idiot. He stopped in the shadow of the columns by her front door. He squinted up at her blackened frame.

"I wouldn't jump over the likes of someone like you" she whispered to herself.

"Can I come up?" he asked not hearing her snide comment. He watched her shrug. Draco opened her front door and tried to figure out how to get to where she was. The house was larger than he anticipated. A grand hall with two staircases greeted him. The Granger's had been wealthier than he had expected, whatever denisters were, they clearly earned a lot of money. He chose the left staircase and headed up. He needed to find the balcony…

He tried three different rooms before he ran across the master bedroom. Draco shut the door quietly behind him and calmed his nerves. He needed to do this right. It was of utter importance.

"Hermione?" he said gently as he stepped onto the terrace. A slight breeze was blowing and he was worried for her safety up on that peak. What if she fell?

Hermione didn't turn around, "What?" she asked quietly.

"Are you okay?"

A loud scoff echoed back to him.

"Listen, I think we need to talk, can you come back here?" he asked kindly leaning against the railing. The scene from her balcony was very pretty, the treetops were yellowed and everything looked soft and hazy. But he still wanted her back on the balcony.

"No, you come here" she said unsympathetically.

Draco looked over the rails and swallowed. Surprisingly, for being a superb Quidditch player Draco did not like heights. Not the ones he couldn't control anyway. Slowly he swung one leg and then the other over the ledge and stepped anxiously on the peak. He then slipped onto his butt and shimmied down to Hermione until he was behind her. "Can we talk now?" he pleaded placing his hands on her back. He looked down and frowned.

"Talk" she said simply.

"I wanted to apologize for the things I said to you a few days ago…"

"You mean Wednesday afternoon?" Hermione corrected crossing her arms and staring hard out at the panorama.

"Yes" Draco replied nervously. Her voice sounded unforgiving and hard. Perhaps he was just wasting his time? Except for the fact that friends' never wasted in time trying to help each other. And after all, had he not promised to be her friend, even before he knew any of this would happen; he couldn't turn back on her now. "I didn't mean to say the things I did, but I think you understand why I said them in the first place. You made me angry Hermione. I thought you believed me when I said I wanted to be your friend, I thought you understood that…so when you said that I didn't care…it hurt. I think we're both to blame here, not just me" he said looking down at his hands which gripped the red shingles.

He sounded genuinely sorry, and Hermione felt a little guilty. But just a little. She frowned deeply and leant backwards until she was against his chest. "I guess I forgive you, and I guess I'm a little sorry too" she whispered grudgingly.

Draco nodded; it was more that he could ask for. After all, he had thought she would curse him out of her house. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her further back until she was propped against him. "Isn't that what friends do? They argue, but eventually they make up" Draco asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. But right now, you're my only real friend. Harry hasn't said anything to me since we fought. I think he's actually given up on me. He simply popped his head in the fireplace two nights ago and asked me what the hell I was doing" she said sadly.

"But that means a lot Hermione. It means he cares. Potter could have simply ignored the fact that you had left. He could have shrugged his shoulders and have let it slide. But he didn't. He searched frantically for you" Draco explained squeezing her softly. Hermione's hands came around his arms gently.

"How do you know that wasn't for business?" she chuckled.

"Hermione, he loves you. So many years of battling evil, and surviving all you have, they don't disappear as quickly as you think they do. He knows and he remembers. Potter's been blinded a little, but he was always relatively slow. Can't be helped for him. You should take that into consideration. Is it fair to judge someone because they're not as smart as you?" Draco asked.

Hermione laughed dryly, but it died soon. "Why didn't you come sooner for me?" she asked quietly.

"I didn't know where you were. Because upon your insistence Potter refused to tell me. So I had to go through you property tax folder to figure out where you had slipped away to" Draco explained.

"Oh" she said with a small chortle.

Draco gripped her tightly so she wouldn't slip. "Come on, let's get off this roof. It's not very comfortable in my position" Draco winced.

"Sorry about that, I forgot…about you…being male and all…" Hermione said turning crimson, glad she was facing away from him. It was odd how simple things like that could send so many ridiculous thoughts into her head.

"Come on" he said pulling away.

They sat in her kitchen; Hermione was nursing a mug of tea and listening to Draco talk about his adventure in Ipswich. "So you found nothing?" she asked incredulously.

"Well, you were the one who talked to the guy, maybe Haleigh and I got it wrong" he shrugged.

Hermione's face turned sour, "How is Haleigh?" she asked coolly.

Draco's eyebrows disappeared into his fringe. This was interesting, did he sense bitterness in Hermione's tone? What did she have against Haleigh? She barely even knew her.

"She's well, we're going to go on a date tomorrow evening" he lied. Well, they might…eventually.

"Oh" Hermione said airily. Draco could see her eyes harden, was it jealousy? What did she have to be jealous of though?

"Yeah, she's a pretty girl" Draco admitted.

Hermione nodded and looked away "Well I'm happy for you" she said. Being the wonderful actress she was, Draco barely caught the sarcasm in her tone. It was odd, and somewhat scary to see Hermione so unsettled by something so trivial.

"I though we could go back to Ipswich tomorrow" she said, "but if it will interfere with your date, I'll go alone" she added waving her hand light-heartedly.

"It won't interfere with anything. And naturally Haleigh and I will be with you" Draco smiled, he was testing her. Edging her on…

"Goody" Hermione muttered sourly.

"What's wrong?" he asked with fake concern. This was getting interesting.

"Oh nothing, I'm just thinking" she replied quickly, covering the tartness on her face. Draco nodded with a smile. Hermione's unease about him and Haleigh left a warm feeling in his stomach. It was a sick way to react, but the idea of Hermione being jealous of some other girl appealed to Draco. It appealed to him greatly.

"Well, I feel like barrel full of smashed arses" Draco yawned.

Hermione sat up straight and stared at him inquisitively "And what exactly does a 'barrel full of smashed arses' feel like?" she asked with a wry smile.

"Like shit" he muttered.

"Well, you're just a bowl full of stupid for coming up with things like that" Hermione replied standing and walking to the sink to place her mug away.

It was Draco's turn to look questioningly.

Hermione shrugged, "It's a real saying"

"Do you want to stay here tonight, or will Haleigh be missing you?" she asked as she washed the dishes with her back to him. Hermione waited nervously for his answer. She couldn't find an answer as to why the hell she cared. But she did. Clearly she cared about what he and Haleigh were doing.

It bothered her to think of the touching, kissing, or god forbid doing anything further than that. Hermione shuddered softly. "No, Haleigh won't miss me. I'll stay here" he replied.

"Good, I'll go set up a guest room for you" she said rigidly dropping her mug in the sink with a crash. Hermione practically sprinted out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Draco watched her leave with a smile.

His room was nice and airy. A large window facing the west, Hermione's balcony by his window, it was very nice all in all. He looked through the closets and found old clothing and family items. He pulled out a few boxes and set them on the floor.

The first one contained baby memorabilia. Hermione's first shoes; first lock of hair taped to the photograph of the haircut. First book…he couldn't help but laugh at that one. A whole box of firsts, her first grade, and first picture…Draco enjoyed looking at her things. It reminded him how he had none. His parents were never really sentimental, or so he thought. One day his father found items his mother had been keeping as childhood reminders…he beat his mother and burned everything. Draco had nothing but a few staged photographs.

As he looked through Hermione's albums, even though the pictures didn't move, there were so many stories in them. Birthdays and relatives, a happy family with a smart daughter. Hermione with no teeth. Hermione after cutting her own bangs. Hermione with a toothbrush… At least she had had a real childhood, and at least she had the reminders.

Draco had nothing. It was simply as though he had come into existence. No real parents. No matter how good his mother was deep down…she was still evil. Evil for ignoring her son, evil for letting her husband hurt her and her child…his mother was evil for standing aside. She was weak and it showed. That was why his childhood was miserable. His mother would show compassion, only to get caught and never do such a thing again. He received a taste of what it meant to be loved, and then it was ripped from his tiny little hands.

And he still did not know what it was to be loved. Hell, even the idea of not being disliked was foreign to him. Draco still found it hard to believe that Hermione tolerated him, but not only tolerated him, that she liked him and trusted him. It was the first taste of kindness he had received in a long time and he held it so delicately in his hands. It was so fragile; he would have died to protect it.

The sun had fully set; the night air blew into his window. June, it was now June… how the time passed. It felt as though a million years had been compressed into a little over two weeks…

Draco stood and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Hermione threw all of her pillows onto the loveseat by the window and lay down on her bed tiredly. She was glad Draco had come to her, she had missed him. But with him came all of the realities of her life. Ron's death, her parent's death, her safety, Haleigh…

Would she ever be able to work with Haleigh? Not likely, unless she got over the silly feelings she was having. So what, she liked Draco. And she was worried that Haleigh might distract his attention from her. It was selfish, but it didn't matter so long as she didn't act it out or acknowledge it. It wasn't as though she had said anything to Draco about it. So it didn't matter, it didn't exits.

Where to go now…

She was on the ledge and she needed to step back. There were so many things swirling in her head, threatening to push her over. Hermione needed to resist. But she knew…just one more thing and it was over for her. She would actually drop dead. After everything that Draco had said to her…Hermione didn't know if she was going to wake the next morning.

She had bawled all day yesterday. Sobbed, thinking that nobody cared. Hermione had beaten herself up over the whole thing and she had beaten herself down. So low that she had reached a new terrifying bottom.

"Come in" she said.

The door opened.

"How did you know I was outside?" Draco asked as he closed the door behind him. He stood in only a pair of boxers at her door. Too comfortable for Hermione to read anything into it.

"I just felt you" Hermione replied.

Draco came and sat next to her on the bed. He looked troubled. "What's wrong?" Hermione asked sitting up.

He looked up at her unsurely. There was anxiety and fear on his face, he bit his lip and looked back into his lap. "I don't know if the whole dating this with Haleigh is right. I mean, I am her mentor" he said with a sigh.

Hermione bit her lip. Now was her chance to tell him it was wrong and he shouldn't do it…but she couldn't. Hermione had seen how his face light up when she touched him, how he blushed under Haleigh's gaze. There was no way she could do that to him. "Draco, if you like her enough, then it's right" she said softly.

"I do like her" he admitted.

"Then you should go for it" Hermione said with a tense smile.

"You think so?" he asked in surprise.

"I do. If she makes you happy then it's great. I'd only want you to be happy" she said sincerely. Hermione was surprised at how easily the words came to her, easy when it was honesty. She looked down into her lap. What had she expected? She was not as selfish to tell Draco to give up on Haleigh. Especially when she knew her feelings would never get anywhere else but from her head to her heart. Why should she ruin Haleigh's chances, just because she couldn't understand herself?

"Thanks Hermione" he smiled warmly. His cheeks were rosy and eyes bright, so alive.

Hermione almost burst into tears at the sight of his smile. It was authentic and full of emotion; it was all she wanted to see. "Can I hug you?" she asked in a choked voice.

Draco laughed, "You don't need to ask, I like them spontaneous" he grinned nervously. Hermione and tears were not something he had quite yet become accustomed to. Every time she cried he felt a tear in his chest. He only wanted her to sneer and laugh like she used to.

Hermione lunged forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. She knocked him over onto the bed. She sniffled softly into his neck. He smelt like soap and something spicy. His skin was soft against her nose, and Hermione felt like wailing again.

His hands were on her waist, gently and in a friendly manner. "You okay?" Draco asked placing a hand on her head and stroking her hair down. While it felt wonderful to be in the position, Draco knew it was wrong. And he knew it was even more wrong to be thinking the things he was, especially when he was wrong. Part of him had wished Hermione would tell him to forget Haleigh and…and what?

"I don't know" she sniveled.

"Good answer, stupid question on my part" he sighed stroking her hair soothingly.

Hermione looked up at him; she sat up propping her elbows on his chest. "I don't know where to go from here, I can't go on, and I can't go forward from here…there is no forward from this hell" she said softly.

"So start again" Draco suggested.

"I don't want to forget though" she whispered fearfully. He could see the fright in her eyes, the dread in her heart and the apprehension creased into her forehead.

Draco brushed her cheek gently, running his knuckled over her smooth skin, "Hermione, you don't need to forget to start over" his hand cradled her face "You will never forget the things that have happened, but you need to lay them aside and start fresh. And perhaps you can't do it now, but when all of this is over, then will be your opportunity" he promised. His hands slid from her face, down her neck, and rested on her shoulder. "The world needs you Hermione Granger" he said seriously.

"Yeah, well, maybe the world isn't enough" she said glumly.

Draco lifted her head with his hand and forcing her to look at him "Well, the world may not be enough, but maybe it's just enough to start"

A/N 2: Please check out my author's page. I have a poll concerning writing a new story. I want to know your thoughts on it! Thanks! Next chapter, Haleigh has a comeback that makes a splash, and leaves Hermione wet and forgotten.