Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Depressing, but true.

I'm glad you guys liked the fluff! There's a little more in here for you before the shit hits the proverbial fan. And I'm also glad you're appreciating the daily updates... As long as you guys are reviewing, I promise to continue writing as quickly as my fingers can manage. (Although it was interesting to see that there were fewer reviews this time around... Maybe fluff doesn't inspire commentary as much? Hmmm...) SPEAKING OF WHICH! Midnight Rose 97 asked a really good question about my "secret" to daily posts. I wrote a response, but holy hell it was long, so I've put it in my FAQ on my profile. Feel free to go check it out if you want to know more about how I write and how I stay motivated (spoiler: you guys play a big part in the answer).

xo

Galfoy

When Draco jolted awake to the sound of Hermione's panicked screaming, he cursed himself a million times over for forgetting about her night terrors. He had fallen asleep in such a happy daze that her tortured dreams had completely slipped his mind. One quick snog and he was already failing at taking care of her. She'd given him a chance and he still wasn't fucking worthy. Filled with self-loathing and jumping to his feet, he ran to her bedroom.

Get there before she hurts herself. Get there before she hurts anyone else.

He threw open the door and found her crammed into the corner like last time, her eyes open and no doubt seeing visions of murdered children. Blood ran down her arms from where her nails had torn the skin, and her cheeks were dripping with tears.

She shrieked and sobbed, trying to push herself even deeper into the corner. Draco took a couple of careful steps towards her, his hands out in what he hoped was a placating gesture.

"Granger, it's me..."

"They're just kids!" she howled. "You monsters!"

"I know," he said, feeling helpless. He had been a monster. He used to be proud to call himself one. What a fucking joke on him. "I know, Granger. I'm so sorry. You're okay now."

"Just kids," she cried a little more quietly. "Muggle or not, they're still somebody's children. Somebody loves them. Somebody needs them."

Draco felt a strange spasm in his chest that he was sure must have been his heart breaking. Oh God, no wonder her brain had shut down. He couldn't even imagine what she had gone through. No matter how well she had started coping during the day, the truth slithered out at night. She was haunted by this. She probably always would be.

He had reached the bed now, and crawled onto it slowly. He wanted to get to her before she bolted. He couldn't let her get her hands on a weapon again. She continued to sob into her hands, the blood from her arms staining her t-shirt.

"It's me, Granger. It's Draco. I'll take care of you, okay?"

He put his hand on her ankle and she flinched, suddenly going quiet. It wasn't a calm silence. He knew what was coming and gritted his teeth.

She jumped from the corner in an attempt to get away, scrambling to get off the bed. He blocked her with his body, grabbing her arms as she clawed at him. She bit, kicked, screamed and cried, but he held her down, flipping her onto her back and pinning her underneath him.

"Granger... Please Granger... " he grunted, amazed at how hard she was fighting him. He took an elbow to the cheek and winced in pain, but didn't let go.

"Monsters..." she choked out.

"I know, love. I'm so sorry."

Her struggling began to weaken, and eventually she was just crying underneath him, her sobs muffled into his shoulder. He had no idea if she was even aware that he was there.

When he was sure she had calmed down enough, he maneuvered himself around her so that they were on their sides, their torsos flush and his arms wrapped tightly around her. Her petite body was shaking against his, and he wondered briefly how Weasley and Potter had done it. How had they held it together when this happened every night? When they would have to revive her after a suicide attempt she was only foggily aware of making? How did they handle seeing this girl self destruct? He would never admit it to them, but lying there in Hermione's bed, holding her in his arms, he gained grudging respect for the pair. Draco figured he would fall apart if he had to see her come loose at the seams nearly every time she went to sleep. It's no wonder they had chosen addiction over seeing her unravel.

It's then that Draco made the decision that Hermione shouldn't sleep alone anymore. If she allowed it, he would stay with her, even if it was on the floor. He would catch her earlier next time. He would calm her down. He would protect her from herself.

The door creaked open and Draco saw his father look in.

"Is she alright?" Lucius said, his voice gravelly with sleep, his eyes drifting over the sight of his son restraining the sobbing girl.

"Tore up her arms again, but I think she'll be okay," Draco said, not relinquishing his hold on her. "I'm staying here tonight," he added, firmly.

"I would expect no less," said Lucius in a tired voice. "Goodnight."

When Draco woke up, Hermione was still in his arms, but her eyes were open and she was gazing at his face. She had clearly been watching him sleep. He wondered how long she had been up for.

"Your cheek is bruised," she said, sadly.

"S'fine," he mumbled. "Doesn't hurt."

"I'm sorry anyway," she said, looking guilty.

He kissed her lightly on the forehead. He liked that he was able to do that now without over-thinking it.

"Thank you for taking care of me," she whispered. His heart did a weird fluttery thing.

She healed her arms as breakfast was cooking.

"Feeling alright, Hermione?" said Lucius, trying to sound light but failing. Instead he sounded worried. They were all seated around the table as she sewed up some of the larger gashes along her inner arm. It was an unpleasant thing to watch.

"Thanks to your son, I'm great," she said, calmly. "These scratches are nothing compared to what I've done before." She smiled warmly at Draco and he shifted uncomfortably.

"I did what I had to do, Granger," he said. He knew he wasn't a hero. He used to identify with the people who did this to her. He didn't want anyone's thanks.

"No, you did what you chose to do," she said in a no-nonsense tone. "There's a difference."

She stood up and grabbed a tube of cream from the nearby cupboard. Squeezing some onto her fingers, she walked over to him and dabbed the cool mixture on his cheek.

Draco couldn't help himself. He let his eyes slide shut and enjoyed the feeling. Her free hand rested softly on his shoulder. Her fingers moved across the bruise so gently, he barely felt it. But the sentiment that came with the touch, the sheer amount of care she gave him, made his chest ache in a pleasant way. All her attention was on him, and he soaked it up gratefully. He'd gotten so used to this when she healed him from the curse, he was surprised to see that he missed the contact.

"That should help," she said, putting the cap back on.

"Thanks, Granger," Draco said, colour flushing his cheeks.

She squeezed his shoulder with a smile.

That night, Draco hovered around Hermione's door, trying to decide how to broach the topic with her. He didn't want to give the wrong impression - he wanted to sleep in her room to protect her from the night terrors, not for any other reason. Mostly.

He heard her shuffling around inside and cleared his throat.

"Granger?"

The door opened, revealing Hermione in a cotton t-shirt and shorts.

"Hm?" she said, brushing out her hair.

"I, uh, I was thinking, and maybe it would be better if I slept in your room in case you have another night terror. On the floor, of course... I don't want you to worry about my, uh, intentions, but I just thought - "

"Malfoy," she said, cutting him off with an amused grin. "Of course you can stay. But to be honest, I'd be more comfortable if we just split the bed. Not to do anything, since it's really too soon - "

"Yes, much too soon," he cut in, nervously.

"Right, too soon for that, given that we're taking things slowly, but I'd still prefer not to have you sleep on the floor," she finished.

"Oh. Well, if that's okay with you..."

She pulled him in by the hand.

They fell asleep wrapped up tightly in each other's arms. Draco wondered if life with her would always be like this - some conversation, some kissing, and then holding each other until sleep took them away. He thought that sounded like the best thing he'd ever heard of. He'd always skipped this stuff and gone straight for the sex, but he realized with a start that he had been ripping himself off. This was heavenly. Not that he could have done this with any of the Pureblooded witches he'd been involved with - they were about as loving as the Black Lake. He wanted to do these things now because of Hermione. It was all her.

When she started to twitch and cry hours later, signalling the start of the nightmare, he rubbed her back and spoke to her softly, holding on tightly so she wouldn't spiral out of control. After twenty minutes of rocking her and telling her things would be okay, she calmed down and fell into a quiet sleep, her tears drying on his night shirt.

He decided he preferred this to her taking a sleep potion any day.

His father gave him a knowing look the next morning as he left her room to go grab a change of clothes.

"Please father, it was for the night terrors," Draco scoffed.

"Mmhmm," said Lucius, arching an eyebrow and making his way to the kitchen.

Mostly, Draco thought to himself, smiling at the memory of waking up with Hermione in his arms. He was starting to love the idea of taking care of her.

Harry and Ron came to visit later that day, looking angry and worn.

"He must've caught wind that we were looking for him," said Ron as they all drank tea. "The lab's been abandoned, and there's no trace of him."

Hermione nodded, keeping her face neutral. Draco suspected that she knew Wolf would be impossible to find, but had been too polite to say anything.

"In better news, the Order's made some real gains recently, thanks to you, Lucius," Harry said, nodding at the man. Lucius looked mildly surprised.

"Glad I could help," he said, evasively.

"Me too," said Harry. "We would never have guessed some of the passwords and locations you gave us. We're extremely grateful. We're close to a big breakthrough, I think."

Hermione looked at Lucius with a sweet smile. "You're such a do-gooder," she teased, knowing it must have killed him to give such valuable information to an organization he wasn't particularly fond of. Then again, it would help beat an organization he truly detested, so perhaps the choice hadn't been so difficult.

Lucius rolled his eyes at her in jest, and they both smirked.

Draco wanted to laugh at the look on Harry and Ron's faces to see Hermione joking around with his father of all people. He sobered up quickly when he realized that Hermione's friends would need to be told about the... Progression in his and Hermione's relationship if things kept going as well as they were. He wasn't looking forward to that reaction, but at least Harry was a little more prepared than Ron. Ron would probably try to kill him.

"How are your night terrors, 'Mione?" asked Ron casually, and Draco choked on his tea.

"They haven't been too bad," she said, not missing a beat. "Malfoy makes sure to stop me before I do any real damage," she added, vaguely. "I'm sure I would have done something harmful if it wasn't for him."

Ron looked surprised, but Harry assumed that infuriating knowing look.

"Well that's good, I suppose..." said Ron, furrowing his brow. "Thanks, Malfoy."

Draco grunted in response. He didn't want to give anything away, so really, it was safer not to talk at all. He ignored Harry's piercing stare and sipped his tea.

They had gotten in the habit of chatting before they fell asleep, somewhere in between the snogging and the actual slumber. Draco had been true to his word about his "intentions," making sure to stop the physical stuff before things got too heated. The thought of rushing Hermione into anything made him cringe. He wanted her to be completely comfortable with him, and he didn't want to fuck anything up by moving too fast. It was the only time in his life he could remember prioritizing the needs of his lover.

That, and she had admitted to him that she hadn't been intimate with anyone since Anthony. The last thing he wanted to do was cause some sort of relapse by making her remember the most torturous few months of her life. He could wait. He could wait as long as she wanted.

"Okay Granger, tell me something about your time at Hogwarts that nobody else knows," Draco said. They were making up for lost time by questioning each other about everything they could think of. So far she had discovered his fear of drowning, his love of the French language, and his admission that his only form of stress relief had ever been sex or flying. He had discovered that her guilty pleasure was hard candies, something she was never allowed as a child, that her fear of flying was so intense it made her nauseous, and that she'd lost her virginity to Viktor Krum.

"Hmmm... That nobody else knows? That's hard... Harry and Ron knew just about everything I was up to in those days," she said, frowning and trying to think of something good. "Oh! I know! I once stumbled across Madam Pince and Filch doing questionable things in one of the library storage closets."

"What?" he grimaced. "That's... Ugh. Thanks for the mental picture, Granger."

"Exactly why I didn't tell Harry and Ron," she nodded with a wry smile. "Nobody wants to imagine that. Plus I think we were all on bad terms at the time, so it seemed pointless to open up the lines of communication for gossip."

"Well, you're obviously not a Slytherin," he smirked. "That's our main reason to talk to each other."

"You think?" she chuckled.

"Why weren't you on good terms? I thought you three had to be separated by a repellant spell in those days." He tried to keep the sneer out of his voice and only partially succeeded.

"Hah, not always," she said, grimly. "We had our disagreements. I think this one was about Ron and Lavender, but maybe I'm wrong... It all seems so long ago now."

"Weren't you and Weasley sort of... Involved at some point?" he asked as delicately as he could. He didn't want her to know just how curious he was about this particular topic.

"Well, we dated really briefly after school," she said with a shrug, "But it was a colossal mistake. We are terribly suited to each other romantically. He takes me for granted and I spend all my time being annoyed with him. We're much better as friends."

Draco exhaled. He had been worried that she still held onto some old affections for Weasley, but apparently not. Good thing, too. He hated the git.

"Your turn," she said, yawning into his arm.

"Something from Hogwarts nobody else knows? Hmm. Well, once I had detention with Professor Trelawney and she predicted that her and I were destined for each other."

Hermione hooted with laughter and then proceeded to giggle heartily into his chest. Draco grinned. He knew how she felt about Divination, but he figured she'd be especially entertained by the weird revelation he'd doggedly ignored for years. He hadn't even told anyone when it happened; it would have given his fellow Slytherins a little too much ammunition for ruthless teasing.

"I was terrified of course... Just on the tiny fraction of a chance that she was right," he continued as Hermione giggled louder.

"Oh God Malfoy, that is the funniest thing I've heard in ages," she gasped, trying to calm down. "So are you telling me I shouldn't get too attached to you since fate will put you and Trelawny together in the end?"

Draco frowned. "I'm definitely not saying that," he said, stroking her hair. "You can get as attached as you want." He meant to tease, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized it was true.

She gave him a shy smile and he tried not to read too much into it.

"Why did you save my father and I? After what I did... With the window. When I hurt you."

She bit her lower lip and thought about it.

"I guess I just felt that you needed a chance. I felt like there was more to you than your angry facade, and I knew I'd never be able to find out if I turned you in. Besides, you would have been killed. I couldn't live with that. I've had worse than being thrown through a window, anyway."

Draco ran his finger down her cheek.

"Thanks for taking a chance on me, Granger."

She smiled at him.

"Well, you certainly didn't disappoint, Malfoy."

Some nights the topics were more serious than others.

"Tell me about Anthony," he said. "If you're okay with it."

She thought for a while. "I don't know where to start," she said eventually. "We met because he was helping the Order - he would patch our people up after missions. I asked him to show me what he was doing so I could help, and I guess I picked it up quickly. He ended up spending all his time teaching me when he wasn't working, and when his job was threatened because of You-Know-Who's influence with the Ministry and St. Mungo's, he just worked full time with the Order and I became the second Healer. We starting dating largely because we already saw each other constantly and discovered we were really compatible."

"Do you miss him?" Draco asked.

"I do," she nodded, "But it's weird. We had only been dating for about five months when he was killed, and for a chunk of that time I was in a bad mental state, so I still tend to miss him the way I would miss a friend... I simply knew him better in that respect than I did as a lover. He was very good to me, and maybe under different circumstances we would have had a chance, but it wasn't a good time to be starting something romantic with anyone. I was so shocked when I found out he left me the house... I don't think he had a lot of people he was close to."

"Did you... Love him? You don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

She smiled. "I cared about him a lot. He was extremely important to me and I'm happy he was in my life. But no, I wasn't in love with him. Maybe that would have come later, but I'm not sure. Even then, I was very guarded with my emotions. It's hard to let your guard down and invite people in when you could lose them at any moment. Like a self-preservation method - keeping emotionally distant."

"Yeah, I know all about that, as I'm sure you could have guessed." He had started tracing her fingers the way he was so fond of. He wondered if she kept herself emotionally distant from him. It didn't feel like it, but he didn't want to assume anything either.

"Have you ever been in love?" she asked suddenly.

Draco's mouth went dry. "No, not yet," he said, quietly. She seemed satisfied with his response, and they both started to doze off.

He tried not to think about whether or not he had given her an honest answer.

Draco knew the question was coming eventually, but that didn't make it any easier when she actually asked it.

"Why are Death Eaters okay with killing Muggles? I mean, although they aren't magical, they're still people. I don't understand the mentality. Murder is murder."

He cringed, but knew he had to answer, since she always answered his questions openly.

"I... Ugh, that's a tough one, Granger. Okay, when you're in that group, nearly all your time is spent being brainwashed, essentially. You're told that Muggles - and Muggle-borns, really - aren't human, that they're worthless... Insects. Animals. A threat to the so-called purity of the magical world. Eventually, you just start buying it. Or you start buying it because you're being asked to hurt these people, and it's easier to do it when you think they're beneath you. I'd been hearing that stuff all my life, so it wasn't difficult to believe."

"Why are you different now?" she asked. "You were still like that when you were rescued, I remember. You hated me."

He looked at her with a serious expression, and then sighed. "I don't know... Spending time with you, seeing that you're not any of those things I was taught... I guess eventually it just hit me. It's been a weird process... And sometimes I fight it just because it's so different than what I used to believe... But it's better like this. Better to let go. And seeing my father make the change too, I mean, Merlin... The man taught me everything I know about hate. It's amazing that he's come so far."

He paused, turning the words over in his mind.

"It's very hard to hate you, Granger. Even at my worst, I was always curious about you, and a bit jealous, I suppose. You challenged everything I'd been taught."

She studied his face.

"I'm glad you've changed your mind about me, Malfoy," she said.

He kissed her, worried that he might say too much if he took the conversation further. Hate was the farthest thing from how he felt about the witch in his arms.