Nightmares.
It was the early hours of the morning when Draco was awoken by an arm slamming into his face. The pain made Draco curse out loud as he sat up, wondering what was going on. His question was soon answered as a whimper drew his attention to the figure beside him. Hermione was clearly in the throes of a bed dream as she moaned and thrashed about on the bed.
Draco looked at Hermione, wondering what to do. It was the first night Hermione had stayed in his room, and he hadn't expected to be woken up by her having a bad dream. Normally after they'd been messing around, Hermione went back to her room, but this time Draco had convinced her to spend the whole night with him. He'd reassured her that they could wake up early and she could be back in her room before the other eighth years woke up.
When Hermione continued to thrash around and her whimpers turned to cries of no, Draco settled back down in the bed and pulled his girlfriend into his arms. Whispering soothing words to her, he held her and stroked her hair until the moaning and thrashing stopped and she calmed down. Once he was satisfied Hermione had drifted back off to sleep, Draco also let himself go back to sleep, although he continued to hold onto his girlfriend.
In the morning, Draco's wand emitted an alarm to wake the couple. Reaching over to the bedside table, Draco stopped the alarm before turning to Hermione, who was stretching as she woke up.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Hermione questioned.
"I was just wondering if you were alright after your dream." Draco replied.
"Dream." Hermione repeated with wide eyes.
Hermione had been having nightmares since the end of the war, and usually she woke herself up screaming. Her nightmares were the reason she'd refused to stay in Draco's room before now, but she had been hoping that his presence in bed beside her would eliminate the dreams. Since she hadn't woken herself up she'd assumed her night had been dream free.
"You were thrashing about and moaning." Draco told his girlfriend. "I didn't want to wake you, so I just held you until you calmed down."
"Thank you." Hermione smiled at her boyfriend. "I can't even remember it, you must have stopped it before it got to the bad parts."
"Do you have nightmares often?" Draco asked cautiously. He didn't want to pry into his girlfriend's private business, but if he could he wanted to help her.
Hermione nodded and lowered her eyes to the emerald green sheets that covered Draco's bed. "I have them a couple of times a week."
"What are they about?" Draco asked. "You don't have to tell me, I just thought it might help to talk about them."
"Mainly they're about the war." Hermione said, letting Draco pull her back into his arms. "I relive things that happened, but the endings always turn out worse. The Death Eaters always catch us and torture us, more people are killed in the battle, that sort of stuff."
"I used to have dreams like that." Draco admitted quietly. "In sixth year I used to dream about Voldemort threatening my mother, only in my dreams he always killed her."
"How did you get them to go away?" Hermione asked, looking up at her boyfriend.
"They faded once Voldemort was gone and I knew my mother was safe." Draco answered. "Maybe your dreams will fade when you accept you're safe."
"I feel safe with you." Hermione admitted.
"Good." Draco hugged Hermione tighter and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I will always keep you safe."
"I know you will." Hermione said, stifling a yawn. "It's still early, maybe we should go back to sleep."
"I thought you wanted to be in your own room when people got up." Draco said.
"They all know we're together so it doesn't really matter." Hermione shrugged. "Besides, I like it here with you. I don't think I'll be using my bed much for the rest of the year."
Hermione was completely right and after her first night in Draco's room she spent the rest of the year sleeping in Draco's bed. Draco was also right about Hermione's nightmares fading. Whenever they started, he made sure they never got too bad and by the end of the year she wasn't having any bad dreams at all. With Draco she felt safe, and as a result the nightmares had gone.