Draco leaned over and kissed her. She kissed him back, a new feeling of excitement and nerves welling up inside of her. She was more than ready to step out of the shadows and into the daylight. So just hoped that Draco was willing to come with her. As afraid as he was to lose her, she couldn't think about losing him. She just hoped that her friends would be understanding, because she didn't know what she would do if they offered an ultimatum.

When Hermione tired of playing chess, the Room provided a sleek red couch for her to curl up on. Her Charms homework took twice as long as normal to complete, mostly because she kept getting distracted by Draco sitting at the chess table pushing the pieces around.

At first she thought he was just playing with himself. Then she realized that the chess pieces she'd abandoned were playing on their own.

"I thought that was Muggle chess," she said.

"I think it is," Draco replied, delicately moving his knight forward. "This is the Room of Requirement, right? It provides whatever you need. So if you were to, say, need someone to play chess with…then the Room becomes that someone." He didn't look at her as he spoke, eyes focused on the game, voice still soft and upbeat.

The more Hermione thought about that, the sadder she felt. She imagined someone sitting in here, all alone with only the Room to play with. She didn't have time to dwell on it long, because a few minutes later the door opened.

All the people who might know about this place flashed through her mind, until she noticed a house elf peeking around the corner. "If it's all right, I brought sandwiches and tea for mister and miss," he squeaked.

Hermione hurried across the room to take the laden tray from him. She wished she had some money, but she had to settle for "Thank you."

"Miss is very welcome." The elf bowed low and slipped back out the door.

"Come on," Hermione said, trailing her fingers over Draco's shoulders as she passed behind him on her way back to the couch. "We shouldn't let all this food go to waste."

A table materialized just as Hermione sat down, in time for Draco to whack his shin directly into the wooden surface. Hermione covered her mouth and stifled a giggle as he snarled and hobbled around to the couch.

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. Once they'd polished off the sandwiches, Hermione and Draco curled up next to each other with their respective homework in their laps. Every once in a while one of them would interrupt the silence with a question, but mostly they stayed quiet and comfortable with the knowledge that they were together and that was enough. Even so, lurking in the shadows was always the question of whether their relationship could survive outside of the room, and the first step of that was whether or not her friends would accept it.

"Should we ask the Room for dinner or…?" Draco asked.

Hermione glanced at the wall where the clock usually hung and a grandfather clock manifested itself just below her gaze. If they wanted to make dinner in the Great Hall, they would have to get going. "I should probably go spend some time with my friends. Tell them, well…" Her nervousness pricked up again.

Draco kissed her then, his fingers soft and tentative against her jaw. "I trust you," he whispered.

It sent a shiver down her spine more than anything else he'd said so far. After everything they'd been through, that he should trust her and that she should trust him back…she wasn't sure how much that meant to her.

They kissed for a few more minutes, until Draco pulled himself away and they clambered off the couch. Hermione left first, slipping out into the passage and knocking on the door to let Draco know it was clear. They took opposite passages to the Great Hall, so they wouldn't be traveling together. Excitement welled up in Hermione at the idea that they might not have to take precautions like this for much longer.

"I need to talk to you," Hermione said. It was after dinner and they'd retired back to the common room for the evening. Harry was frowning at his Potions essay and Ginny was reclined in her chair, flipping through her Transfiguration textbook.

Hermione tried to concentrate on her homework, to savor these moments of familiarity, in case they were all about to come to an end. They'd been through so much together that she didn't think she could bear it if this was the breaking point. She changed her mind continuously, each time thinking of Draco and how tired she felt about hiding him.

Scared or not, she needed to get this out and she needed to do it now.

"What is it, Hermione?" Ginny asked as she dropped her open textbook onto her chest.

Hermione glanced around to make sure that there wasn't anyone listening in. Most everyone had disappeared from the common room—either down to the library or outside to enjoy an evening of random nice weather. Everyone that remained seemed to be absorbed in their own little worlds. She took a deep breath. "When I told you about catching Theo, I left out some details. I wasn't alone and I knew where to find him."

"How?" Harry asked. He was looking up now, expression curious.

"Someone helped me. They had an idea of where he was hiding and so we went down to check, and he turned out to be right…" Her voice was slow, stumbling, hesitant. Now that she was sitting here and they were staring at her, she wasn't sure she was ready for this moment.

"Out with it, Hermione," Ginny said.

She bit her bottom lip and let the words flow out before she could second guess herself again. "It was Dra—Malfoy. I ran into him in the Slytherin dungeons and since he was the one Theo has been after, he agreed to help me find him. It was his idea to check the alcove that Theo turned out to be hiding him. And he captured Theo, not me."

She braced herself for the onslaught, but instead her confession was met only with silence. When the quiet continued until it was pressing down on her eardrums, she forced her eyes up away from the parchment in front of her to her friends' faces. Harry looked cautious, but otherwise impassive. Ginny just looked shocked.

"You should be more careful," Harry said.

Hermione startled. She'd expected admissions of surprise and outrage, but not words of warning. She didn't have anything prepared for this, not that she really felt like she had anything prepared at all.

"What?" she asked.

"What if Malfoy was in on it with Theo? What if they'd attacked you?" Harry pressed. "No one would have known where you were to help, and it could have been hours before anyone even knew you were missing."

Hermione deflated. "They didn't."

"That's not the point, Hermione," Ginny cut in. "Malfoy's dangerous. Look at all the things he's done to us, to you."

"It's not like he ever fought with us in the War," Harry said. "I saved his life and the first thing he did was go back and try to fight with the Death Eaters. Then you know what happened when his parents fled."

Hermione sat frozen in her chair. This wasn't going the way she wanted it to at all, but she couldn't figure out how to make them see.

"Where's the proof that he's any better now?" Ginny continued. "If you ask me, he should be in Azkaban with his father. The only reason he was allowed to come back is because everyone from that year was."

"He hasn't done anything wrong!" Hermione rose to his defense, her voice growing more desperate. "Malfoy was helping me. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have found Theo and he'd still be loose in the castle somewhere."

Harry was starting to look more angry than she'd ever seen him, stiff with tension and his eyes a dark green. Ginny just looked agitated, moving around in her chair and waving her hands. "I'm glad that whole thing with Theo is over no matter who was involved, but that doesn't mean you can trust Malfoy. Why are you even defending him? In case you've forgotten, his father almost killed me," Ginny said.

Hermione couldn't stop the words from bursting out of her mouth. "Draco didn't have anything to do with the diary." Hermione didn't want to look at all the things he'd done, didn't want to think about it anymore. She wanted to think about the Draco she knew now. The one that she was sure wasn't dangerous. The one that studied with her and played chess with her and kissed her like they had all the time in the world.

"So?" Ginny snapped. "Like father, like son. He's still a Death Eater and that's never going to change."

Hermione remembered the Dark Mark still standing out on his skin. "What about that day in the Manor?" She suppressed a shudder. "He could have said right off that you were Harry, but he didn't." She was starting to feel desperate, sorting through her memory for something—anything—she could use as a defense.

"Didn't stop him from trying to kill you all," Ginny snapped. "Or fighting for the other side during the Battle even after you saved his life from the Fiendfyre."

"What about when he tried to get Buckbeak killed and Hagrid fired?" Harry said.

"Or when he was on the Inquisitorial Squad?"

"Or when he almost killed Katie and Ron?"

"Because he was trying to kill Dumbledore."

"All right, all right," Hermione interrupted, feeling like she was going to be sick. She couldn't take it anymore, couldn't listen to them laying out Draco's sins in front of them. She'd been there for all of it and it wasn't something that she would ever forget, but she was willing to try to move on. "I was there, I know what he did. I just wanted to let you know that I didn't apprehend Theo alone." She collapsed back into her chair, feeling exhausted even though it was still early in the evening and she hadn't done much.

Harry slowly went back to his homework in silence. Ginny leaned forward, his face intense. "We just want you to be careful. The War might be over but…" She trailed off and Hermione could still see the pain that all of them carried, the weight of what the War had cost.

"I will be." She felt like she'd just bit into a lemon, her mouth sour and her stomach churning. She'd been so caught up in the moment that she hadn't really been able to consider what she would do if her friends rejected the idea of a changed Draco. Hermione pulled out the two-way parchment just to have something to do with her hands until she could turn in early. Her face softened when she recognized Draco's handwriting in a new note and woke up immediately when she registered what it said.

McGonagall called me to her office. Can you get away to the Room? I need…you. The letters in "you" were cut deeper into the parchment and clearer, like he'd slowly etched them there one line at a time.

Hermione's heart raced. What could McGonagall have said that Draco needed to see her right now? Could it be something about Theo? Or did she suspect he knew something about the Death Eater attacks and wanted to interrogate him? What if they wanted to take him away from Hogwarts? She flashed back to their second year, when Hagrid was taken to Azkaban because of Voldemort. Hermione would be damned if she let another innocent be taken away from the castle because of that horrible creature.

She was halfway to the portrait hole before she'd even realized she was standing.

"Where are you going?" Harry called behind her.

Hermione glanced over her shoulder as she kept moving. "I realized I forgot something in the library. I'll be right back." The lies came easier this time, and without the usual guilt. If Harry and Ginny weren't going to even try to understand, why should she keep trying to make them?

It seemed to take her no time at all to get to the Room. The door appeared on her approach and she slipped inside.

The Room contained a cozy little set-up. The walls were painted dark green and the floor covered with a thick gold carpet. The only furniture was a rich brown leather couch that Draco was currently stretched across on his back.

He looked over when the door snapped shut behind Hermione. She was shocked to see a tear running over his cheek. In seconds she'd crossed the room and was sitting down in the space next to his legs.

"What's going on?" she asked, reaching out and placing her hand on his calf, the only part of him that she could reach without having to lean over awkwardly.

"McGonagall called me to her office, to talk about my mother," he answered. Hermione's breath caught in her throat. She strained her ears to listen to Draco's quiet, rough voice. "She's fine, but…she's helping the Aurors to track down the rogue Death Eaters. McGonagall wanted to let me know, in case there's backlash. It's too dangerous for me to go home right now so I have to spend Christmas here."

Hermione moved over on the couch, manipulating Draco until she was sitting on the end of the couch and his head was resting on her lap. She combed her fingers through his hair and stared across the room at the wall. "Your mom will be fine. She's had a lot of experience with Death Eaters and surviving. And the sooner the Death Eaters are caught, the sooner everything can get better."

Draco sighed. "It's just…my mum never really wanted to be a Death Eater. My dad dragged her into this mess, attracted to the idea of a world ruled by purebloods. And now here she is getting involved with everything again."

"Maybe she's just trying to make things right." Hermione thought back to the night Harry had told them what happened in the forest—though she'd always had the feeling he was leaving something out—and Narcissa's risk. Her last act had been in defiance of the Death Eaters and that had to mean something, if only it was that she cared more for knowledge of the whereabouts of her son than about the Death Eaters.

"I wish that I could go in her place," Draco whispered. Hermione's fingers tightened in his hair, the idea of him leaving to hunt Death Eaters too much for her. "I know that I have to stay here, and I know that she's probably in a better position to find them than I am, I just…"

Hermione knew what he meant. It was the reason why she'd gone to such lengths to protect her family when she went to hunt Horcruxes with Harry and Ron. It was the reason why, even now that they were back and everything was as normal as it could ever be, she always had this sadness when she looked at her parents. "It'll be okay," she said.

Draco snuggled closer to her and she could see his eyes close. "Did you mention me to Harry and Ginny?" he asked, his voice curious but heavy. "Or did I interrupt you before you had time?"

"No. No, I did." Hermione kept her grip on his hair light and soft even as worry tightened around her heart. She didn't want to tell him what they'd said, not on top of the worry over his mother.

"And?"

"Don't worry about it. I don't think I'm quite ready to tell them everything yet."

Draco sat up slowly and pressed a kiss to her lips. The sweetness in his eyes only made her memories of Ginny—Malfoy's dangerous—and Harry—it could have been hours before anyone even knew you were missing—hurt more. Why couldn't they just see what she saw?