Author's Note: So...I'm actually thinking there's going to end up being 31 chapters, not 30. Pretty much due to the fact that I decided to end this chapter earlier than expected, because otherwise it would have been too long. Thanks once again for the reviews! I especially liked smartcat's review, where she proceeded to call me horrible...oh...about fourteen hundred times. Haha. I sure hope you copy-and-pasted, hun! And thank you to Renbou, who apparently wants to marry my story. Sure, girl, you can get your gown ready! That's the first proposal this story has ever received, LOL.

This chapter is dedicated to Lady-Delphinea, because I received her review for my last chapter just a short while before uploading this one, and she was saying how she is leaving at 5:30 am tomorrow for a week, and won't get to read my next chapter. Well the joke is on you, Lady-Delphinea, because I've updated before you left! Now I only hope you'll get to read it before you leave...

Disclaimer: Iamsosickofwritingthesestupiddisclaimers.


When Draco arrived back to the Head's tower, the first thing he did was start banging his forehead against the cold, stone wall.

"Something on your mind, mate?" asked the knight in the portrait.

Draco stopped the banging and turned around, resting his back up against the wall. "I'm an idiot."

The knight nodded, smiling in satisfaction. "The understatement of the year."

"Sod off, wanker."

"Ho, ho!" the knight exclaimed. "Name-calling will not grant you entry into your own living quarters, you know."

"You're right. But my password will. 'Sugarplum', you stupid, bloody, sorry excuse for a painting."

The knight sighed and opened up the portrait hole for him. "You are losing your touch when it comes to insults, you know. You haven't even come close to hurting my feelings."

Draco ignored him as he entered the portrait hole. He sighed and closed his eyes briefly as he entered the common room, dropping his knapsack onto the floor.

"You shouldn't just leave that there," a voice said suddenly. "Somebody might trip over it."

The sound startled Draco. His eyes instantly flew open and he found himself staring at Hermione Granger – the other one – sitting on the couch. He could tell right away by her straightened hair, her makeup, and clothing that would have been deemed too unacceptable by any other Hermione.

"Granger," he breathed, as she stood up to greet him. He walked over to her and gave her a hug. "What are you doing back here so soon?"

"I needed to see you," she replied, falling into his embrace. "I have so much to tell you. I thought perhaps you might be interested."

"I am," he said, pulling away from her. He motioned for her to sit back on the couch, and he joined her when she did. "So what's up?"

"I just came from a meeting with the Ministry," she replied.

"But I thought you weren't supposed to meet with them until tomorrow?"

Hermione shrugged. "They ended up bumping me up a day. I guess they figured it was too important of a matter to wait."

Draco stared at her in anticipation. "Okay…so…what happened?"

"I was found not guilty, of course," she replied. "But…I was expelled from Hogwarts."

"What?" Draco exploded. "Why?"

"I'm a killer, Malfoy – self-defense or not. They don't want someone like me hanging around the school."

"That's preposterous," Draco said, shaking his head. "They can't kick you out of school for defending yourself!"

Hermione waved her hand dismissively. "It actually makes perfect sense, seeing as though I'm not allowed to use magic for a whole year."

"What? Why not?"

Hermione sighed. "Apparently, conjuring up portals to other dimensions is frowned upon in my world, unless you have direct permission from someone at the Ministry. Who knew?"

Draco couldn't help but smirk. "So I guess that means that Draco's magic license is suspended also?"

"Yeah," she said. "But he's actually taking it very well. Surprisingly well, as a matter of fact."

"So…wait. If you got into trouble for making the portal to begin with, then how did you manage to use it again?"

"Well, that's another reason why I'm here. They're going to permanently close the connection between our world and this one. However, I was able to convince them to let me come back one more time before they did it. I just needed to know – did you go to the Room of Requirement? Did it give you what you needed?"

Draco lowered his eyes. "Yes, it worked," he said softly. "I found Hermione there, as I'm sure you know. How did you ever stumble upon the room, anyway?"

"I told you that I had gone back to the Gryffindor tower that night to get my notebook. And, as you know, the Room of Requirement is on the way. I just happened to be nearing the spot when I saw Madam Pomfrey coming out of the room. As you can imagine, I was very curious as to what was inside. So, I stood there in front of the blank wall, and I -"

"You needed to see what was inside," Draco muttered.

Hermione nodded. "Yes. And it worked! The door appeared…I walked inside…and I saw her lying there, alive. You have no idea how excited I was. I couldn't wait to find you and tell you, but when I turned to go, I saw that Madam Pomfrey had come back, and she -"

"Obliviated your memory," Draco finished for her. "I know. She tried to do the same to me. Luckily for me, though, Dumbledore arrived in time to stop her."

"That's very fortunate," Hermione agreed. "So…what's the story with her? She seemed to be in a comatose state."

"She was," Draco replied. "It turned out that she was never dead to begin with. Dumbledore had cast some sort of spell on her that caused her to go into a deep sleep so that we'd all think she was dead. But…well, she never woke up."

"Wow," Hermione breathed. "You mean that no one has yet figured out a way to wake her up?"

"No – I figured out a way," Draco replied.

Hermione gasped. "So – she's awake, then?"

Draco clenched his jaw and nodded.

"That's great!" Hermione exclaimed, beaming. "So then, where is she?"

"She's still in the Room of Requirement," Draco mumbled.

Hermione's smile faltered. "What? Why?"

Draco sighed. "Dumbledore and her parents want her to move back home. They want her to leave without even telling anyone that she's alive."

"What? That's insane!" Hermione cried, shaking her head furiously. "What a terrible idea!"

"Is it really?" Draco said."Is it really so terrible for her to do what's best?"

"What's best?" Hermione repeated. "How do you know what's best for her?"

"Oh, gee, Granger," he snapped, "let me think about it for a second. Oh yeah – perhaps I know what's best for her, because I'm the reason she was attacked in the first place!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Do you honestly think that makes any bit of difference to her? Do you honestly think that if she'd been attacked for being friends with Harry, she'd give up her friendship with him and move back to the Muggle world?"

"No," Draco replied. "But Harry is different. Harry is her best friend. I'm just the guy who tormented her for seven years."

Hermione sighed in exasperation. "You love her. I figured that out fairly quickly, it was so obvious. But in case you have forgotten, I have read her diary front to back, and I can pretty much guarantee that she loves you, too."

"I know," Draco muttered, staring down at his hands. "She so much as told me so earlier."

Hermione gaped at him. "Really? Wow. So…you told her that you love her too, right?"

Draco's breath hitched in his throat. "No. I can't. Because if I tell her that I love her, and she tells me she loves me, then we'll get together. And that can't happen. I won't let that happen – it's way too dangerous."

Hermione scoffed. "Wow. You are such a coward. And a hypocritical one at that!"

Draco scowled at her. "Excuse me?"

"Before you left my world, you gave this big, long speech to my Draco, telling him that if he had feelings for me that he should tell me, and that we should be together," she said. "And you're not even following your own advice! That is hypocritical, and you're being a complete and total moron about this."

Draco could feel the anger beginning to boil in his blood. "Are you done insulting me yet?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"No!" she cried. "You're a bloody imbecile! You are a dim-witted, inane, feeble-minded, idiotic coward!"

Draco shook his head in disbelief. "You're wrong, Granger. I am neither stupid, nor am I a coward. I simply care for her, all right? I know what it's like to live without her, thinking I will never see her again. I can't put myself through all of that again. I…I couldn't bear to lose her again."

A look of realization came over Hermione's face. "Oh," she said in a small voice. "So you're just being selfish then."

He threw his hands up in defeat. This girl was driving him absolutely insane. "How is that being selfish? I'm giving up the best thing that has ever happened to me so that she can be safe!" He sighed. Softening his voice, he said, "She can't love me, and I can't love her. I am a pureblood, and she's not. My family hates her kind. And, obviously, they will stop at nothing to ensure I don't disgrace the family by being with her. But as of right now, she is safe because everyone thinks she's dead. If they find out she is still alive, they may come for her again. So please, tell me, what would be so terrible about her leaving this place?"

"Everything!" Hermione cried. "Listen, you do not know Hermione like I do, mainly because…well…I am Hermione. We are not all that different, you know. I could tell by every single thing I read in her diary. And I can tell you this right now: she would rather risk her life and be happy, than to live the rest of her life safe and miserable. I mean, how is living in the Muggle world going to protect her from anything? She could get hit by a car and die. She could get cancer and die."

Draco couldn't help but smirk at that. Well, it turned out they were probably a lot more similar than he had once thought. They even said the same exact things. "Well, I can't control cars," he said, "and I can't control diseases. But I can control this."

Hermione shook her head sadly. They both remained silent for a moment, until she reached over and took his hand. "You didn't ask, but…well, Draco did take your advice. He told me how he felt about me, and now we are together. And honestly, I have never been happier in my life."

Draco managed to smile, even as the pang of jealousy tugged at his heart. "That's wonderful, Granger. I'm glad."

"Things are not so different in my world, you know," she said softly. "I'm a mudblood. He's a pureblood. His family won't approve of us. And who knows? I may find myself in danger again one day as well. But guess what? I don't really care, because I'm happy. I'm with the person I love most in the world. There is no way I'm going to give that up because there is a possibility that I could be in danger. And I have faith that no matter what happens, he will be there to protect me. And I have faith that you would protect her."

"I would die for her," Draco murmured.

"I know you would," she said. "So please…don't be such an idiot. Don't let her go. It will be the biggest mistake of your life."

Draco stared down at the floor, thinking. She was, in many ways, right about everything. He was being a coward. He was being selfish. He was being stupid. And he was about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

"Let her decide what she wants," Hermione continued. "I think what you'll find is that she wants you."

Draco closed his eyes briefly. That was all he needed to hear.

"I have to go," he said suddenly, jumping up from the couch. He had to go to her. He had to tell her what she had wanted to hear earlier.

Hermione gave him an all-knowing smile. "Go get her."

Draco nodded. "Will you still be here? She wants to meet you."

"Of course I'll still be here!" she said cheerfully, leaning back on the couch. "In fact, I'm not leaving until I meet her."

"Is that a threat?"

"No, it's a promise," she said with a smirk. "So bring her on home."


He felt nervous as he stood outside of the Room of Requirement, the door suddenly appearing before him. He paced back and forth a few times, trying to compose the words in his head so that he wouldn't end up saying something completely dumb. His words had to be perfect; she deserved nothing less.

When he finally managed to work up enough courage, he knocked on the door, hoping to Merlin that she'd be there.

She was, but she wasn't the one who answered the door: Dumbledore was.

"Mr. Malfoy," he said in surprise.

Draco glanced over the old man's shoulder to see that the Grangers had returned, and now all of them, including Hermione, were staring at him, waiting for him to speak.

"Hi. Uh…" his voice trailed off. How exactly was he supposed to declare his love for Hermione with an audience? His gaze landed on Hermione, who had a curious look on her face.

"Can we help you?" Dumbledore said.

"Actually…I was wondering if I could speak with Hermione alone, please."

The Grangers exchanged a glance with one another, and then glanced simultaneously at Hermione, as if they were leaving the decision up to her.

Tearing her eyes away from him, she smiled weakly to her parents and nodded her head. "It's fine."

"Okay, dear," Mrs. Granger said, planting a kiss atop her daughter's head. "We'll be back later."

They'll be back…to help her pack? Draco wondered.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger both smiled pleasantly at him as they passed by him. He was glad to see that they weren't harboring any resentment toward him for breaking their daughter's heart. Or perhaps she hadn't even told them about it. He figured that was most likely the case.

As Dumbledore proceeded to usher the Grangers out of the room, they started talking in low voices – but unfortunately, Draco couldn't quite make out any of their words. His gaze followed them as they disappeared behind the door, purposely avoiding looking at Hermione.

But he couldn't avoid her forever. When he turned back around to face her, she was staring at him intently, as if waiting for him to say something – anything.

The words, however, refused to make their way to the tip of his tongue. Looking at her now, he was speechless. There were not enough words in the universe to describe his feelings for her. So instead of speaking, he took one step closer to her…two steps…three. She watched him as he neared her, a look of understanding on her face. If Draco didn't know any better, he could have sworn she knew exactly what he was thinking.

They fell into each other's arms simultaneously, and he just stood there for the longest time, holding her. They didn't need words; their actions said it all.

She clung to him tightly, her face buried in his shoulder. "You came back," she whispered.

"Granger," he said softly. "Hermione…I don't want you to go."

"I know."

"But the thought of you staying scares me."

"I know," she said, pulling away slightly. "But it doesn't scare me. The thought of leaving scares me. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in hiding. I don't want to spend the rest of my life without magic…without my friends…without you."

"And I don't want to live the rest of my life without you," he said.

Hermione chuckled slightly. "Who knew we would ever have so much in common?"

Draco smirked. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Hermione, you asked me earlier to tell you how I feel about you -"

She shook her head. "Forget about that. You don't have to tell me anything. Not until you're ready."

Draco sighed. "I don't know how I could possibly be any more ready," he said, pulling out of their embrace. He took both of her hands in his. "I've been wanting to tell you how I feel about you for the past two months. It's just that I never thought I would be given the chance to."

"Well, you've been given the chance now," she said quietly. "Are you going to take it?"

"Not yet," he murmured. Leaning down, he captured her lips with his own, kissing her with every ounce of energy he had, in the end leaving both of them completely and totally breathless when they finally broke apart.

Glancing up at him with a dazed expression on her face, Hermione breathed, "I think you just took it."

"Not even close, Granger," Draco said with a smirk. Staring down into her wide, glazed eyes, he said, "I -"

"Shh," she said softly, placing a finger over his lips to silence him. "Before you say anything, there's something I need to tell you."

Draco panicked. Whenever he heard the words "there's something I need to tell you" spoken to him, it was bad news. Always. "Okay…" he said, hesitantly, letting go of her hands.

"I was upset when you left," she said, "and I realized that I had been so quick to make my decision to go home. I was just…hurt that you didn't want me to stay - at least, not enough to ask me to. But once you were gone, I started thinking about what I was going to do…what I wanted to do. And I decided that I really don't want to go back home. Not now. Hogwarts has been my home for the last seven years, and my friends have been my family. I can't just leave that all behind."

Draco nodded. This didn't really surprise him – the other Hermione had been absolutely correct in her assumption.

"So when my parents came back with Dumbledore, I had a talk with them," she continued. "And in the end, they agreed with my decision."

"Which is what, exactly?"

Hermione sighed. "I've decided to finish the school year here, and by doing so I will be letting the entire school know that I'm still alive. Maybe I'll be putting myself in danger by doing that, but even Dumbledore agrees that as long as I'm confined within the walls of this building, I should be safe until graduation. He's even going to work on some protection spells for me."

"Okay," Draco said slowly. "So then what happens after graduation? When you no longer have this place to protect you?"

"Well," she replied, "I was thinking of taking some time off after graduation. Do some traveling. I've always wanted to travel the world. Or, to be perfectly honest, I've always had this dream of going to some prestigious Muggle college. But I don't really know yet exactly what I want to do. Either way, I will be making my parents happy because I will be living in the Muggle world, and the chances of anyone coming after me there are fairly slim."

Draco's heart sank as she spoke. If she were to leave after graduation to travel the world, or even to go to college…he would never see her again. He was beginning to wonder why he had ever wanted to persuade her to leave to begin with; the thought was tearing him up inside.

"So then how long will this break of yours last?"

"Until the war," she said. "If or when it ever happens. I will come back, and I will help Harry in any way that I can. I don't want to completely give up the wizarding world, but I think maybe it would be best for me to lay low for a while after school. And then after the war, none of this will matter anyway. Either the good side wins and there are no bad guys left to worry about, or the evil side wins and…I'll have no wizarding world to come back to." She smiled sadly.

Draco was beginning to understand why she had silenced him right before he was about to confess his feelings for her: because in a little more than three months, she would be leaving him behind. Obviously, she didn't want him to have to go through with confessing his feelings, only to have her walk out of his life in the end.

He would have been lying if he'd said that didn't completely crush him. But if he was given at least three months with her, he sure as hell was going to take advantage of every single second of them.

"Well, Granger, it sounds like a pretty good plan to me," he lied. Clearing his throat, he grabbed her hand and said, "So how much longer do you have to remain in this room?"

Hermione shrugged. "Dumbledore is leaving it up to me when I want to leave, or when I want to tell all my friends I'm alive."

"Great. So you can leave right now, then?"

Hermione giggled. "I could. But where would I go?"

Glancing at his watch, Draco was relieved to see that all of the students would still be in class at the moment, so it was likely they would have the hallways all to themselves and wouldn't have to worry about getting spotted.

"Care to join me for a walk?" he asked her with a grin. It was a rather forced grin, but she didn't seem to notice.

"A walk? Where to?"

"Home," he said, pulling her towards the doorway. He opened it up gently and poked his head out, checking both left and right, making sure no one was hanging around outside. When he saw that the coast was clear, he glanced back at her and said, "There's someone I'd like you to meet."


Author's Note #2: Ever since the new Hermione arrived in the early chapters of this story, I've noticed that about 99 of my readers have disliked her (the remaining one percent is, I believe, my very own boyfriend) - and that's cool. I mean, I never actually planned on making her a character everyone would dislike, but I never took into consideration the fact that people LOVE Hermione (the real canon one), and of course there could be no substitute! But I never wanted to make her into an unlikeable character - it was never my intention - so I'm hoping (and keeping my fingers and toes crossed) that by the end of the story, you will all decide that she's not so bad after all. I guess you could say that it is a challenge I have given myself to make you all like her by the end. Wish me luck! XD