They wanted each other.

"You did strip for me, you know."

"What?"

"You said the other night that you thought it odd that you 'mourn' something that neither of us ever acted on. But you did strip for me. Seems like you acted on it."

"I didn't strip for you. I took my clothes off while you were in the room."

"And then crawled into my sweater? Yeah, right."

"That was yours?" she asked, seemingly innocently, "I hadn't the foggiest. I found it in the laundry, and no one claimed it, so I kept it. It was very soft-"

"Cashmere-"

"-and I like the oversized fit. That's all."

"You really expect me to believe that it was pure coincidence that you slept naked in my sweater, while I was in the room with you?"

"I couldn't have slept naked if I was wearing your sweater. That contradicts itself."

"You're avoiding the question."

"Yes, it was pure coincidence."

"But you knew I was awake when you stripped."

"No."

"You said 'Goodnight Malfoy' after you got in your cot."

"Yes."

"So that means you knew I was awake."

"I didn't say that."

"It's really quite foolish to deny when you've already shown me that you want me."

"I was just being polite. Wishing you a goodnight. Figured it would be rude not to on the off chance you were awake. Which you apparently were. Which I didn't know until this moment." He couldn't see her face but he suspected she was grinning.

"Whatever it takes to help you sleep at night," Draco whispered with a smirk. He paused a moment. "I'm going to leave on a mission tomorrow."

Hermione sat up sharply. "What?"

He sat up next to her. "It's nothing really. Just a simple reconnaissance mission to find out more about the final horcrux."

"I should be going."

He laughed lightly while brushing back her hair. "No, it's not even worth your time. There's only an off chance that this will be the location. They're inviting me along simply because we're going to Asia and they don't know enough about the foliage there and they know I have knowledge about that, especially the antidotes for a few tricky potions or curses that might occur around there."

"I don't like it."

"I don't think I asked if you liked it. I'm telling you that I'm going."

Hermione looked at him with hard eyes. "Be careful." She finally told him.

"Whatever you say, love," he murmured, kissing her temple before settling in to sleep.

OoOoO

He was brought into headquarters unconscious and immediately taken to the infirmary for Luna to treat him. Not five minutes after he returned, Hermione Granger was on the opposite side of the door, demanding to be let in or there would be hell to pay. She was not allowed in, despite her screaming and threatening. Harry had to shoot an expelliarmus at her to disarm her. It was the only way to keep her from bursting open the door with random spells. After her wand was taken, Hermione paced and shouted some more until, finally, long after anyone else had stayed to check on Draco or her, she slid down the wall and sat on her haunches outside of the infirmary.

It was supposed to be a simple mission, but weren't they all? A quick in and out. That was the only reason Draco was even included in the mission. It was considered low risk and they could certainly spare one of their two healers for an easy mission like that.

How wrong they were.

As Draco had told her, the mission was in Asia to determine the location of the final horcrux. They had apparently only been in the area less than twenty-four hours before the death eaters had descended upon them in a sneak attack. Several had been injured by minor curses, but in a move that seemed very intentionally personal, Draco was stabbed in the abdomen. Katie Bell had been able to get to him and activate her portkey to take them both back to headquarters.

Luna came out of the room after about five hours. She explained to Hermione that she had extracted some kind of blade from Draco's side. After removing it, Luna had determined that the blade itself held a paralytic agent and that it had also been cursed with an something that kept the wound from healing. She had to make the difficult decision to put Draco in a magically induced coma. Hermione begged Luna to let her inside and assess the situation herself. She knew she could research the blade and potion to find something to heal and wake him up. Luna refused her. "You have too much invested in his health. Let him rest and let me do my job." Luna used a very authoritative voice, which Hermione was not used to. "Besides, there are too many nargles in there. Who knows what will happen if we allow someone else's energy into the room?" That was more Luna's speed. She gave Hermione a picture of the blade and some notes on her thoughts of the curse that she suspected was used. "See if you can find anything from this. But you may not see him."

Luna left and Hermione stood and attacked the door with renewed vigor. She used her fists and fingernails to try to get in. After two days of nothing, Harry finally returned her wand to her. Hexes, spells, potions, countercurses, and yelling did nothing to make the door open. Hermione suspected that Luna had used the two days she had been wandless to find an obscure spell to bar her from entering the room with magic.

So, Hermione sat outside of the infirmary where he was for no other reason than she needed to stay as close as she could. She didn't like to look too closely into why that was. She spent her time looking through books to find a blade that matched what Luna had shown her and to find a curse that could cause the damage that was described to her. When she needed a break from this research, Hermione would do some digging in ancient locking spells to see if she couldn't find a way into the infirmary to see Draco.

Both Harry and Ron came by to check on her daily, but their conversations had been strained and lengthier than she had the energy for. Still, she pushed through it and told them she was fine and no, she wasn't going anywhere else. She agreed to eat when they fed her but focused mostly on her readings to find a way to help.

Finally, after four days of sitting and waiting, Luna allowed her to enter. "There's not much else that I can do at this point. We just have to wait it out."

Hermione sat next to his bed. And she waited and watched and read. In the mornings Luna would come in to check his vitals and bring Hermione something to eat. She would do the same thing in the evenings. Harry and Ron would stop by in the afternoon with lunch if they were not on a mission. They would sit around Draco's bed and go over theories of horcruxes and strategies, all while ignoring the elephant in the room that was laying on the mattress between them.

At night, Hermione would spell the door to stay locked and lay down next to Draco. It was insane to her that even though he was in a coma that just his presence next to her was enough to help her sleep soundly. She would wake up in the early morning and switch back over to her seat next to the bed and unlock the door so Luna could come for her morning check none the wiser.

Every day, Hermione would bombard Luna during each of her check ins with possible reasons and remedies for Draco's conditions. Every day, Luna would tell her she would look into it. Nothing ever seemed to work.

On the twelfth day, Hermione woke up to arms wrapped around her. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and quickly found startling grey ones looking back at her.

"You're awake," she breathed out, keeping her eyes fixed on his.

"I have been for a few hours."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

He smiled at her, "You looked so peaceful."

"You should have woken me up." She quickly shot out of bed. "I need to get Luna, she needs to check you out, make sure you're okay."

"Granger, just sit-"

"Oh, you shouldn't have let me sleep! What if something's wrong and you've been sitting there for hours? You could have internal bleeding and you'll be dead in a few minutes."

"Do you re-"

He didn't have a chance to finish his thought before she stormed out of the room. She returned minutes later with Luna Lovegood, who showed no signs of having recently been asleep, other than her wild hair.

"Good to have you back, Draco," she said with a dreamy smile. She performed numerous spells, checking to make sure his vitals were okay. After about an hour of diagnostic spells, she finally conceded that he looked to be on the mend.

"You'll need to continue to rest, but I think in a short while, you should be good as new." Luna left the room with one more reminder to relax and recuperate. Hermione settled back into the cot with Draco, as it was still only 2:30 am.

"I was so worried about you," she finally admitted.

"I'm fine."

"I know that now, but it was twelve days of agony wondering what would happen to you."

"Of course, it was. I'm quite dashing."

"You're quite full of yourself is what you are."

"I love you," he told her quietly as he held her. "After everything that's happened, I need you to know. Just in case."

"You don't love me. I don't think I've ever even heard you say my given name."

"I love you, Hermione," he whispered into her hair as he planted a kiss on her head.

"Malfoy-"

"You just chastised me for not saying your given name and here you are avoiding mine. I never knew you were a hypocrite."

"Draco-"

"I like that," he told her, kissing her cheek and pulling her closer. "I've always hated my name. Even for a pureblood it's so fucking pretentious. But I like how it sounds coming from you. I love it. You should call me that all the time."

"You're being ridiculous," she said into his neck, where her face was cradled.

"I'm not," he nuzzled her as close as he could. "I really do love you. I know because I've never felt this way before."

"I can't say it back."

"I know," he told her. "I know you're not ready. In my mind I imagine that you truly feel the same way towards me, but you just can't say it yet because of all that's happened. But maybe that's not the case. Maybe everything has left you feeling as though you aren't worthy of being loved or loving someone else. Maybe I'm completely off base and this whole thing between us is just about you making your way back to being able to be physically intimate with someone. Maybe I'm just a means to an end. I don't pretend to know exactly what's going on inside that big, beautiful brain of yours. In an alternate universe, I think you would be the one opening up and I would be the one unable to express myself. But here we are. And ultimately, I love you and you deserve to hear that, no matter how scary it is. I. Love. You." He pressed a chaste kiss to her lips.

"I can't go any further with you yet."

"I'm okay with that. I don't need to touch you anymore than I already have. You're enough as you are now."

She gave him a stern look.

"Okay, maybe that's not totally true, but right now it feels like it is. Really, I can take it as slow as you need."

"You're so cheesy," she told him.

"No, I'm in love."

OoOoO

Chaos.

Pure and total chaos.

They had been in many battles since the beginning of the war. But this one seemed to take the cake in terms of overwhelming the senses. It was complete sensory overload. There were sounds coming from every direction, bright flashing lights in different colors assaulting the eyes. Pain everywhere.

Draco noticed that there were seemingly more green strobing lights, than red. Both sides were aiming to kill. He was sending whatever he needed in whichever direction necessary, but his eyes, as always, were looking for her.

There was the Weasel, fighting with Dolohov, still sending stunning spells his way. Ever so valiant. He saw several other patches of red hair in the fray, often clustered together to fight as a team. Still, he didn't see Hermione anywhere.

He continued to fight his way through the melee for what seemed like hours. Every minute he became more and more panicked that he couldn't find her. He reasoned that it was most likely that she was with Potter who he had also not seen. Still, his face scanned every body he encountered.

Suddenly, a magically enhanced voice shook the castle.

"Voldemort is dead," the strong voice he knew so well bellowed. "Harry Potter lives. The battle is won. You have lost half of your fighters. The Order of the Phoenix outnumber you and Voldemort is finished. There must be no more war. Death Eaters, surrender now, or face the wrath of the Ministry."

Draco closed his eyes. She was alive. It was over. Finally.

OoOoO

They saw each other across the kitchen, between the others crying and hugging. He nodded his head toward the stairs, and she smiled slightly in agreement. The met in her room.

He was already sitting on the bed when she arrived. She didn't say a word, simply crossed the room to him, threw her arms around his shoulders, and kissed him squarely on the lips. He moved his hands to her head, twining his fingers in her wild hair. They were both sweaty and covered in grime and she maybe had some debris caught in her mane, but they didn't care.

As soon as the broke apart he spoke.

"I love you. I can't believe it's over."

She cupped his cheek in her hand. "I know. I know. It's finally over."

They smiled at each other for another moment, and then she moved her hands down to lift her shirt over her head. His hands moved over her bare torso, reaching around to undo her bra. She quickly kicked off her shoes and made swift work of her trousers and knickers until she was bare underneath him.

Draco looked over her body and smiled at her, giving her a gentle peck on the lips. The scarring from her time at Malfoy Manor was still there, but in the limited light of her room, it was not overly apparent. He was used to her scars by now anyway. He instead focused on the shape and size of her breasts, the way her hips flared out from her taut stomach, the shapeliness of her legs, so smooth to the touch. He looked at her as he had looked at her before.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered in her ear. "Are you sure about this?"

"We're alive. Despite everything, we're alive. I'm sure. I'm ready."

Her hands worked on taking off his clothes while his hands focused on her core. She didn't flinch away from him as he touched her there. Once his clothes were removed, she guided his hands over her body to show him that he could touch her wherever. And so he did.

Hermione's own hands made their way over his body, touching nearly every inch she could reach.

Finally, Draco entered her and Hermione let out a moan. They moved together in unison until he brought her not once, but twice, to orgasm before emptying himself inside of her.

"Thank you," she whispered in the aftermath as she lay against his chest while he stroked her hair. "Just- thank you. It's finally over."

He kissed her forehead and whispered, "I love you. It's over."

Draco Malfoy never saw Hermione Granger naked again.

Happy (Belated) Christmas! We've reached the seventh time. Just a bitty baby epilogue to finish things off. I did have a thought as I was getting closer to the end about a very dark ending to the story. Let me know in a review if you would like to see an alternate ending added to this story or in a one-shot. Please review regardless, I love feedback 3

PS- Hermione's speech is an amalgamation of Voldemort's speech from the book and movie, with a few words flip flopped. It's not mine