It wasn't his words that had surprised her so much, true she hadn't thought about trials for Death Eaters, but the fact that some of the worse ones were having them almost pleased her. No, what had surprised her were the giant spiders coming up from the forest and the smoke billowing up from the castle. That was why she'd dropped his cup, not because of what he'd said.

It was horrible, yes, what Malfoy was going to have to do involving his father; his mother never should have put the decision on him but there wasn't anything she could do about that now. First she had to deal with the large amount of fear that had swelled in her chest at the morphing scene before her eyes. "Really it's nothing to break a cup over," he muttered, frowning at her. Hermione said nothing but focused her gaze on Malfoy, remembering the time that had worked in the great hall. He raised an eyebrow when he realized she was staring. "Will you stop looking at me like that? Granger?"

"I'm sorry, I-It helps sometimes-" she said, her eyes widening as she began to shake. It took a lot for her to begin with to understand that she was just shaking and it wasn't because a giant was stumbling around. By the time she'd realized that she'd gone back to staring at Malfoy.

His face had turned a light shade of pink and he looked uncomfortable, but he didn't avoid her gaze. "Well then just talk to me, Granger," he instructed.

"What?"

"Just tell me about something," he said, beginning to sound frustrated. "It helps, I promise,"

"I don't know what to say,"

"Anything. Tell me about-" he paused and frowned. "Tell me about how Potter's doing,"

"Harry?"

"Well I can't really think of anything else,"

"He's-He's good," she said, watching Malfoy stare intently back at her. "He's happy with Ginny, really happy, and he's definitely less stressed now that Voldemort's gone and the war's over,"

"I think everyone's less stressed, really,"

"I agree,"

"So tell me something else,"

"He says Ron feels bad about what happened," she said, frowning at the scowl on Malfoy's face. "You know I'll be friends with him again one day, right? It would be too hard to just forget the past seven years,"

"I understand. But that doesn't mean I have to like it," Hermione soon lost track of time as she talked about Harry. The scene had long since melted away but for some reason she'd just kept speaking. Maybe it was to fill Malfoy's silence or maybe it was to hear something as reassuring as the sound of her own voice. Eventually, though, she trailed off and Malfoy blinked. "Is it done?"

"It was done a while ago," He raised his eyebrows but didn't speak, so Hermione opened her mouth again. "How did you know that would work?"

Malfoy shrugged and for a moment Hermione was she he was hiding something. "I read it somewhere, probably. I don't really know, Granger, I just thought it could help you,"

Hermione nodded and looked down at the broken cup at her feet. With a wave of her wand she fixed it and bent over to pick the cup up. "Looks like hot chocolate wasn't a good idea," she muttered, frowning. "I'm sorry for dragging you out here. It wasn't worth it,"

"It got me out of Abbott's damn party,"

"Either way I shouldn't have-"

"Just stop, Granger, will you?" he asked, sighing heavily. "I don't care about whatever you're about to apologize for, got it? You don't have to do that every five seconds, it's infuriating," Hermione just stared at him as he pulled out his wand and waved it, their cups disappearing. "Go get cleaned up and then go to bed, Granger,"

"You can't tell me what to do," she muttered defiantly.

"Just do it. That or stop standing there and looking all embarrassed and-"

"Well I think I have every right to be embarrassed about what just happened!"

"No, you have every right to not be perfectly put together at every single hour of the damn day!"

Hermione honestly didn't know what she'd done in the past five minutes that had made him go from telling her something as personal as what was going on with his father to yelling at her, but she did know that she was beyond irritated. It wasn't as if she wanted to be stuck in the battle at the worst times every day and she was allowed to be upset and embarrassed when it happened. Especially when it happened around Malfoy; he'd been watching her struggle to get her life back to normal for far too long and she didn't want him to see her weak anymore. Harry and Ron hadn't seen it all that often, so why should he? "I don't exactly enjoy being weak, Malfoy-"

"Weak?" he asked, laughing coldly as his eyes narrowed. Something told Hermione in that moment that it wasn't really her Malfoy was mad at, but apparently she was about to be what he would take his frustration out on. "Do you want to know what weak is, Granger?"

"I already-"
"Weak is relying on your son to bail you out of your mistakes. Weak is allowing people to be tortured, or killed, in front of your eyes and not doing a single thing to help. Weak is doing something wrong when you're too damn afraid to do what's right. And I swear, Granger, if you even try to say that any of that can apply to you then I will not hesitate to-"

"To what? As if you'd actually use a spell on me,"

"-tell Potter and McGonagall about your nightmares. About how often you wake up screaming bloody murder. Don't think I won't,"

"Malfoy-"

"Just shut up and go to bed!" he yelled.

Hermione's eyes narrowed and she turned away from Malfoy, walking into the castle and back into the party. There was no way she was going to actually follow his instructions, not after he'd yelled at her and been the same ass he'd been in previous years. Malfoy would probably yell at her more than he already had if he found out that she'd gone back in and while she didn't want to, she found her way to Harry. He greeted her rather pleasantly and turned back to talk to Neville and Luna, which didn't surprise her.

By the time the party was over and Hermione had assisted with the cleanup along with Terry and Hannah, she was absolutely exhausted. It was nearing midnight, she'd been up for nearly an entire day, and the fact that she'd argued with Malfoy was still weighing heavily on her mind. She hadn't wanted to, not really. She'd intended on asking him about-Oh- "I have to go," she said suddenly, watching astonishment bloom on Hannah and Terry's faces. They'd decided on walking back to the common room together and it was quite a pleasant conversation too, or at least Hermione thought it was. She hadn't really been listening.

"Hermione?" Hannah asked as Hermione began to walk faster. She had to get to the common room before Terry and Hannah, otherwise she couldn't go pounding on Malfoy's door to try and get him to talk to her. How absolutely insensitive could she be? He'd told her that his father was having a trial and instead of thinking about anything to say to him, after her horribly timed flashback, she'd gone off and gotten in an argument with him. He'd told her, something that Hermione could only assume was as hard for him as it had been for her to tell him what had happened to her own parents, and she hadn't bothered to say a thing about it. Yes she couldn't have remembered it straight away but the fact that she hadn't remembered sooner bothered her. If something like that had happened with another one of her friend's parents then she was sure she would have mentioned it.

She was at his door after what seemed like only an instant. He was in there, he had to be, probably asleep and still irritated with her, but Hermione had a few things to say. And she had to get them out before she lost the courage to do so. And so she began pounding on his door. "Malfoy! Malfoy, I know you're in there-Let me in, we've got to talk!"

It went on for far too long before the bathroom door opened and Malfoy came out looking just as irritated as he had earlier. "Do you want to explain to me why the hell you're knocking on my door and screaming at this time of night?"

"I wanted to talk to you,"

"I got that part, Granger, because believe or not your shrill voice didn't actually blow out my eardrums,"

Her eyes narrowed slightly but she didn't say anything on the matter. "So can we-"

Terry and Hannah walked in then, giving Hermione a rather confused look before Terry glared at Malfoy. "What are you two doing?"

"As if that's any of your business," Malfoy said, throwing a glare right back at him.

"Well I believe it-"

"Terry we should just go to bed. Leave them to it or whatever," Hannah suggested. One look from Terry had her staring at the ground and rolling her eyes.

"You two have been so suspicious this year. Getting into fights at three in the morning and actually speaking to each other as if you're friends or something,"

"People are allowed to change, Terry," Hermione muttered.

"Not people like him," Terry said, gesturing angrily at Malfoy and glaring even more. "Not people who-"

"Terry leave him alone," Hannah said, beginning to be quite irritated herself. "He didn't do anything,"

"Didn't do anything, Hannah? Do we need to talk about what happened last year?"

Malfoy's face paled considerably and Hermione raised an eyebrow. "You know, Terry," Hannah said, sounding as angry as Malfoy had. "There's a thing you should learn, two or them actually. Sympathy and forgiveness. What you're doing is the kind of thing that starts another war,"

With a loud slam of a door, Hannah was in her room and Terry wasn't far behind her. "Malfoy-"

"Leave me the hell alone, Granger," Malfoy said quietly, shoving past her and into his room. If she hadn't stuck her foot in the door then Hermione was sure that would have been the end of the night. Malfoy would have shut her out and Hermione was sure he wouldn't have come into the common room like normal. But her foot was stuck in the door and she swore loudly and all of the sudden Malfoy was opening it again. "What part of-"

"I have something to say,"

"Well then spit it out,"

"I-"

There was a long pause in which Malfoy scoffed and rolled his eyes, attempting to shut his door again. This time Hermione wedged herself halfway into his room. "Bloody hell, Granger, can't you understand that I don't want you in here?" Her eyes narrowed as she prepared to speak again, and Malfoy tried shoving her out. "What do you-"

"I want to talk about what you mentioned about your father,"

"I'm not talking about him,"

"Well then you shouldn't have mentioned it," she said defiantly.

"Granger-"

"We're supposed to be friends,"

"And?"

"And friends, Malfoy, they talk to each other about the things that are bothering them,"

"It's not bothering me,"

"Oh the hell it's not. I don't know if you've realized this, but we've gone to school together for six and a half years now. It's pretty obvious to tell when something's bothering you,"

"No it's-"

"Malfoy,"

"Just leave me alone, Granger,"

"Not until you actually talk to me,"

And that was how she found herself sitting on the floor by Malfoy's fireplace as he stared at her from his bed. He had the most uncomfortable look on his face that she'd ever seen and Hermione knew she was beginning to turn red as well. She didn't know why he had such a problem with her being in his room and she didn't know why it was making her unable to look at her for the time being; she'd been in Ron's room before, alone. This was hardly any different.

For a while they sat in silence, neither looking at each other. Or at least Hermione assumed Malfoy wasn't looking at her; she couldn't feel his eyes on her. It took her a while to form a question and she knew that Malfoy was getting frustrated again; his sighs gave him away. "Your father," she said finally, glancing at Malfoy and watching him stiffen. "I want to talk about what you told me,"