Chapter Nine: Confessions is Good for the Heart

Hermione couldn't believe that she was taking advice from Snape of all people, let alone that she was pulling Malfoy from his class by the orders of "The Headmaster."

"Professor Flitwick?" Hermione said, shyly, opening the door. All heads swung towards her, except a blonde one that continued scribbling on a piece of parchement.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" the tiny professor said, excitedly, almost falling off his stack of books.

"Um, the Headmaster would like to speak with Mr. Malfoy, please, sir," she told him. Malfoy's head finally lifted, and for the first time in two long weeks, he looked her in the eye.

"Of course, of course, off you get, Mr. Malfoy!" Professor Flitwick shooed him out of the classroom and shut the door behind both of them.

Draco instantly began walking in the general direction of Dumbledore's office, but Hermione stopped him by grabbing his elbow. His arm went limp in her hold.

"The Headmaster didn't actually want to see you, Draco," Hermione whispered.

"I was afraid of that," Draco sighed, and turned back towards her. "What do you want?"

"What do you think I want?" Hermione demanded. All the hurt that she had felt was rising to the surface and instead of crying like she thought she might have, she was getting angry.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else to talk..."

"Or maybe I want some damn answers now!" she shouted. Draco looked around worriedly.

"Look, someone's going to hear us and then we'll both be in trouble," he reasoned. "Let's go up to the Astronomy Tower. It's never used in the daytime."

Hermione began to argue, but saw his point. "All right, fine."

They walked as silently and quickly as possible, praying that they wouldn't run into a ghost or a wandering teacher, or worse, Filch or his cat. Thankfully, as the Charms room was relatively close to the Astronomy tower stairs, their walk was pretty uneventful. They begant heir descent up the stairs, and as soon as they were out of sight of the bottom of the stairs, Hermione started speaking.

"I want to know what's wrong with you," she said. Draco looked at her as they continued climbing.

"More than you know, Hermione," he said, and Hermione was surprised at how nice it was to hear him say her name again.

"What did I do?" she asked, calmer this time.

"You think you did something?" Draco laughed a little bit. "No, you didn't do anything."

"Then why did you stop talking to me? I had to have done something."

"Did you ever think maybe I did something?" Draco said, lovingly, looking at her with the kindest eyes she'd ever seen. It was like he was looking at a child that had just done something incredibly innocent. It was almost... adoring.

"But you didn't," Hermione said, feeling very confused. "You didn't do anything to me. All you did was give me that charm and I..."

"You're wearing it," Draco observed, feeling somehow satisfied at the realization. Hermione nodded, and began fiddling with it on its chain.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, for one thing, you used to hate me. I'd only assumed you didn't like it, or didn't like me."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Hermione admonished, briskly.

"I guess I'm ridiculous then, huh?" He gave her a sideways smirk as he opened the hatch to the top of the tower. The sunlight flew into their eyes, but Draco's adjusted almost instantly despite the dim torchlight in the stairwell. He grabbed Hermione's hand and lead her into the sunshine, since she was having a harder time seeing.

As soon as she wasn't blind, she continued the conversation and found that Draco had turned away from her. "All this still doesn't explain why you've been avoiding me."

"No, it doesn't, does it?"

"Draco," she warned, and he sighed.

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Thought I made that obvious."

"True." Draco sighed again and composed himself. "I wasn't avoiding you because of something you did, but something I didn't tell you."

"What do you mean?"

Draco looked at her over his shoulder. "I mean when I was telling you my life story I left out a relatively important part, if you catch my drift."

"Your dad does beat you!" Hermione exclaimed.

"What? No! You think I'd let him push me around like that? I'd have Avada-ed him by now." Hermione nodded. "This only has a little bit to do with my father."

"Well, spill it," Hermione said. "Are you afraid I'm going to think less of you or something?"

"Yes."

"I changed my mind. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Hermione said. "Tell me. I won't think of you any differently."

"I killed a Muggle!"

It hit Hermione's ears like whiplash. "W-what?" she stammered, almost falling backwards.

"Yes, I did. I killed a man, he was sitting on a stupid bench and I got mad and a water pipe under him exploded. I've killed someone, Hermione! I'm a murderer, all right? Are you happy now?"

Hermione touched his shoulder delicately. "Do you think this makes me happy?"

"I think it makes you hate me."

"It doesn't," she whispered. "It sounds like it was an accident, Draco. It wasn't your fault."

"But if I had controlled myself, none of it would have happened!"

"How old were you?"

"I was... I was eight."

"When I was eight I blew up my stove because my father sent me to my room," Hermione confessed. "Thankfully my mother and father were in the other room, or they would have been killed. It wasn't my fault, and this wasn't your fault. You were eight, Draco."

"Everyone else thought it was my fault," he said. "You weren't even there. How would you know if it was my fault?"

"Because I know you, and I know that sometimes magic is hard to control."

"My father didn't think it was an accident," Draco continued. "Neither did anyone else. All the newspapers and politicians and..."

"What made you mad?" Hermione interrupted.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"A lot. What made you mad, Draco?"

"My Dad's friend, I think," he said, trying hard to remember. "I was playing with his daughter, and he was talking to my father and she did something that he didn't like... and he hit her across the face. And that just made me mad."

"I would hope so," Hermione said. "It would make me mad, too. If you think about it though, it's your father's friend whose guilty of murder because he put you in a state of extreme emotional disturbance."

Draco looked at her blankly. "You have to stop reading."

Hermione laughed a little. "Yeah, I know. But don't you get it? It wasn't your fault!"

Draco turned around slowly and surprised Hermione. His eyelashes were laced with tears and his voice was choked and strained. "You have no idea how wonderful you are."

"Me? Wonderful? I don't think so."

Draco chuckled and slipped his arms around her waist. "You're naive, Hermione. And innocent. Everything is black and white to you. That's not how the world works."

"Oh, I'm naive, am I?"

"Yes, you are," Draco laughed, leaning in to kiss her cheek. "But that's what I like about you. Sometimes the naive people are the ones with the most knowledge about reality."

He pulled his face away, so it was just an inch from hers, and stared at her with probing eyes. Hermione didn't feel uncomfortable at all. She was relaxed and warm, despite the chill in the winter weather. After a few moments, Draco lifter her chin with his thumb and forefinger and brought it to his own.

The kiss was gentle and caring. Each of them spilled their feelings into the other for what seemed like forever, and yet still felt too short. An instaneous eternity. It was in that moment that they both realized that they weren't alone anymore. There would always be someone there to hold them.

As Draco pulled away, his lip was quivering with a smile. Hermione's eyes shifted in and out of focus. She fell into his chest and he rocked her back and forth, running his left hand through her hair and keeping the right on the small of her back. Neither of them spoke. They both knew that sometimes the most profound things must come from silence.

And what is more profound than love?

A.N. - Well, that should suit all your D/Hr needs for now! (until the next chapter that is!) In the meantime, I want to thank all my reviewers so much! You guys are so amazing, keeping me motivated and giving me ideas.So, keep doing what you're doing, you are more awesome than you know. Thanks again! Next chapter up pretty soon! (leave me some ideas though, because I'm a bit stuck :-/)