First, let me say this. I won't be able to update as often as I hoped I'd be able to. And thanks to my lovely new reviewers:

sunnysweetie- Thanks for reviewing!!! Oh, and yes, I reviewed your story.

Prof. spider- And YES there will be more chapters please. Hee hee.

Drusilla W. L. Tonks- Okay, I won't delete it. But not too many are reading it hint hint. Thanks and love to those who are, pity for those who aren't, and shame for those reading but not reviewing. Love my reviewers!

Also, in my last chapter, for some weird reason, a lot of symbols weren't working, so where it skips around, know that there should have been some sort of divider there.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything. Poor me.

Don't expect this chapter to be too happy, either; I'm not in a very good mood right now. I can only say this: You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone.

And now.....

Hermione walked contentedly to the teacher's rooms. She was sure she'd be dropping onto her soft goose feather bed and falling into a deep sleep. She couldn't have been more wrong.

Hermione sleepily tapped the door seven times and muttered, "Acllusauctor Morbus." She sauntered over to her room (of which she now had a password to) and said clearly, (as the room wasn't guarded by a portrait or face made of wood, at that, but a magical device that picked up sounds said by human voices within two feet of the door) "Linik isth limoh ak buflereh. Intre comphro whint tro cimph ank whint tro levretre." The door swung open soundlessly and Hermione walked in, already half asleep. She was halfway through a yawn when she looked up.

There was someone sitting on her bed.

She didn't immediately kick into gear, too full to do anything. Her eyes weren't focusing and for a fleeting second she thought she was being visited by an angel. But the thought didn't last long, for as her eyes focused she saw...

"MALFOY!" Draco didn't even flinch.

"Yes, Granger?"

"WHAT THE HELL MARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Now this here was very unlike Hermione. She didn't approve of crude speech, but at the moment she was a wee bit occupied to care. The room filled with one person's sigh and the other's furious and shocked hyperventilating. Guess which one was doing which. "How did you get in here?!"

"Well, your password was relatively easy to figure out. Took me about five minutes."

This only riled up Hermione more. She didn't think anyone would've been able to be able to guess the complicated password. Hermione had spent an hour trying to decide.

"How'd you... I... m-my password..." a flustered Hermione stuttered.

Draco gave a snort before replying, "I knew you'd use the Jade language, Granger. Only too obvious. And the saying, I..." there was an odd moment. Hermione actually calmed down a bit to look curiously at a nervous Draco.

"You what?"

"Nothing."

"No, tell me."

"Nothing, okay! Bug off and let me be!" Hermione gave Draco an okay-backing- off-now look.

"Fine. Just tell me why you decided to intrude upon my privacy unless it was just to set me off like that. Did Dumbledore send you?" For some reason, at this last statement, Draco cringed. Hermione soon found out why.

"N-no." Malfoy stuttering? My goodness! "It wasn't Dumbledore. Because... well..."

"Tell me!"

"Fine. Just don't shoot the messenger. Granger.... no, Hermione" Hermione cocked an eyebrow at the use of her first name. "Dumbledore's dead."

Hermione stared at him in complete shock. She hadn't expected hearing that. That was the last thing she had expected him to say. Wordlessly and emotionlessly, she walked slowly over to her bed and sat herself down. Neither of the two moved for a second... before Hermione burst into tears.

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Draco had no clue what to do. Seconds before, the two had been squabbling over things as insignificant as passwords, same old, same old. And now he was in the uncomfortable position of sitting next to a sobbing Hermione. He was deciding that maybe he could quietly leave the room, until, unexpectedly, Hermione leaned her sniveling head on his shoulder. That made Draco even more uncomfortable. Thinking fast, he awkwardly draped an arm around her shoulders.

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When Draco had first announced the death, it didn't completely hit home base with Hermione. It was too much. She had gone to sit and collect herself and tell Draco to get out of her room and leave her be, when out of nowhere there were tears streaming from her eyes. Hermione had totally lost it right then and there. She wanted someone to comfort her, and she didn't care who. Hermione had forgotten that the person sitting next to her was Malfoy. Malfoy the mudblood hater, the one who had tormented her for seven years, the conceited twit. All she wanted was a shoulder to cry on and she got back someone to hold her as well.

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Later on, Hermione sat on her bed, thinking. Yeah, Malfoy had comforted her and all. But she still hated him. One little act of kindness couldn't make up for years of torture. No, she still hated him. [And that's the way it always will be] she thought.

[Right?...]