A/N with no delay, here is the story! let me know what ya think.

Walking through the common room Draco was surprised to see the lingering embers of the fire. It had been out when he went to bed so he looked around and saw her sleeping form on the couch with a book in her lap. He looked down on her, she seemed to be having the same sort of night he was, she was tossing in her sleep and looked to be scared.

Gently pulling the throw blanket off of the back of the couch he was about to place it on her when she sat bolt upright breathing heavily. She gasped "Oh my god." She studied her surroundings realizing where she was before talking again "Malfoy, what are you doing here? What time is it?" She was still breathing heavily.

"Calm down Hermione." he said staring her straight in the eyes, it was a technique he found that helped to calm people. Watching her inhale one huge breath and then release it he decided that he would continue. "Good, now its around three in the morning, I couldn't sleep so I was going to shower, now I get to ask questions." She nodded and sat up on the couch, her pajama shorts slid up slightly but she didn't notice.

Draco watched her sit up to look at him, then saw her shorts move up, only to reveal a huge bruise on her upper thigh, this caught him off guard, what should he say? "Well first off, I'm sorry about tonight, I've just been really stressed." She nodded excepting his apology. "Now don't go telling people I apologized." she nodded again. "Why are you out here at this hour? And what was with your dream, you seemed really scared." Never once did he break eye contact, he just stared, taking in her every emotion from her eyes. She was trying to hide it from him, she was scared, there was fear in her eyes, but it didn't go away like it would from dreams, she was afraid of him.

"I couldn't sleep either, so I came out here to read, then I guess I fell asleep. It was just a nightmare, nothing to worry about." She gave him a false assuring smile then looked at him, wondering if she should ask what she was wondering inside. "Why did you call me Hermione?" There, the question was out, there was no way she could take it back now. Looking into his eyes she saw something, what was it? Hate, fear, anger? What ever it was, it was gone now, hidden, like always.

He looked at her, wondering in his mind why he did call her that. Finally he realized that he wanted to know what was going on with her, and the best way to do that was to pretend to befriend her. " I decided that you are right, this is our last year, and we should be civil." He watched her nod then stuck out his hand "Civil? I mean its not like we can just go around the school saying we're friends, I mean what would Potter, and Weasley think?"

She took his hand but grimaced at his last words. "Friends." She said noticing the slight surprise that took his features before returning them to indifferent. "Ron and Harry don't care… besides its not like they would notice." She took her hand away and placed it in her lap with the other.

"Listen, I know we just became friends, but I was just wondering, what was that bruise on your leg from?" He pointed down to the revealed part of her thigh. Still watching her, the fear in her eyes became apparent, and her features contorted with panic. She quickly tried to cover it.

"Uh, nothing, I just uh, hit my leg on a table today in transfigurations. Clumsy of me really." She gave that same smile, the one so fake it almost made him sick.

"You know what, never mind, the whole friend thing we just talked about, forget it. I don't need a friend who lies to me." He turned and left her sitting on the couch. He walked casually into the bathroom as if nothing had happened.

"How can he do that?" at this time Crookshanks had jumped into her lap and begun purring. "I mean seriously, its like he knows everything, like how would he know I was lying? Even Harry and Ron wouldn't have known the difference, you've seen them, oblivious to anything I say. Well unless it is quidditch or homework, but that is besides the point." She looked down into the cats big yellow eyes, "What do you think Shanks?" She looked questioningly at him then decided it was pointless to be talking to a cat, and began talking quietly to herself.

"Glad he didn't see my book. Boy would that have been hard to explain." Now she was laying again on the couch and absentmindedly petting Crookshanks. "And what about him, why is he always so icy? O-well, I mean it is just Malfoy, but then why did he offer to be my friend?" She looked down at the cat again looking as though she might be expecting an answer. "Whatever, as long as I avoid him it will be an okay year." Smiling at her idea she began to scratch his ears.

"What's this Granger? Talking to cats now?" Malfoy walked up behind her and laughed. He was fully dressed and it was only four so he sat across from her on the chair expecting to fill his time with meaningless conversation.

"For your information I was talking to myself!" He began to laugh, then she caught the sound of what she had just said. "I mean…" it was too late, she had just given him reason to mock her for the rest of the year.

" Maybe you should go to the loony bin with your half wit friends!" He began to roll with laughter. "Get it? Cause you talk to yourself." He knew he was tired, but this was such a slightly humorous thing, that the lethargy seemed to make it hilarious.

"Yes Malfoy, I get it, but it wasn't like that, I was simply expressing my thoughts out loud so I could sort through them!" She seemed to feel a little bit better when she noticed that he was no longer rolling with laughter.

"Well tell me Granger, who is it that you are going to be avoiding?" Talking to Granger wasn't that bad, as long as it was always going to be this easy to laugh at her.

Throwing a pillow at him she smiled, laughed then said "You." before getting up and going to her room.

He stood up. "What right do you have to throw a pillow at my face?" He asked following her to her door.

"The same one I have to shut this door in your face while I get clothes to change into after I shower." With that she slammed the door in his face only to hear her lion give a large growl.

"Shut-up you stupid lion!" He yelled at the gold head before turning down the hall and into the living room and sitting down.

"Bout time you got back out here, I mean all you have to do is pick out some robes, and they all bloody look the same!" She didn't seem to notice him say this as she walked straight past and into the head bathroom.

Walking into the bathroom Hermione placed her robes on the counter and wiped the fog from Draco's shower off of the mirror. She began to take off her clothes then looked at her torso were she could still see bruises, big purply brown bruises, they were the worst part, because they didn't go away in less then a week, they left the lingering pain of her going away beating. Then she looked down at the bruise on her thigh, and touched it remembering the way her father had hit her and kicked her, and yelled inarticulate slurs of something she had done wrong or forgotten to do. Taking her hand away she decided she would have to be more careful, no more shorts, and no more sleeping out where Malfoy can walk right over to you while your reliving a memory.

She pulled back the shower curtain and turned on the hot water then stepped in and relished in the pounding of it on her back, like a massage. The only difference was that massages make you feel better, this made the bruises on her back hurt worse, but she welcomed it and let her salty tears mix freely with the water as she stood under the cascade thinking.

Back in the common room Malfoy heard the water start in the bathroom and looked around the room, he might as well study for some class or another. Looking at the book sitting on the couch he assumed that Hermione had been studying for potions, so he picked up her booked and opened it.

A note book fell out, worn and green. 'Must be her most prized notes' he thought remembering the girl behind the tower of books in first year. He opened the note book and read the first line on the first page.

Dear Diary,

Quickly he closed the book. Diary? Had she left something this interesting lying out for him to read? Assuming yes, he opened it again flipping to a new page and read, hoping to discover some dirty little secrets about miss know-it-all.

Dear Diary,

Today he came into my room, that same look in his eyes, It isn't even him any more. I don't love this person.

Tears began to hit the page from what Draco could tell and he shut it again, he shouldn't be looking at this. And just as he threw it onto the couch Hermione had come out, completely dressed, hair sopping wet, and sat down on her couch with a grin.

"What were you up to while I was gone?" She looked at the way he sat there, always the same, no emotion to his eyes, and his pale skin smoothed over his face with remnants of a smirk. He shrugged his shoulders to her question. "Well Mr. Chatty, what time is it?"

" Well Mrs. Know-it-all I would think you of all people would know what time it was. You are wearing a watch aren't you?" he pointed to her wrist "you know that awful brown thing you have strapped to your wrist."

Looking down at her wrist and then to him she said "what, this old thing? It was something of my dads, it doesn't work." She gently rubbed the scratched face of the glass and smiled remembering when she had gotten it.

"You see this?" the father handed his daughter a worn in brown leather watch. The little girl nodded "well was a present from your grandpa to me, and now I want you to have it." He smiled lovingly and gently strapped it onto the seven year olds wrist.

"there." he said after fastening it. "This watch doesn't use a battery, you just wind it, and that makes it even more special. I want you to wear it, because I think it will help to remind you of how long I have loved you. It will never stop ticking as long as you remember to wind it, and that means that I will love you forever." The father smiled as the little brown haired girl wrapped her arms around him and then gave him an Eskimo kiss.

"Well then why do you wear the damn thing?" these words came from a far away voice as she was pulled away from her alternate reality.

"I keep waiting for it to start ticking again." she smiled at his face, when he began to roll his eyes at her stupidity. "I keep trying to wind it, but it just wont work. It broke one day when I fell." she looked away from him at the last word.

"That is when you throw it away Granger." Malfoy smirked. "By the way it is four forty-two to be exact." he said looking at a gold watch that glowed on the white skin of his wrist.

A/N Let me know what you think!