"It was just a feeling…" Harry muttered as Hermione walked away from him, she didn't turn back and he didn't want her to. There was something she wasn't telling him, and he didn't want to force it from her. When she was ready, she would talk. For now she needed to think.

A feeling that's probably right, Hermione thought as she crossed the grass toward the field hospital. The callous laughs of her fellow officers ringing in her ears as she sat down beside Draco and let the tears flow readily from her eyes. Burning rivers down her cheeks as she entwined her fingers with Draco's, so absorbed in her unknown grief that she did not notice him squeeze her hand tenderly as she buried her head on his grey shirt covered chest.

Hours later Ginny Weasley found them, Draco's hand stroking Hermione's hair as she silently coughed and choked the last of her tears away. His eyes met Ginny's and she smiled softly, she didn't think like the senior command, she was one of the few that realised that Draco had turned a huge corner in his life. He raised a finger to his lips and Ginny nodded, turning and leaving quickly and quietly.

Draco placed his hands either side of Hermione's face and raised it up slightly. "Better?" He asked softly.

"A little." She smiled weakly; embarrassed that he had let her sit and cry for god knows how long. Luckily the field hospital was empty save him, and no one else had witnessed her outcry of emotion.

"Good."

Hermione roused herself slightly and sat up, running her hands through the wild mass of hair that had escaped the bun. "Are you hungry?" She asked, attempting to scrape the hair back in a French braid. He nodded and she stood up. "Stay there, I'll be back soon."

"I wasn't planning on going anywhere." He gave her a wry smile and she shivered before making her way to the kitchens. There was always warm food available in the fort, it was frequently cold and people got back from missions at any time of the day. Hermione smiled at the kitchen staff who nearly fainted, the only people Lieutenant Colonel Granger smiled at anymore were the Weasley's or Harry Potter.

Rolling her eyes she gathered some steaming hot chicken soup and a few fresh bread rolls on a tray before heading back to the field hospital. "Smells good Granger, I didn't know you could cook."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and set the tray down on Draco's lap, taking a bowl for herself as she settled herself on the chair once more. "I can't. At least, not very well anyway. Didn't really have time to learn, what with the war and all…" Her voice trailed off and she busied herself with tearing a bread roll to pieces and throwing it in the soup.

"You're allowed to be upset by it you know."

"By what Malfoy? Because if you are suggesting that I collapse under all the emotional strain of fighting for the last seven years, hell, fighting since I went to Hogwarts, then I sure as hell would not be sat here now."

"I know about your parents…"

Hermione grew very quiet and became very still, Draco watched her carefully, he knew the pain in her eyes, could sense the guilt flowing through her. "How?"

He shrugged. "I heard the attack being planned, heard the reports made after its completion. I'm sorry, I…I couldn't do anything."

"I wouldn't have expected you to. They weren't anything to you."

"More than you'll ever know." He spoke quietly and his voice sent a shiver up her spine. "What's happening now then? With the locket? The Dark Lord?"

"The locket has been destroyed. Plans are being made, reconnaissance stepped up." She swallowed some of the soup, trying not to dwell on what he had said, what he was implying.

"Good. Glad to know it wasn't all for nothing." A careless smirk played across his lips, infuriating Hermione.

"You…you…heartless bastard. You make it sound as if your singular act will win this entire war, that we cannot do this without your wondrous presence. Well I've got news for you Draco Malfoy; people have been fighting this battle for over twenty years and you're not the only casualty." She threw her bowl to the floor and it smashed spectacularly, sending the remainder of her dinner flying across the rough stone floor. Draco's eyes widened as she turned and ran, his eyes remained fixed on the doorway for an indeterminable amount of time until a shadow fell across him once more.

"Proud of yourself are you Malfoy?" Harry barely raised his voice as he crossed the room. "Scourgify." The soup and bowl on the floor vanished but Draco did not blink, still watching Harry closely. "Well…are you? She was just beginning to feel a little better, and then you turn up and cause…well, for want of a better word, chaos."

"I thought…"

"Whatever you thought it was wrong; I don't know what you said to her that night but it struck a chord whatever it was." Draco swallowed nervously remembering the conversation. "She trusted you, and since you turned up here a few days ago she's been slaving herself trying to get others to see that you aren't going to betray us all. Oh I know you're not," Harry nodded. "But not everyone believes her. They all gossip behind her back anyway, because she's a woman with high rank, because she's so intelligent, because she stays away from everyone since her…since her parents died. Everyone's lost someone in this war Draco, but Hermione feels guilt that no one else does because if she hadn't chosen to go to Hogwarts none of this would have happened. It's all her own choices that have led her to where she is…

"The right choices…"

"Yes. But when your parents are murdered you start to question your judgement. And she's been doing that for five long years, she doesn't talk about it, not even to me or Ron or Ginny. Sometimes I question whether she can feel anymore, because sometimes her eyes are so dead I struggle to believe that she's alive. And now, the last few days, defending you, she's had energy again, not the cold bitter energy she's been fighting with for the last half decade, but true energy. Don't you dare…"

"What, Potter? Upset her? Too late. I already did. Time and time again, this afternoon wasn't the first time and doubtless it won't be the last. She needs to cry, she needs to show her anger…it will help her."

"I hope you're right Malfoy, I really do. Because right now, on the other side of this fort, she's helpless."