Chapter Four: "Promise Me Your Heart, Miea, And I'll Promise You Mine."
Draco woke that morning, love holding his heart full and pure in his chest. He loved Hermione, and nothing could change that. Nothing. He looked over to her makeshift bed, on the couch near him, and he saw her face, covered by her hair, her arm thrown over her head. He reached out, and touched her hand. She woke up, and bestowed her smile.
" Good morning Miea." Draco said.
" Good morning Draco." Hermione said.
" Did you sleep well?" Draco asked, sitting up. He found it easier these days, although one of his wounds was still very fresh, and if he was not careful, would open.
" Very, and you?" Hermione asked.
" As well as to be expected Miea." Draco answered, smiling. Hermione smiled back, and went to gather his potions.
" Those things are getting annoying." Draco said.
" I know, but soon, you won't have to take them." Hermione answered. Draco nodded, and watched her from underneath half closed lids. Gods, she was stunning, all that curly brown hair tumbling to her waist, and her simply striking face. High cheekbones accented alabaster skin, and eyes that were wide-set and a brown so deep it was a chocolate color. She wore her pajamas, huge black pants that covered her delicate feet, and a worn sweatshirt he recognised as Potter's. The pants.were defiantly Weasley's. So, Hermione had taken to stealing Potter and Weasley's clothes, had she? Maybe he'd give her a few of his own. When he could get up, and start proving his worth, of course.
" When can I get up?" Draco asked.
" When that last wound is not so tender Draco." Hermione said, brushing his hair from his brow. She leaned down, and kissed him passionately, as if she.
" What was that?" Draco asked, taking her hand and playing with the fingers.
" I don't know." Hermione answered.
" Oh Miea." Draco said, and pulled her down for another kiss. A clearing of a throat in her doorway made Hermione jump, and pull away. She turned and saw her mother in the doorway. Hermione flushed scarlet, but Draco stroked her palm, and calmed her.
" Mione, some people are here to see you. I told them you were busy, but they insisted. It's Harry, Ron, Ginny, Rose, Lupin, and Sirius." She said, and Hermione paled, turning her gaze on Draco. He was about to answer, when:
" HERMIONE GRANGER!" Ron bellowed up the stairs.
" Coming! Don't come up!" Hermione shouted, leaving Draco with one last kiss. She had not given him his potions, and she had to within the next five minutes, or.death, and Draco knew that. So, he'd do it himself. He reached out for the potions Hermione had stacked on her bedside table. He reached.and lost his balance, tumbling from the bed, and striking the table as he fell. He felt the wound in his side reopen, and before he passed out, the word that left his lips was:
" Miea."
Hermione rushed downstairs, and saw that Harry and Ginny were seated and talking, Ron was having a conversation with a striking young woman who could be no one but the mysterious 'Rose', and Lupin and Sirius conversed with her parents.
" Hullo!" Hermione cried, and Ron and Harry came to crush her in a hug. Ginny came next, the younger girl hugging her tightly.
" Hermione!" Ginny cried.
" Hermione, this is Rose Dawson. Rose, this is Hermione Granger." Ron said, pulling the redhead to Hermione.
" Rose, it's a pleasure." Hermione said, shaking the woman's hand.
" And you, Hermione. I've heard nothing but good things from our fellow classmates about you. I am a Seventh Year Gryffindor now as well." Rose said.
" Excellent!" Hermione cried. Rose smiled at her.
" To what do we owe this visit?" Mrs. Granger asked.
" Well, Rose wished to meet Hermione, and Harry and I noticed some clothes missing, along with one of Harry's books." Ron said, looking pointedly at the gray (now faded to an almost whitish) sweatshirt and the black pants that clad Hermione's form.
" Yeah. I meant to tell you guys that I'd stolen these. You guys let me use them, and they were comfy, so I took them." Hermione said sheepishly.
" Can I get my book?" Harry asked, pointing towards Hermione's room.
" Yeah." Hermione said, and Harry began to walk up the stairs when Hermione remembered...Draco!
" NO!" she shouted, loud enough to startle Rose and Ginny.
" Excuse me?" Harry asked.
" No. Sirius will get it." Hermione said, throwing Sirius a knowing glance. He got it, and blurted:
" Yes, I'll get it Harry." He had walked across the foyer, and was getting ready to mount the stairs when a huge bang sounded from upstairs, as if a person had fallen from a great height. Hermione exchanged horrified glances with Sirius, and she took off ahead of Sirius, racing to her room.
Draco lay unconscious on the floor of her room, blood pooling around his still form. Hermione's heart clutched, and she could barely breathe. She rushed to his side, and touched his forehead. His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled weakly.
" I'm sorry Miea. I thought I could.I thought I could get the potions. I knew I had to take them..Morgan's Hand.." Draco murmured. Hermione leaned closer to him, the sweatshirt dipping into the blood, and covering the front. She lifted his hand to her face, wiping blood on her skin in the process. Sirius knelt beside Draco, and staunched some of the bleeding.
" Hermione, I need cloths. You have them?" Sirius asked calmly, so as not to frighten Draco.
" Yes. I'll be right back, love, I promise." Hermione said, and kissed his sweat-beaded brow.
Hermione jumped the stairs three at a time, and skidded into the living room, where Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lupin, and Rose were waiting. Lupin leapt to his feet when he saw her, and Ginny swooned into Harry's arms.
" Hermione! You're covered in BLOOD!" Rose gasped. Hermione looked down, and indeed. Harry's sweatshirt was covered in it, and she could see in the reflection of the mirror near her that it stained her face and hands.
" No time. MUM! I need clean cloths! Hurry!" Hermione cried, and caught them as her mother threw them.
" Mione, is he." her mother asked.
" Not yet." Hermione said, and ran up the stairs.
She gave the cloths to Sirius, and took her place beside Draco as he gasped for breath. She took his hand and began playing with his fingers, as he had done for her.
" Calm, my love." Hermione whispered, as tears squeezed from her eyes.
" Don't cry Miea." Draco said, as his eyes opened.
" Don't you DARE leave me. I.I love you too much." Hermione whispered.
" Promise me your heart Miea, and I'll promise you mine." Draco said.
" It's yours. Always and forever." Hermione whispered. Sirius watched the exchange with eyes that knew love, and accepted it for what it was. Fate.
Lupin came into Hermione's room, while Mrs. and Mr. Granger were watching the children.
" So, this is what you two have been hiding." Lupin said as he saw the pale as death Malfoy heir.
" Lupin!" Hermione said softly, her eyes coming to his, tears coursing down her own equally pale cheeks.
" So, Padfoot, felt no need to tell me?" he asked. Sirius levitated the boy to the bed, and he motioned Lupin away from Draco and Hermione, who were now conversing silently, through looks and glances.
" He was beaten, most ruthlessly, by Lucius Malfoy himself. The whip marks were his own 'signature', as you would say, and he had stabbed the child until I was surprised he still had blood running in his veins. He Portkeyed here, and Hermione called me. I need you to go get Snape. Draco needs the Fortune Potion. Hurry. And Moony." Sirius stopped him.
" Padfoot?" Lupin asked.
" They remind you of anyone?" he asked.
" Of course. Lily and James despised each other until that night.James nearly got his fool self killed. She took care of him.I still can't believe she did." Moony said.
" I can. James always had a way with the fairer sex." Sirius said.
" I agree Padfoot, I agree." Lupin said, and Apparated to just outside Hogwarts.
Hermione changed out of the bloodstained clothes, and stole some of Draco's, which Sirius had gone to get at Malfoy Manor, when Lucius was out at one of the now many Death Eater meetings. She now wore a huge sweatshirt, even bigger than the one she had stolen from Harry, and the pants.she had had to tie those to her waist. She pulled her hair up out of her face, in a messy bun with long strands coming out of it. She splashed water on her swollen eyes, and went to see Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Rose. Lupin had gone to fetch Snape, and Sirius was staying with Draco. Hermione went down the steps, her bare feet concealing any noise she might have made. She went to the doorway of the living room, and saw Harry and Ron conversing tersely in the corner, and Ginny and Rose just watching the stairs. Her parents were pale, and jumped when she came into the room.
" Hermie!" Harry cried, and came to her. Only Ron took note of the clothes, and note of how they were neither Harry's.nor his, and they were unmistakably male. Then how had Hermione gotten them?
" What happened?" Rose asked softly, coming to clasp one of Hermione's hands.
" Nothing, Rose. Nothing." Hermione said. Her statement, however, was overruled when Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall Apparated into the Granger living room.
" My dear Miss Granger!" McGonagall cried, and came to clasp Hermione in a hug.
" In your room, Granger?" Snape asked. Hermione nodded, and they both walked up the stairs, talking in hushed voices.
" What. Was. That?" Ron asked, staring amazedly at the two teachers disappearing up the stairs.
" I don't know." Ginny said. Lupin appeared at that moment, looking flustered and slightly excited.
" Come you four, we have to go." Lupin said.
" What, no!" Ginny and Rose cried.
" Yes." Lupin said, looking neither at Hermione, nor near the stairs, where Draco was.
" Why do we have to go?" Ron asked as Lupin Apparated before answering.
" We'll find out what you're hiding Hermione. Count on it." Harry kissed her hand in a sarcastic way, and left, Hermione knowing he was angry with her for her lack of trust in him. Ron wouldn't acknowledge her, and Ginny was flushed. Only Rose seemed calm. Rose was the one Hermione was worried about. She seemed to know too much, and her eyes made Hermione remember someone.
" You have him. Here." Rose said.
" I don't know what you mean." Hermione said, flushing pink.
" Yes you do Mione. You hold my brother in your room. Is he all right? May I see him?" Rose asked. Hermione looked at her, stunned.
" What?" Hermione asked.
" Yes, I know, surprising. He knows who I am, so don't worry. I haven't seen him since last year, and wish to see him. Please?" Rose asked.
" Sure." Hermione said, and led the girl up the stairs and into her room, where Draco was speaking in a normal voice, color returned, to Professors Snape and McGonagall.
" Draco!" Rose cried. Draco looked over, and smiled brightly.
" Rose Dawson!" he said happily, and motioned her over. She hugged his arm, as she noticed the bandage.
" How are you?" she asked.
" Sore. You?" he asked.
" I'm fine. I'm attending school with you this year." She said.
" Your House?" he asked.
" Gryffindor." She replied.
" So, you get to meet famous Harry Potter and the Goody-Goodies." Draco teased.
" I already have, actually. I am rooming with him and the Weasleys for the months the school is not in session." Rose answered.
" So, you've met the Weasleys. You look like one, now that I think about it, with all that red hair you cart around." Draco said.
" At least mine isn't blonde as the sun." Rose retorted, smiling. Draco then noticed Hermione, looking small and out of place in his clothes.
" Miea!" he said. Hermione smiled shyly. He tried to sit up, so he could offer her a place to sit next to him, but she rushed over, and made him stay down.
" That's what got us in this mess in the first place. Stay down." Hermione laughed.
" Yes Miea." He responded, in a tone Hermione didn't like.
" You're making fun of me!" she laughed.
" Just a tiny bit, I assure you." He said. Professors Snape and McGonagall noticed the exchange, and were suitably stunned. A Malfoy associating with a Muggle Born witch, GRANGER of all people, and now, a sister all had thought just a woman who had the features of the proud Malfoy family. Her hair was what concealed her, it being the fire red it was, but she and Draco bore resemblances to each other. Their eyes, color different, were shaped the same. His were a storm cloud grey, hers a blue like nighttime.
" You'd better go, Miss Dawson. I'm sure that Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley are worried, as is the Weasley boy." McGonagall said.
" Yes, you are right. I had promised Virginia a shopping day. Farewell." Rose said, and Apparated.
" She sounds just like you." Hermione said, sitting carefully by his side.
" Rose is tough to handle." Draco said.
" Why is she a Dawson?" Hermione asked.
" That is the name she took, she is a Malfoy, like I am, but refuses the name, she despises it, you see, and I had told her to make herself up a name, so she did. She borrowed it from some guy she went to school with back home." Draco said.
" Miss Granger. I see you have done an excellent job with Mr. Malfoy here. I commend you on your excellent work. He should be well, even with this mishap, in about a week. You may then go about in Diagon Alley, but Draco, you MUST stay with Hermione." McGonagall said.
" I promise you Professor, that will not be difficult." Draco said, bestowing on Hermione a most heated look. Hermione flushed scarlet, and fiddled with the sleeves of 'her' sweatshirt. Sirius, McGonagall, and Snape finished, took their leave, and left Hermione alone with Draco.
" I-I borrowed your clothes. I hope you don't mind, but the ones I had 'stolen' from Harry and Ron were ruined." Hermione said.
" Keep them. I like the thought of you wearing my clothes." Draco smiled at her. Hermione smiled back, with more courage this time.
" Draco." Hermione started, then lost confidence.
" Did you mean what you said, when you said you loved me?" Draco asked, the question holding all his happiness in the answer.
" Yes." Hermione whispered.
" The you should know that I love you." Draco said softly, lifting her eyes to his.
" Do you?" she asked.
" More than anything." He said.
" So.I have your heart?" Hermione asked.
" If I have yours in return." Draco responded.
" Oh yes. You have my heart Draco Malfoy, and so much more." Hermione whispered against his lips.
Draco woke that morning, love holding his heart full and pure in his chest. He loved Hermione, and nothing could change that. Nothing. He looked over to her makeshift bed, on the couch near him, and he saw her face, covered by her hair, her arm thrown over her head. He reached out, and touched her hand. She woke up, and bestowed her smile.
" Good morning Miea." Draco said.
" Good morning Draco." Hermione said.
" Did you sleep well?" Draco asked, sitting up. He found it easier these days, although one of his wounds was still very fresh, and if he was not careful, would open.
" Very, and you?" Hermione asked.
" As well as to be expected Miea." Draco answered, smiling. Hermione smiled back, and went to gather his potions.
" Those things are getting annoying." Draco said.
" I know, but soon, you won't have to take them." Hermione answered. Draco nodded, and watched her from underneath half closed lids. Gods, she was stunning, all that curly brown hair tumbling to her waist, and her simply striking face. High cheekbones accented alabaster skin, and eyes that were wide-set and a brown so deep it was a chocolate color. She wore her pajamas, huge black pants that covered her delicate feet, and a worn sweatshirt he recognised as Potter's. The pants.were defiantly Weasley's. So, Hermione had taken to stealing Potter and Weasley's clothes, had she? Maybe he'd give her a few of his own. When he could get up, and start proving his worth, of course.
" When can I get up?" Draco asked.
" When that last wound is not so tender Draco." Hermione said, brushing his hair from his brow. She leaned down, and kissed him passionately, as if she.
" What was that?" Draco asked, taking her hand and playing with the fingers.
" I don't know." Hermione answered.
" Oh Miea." Draco said, and pulled her down for another kiss. A clearing of a throat in her doorway made Hermione jump, and pull away. She turned and saw her mother in the doorway. Hermione flushed scarlet, but Draco stroked her palm, and calmed her.
" Mione, some people are here to see you. I told them you were busy, but they insisted. It's Harry, Ron, Ginny, Rose, Lupin, and Sirius." She said, and Hermione paled, turning her gaze on Draco. He was about to answer, when:
" HERMIONE GRANGER!" Ron bellowed up the stairs.
" Coming! Don't come up!" Hermione shouted, leaving Draco with one last kiss. She had not given him his potions, and she had to within the next five minutes, or.death, and Draco knew that. So, he'd do it himself. He reached out for the potions Hermione had stacked on her bedside table. He reached.and lost his balance, tumbling from the bed, and striking the table as he fell. He felt the wound in his side reopen, and before he passed out, the word that left his lips was:
" Miea."
Hermione rushed downstairs, and saw that Harry and Ginny were seated and talking, Ron was having a conversation with a striking young woman who could be no one but the mysterious 'Rose', and Lupin and Sirius conversed with her parents.
" Hullo!" Hermione cried, and Ron and Harry came to crush her in a hug. Ginny came next, the younger girl hugging her tightly.
" Hermione!" Ginny cried.
" Hermione, this is Rose Dawson. Rose, this is Hermione Granger." Ron said, pulling the redhead to Hermione.
" Rose, it's a pleasure." Hermione said, shaking the woman's hand.
" And you, Hermione. I've heard nothing but good things from our fellow classmates about you. I am a Seventh Year Gryffindor now as well." Rose said.
" Excellent!" Hermione cried. Rose smiled at her.
" To what do we owe this visit?" Mrs. Granger asked.
" Well, Rose wished to meet Hermione, and Harry and I noticed some clothes missing, along with one of Harry's books." Ron said, looking pointedly at the gray (now faded to an almost whitish) sweatshirt and the black pants that clad Hermione's form.
" Yeah. I meant to tell you guys that I'd stolen these. You guys let me use them, and they were comfy, so I took them." Hermione said sheepishly.
" Can I get my book?" Harry asked, pointing towards Hermione's room.
" Yeah." Hermione said, and Harry began to walk up the stairs when Hermione remembered...Draco!
" NO!" she shouted, loud enough to startle Rose and Ginny.
" Excuse me?" Harry asked.
" No. Sirius will get it." Hermione said, throwing Sirius a knowing glance. He got it, and blurted:
" Yes, I'll get it Harry." He had walked across the foyer, and was getting ready to mount the stairs when a huge bang sounded from upstairs, as if a person had fallen from a great height. Hermione exchanged horrified glances with Sirius, and she took off ahead of Sirius, racing to her room.
Draco lay unconscious on the floor of her room, blood pooling around his still form. Hermione's heart clutched, and she could barely breathe. She rushed to his side, and touched his forehead. His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled weakly.
" I'm sorry Miea. I thought I could.I thought I could get the potions. I knew I had to take them..Morgan's Hand.." Draco murmured. Hermione leaned closer to him, the sweatshirt dipping into the blood, and covering the front. She lifted his hand to her face, wiping blood on her skin in the process. Sirius knelt beside Draco, and staunched some of the bleeding.
" Hermione, I need cloths. You have them?" Sirius asked calmly, so as not to frighten Draco.
" Yes. I'll be right back, love, I promise." Hermione said, and kissed his sweat-beaded brow.
Hermione jumped the stairs three at a time, and skidded into the living room, where Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lupin, and Rose were waiting. Lupin leapt to his feet when he saw her, and Ginny swooned into Harry's arms.
" Hermione! You're covered in BLOOD!" Rose gasped. Hermione looked down, and indeed. Harry's sweatshirt was covered in it, and she could see in the reflection of the mirror near her that it stained her face and hands.
" No time. MUM! I need clean cloths! Hurry!" Hermione cried, and caught them as her mother threw them.
" Mione, is he." her mother asked.
" Not yet." Hermione said, and ran up the stairs.
She gave the cloths to Sirius, and took her place beside Draco as he gasped for breath. She took his hand and began playing with his fingers, as he had done for her.
" Calm, my love." Hermione whispered, as tears squeezed from her eyes.
" Don't cry Miea." Draco said, as his eyes opened.
" Don't you DARE leave me. I.I love you too much." Hermione whispered.
" Promise me your heart Miea, and I'll promise you mine." Draco said.
" It's yours. Always and forever." Hermione whispered. Sirius watched the exchange with eyes that knew love, and accepted it for what it was. Fate.
Lupin came into Hermione's room, while Mrs. and Mr. Granger were watching the children.
" So, this is what you two have been hiding." Lupin said as he saw the pale as death Malfoy heir.
" Lupin!" Hermione said softly, her eyes coming to his, tears coursing down her own equally pale cheeks.
" So, Padfoot, felt no need to tell me?" he asked. Sirius levitated the boy to the bed, and he motioned Lupin away from Draco and Hermione, who were now conversing silently, through looks and glances.
" He was beaten, most ruthlessly, by Lucius Malfoy himself. The whip marks were his own 'signature', as you would say, and he had stabbed the child until I was surprised he still had blood running in his veins. He Portkeyed here, and Hermione called me. I need you to go get Snape. Draco needs the Fortune Potion. Hurry. And Moony." Sirius stopped him.
" Padfoot?" Lupin asked.
" They remind you of anyone?" he asked.
" Of course. Lily and James despised each other until that night.James nearly got his fool self killed. She took care of him.I still can't believe she did." Moony said.
" I can. James always had a way with the fairer sex." Sirius said.
" I agree Padfoot, I agree." Lupin said, and Apparated to just outside Hogwarts.
Hermione changed out of the bloodstained clothes, and stole some of Draco's, which Sirius had gone to get at Malfoy Manor, when Lucius was out at one of the now many Death Eater meetings. She now wore a huge sweatshirt, even bigger than the one she had stolen from Harry, and the pants.she had had to tie those to her waist. She pulled her hair up out of her face, in a messy bun with long strands coming out of it. She splashed water on her swollen eyes, and went to see Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Rose. Lupin had gone to fetch Snape, and Sirius was staying with Draco. Hermione went down the steps, her bare feet concealing any noise she might have made. She went to the doorway of the living room, and saw Harry and Ron conversing tersely in the corner, and Ginny and Rose just watching the stairs. Her parents were pale, and jumped when she came into the room.
" Hermie!" Harry cried, and came to her. Only Ron took note of the clothes, and note of how they were neither Harry's.nor his, and they were unmistakably male. Then how had Hermione gotten them?
" What happened?" Rose asked softly, coming to clasp one of Hermione's hands.
" Nothing, Rose. Nothing." Hermione said. Her statement, however, was overruled when Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall Apparated into the Granger living room.
" My dear Miss Granger!" McGonagall cried, and came to clasp Hermione in a hug.
" In your room, Granger?" Snape asked. Hermione nodded, and they both walked up the stairs, talking in hushed voices.
" What. Was. That?" Ron asked, staring amazedly at the two teachers disappearing up the stairs.
" I don't know." Ginny said. Lupin appeared at that moment, looking flustered and slightly excited.
" Come you four, we have to go." Lupin said.
" What, no!" Ginny and Rose cried.
" Yes." Lupin said, looking neither at Hermione, nor near the stairs, where Draco was.
" Why do we have to go?" Ron asked as Lupin Apparated before answering.
" We'll find out what you're hiding Hermione. Count on it." Harry kissed her hand in a sarcastic way, and left, Hermione knowing he was angry with her for her lack of trust in him. Ron wouldn't acknowledge her, and Ginny was flushed. Only Rose seemed calm. Rose was the one Hermione was worried about. She seemed to know too much, and her eyes made Hermione remember someone.
" You have him. Here." Rose said.
" I don't know what you mean." Hermione said, flushing pink.
" Yes you do Mione. You hold my brother in your room. Is he all right? May I see him?" Rose asked. Hermione looked at her, stunned.
" What?" Hermione asked.
" Yes, I know, surprising. He knows who I am, so don't worry. I haven't seen him since last year, and wish to see him. Please?" Rose asked.
" Sure." Hermione said, and led the girl up the stairs and into her room, where Draco was speaking in a normal voice, color returned, to Professors Snape and McGonagall.
" Draco!" Rose cried. Draco looked over, and smiled brightly.
" Rose Dawson!" he said happily, and motioned her over. She hugged his arm, as she noticed the bandage.
" How are you?" she asked.
" Sore. You?" he asked.
" I'm fine. I'm attending school with you this year." She said.
" Your House?" he asked.
" Gryffindor." She replied.
" So, you get to meet famous Harry Potter and the Goody-Goodies." Draco teased.
" I already have, actually. I am rooming with him and the Weasleys for the months the school is not in session." Rose answered.
" So, you've met the Weasleys. You look like one, now that I think about it, with all that red hair you cart around." Draco said.
" At least mine isn't blonde as the sun." Rose retorted, smiling. Draco then noticed Hermione, looking small and out of place in his clothes.
" Miea!" he said. Hermione smiled shyly. He tried to sit up, so he could offer her a place to sit next to him, but she rushed over, and made him stay down.
" That's what got us in this mess in the first place. Stay down." Hermione laughed.
" Yes Miea." He responded, in a tone Hermione didn't like.
" You're making fun of me!" she laughed.
" Just a tiny bit, I assure you." He said. Professors Snape and McGonagall noticed the exchange, and were suitably stunned. A Malfoy associating with a Muggle Born witch, GRANGER of all people, and now, a sister all had thought just a woman who had the features of the proud Malfoy family. Her hair was what concealed her, it being the fire red it was, but she and Draco bore resemblances to each other. Their eyes, color different, were shaped the same. His were a storm cloud grey, hers a blue like nighttime.
" You'd better go, Miss Dawson. I'm sure that Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley are worried, as is the Weasley boy." McGonagall said.
" Yes, you are right. I had promised Virginia a shopping day. Farewell." Rose said, and Apparated.
" She sounds just like you." Hermione said, sitting carefully by his side.
" Rose is tough to handle." Draco said.
" Why is she a Dawson?" Hermione asked.
" That is the name she took, she is a Malfoy, like I am, but refuses the name, she despises it, you see, and I had told her to make herself up a name, so she did. She borrowed it from some guy she went to school with back home." Draco said.
" Miss Granger. I see you have done an excellent job with Mr. Malfoy here. I commend you on your excellent work. He should be well, even with this mishap, in about a week. You may then go about in Diagon Alley, but Draco, you MUST stay with Hermione." McGonagall said.
" I promise you Professor, that will not be difficult." Draco said, bestowing on Hermione a most heated look. Hermione flushed scarlet, and fiddled with the sleeves of 'her' sweatshirt. Sirius, McGonagall, and Snape finished, took their leave, and left Hermione alone with Draco.
" I-I borrowed your clothes. I hope you don't mind, but the ones I had 'stolen' from Harry and Ron were ruined." Hermione said.
" Keep them. I like the thought of you wearing my clothes." Draco smiled at her. Hermione smiled back, with more courage this time.
" Draco." Hermione started, then lost confidence.
" Did you mean what you said, when you said you loved me?" Draco asked, the question holding all his happiness in the answer.
" Yes." Hermione whispered.
" The you should know that I love you." Draco said softly, lifting her eyes to his.
" Do you?" she asked.
" More than anything." He said.
" So.I have your heart?" Hermione asked.
" If I have yours in return." Draco responded.
" Oh yes. You have my heart Draco Malfoy, and so much more." Hermione whispered against his lips.