A.N. – well sorry it took so long to update been busy. – But here we go!

Disclaimer: I don't own it – wish I did but I don't.

Chapter 3:

As she stirred the next morning Hermione felt something else next to her, she looked up to see someone looking down at her, it was Draco… what had happened last night came rushing back to her and she blushed slightly.

"Morning" she mumbled sleepily, beginning to move slowly to the other side of the bed to get up.

"Hey, I was wondering, can we talk later today, we have the day off classes and I understand if you want to read or see some friend or something but I just wanted to talk and maybe take advantage of the free passes to the village and grab some time away from home and school before the real work begins... So what do you say?" He said sitting up from the bed and looking at her… finishing with a slight smile.

"Ok, but what time, I just want to get a shower and then when your done saying hey to your friends come to my room, the password is 'when doves cry' see you later" She said walking towards the door.

"Wait…" He yelled as she opened the door, "… if your not busy we could just go in to the village this morning and stay out all day if you like?"

"Sure, just let me change" She smiled and left

Neither of them knew what was going on but neither of them really cared, she had changed but so had he, he wasn't the prat everyone thought he was, although those that knew him, really knew him which were very few people knew he wasn't that prat really anyway. He had changed and he couldn't be bothered to be the person everyone wanted him to be anymore. He had changed last year, not that many people noticed. He no longer went to as many parties and had stopped being so abusive, it appeared he had grown up… but it was more than that. Something had changed in him. But being that he was who he was no one was close enough to him for him to tell anyone.

Fate being unkind they never did get to spend what would, or could have been what they both needed, a relaxing day with someone else who just needed to escape their life for a few hours.

Dumbledore knocked on the heads common room door seconds later, with a sombre expression. Draco answered it, with his heart still feeling eased, believing today he could just be himself and he could just have one day off form being what everyone expected from him, almost what they needed him to be so they could make there lives make sense. In other words, he was away from his father, so he didn't have to have the false act about who he wanted to be and he could let his guard down, but he was also away from his friends, so he didn't have to be a pure-blooded ass. All that was about to change, his heart wasn't going to get its release, in fact he was getting another burden, the biggest one of all.

Dumbledore came in to the room and asked Draco to sit, he proceeded to sit himself.

"Mr. Malfoy, you are aware that your mother has been quite ill recently…" He said in a soft tone. Draco nodded. "… Yes well, her condition has worsened im afraid to say Mr. Malfoy that your mother passed on early this morning… im sorry for your loss…" Dumbledore's eyes had no sparkle in them he was looking at the young man in front of him with a deep sympathy. He had seen him struggle with many things, and had been the first amongst the faculty to see him change last year but this was something which would change his life, his heart forever.

Draco sat there, still and appeared emotionless. Something in him began aching, he felt a cold rush sweep through his chest he closed his eyes but tears began to burn there way through the closed lids and leave a trial of fire as they travelled down his face. His mother, she was the only thing in the world which was keeping him here. His father was a demon, evil to the core in his opinion. Last year when his mother had become ill Draco felt his heart begin to rip. He needed to be with her but she needed him to be at school, she wanted to see him succeed and be happy so he ploughed all his efforts in to that, for her. Now, there was nothing, there was no one in his heart, in his life worth trying for. He looked at Dumbledore, who had remained silent watching him. With a tear stained face he tried to speak.

"Was she in pain?" He managed to croak out

"No… your father said that she was sleeping when it happened and felt nothing, she was peaceful, and Mr. Malfoy your father also said you had known for sometime she was ill… and that this was the best things for her, to end her suffering. I understand that this I difficult but your father also said he didn't think it would be best for you to come home, I said I felt you would benefit from the time away to grieve but he said you would be better here and you can go home for one day, the day of the funeral" He stopped looking at Draco's pained expression… "Are you feeling ok in yourself Mr. Malfoy?"

"Im fine…" Draco lied, inside he felt like his soul had just been ripped in half and there was a chasm that could never be healed inside him, a hole in his heart where his mother had once been. "I think I just want to be alone thank you professor"

At this moment Hermione came out of her room. Draco was staring at a spot on the floor, Dumbledore rose and greeted her. She looked at Draco and saw his tear stained face.

"What's wrong?" She rushed to his side sitting on the floor in his eye line and taking his hands. Dumbledore hid his shock at the gesture and made his apologies saying he had to leave and repeated his deepest regrets to Draco.

Draco had said nothing. Hermione was unsure if she should ask again, she didn't want to push if he just wasn't ready to talk. She looked at him he was so distant, she could almost feel him letting go of himself, his soul… she could feel the grief radiating out of him. What had happened? Dumbledore had apologised for his loss... what loss?

She moved herself to looking directly at him, she was about to move when he held her hand tighter. He didn't look at her or say anything but she knew he just needed her to not move, to be there, something to hold on to before he lost himself.

He looked at her for the first time about two hours later, she had sat there patiently until he had moved, not knowing what had happened but being unable to say anything to bring him out of whatever he was going through she sat with him in silence.

"My mother" He mumbled, his voice breaking half way through. His voice sounded alien almost as if he hadn't used it in so long it was a strained sound, like it was unreal or distant in some way. And how he wished that was true, because if that was unreal or distant then it wasn't true, saying it was just so real, it made it real the loss worsened some how.

Immediately she understood and looked in to his eyes, she felt the tears come out of her own eyes, the pain was too much for him to handle she could see it in his eyes. She placed her forehead against his and whispered "I'm here, and im so sorry"

Suddenly she saw images. They were rushing through her, but she was feeling what happened also. The grief of losing the anchor in his life was pouring out of him and in to her she felt how he felt and she was seeing the memories of him and his mother, and some of his father mistreating them both and the bond of love they shared, she felt the strength of their love and it hurt her. She was sobbing by the time either of them found the strength to pull away. He looked in to her eyes, she knew what he was feeling and there were no words to say that could better explain what they had just shared together, which neither of them knew why or how that had occurred but there was a feeling of a bond, a link between their minds that lingered. He thought to himself 'what was that?' and she answered

"I don't know" They looked at each other and understood – he thought it and she heard, they just looked at each other she began to think 'why?' and more specifically 'how?' He responded with 'I don't know'.

He stood up; this was so not what he needed right now, a complication, he just needed to be alone. He began to walk to the door but she stopped him and threw her arms around him. He was so confused. 'What's going on?' he thought.

"I don't know how this happened but I also know you don't want to be alone, you want to go somewhere and im going with you. I don't know how this will work but I do know that this happened for a reason, and I know what you are going through. You showed me, which happened for a reason too, im grieving too. I don't know how, or why for that mater but it's just clearly too much for one soul to deal with and yours was breaking so you connected our souls, or that's what I think you did at least.

"Hermione, I don't think you can connect souls, but even if we did, or I did or whatever, just because you know what happened it doesn't mean you know me now, I know you're trying to help…"

"And I know you're not ready to accept it or to talk to anyone, so let's just walk. You know im not letting you go anywhere alone."

'Fine'

'I heard that'

(A.N. – im sorry to interrupt the story but I wanted to make sure the things in ' ' are what they are thinking, the " " are what they are saying ok! Thanks!

They walked silently together by the lake, anyone who saw them would have been most confused being that they were obviously enemies and were together by choice. But they didn't care. He needed her and she knew that, she needed to understand. She needed to know why she felt such a loss, such a whole inside her, like it had been her mother who had died, but not only that why the bond between her and him had occurred. She felt so connected to him, she knew she loved him, but why and when it happened she didn't understand. She knew him so much better now, she knew when he needed to touch her hand just to know she was still there but she couldn't step in to his mind and read it at will. 'It must just be a surface thing' she mused to herself

"Trying to figure this out already?" He looked at her, 'im sorry I dragged you in here'

'No, don't be, you needed me, and strange as this sounds, I think I kind of needed you to need me' she attempted a smile but it was only a half of one. He looked at her as a tear fell from her eye, 'what?' he looked at her confusedly 'I have some memories, that aren't mine in here, and I can feel what you felt' tears coming down her face now, falling on to her sweater again.

'What do you mean, feel what I felt?' He walked over to her standing in front of her, wiping the tears from her eyes.

She moved his hand to her heart, he looked confused for a few seconds and then he felt it rush through him… pain, more amplified because it was full of confusion to why she was feeling this pain. But there was a difference this time when he saw the rush of images; they were full of the love that his mother had shown him.

He had forced her to see what he was feeling, although he hadn't meant for her to see the images and receive those memories, when she saw them for the first time she felt the emotions, she smelled the vanilla sent of his mothers hair and the perfume she wore, she felt the gentle embrace that he had felt when he was five, the time he had scraped his knee, she felt the softness of his mothers hand when she moved his little fingers to heal him with her wand… she experienced all these things for the first time.

She had become overwhelmed with the love his mother showed him and when he first saw them they were just painful, but not this time, he was seeing them through her eyes, and he felt the love, and it hurt but he saw his mother in a new way, not in a way which caused him more pain but in a way that relieved the burden on his heart even if only a little because he could have her memories and he had her love, more than anyone else in her life, she had loved him. Hermione had helped him see that.

Tears were streaming down her face and his when they broke the link again. He looked in to her eyes and lent down to place a soft tender kiss on her mouth.

Pulling back he said "Thank you, for allowing me to see that"

"They were your memories, you gave them to me"

"But you saw them how they really happened, you allowed me to look past the fact that my mother was in them. When I showed you them they were pain filled, when you showed me them they were filled with the love they were created with and that's what I needed to know, that she loved me and that when I look at those memories they will always be filled with that."

'I think we should go back to our dorms'

'Why?'

'Because there are still students here and I just want to be alone'

'Ok, maybe I can look at what's going on with us reading each others thoughts then too'

'Cough cough, loser, cough'

"Yeah whatever, actually I think we should go see Dumbledore" She said seriously.

"Yeah I kind of think we should" He took her hand, ignoring the glances from other students and lead her to Dumbledore's office.

A.N – Well I hope you like it, sorry if its confusing but if its really bad just tell me – in a nice way, and please review.