A/N: I know! It's been two months since my last update! But we moved, and I've been super busy with high school! I know its no excuse not to update and I'm sorry about that, so to repay your patience here is and extra long chapter!

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX Last time…

He stood up and offered her his hand to help her up, but she refused it.

'Malfoy what are you doing here!'

'Maybe I wanted to get a new book to read?'

'You read books?'

'Yes, is there something wrong with that?'

'No, no absolutely not….' And she trailed off muttering about hell freezing over, and things of that sort……

Hermione grabbed her stuff to leave. But Draco stopped her.

'Mia,' he said putting emphasis on the word, 'where are you going?'

'Why does it matter to you?'

'I don't know.'

In all honesty he didn't know. But he wanted to, so he decided he would follow her. And he knew the perfect way to do so, even though, he extremely despised ferrets….

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX Now on with the story!

After telling Hermione good-bye and muttering something about something he had to do rather quickly and incoherently, he slipped down an alley way and drank the polyjuice potion he had hid in his coat. He ran quickly out of the alley, and began tailing Mia.

When she finally stopped he found himself at the dance club where he previously encountered her. She went inside and talked to the bar tender again, only this time he heard what she had said. Needless to say he was shocked.

By now the watered-down version of the Polyjuice potion he had taken had begun to wear off, and the ferret version of him ran out the door and into an alley way where he promptly returned to his normal self.

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'Hello?'

'Hiya Mia. Whatcha been up to?'

'Nothing that concerns you, by the way, how many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me Mia? Better yet, how many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me?'

'A lot. You see, I am a Slytherin, a cunning, intelligent, handsome, and incredibly stubborn person…'

'Don't give yourself more credit that you deserve….Malfoy,' Said Mia adding the last bit just to irritate him right before she hung up.

Later in the day both Draco and Hermione received phone calls from the ministry concerning Lucious. They had just determined he was the cause of Narcissa's death, and five other muggles killed in a freak attack by a group of death eaters.

Neither Hermione nor Draco was shocked by the news. They knew it would happen. They knew he would ruin both of their lives eventually. Hermione made the next step. She decided to do what was right...

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In the small jewelry shop a ringing phone could be heard. Only this time it was Draco's not Hermione's.

'Drake, are you there?'

'Ha, Drake, what's that, some sort of nickname?'

'Just shut up. I need to say some things and I need you to be quiet until I'm finished.'

'Okay.'

'I don't think that you should come visit me, or I should come visit you anymore. Well not for forever, just until they catch your father. You can still call me, and bug the life out of me. I just think we should be a little more careful. I mean with your father trying to carry out Voldemort's unfinished business I just don't think that it's safe for us to be close to each other at the same time unless we're bickering, and I really don't want to fight with you anymore. I'm just overwhelmed by everything. I mean pretty soon we'll be going back to our last year of Hogwarts and then we'll be safe. We could see each other more there; I mean we are both heads. So yea, I just had to get that out. Thanks for listening,' she said hurriedly.

'Mia,' He whispered.

'Yes?'

'I agree.'

'I hoped you would. Thanks so much for understanding Drake.'

'Alright, well I have to go, I'll call you later, ok?'

'Yea, that'd be great,' she said with softness to her voice, and just a tiny hint of guilt.

She hung up the phone after she heard the line go dead on the other side of the phone. After sliding her phone into her purse, she wrapped her coat more tightly around her, imagining that her coat was his arms, and walked to the bookstore where they had encountered each other earlier in the day.

(Hermione's thoughts)

Why do I feel so guilty about telling him we can't be seen together anymore? Why do I feel so guilty? Why do I miss his touch? Why why why?

(Draco's Thoughts)

Why do I feel so bad about her telling me we can't be seen together, or visit each other. I miss her so much…wait, I'm not supposed to miss her. She's just a mudblood. Yes, Drake, keep telling yourself that, she's just a mudblood…but she's my mudblood…

They both returned to their homes. Hermione started packing and cleaning. The two things she did when she was stressed. Draco just sat in his over-stuffed chair staring blankly at the wall with a million thoughts running through his head. He just sat there and thought, for what must have been hours, trying to clear his mind, but to no avail.

He wondered why Blaise never told him about his problem with hurting himself, even though they didn't talk much. Blaise knew he could trust him, he knew that and he never told. That was his problem, he never told anyone his problems…he bottled them up inside until he resorted to letting them bleed out. He wondered why he could care about one girl one minute, and she could go out and get another guy, and he could fall in love with someone else so easily all over again. He wondered about his late mother's problems. He wondered about the secrets she kept. Surely they had to be eating her up inside until the time of her death. He wondered so many things, and he had yet to find the answers in hours of searching, for no book could tell him what he was looking for.

He got tired of the nightmares where he died at the end. He got tired of running away from the meanings of them. He got tired. He had all the money anyone could want, all the fame, the respect…no. He didn't have respect. People feared him. They didn't respect him. It was entirely his father's fault too. It all led back to his father. Every problem he had, but that would mean he was playing the blame game.

He rose slowly from the chair he was in, walked over to his bed, and not bothering to pull back the blankets or undress, plopped down face first onto his bed and fell into a restless sleep full of his dreaded nightmares. They didn't scare him. No, they just bothered him. He wanted to be able to sleep easy.

He awoke an hour later covered in sweat. It was another dream. He got up, and took a shower. When he stepped out he wrapped himself in a towel and proceeded to open his medicine/potions cabinet. He pulled out a dreamless sleep draught, drank it, put on some silk boxers, and drifted back to sleep.

Hermione on the other hand, was wide awake and in a cleaning frenzy. As she cleaned she thought. She wondered, and wondered. She wondered what got into Drake; she wondered why no one wanted to be with her. She wondered why it was she was wondering all these things. She wondered why she suddenly cared about Draco's feelings. But then she remembered. He saved her life. If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be alive. But why, why did he save her, why did he condemn his own father, what kind of hell was he living through that took him to the brink of almost killing the man that gave him life?

When Hermione stopped cleaning she took a shower as well. Grabbed a book off her nightstand, and sat down in a chair in front of the fire place. She read, and occasionally would stop and write. This was the book where Mia wrote her thoughts, and questions in poetry. Page after Page, stanza after stanza, sentence after sentence, word after word, letter after letter, tear drop after tear drop, they went on and on. Until, she stopped to write, and the whole book was full. She closed it softly, and found herself a new one that she bought just incase the exact thing happened. She was so overwhelmed with the past week, she felt like giving up. But the little voice in her head kept telling her to give it one more try, it kept telling her, you'll love again, you'll laugh again, you'll live freely again, you can't give up yet. But she just didn't want to listen, and eventually her eyelids got heavy, and she drifted slowly to sleep.

They both woke some hours later. Mia had only slept two. Draco, who had almost become immune to the draught, had slept five. Mia got dressed and left her house. She walked to Diagon Alley since she lived not more than a mile away. After shopping for everything she needed, and didn't need, she stopped and visited Fred and George at they're joke shop. They were delighted to see her, naturally, but something seemed to be worrying them.

'Mia, are you ok?'

'Yea are you ok?' said George.

'I'm fine why do you ask?'

'You're not looking so well.'

'What Fred means is, it looks like you haven't slept in ages, and you can't have possibly been eating anything either, you look like your about to crumble into a pile of dust, ' Said George as if finishing Fred's sentence.

'I'm fine.' Hermione replied.

'Alright, we'll take your word for it.'

Neither did Hermione nor Draco know, the lack of sleep and appetite, was taking a toll on them both.

Hermione met Harry later in the day, and he also asked if she was ok, and after getting enraged she fainted on the floor. Harry being the worry-wart he is took her to the hospital and they checked her in over-night upon his request. The same thing happened to Draco, but this time it was worry that pushed him over the edge. He had heard word of Hermione's hospitalization and rushed to see her against her wishes. He passed out cold, while trying to get her to come through. He was taken out of the room to be checked on, but put in the same room with her later. They told Harry he was to watch both of them when they were released. Harry was supposed to make sure they ate, and slept enough, to keep them from another accident. After they awoke and Draco had his stitches removed, and a spell cast to prevent scarring, from hitting his head on a machine, they both left and returned to their homes.

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'Mia, listen to me, don't say anything until I'm done, I did it for you, you do it for me, ok?'

'Ok, drake.'

'I'm really sorry that I didn't listen when you told me that we shouldn't be seen together anymore. I heard you were sick and I had to make sure you would be ok, but then again, I wasn't much of a help seeing as I wound up in a bed next to you. I think you should really be more careful. I worry about you, and I don't know why, but I do care about you. I'm going to hire you a maid, I want her to do all the cooking and cleaning until your well, take care of yourself. Please, you're the only true friend I have had that isn't a death eater and isn't my friend because they have to. I already lost my mother, I don't want to lose you.

'I'll be careful…but what about you. Promise me that you won't do anything stupid. I don't want to see you hurt. Take care of yourself. Please.'

After saying those words there was silence as reality had struck both of them about what had been said.

'Mia?'

'Yes Drake?'

'I promise.'

'Thank you.'

'Now promise me that you'll do the same. Please Mia.'

'I promise.' She whispered into the phone before she heard the line go dead….

A/N- Hope that was long enough for all of you! It was definitely long for me!