Thank Merlin it was Thursday. Classes had been ramping up the work as November was quickly coming to an end. There was just a little over a month before Christmas and the professors were trying to get in as much as they could before the Holidays. It was half-past one by the time Hermione got back to her room after Astronomy and it was well after two by the time she finally drifted off to sleep. She had never been more grateful for a three-day weekend to catch up on studying.
A loud thud from outside her room startled her awake from a deep sleep. She sat upright in bed, wand already in hand and pointed at her door. She waited only a moment before jumping out of bed to investigate. She grabbed the throw from the end of her bed and wrapped it around her, wand drawn as she carefully opened her door.
It was pitch black on the landing between her and Malfoy's rooms.
"Lumos" she whispered, a bright white light streaming from the end of her wand.
It took her eyes a moment to adjust, looking around the landing when she finally saw Malfoy sitting outside his door. He was curled up, his knees up to his chest, his head resting on them.
"Malfoy," she whispered softly as she started to walk over to him, careful not to startle him. When he did not answer her, she crouched down next to him, "Draco are you alright?"
"I'm fine Granger, go back to bed," he finally managed to say, although his words had the exact opposite effect as he had intended.
"What happened," Hermione said softly as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
Draco finally looked up at her, his face pale and cheeks wet with tears. His silver eyes were glossed over and red from crying. He looked absolutely terrified. What could have possibly happened?
"Voldemort… he was…" Malfoy managed to stutter. Then he looked back down at his knees, "…it was just a nightmare," he added sounding very defeated.
"That's right it was just a nightmare," she said as she sat down next to him, "but that doesn't change how real it feels."
He looked over at her speechless. Clearly, Draco had been struggling with this for some time.
"I used to get them too before the war ended. After Bellatrix," her voice trailed off, she had not thought about that night in Malfoy Manor for a very long time. Not since the Battle of Hogwarts.
"I'm really sorry about that," Draco said softly looking back over to her, placing his hand gently on her knee. "I should have…"
Hermione shook her head and softly placed her hand on his.
"There is nothing you could have done." That was the truth, Bellatrix would have killed him. That's when Hermione saw the blood. "Draco! Your arm!" she shouted grabbing his left arm and pulling it over so she could look at it.
Where Draco's dark mark was branded onto his forearm was covered in blood and jagged slashes. Hermione quickly brought her wand over to it to try and get a better look before Draco jerked his arm away from her.
"Its fine, I reopened an old cut when I was having that nightmare." Draco said as he held his arm to his chest.
"Let me at least clean it up a little," Hermione said unable to hide the concern in her voice.
Draco hesitated a moment before finally allowing Hermione to take his arm. A quick flourish of her wand and the cuts were closed but the blood remained.
"Let's get this washed up, ok?" she said softly as she got to her feet, pulling his up towards her.
He silently consented, following her into her room and then into her bathroom. Her wand had turned on the faucet in the sink, the warm water steaming up the small bathroom. Hermione softly washed all the blood of off his arm revealing the scars the covered his slowly fading brand. He had clearly made several unsuccessful attempts to remove the dark mark from his forearm. She did her best to hide how her heart ached for him.
"There we are, all cleaned up," she said looking up at him with a soft smile.
"Thanks, Granger," Draco replied softly, clearly ashamed that he let anyone see him in his current state.
He walked past her out of the bathroom, Hermione trailing behind him. He got to her doorway before he stopped, his eyes staring across the dark landing to his door.
"I'm going to be up for a while," Hermione said casually leaned up against the doorframe of the bathroom. "You are welcome to stay here."
"I don't want to impose," Draco replied clearly torn about what he should do.
"C'mon on, I'm sure I have some chocolate stashed around here, and I know I have a brand-new bottle of fire whiskey," she smiled gesturing for him to come in.
She sat down on her bed, pulling the bottle of fire whiskey and a chocolate bar out from her bedside table. Draco slowly made his way over and sat softly on the side of her bed next to her looking for her approval before grabbing the fire whiskey bottle from her. He pulled the cork from it before taking a big swig and handing the bottle to her.
Hermione stared at the bottle for a few moments before finally taking a swig of it herself. The whiskey burned as it went down her throat sending a shiver through her body. She was not a big drinker, to begin with, and certainly not at this time of night.
"Now I'm really awake," she joked as she passed the bottle back to him.
Finally, that got a smile out of Malfoy as he took the bottle back from her before taking another drink.
They continued like this, chatting casually, passing the bottle back and forth until it was over half empty. Hermione could feel the liquor in her face when she finally refused to take it back.
"A little drunk Granger?" Malfoy asked playfully even though she knew the answer was obvious.
"Maybe a little," she laughed before yawning. She had forgotten how tired she was having only slept for a few hours.
"Sorry I woke you up, I didn't mean to slam the door so loud," he said remorsefully.
"Please don't be," she said reaching a hand out to him.
"I'm sorry about a lot of things Granger," he said looking at her.
"Everything has changed since then, you have changed since then," Hermione said sternly hoping to drive the point home, "There is no point in beating yourself up over the past when you are working so hard to make up for it." This all but reduced Malfoy to tears.
"All anyone sees is my mistakes, Granger. They will always think of me as a death eater. It will always be there just like this damn mark on my arm."
"Then you will just have to prove everyone wrong," she said firmly. "I think you are doing pretty good so far." Hermione moved over next to him, pushing his arm playfully. This conjured a small smile to his lips which made her smile grow.
She rested her head on his shoulder, who was she kidding, she was drunk. Malfoy put his arm around her to help stabilize her, she was a bit on the wobbly side.
"C'mon Granger, let's get you into bed," he said as he scooped her up in his arms, her head resting softly on his chest as he stood up from the bed. He managed to grab his wand from his pocket to pull the sheets back before laying her down and pulling the covers up over her.
"You can stay if you don't want to be alone," Hermione said with a slight slur to her normally precise words. It was not like they had not slept in the same bed before. Mind you the circumstances were completely different, but neither one of them were thinking about that at the moment.
Draco walked around the bed laying down on top of the covers, leaving a respectful space between him and Hermione. Always a gentleman, that sure was a pleasant change. He continued to prove time and time again how much he was changing. Hermione used her wand to pull the throw from on top of her trunk over to Malfoy. It was chilly despite the glowing embers in the fireplace and he did not need to freeze because of his gentlemanliness.
"Goodnight Granger," he said softly, his silver eyes gleaming in the darkness.
"Goodnight Draco," she replied, their faces so close yet so far away from one another.
As soon as Hermione's eyes closed she was asleep. It was a deep sleep, a mix of exhaustion and the result of her earlier adrenaline spike. The next thing she knew the sun was streaming through her window, the morning light playing across her room. It was far too soon to be awake and it took her several moments to fully take in her current surroundings. Malfoy was sound asleep next to her, his arm finding its way over to her waist at some point during the night. There was something comforting about his arm laying across her. She moved closer to him, being careful not to wake him up, before drifting back off.
The next time Hermione opened her eyes she was surprised to find Malfoy's head resting on her chest, his arm still resting across her waist. A small unintentional smile had found its way to her lips, there was something so peaceful about the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest next to her. She only had a moment to revel in his warmth before he began to stir.
"Morning Malfoy," she said softly as he began to turn.
"Morning Granger," he replied sleepily as he turned to look at her, clearly not fully awake yet.
"It's almost lunchtime," she replied matter-of-factly, "we should probably get out of bed at some point today," Hermione added with a grin.
It took a few moments before Malfoy finally completely woke up.
"Thanks for taking care of me last night, especially since I clearly decided you were a great pillow," he said half joking, half apologetically. It was clear he was feeling a little awkward, but he must not have minded so much.
"Anytime, even if you do end up using me as a pillow," she grinned as she swung out of bed.
"Be careful now, I might take you up on that," Malfoy grinned back as he too made his way out of her bed, on to his feet and towards the door. "Meet you for lunch in thirty?" he asked.
"Of course," Hermione replied before Draco left, closing the door behind him.
She quickly hopped in the shower to start getting ready for the rest of her day. There was a lot to do if she wanted to enjoy her weekend in the slightest. First lunch, then studying until dinner. She would see how far she got before dinner to see if she would continue her studies after dinner or not.
Hermione had barely finished her hair when she heard a knock at the door.
"Just a second!" she called as she flourished her wand causing her jumper to come floating over to her. She slipped into it as she opened the door to find Malfoy standing there waiting for her.
"Took you long enough," he joked playfully giving her a little jab as she headed out of her room and on to the landing of the spiral staircase.
"Well if someone hadn't have slept all day then we could have been down there sooner," she said playfully as she headed down the stairs into the common room.
"Eh, worth it," Malfoy shrugged giving Hermione a playful look.
They continued back and forth all the way down to lunch and through most of their meal. Lunch was relatively quiet for this time of year, everyone was cramming for the end of term. If Hermione was not so hungry she would be studying right now, but skipping breakfast meant that lunch most certainly could not be skipped.
"So, what's your plan for the rest of the day? Personally, I'm going to study until dinner, so I get better marks than you." Malfoy said smugly. It was a playful smugness though that had grown on Hermione.
"You better study really hard then, especially since I was planning on studying until dinner as well," Hermione replied smartly.
"Rubbish might have to cancel my after-dinner plans to keep studying then," Malfoy added playfully.
"Oh, after-dinner plans?" she asked questioningly.
"Yep, just a little treat while the rest of the school is held up studying," he replied slyly, "I might even invite you," Malfoy added nonchalantly.
"An invitation for me?" Hermione asked sarcastically.
"Maybe," Malfoy fired back with his ever enticing sly grin. "I'll see how I feel after dinner."
"You do that then, I am going to go study. I might even invite you," she replied with playful sarcasm as she got up from the table.
"I'll invite you if you invite me," Malfoy said slyly as he got up, following Hermione back up to the common room.
"Malfoy would you like to study with me?" Hermione asked precisely.
"I would be delighted," he replied mocking her tone.
Hermione rolled her eyes as they continued their way back to the eighth year dormitory to grab their notes and find a quiet place to study the day away.