'Hermione!' He cried, his deep voice piercing through the night. She pressed her fingers to her lips urgently and hurried up the stairs to the top of the astronomy tower.

'You're ok!' He said quieter in relief reaching her and wrapping his arms around her shoulders, 'You're safe, We're together now' He was muttering to himself into her hair.

Pulling away she looked at the floor, her hair drooping across her brown freckled face.

'You're hurt' He stated pushing the hair out of her face and tracing the scar across her right cheek, 'What happened?'

'Accident,' she muttered, 'At the ministry- Death eaters, lots of trouble. You must have heard already' she said almost bitterly.

'What are you talking about?' he said taking a step backwards unsurely.

'Draco, I know- you're father, you're mother. Harry told me but I didn't want to believe him. They're death eaters. I knew it. I knew it all along and I need you to tell me the truth.'

Draco was shaking his head quickly, pacing from left to right in the narrow tower, and looking out at the stars.

'Did you know anything about this?' She said sharply.

The silence scared her, in the year she'd shared with him, all the times they have laid under the stars in this very tower, he had always talked non-stop, about his friends and his studies, his life before Hogwarts, his wishes and fears and she had listened. Laying her head on his chest and letting him stroke her hair and kiss her shoulders, making her shiver and long for him when he wasn't around. But silence? She couldn't handle that.

'Draco, Please' she cried desperately under her breath.

He just turned, his eyes locked with hers and she didn't have to ask to know the answer.

He'd known. He agreed.

'How can you stand by and let this happen? How can you love me, if you're evil?'

She didn't care if she was being tactless, logic had left her- left her the minute she saw Lucius Malfoy opposite her in the dim light of the department of mysteries, that hair. The same hair she had ran her fingers through so many times. The hair of the boy she loved, and she saw him. In years to come, going the same way as his father. She'd felt dirty fighting next to Ginny and Ron, and especially Harry.

'I do love you Hermione' He said faintly, ' but its not that simple.'

'But It can be!' she said taking his hand in hers, it was so familiar but suddenly so strange to her.

'love isn't enough, Hermione' He snapped pulling it from her grasp, 'Love won't save me, Love won't save my family, and Love won't save you!'

Hermione shook her head slowly from side to side, she couldn't register it. Draco, he was evil. She was in love with a death eater.

'Draco, this isn't the end. You can refuse, we can protect you! Back out. You don't' have to do this,'

'Can't you see?!' He cried angrily pulling away from her and walking in the other direction, 'I want to do this!'

'Y-You want to ?' she said faintly, her voice hardly coming out. She felt as if she was going to faint.

'I'm not evil, I don't want to kill. I don't want to be a Death Eater, but I want to make my father proud. It's all I've ever wanted to do. Can't you see that? Can't you see that if I want to do that I have to join the Dark Lord.'

'J-Join?'

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to make sense of what she'd heard. Of course, she could never tell Harry or Ron- deny any knowledge. That's what she'd do. Pretend like it didn't matter to her whether Malfoy was dead or alive.

'Hermione' he returned to her, taking her head in his hands, 'I love you. You know that?'

'I know.' she said her face in the shadows, blanched of emotion, 'and that's why I have to go'

She wrapped her arms around his neck for one last time, feeling his hair and his neck and kissed him on his soft lips, that she knew so well. Tracing his cheek and leaving her hands on his chest and she pulled away.

'Goodbye, Draco Malfoy' She whispered.