Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series.

Sorry it's taken so long to update. I was have a bit of an issue with writer's block...

Let me know what you think of the story so far. I love reading reviews!

At first, neither of the two young boys wanted to even look at me, but when I had made them food, they couldn't ignore me any longer. It was obvious that they hadn't been eating properly since they've ran off, and they desperately needed food.

Hermione filled me in on their story so far, when neither Potter nor Weasley would speak to me. Apparently they had left the night of the Weasley wedding, and had had a run in with some Death Eaters just a few moments later. After they had fought them off, they had gone to the Black family house, which now belonged to Potter. She had to tell me a little bit about how that happened, but didn't go into much detail, since it seemed to upset Potter when she mentioned it. All she told me was that Sirius Black was Potter's Godfather, and he had been left the house in his will.

They had stayed at the Black house for a few weeks, but decided to get some information from the Ministry. She kind of implied that they had to get something from there, but didn't tell me much about it. I figured a lot of the information I was going to get would be somewhat vague. Anyway, they didn't get out of the Ministry easily, and were almost captured. This was only about a week ago, and they've had to be on the run in the woods since then, because a death eater had latched onto them while they were trying to go back to the Black house, and they think he was able to get in.

"I don't think we can go back there now… I'm just sure that there will be someone there, waiting for us,"

"Hermione, it's no one's fault that it happened. It was just dumb luck," Ron said, speaking up for the first time in almost an hour.

Hermione nodded. "I think we should probably be moving along now. We can talk about all of this after we get settled again,"

ѻ

"Where are we, Hermione?" Potter asked after Hermione had taken all three of us to a new clearing in a different forest.

"I went camping here once with my family," she replied, looking around, and started to set up the protective spells around us.

Potter and Weasley took that as a good enough answer, so I didn't press for any more information, like where exactly that was…

They both went to put the tent up, and get their things set up inside, so I followed suit, and got mine out. Hermione came over when she was finished with the dome, and helped me put sheets on one of the beds.

"Where did you get this? I thought your family didn't camp."

"We don't," I laughed. "I went camping with Blaise once as a child, so my mother bought one for me. My family's never been one to borrow things from anyone…" I laughed. "He's not a sharing kind of person,"

"Well," Hermione smiled. "I expect it will get very lonely in here, so if you ever need any company…" she trailed off.

I smirked at her. "My, my, Hermione. Are you coming onto me?"

She started to giggle. "Draco, you're so cute. I'll be here every night for you, if you want me,"

"Well if it's only a matter of wanting, you'll never leave," I laughed. I missed being able to act like this; like I was seventeen. For several years it has been getting steadily worse at home, with the Dark Lord rising in power, and I had been forced to grow up much too quickly.

Hermione smacked me on the arm. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Malfoy,"

"You're the one that went there, Granger,"

She laughed and turned to walk out of the tent, but I caught her arm and swung her around to look at me. "I don't think you realize how much I've missed you," I whispered, pulling her closer to me.

Her eyes lowered slightly. "I've really missed you too, Draco. I wish things could have gone differently. But this is the path we have to travel,"

"At least we can do it together now," I put my hand under her chin, pulling it up so she had to look me in the eye. She nodded slightly as I slowly started to lean in toward her. She stood up on her tip-toes and met me in the middle. She wrapped her arms around my neck and deepened the kiss. I held her as close to me as I could.

It didn't seem to matter how often we were together, every time we kissed, it never ceased to make me feel like it was the first time. I never wanted it to end, because finally everything in the world felt right, I was supposed to feel like this all the time. I was grateful for everything that Hermione meant to me, because it was even more than love. She represented freedom. Whenever I was with her, she made me feel like anything was possible, even if something bad happened, it would work out okay in the end. It was when I had to be away from her that I would fall into deep depressions, and it was all I could do to not think horribly about the war. I knew what had to happen, and I had to be ready for it, at any time. I couldn't be in a state of mind like that; I couldn't be feeling sorry for myself because the world wasn't the way I wanted it to be. Her presence helped me understand.

Ѻ

The next few days passed without much incident. Potter and Weasley didn't speak to me if they didn't have to, and I didn't mind that much. I didn't hate the pair, but they weren't my best mates, either. For Hermione though, I tried a little bit harder than I think they would have.

"So – er, Harry," I started. Hermione had asked me to specifically call her two friends by their first names, because it only made her feel like we were all stuck in detention at Hogwarts when we didn't talk civilly to each other; or something. "Did you camp much as a child?"

He glanced over at me, I'm sure determining whether or not my question had some kind of edge to it. "No. I lived in a cupboard for twelve years… I didn't get out much,"

I heard Ron stifle a laugh. "Oh, that's one way to grow up I suppose. I didn't camp much either. I went once with my friend Blaise, you know him I think, Harry, he was in the Slug Club with you."

The two just stared at me, as if they couldn't understand why I was talking to them.

"Uh, Malfoy, why are you telling us this?" Wea- Ron asked after a moment.

"Well, I'm just trying to get to know you guys a little better. I figure we're going to be stuck together for a while, so we might as well start to like each other a bit more," I smiled.

They glanced at each other, then back at me. "I think we can act just like we did at school. I don't see why we have to pretend like we don't hate each other, becau-"

"I don't hate you guys… I never did." I interrupted Harry. "I'm mean, sure, at first you weren't my favorite people, but I never hated you. And I know you're the only hope we have in killing You-Know-Who… I'm willing to do anything to help you,"

Harry was staring at me, his mouth open. This was the second time that I had had this effect on him. He didn't seem to understand me at all, but before this week, was sure he did completely.

"Who are you?" Ron asked.

"I'm Draco Malfoy, it's nice to meet you," I smirked, extending my hand to Ron to shake. He looked at it for a moment, then reached out and grabbed it.

"Ron Weasley…"

I released Ron's hand, then presented it to Harry, smiling the whole time.

"Harry. Potter. You're insane, you know that, don't you?" he asked after I released his hand.

"There's only one reason for my insanity, and she's sitting in the tent reading a children's story," I smiled.

Ron and Harry looked at each other again. It seems like I keep surprising them. The old Malfoy would never have said anything so cheesy…

"I really do love her…" I whispered. "I'd do anything for her."

Harry looked at me then, like he had never seen me before. I think he must have understood what I was talking about. He probably felt the same way about Ginny Weasley. I had seen them around the school a lot at the end of last year, and Hermione had mentioned them several times. I knew this was the only thing that would bring us together. I would still need to work on Ron, but Harry and I saw eye to eye on something, it would be all we need.