Chapter 16

"Whozthere" Draco said as he felt something touching his face, he did not know what time it was but his mind said it was far too early to be awake. Zandra gave a smile and a giggle then brushed Draco's hair from his face.

This had become a routine morning for Draco, he would be woken by Zandra every morning, and knowing that she was too good for him he would always question who it was waking him before he opened his eyes. He was afraid that one day he would wake by alone or worse with someone else. Well wake up in a relationship with someone else, he had woken up next to Hermione for months, but it wasn't the same as waking next to Zandra, when he woke next to Hermione it was to see the face of his best friend, on of the only real friends that he had anymore, but when he woke next to Zandra it was to see him future staring back at him. In those sapphire eyes he could see everything his heart desired, he saw a wedding, children, a family like the one he never had, a happy family, a peaceful family, and that was all he had ever wanted.

Draco knew that this was what he wanted, knew that this was right, right now, right here he thought to himself this is bliss. Her eyes were like a trap to him, once he started looking he could not look away, and he love it, he never wanted it to end, and he hopped that after the dance next week it would be official, it would never end, he would have his peace and the love of his life, as Hermione would say he would have his cake and eat it too. He laughed to himself at the thought it had always confused him, why would you make a cake and not eat it seems a bit wasteful, but his sudden thought about Hermione sent him hurdling into darker thoughts. Thoughts that made him worry for his best friend, she did not have the same promising future he did, in fact he seriously doubted whether or not she would ever be able to be happy, he saw no way the she and Snape could work out, not with him working here and her seeming unwavering determination to continue he education away from him. Snape was a level headed man, yes, and he was kind, mostly, and he was understanding, usually, he was territorial, obscenely. This worried Draco, how were he and Hermione going to keep up a normal relationship when what the both of them wanted was what the other feared. Hermione wanted to have an apprenticeship, and to continue learning and to be around people all the time, and share her knowledge with the world, and Snape wanted her all to himself, to live in seclusion with her and keep her as his and only his. They were either going to compromise or break up, and Draco severely disliked the second option. The second option meant that his best friend would be ruined, she would fall to bit and he would have to watch helpless as she tried to pick up the pieces, and all the while he would leave Zandra to fend for herself as he tended to Hermione and that would take a serious toll on their relationship. Draco knew that every thing would eventually work itself out in the end; it was next week he needed to worry about.