Whatever I had been expecting when I was released from hospital, the reality was much more disappointing. I got out on a Wednesday, over a week after I had disappeared. Nobody had even noticed my absence. It was as if I'd never left at all. I didn't even hear a word out of Harry, usually the most perceptive of my friends.

I wanted to cry and scream at the top of my lungs, wanted the bruises Madame Promfrey had healed to come back so that someone would see that something had been wrong. It didn't happen. By the time dinner rolled around on my first day back to classes I was too distraught to eat or drink anything, yet another even that went completely unnoticed. I skipped out early without anyone noticing my absence, but I couldn't go to my quarters or to the Gryffindor common room. I needed to be somewhere alone where I could rage and cry and let it all out. So I went to the Room of Requirement.

When I got there I found the room blissfully empty. The same squashy couch from before had appeared and I sank into it gratefully. Then I screamed, as loud as I could until my throat went raw, and even then I continued. Tears poured down my face and my breath hitched. Soon I was too exhausted to do anything and I collapsed on the couch, my face pressed against the arm. My body was wracked with heaving sobs as I wept out my soul.

I heard the door open and I knew who it must be, but I didn't turn to look, I couldn't. There was no stopping the flood now the gates were open.

"Granger?" The impersonal use of my last name tore another ragged sob from my throat and I felt more than heard him come to my side. He dropped to his knees next to the couch. "Hermione, what's wrong?"

He pushed my hair back and I forced myself to meet his eyes. The concern I saw there only made the tears fall faster. "It's nothing."

He shook his head. "This isn't nothing. Nobody is this shattered by nothing."

"They… they didn't even know I was gone."

"Shit."

"I was gone for over a week, and they didn't even notice. They didn't care or…" I trailed off on a sob.

"I'm so sorry Hermione."

I shook my head and struggled to speak through the tears. "I'm being stupid, just… I can't stop."

With a furious shake of his head he moved and gathered me in his arms. When we were settled back on the couch he began to rock back and forth. I knew it was a bad idea, but he was offering comfort, and I took it. Pressing my face against the strength of his chest and holding tight to him I wept until I was empty. I've never been sure how long we stayed like that, but he held me and rocked me until I couldn't find anything else within myself.

His hand rubbed soothing circles against my back until my breathing evened. "You're all wet," I said quietly, my voice muffled against the soaked fabric of his shirt.

"That's okay. Did it help?"

I nodded. "It did, only now I feel like a complete twit."

"Why?"

"I don't usually do this kind of thing," I sighed.

I could almost see the question in his eyes. "What kind of thing?"

"I don't usually crawl up into people's laps and sob all over them."

"Technically you didn't crawl, I picked you up and put you here," he told me. The humor lacing through the words made me laugh.

"Why are you here Draco?"

He shrugged. "I come here sometimes to think, it's quieter than the common room."

"I understand that, but I mean what are you doing here with me in your lap and covered in the evidence of my little breakdown?" I questioned.

"If you can believe it, even before when I was a complete ass I could never stand to see a woman cry."

I couldn't quite suppress the smile. "My how gallant."

"Not really, more cowardly than anything."

I shook my head. "Do you have any idea how much you've changed?"

"I do. I realized how ridiculously gullible I'd been. I believed every word my father had ever spoon fed me and it was frankly scary. I woke up, and I realized I'd been fighting fort the wrong side. I was sick of everything that Voldemort stands for and I decided I wanted to help make sure he couldn't poison the rest of the wizarding world like my father poisoned me. I became one of the good guys. I haven't doubted my decision for a moment since." We both remained quiet for a long moment until Draco finally spoke again. "Why did you sign on for this?"

"Honestly? I had nothing better to do. I'm the only one of my friends who hasn't got a significant other to take up all my time. This takes up otherwise wasted time and it's my significant way of contributing to the war."

His breath tickled the top of my head when he spoke again. "Seems as good a reason as any, maybe even better than most."

I nodded then closed my eyes to revel in the feeling of warm strong arms wrapped around me, anchoring me and soothing. A question I'd forgotten amongst the previous week or so popped back into my head. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"That night I took you to the hospital wing I noticed a scar on your face. The one just under your eye shaped like a tear. I was wondering where it came from."

He sighed. "Truth? I did it. One day I just got fed up with the beatings. I wanted to do something that would be a type of quiet defiance against my father, so I found a knife."

"Oh God."

He nodded. "I was self-destructive. I wanted to defy my father, but more than anything I wanted someone to take notice of what was happening to me. I knew I couldn't ever tell anyone I knew so I chose the tear. I bled like mad. When my father saw it he gave me another beating, ironically. The thing that still bothers me to this day is that he let me keep the scar. He could have gotten rid of it easily with a spell; after all he made the others permanent why couldn't he get rid of one? But as angry as he was he left it, I think it amused him somehow."

I had pulled away to look at his face while he spoke and now I was crying again, this time for him. "I can't even imagine feeling that way."

He looked down at me and frowned a bit. "Hey now, didn't I tell you I can't stand to see a woman cry?"

I nodded and wiped the tears away. "I think you're one of the bravest people I know," I told him. My sadness for him lingered and on an impulse I did what I'd wanted to do since the first day of our absurd partnership. I leaned up and kissed the tear drop under his eye.

When I pulled away I saw emotion surge through his eyes. Judging by the look, I was the first one who had even truly and completely embraced him as he was, scars and all. Something potent and unknown coursed through me and I leaned up again to brush my lips hesitantly against his.

Hesitancy ignited to fire as he fisted his hand in my shirt at my back and I held fast to his shoulders. He took us both deeper and I opened my mouth in acquiescence. His hands moved from my back to tangle in my hair and I heard someone moan. I didn't realize until later that I had been the one moaning. Then, somewhere in that deep place inside of me, I felt a light begin to shine from a part of myself that I had thought was dead. With a little cry of joy I gave myself over to sensation, and for a moment that was all that mattered.

Then we pulled apart and I looked at Draco, realized I was still sitting in his lap and that we were both looking thoroughly used, remembered who I was with; and I panicked. I surged to my feet and without a word I fled. I kept running until I was safe within my quarters.

Once again I found myself gazing at my reflection in the mirror. This time the girl staring back at me alternately thrilled me and terrified me. My hair was tangled wildly around my face and my lips were swollen. My face was flushed and my eyes were wide and startled. Looking at myself then I felt like a complete idiot. What on earth had made me think that Draco Malfoy would want me? I'd practically thrown myself at him. In that moment I resolved to try and forget that night had ever happened. In some ways I felt the best I had in a long time, but I was embarrassed.

Though I tried to forget the feel of his hands on my back and the spark I'd felt for a few brief but wonderful moments, the taste of him lingered on my lips for hours on end.