Chapter dedication goes to LukeyLover, as she was the 310th reviewer.
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You can find her playlists in reviews. :)

(Draco)

'Draco, please leave.' Hermione whispered.

Draco opened his eyes cautiously and looked up at Hermione through his eyelashes, blinking away the fat tears that clung to them. The girl was watching him, obviously irate that he had not yet followed her command and left the ward. There was a little pity in her large brown eyes, but not enough to allow him to stay with her. Not enough to allow him to stay, and perhaps – if he pleaded and cried for long enough – to comfort him. What Draco wanted most at that moment was to talk to someone. Finally talking about everything that had been festering for far too long inside his head had caused Draco to have an epiphany: keeping his thoughts and emotions bottled up was not healthy. Doing so had, in fact, nearly driven him to a nervous breakdown.

But there was no-one he felt he could possibly talk to about such things apart from Hermione. He did not know why he felt that he could talk to her, for up until recently he had felt nothing but animosity for the girl. Perhaps his ever growing obsession with her had made him realize that Hermione had a good nature and a kind heart and would not turn away someone in need – even if that someone had acted less than amiably towards her. That much had been made clear to Draco when she had thrown herself in front of him to protect him from harm earlier that day. There was no-one apart from her, Draco felt, who wouldn't tell him to stiffen up and stop being a snivelling fool if he confided in them. He could not even trust those closest to him, namely Pansy and Blaise, with his problems, for he was wise enough to know that they were friendly towards him only because being the companion of someone with wealth, power and social status benefitted them, not because they merely liked his personality and company. Apart from Hermione, Draco was alone. And coincidently Hermione had just told him to get away from her and stay away.

'Draco,' Hermione said, her tone awkward, and edged a bit closer to the edge of the bed she sat on. 'I'm sorry, Draco... You need to leave. You can't stay here. I don't want you here.'

Hermione's words, like a punch in the stomach, re-confirmed the fact that he was isolated and friendless. Her rejection devastated him. He was alone. Alone. Alone. Alone. That word, that worst of words, bounced around inside his head and mocked him gleefully. Feeling hollow and jilted, Draco scrunched his eyes closed to lock away the tears that had again sprung forth from his tear ducts. He struggled desperately to find some magical words that would make her cave in and allow him to stay and talk, for he did not believe that if he was left to his own devices he would not do something stupid.

'Please...' Draco whispered, feeling the need to fill the void-like silence with something, anything. 'Please let me stay.' He choked.

'Why, Draco? Why should I let you stay?' Hermione murmured compassionately.

'I need...' He choked.

'What do you need, Draco?' She asked, eyeing him somewhat suspiciously.

'I need... someone to talk to...' Draco breathed through heavy sobs and ran a quivering hand through his short shock of blonde hair.

'And you think that someone should be me? What would there be to talk about? We have nothing in common. Nothing. Ergo, Draco, there would be nothing to talk about.' Hermione snapped impatiently.

'Just listen, then... Please.' Draco muttered exasperatedly, for he did not know how to tell her why he needed to talk to her, and did not have the courage to tell her what he needed to talk about. He looked up at Hermione, large, glob like tears still racing down his cheeks, hoping that the expression on his face would convey to her what he could not find the words for, and pushed himself up from the floor and settled onto his knees. 'Please.' He said again, staring into her eyes, seeking out an answer. Her brows were furrowed in thought. Draco tried to take a hold of one of her hands, but she pulled away quickly, as if his touched would burn her.

The pair sat like that for several minutes, Draco on his knees looking up at Hermione, those deep grey eyes pleading, Hermione looking out of the window behind her bed, deep in thought. Then, when Draco was almost on the verge of giving up on her and walking out, she spoke. One solitary word.

'Why?' She whispered pensively.

Flabbergasted, Draco opened his mouth and blinked. The weight of Hermione's question was enormous, and Draco felt that whatever answer he gave would leave a lasting impression on her. And he did not know, for the life of him, what to say. 'Buh…' Was all that came out of his mouth. He pulled himself together. 'I beg your pardon?' He muttered. 'What do you mean, why?' He asked, trying to keep his tone placid.

'I meant what I said, Draco. Why do you want to talk to me so desperately? Surely there is someone you can talk to in your group of friends, or whatever it is they are?' Hermione looked down at him but somehow not at him. Her eyes seemed to bore through him, focusing on whatever it was behind him. She looked… hurt.

He listened attentively and then thought about her words, replaying them again and again inside his head. There had been a deeper meaning to her question than she had probably wanted to put across.

She thinks that you regard her as a lesser species, Draco. Snape's voice murmured inside his head, bringing light to that deeper meaning. Can you blame her? All of the derogatory remarks on her bloodline you have made over the years, is that really so surprising? And yet here you are, wanting her forgiveness and asking for a soul-searching conversation. You're confusing her. Have some tact, boy.

Draco waited for his Father's voice to counter what Snape had said, but to Draco's surprise and relief it did not come. Only the echo of Snape's voice and the quiet whispers of his own thoughts were present. He had not realized that he had been sat for a few minutes staring up at Hermione with furrowed brows, and hastily gave her the answer she was so obviously seeking before she could take his uncomfortably intent gaze the wrong way. He took and this time kept hold of her small, cold hands and gave her a tentative smile, heeding Snape's advice of having tact when dealing with her. He desperately wanted to heal the gaping wound he had made; after all, Draco had begun to feel like Hermione was the only person who really felt anything for him. Pansy would not have thrown herself in front of him to shield him from a curse. 'No, Hermione. It's… just you. Please, let me stay.' He murmured and allowed his weak smile to widen a little.

He waited for her reply, anticipating it. Draco had expected those nine little words to heal the wound: make her forgive him and allow him to talk to her, as he so wanted – needed, really – but no. They had the opposite effect to the one that was desired. Draco's face fell and his grip slackened as Hermione's expression contorted into a frown. A tear dribbled out of one of her eyes and she fervently shook her head.

'I'm sorry, Draco. You can't stay.'

'Hermione…' He pleaded.

'No, Draco. I can't have a conversation with you, not now. I need some time to think...'

'Please. Hermione, please. Please let me stay.' Draco choked, tears bubbling behind his eyes and threatening to spill out again. When she shook her head again, apologetically this time, out they came. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder as he sobbed like a child. Quiet pleases were mingled in with the chokes and sobs. 'Please!' He wailed, his bottom lip sticking out a little.

'You have to go, Draco.' She got up from the bed, grasped his wrist and pulled him up, placing a wary hand on the small of his back as she spun him around and attempted to usher him out of the large room. It was a good thing that there were no other students in the hospital wing – Draco was very unwilling to leave, digging his heels into the stone floor and lashing out feebly when Hermione tried to pull him towards the door. Finally his strength seemed to leave him and he allowed her to accompany him as he shuffled towards the door of the ward, back bent a little, head hanging low. She bid him goodnight and he walked away from her, looking back cautiously at her not once, but twice, smiling feebly at her each time.

*

(Hermione)

'Hermione, Malfoy's looking at you.' Harry said rather angrily, his mouth full of toast and eggs, and inclined his head over his shoulder and towards the Slytherin table. He was still seething about yesterday, it seemed. Dumbledore and McGonagall had dismissed him after Madame Pomfrey assessed his mental state. They had not punished him; they had merely warned him to control his temper in the future. That had surprised Hermione, but had not said anything. Ron, free from Lavender at last – thank Merlin, Harry had said upon hearing the news of their break-up – heard Harry and looked towards the other house's table as well. He shot Malfoy a malicious glare that would not have been amiss on Professor Snape's sallow face. Hermione finished swirling honey into her porridge with her wand, put the instrument down and glanced quickly over to where she knew Draco would be sitting. He was there, and was definitely, as Harry had sad, looking at her, a small smirk on his face, stroking the head of a Greater Sooty Owl which had it's eyes closed and was hooting contentedly.

Hermione did not scowl at him as Harry and Ron were doing, for what he had said to her the previous night had changed the way she thought of him just a little; she no longer saw him as an arrogant, smarmy, spoilt boy. She realized now that Draco Malfoy was a confused, tortured soul, torn between two sides of a violent war. He had the choice of staying on the dark side, safe, as a member of a group that most of his family were a part of, a group led by a sadistic, megalomaniac half-blood who asked Draco to follow his orders blindly and without hesitation. Or, he could flee from the group and join the light side, abandon his family, leave all that he had ever known and risk certain death. Hermione felt sorry for him. It was not surprising that he had wanted to confide in her.

But she just hadn't been able to bring herself to allow him to. His apology had seemed sincere, yes, and Hermione had felt such pity for the way he had seemed so disgusted with himself and of the things he had allowed himself to do. The way he had cried so freely in front of her, pleaded so desperately with her to allow him to stay and talk with her truly broke her heart, but Hermione was one to hold grudges and simply could not find it within herself to forgive Draco just yet. He had hurt her so much for so long, and to her one heartfelt apology was simply not enough for her to put all he had done to her behind her and become his confidant, perhaps more.

It had been painful to make that decision as what Hermione had begun to feel for the side of Draco that she knew lay buried deep within him, that he had revealed to her on a few wonderful occasions, was becoming more and more deep set with every day that passed. She found it disgusting that she felt more than pity for Draco – she had told him that she loved him, for Merlin's sake. That had been a foolish thing to do, she knew. It was wrong that after everything he had done to her, all the taunting and name calling, the physical injury, acting amiably to her one day and then viciously the next and messing with her emotions that Hermione was able to feel anything but hatred for him. But the feelings were there. As he had said, 'We can not help who we love.'

Draco continued to watch Hermione throughout breakfast, much to Harry and Ron's dismay. She stayed silent as they grumbled about him, ate her bowl of porridge, – which was delicious, as usual – feigned reading the paper so Harry and Ron would not disturb her and stared right back at him. He wore an expression of twisted joy – yes, the Malfoy façade was back – as he stared at her, mildly surprised that she did not wither away from his gaze as she usually did. He seemed to be challenging her to get up from her table, stride over to him and ask him what he wanted, but she did not, merely content to drink every glorious inch – oh, how conflicted she was – of him and lose herself in all of her memories of him, trying desperately to make up her mind: she had told him she needed time to think, and think she most certainly was. It was impossible for her to decide whether or not she would accept his request of companionship. The reasons not to accept and the reasons to accept the request were equal in number. She was desperate to know what he was thinking. Truly desperate. She felt like screaming and tearing out her hair; Hermione was full of teenage angst.

Breakfast flew by. She got up to leave, keeping her eyes fixed on Draco as she did so. He noticed that she was taking her leave and hastily pulled something from one of the pockets of his finely tailored robes, placed it in his owl's beak and scratched behind its ear. It fluttered away from the Slytherin table and not out of the hall as she had expected it to, but towards her.

Dumbstruck, she watched it get closer and closer. Finally, it landed next to her, hooting to announce that she had mail. With a shaking hand she took the folded up piece of parchment from its open beak. It hooted again – a goodbye – and took to the air. It glided across the great hall and landed next to it's master, who looked down at it and scratched it's ear affectionately. He looked up, smiling, and his smile turned into a smirk when he saw Hermione was still watching him, that gormless expression still present on her face. Draco's eyes were sparkling. They silently challenged her to open the piece of parchment in her hands. She did.

Granger, he had written in his elegant script. Take a short walk with me in the grounds? Now? I need to talk to you. Draco.

Hermione looked up from the parchment and stared at Draco, scowling. He wore a quizzing expression, obviously wanting an answer to his request. Hermione sighed, furrowed her brows and shook her head. His face fell into an irritated pout and he got up and stalked out of the great hall.

Ron had noticed that she held a note in her now clenched fist. 'Who's the note from, 'Mione?'

'No-one.' She muttered and rushed off to lessons.

*

During breakfast for the next three days Hermione and Draco stared at each other across the hall. Hermione's gaze became increasingly longing and conflicted and Draco's grey eyes looked more and more puzzled and hurt. At the end of breakfast, without fail, she received a note from Draco, in the same neat writing, brought to her by his large black owl. All of them requested the same thing: a quick walk in the grounds. Each time a very hopeful Draco received a curt shake of the head from Hermione, and each time his face fell into that same disdainful pout and he stalked out of the hall. She avoided him as much as she could the rest of the time.

Both Harry and Ron had noticed that she was becoming very silent, thoughtful and withdrawn and constantly asked what the matter was, but she did not cave in. A battle raged in her head; Hermione was still unsure what to do regarding Draco's desire to talk to her and become friendly with her. Eventually Harry and Ron gave up and stopped asking her why she was so quiet, and left her to ponder.

By the fourth day, a Saturday, Hermione had made up her mind. She was reluctant to keep her eyes locked with Draco's at breakfast, fearful that if she did she would vomit, but she calmed her queasy stomach with a mug of hot tea and sipped it absentmindedly as she stared at him. The end of breakfast came and the owl swooped over to her. She did not even bother reading the note. Draco watched her intently, his eyes pleading with her to nod, nod and take that stroll with him.

Hermione closed her eyes, ran one of her quivering hands through her wild curls, sighed and gave three quick, small nods that would not have been discernable to anyone but Draco.

--

Whew! I'm so sorry that you've all had to wait so long for this chapter, I've felt little motivation to write over the past six days and when I finally did get down to do some writing yesterday I found it very hard to get any writing done. D: Thankfully I got the first part done, which was the bit I was having most trouble with - it's really hard to write Draco in pain, bless him - and then the latter bits just flew out of me. :) As an apology that chapter was super long, longer than I originally intended it to be. I think it's the longest one yet! I hope you enjoyed it! I think this has been my favourite chapter because of the soul searching and confliction on Hermione's part, and Draco's realization of what a twat he's been towards Hermione. It's nice that he's not being such a bastard, isn't it? C:

What do you all think is going to happen next? I'm not too sure myself yet... Review and give me some ideas on what you think should happen during their walk, it would be lovely to see what you all think!

Please review this chapter if you enjoyed it, or even if you didn't. I put a great deal of time and effort into writing this story and it irritates me just a little bit when I don't get a great response for a chapter... You're all there reading, I can see that (400 of you read the last chapter and only 23 reviewed?), why don't you review? Argh! Reviews are for me like flower nectar is to bees... Make me a happy bee and review! Bzz! :D

I hope to update in the next week, but I warn you now, I start school again on Tuesday and this is a very important year for me. ;-; I promise to get another chapter up as quickly as I possibly can, though!

Mentions for reviewers of the last chapter, as always:

mysteryssister, Coloring the Sky, .xXx, ixamxsquee, Kitty, CyberDog101, LukeyLover (Oh! I loved your review! It made me giggle! :D), Queen of Lunacy, hemery, Lin Koorbloh (You can hug everyone, haha c: ), Courtney (Too much of a wuss? I have to disagree... Re-read HP6, please, you'll see how emotional and conflicted Draco was), AnnaOtaku, Doni, starlight-x-A-x, DragonGirl323, Stevie/Megan, SaraSyco, MissStud, laurelad12, rosebud23, Evans17, and SnowCharms!

Lots of love,

Laura :)

P.S. 20 chapter milestone! Wootwoot! -parties-