Hermione woke on Christmas day, blinking from the rays of sunlight peeking through the cracks in the curtains. She felt Draco's body pressed against hers with his arms draped over her and she smiled. She carefully rolled over so that she was facing him and looked up at his face. He looked so peaceful, his face so serene that she couldn't help but smile. She leant over and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. He began to stir and his brow furrowed before his eyes crinkled and he opened them. He looked groggy and Hermione put her hand on his side. For a moment he looked slightly confused but when he came to he pulled her into him and kissed her deeply.

Hermione let out a small groan and lifted her hands so that they were entwined in his messy blonde hair. He shifted his body so that he was lying on his side and holding her into his rock hard body. She felt a shiver run through her body as she felt him beside her. She realised how inexperienced she was compared to him. How many girls has he done this with before?

She tries to concentrate on her thoughts but she succumbs to her impulses and allows herself to melt into him. His kisses become softer until he is looking down at her, the tip of his nose gently grazing hers.

"Sorry, I… I thought it might have all been a dream." Hermione watched a smile flicker onto his lips and she couldn't help but return it.

"Merry Christmas Draco." She pulled him in for a long purposeful kiss and he didn't argue.

"Merry Christmas," he managed to choke out when their embrace broke.

She became suddenly aware that she was hardly clothed and she felt her cheeks flush. She tried to subtly tuck the sheets between the two of them and he smirked.

"Embarrassed are you?" He said with a hint of his usual arrogance.

"What? Why would you say that?" She protested.

He smirked again and reached down to pull the sheets away and she knew that her face was giving her away. She looked away from his eyes and felt his body shake as he chuckled.

"Fine, I won't look, but just so you know, it'll be tempting as hell." He rolled over and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

Hermione couldn't help watching him, his body was so exposed. Her eyes traced the lines of the muscles in his back and couldn't help noticing the way the paleness of his skin made the red on his boxers stand out.

She heard him laugh and looked up to see the side of his face as he looked over his shoulder. "By all means, you can look as long as you want." More arrogant chuckling and again she felt the heat in her cheeks.

"I… I mean I wasn't…"

"Yes you were, don't worry, I find it quite flattering really. Is there, anything else you want to see?" He smiled cheekily and stood up in front of her.

He put his hands out to his sides and kept up his smile and she laughed without looking up.

"Alright! I was looking! You don't need to do that!" She looked up at him and tried to avoid his body, focussing only on his face.

Draco must have noticed this and so he continued to stand there staring at her, the self-importance written all over his face. They stood staring at one another before Hermione's eyes darted to his broad shoulders and he laughed.

"You can't help yourself can you?"

"I am in control of myself!"

He leant in and took her head in his hands, pulling her face towards his for a deep hungry kiss and she realised just how powerless she was.

As Draco held her in his hands and felt her kiss heating up under his lips he thought that there was no way anyone could be so perfect by accident. How much of this had been inspired by someone else? How long ago had she and Weasley parted ways? Was she just taking him under her wing because she felt sorry for him? Or was it because she needed companionship after breaking up with Weasley?

He pulled away and walked towards his clothes.

"Are you going to open it?" He turned around to see her looking up at him unexpectedly.

She was so beautiful sitting in the sheets, he remembered how soft her bare legs felt against his and even though he had woken up with her arms around him he still didn't believe it could be true.

"Draco?" He had been staring at her silently for too long.

"What?"

"Are you going to open the gift I got you?" she looked up expectantly and he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the small paper parcel.

He pulled the string and ripped the paper exposing a gold pocket watch on a chain. He flicked it open and the inscription began to scribe itself:

Pure of Blood, Pure of Heart

He felt the smile burn the corners of his lips and he knew that she could never know how much it meant to him. He wasn't even sure that he could comprehend it.

"Do you like it?" She bit her bottom lip anxiously.

"I don't really know what it means, but it's nice." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"I cast the inscription spell myself." She gave a small smile and looked down, "you should know what it means, or at least figure it out."

He knew that he should tell her what it means to him, but somehow the words just wouldn't form on his lips. "I couldn't figure out what it means." He grumbled.

"You should."

"Well I can't."

"Why are you so stubborn?"

"Why are you so stubborn?"

"I know you know what I meant, why are you so scared of admitting that?"

"Why do you always have to fight me?"

"Well isn't that just the pot calling the cauldron black." She looked up with an eyebrow raised and a smug look on her face, it almost made him smile, instead it made him angry.

"Do you think you know everything? You don't know anything about me so why are you pretending you do?" He pulled on his shirt and began to do up his buttons.

"Do you think you went by unnoticed for the past two years? I noticed, I could see that you were hurting, it's not your fault!"

"How many times do I have to say just leave it!" He swung his arm to try and silence her but he knew it wouldn't work.

"I know what it feels like to do things you regret, do you think I don't feel guilty about some of the things I did last year?"

"You?! At least people respect you; you were on the side fighting for survival, not fighting to win! Do you think I will get anywhere in this world when everyone knows my face, knows what I've done?"

"There are things I am not proud of, Draco, but that does not mean they define me!"

"I'll say it again, at least you will be looked upon with some shred of respect and dignity, and what will I get? I had no choice but to do what was asked of me! If I didn't, I would have been killed. Maybe I should have died, used some courage and died for what I thought was right like all those others who died because they didn't care about their own life, just the collective life of their faction! I didn't die for either one so I am a coward!" He balled up his fists and his face was contorted with rage.

"You were coerced by not only Voldemort but by your parents as well! I cannot imagine what kind of pain that inflicted." She reached out a hand to touch his arm and he pulled it away violently.

"Don't talk about my parents. And don't say his name." He said, his voice shaking with fury. "You don't know anything! So stop trying to fix me and stop trying to act like you know me… Nobody does." He turned away from her and almost whispered the last words, he wasn't even sure that she heard them.

"I know that if you thought there was any way out of it, you would have acted, but you were trapped, I know!" She was standing behind him now, she didn't try to touch him and he thought it might have been because she was afraid of his reaction.

"There were ways out."

"Without dying Draco, it's not selfish to want to save your own life if you can, it's human nature. Do you think any of the others would have done half as much as they did if they did not value their own lives? Or the lives of the ones they loved?" She was almost pleading with him now.

"Potter didn't seem to value his own life very much; he walked straight into that forest to die. And he came back for me in the Room of Requirement. He could've left me to die; he should've."

"Well, Harry is just-"

"See the way you talk about him, the way everyone talks about him; with admiration! Saint Potter." He almost spat the words.

"You really have to stop calling him that. It's not his fault that Voldemort chose him as the child from the prophecy."

"The Chosen One. Saint Potter."

"It is not his fault that Voldemort set his sights on Harry just as it is not your fault that he set his sights on you, just different circumstances. Harry had years to prepare and Dumbledore on his side. Who was on your side? No one!"

"Thanks for pointing that out Granger, exactly what I wanted to hear." At least she was starting to put him in his place, all this niceness was confusing.

"You know what I mean. No one was positively reinforcing you, I mean you had Snape, and Snape was a good man, one of the best, but with you he had to be loyal to Voldemort. That was a part of the plan to save Harry." She must have seen him wince at the Dark Lord's name. "Can you still not stand to hear his name? He's dead, Voldemort is dead!"

"Shut up!" He heard her sigh and turned around to face her. "I know he is, that doesn't change how I react to his name!"

"I'm sorry, it must be hard for you, to face everything that happened. Having to deal with everything that you did, and that he did to-"

"Don't pity me!"

"I don't pity you!" He thought he had seen it in her eyes but she looked up with fierce eyes, like she was still fighting.

"You do! Or else why would you be talking to me? Why would you have been here with me all this time?" She had to pity him, it was the only explanation.

"I don't pity you, you had Snape, working for Dumbledore by working for Volde- The Dark Lord, to keep Harry safe-"

"Now you're just being condescending." She folded her arms and sighed.

"Which would you prefer: pity, or condescension?" She said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Condescension."

"I thought so." She paused. "I mean it's not like Dumbledore walked up to you and told you that anything you do is okay. I always did feel annoyed that they used you in their game just like Voldemort. Maybe they were trying to keep you safe but they seemed just as happy to let you suffer. It was all a part of the plan."

"Part of the plan? Of course it was part of the plan; I was supposed to kill Dumbledore for Him! And he may as well have died at my hands."

"You didn't kill Dumbledore! Snape did!"

"If it weren't for me he might not have!"

"That's not true, believe me! The plan was always for Snape to kill Dumbledore! It was Dumbledore's plan!" He couldn't believe that, even if it was true.

He was in too deep now that he didn't know how to get out. How much more was going to slip out of his mouth?

"It wasn't your fault Draco, I know you didn't like Dumbledore, I know you thought he was a joke but more than anything I know you wouldn't do something like that unless you were forced. You don't think I know anything about you but I've been in your classes since we were eleven, I know enough." He looked up and she put her hand out to him.

He looked down at it and sighed, letting his pent up rage leave him and he felt exhausted. He stepped forward and fell to his knees. Hermione put a hand on either side of his face and his hands clasped her shoulders.

"Why do you keep doing this Draco? Why do you keep tearing yourself down?" He wouldn't look at her. Every time he did this, she was there, why wouldn't she just leave? He tried to but how could he leave now? There was no chance for him to find something like this with anyone else. She was the only one. "Do you want me to leave, is that it?" He looked up with tears in his eyes.

"What?" He choked.

"If you want me to walk away from you, or if you thought this would be a one week holiday… thing, then I'm going to disappoint you. I'm not walking away now Draco." She pulled his face into hers and their lips collided with a salty kiss.

It was a hard kiss, the kind that Draco had thought would make him feel nothing, but she made him feel everything. He felt his anger, his pain, his fondness for her… his lust, it all hit him at once and he didn't know how to feel.

He wrapped his arms tightly around her and opened his mouth to deepen their kiss. He heard her release a groan from the back of her throat and he growled. Without breaking their kiss, he got to his feet and pushed her back onto the bed. He felt her push her body against his from under him and slide her hands up and into his hair. She felt so warm underneath him and he wanted so much to touch more of her, feel more of her, and have her wrapped around him never to let him go. He just couldn't let it be now, not like this; she deserved better.

He pulled away and looked down at her; her hair was splayed behind her and she smiled up at him so sweetly. He was panting slightly and he gave her a quizzical look.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?" She looked confused.

"I was… I was so angry… and… and now…"

She leant up and left a kiss on his mouth that was so soft he thought he might have imagined it. "You get worked up too easily."

She tapped him on the arm and he moved aside. She pulled on her jeans and a sweater. He started to pull on the rest of his clothes as she headed for the door. "I'll just see if everyone has left the common room." She left and he waited. He took the golden pocket watch from the floor and put it in the pocket of his coat. "Quickly, we can get out before anyone even notices you." He pulled on his shoes and they ran through the common room.

When they reached the corridor outside the common room she stopped him. "I understand if you don't want to sit with me in the hall for breakfast." Her face said otherwise.

"No, I can… I'll sit with you." There was almost no one here anyway, he thought.

He saw a small smile flicker onto her face and they walked to the great hall. When they entered there were only ten students. They seemed to look at one another curiously but went back to eating and reading letters from their families. They sat down together at the end of the Gryffindor table and a few platefuls of a breakfast feast appeared in front of them.

As they were filling their plates, two owls flew into the hall and headed towards them.

Hermione untied her letters from the owl's leg, it was Errol again. He looked exhausted from carrying them all. There was one from her parents; they must have made some type of contact with the Weasley family. It was probably Harry. He was the only one who knew any real information about how muggles function. There was one from Harry, Ginny, Molly, Neville, even Ron had written to her. She started to open the one from her parent when she heard it.

"You filthy wretch!" Pansy's voice rang out all through the hall and Hermione turned, expecting to see her standing over them.

Instead, she looked down to see a red seething envelope hovering in front of Draco, who was now an even paler shade of white.

"How dare you even think of leaving me alone on that train?! You scum! No wonder no one else even bothers to talk to you anymore! No one else cares! You pathetic piece of filth! You had better be waiting for me on the platform when my train pulls back in! You are nothing without me! You're useless! You can't even do what you're told! I'll see you when I get back. You had better be there." Her voice echoed in the hall, her piercing screeches caused everyone to turn and look at Draco.

He was looking at the spot where the howler had been before it disintegrated, horror written all over his face. His hands were shaking and they were slowly balling up into fists. Hermione didn't know what to do for him; she was just as stunned as everyone else in the room. He stood up slowly and walked out of the hall. Hermione stood up to follow him and as she leant down to collect her letters, she realised that the howler was the only one Draco had received.