"She'll never talk to me; I ignored her all this time." Draco sat on an old log in the forest with his head in his hands. "What have I done?"

"Stop worrying about what you've done and start thinking about what you're going to do." Luna sat by his side and looked over at him.

"She doesn't even look at me anymore." He felt his anger rising inside him.

He hated himself for the things that he has done.

"You're so self-destructive Draco." She said softly. "You need to have more faith in yourself."

"How can I? I'm nothing." He gritted his teeth.

"Hermione doesn't think so. She tried so hard to get you back because you were something to her. I don't think you're nothing either. You're just guilty."

"Of course I am!" He hissed. "You've seen it, there is no way to get rid of it, you all made sure of that… You all say you want to move on but you make sure that you know who you can't trust." He felt so angry.

His Dark Mark was still burned into his arm from when his father gave it to him all those years ago. They had a process to remove it but no one ever really got rid of the mark. Draco knew why. It was so they could always remember who was on the wrong side, they always had someone to blame. He never even wanted it.

He never wanted his job or the mark, but who was to know that? Who would even ask?

"I know you never wanted any of this, Hermione knows too."

"What am I going to do?"

"I don't know." She shrugged.

He looked over at her and raised his eyebrows. "I thought you were going to help."

"I think you've had enough of people telling you what to." They looked at each other for a moment before he turned away. "Just tell me what you need me to do."

"What?"

"I'll help you Draco. Let me know if you need something, but right now I have to go and meet Neville." She heard him scoff and mumble something like 'Longbottom' under his breath. "Don't be an arse Draco; you're more like him than you know." She left him with a smile and skipped away.

She bewildered him sometimes, the way she could just make the best of every situation. Draco always seemed to make the worst of them. He must have been sitting there for hours before he thought of something he could possibly do to win her back.

Hermione had thrust herself right back into her studies since she decided to move on. She was heading to the library after her classes to catch up on some study for her ancient runes class; she really had let herself slip.

She walked with Harry as he was heading down to meet Ginny before they left for the common room.

"The two of you seem to be back to the way you were." She said as she hitched up her bag of books to return.

"I guess we just realised that we shouldn't take for granted everything that's happened." He smiled as he thought about it all.

"Well don't tell me too much, I promised Ginny she could tell me the full story." Harry laughed and Hermione could see that he was thinking about her.

He was always thinking about her now. It's not like he had to worry about anything other than passing his final year exams.

"So I suppose you and Ron are well and truly done then?"

"I don't think we were right for each other. Besides, was anyone ever going to tell me about this girl from Christmas?" Harry looked a little guilty.

"I… didn't know that you knew about that."

"Honestly Harry I don't mind, he's my friend, and we're slowly getting back to normal." Normal, now that seemed like a strange concept.

"I'll see you later, in the common room." He pointed in the direction he was headed and she turned the corner with a parting smile.

As she returned her old books and went to find some more useful ones she eyed a quiet corner where she could study in peace. Keeping herself busy was working well to distract her from other things and she had stopped feeling that pang in the pit of her stomach whenever she thought of him.

They made their choices and it was finally done. They could never have worked anyway. They were more than just star-crossed.

Her fingers gently traced the dusty spines and she had a sense of déjà vu from that day in the library when everything began. She poked her head around the corner and saw the phantoms of her memories pressed up against the bookcase. As she stepped around the next set of shelves she stopped when she saw him standing there looking up at the books just as she had been doing moments earlier.

She froze for a moment and as he turned to look up at her she spun back to the edge of the bookshelf and hid herself. She was sure that he had seen her.

She started walking quickly to the other side of the library, back to where her quiet study table was. Wait, she thought, I'd be alone back there.

She walked through the main centre of the library and sighed shakily as she slowed down and pretended to look at the herbology books. Surprisingly it did distract her from her thoughts as she started thinking that Neville has probably read all of these at least once or twice.

"Hermione?" She was well and truly frozen now.

Her eyes darted side to side and saw a few faces look up curiously. There was no way she could mistake that voice. That cool voice laden with despair in a way that only she could really understand. Maybe Luna could, but she preferred not to think about it.

"Hermione?" He repeated.

She turned slowly and looked up to meet his eyes. Those big blue eyes were glassy and he looked so fragile. Her heartbeat was racing but she didn't let emotion show on her face.

"You look…" He started quietly.

"What do you want Draco?" She asked flatly, she was trying not to react to him being here and so close.

He looked so guilty.

"I wanted to see how you were. I, uh… I got your messages and I should have-"

"I can't do this Draco, please, just go. Please." She could feel her eyes becoming damp and she didn't want him to see it.

"Hermione I-"

"Please." She felt a tear spill from her eyes and roll down her cheek.

She expected him to get angry and storm away, but he was defeated, broken. His eyes betrayed the hurt inside and his face dropped as he turned to walk away.

She exhaled sharply and panted a little as she let the emotion out. Why did she have to see him, why did he have to talk to her again?

She sat down in the middle of the library and saw him out of the corner of her eye, sitting alone in the silent corner that she would love to be sitting in, alone.

No matter how much she read, it just wouldn't stick. It was an hour before the little paper swan flew over to her and perched itself on her book. She took it between her fingers and she knew exactly where it came from.

As she opened the paper she gasped and felt the tears threaten to spill out from under her eyelashes and down over her cheeks.

In scrawled handwriting there was nothing more than two words written down.

The words were 'I'm Sorry'.