Memo: Now THIS is the half way point. Exactly on it. I'm going to wait for a couple of reviews and a decent amount of hits so I know everyone knows I'm still alive and then I'll start the next chapter which will a bit different involving some un-magical folk that wizards call muggles. Everything will eventually connect and you'll have a nice decent length story and if J.K.R didn't own Harry Potter I'd certainly try and publish it... But seeing she does... I'll just have to write my own :P

She saw it as hell. With towers looming and stretching into the sky as if they went on forever and massive gates blocking her entrance, she knew that what lay beyond those doors was not something that would make her smile.
She remembered what the healers had told her.

Two weeks.

Her body trembled and tears tried to take control of her fragile person, but she inhaled deeply and ground her teeth together. She should be thankful for whatever time she had. She knew she should write letters to her parents. She should tell them that she loved them, and not to come to Hogwarts. That she wouldn't be able to bear seeing them so sad.
Her shoulders shook violently at the thought of her parents never embracing her again.
The tumour in her head was rapidly growing, squeezing, and pulsing like some sort of evil monster. It would slowly kill her brain. It would slowly kill her.

"Are you alright, Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall asked as she slipped a bony and shaky hand on Hermione's trembling shoulder. Hermione looked up at her sadly.

"You always were my favourite Professor," Hermione said with a smile. Tears filled the aging woman's eyes and she wrapped her long thing arms around the younger girl tightly. Her body shuddered with tears as she held the dying girl in her arms. She was so weak and fragile. She looked as if just the lightest of winds would blow her away.

"It'll be alright," Hermione assured the woman. She nodded and straightened her robes and her pointed hat, cleaned her glasses and then perched them once again on the high bridge of her nose. Her eyes flickered over Hermione sadly one last time before her cool exterior took over and she was once again impassive.

"The students have not been informed of your condition, Miss Granger. That is, no student except for the Mr. and Miss Weasley, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Malfoy," Professor McGonagall told her as they opened the doors to the silent castle. It was the middle of the night. No one except for Prefects would be wandering about at this time.
Then again, she couldn't be too sure about Ron or Harry, she thought with a shadow of a smile.

"How much do they know?" Hermione asked sadly, not quite caring that they had found out. She wished she could have told them herself before she had fainted and taken that nasty tumble down the stairs.

"Everything, except for…"

"When I'm going to die," Hermione whispered sadly and Professor McGonagall snapped her jaw shut with an audible chomp, awkward at the topic of conversation.
She slowly began to walk up the Grand Staircase, McGonagall close behind her. Hermione looked back at her awkwardly and the elderly woman sighed loudly.

"I'm sorry, but you are to have someone with you at all times in case of another… accident," she said with a shrug. "I will assign you an escort…."

"Can I choose my own escorts?" Hermione asked hopefully. McGonagall looked unsure, furrowing her thin and high-arched eyebrows.

"It depends on whom you're speaking of," she said sceptically. Hermione sighed.

"I was thinking Draco, Harry, Ron, and Ginny. I mean over all I see at least one of them at all times," she said with a shrug. Professor McGonagall sighed loudly.

"I'm still not too thrilled over this newfound relationship you and Mr. Malfoy have developed," she said with a shake of her head. Hermione bit her lip anxiously.

"But Professor, he and I are just friends. If you hadn't threatened us with losing our Head Boy/Girl privileges, then I suppose that he and I would have killed one another by now," she said with a shrug. "So technically our friendship is because of you, Professor. Don't you think that disapproving now would be just a bit hypocritical?"
McGonagall's eyes narrowed and she didn't answer. They arrived at the portrait of Sir Bentley, who was snoozing quietly. They woke him up and he let them in after they stated the password, him still being half-asleep.

"Good night, Miss Granger," McGonagall bid her before transforming into a cat right in front of her and scampering off into the dark depths of the corridor.
The portrait closed and she was shut in the dark. She turned and slowly trudged towards the Common Room, wondering what awaited her.
Everything was dark as she tip toed through the room. She bit her lip nervously. Moonlight filtered in through the windows and made shadows dance eerily across the wooden floor.

"Hermione?" a voice asked. She froze as a body shot into a sitting position on the couch, a blanket falling from his chest. The moonlight licked across his face and she sighed when she saw Malfoy sitting there. The moon illuminated his eyes and tearstains were just barely dried on his perfect and flawless skin.

"Draco," she whispered in a half cry. He leapt up from the couch and rushed towards her, enveloping her in his arms. She disappeared in his firm grasp and let herself melt against his broad chest. His body shuddered the sobs he wouldn't let escape his lips.

"Oh god, I'm never letting you out of my arms again. Every time you leave them you fall down a set of stairs or something," he said and kissed her forehead sweetly. She giggled and pressed her hot head against his cool skin.

Draco had taken one look at her when she had stepped in and knew how bad things had gotten. Dark rings made her sad eyes stick out. Her hair was tucked up and off of her neck and shoulders and hidden beneath a bandanna, just a few long locks falling across her forehead. He could barely see the bandages beneath the cloth she wore tied around her head. She was so small and fragile, and she looked as if she were going to snap and break down right there. He knew he had to hold her and support her or she would have crumbled right in front of him.

"I don't know what I would have done without you, Malfoy," she mumbled and held him even tighter. He ignored the cold pang he felt when she used his last name instead of his first. She had been referring to him as that for the past six years… it would take a little time for her to adjust to his first name.

"Do you want to go to bed?" He asked. She nodded and yawned.

"I'm just so tired," she whispered and tears filled her eyes slowly. He reached up and brushed them away gently with a small smile. She beamed up at him and then let out a little yelp as he lifted her into his arms as if she weighed nothing. He began to head towards her bedroom.

"No," she whispered and placed a trembling hand on his firm chest. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her. "I want to go to yours," she said and a blush crept rapidly into her neck and cheeks and she adverted her eyes. He smiled down at her and said nothing, just changed direction and headed for his own bedroom.

He walked in through the still dark and then slipped her under the covers. She lay there perfectly still as she felt him remove her shoes and slip the robes off of her shoulders. He made no move to undress her any further, just simply slipped under the covers beside her. She crawled towards his warm body and wrapped herself around him. Her face was resting on his chest and she listened to the firm, steady beat of his heart. She smiled and planted a subtle kiss on the gentle curve of his chest.
He wrapped his arms around her and she smiled. He was the one she wanted to carry her away to a better place. He was the one she wanted to make everything better.

"I just want you to hold me," Hermione whispered and he held her so firmly and tightly that she broke down in quiet sobs, muffling her tears against his chest. Her body shuddered and trembled, and she held onto him in desperation.

"Then I'll never let you go," he mumbled and pressed his lips gently against her temple.

"You're my slithering ferret," she giggled. He laughed.

"And you're my mud…" he stopped, frozen in horror at what he almost said. "And you're just plainly mine," he corrected himself quickly and held her even closer. She sighed.

"What's going on between us?" she mumbled. "Just a few weeks ago you were on the train calling me a mudblood and making my blood boil with hatred," she whispered. "And I did the same to you," she added guiltily. He shook his head.

"Hermione… I suppose… I suppose there's something you should know. You're not the only one who has secrets… and not the only one who had a hell of a summer," he said quietly.
She looked up into his eyes and he looked at her sadly and told his story. Tears filled her eyes and she clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs of pity. This caused his eyes to fill with tears at the memory. His scar burn and throbbed in pain as he told her about the knife ripping apart his back.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" she asked in a half whisper.

"The same reason you didn't tell anyone. I didn't want their pity," Malfoy said in a husk voice and stared deep into her eyes. Their full-moon-on-the-water depth entranced her and she leaned in towards him… closing in…
Her lips brushed gently against his, in the first kiss that meant more than physical attraction. It was the first kiss they shared that had nothing to do with painkiller's side effects.
It was the first mutual kiss, gentle like a feather dancing across your skin, but erupting with more love and compassion than any two people ever shared on earth.
He pulled away and looked at her. Her eyes were glossed over and a small smile was on her face.

"You asked me what you meant to me…" she started and bit her lip. He nodded, not answering her. "I think the question really should be what you don't mean to me. Ask me," she demanded quietly.

"What don't I mean to you?" he asked. She smiled at him.

"There's nothing that you don't mean to me, Draco," she answered. He smiled at her brightly and she blushed. "I know its corny and not romantic or anything, but I have a brain tumour I'm not exactly fit for complex…"

"Shut up and kiss me," Draco mumbled and then pressed his lips against hers fervently. The two of them wrapped around each other and held on to one another, kissing like no one had ever been kissed before.

They wished that they could stay in that moment forever.

And as their lips danced and the light of the full moon shone in through the small window, Draco silently vowed that he wouldn't let Hermione go… he wouldn't let her die…

He swore that they'd have a million moments just like this, for the rest of their lives.