Hermione was shocked as she had thought that he would be hard to convince, she was so happy that she threw her arms around him and squealed, " I love you Draco, you are the best." Draco hadn't expected to hear that.

Hermione knew exactly what she had said, it had somehow felt right. She hadn't even realized that he had become such an integral part of her life. He had saved her life, given her a place to live, provided a shoulder to cry on and had been a good friend when she had needed one the most and now he had helped her reconcile with her best friend. He was truly special and she loved him for all he had done for her.

Draco's mind was reeling with all kind of thoughts 'Did Hermione just say that she loved me' 'Was she serious or was it in the heat of the moment' 'How was he supposed to react'

Hermione decided to break the embrace and act like she hadn't said anything out of the ordinary. Draco just stared at her as she got off the couch and walked to her bedroom with a skip in her step. Before entering she turned with a cheeky smile and said, "My breakup party is today so you'll have the house all by yourself tonight, you might wanna call the boys over."

Draco was confused….very confused and he didn't like being confused. He mimicked Hermione's actions and went to his bedroom where he plopped himself on his bed and started replaying what had happened.

He had already realized that he had fallen in love with Hermione three years ago when she had unknowingly inspired him to become a better man. He owed Hermione his life and she didn't even know it. He had never told a soul why he had killed his father at the final battle, not even his mother.

He had been looking for his father during the final battle as he was the key to the location of voldemort, he had also thought that maybe he could convince lucius Malfoy to change sides; how wrong he had been. He had entered an abandoned corridor of Hogwarts that had seen a lot of deaths and blood, he had felt the need to come here and he saw red at what he witnessed. A girl lay unconscious on the floor, her body covered in gashes that oozed blood, over her stood a malicious looking lucius who was cackling like a mad man as he tortured the poor girl.

Draco felt his heart stop as he rushed to her side to find a weak pulse, lucius looked at his son with distaste and spat, "Well…Well… what do we have here, a blood traitor crying over a half dead mudblood, reminds me of the weasleys. Draco I can't believe you betrayed me and the dark lord, you are a disgrace to the Malfoy name, I don't know where I went wrong with raising you."

Draco ignored his father and patted Hermione's head calling her name and begging for her to wake up. 'she can't die' he kept repeating these words, willing for them to come true.

Lucius screeched at Draco's obvious distress because of Hermione's condition and cast the cruciatus curse on Draco who writhed in pain at the sudden excruciating pain. Lucius lifted the spell and spat, "You left your family because of her, didn't you. I had seen some change after the mudblood was tortured in our mansion but I had brushed it off thinking that it was a mild reaction to all that had conspired that day. I am ashamed to call you my son and once I am done with the mudblood you'll be next.

Draco was filled with a fury so hot that he felt like he would physically burn someone, in a lightning speed he got up and shoved his father into the wall and said menacingly, "If you lay even one finger on her, I will rip you limb by limb and set you on fire. I am not the scared little boy that you could bully, I am a grown man now and I have made my own choices, I made the choice to see the light and save my family from destruction, something you obviously failed to do."

He knelt beside Hermione who was barely breathing now and started murmuring healing spells. Her gashes started to heal themselves and the bruises started to lighten when suddenly lucius said in a dead cold voice, "Everything had been fine until the mudblood had shown up in our lives, she is the reason why I lost You and Cissa…she will pay for it. Avada kedavra..!

Draco was lucky to cast a reflective curse just in time to save Hermione, he saw his father fall in front of his eyes, dead because of his own curse. He didn't feel any remorse but the pain of losing one's parent cannot be escaped. He knelt by his father's dead body and closed his eyes and murmured, "I wish I didn't have to do this father but I couldn't let the one person die who had given me the hope to live a better and meaningful life."

He turned to look at Hermione who now looked physically healed but was still unconscious and whispered, "You have changed my life Hermione, and you don't even know it. I will do everything in my power to keep you out of harm's way and hopefully one day you'll see me as a changed man."

Draco came back from his flashback and sighed, he had managed to make Hermione see the man he had now become but he hadn't been able to keep her out of harm's way; the Weasley had managed to cause a lot of damage. He consoled himself by thinking that he had atleast managed to save her from dying or he would have never forgiven himself.

He heard her singing in the shower and chuckled, she was singing , 'I am a woman by Helen reddy.' She truly was one of a kind and he'd be damned if he let her go this time. He called Blaise on his wizard mobile that was still not out in the market but was being tested by few of his employees and friends. Blaise didn't pick up the phone so Draco tried again. After a few minutes Blaise answered and literally growled, "what do you want? I was busy."

Draco drawled, "What's got your knickers in a twist, did I disturb your snogging session or something?"

Blaise huffed and that was answer enough for Draco so he said, "I will take that as a yes but this is important, you know that Hermione's breakup party is today, I need you to manipulate Luna into telling you the venue of the party."

Blaise replied, "And why would I do that, whats in there for me?"

Draco chuckled, "You get to attend the party with me and I know that you don't want Luna to dance with another man and believe me, if I know my mother at all then there are going be lots of men and alchohol."

Blaise glanced at Luna who had changed and was now wearing a dark blue dress that was held by two delicate strings, she looked beautiful even without any makeup. She bent down to pick her silver heels and unknowingly gave Blaise a very nice view, although his mind snapped back when Draco said, "The view that you are enjoying right now will be enjoyed by many at that party and I am sure you want to be there to let them know that she is taken.

Blaise knew that Draco was manipulating him but he also knew that whatever he was saying he was true, he wasn't about to let some dimwit dance with his girl. He asked, "ok, I'll find the venue but what's the plan?"

Draco smirked and said, "I'll tell you later when the girls will be off to the party."

Blaise sighed, "Why do you want to go to the party anyway?"

Draco took a deep breath and confessed, "The same reason as yours, the difference is that my girl doesn't even know that she is MY girl."

Blaise chuckled and asked, "And please tell me who is your girl?"

Draco replied with a simple, "I know you are just asking this to annoy me but I'll still oblige; Hermione is the lucky girl, I love her and seeing her with someone else won't be a pleasant experience so that is what I am going to make sure doesn't happen."

Blaise jumped and screamed, "Finally" which startled Luna so much that she fell on her bum while wearing her heels. An angry Luna could be heard screaming at an apologizing Blaise for being a pain in the ass and giving her pain in the ass. Draco laughed at his friend's predicament and ended the call. Tonight was going to an interesting night.

A/n: As I wrote in my profile, I had been having trouble with writing so I had kept it on hold. I updated because of the 13 reviewers who took out the time to review and pleased me to no end.

This story has been set as favorite story by 110 people and is on alert list of 193 readers then why only 13 people bother to review? Lots of LOVEW to all 13 of them, you are the reason

that I kicked myself and wrote another chapter even though I was out of ideas and wasn't feeling inspired.

This chapter is not very long but it was all I could manage, the next chapter will have the breakup party and also Draco's proclamation of love so stay tuned and make sure you review, they are what inspire me to update faster.

Love

Ash