Hermione asked for a few minutes to get out of her dress and into something more comfortable, leaving Draco to organize his thoughts. He undressed mindlessly, his focus on rehearsing arguments he'd made in dreams as he swapped to some dark colour satin pajama bottoms and a simple white tee. He brushed his teeth and tidied up his room to keep his hands busy until he figured Hermione had to be ready and found himself across the hallway, knocking tentatively at her door.

"Come in!" came a familiar voice, albeit shakier than usual.

The first thing Draco noticed was that she looked just as nervous as him, wringing her hands as she jerked her head towards the settee facing the fireplace. She took one side, sitting with her legs tucked securely beneath her and a pillow against her chest as a sort of self-imposed restraint. One hand twirled a strand of her liberated curls, still struggling to reach beyond her delicately covered shoulders; the other held the cushion tightly, the strain in her hand visible.

Draco's eyes washed over her as he took a seat across from her on the other end of the small, intimate settee. She wore a knee length mauve coloured silk nightgown with lace at the neck, covered by an equally short black robe. Draco peeked up from her cushion to her face, illuminated by the raging fire and rose tinted from his appraisal. Her lips were still red from the party earlier, but seemed to be sporting a fresh layer of sheen beneath her teeth as she bit into her bottom lip, waiting for him to speak.

"Let's look at this logically," Draco began, speaking slowly and watching Hermione for any reaction, good or bad. "Despite years of thinking to the contrary, we are very well suited. We're both very smart, both very competitive, and while we have a lot in common, we are also polar opposites in other ways. We could learn a lot from each other," Draco began.

Hermione smiled softly, her grip loosening on the cushion and her teeth releasing her lower lip. Draco continued.

"We can approach this from a purely experimental stance. One date, one chance to see if this is a flight of fancy or something with potential."

Hermione tensed up again, and Draco immediately raised his hands to cut her off before she could jump in.

"I am fully capable of making this decision! I know that I owe you my life and this is not how I intend to 'repay' you," Draco rushed, with heavy emphasis. Hermione made to open her mouth and add something but he couldn't let her just yet. He couldn't let her try and talk them out of this when he still wasn't sure what this was yet, but knew that he wanted it and damn her if she was going to try and logic her way out of it.

"When I'm with you – and Harry – it's not like the war didn't happen. It doesn't magically go away but I don't feel as dirty as I used to. With you, I'm just Draco. I did horrible things but I'm not a horrible thing. I've gotten the chance to be a real human again and I want to do that with you, and preferably with kisses and maybe someday more, or maybe not. I want the chance to explore with you."

Draco couldn't even recognize the words he spoke but they seemed to be resonating with Hermione. She didn't speak right away, expecting him to jump in at first and then chewing over everything he said before she said anything at all.

If she were being completely honest with herself, she found herself completely enraptured by the blond across from her. She had several hang ups, not all of which could probably be resolved in one night. Prime among them, despite her initial arguments, had nothing to do with Draco at all: she loved Harry too.

Which wasn't to say that she loved Draco yet but she could see, as she assumed he could from his passionate argument, that there was a potential for so much more there. If he had been just a pompous boy at an ordinary private school and there had been no magic and no bigotry and ultimately no war, Hermione could easily imagine befriending him as he grew up and they were forced together in the smaller, higher level classes where logic defeated hatred and maybe find that something more with him.

But magic and war had happened, and somehow that made the potential for them even greater. He would understand her nightmares, she knew, because she knew he had them too. Their scars were different but they both appreciated how they got them and in that could a beautiful relationship grow, be it friendship or love.

Her love for Harry was unquestionable. Her almost-love for Draco undeniable and intoxicating. The sheer power of the what-if had her mind burning from all the racing.

"Then there's something I should tell you," she started. She reached out, the hand that had been preoccupied in her hair now touching one of Draco's hands. She had to proceed with caution on this topic, aware that the wrong wording could spook the Slytherin for good. He could decide he wants to date her and that would be fine. He could decide he wants to give Harry a chance, Harry who elicits such a strong reaction from Draco and always has.

Or maybe he would consider them both.

"I'm not your only option."

. . . . .

"But I thought you said you loved Hermione? I thought we rooted through your family's vault for that old necklace of your mum's because you said you were finally ready to tell her you loved her?" Ron asked, struggling to keep up given the hour.

Harry couldn't blame him, really. He wasn't quite sure why he reached out to Ron at 3 a.m, well after the party had finished, but it was clear he wasn't going home any time soon.

"We did because I do. But it doesn't matter now," Harry said with a sickening tone of finality.

"Because you kissed Malfoy and it was amazing?" Ron asked, echoing Harry from earlier. The optimism in his voice saddened Harry, who was on his third drink already and priming for a forth. "It was and he is but that doesn't matter either."

"Why, though? You floo me asking for advice but you've barely told me anything," Ron accused, taking a long drink from his drink while Harry struggled with the words he was so heartbroken to say.

"It doesn't matter that I might love them both because they've decided on each other. So I will go on loving them and do nothing to interrupt. Draco needs someone to love all of his own and Hermione has been alone for so long. I couldn't do anything to hurt her, never. And Draco deserves a chance to be happy for once. He's had a shit go of life in recent years. And now he has something truly amazing, all to himself."

Ron looked as though he were about to say something but the shudder Harry gave before silent tears dripped down his face became visible stopped him. He set a hand on his best mates shoulder and squeezed tightly, his heart breaking as Harry struggled to catch his breath, his own heart breaking with each admission.

"They have each other now. No one needs me. Not like that."

. . . . .

Harry returned from the pub feeling less horrible but still a long ways from good. He should have taken the floo and gone straight to his bedroom and swiftly into bed but somehow walking home seemed like a good idea and would have been if Draco hadn't been in the kitchen when Harry returned.

"Hey."

They stood, facing each other, in relative silence. Harry tried to pull a smile onto his face, years of hiding his emotions giving him armour that felt ill-fitting in this situation.

"You and Hermione, huh?" he asked, easing himself into it. His voice didn't fail him, which was a victory in and of itself.

"Treat her good. She's better than either of us deserve."

And before Harry could focus on the tussled look of Draco's hair or the smell of Hermione on his clothing, he disappeared up the stairs, the glass of water he'd been after forgotten.

Draco watched as Harry left, his heart hammering away in his chest as it dropped into his stomach with each step Harry took on the staircase. When finally the sound of Harry's door slamming shut silenced the night, Draco set down the glass of water he'd been sipping in the sink and let out a shaky exhale.

He would have to make a decision soon.

Authors note: I'm so sorry for the forty day gap but I've sketched out how I expect the story to go from here and with that, I hope I can get back into a writing pattern again. My goal is twice a week updates, so hold me to it: more-to-it-than-blood on tumblr is a great way to hound me for more.