Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is all the property of JK Rowling all hail the Queen!

Author's Note: My dear readers, my sincerest apologies for my absence, my internet went down and I have been without any way to write or post this for far too long but I am back and so without further adieu here you go!

Struggling against the magical bonds that kept him tethered in place Draco had no choice but to sit there and stare at the face he had fallen in love with until he fell asleep, just like every other night with the exception that this night he would have killed to have been anywhere else. And in fact he had tried to, but instead he was forced to be the same and do the same as he had for far too long now.

From within her glass cage she pressed her palms to the glass with that look of concern that only helped to spurn his anger on as he gazed at her. What right did she have to look at him? Why did she have to look at him like that when her real counterpart never would? A scream burned in the back of his throat, unable to be realized as he stood stunned with time ticking on slower and slower into the dark night, the only time piece being the sliver of moon just visible through the window he could see from the corner of his eye.

…..

"How dare he? How DARE he?" She screamed out, her words lost in the rampant lion tapestries swallowing them before the entire dormitory could hear her outbursts. "Like that would get him away from my questions. Like that just put him off of the hook. Who does he think I am? Some bimbo that is going to fall all over the Slytherin Prince?" Grumbling incoherently she continued to pace the floor, thoughts alternating between doubts on whether she was treating him too coarsely (after all it seemed unlikely but he could be sincere) and him just trying to play her. As the horizon turned pink and it became obvious that day would break before her eyes even had a chance to close she hurried to bed, eyes closing before her tousled head of curls even had a chance to hit the pillow.

…..

It was six in the morning when the spell wore off, allowing Draco to fall from where he slept in a standing position by the mirror to hit the floor, his nose making a sharp connection with it to complete his early wake up call. It was as he brushed the dust from the floor that a paper wafted down from the ceiling, his orders for the day from Dumbledore himself.

Draco, I sincerely hope that you have thought about our little discussion, as far as the best way to mend those bridges from yesterday the best thing to to is remember. Memory, my dear boy, can be the best form of persuasion. I trust you will realize what I mean by this.

~Albus Dumbledore

As soon as Draco read this the letter crumpled into ash, rising again much in the style of the Phoenix that was the headmaster's totem creature to reshape itself into the form of a pretty crystal vial, a snake wrapping from top to bottom with emerald eyes that was hooked to a long chain to be worn about the neck, a new note tied to it. "For the Memories". He cringed realizing what it was that the headmaster wanted him to do, but knew it was the best way to get Hermione to believe him. Without undergoing the even more humiliating process of being tested under veritaserum by here which would most likely have him spilling even more than just giving her his memories would. While memories could be tampered with it was usually blatantly obvious which ones were, especially for a witch as bright as his Hermione (when had he begun thinking of her like that). She would have no way to argue his intentions then.

….

Staring dejectedly into her morning cup of strong tea, this particular morning containing twice the usual amount of sugar in a feeble attempt to get going, while wishing she had not let time slip away from her so easily the night before. Her head pounded under the stress as sleep had been far from relaxing. Dreams fluctuated between desires she never knew she had and fears she knew were closer to every day truth when it came to a particular blonde ferret. Blushes came quicker and darker to exhaustion paled cheeks as she thought back to dreams of him kissing her again, his hands tangled in her mane of hair. It was dreams like those that made her want to forget about everything else and just launch herself into his arms where he sat looking just as exhausted and dejected as her at the slytherin table. Yet being the sensible self she restrained herself, he had a lot of explaining to do before anything else could even begin to be considered.

Lost in thought, staring into her cooling tea cup, she almost missed the delivery of morning mail. Packages dropped from the sky into the waiting hands of those expecting students, yet she day dreamed through it, only waking from her reverie as the daily prophet owl dropped her newspaper directly on her hair, eliciting open mouthed laughter from the stuffed mouth of Ron who was filling his face with the same reckless abandon he did every meal. But it was the unexpected delivery of a rather well behaved, gorgeous little owl she had never seen before which truly garnered her attention.

Delicately the small creature held out her leg for Hermione to inspect and untie the slight package bound to her ankle before nuzzling affectionately into the girl's palm and taking flight, only to land promptly on her shoulder in a display of ownership that could not escape her attention. Unfolding the letter she could find no name, only elegant script in a style she knew but could not quite put her finger on, its words formed in a style far from the haphazard scrawl written by Harry and Ron whose writing was her usual read besides the carefully typed or copied tomes she poured over.

Hermione, the bird is a gift from me, a promise and an apology in one, and the gift is my way of revealing myself to you. Proving my intentions. Enclosed is a vial to be worn if you chose, and a memory for you which I hope will explain everything I cannot. For fear you will throw out the memory before you even give me a chance I sign not with my name, that will be easily discerned from the memory, but instead with a promise. If you accept the apology please send the pretty pet back to me just with a message saying so, I don't ask anymore of you, if not the gifts are still yours. My feelings the same.

X

Thanks again for your patience everyone! This was shorter than I intended for it to be, and than some of you asked for but I didn't want to put off posting again any longer and this was a natural stopping point. Thanks again everyone for all the love and all the reviews!

Xoxo

a-stranger-angel