Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter I would update regularly. Needless to say, I don't.

To say that Hermione was surprised to come back from her lunch and find a stack of books and a disheveled Malfoy on her desk, was an understatement. She was downright flabbergasted. Her natural tendencies towards sarcasm in surprising situations almost took over before Hermione saw the look in Malfoy's eyes.

They were as close to vulnerable as she had ever seen them. She saw flashes of fear, hurt, rejection, hope, duty, and longing. His emotions were as stormy as his eyes. The raw power of observing his façade drop made him magnetic. Hermione couldn't stop looking into his eyes and it made her speechless. And made her take a step forward.

"I knew you would listen to me when I brought books under your nose" Malfoy almost laughed. His mask was back on. Just not as firmly as before.

"My weakness" she replied simply.

"Okay. In all seriousness now, these are the only relevant books that allude to my condition. I believe it might be unique" a strange tinge of pride colored his words.

"But I thought you couldn't tell me?" Hermione interjected.

"Exactly. Now this chapter explains it as close as anything I've read" His prideful tone was gone. Replaced by apprehension.

"Oh my god! Malfoy! You realize what this is right?"

"Unfortunately" his voice very dry.

"It says that there is no cure. How are you even moving? How are you acting normal? Or at least civil? To anyone?"

"I have the opposite."

"What?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"The man you just read about was running on hate. Kind of like an opposite Horcrux. Instead of putting your soul inside something, the condition allows an emotion to hijack your soul. Except this wasn't willingly. I'm running on a different emotion anyway" Draco said almost lightly.

"So you're running on," Hermione paused. "Love?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Long story" Draco said as he slid into the chair by Hermione's desk.

The end of his tale left a catatonic Hermione opening and closing her mouth like a fish. It was a full minute before she could begin coherently ranting. "I can't believe the Ministry! Being a test subject violates at least 10 laws in my department alone! How could you not report this? This is barbaric! We are going to cure you and then we-"

"We aren't going to do anything." Draco cut Hermione off with a small smile. "Besides, I-I don't think I can be cured."

"What? No! There has to be a way!" Hermione's brown eyes grew wide when Draco's gray ones dropped to the floor.

"There's a time limit. I can only contain such a powerful emotion for so long. And if there was a way to reverse it, it's too late. I c-can feel it inside me. I feel so fragile now. Like I could explode at any moment. And I feel things now. I get so uncontrollably angry or extremely depressed. Just this morning I was brushing my hair and I felt so happy. I felt like nothing had gone wrong. I-I felt like there was still hope for me." He finished in a breath. His eyes dropped to the floor again. He couldn't look at Hermione's face and see the tears he knew would be there. She was too compassionate. He turned on his heel and left the room.

I'm an awful writer. I'm sorry. School's started and I had no inspiration for this story. Hopefully I will be able to update soon. There's only one chapter left though! I want to thank anybody still reading this story. You're amazing. Please review!

-Haunting Music