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It had been a few days since Draco dropped the news of her parents killer on her. She had argued with him to leave it alone, but he refused. He said he'd spent far too much time on this case to let it go now. For the first time in a long time, she allowed herself to be angry at someone openly. How could he cause all those lovely sensations in her, and then tell her something like that?! She asked him politely to leave it alone. He refused. She yelled at him, and he still refused. She was a hollering, boiling over, mess of a witch by the time she couldn't stand to even look at him any longer and stormed into her own bedroom. He hadn't sought her out since that day, and she was somewhat saddened by that, but still, also relieved. She didn't know how to explain how she was feeling, or what it was exactly that she felt. All she knew was that she cared so deeply about Draco now, that if something were to happen to him too, Hermione was sure she would never be able to take another breath again. The loss of her parents was enough, she knew she'd never cope if he died, too.

She tugged at her hair in frustration and began pacing her room. She could feel the agitation vibrating through her magic and had to breath her way through not blowing up the room. No matter her efforts, she was not calming down. She was about to throw herself onto her bed when she heard the familiar knock and light tapping at her door. She swore under her breath and fought with her confliction of wanting to see him or wanting to hex him. Releasing an exasperated breath, she jerked her hand toward the door and instead of opening slowly as usual, it swung open and hit the wall, leaving a nasty indentation.

He was looking at her with raised brows and an irritated expression. She scowled and crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her foot impatiently on the floor.

"Hermione, stop it."

"Stop what, ferret?" she snapped.

He winced slightly. She wondered if they were about to have their second argument since his arrival back into her life.

"Hermione. Can you please stop this?"

"What Malfoy? Don't like when I stop cooperating with you? Don't like it when I am not complacent and go along with whatever you want?! You're a horrible bastard, you know that?! You do not really care about how I might feel!" She screamed while he quickly shut the door and cast a silencing spell. He tucked his wand back into his pocket, and strode to stand before her. Without warning, she was in his arms and stunned silent at his words.

"Hermione, you may be bright, brilliant even, but you are also completely daft. My feelings for you prevent me from being insensitive to how you feel. I ache when you ache, I rage when you rage, I weep when you weep. I cannot, in good conscience, allow this to continue. Please let me do this for you. Please let me bring you some closure. Until... Until you have that... you can't move forward in life. I know you won't even try. Until that happens, you won't want me... not really, not the way I want you..."

Hermione felt her heart pumping painfully hard against her ribs. If he didn't feel it too, that would be a miracle. She lifted her arms to grip his forearms and push him away slightly. He looked down into her eyes with a pain she had never seen before. She could see his loneliness, his passion, his emptiness, all openly on display for her. He cupped her cheek with his hand.

"If you never want to speak to me again, I will understand, but Hermione... I have to do this. I am done being the coward that couldn't protect you. I'm done hiding away how I feel because of some ridiculous and outdated belief or tradition. I hope you will see why this is so important to me, one day." His eyes were burning into hers, and before she could process anything else, his lips were pressing into hers. She tensed slightly, unable to make herself do anything other than feel. Her body was aflame, whether by embarrassment or desire, she didn't know. He kissed her deeply as though he were trying to pour his very heart and soul into it, to explain something to her that he simply could not put into words and she responded in kind. He pulled back and they were both momentarily breathless.

"I'm going now, Hermione. I have a lead, and I intend to follow it." He whispered before ghosting another kiss lightly across her lips and pulling away. Their contact was almost broken as he turned, but she suddenly regained herself and caught his fingertips in her hand. He looked back at her with an almost pained expression, expecting her to shout or scold him.

"Come back. Draco, promise me you'll... you'll come back." her voice shook, and tears welled in her eyes. His expression softened, and he gave her hand a squeeze.

"I promise. I'll come back to you, always." He replied, and then he was gone.

Hermione stood there for what felt like an eternity, then fell to a crumpled heap on the floor. Her body heaved with sobs, and she felt the fear coursing through her chest. She wasn't sure when exactly Draco managed to sneak his way into her heart, but he was there now and she couldn't fight it. He'd told her that he had a lead, and that tonight was when her parents killer was supposedly going to try and strike another muggle borns family down, and after lots of prodding (and shouting) he finally told her where. She didn't want anyone else to suffer, and knew Draco was an exceptional wizard, but she could not help but to be terrified for what may happen. She unsheathed her wand from inside her sleeve, and held it up for a moment. She closed her eyes and forced as much control over herself as she could.

"Expecto Patronum." She whispered and thankfully, a jet of silvery white light spilled from the tip of her wand, and formed into a beautiful otter. It settled itself before her on the floor, looking up almost eagerly for instruction.

"Take this message to Harry Potter. Harry, Draco has gone off to the old Riddle family home. He believes whoever killed my parents is there, and will attempt another murder tonight. Please, Harry, help him. Don't let him die."

She sighed heavily and watched the otter disappear through the window and soar to his destination. She hoped Harry would listen, that he would do everything he could to ensure Draco returned safely. She wanted to run to him, and fight at his side, but even she could understand how dangerous that would be. She would compromise any plans by her mere presence. She wasn't used to sitting out a good fight, but she was no fool. If she showed up without him knowing, they could both be killed.

She clutched at her midsection and allowed the sobs to ravage her again. She thought about everything Draco said, and choked on her tears despite herself.

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The minutes ticked by excruciatingly slow. Hermione couldn't begin to guess how many times she tugged on her hair, bit her lip, paced the same route in her room, peeked into the hallway to see if he was walking up, or any other number of silly things she did out of nerves.

What had this man done to her? She was perfectly content staring out of her window day in and day out. She was fine with only having the occasional contact with Harry. She didn't mind not eating, she didn't mind dying. Nothing mattered anymore before he came back into her life. Why didn't she just hex him and force him on his way? Why did she let him in? Why did she have to go and fall for him?

She stopped pacing and stood stark still in the middle of the room. Fell? She fell? Fell into what!? Her head was spinning now. How did he do this to her? She was ready to push him away. She had done exactly that for weeks, so what the hell changed so much that she allowed him to slip into the cracks of her broken heart?

Nothing. That was exactly it. Nothing had changed so much. It had changed just enough.

There was a loud POP in the hallway, and something heavy slammed into her door. She startled, heart racing and stared wide eyed at it. She could hear a groan and took a step forward. Before she could move further, the door swung open and in stumbled Harry holding onto a very bloody Draco Malfoy.

End Chapter 8Okay, only 2 more chapters to go. Please leave a review and tell me what you think so far. Thanks for reading!