„Granger?" I heard a voice and my eyes slowly fluttered open.

„Hmmm?" I asked sleepily.

"We're allowed to leave now."

I slowly sat up. After waiting for a couple of minutes I finally managed to get up and follow Malfoy out of the infirmary.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" He then asked.

I nodded. "Sure."

He hesitated a little bit and then went into an empty classroom. As soon as the door was closed behind us he turned to me.

„I think I need to apologize."

„What?" I almost yelled out in surprise.

Malfoy smiled sadly. „Apologize to you."
„I... I got that part." I just stuttered. Draco Malfoy wanted to apologize to me? Had hell really frozen over?

„Well I know that you already know this, but... all this time... my behavior. That wasn't me. It was my father. I always knew that there's no difference between my and your blood. And I always knew that the whole idea of blood-traitors was just ridiculous. I also knew that thinking I was better than anyone else was stupid. But I took the easy way and just went along with all the things my father taught me. Maybe I wanted his approval and wanted to make him proud, maybe I was too scared to disobey, maybe I just did what was expected from me since I was a Malfoy. It doesn't really matter why, the fact is that I know all those things I did were wrong, I even knew it when I did them. And I want to apologize for that." He explained.

I just stared at him for a long moment. I couldn't make out all the words that were spinning around in my mind, like a big tornado. Of course I had kind of figured this, but hearing it from him... He looked at me expectantly, obviously wanting an answer.

"So what do you say?" He finally asked a little insecure. Draco Malfoy, insecure? If anyone had told me about this a couple of months ago I would have sent them to St. Mungo's. When he realized I wasn't going to say anything he just continued talking.

"Even after my father... died, I held on to it. Just like you made me realize earlier – even after I killed him I didn't dare to kill his influence on me. And it is time to. I know that now."

He waited for a response from me again.

"Well... I guess I forgive you?" I said. Why did this sound like a question?

"Well... I had actually hoped for more than that." He said and smiled reluctantly. More than my forgiveness? What else did he want from me? "I thought that maybe... you could help me?"

I cocked an eyebrow. "How?"

He shrugged meekly. "You know... help me changing my ways..."

I couldn't help but let a smug smile spread over my face. He had asked me for help. Me, Hermione Granger. Today was definitely one of the best days of my life.

"And possibly not rub it in." Malfoy added as soon as he saw my facial expression.

I acted innocent. "Me? No way!"

He rolled his eyes. "So what do you say, Granger?"

I thought about it for a second, before I replied. "I say rule one: stop calling people by their last names and start calling them by their given names. Rule two: you don't ever use the words "Mudblood", "Pureblood", "Blood-traitor", and "filthy" again. Rule three: you start opening up to people, maybe even talk about your emotions for a change..." I was going to continue, but he interrupted me.

"How long is this list going to be? Should I take notes?" Sarcasm was dripping off his tongue.

"You asked me for help and you're going to follow my rules." I myself couldn't believe what an authority radiated from my body and voice when I said that.

"Fine." He replied, not happy about it at all. "But just so you know, the last thing you said is never going to happen. Not only do guys never talk about their feelings, but I also don't know what I'm feeling half of the time. That's why..." He quickly cut himself off.

"That's why what?" I wanted to know.

"Nothing." was all he responded coolly.

I groaned. "Rule number three of my not-even-closed-to-finished list says that you should open up to people."

"That's why I distract myself from them."

"Distract yourself how?" I asked confusedly.

He rolled his eyes. "God, Granger. It's not that hard to figure out."

"First of all, rule number one – no last names. Call me Hermione. Second of all, just say what the heck you mean and stop beating around the bush!"

He glared at me. "You know I'm already regretting that I asked you for help."
"Just spit it out." I said calmly.

He sighed. "Well, Hermione..." He pronounced my name especially strong. "all my life I haven't been able to say what I mean or talk about what I feel. I grew a habit of bottling every emotion up. And... well to forget them, at least for a while, I well..." Did he really blush a little? I raised my eyebrows, encouraging him to speak on. "I... I sleep with girls to forget about how shitty my life is for a while, okay? I always have, probably always will. Others take up firewhiskey." He spat out quickly, sounding very angry about making that confession. I felt my jaw drop, but couldn't do anything against it. Malfoy had just given me kind of understandable and comprehensible reasons for all of his bad behavior. The name-calling, the snobbishness, the sleeping around. I couldn't exactly identify with his reasons since I'd never been in any situation like his, but understanding it was easier than that. I had heard of many people that were using sex as an escape from their complexes, mostly in Muggle movies and gossip rags. But even when I understood it...

"You do realize how much you hurt girls?" I asked him, a big lump in my throat.

"What do you mean?" He asked me, sounding a little confused.

"Do you know how many girls actually want you to see them as the one? You think that it's all a game for them too, but it's not. For most of them it isn't at least. No girl can not have any emotions when doing something like that."
He raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me, but I never lied to a girl in my life! They all know what I'm up to and that I don't want anything serious. And they're all old enough to be held responsible for their own decisions."

He had a point there. All of those girls knew. "But probably almost all of them wish that they could make you change your ways and become more than just a fling for you. That's just our nature!" I had really meant to say "their nature", but it just had come out that way. Luckily he didn't notice anyway.

"That's stupid." was all he could say about that.

"It's not. It's romantic." I replied sheepishly.

He cocked his blond eyebrow. "I'm not going to apologize for sleeping with girls that did that on their own free will. They knew."
"Then apologize for misusing the effect you have on every female being on this earth." I hissed back. It was probably not the best idea to boost his ego even more by saying something like that. He stepped closer to me, his eyebrow cocked again.

"Every female being on this earth?", he asked a crooked smile on his face.

"Well... I'm guessing... Not that I would know..." I stuttered and laughed bashfully.

He was standing right in front of me now. "Granger..." I still managed to glare at him. "Fine, Hermione. I can put two and two together. You're boggart is my corpse, you're suddenly really nice to me, you rant about me sleeping with other girls all the time, you kissed me back and earlier you said that no girl can not have any emotions when doing stuff like that. And now you said that every female being on this earth is affected by my awe-inspiring looks? You fancy me!"

"Well I'm definitely not going to help you now!" was all I could whisper quietly.

I didn't want to wait for what he had to say or how he would respond to me fancying him. I just wanted to get out of here. Whatever he had to say, I was sure it would be bad, and I didn't want to hear it. I half turned to the door, but I felt his hand on my arm and knew he wouldn't let me get off that easily.

"Hermione." He said calmly. "There's nothing wrong with that. If I was a girl I would be completely amazed by my sexiness as well."

I didn't know if he was trying to be funny or if he was serious, but it didn't matter to me anyways. He knew I was having a thing for him, so did it really matter if he got to know the whole truth about it? It wouldn't change a thing.

"I'm not." I replied, surprised by how composed my voice sounded. "I mean sure you look good, but that's besides the point."

"Then what is the point?" He whispered, his face being dangerously close to my own.

I breathed in and could smell his scent. It was like an aphrodisiac to me.

"The point is that..." I hesitated, not knowing how I should put it in words. "I like you for you and not your looks."
He raised his eyebrows, obviously caught off guard. "And what makes you think that you know the real me?"

I smiled halfheartedly. "You're not as inscrutable as you think you are. It's not hard to figure you out, most people just never tried."

A frown appeared on his face. "Well if you have figured me out then you should know that I despise people that act like they have figured me out even though they didn't."

My smile turned a little sad as I replied, "I know. You like to think of yourself as a lone wolf, someone the whole world looks at but just can't figure out the motives for his actions. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but not only have I figured out your motives a while ago, but you also explained them to me a couple of minutes ago."

I could see his jaw clench together, but he didn't respond to me.

"Draco." I said, feeling shivers going down my spine as I spoke his given name, "You are a good guy that had some terrible decisions made for him by others. But none of it is your fault."

He sneered. "A good guy? What kind of guy kills his own father? I don't think a good guy would."

I sighed almost silently. "A desperate guy." was all I answered quietly.

He just looked at me for a long moment. "Why did I have to tell you so much about myself?" He then whispered. And just when he asked me that question it hit me. The reason why he had opened up to me lately. The reason why to me and not to anyone else. And as scared as I was of mentioning it to him, I knew that I had to. I knew that he would probably never be able to figure it out on his own. He needed a little kick in the behind.

"Because you trust me."

"Why would I do that?"

I shrugged a little. "I'm not sure. But it could be the same reason why you kissed me last night." I knew that I was going way over my head with this conversation, but I was fairly proud of myself for standing so strong and firm behind what I believed. Usually now would be the time for me to stutter and stumble around, due to my social awkwardness when it came to love. But not this time. I knew that this time might be the only chance I would get to make him realize.

"Maybe the same reason why you're jealous of Viktor every time you see him." I added after a small pause. "Maybe the same reason why you didn't talk to me for about two months." I wanted to add things like The reason why you didn't hit me back when I slapped you in our third year. The reason why you were constantly repeating that you wanted the monster from the chamber to kill me in our second year. The reason why you teased me even more than you teased Harry or Ron all those years. The reason you never slept with me when you basically did it with the whole school. But I didn't want to lean too far out of the window, so I forced myself to shut up. He would get the overall point of it without those examples. I could see his eyes widen further and further and when I had stopped talking, he was just staring at me.

"Have you gone insane, woman?" He asked, totally bewildered. As much as he unsettled me, I didn't let it show.

"Maybe. Have you?" I replied quietly.

"I think so."

His eyes met mine, confusion in them. We just looked at each other for a brief moment, then his lips met mine and I wrapped my arms around his neck. The sweet taste on my lips exploded into my mouth when his tongue moved along my upper lip and I let him in. It was like a chemical reaction. His tongue plus my tongue equaled fireworks. The kiss wasn't as slow or emotional as the first one we had shared, it was full of passion and lust. Even though I had never been kissed like that my body knew exactly how to respond to it. I had never felt such a desire before, I didn't know how to still that ache inside of me, I just knew that I couldn't stop. His hands ran along my waist, down to my hips, along my outer thighs and up again. I had to control my body so I wouldn't shake in lustfulness. I knew that whatever he had done in that moment, I wouldn't have made him stop, I would have went along with it. But he kept it clean, and then eventually pulled back. He rested his forehead against mine and said, "I don't understand."

Of course he didn't, he was emotionally abused by his family. He had never been shown what love looked like, or what to expect from it.

I mustered up all the courage inside of me and put all my eggs in one basket. "I love you, Draco." I whispered.

A/N: Hey guys,
Oh my gawd, I love cliffhangers. Not if I don't know how it goes on, but definitely when I'm the one in charge of them. Tell me what you think about this all and review. It's getting closer and closer to the end now, I think there are about three more chapters to come after this one. Then my first fanfic will be done. So excited. Again, also check out my new fic "Doloribus Mors". It's up now, just look on my profile.

Love,

ShayleeRae