I don't own Harry Potter, just borrowing the characters.

Chapter 24

Just a little over a week after his accidental poisoning and resulting near brush with death, Madam Pomphrey finally released Ron from the hospital wing. Hermione had been so relieved that he was going to be okay that she had completely forgiven him for everything that had happened over the past few months. After all, what did her pride and hurt feelings matter when she compared them to just how close she had come to losing one of her absolute best friends? Extraordinarily little, if she were being honest with herself.

Plus, when he had been unconscious, he had asked for both her and Harry, over and over. The fact that Lavender had just so happened to have only caught Hermione's name coming from his mouth, and had fled the room in dismay, had given Hermione an unreasonably Slytherin amount of satisfaction considering the way the other girl had behaved around her recently. It was a satisfaction that she thought she had hidden rather well from everyone apart from Harry, who knew her too well to be fooled by her too-innocent words.

While she was certain that she should feel bad about her feelings toward her dormmate, she couldn't bring herself to regret them at all, especially considering the desperate way Ron had taken to hiding from Lavender in the weeks leading up to the incident. She'd had a feeling that he wouldn't really have wanted "Lav-Lav" hovering around his bedside and clutching his hands for a whole week where he couldn't get away from her, anyway.

Now the three of them were making their way to breakfast together. Hermione and Harry had walked down to meet Ron at the hospital wing so that they could all go eat together. When they walked through the massive double doors together, however, the sight seemed to be all too much for poor Lavender. The other witch let out a small, furious shriek and stomped over to the three of them with twin glares for both Hermione and Ron.

"You know, Ron," she hissed quietly, "if you wanted to start seeing other people, the least you could have done was told me yourself."

With angry tears in her eyes, she stormed from the Great Hall, leaving Ron standing there with a look of utter bewilderment at her words. He looked to Hermione and Harry for an explanation.

"What in the name of Merlin's saggy ball sack is the matter with her?"

Hermione simply shrugged her shoulders, choosing not to answer her friend and instead making her way to an open area at the Gryffindor table where the three of them could all sit together.

"I mean," Ron continued as he sat across from her and Harry and loading up his plate as he talked, his appetite clearly not having diminished as a result of his brush with death, "don't get me wrong. I'm chuffed that it's over but, she did seem a bit…put out."

Hermione and Harry just looked at each other, green eyes twinkling in amusement and clashing with brown eyes that shone with a warning, then went back to their meals.

The rest of the day went by quickly, and the change from just a week earlier was indescribable. It was almost like being taken back to a time several years prior, before there was a Dark Lord out to get them and plots underfoot. It was just her, Harry, and Ron all safe and sound and together. She and Ron were talking again, and she was going to be able to get away to see Draco again that night. Everything was as it should have been, and she felt a lightness that she couldn't remember feeling in what seemed like years.

That evening, following dinner, she made her way quickly to the Room of Requirement to see Draco. Harry had another lesson with Professor Dumbledore, but it wasn't going to happen until later that night. She had made the excuse that, as she had been spending so much of the last week in the hospital wing, she had fallen a bit behind on some of her assignments. She had, of course, been in the hospital wing every spare moment, so the boys hadn't found anything suspicious about her excuse.

She was nearly running by the time she got the seventh floor, so anxious was she to get to Draco. She burst through the door, dropping her bag beside the sofa before throwing herself into his arms. She took a second to simply inhale his unique scent before she began peppering his jaw with kisses. It took her a moment or two before she realized that her wizard was not returning her embrace, his arms still hanging loosely by his sides.

"Draco? What's the matter?"

"We can't see one another anymore, Granger," he said, voice hollow and grey eyes curiously devoid of any emotions at all.

"That is absolute and utter nonsense, Draco," Hermione aid, thoroughly annoyed at his constant attempts to push her away from him.

"No, it's not!"

Seeing that he wouldn't be content until he got everything off his chest, Hermione sat down on the edge of the sofa, hands folded primly in her lap and ankles crossed. She remained silent while she watched him pace frenetically.

"It's my fault that Weasley was poisoned, Granger; my fault that he almost died. What if it had been you? Not to mention the fact that if anyone, any of my friends or a single Death Eater, were to find out about us, it would instantly make you a target. For Salazar's sake, a single second's lapse in my Occlumency shields could mean your death! I don't think you really understand exactly how much pleasure the Dark Lord would take in torturing and killing you if he knew precisely how much you mean to me, simply for the joy of punishing me; of teaching me another lesson. I'm a selfish ass for ever letting you get involved with this in the first place!..."

Hermione watched him as he continued to pace, ranting about the dangers that apparently came from being anywhere in his general vicinity and going on and on about how he had to protect her, that it was all for her own good. When he finally stopped speaking and looked down at her, a confused look spread across his face as he realized that she was still seated on the couch watching him and had yet to say another word. She took his silence as her cue to finally speak her part.

"May I talk now?" she asked simply.

He looked a bit like his younger self in that moment as he stared down his perfectly patrician nose at her. A familiarly snarky and haughty look was on his face and he nodded.

"I love you, Draco Malfoy," she said simply, not a hint of reservation in her voice. "There isn't anything I can think of that I would rather be doing than sitting here with you, helping you figure out ways to protect yourself and your mother from Voldemort."

He flinched at her use of the name, as he always did whenever she uttered it, but did not attempt to interrupt her, so she continued.

"If being with you has made me a target, so be it. I'm already the biggest Muggle-Born target in Wizarding Britain considering the fact that I am Harry Potter's best friend."

At that, she finally rose to her feet, making her way over to where Draco stood watching her. She took both of his icy-cold hands in her own.

"I am perfectly happy to add being Draco Malfoy's girlfriend to my current list of crimes. Even if I cannot physically remain at your side through it all, I need to know that we are in this together. I won't abandon you, Draco, nor will I allow you to push me away, no matter what you say to try to convince me to do so. I promise you, here and now, that I will do all of this not only because it's the right thing; I can see the wheels in your head turning and I know you are cursing my innate Gryffindor-ness right now," she said with a teasing grin, "but I will do so because I love you."

She lifted his hands to her mouth to press gentle kisses to each knuckle before continuing to speak.

"That's what you do when you love someone. Just like you keep on trying to push me away to keep me safe, because you love me, I would walk through fire for you, Draco. I will do whatever I consider necessary to keep you safe. Because I love you."

Draco looked down at her, stunned. He realized in that moment that his eyes had grown suspiciously damp, and he dropped down into the chair behind him, pulling her into his lap and burying his head in the crook of her neck in order to hide the sudden, embarrassing wetness.

He figured that it should probably bother him more than it did that she had witnessed him crying more in the past few months than he had ever done in his entire life before this year but, for some reason, it didn't. He knew that, unlike the Slytherins he was so used to being surrounded by, she would never hold it against him. Moving his head to the side until it rested against the soft, fragrant skin of her neck, he pressed warm kisses against the sensitive skin beneath her ear, causing shivers to race down her spine.

"I love you, Hermione Granger," he whispered in her ear.

"I know," she said simply with a smirk on her lips, and he scoffed at her unexpectedly Slytherin response. His witch certainly had a bit of snake in her, that was certain. "I love you, too, Draco," she added, solemn now.

I swear to you, Draco Malfoy, she thought to herself as she held him close, running her fingers idly through silky blonde hair, one of these days, I am going to prove to you that you are deserving of love.

Song Inspiration: When the Darkness Comes – Colbie Caillat

Here's hoping that Draco has finally gotten the message and will stop trying to push Hermione away every other week!

sbz