A/N sorry to take so long updating. I hope to have another chapter up in a few days.

Hermione nods her tear stained face, "Fred."

Malfoy isn't processing what he's just heard, finally he murmurs, "how, when?"

**
Fred was always the one to find her when she was upset. The day she stormed out of divination Hermione wandered blindly until she came to a dead end and sat behind a suit of armor to hide herself as she cried. She didn't know how long she was there when a familiar ginger poked his head around the suit to look at her. "Hermione" he nods at the small spot next to her.

She doesn't even look up at him but she dosen't tell him to go away either so he forces himself into the tight spot. He twists and turns and shimmies and by the time hes in the spot his arm is around her shoulders and her legs are pulled over his. He just sits with her for a few minutes then quietly asks, "wanna talk about it?"

"I... I can't." She sighs the tears stil silently pouring down her face. "I'm not allowed."

He couldn't imagine what could possibly be going on that she wouldn't be allowed to talk about but he let it go. "Ok. I'm just going to sit here awhile. I rather like this spot." Hermione laughed a little as he wiggled his eyebrows and then his butt.

They sat there together for hours. In the beginning she cried but after a hour or so the tears stopped. After another hour Fred realized she had fallen asleep. He just let her sleep. Finally she woke up when her stomach started rumbling. She had missed lunch and it was almost past dinner.

"Why did you let me sleep?" Hermione fussed jumping up. Her hair was even frizzier than usual and she had a wonderful drool line down her chin and onto the front of her robes.

"Because you obviously needed it." Fred shrugged getting up and handing her her bag. "How many books do you have in here woman?" He asked as he nearly dropped it in shock.

"Just the necessities" she hrumped as she snatched it from him, sagging a little under the weight herself.

Fred stopped her as they neared the end of the hall, turning her towards him he 'scorgified' her robes and used his sleeve to wipe her chin. As she started to turn pink in embarrassment he says, "you look cute when you sleep, drool and all. Now what are we going to do about that bag of yours? We can't have you going hunchbacked on us because you insist on carrying a library with you at all times. "

**

Malfoy knew she was lost in her memories. She had a glazed look on her face and hadn't spoken for a few minutes. She was also still clutching his head. He signaled Sean, holding up 2 fingers this time. As Sara brought the new drinks over he pointed to Hermione and the waitress put one in front of the witch as well as himeslf. Sara could see something wasn't right but knew it wasn't her place to say anything.

"Honestly, since the beginning. He was always the one to find me when I was upset, he always knew how to cheer me up. Whenever the boys and I would argue he would make sure I hung out with him and his friends or have Ginny checking up on me. It never became anything until the end of fourth year. I guess Voldemort raising again was the push we needed." The pain clear on her face she shakes her head and finally looks at Malfoy. She sees the drink in front of her and nods her thanks as she takes a rather large gulp. "No one knew, especially in the beginning. We kept it quiet. George knew there was someone but didn't know it was me till he walked in on us in our spot in fith year. No one else found out until after he was gone."

Hearing her talk definitely cooled his temper, he knew he shouldn't have snapped at her as soon as he had done it. Now he hoped he could get her to keep talking. He was very intrigued and though he didn't want to admit it he had a lot of questions. The one he didn't know if he would ever be able to ask, was she pregnant when they were brought to the Manor? They had never spoke of anything between 5th year and his release from Azkaban. He knew that one day they would have to talk about it all but today was not that day. So instead he asked an easy question, "how did you keep it quiet? And why for so many years?"

"The how was easy. After we left Hogwarts fourth year I started researching protean charms. I charmed his joke shop notebook and a journal for myself. People were used to seeing us writing so to everyone around us nothing changed. Anytime we wrote in them we could read what the other said but if anyone else looked at them it was gibberish. Over the summer's it was our main source of correspondence, during the school year its how we checked up on each other and planned when to meet up."

"Hold up, I can't picture perfect Granger meeting with with a guy in a broom closet." Draco interrupts.

"That's because I would never do such a thing! And he was too much a gentleman to even suggest such a thing." At Dracos arched eyebrow she sighed and adds, "Being Fred Weasley he knew every passage in and out of the castle. He knew of one that was caved in halfway to Hogsmead, he and George had charmed the passage to look like the cave in was right next to the Hogwarts entrance and then set up an entire room of sorts. We went there to hang out often. That's how George found out about us. He walked in us," Draco snorted, he actually snorted at that. Hermione had never heard him make such an undignified sound, "excuse you no need to snort, it was completely innocent. We were just sitting together, I was reading and he was working in his notebook. We just liked spending quiet time together."

"Ok, so that's the how, why keep it quiet?" He asked trying to keep a straight face. He would have never guessed Granger had a secret boyfriend.

"In the beginning in was just so we could see where it was going. I was best friends with his little brother and sister, I practically lived with his family every summer. We wanted to see if it was going to become something. If we tried it and went public and then it failed it would be extremely awkward. Then as we got more serious so did the world around us. We thought about telling everyone at the end of 5th year but then Sirius died, then again end of 6th year but then it was Dumbledore. Life just got to be too much. It was nice being able to turn to each other without the rest of the world around. When I told him the three of us would be leaving for a mission Dumbledore set up for us he supported it 100% . He knew I couldn't just let Harry and Ron go off on their own. He hated being apart but we agreed when it was all over we would tell everyone and move in together. We never got that chance." She sighed looking completely lost.

"Well now I know why you seem to understand when I speak about Astoria." Draco said looking into her honey colored eyes. He knew he had hurt her and that she probably hadn't planned to tell him about Fred. He also knew he needed to make it right. Talking to Granger helped him and he couldn't loose this. "Look, I'm no good at this but I'm sorry for getting upset and telling you you didn't understand. Especially since you are probably the only person in my life who can even begin to understand what I'm going through."

"Its fine, usually it wouldn't have bothered me but this time of year I usually struggle more. Between the day I lost him and our anniversary, it's always hard." She replied staring into his bright silver eyes. They were so different from Fred's warm brown eyes that always seemed to comfort her and yet she felt a bit of comfort looking into Dracos eyes. It was kind of odd, slightly unsettling.

"When was your anniversary?"

"June 24. The day Cedric died and Voldemort came back." She sighed, " It was always a sad day and an especially hard day for Harry but we always found a way to get together, even if just for a few minutes." She wiped a tear from her eye. Draco couldn't remember ever seeing her cry and it was disconcerting. Her voice gave nothing away, if he hadn't seen the tear for himself he wouldn't have even known she was crying. "We walked out of the hospital wing once they sedated Harry and he pulled me aside to just hold me. We were both in shock, everyone was. Finally I looked up at him and it's like we both just knew." She then took a deep breath and finished the scotch in one large gulp.